Charles Bannerman

Is the procedure described all that different from the one which appears to have worked perfectly well at Ross County for some time, whereby you buy your ticket from the ticket office and then head for the turnstiles?

To be fair, I now see that the club seems to be marketing a car sticker with a club badge on it in the form of a number plate - CAL3Y or something similar, although I assume that they are also doing THI5TLE

I think it was just upgraded since the rail crossing is still at that point but I'm not sure when. I could guess that it may have been no later than when Longman Road became an approach to the new dual carriageway late 70s/early 80s. In the 50s I remember my mum taking me over the original bridge to meet my dad who used to cycle from his work in the Government Building which at that time was about the last building on Longman Road, past the Railway Hostel.

It has actually become quite difficult to remember that this thread began life as "EU In or Out?" - which of course is a question that would again arise a) If the SNP were to find an excuse for a second referendum and b) They were also able sufficiently to aggrieve the population into voting yes. Because the next question indeed would be whether or not a separate Scotland would actually be accepted as a member of the EU - of course on terms far less advantageous than Britain enjoyed before the Brexit vote? So it is indeed a question of In or out? And the reason is that, apart from Scotland being unable to meet various economic criteria for new members, the Spanish and a few others would jump to veto any application for their own internal political reasons. Then there's how each and every current EU member views Scotland on the basis of what it sees of the Scots - how acceptably Scotland is perceived. So what is the rest of the world's best insight into Scots in action? How they behave in their parliament of course - not the Edinburgh branch office but the real one in London - the one that the rest of the world recognises. Yup.... Scotland is mainly showcased to the rest of the world by the uncouth and embarrassing antics of the Westminster 56, 55, 54, whose latest stunt has been to suggest to that world that Scots totally lack the kind of grace, finesse and common decency that allow even a political opponent with whom you don't agree to depart with a little decorum rather than the petty churlishness displayed by the 56, 55, 54 on Cameron's departure. Good Lord! Even Jeremy Corbyn gave the Nats a lesson in common decency! And that's before the more or less daily outbursts of public grievance-mongering which are now obliging the rest of the world to abandon their Harry Lauder caricature view of Scottish people and instead adopt the one displayed by the 56, 55, 54. Where on earth did the SNP get this graceless bunch from? Over the years I have had direct dealings with three of this 56, 55, 54, 53, 52 plus two compulsive priapists. I found one to be a politics obsessed geek, one to be so anonymous that it was more interesting engaging with a black and yellow wall and the third is simply a complete buffoon. However they have probably been selected by SNP Central because they are especially good at displaying the kind of gauche loutishness which has been synonymous with the SNP since 1314. And they are our global embarrassment. If they do get their second referendum, it's worth looking at what the two options would entail, because the lie of the land for any second referendum would be very different from the first. NO would involve continuing incorporation within a historically hugely successful country which will continue to have one of the biggest economies in the world and which, despite the challenges of Brexit, will still offer the huge benefits of scale and established status on a global basis - and be free from the massive constraints of Brussels. And there would be a much better deal than from the EU for the Scottish fishermen the SNP used to say so much about but whom they now conveniently ignore since their needs and views contradict the EU-grievance. YES - well IF... and it's a huge IF... Scotland were to get into the EU it would be on the basis of the current deal that 58% of the Scottish electorate declined to endorse last month PLUS, among other things, using the Euro, adopting the Schengen Agreement and - alongside losing the Barnett Formula - also losing the rebate which it enjoyed when the UK was an EU member. And all of this for the sake of trading freely, in a post-oil/GTA environment, goods which are valued at just a quarter of what is currently traded across the border with the rest of the UK. That, of course, would become a very hard EU/ non EU border with passport controls, customs posts and currency exchange. Visiting your granny in Carlisle would be the least of your problems. And that ... och I know - of course it's just Project Fear II.... is just the grim situation IF Scotland DID get into the EU. If it DIDN'T... well what's plan B? Oops - I forgot. The SNP doesn't to Plan Bs!

Did you go past it as fast as we went past the top of Laurel Avenue on our way home?

Many of these, possibly upgraded in part, were still in Duff St when we lived round the corner in Kenneth St in the mid 1950s. I remember they were complete s**thouses by that stage and if I wouldn't do what I was told my mother used to threaten me with going to live in Duff St. I very quickly complied!

Please! That turn of phrase evokes too many images of obsessed adherents of the green and white! I am also interested in your apparent viewpoint that adherence, even modest, to any football club, or indeed former football club, should entirely rob someone of any sense of objectivity.

With the rare exception of died in the wool ex-Jaggies like Bob MacKinnon, mentioned in my previous post, I can't say that over the years, I've heard too many uses of "Jags" etc. "Caley" on the other hand is irritatingly commonplace and if that annoys people like myself who were relatively neutral/slightly Caley inclined, then I can fully appreciate how Jaggies from birth like Kingsmills feel.

Not guilty.... as indeed is also the case with the local media in general. After following the merger blow by blow for three years, the need to do the right thing here has ever since been very clear. But certainly there are many offenders in the national media - when they see fit to bother at all with North football - and I for one, despite my early Caley roots, get quite annoyed at that. One local exception was the late Bob MacKinnon, former Inverness Thistle player and latterly a football reporter. Bob's reports were frequently laced with references to "Thistle" and "The Jags". On the other hand, there would be little chance of the national media balancing their references to Caley in this way, since to them "Thistle" ONLY seems to refer to those serial litigants from Firhill. I do have to admit to having (deliberately) succumbed once. It was after a midweek derby at the Caledonian Stadium when, in the interests of scansion of course, I felt moved to end my full time report with:- "Super County go ballistic, Caley are atrocious". And, as those who may remember that match should confirm... they were!

Breaking of 114 year hoodoo apart, tell me why there's something just terribly unsurprising about the title of this thread?

The Foxes, Dyces, Stevens, Ledinghams and Cuthberts plus Charlie MacRae the Town Officer all come to mind! (Although all largely down at the low or lowish numbers.)

Although they probably will win with a big score in the return leg I think the damage is already done in terms of their reputation. Despite the massive resources they have, they have been beaten in 90 mins by a team which has many of the features of a member of rhe Highland League. Best comment I saw on Tuesday night was online pre-match when a Sellick fan declared that he wasn't going to be following the game since it was ridiculous that a club of Celtic's size should have to play at this stage. I also burned the midnight oil wetting myself at the ? Talk Celtic ? forum. On the other hand I was quite surprised at how many of the several of them that tried could spell "embarrassing" correctly!

Yeh, DD has got it in one. With very few exceptions, I don't like politicians and despise the ridiculous and politically bankrupt SNP even more than they do the Tories. And I say so in terms which seem to make a fairly decent job of winding up Nats.... if their responses on here are anything to go by, limited as they are, with that persuasion's typical lack of any credible reasoning, to blank assertions and classic Cybernat rudeness. However one thing that does detract a bit from the sport of exposing the abject weaknesses of Scottish Nationalism is that it's a wee bit like shooting fish in a barrel. The fish never have any response (although that analogy does break down if you accept that fish can't even indulge in rudeness, abuse and $113 unsubstantiated assertions.) And "righ'eenuff" as we say in Inverness - I forgot about UKIP. Och well, they're eminently forgettable so we'll maybe leave it that way.

Your reliance on vacuous invective and the absence of anything of substance would appear to suggest that you are a nationalist supporter?

And of course desperately searching for another source of anti-Tory grievance now that the Bullingdon Posh Boys have gone will presumably push the rescuing of our dysfunctional schools, hospitals and police even further down the Nat agenda.

"Angus Robertson has rather foolishly".... what's the opposite of "oxymoron"? But if Angus and his Caledonian Chums think they can split off the bit of the UK which, in a UK referendum voted Remain, why didn't they suggest the same in 2014 about the bits of Scotland that voted Yes and we would by now be shot of Glasgow and Dundee which would have had their Independence Days back in March? The other consideration is those now eternal SNP whinges (what IS that opposite of "oxymoron"?) about part of the UK being taken out of the EU against its will. They have also been on record as insisting that ALL parts of the UK should have to vote Leave before we left. So similarly, all parts of Scotland would presumably have to vote yes before any Scexit from the UK? But to turn to politics as a whole - it really is a vicious, a filthy self-seeking business. Look what's happened of late. Tories - that former P and J striker Gove shafts his pal Dave by backing Leave and then stabs his ally Boris by declaring his leadership candidacy. Gove in turn gets stabbed by Leadsom who (subsequent to becoming a mother of three) next gets shafted by The Times. But at least this leaves, fortunately, the outstanding candidate, the "difficult woman" May, a clear run. However Boris then inexplicably gets made Foreign Secretary, despite making von Ribbentrop look like a decent bloke, hence just about receiving carte blanche to start World War 3 all on his own. Labour - Corbyn's stance on Europe was so fundamentally dishonest that it moved over 80% of Labour MPs to express no confidence in him but he still refuses to go. He then gets challenged for the leadership by Eddie Izzard Angela Eagle, kicking off an orgy of threats and thuggery by the Labour Party in England's Redneck wing who, if they were Scottish or American, would instead be supporting the SNP or Donald Trump. The threats continue through a lengthy NEC meeting which eventually decides that Corbyn doesn't have to get the support he doesn't have from MPs to stand again. The party, where you can buy a leadership vote for £3, looks on the brink of splitting. And the question continues - what is Labour actually FOR these days. What's the point of this party? SNP - having already had their internal "Night of the Long Y-Fronts", they declare themselves for Remain.... but not TOO much for Remain, just in case too many Scottish Remain votes instead tip the overall result the "wrong" way, hence depriving them of the overall Leave which is their best opportunity for a perceived grievance since the Massacre of Glencoe. They get the result they want... UK-Leave/Scotland-Remain... and proceed to throw the predictable Hissy. The intensity of the said Hissy is, of course, WAY out of proportion with much of the 62% Remainers either not being all that fussed one way or another or actually being some of the LARGE proportion of SNP Leavers instead voting tactically. Meanwhile almost half of all secession supporting Weegies abstain ("didnae vote Jimmy") which is of course another form of tactical voting. This, which makes you wonder if Scotland really has more people strongly for Leave than strongly for Remain, is clearly way out of step with Wee Nicola's Hissy which, with delusions of Stateswomanship, takes her to Brussels where the Big Man says "Va 't en ma poule" ("**** off hen") and refuses to see her. Notwithstanding, they furiously persist with demanding a preferential Remain for Scotland. They are, of course, fully aware that Alex Salmond would attend the Last Night of the Proms before this happens, but in any case, they're really not all that fussed anyway. The main purpose of this is to get a NON which they can then use to stoke existing anti-British grievances. The pantomime continues. Greens - well at least it gets a bit simpler here. The Lentil Munchers will simply do what the Nats tell them - including, in the event of a push for a second referendum that people don't actually want, dutifully voting for one in Holyrood since the Nats don't have a majority. LibDems - do they till exist?

Laurence... possibly one of many differences is here is that in Zimbabwe, apart from the fact that ANYTHING Mugabe did is worthy of condemnation, those who were dispossessed didn't to the same extent have what they had simply because their ancestors cheated, stabbed and fornicated their way into positions of power and wealth.

Yeh.... we still have the inaugural visit to Inverness of the new club to "look forward" to

Dead ringer for Souness indeed Snorbens! But Bught Lodge? Given the prevalence of bowler hats and even a token umbrella, do you not mean Bught Lodge Loyal? And was the date of the visit not Rangers' inaugural season of 1690?

It's where you grew up that you're meant to tell us - not your nickname as a kid! I lived briefly in Kenneth Street before St Andrew Drive, Dalneigh from 1958-72.

A pretty predictable distribution for Inverness I suppose - despite the collective horror of the thought of 335 MacKenzies.

Agreed absolutely. At the moment, all that's needed to break up a hugely successful arrangement which has worked well for over three centuries is for the SNP to call a referendum and get a majority of ONE on ONE occasion, irrespective of how few people vote. Add to that the fact that if they don't get the answer they want, they're prepared to keep holding the things until they do, then there has to be something far wrong with the system. I remember the days when SNP folks used to go on self-righteously about "the settled will of the Scottish people" which really seems to mean "once we've fluked it once, we'll just cut and run". Or as the IRA said: "We only have to be lucky once - you have to be lucky all the time." The day the Euro result was declared and she effectively announced a second Scottish secession vote on the grounds of a claimed material change of circumstances, I emailed Ms Sturgeon asking her what arrangements she had also made for a third vote, given that - following the unlikely eventuality of a yes second time round - the likelihood of further "material changes" was actually quite high. For instance they include - the Scottish economy going belly-up and developing an even bigger black hole, the oil industry/GTA disappearing even further into the past, people going "oh sh!t" at having to show their passports and change their currency in order to visit their grannies in Carlisle then having to pay duty on bringing fags back home and us becoming members of the EU on terms far, far more stringent and sovereignty-sapping than at present. Strangely enough, two weeks on, I haven't had a reply. On the other hand she's been terribly busy embarrassing us all by pretending to be an international stateswoman in Brussels when she should be back here sorting the functions which they've so far had devolved to them but have utterly failed to deliver with any credibility at all. PS - editing time seems to have expired on my earlier post so I am unable to sort a couple of gremlins - a typo stating "Scot Scottish" early on and the name "Elizabeth" which of course should be "Margaret" with respect to the marriage of the Thistle and the Rose.

"Fumin', Fintry" (or is it "Loupin', Lochee?) .... you seem to have forgotten that the Duke of Cumberland was a direct descendant of that well known Scot Scottish James I (OK - just to preserve the sensitivities of "Serially Offended, Strichen", I'll call him "and VI" as well). However the Hanoverians were all effectively as German as a mouldy bit of Bratwurst to the extent that the Duke's grandad (Geo I) could barely speak English. I can appreciate that it perhaps suits your point of view that you would want to call the Duke's dad "nominally English" but that simply doesn't hold water. He was as German as the Brandenburg Gate with a little bit of Scottish blood. Then we have the Prince who, apart from his own small sprinkling of Scottish red corpuscles, was principally Polish-Italian. And that's what the Jacobite rebellions boil down to - rival cabals of foreigners fighting religious and dynastic wars among themselves over who should rule the British Isles. And who get principally shafted? The poor bloody Highlanders, bound by antiquated feudal obligations to fight - just as "the people of Scotland" did at Bannockburn - to decide which bunch of despots would lord it over them. In fact if you are looking for English blood to blame, you have to go a further three generations back from James I....(and VI!!!)... to the marriage of the Thistle and the Rose of 1503 between James IV (and IV) and Elizabeth Tudor, although even this is fairly heavily laced with Welsh. So reality is that the Hanoverians, although largely German, had considerably more Scottish ancestry than English. Meanwhile "Angst-ridden, Aberdeenshire" should realise that all of this does actually have a lot of relevance to the 21st century since one of the foundation stones of the Nationalist Grievance Culture, on which the current popularity of the SNP is largely based, is the simplistic myth that "we got done in by the English at Culloden". An understanding of history is therefore needed to debunk this nonsense which has among its descendants Wee Nicola embarrassing us all in Brussels with delusions of being a Foreign Policymaker, based on the equally disingenuous implication that 5 million Scots are unanimously Pure Dead Bilin' at being wrenched out of Europe by the English. The reality is that, even of the 62% that voted Remain (*), a fairly large number won't actually be all that *rsed either way and - as strongly suggested by the low turnouts in the People's Caledonian Republics of Dundee and especially Glasgow (56% I think) - it rather looks as if much of a large slice of Nationalist Brexiteers didn't actually vote in an attempt to get the best of both worlds. The proportion of the population which is genuinely Pure Dead Bilin' at Brexit is hence probably quite small - as the pitifully weak, kneejerk and very temporary swing towards separation suggested in post referendum polling. But let's not allow reality to get any more in the way of this grievance than of its many predecessors. (*) Note - that 62% for Remain was on the basis of the UK's CURRENT arrangement with the EU. Any separate Scotland would have to negotiate its own deal - hence no Rebate, no Opt Outs, use the Euro, subscribe to the Full Monty including tendering arrangements which could put chunks of the SNP#'s sacred NHS into private hands etc etc. Arguably that would leave Holyrood with FEWER powers devolved from Brussels than it currently has from Westminster. So, adding that into the marginal Remainers and the abstaining Leavers, how genuinely pro Europe can Scotland really be said to be? And any second Scottish referendum would have to be fought on the basis of the above European model, not the current one - although if that was ignored, then in the unlikely event of a yes, the "material change" of a completely different European deal would, like the second, be grounds for a third referendum. Gander, goose, sauce.....

Yes, I wonder what will happen to that particular "muriel" of the Midmills building in the current transition from the old Culduthel building to the new Culduthel one? It currently sits outside the Rector's office in the outgoing premises and I am sure a location for it has been found in the new school. Presumably it will need to be taken away panel by panel and reassembled. Other artworks also needing to be moved are the Millennium Mural on the exterior wall and the school crest above the front door. There is also a large War Memorial to be transported in addition to Dux boards going back to the early 1800s.

Scarlet... if you come back to Inverness in the foreseeable future, don't even go up the Crown! If you feel saddened in the above terms about the interior, what it looks like outside would make you a whole lot worse!