dougiedanger

It isn't meant to be about the SNP/SG. If you take a closer look, what I am doing is highlighting an important issue local to Inverness which seriously compounds the problem of the A9/A96. The state of these trunk roads is an issue on its own but, in the case of Inverness, it needs to be looked on as part of the wider picture of the general road traffic disaster which residents of that city have to suffer on a daily basis. You will note that I did still return my argument fully to topic when I highlighted the role of the two Cafe Culture Councillors who - in the best traditions of the SNP - are so preoccupied with their own parochial obsessions that they have no conception whatsoever of the big picture. Delicious irony.

Where are all the County fans??

http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2014/10/03/strong-roots/ By Mike Small Looking back at our posters now has a different feel. In new circumstances they take on new perspective. Some are just unbearably sad now, others come into their own. The referendum was supposed to settle things once and for all. The ‘settled will’ is a handy off-the-peg political cliché. Nationalist foxes are notoriously riddled with bullets but there’s seems little for the victorious No contingent to celebrate as the Yes movement begins to morph into something far stronger. Strangely the No’s seem mired in existential uncertainty. The victors seem to visibly diminish while the vanquished are emboldened. What the hell’s going on? Key factors mean that defeat has galvanised not crushed the independence movement. The credibility of Scottish Labour, after it’s Death-Pact-of-Unity with the Tories in Better Together is in tatters, helped none by Miliband’s conference amnesia. While pundits cooed over Gordon Brown’s Dunkirk spirit, his bravery, acumen and speechifying have led to nothing. His lauded Vow, once branded as ‘Devo Max’ ‘Home Rule’ and ‘as close to Federalism as you’ll get’ now seems to be worthy only of a petition. Land campaigner Andy Wightman characterised it as: “I’ve set up a petition 2 ask folk 2 ask me 2 do what I said I’d do when I asked them 2 vote for thing I’d do if they voted (or something)”. The SNP’s MP Pete Wishart has written to the Speaker pointing out that the debate secured by Brown for the 16th October is an end of day adjournment debate, which will last (at most) half an hour, is un-amendable and cannot be voted on or even discussed. This is Brown’s Tuition Fees moment. As Scottish Labour faces disarray and a potential rout if a talked-about cross-party independence electoral pact is forthcoming, other parties are in revival. The SNP, which was supposed to split asunder in defeat has been re-born with over 75,000 members, dwarfing it’s nearest rival Labour’s supposed 13,000. Neither Hampden nor Murrayfield could hold them. The Scottish Green Party, almost more remarkably, has seen it’s membership more than quadruple with an increase now totalling almost 6,000 members and the SSP’s membership has increased from 1,000 to almost 4,000. It’s not just the political parties that are resurgent. Almost all of the alternative media outlets are announcing major expansion plans, radical ‘think and do’ tank Commonweal have ambitious development plans, discussion is under way about the potential for a Podemos-style party of the left, and RIC have had to consider using both Indy Cities (Glasgow and Dundee) for a simultaneous double-conference to cope with the demand as there’s no venue big enough to hold them. Women for Independence are meeting tomorrow in Perth a 1000 strong sell-out. What’s motivating everyone? A sort of gallus adrenalin fuels much of the Yes movement, still reeling from a historic and tragic loss, many crashing from dizzy idealism to the prosaic brutality of The Smith Commission. No voters muttering ‘reconciliation’ and repeating the mantra ‘we all share the same values really’ are appearing out of the darkness, their hair matted with the guano of chickens coming home to roost. Other motivating factors include the reality of George Osborne’s gleefully announced austerity package, promising the poorest 10 million households they would face real-world cuts and his sinister pronouncement that you don’t ‘set the poor free by giving them more money’. Bojo’s ‘permission to purr’ evoked a permission to puke response. But whilst the Yes movement may seem oddly ascendant (a You Gov poll by John Curtice claiming the SNP could return 26 MPs at the General Election next year), the question remains: to do what? Polling at 49% of the vote suggests that the SNP are far more likely to hold the balance of power than UKIP after the general election. But can the wider Yes movement beyond the SNP realign, recompose itself and develop a strategy to take forward into the General Election and beyond? Yes if independence campaigners can move beyond the bitter disappointment of what they perceive as having our countries future thrown away by selfishness, fear and stupidity, and instead reach out to the very people they feel culpable for that folly. Yes if Nicola Sturgeon can harness the amazing new energy within the SNP. Yes is the Scottish left can recapture the drive and imagination from within such disappointment and steer the parties new and old to an agenda for real change. This thrawn celtic stoicism gives a strange kind of hope. Hope too from the reality that 45%+ of people don’t want to be part of Britain, and of the remainder many were driven to vote No by a campaign of fear and intimidation. That’s an unsustainable way to govern a country.

Trouble at t'mill.

You'd have thought those experiences would have led to a bit of humility.

Did they not have spelling in ye olden days?

Snooker loopy nuts are we, we're all snooker…loopy.

This whole thing has tipped you over the edge.

One so aged and wise will no doubt see the broader sweep of history and realize that the referendum was a crucial stage in the independence process, not an end in itself but the beginning of the end of the union. My only hope is that you will still be around to see that day. Maybe by then you will have composed a single coherent sentence on CTO. Hope springs eternal.

And the stature of Charles is what, exactly? 2 foot 2 in his Clark's Commandoes.

Definition of nyaff in English: nyaff Line breaks: nyaff Pronunciation: /njaf / NOUN Scottish informal A stupid, irritating, or insignificant person. MORE EXAMPLE SENTENCES

We're actually talking about the same survey here, and through no fault of yours, the Herald have simply got the figures the wrong way round! Fantastic journalism! Scots born were 51% No, RUK born were 74% No and non-UK were 59% No, as per the bottom row of page 1 of the actual poll data. http://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/09/19/scottish-independence-final-prediction/ Oh feck. Fair enough, you guys win, humiliation is complete.

That's racism.

l A total of 74 per cent of those voters who were born elsewhere in the UK voted No. Some 51 per cent of Scots-born voters supported independence. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/referendum-survey-suggests-a-slender-majority-of-young-people-voted-no.25407723 Just relaying facts, to enrich the debate.

Don't see the relevance of that statistic. Everyone choosing to make Scotland their domicile was entitled to vote on the future of their country irrespective of their place of birth and quite properly so. It is relevant, the Scots voted Yes.

Apparently, 51% of Scots-born voters voted Yes, while 74% of non-Scots UK-born voters voted no. So the Scots did actually vote for independence.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Map rtfbtl Ryan Alexander Dewar - great work <a href="http://t.co/DhgEGGo2nZ">pic.twitter.com/DhgEGGo2nZ</a></p>&mdash; KevR (@kwr66) <a href="https://twitter.com/kwr66/status/513450083791429632">September 20, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Sneck voted overwhelmingly Yes, I believe, 61%, so well in all the Sneck Yessers.

It's going to happen, Yessers, keep the faith.

The power is in our hands folks--do we really want to hand it back to Cameron, Farage, Clegg, Johnson, Milliband et al? Or should we keep that power and use it wisely for the benefit of our families and communities?

Don't understand betting but apparently it's some publicity stunt where they don't pay out much, and by pure chance, the owner of the company is a big tory supporter. It is desperation from the unionists and tories.

It's appropriate and good that you are voting No, as you just don't 'get it'. The union is in tatters, and No people are in and of the past, while the Yessers are the Scots of the future, those bold and wise enough to hold on to the power they will have in their hands on Thursday.

The increase of immigration to Scotland would consist of 2,000 more immigrants annually than we already have on average, because the figure quoted by the BT liars was the required amount, as if we had no immigration at all in any year, extrapolated over 20 years. How thick are some people that they believe anything from the NO campaign without checking further for themselves? Yngwie will believe anything his London masters tell him.

There have been referendums on devolution but this is the first on Independence. But the point here is that there has not been one before simply because the level of support for Independence in the past has always been so low. Far from being the case that if we don't vote for Independence now we will never get another chance, I think the very fact we are having a referendum when the historical support for independence has been so low is actually quite revealing. It is actually quite extraordinary that not only are we having a referendum, we are having one which simply requires a majority of votes cast to make this major constitutional change. Compare that with the requirements common within businesses and other organisations for constitutional changes! We are also having a referendum without first having a lengthy procedure to develop a package for separation for putting to the electorate at the referendum. In these circumstances, in the event of a "No" vote and a continuing sustained level of support for independence then it is inconceivable that the UK Government would not allow a further vote. I think we have moved on a bit from William Wallace (at least we in the "No" camp have ). Following the "No" result on Thursday there will be no public execution of Alex Salmond or any other form of retribution. The better together camp is of the view that we are better together. That means that Scotland is better off in the Union and that the Union is better off for Scotland being in it. Any kind of backlash against Scotland for having dared to consider leaving the Union would be totally counter-productive as it would only serve to add fuel to the nationalist fire. As for fair play - I am sure the UK Government could always introduce that and remove the extra £1200 per head public funding Scotland currently gets. Uh-oh, mask slipping again. The inner Nigel. Ah, feigned ignorance following a veiled threat, a classic British move. As are most of yours, so fair play. It starts out all jolly japes and what-oh chaps, but as soon as the natives start to pipe up and dare think for themselves, the mask slips and the congenital inability to consider an alternative viewpoint kicks in. My way or the highway. Next step: the threats, in your case the "bugger off back across the border" and the UKIP/Daily Mail nonsense about the subsidized Scots and withdrawing the handouts. Thank you for being too witless or arrogant to even try to hide the classic paternalism and we-know-best attitude of the British, and for providing a timely reminder of exactly why we must and will free ourselves for good from the little Englander attitude that you so amply demonstrate.