dougiedanger

That clown Boris has every chance of being PM of the UK--that is the reality of a No vote, more of these privileged, anti-Scottish elites more than willing to commandeer our resources while grinding us down through indifference and outright hostility.

It is quite telling that BT have latched on to this one non-issue to further put the frighteners on the Scottish people. What else do they have? Is there one single positive argument they have made for Scotland's future being better in the union? No doubt, the UK would be better with our wealth, skills and resources but what good does it do us, the people of Scotland, to remain in the union?

Bowie made a one-line pronouncement, Bragg was initially a no and has now come round to a reasoned argument for Yes, which he sets out convincingly in the article. Not every Englishman wants to cling desperately to Britain's imperial past, and some like BB can even see that the referendum is the best chance to renew politics and society in both Scotland and England.

Interesting piece from Billy Bragg here: Aug 08, 2014 09:50 By John Dingwall 0 Comments ENGLISHMAN Bragg is renowned for his activist edge and says he hopes a vote for Scottish independence would shake up the rest of the United Kingdom. 617 Shares Share Tweet +1 Email Billy Bragg is appearing at Belladrum this weekend BILLY Bragg is looking forward to a new England if Scots vote for independence in the upcoming referendum. The former soldier’s music career has been intertwined with political activism since he first enjoyed success in 1983. “I’ve always had an activist edge to what I do,” said Bragg, who heads to Scotland today for the Belladrum music festival in Beauly, Inverness-shire. “The Scottish independence debate is a manifestation of the failure of the Westminster system that only offers us two viable parties of government. People are getting a bit fed up with it. “You can see with the rise of Ukip and the failure of anyone to win the last election, that the offer that we are getting is no longer attractive. “Many of us live in constituencies that never change hands so our views are taken for granted and not expressed. I live in west Dorset, which has been Tory since 1886 and as a Labour supporter that doesn’t help me. “But I come from a town that has been Labour since 1931 and that doesn’t help the Tory voter who lives there, so I understand his point of view as well. “We need to change that and sadly Westminster is showing no signs of trying to address that issue. “My hope is that a Scottish Yes vote will act as a catalyst that would force the remainder of the UK to come to a new constitutional settlement that makes all of our votes count. “Not just the 10 per cent who live in the swing constituencies in middle England where the parties pitch all their votes.” Bragg isn't the only celebrity to back a Yes vote. Controversial comedian Frankie Boyle is one of many active supporters of independence on Twitter. He recently spoke about his pro-yes leanings with fellow comedian Kevin Bridges. VIEW GALLERY Bragg admits he changed his mind about Scottish independence after taking a more traditional stance against it, when referendum terms were originally being shaped. He said: “I originally had the more traditional leftist view that it would be a betrayal of the working class if Scotland left. “But politics has moved on a lot since then. “I see things now less in terms of class politics and more in terms of freedom resting in the individual being able to hold those in power to account. “If you can’t hold those in power to account, you are not really free. “There’s a number of areas in the British constitution where those ideas of accountability need to be enhanced. “Not least in how we hold the bankers and corporations to account and how we hold global capitalism to account. “This isn’t the traditional leftist narrative I learned during the miners’ strike. Conversely, in our country, socialism has always been about how to hold capitalism to account. “It is about refounding the ideas of a fair society and how we do that. “You have the chance in Scotland to change the landscape, to bring something new into being. If you are complaining about the status quo and you have a chance to change it and you don’t change it, then you have to ask yourself, what are you really complaining about?” Bragg will discuss his politics further when he arrives at the Belladrum music festival this weekend, alongside acts such as Tom Jones, Razorlight and Frightened Rabbit. He is performing on the Garden Stage tomorrow afternoon before taking part in a talk at the festival that night. “It should be good fun,” he said. “One of the reasons I chose a festival like this is that festivals tend to be in places you haven’t played for a while and I don’t think I’ve played up here since the 80s. At Belladrum, I’ll be playing solo in the afternoon, which is always a good time. Everybody is pretty chilled out. “In the evening, I’m doing a little chat. I’m being interviewed in a little tent somewhere. I’m here the whole day. “It’s not one of those ones when you appear and disappear before you get a chance to catch the vibe. “I’ll be checking out some of the other acts although I haven’t worked out who is on yet. I’ll be getting a sense of the place.” Bragg first enjoyed significant success when Kirsty MacColl covered his song A New England. He later fronted the Red Wedge collective of musicians, who tried to engage young people in left wing politics leading up to the 1987 general election. Before that, he was a vocal supporter of the 1984-85 miners’ strike. But after he recently tweeted “go for it” to Scots who are thinking of voting in the September 18 referendum, he found himself criticised by old Labour pals and Tories alike for speaking out in favour of independence. “The traditional left dabbled in a dozen types of socialism but they think there’s only one kind of patriotism or nationalism,” he said. “So I get people who have a knee-jerk reaction to nationalism. “I get people who mistake a referendum on independence for a referendum on the SNP. I have to argue with mostly Scottish Labour people who are very, very upset about the referendum. I also get people who think it’s only Scottish votes that have held the Conservative party at arm’s length in the last 60 years. “They don’t understand that Scottish Labour MPs don’t make a huge difference. “England is quite capable of electing a Labour government and we shouldn’t be scared of a Tory hegemony.” He’s also critical of the No campaign, which he sees as being steeped in hypocrisy. “I can only respond from an English perspective. But it has been very disappointing. “They have not recognised the urge for greater accountability at a more local level that’s behind this. “All these unionist Tory MPs who don’t believe that Scotland should have a say over the laws that it makes are the same people who don’t believe that Brussels should have a say over the laws that Britain makes. “They want us to leave the European Union for exactly the same reasons they’re telling Scots they should remain part of the UK.” He added: “You would imagine that people disappointed in Westminster will take the opportunity to change it. “It seems to me that those who want independence in Scotland are looking forward to a different future, whereas those who want to remain with the status quo are clinging to the past, to an imperial idea of the past and we need to wake up from that. “We in England are not going to do it on our own. “We need Scotland to kick us out of bed and we might get our act together on that. “There’s a post-British thing going on in Scotland and we in England would like to have a bit of that pie as well. “Your independence might wake us up from our old imperial dream.”

I think you're right on all points there, had they not missed even one of their penalties they would have been through.

UEFA have applied their rule to the letter, so why would there be any appeal? Sure seems harsh, but the rules are there and they have to be applied.

On the contrary, this thread is quite distinctive and should stand and prosper on its own merits.

As a few posters have said this is not a referendum on Alex Salmond; it is to ask you if you think Scotland should be an independent country. Our impressions of individual characters should not deflect from the very simple question we are being asked.

What, no CB??

2-1 Avoch so far, back from 1-0 down.

It was certainly in my top 3 football days following blues, along with winning the cup at wembley and being the first English club ever to beat club brugge away, seeing 9000 blues fans around the square and in the ground was exceptional. What are your away number usually and what do you expect for tomorrow's game ? Maybe knock a couple of zeros off your number.

Exactly, the fundamental issue is do we want to run our own affairs or do we want to continue to be dictated to by Westminster, everything else is secondary.

Saw youse at Barrowlands supporting Northside, thought you were going to be big. What happened?

...whilst you just keep on completely ignoring the arguments of others and making assertions based on no facts or rational argument at all. Without repeating the arguments you chose to ignore, let me just say that I too have an unshakable belief in social healthcare. The difference in our views appears to be that I acknowledge the fact that significant parts of our publicly funded health service are delivered by the private sector whilst you appear to be unwilling to acknowledge that fact. I am not telling anyone what is right. I am simply offering a few facts and giving a few opinions of my own. I am not telling anyone what they should be thinking but I am asking you what you are thinking and you are not rising to the challenge. Let me put it simply; do you think that current private sector service delivery in the NHS should be phased out and replaced with public sector provision? My view is that where private sector service delivery allows public money to be spent more efficiently then the government should make use of the private sector. That is because where the private sector can deliver services more efficiently it releases public money to spend either on other public services or tax cuts. That is a view shared by all the major political parties and, I suspect, by about 99% of the population. Where the parties disgree is whether savings made in this way should be reinvested into other public services or used to cut taxes. What is your view? Do you share the view of the SNP or do you take the view that poorer public services or higher taxes are an acceptable consequence of keeping the private sector out of publicly funded healthcare provision? It's a simple question and I really would appreciate a straight answer. Well you seem to have moved the goalposts somewhat, from promoting a US style healthcare system to now posing a rhetorical question on a common sense policy. Anyway, great to see you backing SNP policies.

It really looks to me as if this thread has partly degenerated into the argument that, in order to achieve a meteoric rise to the top of Scottish football, it has not been worth losing the opportunity to make a complete @rse of yourself in the Howden End on a Saturday afternoon. There is a lot more to supporting football than the rather 70s fads of swigging Scotsmac, licking stamps and a severe reluctance to admit that one's days of adolescence have long gone. Maybe you're right, but then again maybe you just don't get it that some people's adolescent experiences were not limited to the thrills of the Scripture Union quiz night or the BB camp at Carrbridge.

Yeh.... to the extent that the status of Inverness football has plummeted from the HighlandLeague to the top half of the SPFL Premiership. Right on cue.

To think of this in terms of numbers only is to accept the limited perspective of a science teacher. Just as important is type, the kind of supporters lost, dismissed by some as riff raff and deadwood, but who were the actual fans who went out and supported the HL teams and kept them going, and without whom there would have been no viable bid for senior league status. If the new club lacks character and the new stadium lacks atmosphere, it is because of the loss of these kinds of fans. For all the smugness and condescension of some on here the loss of those fans has fundamentally weakened the club.

You have a very naive view of the US healthcare system, as I say everyone gets their cut, and it is completely inefficient. What is clear is that your views of traditional British values are quite different to those of many Scots, and you are sounding increasingly like a desperate Tory if you think that having an unshakable belief in social healthcare equates to being a big bad "Marxist." But anyway, you just keep on telling us what is right and what we should be thinking.

If you had ever used the US healthcare system, I doubt you would be holding it up as an example of good practice, and certainly not of efficiency and value for money. It is absurd to say that the drive for profits cuts out inefficiency; everyone wants and gets their cut, so that costs are sky high, as are profits. The great irony in this and in the broader referendum debate is that it is the Scots who are holding to traditional "British" values, and that it is the erosion of those values by the market-driven ideas espoused here that has created the chasm that may well lead to a definitive parting of the ways.

Never voted Tory in my life and unlikely to start now! Sounds hoora like a Tory "healthcare" policy.

A Thatcherite speaks and tells us what to think. Thanks!

Saw plenty of reasons to dislike him but his nationality wasn't one of them.

Will Savage apologize for saying all Yes voters are basically anti-English?

What an embarrassment Savage was, warbling on about being English, divided nations and fears for after the vote. Came across as a buffoon.

Question Time from Inverness, by feck that Highland accent is fair changing. And Savage comes across as uninformed and self-serving.