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Just had another 4 spaces booked and up to 23 from Elgin booked with me also know that the is at least another 3 17seat buses booked out to other parties in Elgin area for cup final. As it stands I have 3 spaces left but that could change dependant on demand

My final word on this thread, at least until after the polls close, is an entirely non partisan one. The right to vote is a precious jewel. Universal sufferage did not come easily and was granted grudgingly only as the result of huge sacrifices made by brave men and even more courageous women some of whom paid the ultimate price. However you intend to vote, please do so even if you feel your chosen candidate has little or no chance of winning. Not to do so would be to do those courageous souls who fought long and hard to give you that right a great disservice.

Me plus 13 adults that will act like children.

Yesterday we played Partick Thistle and drew 2-2. We were 1-0 down at ht then they scored again not long after the re-start, before Ali Sutherland with around 5 minutes left scored. Then we made it 2-2 with minutes left from a Liam Polworth free kick which the keeper doesn't catch it clean enough and it ends up in the net. Quite sure that the season is over or just has one maybe two games left, either way next season they can build on what they have been doing this season.

Doran in The Den?

Actually Larry, people in Inverness and the rest of the Highlands aren't not voting for the two big parties just for a laugh. This traditionally always been a Liberal/LibDem stronghold and has been for decades. We've only elected one MP from what is now part of the two main parties since 1959. Correct. Up until 1959 the North (in common with much of the rest of Scotland) was fairly Tory but 1964 saw a big Liberal breakthrough with Russell Johnston in Inverness, George Mackie in Caithness and Sutherland and I think a guy called Alastair MacKenzie in Ross shire. Since then the area has been pretty solidly Lib(Dem), with once conspicuous exception being David Stewart for Labour in Inverness from 1997-2005. The big anomaly was that, long before the SNP's recent breakthrough, the only politician in Britain with less charisma than Ed Miliband - Feckless Fergus Ewing - won Inverness for the SNP in the Holyrood elections a while ago. It was a wee bit like Eddie The Eagle landing Olympic gold. But in 24 hours time, it's pretty clear that there will, in common with the rest of Scotland, be a big swathe of SNP territory up here. Not quite. George Mackie only held the Caithness and Sutherland seat for two years, and lost it to the Labour candidate Robert Maclennan in 1966. In a total of 5 elections: 1966, 1970, Feb 1974, Oct 1974, and 1979, Maclennan won the seat for Labour. It only went Social Democrat when Maclennan held the seat in 1983, having defected.

I am organising a couple of buses from Elgin and Forres for those that want to go to final so far got 19 confirmed and would increase bus size as demand dictates. Only looking to cover costs so have estimated £15 pp.all enquiries welcome. I am a season ticket holder from Elgin that gets to as many games as possible

We have always changed ONE shirt every year alternating between home/away giving each shirt a two-year lifespan. I think most fans would be up in arms if we were to change both every year or to exploit them in other ways like completely changing the strip for a one-off game. Fortunately I believe we have good people at our club who would not do this .... so this rumour sounds like a load of BS !

http://www.tellhimhespele.com/episode-ten-bobby-mann/ Tell you what, chaps, this podcast is an absolute joy. Bobby talking through his career, and mostly about ICT - Paterson, Robbo, the win over Celtic, the first division title. The memories!

I would have to say that I am sufficiently sceptical about politicians of ALL persuasions to have concern that success in politics often goes to whoever fares best at cynically deluding those least well placed to understand the issues. It would be on hearing appeals for Paddy Power to be devolved to Holyrood that I would really start worrying. I take it that you don't think you are well placed to understand the issues then, Charles, given you never actually discuss them? Like yourself, I am a cynic when it comes to politicians, but I am more cynical when it comes to career politicians, particularly those who not just don't live in the same world as us now, but have never lived in the same world as us, being in charge of the future of our country and people...and by that I mean the UK.. I am more cynical about politicians who are a law unto themselves because there is no written constitution, who write rules of acceptable behaviour for themselves, appoint the people who are expected to hold them to it and then do nothing/little about those who transgress those rules. I am cynical about an establishment which has to be dragged kicking and screaming to confront embarrassment, and does so by setting up a commission of enquiry which takes years to start and more years to finish (probably in the hope everyone has forgotten about the issue by the time a report is produced).for example, the Iraq Inquiry, 2009-2011, but still not released, the Inquiry into Bloody Sunday, which took 12 years and the not yet started, one into Child Sex Abuse by the great and the good, something which could have been tackled in at least 1983, long before Jimmy Savile came to the public's attention..but while that might have saved some children, it would have damaged MPs and the perception of morality and probity so many still have in Westminster politics. . The whole Westminster set-up stinks........and there is nothing that we, the ordinary punter can do about anything, because Westminster is sovereign, which appears to make them think they also have the divine right of kings, and the system they have set up ensures it cannot change without the approval of the system, no matter what we, the voters think about anything...and turkeys are not known to be enthusiastic about voting for Christmas. If Charles I had been given a vote on his position, does anyone think he'd have voted to be beheaded? Our MPs voted against the Recall Bill, granted a poor effort which would still have left Westminster in charge of who was recalled, but even that attempt to make them actually do their job was too much voter control for Westminster; There has been no effort to abolish or reform the House of Lords, the retirement home for rejected/failed politicians and the reward for political donations, instead the numbers of unelected and unaccountable establishment figures who are in charge of our lives have increased; Even the new E-petitions reform depends on an MP putting the idea to the Backbench Business Committee (itself another reform), because the opinions of 100,000 voters are not important enough to have time set aside for debates on E-petition issues, and it is taken from Backbench Business Committee time. But then, the opinions of a million marchers and a was not important enough to make Westminster think again about going into Iraq on the coat-tails of the USA so what chance will 100,000 have anyway. The Lobbying Bill will have little impact on professional lobbying, and that was why it was needed, to stop big businesses buying MPs and influence. It will, however limit the activity of organisations that are trying to raise awareness of issues that they feel are important, and who are trying to bring about change for the better. It makes one wonder if the reason for setting up laws which limit the ability of charities and the like to raise concerns and offer suggestions, but does little to control the actions of big businesses, is because Westminster doesn't care what charities think of their policies but they do worry in case the money men have to close their wallets. So cynical one here says that the Westminster system, set up long before the Union, is not fit for its purpose,or any purpose now, and needs to be changed from top to bottom to make it democratic. Be interesting to see if the SNP does get a decent number of seats, and Labour gets enough seats to form a loose coalition to be in Government, if a spine can be inserted into the Labour Party and the House of Lords, at least is tackled.

Oddquine-- For once you have lost me with your obscure comments about the Alberta, Canada election. Did your pal tell you the rest of the saga though.? This was a Provincial election, not a General Election, in a Province which has had a conservative Government for 40 consecutive years and is the wealthiest Province in Canada (or WAS!!!!). Isn't that a recipe for complacency or what? So the provincial Conservatives finally shot themselves in the foot, what with using the provincial coffers as a slush fund for their own personal use, and the last Government making bad decisions with regard to spending and policies seemingly based on the assumption that the oil revenue would last for ever and that the millions that used to be in funds specifically sidelined for future projects could be spent unwisely and at random or had already been squandered on stuff that never came to fruition.Then the price of oil dropped like a stone and the chickens came home to rest with a vengeance. The net result is that the place is in a shambles financially and politically and the populace rose up en masse and threw out the conservatives by decimating them down to only 5 seats forcing their leader to resign and his political career, either local or Canadian, is stated by the pundits to now be over. The new leader is an aggressive, down-to-earth, woman lawyer who has the big challenge of having to work with, and train, many rookies who were never expected to get elected and, at this time, must be in a state of shock having no political experience whatsoever. So the voters have decided that taking a big chance to achieve change is the only way to go now and the devil tak the hindmost. If this new, female Albertan leader does an outstanding job by appeasing the panic in the oil patch from hearing that they will now have to pay higher royalties to the Provincial Government and also stabilize the ship , then watch out for her to go full out for the Prime Minister of the land after another 4 years assuming that the National Democratic Party wins our General Election in October 2015,. This huge, totally unexpected, win for the NDP has left the country in total shock and our national Prime Minister must be calling out for the smelling salts because, sure as ICT is going to win the cup, he is going DOWN to defeat in the General Election in October. He's been in for about 9 years I think as a Conservative and, since there are basically only two other realistic contenders, namely the Liberals under Justin Trudeau (the son of the former Prime Minister of Canada) and Thomas Mulcair who is an experienced National Democratic Party politician and a very bright and hard working NDP leader, then it could well be that the Conservatives in this country are facing another heavy defeat. What happens in the U K may be the same scenario. The world is a fast paced billet these days and the politicians can't hide any more without maybe paying a heavy price. As I write this the die may by now be cast -- so it's back to the TV with bated breath. And never a dull moment.

Confession time, that pic isn't actually from Dingwall. In fact it isn't even in Scotland, which should be fairly obvious to anyone who has cast their vote today given that this polling station doesn't have the obligatory SNP mob outside. What's that all about, why can't people be allowed to vote in peace?

We probably sold more just to hughes and his good honest friends

Both of you into bowling a maiden over and having the occasional tickle to long leg then?

Looking at some of the people who have been roaming about on behalf of the SNP since before the referendum, one would tend to doubt that. Basically, the SNP's main recruitment strategy has been to radicalise and instil a perception of grievance within the nation's have-nots - with predicatable consequences out on the streets. It seems like it is a good thing to have ordinary people engaged in politics. The "have-nots" or the "underclass" as you patronizingly put it have as much right to participate in politics as anyone else. Maybe the days of people tugging their forelocks to their supposed superiors are finally ending, and any true democrat would welcome that.

D is the section for the North Stand. F is one half of the sections for the East Stand

That won't work unless he is using a VPN to connect, as iPlayer will block him because of his IP. My advice was purely for anyone living in the uk who wished to watch the final online in an entirely legal manner. Further to Scotty's earlier comment, I am certainly not suggesting that overseas readers use hola, puffin or any similar ip adjusters, as that would be encouraging illegal activity.

Tickets bought online this morning - quick and easy. Chose not to go for the concessions, just because of position offered. Couldn't choose specific seats but was able to compare D4 and F3 positions using this: http://www.hampdenpark.co.uk/visitor-information/stadium-plan.html Now all I have to do is sort the travel . . .

We could make the competition easy and put all their faces in the window of ALBA travel, if all goes well.

From the first time I saw him I thought that Williams was a likely lad. Determination written all over his play. And one of his goals very close to the beginning of this season was a cracker. I'm very pleased that this hard-working lad is coming into contention for a regular place in the team all of which should lead to his maturing into a dynamic player for ICT--if he wants to continue to put out the effort. Look how Ryan Christie has come on......... Seems like a great win indeed

...and I thought the Charleston Academy was on the other side of the town.

Great idea you could maybe have David Ravens pic in a pet shop, Ross Draper in a curtain fabric shop and Richie and Aarons pic in the police station :rolleyes: Josh's hand in the Celtic shop

Tickets bought over the phone - got to choose which stand, which section and which row - all done and dusted within 3 minutes of picking up the phone. Great service and experience - well done to all at the ticket office - cheers

Sorry Charles. I've just discovered that HMRC must have used the same fag packet. Please note income tax figure attributed to Scotland for 13/14 = 11.3 billion and total tax = 38.5 billion. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/359890/disag-method.pdf The difference being that HMRC's figure is the product of the real situation which allows, on the minus side, for the personal allowance not being taxable and, on the plus side, for some larger earners having some of their income taxed at the higher rate. If that roughly coincides with what you get by multiplying the workforce by the average wage by some ballpark guesstimate of 20%, then that is merely an apparent result of the coincidence that the abovementioned plus and minus sides happen to cancel each other out. Charles I dont need a lecture from an ex schoolteacher on economics. Just admit I'm close to being right and that you are not and never will be some superior being with all the answers.

Really you think ? It doesn't matter what way you spin it, this attendance is not good! HThe weather, midweek fixtures, Champions League etc, etc) all combined to make it what it was. Scant consolation is that, while our attendances are poor (given our league position and this historic season) Hamilton, Partick T and Ross County all have smaller attendances this season, while St Mirren, Kilmarnock, Motherwell and St J have similar average gates to us. So, the problem is not ICT's, it is Scottish Football as a whole.

Reports are now coming through that individuals are being suspended from the SNP for their violent behaviour. Is this happening on another Planet or in Scotland ? Again the reports are inaccurate. Two well known individuals who have made a habit of following Jim Murphy and rudely and very vocally disrupting his meetings who were until yesterday among the 114,000 or so members of the SNP have been suspended for such conduct. There was boorish, vocal and frankly disrespectful behaviour which has been condemned and quickly and properly dealt with. There was no violence. If there had been violence the police, who were in attendance, would have got involved. I stand to be corrected but, as far as I am aware, the only criminal prosecutions arising out of the referendum and general election campaigns were of a number of aggressive individuals bearing Union and Red Hand of Ulster flags who gathered in Glasgow's George Square on the morning after the referendum vote. I rather suspect that these individuals were neither Yes voters or SNP supporters. There is a debate to be had and reasoned and articulate posters, who I happen to disagree with but hold considered and legitimate views, Doofers Dad being a good example, are having it. Far too many others are just engaging in slavering and unfounded Nat bashing to the extent of comparing a political party which, never in it's 80+ years of history has engaged in anything other than responsible and peaceful engagement with the democratic process with the most reviled and evil regime in history. That is not just an insult to the SNP but to compare the current political situation to the horrors which befell continental Europe 70 years ago is a gross insult to the memory of all those millions upon millions of victims of that regime. The cause of Scottish Nationalism has been fought long and passionately but not a drop of blood has been spilt. Of that we can be rightly proud. Those who resort to analogies with Nazi Germany should hang their heads in shame.

I think Yogi is playing his cards very carefully, Falkirk will have no idea what team they will be up against......neither do we know what side he will put out.............Goog game Yogi, Good game

Flying in from Singapore for the Dundee Utd game and staying on for the cup final.

Ah hated Thither.