Nellie The Don

If we vote 'No', we will definitely continue to not be in charge of our currency. Alex Salmond has no control over what government a Scottish electorate puts into Hollyrood in the future any more than, as has constantly been shown to be the case, the Scottish electorate has any power to control what government sits in Westminster, running monetary policy.

Truly dismal stuff. Local councils throughout Scotland are treated as chew-toys and vanity projects for politicians who are either trying to or have failed to rise within their parties.

Hello, Mr Wall. How are the bricks today?

Absolutely, and I would agree provision of services should be devolved to local councils as much as possible. Not without huge reform of the way that councils and local elections are run, however. Currently, the way that councils are run and elected in this country is so bad that I wouldn't trust them to run so much as a bus service without fucking it up. I wouldn't suggest for a second that these aren't important issues, but they are, too a much larger degree, issues of local government as opposed to Hollyrood. With regards to the A9, it is absolutely essential to the economy of the Highlands to have a strong modern transportation link with the rest of the country, and the A9 in it's current form that certainly isn't that. Then I don't think you've been listening very well. It's a fairly well laboured point that such cuts are a matter of funding, and that with the Barnett formula dictating what funds are available in Scotland, cuts in funding to public services in England by Westminster directly result in cuts in Scotland. The point I was making in posting the videos wasn't about the geographical spread of the Yes campaign, but the political spread. The fact that these events don't get much 'mainstream media' attention doesn't really surprise me, given the nature of the 'mainstream' media. The leaderships and spokesmen for the Lib Dems and Labour parties may be anti independence, but the views within the party memberships is a very different matter altogether. The problem for these two parties, and the reason that they have faired so badly at the last Hollyrood election in my opinion, is that they (their leaderships, in any case) have changed in nature so drastically that they are barely recognisable any more. The Labour party in Scotland have never successfully replaced the likes of John Smith, Donald Dewar and Robin Cook, and no longer successfully represent their core support in Scotland, largely due to a lack of tolerance for dissenting opinion within the party warding off genuine talent (See Alan Grogan, above). A prime example of this was during the Grangemouth strike. A proper Labour party leader would have been extremely vocal and visible in that, but barely a peep was heard from Lammont and co, for fear that it might embarrass Ed Milliband while the tories were battering him with union issues to their daily mail reading electorate in the south. Similarly, with the Lib Dems, the party has been hijacked by people who would probably be in the Tory party were it not for the fact that they would never get elected if they were. This perhaps speaks a touch about why none of the non-SNP Yes videos I posted were from outwith central Scotland. Traditionally, the two main political forces in the H&Is have been the SNP and the Lib Dems. Unlike the Labour movement in the industrialised central belt, the political assasinations of Charles Kennedy and Menz Campbell were recent enough that a viable genuine liberal alternative has yet to be established. As for the Green party, their leadership (as shown above) are most definitely not opposed to independence. They may be unique, however, in being the only party leadership to acknowledge that there will likely be disagreement on the issue within their membership.

The Yes campaign and the SNP are far from synonymous. There are plenty of spokesmen and women in the Yes campaign from other political parties and from different backgrounds.

I was under the impression that related to a tax bill potentially due to the old club. Is there a suggestion that the new bunch might be liable? Because that would be just fantastic.

Okay, so let's have a look at one of those issues. Almost certainly the one of the three stories that you posted that will actually have the most effect on the Highlands is the dualling of the A9. This project is long, long overdue. The existing road is entirely inadequate as a main route connecting the Highlands to the rest of the country, and has cost more lives than I care to count. Do you imagine for one second that this project would be going ahead if trunk roads were still controlled from Westminster? Would it fuck. Other administrations in Hollyrood have also had plenty opportunity to address the issue, but have failed to. An SNP majority government probably isn't one that I would choose for an independent Scotland, but to try and claim that the Highlands and Islands would be better served by Westminster because the SNP are too Edinburgh-centric is an argument that is frankly laughable, and one that just won't wash.

The first story you posted is about building houses near, not on, an historic battle site. Personally, I credit the population of the Highlands with the ability to distinguish genuine issues affecting the community from nonsensical symbolism. The story about the A9 comes from 'an adviser to a popular think tank'. Attempting to link it to government policy is just bizarre. The remaining story is about Highland Council, not the Scottish government. Highland council is run by a coalition of SNP, Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors. Your use of the phrase 'The Fear', is extremely telling. All you are doing, really, is seeing how many times you can cram the words 'Salmond' and 'Sturgeon' into the debate without actually saying anything.

Uh-huh, mm-hmm, yeah. Go and jump in a hole. None of that has any relevance to the independence debate. It is just a desperate attempt on your part to cram negative stories and the acronym SNP and, by some brain dead osmosis, the entire YES campaign, into the same sentence. Explain yourself.

Anyone at the game care to comment on how bad Pawlett's injury looked?

:rofl: :rofl: History repeating itself. http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/4400806/Tom-first-to-stump-up-money.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26358424

Ganting.

Scott Brown looks like Mr Burns from the Simpsons when he smiles.

In/oot: Oot Prematcher: Work Match: Avoiding the score Postmatcher: Watching on Alba Prediction: 2-2 Rooney and Robson

In what sense 'not allow'? All three unionist party finance spokesmen have thrown away any bargaining chips they had by refusing to negotiate over ownership of the central bank. The bank, currency and debt are inextricably linked.

The bank of England belongs, in part, to Scotland. The fact that it is currently administered from Westminster doesn't make it an English asset. Your characterisation of Scotland as being a 'petulant teenager', provided for, in this case in terms of borrowing power, by the UK allowing us to use their bank is erroneous. Personally, I'm fine with Scotland foregoing a share of it, though. I would prefer to see us use our own currency, however. We'd start debt free and, being a net exporter, would in a very short time have a surplus of foreign currency with which to underpin our own national reserve bank.

This is based on the principle that it's rUk's washing machine/food/bank account in the first place, and that Scotland is being 'looked after' by a benevolent patriarchal figure who, despite the 'tough love' has our best interests at heart. It puts me more in mind of an abused spouse being told "Sure, you can leave, but you'll be on the street because the mortgage is in my name"

Inverness chairman Kenny Cameron added: "We are very happy with the allocation agreed, which provides exactly what our fan base was looking for, and thank both the SPFL and Aberdeen for accommodating our wishes."

Have you tried not being a miserable cunt?

I think this sums up my mood. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZLLPaX4SS4

YAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSS

Around about what he earns in 20 minutes.