moonraker

The Debt burden should in part be linked to those banks that caused the greatest damage i.e. RBS and HBOS - now in which country are they? Before the crash Salmond was championing these failures as virtues of Scottish success and enterprise, haven't heard much mention of them as part of his great economic plan lately. He is a nothing if not a great opportunist who has capitalised on the Scots understandable dissatisfaction with both the Tory and Labour Governments.

There are to many graet bands to single one out but having seen Madness 6 times they are a real favourite but my favorite all time live gig was the Who in 1972, it was memorable for Keith Moon (RIP) alone.

Something that has not been discusssed. If Scotland becomes and indpendent nation then it will not be a Member of the EU (Dune you might think about moving along with rest of UKIP), curerent membership is for the UK or Westminster led Governament/Nation. So is their a scenario where good old Pie Face becomes the first supreme leader, applies for membership to the EU and gets told to go away until he can demonstrate that he is in charge of a stable, finnacially responsible and healthy nation, meanwhile the hadrians wall is rebuilt, passport contol and immigration checks imposed and scotish born benefits dependents and criminals returend to their homeland. Even when they have demonstrated they are of suitable status to join the EU a Westminster PM (Tory) uses his veto. There is also the irony that they object to be governed by Whitehall but are totally happy with being (partially) governed by Brussels.

Ireland might provide a useful comparator for the size of Armed Forces the Scots might need and could afford. Full time personnel (three services) circa 12,000 Navy equipment 8 Patrol Vessels Air Capability is a mixture of rotary and fixed wing totalling about 30 airframes, no combat aircraft, they also provide rotary wing support to the Police. Army Equipments only one modern AFV the Mowag Piranha Armoured personnel carriers, they also have some scorpions. The current Armed Forces of the United Kingdom are disproportionally represented by Scots circa 15% in some specialisations it much higher, this equates to 30,000 personnel so that’s another 18000 Scots out of work when they are replaced in the “Westminster” armed forces by Welsh, English and Northern Irish citizens. This may be a very minor point in the great scheme of things but it does illustrate that opting for independence is not a simple solution that will suddenly free Scotland to achieve ever greater things. Additionally currently Salmond is supported by a broad church seeking independence. He may of seen off the Westminster Tories but if independence is achieved the SNP as it is currently constituted will implode and at least 2 new parties will be formed one holding to current left wing manifesto and a second more centralist if not right of centre party. There may not be many Tory MP’s in Scotland but there is a great deal of conservatism.

Top Gear is exactly what it is designed to be great entertainment. The best for me was the Andes challenge. However I think it is getting a little tired and Clarkson is the weak link now where once he was the star. My son used to work in corporate events providing very high tech simulators, eg £150k F1 game, he says Clarkson was the most obnoxious arrogant celeb he ever met, completely ignored all of the "peasants" as if they didn't exist.

Hardly overwhelming with 40% conservative plus say 4% from others makes 44% or 56% are not right wing.

You really do take the biscuit, Saintandy has debated with more maturity and knowledge than I have ever seen from you. This thread was going well with reasoned and informed debate then you come along. An to cap it all that ever so infofrmaed globe trotter DD pipes up with more I am better than you beacuse I have travelled the world in a black pig c**p. In most ports in Scotland if you go on a run ashore its not being English they dislike they have the same attitude to matelots as our non Jock fishy freinds down the road.

You really are a pize p***k, saintandy has debated with more maturity and knowledge than anything I have ever seen from you. Until this effort your absence from this deabte had kept it in on topic and well argued by both Alpine and Saintandy.

Simply NO

You ride to hounds, not ride out, sorry a bit pedantic but correct.

A Nazis with distinguished War record of fighting the Nazis, must be a rare breed indeed. This thread should be locked the, OP is one the most unpleasant I have ever read. Phillip has served this country with great distintinction, and I wish him quick recovery.

Bit difficult when you live 80 miles away. The issue I have with the fee is those who already have a higher cost per game with travel costs have no choice but to pay it, it penalises fans from our oft quoted wide spread catchment area who are not locals, and if you want to fill St Marys you need us.

There are many ways to use the statistics. The 5 year perspective considers the most recent performnces and could be argued to be the most relevent target, whilst it is a small sample it is statiscally sound within the context of the modern championship. If you use a 10 year perspective then the target is signifcanly different. The target also changes whether you use Average or Median values. For info only here are the Average and Median stats for the 10 year period, years 1 - 5 and years 6 - 10, rounded up as the FL only award whole points! MEDIAN POINTS REQUIRED FOR PROMOTION AVERAGE POINTS REQUIRED FOR PROMOTION 10 Year Champs 94 94 Runners Up 87 87 Years 1 - 5 Champs 98 98 Runners Up 89 89 Years 6 - 10 Champs 88 90 Runners Up 83 85 In reality it is simple you have to gain more points than 22 other clubs to win automatic promotion!!!

Yes

Great that’s me allowed to contribute to Dunes private little rant. As a private sector higher rate tax payer I fully support the Public Sector workers strike today and what’s more have been very pleased with service I get from my school, hospitals etc. Unlike the so called entrepreneurial builder (he actually had one of those awful Capitalism Works Stickers in his van) I once employed who failed to complete the contracted work then did a runner leaving me with a bill twice the size of his original quote.

More irony missed by Dune, this Tory led coalition is hell bent on reducing the borrowing requirement and reducing spending hence the levle of interest becomes purley academic

The vast majority of crusaders were Johnny Foreigners. Apart form the immigrant French who ruled us the sensible English stayed out of it.

Yep 16 and to the RN.

I am very proud to be British, the EDA are not patriots they are self serving ignorant racist imbeciles.

Thank you for taking the time to explain my point so well. Your comments on the European experiment are very valid; it is not the strategy that is wrong but the delivery. A delivery that has been corrupted by vested national, corporate and selfish individual interests.

So you are not really for a free market then, and there is the rub, free marketeers do not really want a free market but one that is controlled to suit long standing vested interests.

So no exports then ! In a totally free market there is no them and us just me me me

By that token if a company wants to employ an immigrant, an immigrant and another immigrant they should be allowed to, a free labour market would do away with illegal immigration over night. In your wonderful unfettered free market capitalist society the logic is that that the labour market must be free and there would no barriers to immigration.

This is the best advice to date (apologies to all others who rightly said finish the degree). Traditionallymost degrees are not vocational they are about intellect, the ability to understand complex concepts and to demonstrate independent thinking. You only have this chance and if you give it up now you will regret it in the future. My Goddaughter read Anthropology, graduating 6 years ago, she has never worked as an anthropologist but equally she has never been out of work. I am an engineer working in engineering however my 2 closest colleagues read Medieval Languages and History & Politics they are highly valued in the business because they take a different perspective that makes us engineers think about things differently.

This is why I support RBL in preference to H4H. Because of the media the public think that it is only the army who are deployed in Afghanistan, for the past year the RN has provided 40% of the personnel this on top of other operational commitments,including Libya and anti piracy. The RN is approximately 15% of the total armed forces numbers but provides on average over 35% of deployed personnel. Both RBL and H4H are worthy causes and deserve the publics support for the work they do.