Charles Bannerman

You must be thinking of the slogan "Jesus Saves - with the TSB"

I think the difference is that long before ICTFC - or maybe I should say Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club - was even thought of, and unlike the other quoted phrases, the expression "Pride of.... this, that and the other" was standard English usage. It therefore follows that ICTFC is presuming to lay exclusive claim to an already established idiom which, as such, I find difficult to see as its intellectual property. It's a bit like the case a few years ago when a food chain tried to block the owner's name going up on a Fort William restaurant - until Mr and Mrs MacDonald successfully objected. The "Pride of the Highlands" tag for the club? Well I think it's a bit twee and cheesy but I'm not too fussed one way or the other about using it. Claiming exclusive rights to it though? Well that's maybe a bit grandiose and disrespectful to the huge amount of Highland life which goes on outwith football.

I find it a bit strange that a very general term like this should be allowed to be the exclusive preserve of a single football club. It's a bit presumptuous, perhaps, to claim that this very specialised interest should be the only thing of which the Highlands are now entitled to be proud, or that its activities are more deserving of pride than anything else in the Highlands. Not maybe the best way to win friends and influence people.

DD - I am very disappointed to see you resorting to what in effect is blasphemy in that last post. If that's what Jesus Christ told Oddquine on her recent visit to the Holyrood Separation Vigil then it's bound to be the gospel truth so it's blasphemous in the extreme for you to doubt it. Mind you, I did wonder myself if the somewhat tortured and convoluted conspiracy involved might just be a little beyond your average yes voter, given that thinking for themselves has long since been a function performed on their behalf by Party Central. But no! Get thee behind me Satan!! If these are the words of the Good Lord himself in his Second Coming at Holyrood, fire and brimstone must be the fate of those who doubt the words of his Prophets and Messengers. Or has Alex Salmond just cultivated a beard, grown his hair and joined the Vigil?

Oddquine... I'm surprised you've not changed your "45" to a "62" in recognition of the universal outrage which is there for all to see at the Scottish people being unjustly torn from the bosom of the European Union against their will..... NOT! Let's just be absolutely clear about this. Outrage in Scotland at the Brexit vote is merely a figment of the Nationalist imagination.... or should I say "fabrication". What the SNP are saying - in an attempt to make an excuse for another Scottish vote - is very different from from what is being said.... or rather not being said... in the streets, pubs and clubs of the land. I think that a combination of the pre-2014 polling data and the 2016 result - including necessary qualifications to allow for grievance-mongering tactical voting by Nats - makes it pretty clear that the Scots seem to be saying "Aye.... OK but quite honestly I'm not that fussed one way or another". Let's be honest, the Nats don't really give all that much of a toss about Europe either. All this faux-Europhilia is just their current convenience. But when there's a chance to ignore two lost referenda in order to get yet a second one in Scotland.... what do the facts matter? Indeed it's no surprise whatsoever that the Nats are intent on ignoring this all-UK referendum called by Westminster since they are already even more intent on ignoring the one they called themselves under their own terms... and lost (55.3 - 34.7) even more convincingly than they lost the Euro one (52-48 because your 62% is irrelevant in this context). It looks to me that, if Nicola Sturgeon in any way shares her predecessor's predeliction for the bookies, you would find her going into the shop... putting money on.... losing.... and demanding her cash back so she can back the same nag again and again until it wins. The Nats really have to understand that, if separation is going to happen, this has to be the settled will of the Scottish people and not persisting with trying to wind the electorate up with red herrings until they eventually fluke the vote they want just the once. What Teresa now needs to say is: "Look Nicola, you told us you wanted your big day in September 2014. You got your wish and you lost so you're not getting any more bites at the cheery any time quickly. So bog off back up to Edinburgh and spend your time running your branch office properly for once in your life. It's what you're paid to do so get on with it."

Ah! You're back as well IBM! So what's Jesus Christ's message to the campers then? Is he still backing these Laddies and Lassies or is he going to lay on his healing hands and afford them the gift of sanity?

Well Oddquine's back! Maybe she's the first of them to return from consulting Jesus Christ about what he thinks the next step should be for the Holyrood Separation Vigil. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14556584._Jesus_Christ_backs_indycamp_in_Holyrood_eviction_fight___court_is_told/ On the other hand OQ maybe didn't need to consult Jesus Christ if she has direct access to Alex Salmond. Tell you what, though. In the face of all this griping and grievance-mongering about Scotland being "torn against its will from the benevolent, protective breast of Europe", I thought it would be a good idea to go back to that pre-2014 Referendum survey which ranked various issues in the Scottish electorate's order of priority. So where does Europe feature in that league table of how important Scots feel various issues are? Whisper it..... NINTH I do have to say that this kind of squares with the fact that the only people I am hearing complaining about the injustice of Brexit are SNP politicians and that 3% of the electorate rated Europe the top issue. It also rather squares with the much quoted 62-38 split needing to be heavily qualified with a number of observations which I have already referred to. Many of the 62% won't be all that fussed either way. The 62% will also include a contingent of the 30% of Nat supporters who are Leavers but voted tactically in an attempt to enhance the grievance factor. Many other Nat Leavers' tactics will have been to abstain and turnout was indeed remarkably low in separatist areas of the country. Add that lot in, and you're not really left with too many people with steam coming out of their ears on this one - and most of them will be rabid Nats boiling the kettle for all they're worth. Make no mistake about this. The Nats are DELIGHTED at this Leave vote and the opportunity to invent another grievance which it offers. So the reality is that Nicola Sturgeon cleared off to Brussels, leaving the NHS etc to degenerate into an even worse state, and flounced around faking a hissy based on a "popular dismay" which is a complete fabrication. For goodness sake, the woman heads a regional assembly which looks (badly) after local issues and she thinks she's some kind of international statesperson. (On the other hand she was Alex Salmond's disciple so this is perhaps entirely predictable.) The current SNP tactic is clearly to try to create some kind of expectation that their faux-devastation at a Leave vote will wring some concessions out of the Brexit negotiations. They of course know perfectly well that there's no chance of this, but the higher the expectations, the greater (they hope) will be the public "indignation" when they inevitably get knocked back. Then they call a second separation plebiscite on the basis that this is now the "only way" to retain a connection with Scottish voters' NINTH highest priority. I wonder how "secret" they are going to be able to keep the obvious facts that the "new" European deal (including surrendering control over farming and fishing) - IF they get it - will be much worse even than the current one and that a lot of people may not be all that keen on customs, passport control and currency exchange at Gretna?

Delighted! Here are a dozen to start the ball rolling. 1 - Stop wasting time looking for new, EU related ways to try to antagonise the electorate into a single fluke "yes" in a second referendum and instead sort out the mess that they're making of the public services, currently delegated by HQ to the Holyrood Branch Office but which they are totally neglecting. 2 - Sack Angela Constance 3 - Put the 56, 55, 54 on a one way ferry to St Kilda. (Having first made sure that Panty Hosiery has packed his Y-fronts.) 4 - Sack Angela Constance. 5 - Shut Ian Blackford up because his attempts to stir up grievance on account of that Australian family being sent home are downright embarrassing. Sorry.... did I mention that the wee boy attends a Gaelic Medium school so is an Honorary Native? Very important! (By the way, I gather that the Cybernats are getting especially nasty over this one - presumably taking their cue from Mr Blackford's treatment of the late Charles Kennedy.) 6 - Sack Angela Constance. 7 - Also shut up Angus (Brendan when he's not canvassing on Lewis or Harris) MacNeil whose latest anti-Westminster grudgemongering is some defence whinge. 9 - Sack Angela Constance. 8 - Give Fergus Ewing a personality. 10 - Sack Angela Constance. 11 - When Jesus Christ makes his Second Coming, make sure he visits the Holyrood Separation Vigil. That's only fair because they're apparently only there because he told them to go. Make sure he brings them a Betamax player since they've not been able to watch their tape of Braveheart for ages.... oh and a few Corries records as well. And maybe Alex MacLeod's copy of Grand Theft Auto? It must get pretty boring there.... especially at times when Jesus isn't speaking to them. 12 - Sack Angela Bloody Constance!

"Competitive pre-season matches" is to a large extent a contradiction in terms. The "season" for SPFL clubs comprises for everyone the League, the Scottish Cup, the League Cup and, where appropriate, the Challenge Cup and European ties. Any club's season therefore starts with the first game they play in any of these competitions so, by definition, these league cup games take place within the season so cannot be pre-season. Given that most Premiership clubs are grouped along with lower league opponents, some may opt to treat these group games as part of the phase of their year when they are building up to full efficiency and may cut their genuine pre-season programme accordingly. As a result these group games, which are as much part of the competitive season as any other may, for some clubs, have certain of the features of pre-season friendlies.

Yeh... fair enough. Neither am I... but in relative terms compared with a right winger. Definitely slippery though.

Slippery left winger.

Have you never heard of Peter Mandelson?

Couldn't disagree more. Anyone in the private sector is entitled to commercial confidentiality with respect to the terms and conditions of his employment. I really hope that the original question isn't based on the premise that football is somehow "different", because it isn't.

Feel free! We were getting quite lonely and had actually thought that all the separatists had defected to become green dotters on the Whinge Over Skintland site or were maybe away at a Corries tribute concert. Or a Save The Gelluns rally?

That's the separatists who actually have arguments, even ones based on total fallacies like $113 a barrel. Many, especially the Mel Gibsoners, fail to reach such a stage of sophistication and tend simply to fall back on traditional SNP yah-boo sloganizing and aggressive Cybernattery.

What an articulate defence of the Separation Dogma! Another fine example of the classic, coherent eloquence that makes the Separatist case so difficult to answer

Well, since I gave DD a green dot, I thought I'd better not just simply follow the practice of the red dotters and fail to elaborate The separatists' strategy of trying to stir up resentment over the Brexit vote is fatally flawed in at least two fundamental ways. Firstly, it doesn't matter a toss if more people in Scotland voted Remain than Leave. Scotland wasn't being asked its views - the UK was and it voted to leave. Scotland has no more significance here than Inverness or Hilton or Bruce Gardens. None of these is a constitutional entity whereas the UK is. So what Scotland's "Wee Pretendy Parliament" (give Billy Connolly the red dot, not me chaps!) or the people whose interests it currently neglects collectively think doesn't actually matter any more than any other selectively chosen area. Otherwise, as I've said before, we could have got shot of Glasgow and Dundee on "Independence Day". Then there's the latest wonderfully disingenuous item of SNP sloganising - "Remain means Remain". Funny they should choose that rather than "No means No" which actually relates to a constitutionally relevant area - the one they chose. Then there's all this "outrage" at the outcome of the Brexit vote. The problem is, apart from separatist politicians, I'm wondering where all the alleged outrage actually is? I'm certainly not aware of it in a community where a third of SNP supporters voted Leave. That nicely leads us on to the alleged cause of this "faux-outrage" and its manipulation towards a second secession referendum. How is this actually going to put right the loss of EU status which the UK has voted for? Well it ain't... because that is gone forever and can never be returned to, so get used to it chaps. IF the Nats were prepared to risk a second vote and IF they were to get lucky and IF they were to be accepted by an EU which includes states such as Spain which don't want to encourage this kind of thing, the most they could achieve is a vastly inferior EU deal even to the one we have just voted to leave. I'm talking using the Euro, I'm talking accepting the Schengen Agreement and I'm talking not getting the UK's current rebate - among others. And I'm also talking the creation of an economic and political discontinuity with the rest of the UK, with which we do 65% of our trade - compared with 15% of the EU. Customs posts, passport control, currency exchange on Scotland's ONLY border- a "hard" one across an EU/non-EU divide. This is the reality which maybe a few voters haven't woken up to yet - a reality which of course the separatists would simply dub Project Fear 2, but which really would mean that the separation deal on offer second time around would be vastly inferior to the one which was defeated and rejected 55.3 - 44.7. And that's before you also remember that in the intervening period the backside has irreversibly fallen out of the Oil/Grand Theft Auto. As a result, following the June 23rd outcome, it's clear that the chances of and reasons for the Scottish electorate voting to break up the UK are even more remote than they were before. Indeed the best case for separation is probably that we would be spared the embarrassment of 50-odd uncouth louts at Westminster whose only talent seems to be their ability to walk into the division lobby that SNP Central points them towards.

Was that "The Sheriff's Fence" (a 60s one that, though) on the crossroads with Rangemore Road and Dochfour Drive?

That's presumably the same question as you would ask the hotel industry who have operated a "refunds up to a certain time" policy for many bookings for a very long time.

Is this not the system used widely on the railways? Buy your ticket at the ticket office and then board the train?

Apart from areas where it read HMC.

Could have been worse. Could have been "Caledonion Champion's"

Back in the 60s (early 60s possibly) a lot of places in Inverness became inscribed with KOFFITUP which was the Aberdeen students' charity slogan.

Strange how you can stick an extra "vo" into that word and interchange the next two letters to get a meaning that can unfortunately all to often be alleged of stewards!

According to the OP there is going to be more than one ticket window open (in fact as I have been writing that has been confirmed as four.). Presumably if cash isn't changing hands at the turnstiles, that will speed up the process there. I'm not anticipating that anyone is a specialist in the mathematics of Queueing Theory but I assume the club did the necessary operational research before making this decision.