Laurence

Kingsmill can rant all he likes when he comes up with original thinking it will be the first time. He just feeds off other peoples posts.

Now here is the projections of the prophet Laurence

Result of the election is as follows

Of The 600 seats contested ( actually 595 because the Irish republicans  and the Speaker do not vote)  S F Not prepared to take the loyal oath

Conservatives will win 276

UKip will win 6

Lib Dems will win 14

Labour will win 244

SNP will win 38

Ulster Unionists ( DUP) 8

SDLP   4

Plaid C 4

Green   1

Minority Conservative Government                        Opposition

Tory                  276                                                Labour   244                                             304

Lib Dems            14                                                SNP         38                                          + 291

DUP                     8                                                 SDLP         4                                             595 seats

U Kip                    6                                                 Plaid C       4 

Total                 304                                                 Green         1

                                                                                Total       291

Making David Cameron Prime Minister for a second term  Tough one to call

I have never read the Daily express in my life.

In nearly 72 years . That is a feat on its own

I do read the times if catching a train. I have been known to read the Daily Record ( sports pages only)

I like the Guardian but find it hard work compared with the Times.

I get most of my information from the 27,000 books I own

I am no Tory having voted Labour in every election since I voted for Harold Wilson in 1964.

I was at one time vice chairman of the Rossendale and Darwen constituency Labour party.

I was a member of the Labour executive of the Lancashire County Council.

I was an election agent in many scores of council elections. I represented my CLP on the famous or infamous meeting of the North West of England Labour Conference when we suspended Derek Hatton from the party.

I have worked tirelessly for my Union both FBU and the Rail union Tessa. I worked tirelessly for the no vote in the recent referendum.

I have delivered hundreds of leaflets for the Labour candidate in this election.

I wear my heart on my sleeve so when a bigoted SNP teenager tells me to go and live in North Korea, you should realise I get a bit upset.

A GB Olympic team including players from the home nations does not need sanction by the individual bodies. If England go ahead maybe not this time but in future, it is up to players themselves if they wish to compete.

Being  hidebound is not an answer to everything progressive.

The SNP sure know how to look after their leaders

http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/564657/SNP-leader-Nicola-Sturgeon-become-highest-paid-British-politician-145k-salary

and put people out of work

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/563654/SNP-plans-cut-ties-UK-could-cost-140k-Scots-jobs?_ga=1.198124588.260627305.1427809955

I know I will be blasted for this especially given that the some of the subscriber's v on this forum are somewhat insular and narrow minded

Any way I shall still say my piece in the interest of democracy

 In the Uk around 27million people  vote in the General  Election , I imagine around 3 million will be from Scotland. 

Nicola Sturgeon seems to be saying her party will be a single issue party at voting time with only the interests of Scotland in the minds of her MPs

To my mind there is something immoral in this thinking. MPs have a responsibility to vote on the general good of the nation as a whole.

How would Scots feel if the London MPs decided only to protect the interests of London , or black MPs voted in the interest of their own people, or women using their influence in areas specific to them, the list is endless.

I well remember during the death throes of the Major government the Tories only managed to force through the unpopular measure of rail privatisation because the Unionists of Northern Ireland changed sides and voted with the government, after horse trading and getting special privileges on the provision of gas to their area.

If the SNP are to have any credibility at Westminster they should have the dignity to do the job properly and not in the hidebound sence of Scotland only. 

I seem to get an impression that some of you feel that Scotland will not get any players in the GB team

I have been having a look at some of the candidates for the GB team coming from Scotland or are qualified for Scotland

Calum McGregor Celtic  attacking Midfielder - time with Notts County

Jordon Archer  Tottenham  been on loan at Millwall  Goalkeeper

Murray Wallace Huddersfield  Goalkeeper

Stevie May Sheffield Wednesday Striker

Ryan Christie ICT 

Harry McGuire  Hull City

Andrew Robertson  Hull City  ( The best young Scottish player ) DL

Graham Shinnie  ICT Aberdeen , may be too old by the Olympics

There will be several more I am sure , but any of the above would not let the team down I am certain

Some posters on this web platform need to grow up

Xenophobia is rife in the Highlands that's for sure

I thought County were already down. Last seen playing in the Conference North

Mind you  there is more than one County, . Another is reported to be the oldest club in professional  football.

Whats the motivation behind this though? We already have a world cup and Euro champs so a major tournament every 2 years with qualification phases, there are also equivilants for the U21's. So what does fielding a team of U23's with a few older players actually get for the home nations?

 

If you are any other nation, France, Germany, Spain its a few extra years for young players to stay together and transition into the senior squads but for a 'Team GB' its fragmented individuals where 2 or 3 per nation (at best) will play together longer - there is no real incentive I can see for why this is needed or of benefit?

 

While I accept that some players choose not to play as part of Team GB 2012 from Scotland, the stats are there out of the 22 man squad only 5 were Welsh, the rest English. Based on fair representation the squad should have 5 per nation, so why when Scotland and NI chose not to partake did England get the extra 10 slots, surely it should have been equal split. This is where I see a problem in future years - regardless of what makes the best team, if its a team GB then it needs to be equally representative but alas we know its not, this is just an English FA vanity project to try maintain interest in their National team in the face of dwindling quality and the foreign EPL invasion.

I am not sure if you are asking about my motivation for raising this issue or are you challenging the English F A for wanting a team in the Olypics

However to address my own motivation

I thought I was quite clear, it was quite simply a desire to watch some football in Brazil that had some degree of home interest.

I really personally don't care about the internal politics of  the home nations.  I have long realised that England included that our nations just can't compete , as was seen in the last world cup in Brazil,

If the  smaller home nations want to plod on never getting to the final stages of these competitions well that's their affair, but is it good for the fans?

Surely the fans are not happy.

But to get back to the Olympics and motivation. I have personally no axe to grind except I think it would be a bit of fun to watch the men's football in the Summer of 2016, and before that taking an interest in the qualifying games

The women are preparing I am told are going to put a team in Brazil. I wish them luck

Again I don't like FIFA it is corrupt, money and back handers talk.

British football and top Euro football existed long before FIFA.

I suggest the top nations should ask themselves why are we in such a disgusting organisation.?

  For once

I was thinking of a bigger home crowd when I talked of finances.

Also local rivalry can make for local interest in the game and increase support for other games.

Not sure that the sponsorship pot is affected.

There are a lot of firms in and around Inverness who are potential sponsors I feel

Dingwall by other areas ( central belt teams )  standards is quite a long way from Inverness , I think the sponsorship argument is a red herring.

Curling - A winning Scot

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eve-Muirhead/328875222305

Going bust once can be seen as a mistake and bad management

Doing it again is  "criminal"  I don't really have a word for it

Their fans may not be every bodies cup of tea , but they love their club, and this carry on is not fair on people who just want a team  to support

After the first crash the whole job lot should have been closed down.  A new club should have ben formed from the ashes and run properly.

Too much emphasis was put on maintaining a former life.

Where do they go from now ? Who knows but a financial solution is not likely.

In the summer it is good for fans to see competitive football

So I think a Great Britain team in the Olympics is a fantastic idea

Scotland N Ireland and Wales are not happy with England planning to enter a GB side

Now they see this as a threat to their individual identity as independent footballing nations

I think this is utter claptrap

Many of the teams  from fencing to Swimming, to Boxing etc all have their own individual controlling bodies, and  they are proud to see competitors from their own areas competing .

We have had combined rugby teams for years now  known as the "British Lions", and I see no people in that sport complaining.

The thing is the English Premier league is dominated by foreign players, So this sort of competition allows British players a chance , especially the younger ones to compete in a world competition.

There are age restrictions , I understand it is basically an Under 23 tournament, with a couple of older players allowed as make weights.

I am sure that a sensible coach will pick a balanced squad from the four countries of younger players who we can all get behind

The team will have to qualify first.

That may not be easy , as the other nations in Europe like Germany , Italy,  France, and Spain amongst others all have powerful squads.

I think it will be good fun taking part and the 4 nations will enjoy working together for once.

I think back to my younger days when the tournament was amateur , I seem to remember and I might be wrong, but the Queens Park club used to provide a lot of the players. No talk then of losing identity.

Also I must point out that 3 of the 4 nations theses days continually fail to qualify for the two big tournaments, because of the lack of good players.  Wales may be the exception.

Joining a great Britain team will give experience to younger players and give fans across the British Isles something to  cheer for

Lets go for it.

No Way

Local Rivalry is fantastic

Good for the club's income as well

Good when playing away for travelling fans

Good for bragging rights

Katie Perry and Madonna to pair up - that could be a sexual feeling across the generations.

 

Cannot believe that it is being played in Postman Pats village.

 

Wilson and the Seahawks fer me.

 

Marshawn Lynch MOM

 

Do you get Sky in Grantown ya olde git ?

 Hi

Glad you are looking forward to the Super Bowl Marshawn  Lynch refused to speak to the media and has been fined over $10,000 a couple of times. Now he does interviews and says " No Comment" or such like. At the Super Bowl he broke his silence by saying why he does not do interviews. "Basically I go back to my family that's all I care about".

If you do fantasy American football Marshawn is a must for your team.

I think the Sky is a bit nearer than in Chorley , about a 1000 feet or so. However I am in Boat about 10 miles down the road and a bit lower down

I like the ya olde git .  The lanky version  yer howd bugger but still a good effort .  Lancastrians often pot the "h" in places they don't belong and miss them where they do. For example in a football score they would announce  Hoswestry  5  Orwich 0

I am a bit of a Seattle fan  myself having had a few sleepless nights there.  Seattle is where the water closet was invented by a man called crapper I'm told . It is also the origin of the term  "skid row ", as all the poor people lived at the bottom of the hill and the rich people at the top, through their slops in the street which run with the rain and the mud downwards, Causing the underprivileged to skid around.on the sloppy road.

Laurence,

I thought I was reasonably well educated until I came in contact with you. Xenophobia was a word I had never really mastered and needed  to look up in the Oxford English dictionary and it means  "someone who actively dislikes foreigners".  Eh what? 

 

DD sums it up perfectly  but how you come to that conclusion is a real mystery? I think you are alluding to the possibility that your English connections are anathema to me as if the Englanders are any different to the Germans, the Irish, the Swedes, Norwegians,

Australians, Italians, Israelies, Syrians, Iranians Spaniards and French whom I have met and have engaged in many an interesting conversation in my travels.

 

And ...oh...the worst of all, the Canajins whom I loathe because they feed me and give me money, allow me to buy cars that, possibly, are better for me than the British ones I used to drive, gave me the opportunity to hike large mountains and ski like a maniac in deep powder, learn to paddle a canoe, run rapids in a raft, fly a Cessna plane from Vancouver to Vancouver Island scared stiff most of the time cos the pilot liked me..... and.... and. They pose a huge threat to my  sense of independence !

A close second would be the Americans since I had 7 cousins in Missouri where they allowed me to visit completely free of charge which seriously offended my Scottish blood. San Diego where I  fell out with my Chinese girlfriend, who took offence when I looked up at the waitress's face when she asked me for  my order at table, and claimed I was winking at her, when in fact it was all the fault of the stye in my eye. which made me blink a lot. Oh and just in case all is not clear, my Dad was born in.....wait....for....it..... Yorkshire.  Doofer's Dad  is English too and understands my challenges,  so why can't you? 

try Google more definitions  I am sure you are well educated. 

I was only answering your unwarranted  personal attack on me. You might say I asked for it, but  speaking as someone who cant view his own post, owing to a banning restriction.  I was making a point to the mods I am not the only one who appears to cross the line.

Sorry you got involved in a vendetta I have ( or more to the point ) with some of the controllers of this web platform, who have a grudge against me for violently opposing secession from the Union.

I was neither informed by email , or told in any other way that I cannot  view my own message, never mind answer it.

No wonder I think that some people are  Xenophobic in the extreme, that use this web site. There has been a constant undermining of my posts by certain users of this message board by outspoken Nats, they know who they are?. I am willing to call a truce, but I don't think they are. 

I refer to a simple request I made about a scoreboard, to which I was subjected to a tirade about my family , my wife, I was scorned beyond belief.

I was also told by a teenager to go and live in North career by a teenager, For a man in his seventies that's a bit rude.

Later I made a point about the BBC , I was threatened by the author of this web site, no other person to my knowledge , has been subjected nor singled out like me.

I came to this part of the world all bright eyed and bushy tailed, I wanted to fit in. 

We are all supposed to be brothers supporting the same football team. I use my own name. I so not hide behind non de plume. I wear my heart on my sleeve, quite frankly I don't care , about abuse, but I don't think I should be banned from a post for having a go at the Nats.

Katy Perry to sing at half time

Katy Perry is more popular according to social media

than  the  teams

Quarter Backs Russell  Wilson  or Tom Brady

The Seahawks or the Patriots

Roll on Sunday for what is billed the greatest show on earth

It's always at the 'bottom' as the last-resort in the criteria for separating teams who are level on points in football qualifying groups - after goal difference, goals scored and head-to-head record - but to my knowledge has never actually been required. Certainly not in a major tournament.

The current African Cup of Nations has delivered just such a scenario after a bizarre set of results in one of the groups.

All but one of the games ended 1-1.

Guinea and Mali are having to wait until this afternoon to discover their fate!

1-1.jpg

Just give the cup to he Ivory Coast

Somewhere in the back of my mind , there was a European cup final decided by a coin toss 

I think it may have involved Liverpool

It was before the days of penalty shoot outs

Laurence--for goodness sake, where on earth did I suggest in any way, shape or form, that these words were addressed to  Oddquine or in any way were in reference to her as you have suggested? After many posts the fact that you have chosen deliberately to "overlook"  the many, many "likes" that I have given this good lady over many months should be proof enough that I would never have reason or thought in my mind to ever attribute these things to her. A more civil, tolerant and fair lady I have rarely met.

 

It was merely (as you actually very well know) a tongue in cheek, rather sad commentary  on what my experience has taught me of what is happening in this world and a suggestion that we ALL might be privileged by perhaps not coming back here next time around. 

And I am of the firm impression that the only reason for your saying it was to cause trouble on the basis of divide and conquer. However, no doubt you will reply by saying  that you only meant it as a joke..?. If so, a misguided and cheap one IMHO!

 

You are something of a rather different person with a really thick skin with oddly negative views to match and you get by on here because of the tolerance of the members who believe in free speech and the good control of the site by two outstanding members and associates. You rarely answer a straight question head on and, from personal & private, experience, I am not quite sure that your personal manners measure up either. To summarise--I don't care for you greatly as a person so let's leave it at that. 

One word to sum you up Scarlet

Xenophobia

Still on form Kingsmill so predictable

Never did answer the problem just looked for a quick laugh

I got this thread going for a reason

I am interested in what people think

Viability is profit one would think

Without profit no viability

That is what the governments of both colours I presume are looing at?

How to improve viability the obvious one is to reduce taxation

Which means a bigger burden for the tax payer to balance the books.

If I am wrong people with more knowledge of the oil industry will tell me.

But if the cost of producing the oil falls behind the price of imported oil

The spectre of a ghost town and moth balled oil fields cannot be far away.

One solution is to fix the price for oil at a price that is viable, and ban the import of oil.

I for one cannot see any government doing that

I get the distinct impression that OPEC are out to break the competition ,

by  undercutting the market.

I know nothing about oil fields under the sea.

But is pouring money into an industry that is losing its viability an option?

Presumably they are hoping to mothball some of the less productive fields 

But how can the industry compete with fields that are at ground level

I am not optimistic

We don't want posturing from either of the two governments, but as a tax payer one has to be concerned

 

 

 

Sounds as daft as those Highlanders who marched  in 1745

 

They had no choice. They were compelled to do so by their clan chiefs who in turn considered themselves obliged to Charles Edwart Stuart. It was all part of a feudal system which, regrettably, still lives on in part since a number of these Hooray Henrys still own much of the land up here and even have titles.

I don't know how well it's appreciated that all these Jacobite rebellions and the so called Glorious Revolution which they followed were simply civil wars about which brand of royalty was going to rule over the people - Protestant or Catholic.

Unfortunately the option of not having any royalty at all didn't enter into it.

 

Not trying to offend anyone Charles.  I well remember my mother lamenting that they got cold feet and returned to be defeated.

My Dad on the other hand was of the opinion that even if they had carried on to London.  8 thousand men in a strange land entering a City of something like 100,000 population would not have got very far.

Especially when the armies of the government turned up

They did try to manage without any royalty  when they took on Cromwell. But there was a rejection because they were ramming puritanism down every bodies throats. I also note that since William of Orange  the power of the monarch has been non existent even George had no power who is often quoted as being the king who was responsible for the problem.

I am not a historian, I believe it is part of your scope of excellence according to one of my friends who knows you well. So I don't want to cross swords with you on this. My Dad a catholic always maintained he was descended from the esteemed Lancashire , Jacobites  and claimed his forebears manned the  field guns at Culloden because the Highlanders lacked the skills . 

I was replying to a post that inferred that Highlanders had some sort of special qualities the rest of us lack .

I know it is called a civil war but in actual fact because the conflict was not equal and not universal, with little support south of Lancashire. Could not really be called a civil war.