Charles Bannerman

Place the following words in the order in which they appear in a well known saying: black - pot - kettle.

Is that not likely to place them on the Sex Offenders' Register?

Dickie Mackie? Still going strong on the drums with a band occasionally to be seen in the Legion.

I think it is more likely that it wasn't included because, after the vote, the SNP Handbook Of Groundless Assertions would have declared that enough Devo Max voters in a two option referendum would actually have voted for independence to give Yes a majority. In other words, given that many separatists are unable to accept defeat in a Yes/No situation that would have been far more the case after a three option poll. The two option poll also has the benefit of (despite the nationalist denial machine) producing an unambiguous result - which turned out to be a clear majority against separation. And if Devo Max had been on the ballot paper and been the option attracting most votes, you would also have seen that roaster in Dingwall I spoke about yesterday and his fellow conspiracy theorists going absolutely pure dead mental if Devo Max hadn't been delivered within 35 days or whatever.

So Oddquine obviously HAS heard that Alex Salmond, his mission in Scotland having failed, is thinking about going back where he came from at Westminster

What's the rush? Because they think they can stir up more discontent that way.

Passing through Dingwall earlier this morning, I spotted this house with a large Yes placard still in the window along with a sign saying - "Day #35 and still no extra powers" Must be owned by the guy I saw a couple of seasons ago storming out of Victoria Park when County went 2-0 down against Celtic and could hardly have been back over the bridge before Grant Munro scored en route to a 3-2 County victory. Or alternatively, Alex Salmond has rented the place as a holiday home. Either way, this gives an excellent insight into the Nationalists' "Plan B" (they've got one at last!!!! ) to undermine the process of enhanced devolution and display the said cynical contempt for the Scottish people as they pursue an outcome which these same Scottish people have told them they do not want. If they don't like the answer, it was their decision to ask the question.

So if it had gone Yes last month, how soon would the SNP have been prepared to have another referendum? In this bizarre game, the rules seem to be that the SNP think they can have as many goes as they need to get enough ordinary people so fed up with referenda that the SNP eventually win a single vote.... and then shut up shop for all time. And here I was thinking that the SNP Oil Revenues Calculator had been consigned to the attic along with the SNP Handbook Of Totally Unsupported Assertions. If you ever get bored with Nationaslism, I would suggest that the Flat Earth Society might provide a suitable substitute. (On the other hand, and more seasonally, you have probably already signed up to the Guy Fawkes Club - dedidcated to blowing up Westminster )

I'm still trying hard to express the two word, two syllable sentence Y-O-U L-O-ST (so go away, stop bothering us and let us get on with our lives) in even simpler terms. I've even been through the whole process from the SNP getting a Holyrood majority, deciding to have the referendum according to their rules and then attracting 20% fewer votes than NO - and still they don't seem to get it. I can now see the SNP continuing their cynical contempt for the Scottish people by creating as many difficulties as possible over further devolved powers - simply as a means of continuing their attempts to fan the flames of grievance and dissatisfaction. I actually think that the SNP would be perfectly happy for further devolution to be derailed or delayed simply to give them an apparent excuse to greet and girn as they seem to have been doing since Edward Lonngshanks was a boy. As for the AV referendum... it was 68-32 against for goodness sake. It wasn't even close! The more this post- referendum nationalist bellyaching keeps going, the more the nationalist tone reminds me of Germany after the First World War!

For some reason the picture isn't showing, but Billy Urquhart is BOUND to be in the lineup

Mmm... apart from apologising to Orwell in my last post, I would also apologise to Shakespeare on the subject of politicians - "A plague on ALL your houses!"

Such a phenomenon has never existed in the history of politics My attitude to them comes with apologies to George Orwell - "All parties are chancers, but some parties are bigger chancers than others." (Even more true now that the LIbDems have even stopped being "bloody nice blokes".)

A very legitimate question because I really don't see any solution emerging from that half billion pound talking shop at Holyrood. A very legitimate question which you haven't answered! I think I have, inasmuch as I have suggested that the calibre of politics in Scotland at the moment is such that I really just don't see any satisfactory solution at all. (PS - is it OK to say things like that again or am I still in danger of being dragged before the Uncaledonian Activities Committee of the referendum era to be sentenced to five years in the St Kilda Gulag for preaching seditious "negativity" and "anti Scottishness"?)

Are you CB's long lost identical twin ? No he isn't.... it's just that you Nats don't seem to have come to terms with the notion that there are actually lots of people out there who have no time for the SNP's saltire waving, haggis munching obsession that history has somehow let them down.

A very legitimate question because I really don't see any solution emerging from that half billion pound talking shop at Holyrood. The problem with politics far too often is political parties. People vote for candidates to "represent" them but the reality is that the successful candidates are simply functionaries of their party whose will they are content to serve in the intetrests of their own reselection and political survival. As a result the governmental process takes place not for the benefit of the people but for the benefit of the political parties. In earlier decades Labour, its strings firmly pulled by the trades unions, governed through a network of party fiefdoms while the Tories have always looked after the interests of their posh chums. Nowadays in Scotland the SNP, which rivals the Masons in its internal party control freakery, is only interested in separation and allows the manner in which it administers various devolved matters to be dictated totally by what is likely to con as many of the people as much of the time as possible into support for that. So ironically here we have a Scottish National Party which doesn't actually give a toss about the lives of the Scots because it regards that as wholly secondary to its obsession with separation.

Have you forgotten the result of the 1988 Qualifying Cup final replay at Telford Street..... Caley 0 Thistle 3? I am following from the caption that the photo is of Thistle following the first of their back to back title wins under "King" Willie Grant between 1971 and 1973.

Yes, the glory days of the Hayloft. Never to be forgotten, although I think they served Skol lager for a while which wasn't great.

Spot on 157. We are where we are because in the 2011 election, which to the vast majority was overwhelmingly about schools, hospitals, law and order etc, this single issue pressure group also slid the word "referendum" into its manifesto. Because Labour in particular but also the other mainstream parties were in such disarray, this bunch of single issue obsessives got an overall majority. The very next day this "referendum", which much of the electorate wasn't even aware of or rated as a relevant election issue, became the only thing that mattered and has been boring the @rse off most of us ever since. The reality is that, of the 44.7%, even the majority of them couldn't actually give much of a toss about separation. I think most of them voted Yes because it was one of just two options or the people telling them to do so were offering them more subsidy from the public purse..... or simply because they had seen that wonderful example of historical accuracy which is Braveheart! And now the SNP have firmly been told NO they are still in denial about that and, whilst they continue to attempt to undermine the process of increased devolution in pursuit of their unique brand of grievance politics, our public services continue to suffer from neglect. If the snp hadn't brought the referendum, I'm pretty sure you'd be on here banging on about a manifesto pledge being deserted. Absolutely not! If they had just got on with what they were elected to do - deliver devolved services - we would all have been spared the most divisive, long winded and tedious episode in Scottish history and I would have been delighted.

Spot on 157. We are where we are because in the 2011 election, which to the vast majority was overwhelmingly about schools, hospitals, law and order etc, this single issue pressure group also slid the word "referendum" into its manifesto. Because Labour in particular but also the other mainstream parties were in such disarray, this bunch of single issue obsessives got an overall majority. The very next day this "referendum", which much of the electorate wasn't even aware of or rated as a relevant election issue, became the only thing that mattered and has been boring the @rse off most of us ever since. The reality is that, of the 44.7%, even the majority of them couldn't actually give much of a toss about separation. I think most of them voted Yes because it was one of just two options or the people telling them to do so were offering them more subsidy from the public purse..... or simply because they had seen that wonderful example of historical accuracy which is Braveheart! And now the SNP have firmly been told NO they are still in denial about that and, whilst they continue to attempt to undermine the process of increased devolution in pursuit of their unique brand of grievance politics, our public services continue to suffer from neglect.

yes Charles, once again we must bow to your superior intellect. Please share some of your wisdom and tell us what other political parties have done for you and me that the SNP haven't. I'll help you along here. Tories - sent our soldiers to their deaths in wars we didn't need to be involved in. Labour - destroyed our heavy industry and left many destitute. Lib-Dems - dont think they've ever done anything. SNP - well they should be shot. After all they've had the audacity to run our country better than any other party before them. And I include the disasterous years when it was Secretary of State who had the control. I am sure that Kenny MacAskill, Alex Neil, Michael Russell and maybe one or two others will be very reassured by what you say there Alex since this must surely mean that they will keep their jobs and avoid Sturgeon the Surgeon's knife.

I fear that you are right Alex. This is something I have been concerned about for some time, although I still think that a considerable interest and willingness to attend remains at the highest profile level such as the English Premier League and people also watch a lot on TV. But at other levels, including the Scottish Premiership, interest does appear to be diminishing. This tends to be a cyclical thing because there was a slump in attendances in about the 80s before an upswing a few years later.

I'm just not too sure how scientifically reliable it is to assess football crowds as a percentage of the population of the town/city in which they are based and possibly the best counter example is Ross County. Clubs also tend to draw support from outwith so how many people there are within 10, 20, 30 etc miles is a further factor. Then there's the prevalence of people in the community who support "big" clubs. I think that the factors contributing to attendance levels are many and varied and probably fall into four categories - those directly related to any club and those related to wider societal factors, with both of these then subdivided into those which something could or could not have something done about them. The price factor is an intriguing one and I am interested to note what Donald said earlier which suggests that demand in this market may not actually be very elastic.

A thankless task by all accounts! But indeed a busy place at the peak of the oil construction boom.

Let's face it - there's not a lot to choose from at the moment. Labour, rudderless and led by a man who looks like mr Bean, sounds like Mr Bean and makes marginally less sense than Mr Bean, the Posh Boy dominated Tories, the LibDems who have utterly discredited themselves, UKIP which seems to have taken over from the Monster Raving Loony Party and the SNP who have no interest whatsoever in you or me because the only thing they are capable of thinking about is separation.

Scarlet... given that my grandparents moved out over 20 years before I was born, I'm not sure and they most certainly would have rented the house rather than owned it.