Charles Bannerman

Interesting point of view because in parallel terms, various managers and directors at ICT have had considerable qualifications when it comes to running a football team or a company, but that doesn't seem to have deterred certain individuals from coming on here and telling them the apparent error of their ways.

Not sure which forum I should post this on, but on the strength of what emerges later on, I've tried this one. I couldn't believe what I was hearing on Good Morning Scotland this morning. There was this guy on from Aberdeen way talking about this SHEEP which had sold for ?230,000. He rabbited on about this beast, eventually declaring that it had "a tremendous back end"! This seems to be the way that people out there talk about sheep! So what are the factors which determine this valuation? The mind boggles. Granville Paterson - eat your heart out! It eventually transpired that the sheep has a name - "Deveronvale Perfection". So is this a tip (tup? ) for the Highland League title?

He must have remembered that America has a fair smattering of Irish Republican supporters... including the late Teddy Kennedy... so maybe he's concluded they're not that bad after all.

Both families have roots up in the Strath of Kildonan but not directly related. Donald... go away back to your commentary box and stay there! :(

Interesting points there. These are days I just remember. Would this have been the 1959 election? But, unless I've misunderstand what you've said, was Johnny Bannerman not a Liberal? I remember my mother met him once. Unless of course you mean that, even though he was a Liberal, he had a lot of genuine Scottish national (small "n") sentiments. As far as I recollect the first time the SNP fielded a candidate it was a wee wifie called Athole Cameron in 64 or 66 who polled a very small amount. Charles, I feel sure it would have been 1959 and he may well have been under the Liberal banner but my memory is the 'Braveheart' presentation he gave. It was wonderful theatre, the oratory was not, as now, someone else's words spun to suit the listener but straight from the heart. I remember McLean had invited questions and a wheelchair bound young fellow, a doctors son from Old Edinburgh Road called Jimmy, started to ask a question and due to his condition was a slower speaker. McLean cut him off by stating "We have no time for you" and all Hell broke out from the audience and the meeting finished on a sour note. Johnny Bannerman was therefore a favourite before he started and as stated, milked us dry! . But if I remember correctly MacLean still held on, although Russell Johnston won the seat for the Liberals next time round in 1964.

Interesting points there. These are days I just remember. Would this have been the 1959 election? But, unless I've misunderstand what you've said, was Johnny Bannerman not a Liberal? I remember my mother met him once. Unless of course you mean that, even though he was a Liberal, he had a lot of genuine Scottish national (small "n") sentiments. As far as I recollect the first time the SNP fielded a candidate it was a wee wifie called Athole Cameron in 64 or 66 who polled a very small amount.

OK... try reading what I've said again, but as you do so, think "irony" and think "satire"? Hope this helps. One final clue. I'm completely non political but love winding up the politically minded in general ... and especially those of the Nat persuasion who rise to the bait far better than any of the rest!

No, no... not Las Malvinas 1982 but Argentina, World Cup 1978... 3-1 defeat by Peru, 1-1 draw with Iran, ignominious exit tainted by a drugs scandal, and all that after Ally MacLeod proclaimed that "we're going to win the world cup". Here was an "external" disaster in the best Scottish "here we go here we go here we go... oops sh!t lads, looks like we've bitten off more than we can chew here" traditions of Flodden and Darien. On the other hand I'm not sure how we could "blame the English" for 1978 as tends to be the case with Flodden where their Second Team (their First Team was away to France that day) simply gave us a good doing and told us to clear off home again. And of course in the case of Darien they were simply nasty, nasty boys solely responsible for sabotaging an otherwise wonderfully thought out enterprise. Darien??? But I thought colonies were only "an English(UK) thing." Difficult to blame the English for the Megrahi affair, but I suppose Gordy Brown as heid honcho of the Westminster Parliament is the next best thing.

Normally if a company wants to raise more money it hold a Share Issue or a Rights Issue. The strange thing is that there seems to be this view prevalent among some football fans that it's up to the Directors constantly to bail out the company's finances. Why not the fans? Maybe they should raise season ticket prices by 50% and that would help, rather than continually calling on the Directors.

You seem to have forgotten about Argentina 1978. As far as the behaviour of Gordy Brown is concerned, of course he's been spouting away on Jade Goody, Susan Boyle etc and not on Lockerbie but that is just par for the course. He's a politician and what he does is not determined by consistency or logic but by the prime consideration of political advantage. It's a complete foul up, the SNP are squirming so it's to his advantage to shut up. Wee Alec would do just the same.

Why should they? Why should you expect your Saturday afternoon entertainment to be subsidised by other people?

Hello cheeldren.... everywhah.... :P

What happens is that a variety of papers commission the local freelance or sports agency to give them a specified number of words which they may then tweak in a tabloid or a broadsheet direction but essentially it's the same story. In other words, broadsheets tend to prefer a long, pretentious and apparently unrelated introductory sentence while tabloids use an abbreviated form of everybody's name, ending, where possible, in "o".

mr spence would be horrified to hear that he's a dundee fan!! despite his son playing for them jim's an arab!! heillandee and davie will vouch for that! Yup. I can confirm that as well. Spencie has Arab leanings but has encyclopaedic knowledge of the game as whole in the City of Discovery. And as for the papers not having "a man at the game" that is really such complete nonsense that it barely warrants a response. Even Highland League games have reporters filing material for newspapers. First Division games typically have around six print journalists present. And apart from what was in the Sundays, please, when you turn to the local press, also be aware that Garaham Linton, Stephen Kasiewicz and Paul Chalk were there on behalf of the Courier, PandJ and HN so please don't try to attribute what you read there to Jim Spence as well!

That's the one I was thinking of. Yes it was about 1985. At that time Ross County (cricket club) used to enter that tournament as "Strathpeffer".

So more excuses to dust down the dreaded "1966" references then?

Mrs PB... as I said before the season started if a team is near the top of the First Division or playing another team near the top, there will be a fair to good chance of coverage on Open All Mics as part of the programme's live coverage of the whole of Scottish League football. The format is that all 3pm KO SPL games are covered along with perhaps two or three from the lower leagues which for most of the season tends to be the prime First Division fixtures. I also unserstand that there is an Open All Mics "twittering" service or whatever it's called which is another good option. It's interesting here how an activity which seems to have originated as a means for the self obsessed to give the world an unsolicited running commentary on their boring lives can actually be put to some positive use here.

It's bound, as usual, to rain so the game will end in a draw. This, I think, would mean that Australia retained the Ashes but fair dos because did England not win them in 2005 or something also just because it rained? What kind of game is this where the weather is a bigger determining factor in the outcome than the teams? Why can't they simply extend the game by the amount of time lost to rain? "The English are not a very spiritual people. So to acquire a concept of eternity.... they invented Cricket."

It doesn't look (or smell) good in front of anybody anywhere!

Only if someone nearby farts and even then it's a lot shorter acting and less unpleasant than fagreek. It's a small down side to the wonderful benefits of freedom from the said fagreek in pubs and other public places. The only problem now is that when you walk along the street you catch it from people standing outside and I wish something could be done about that as well. (*) I simply cannot agree that because smoking in non enclosed places is (still :angry: ) legal there should be an obligation to provide facilities. ... unless the cigarette companies who sell these dreadful things were to do so because certainly nobody else should be responsible for the cost of doing this. Come to think of it, if the fag companies could provide ghettoes for smokers, that might help to solve the new problem of nasty niffs in the street. Or how about simply converting St. Kilda into the only part of the British Isles where its' legal to smoke? * take as an example Baron Taylor's Street which must be the most unhealthy street in Inverness with three pubs, two bookies and a fast food joint as well (according to the HN) as having junkies shooting up with regularity (oh yes, and the Haelth Food shop as well) Walking along smoke polluted Baron Taylor Street is an absolute nightmare.

DITD... the only time I ever met Donnie was about six or seven years ago at an athletics match where his grandaughter (Neil's daughter Robyn) was running. We did an interview which ended up as a feature in The Courier. CMIB... I'm sure it was 50s because I recollect that he was winning races out of the park for the High School up until about 1952.

Thanks OCG. I just wasn't sure.

Gawd, mate... it's people like you that make me seriously doubt my long held view that the British Government in 1921 should just have let the whole of Ireland go in a oner and left them all to fight like ferrets in a sack. Maybe my lifelong resentment of the Orangemen has been slightly lacking in balance after all.....

Let me repeat..... There is NO SIGNIFICANT (I have to add that second word probably almost solely on account of Portland Club and the Free Presbyterian Church - both tiny, absurd, caricature, minority rumps) culture of bigotry in the Highlands. We have Orange Order walks once in a blue moon and it's like an apparition from another planet to most. I have NEVER seen one of these "Hibernian" marches which I beleive also take place down south. There is no significant resentment or divide between Protestants and Catholics up here (apart from the Free Presbyterians who are effectively the Portland Club at Prayer). On the other hand, things like this are unfortunately an integral part of the community in other parts. I think Absent Friend is confusing an AWARENESS that the likes of what he describes happens elsewhere and the FACT that Protestant - Catholic sectarianism is to all intents and purposes a non issue up here (despite the best efforts of Apprentice Boyzone with their now unfortunately annual stroll to the Portland Club.)