Alibi

Enjoy every moment. They grow up too fast.

I saw one of those Salmond "pickpocket" posters in Carlisle at the weekend. You'll know the one if you pass it. It has an SNP sticker on it.

My first reaction to the named person thing was "WTF?", but my wife, who is a teacher who is involved in pupil support, explained to me what it was about. It is being presented by the MSM as "SNP bad" but in fact it's nothing like that. My wife will be the named person for a lot of her pupils. Where kids are not at risk, there will be little or no involvement, but where kids are at risk, the named person will be able to take any necessary action to protect the child. This is not, despite what the Daily Mail will no doubt say, the Hitler* Youth (* insert your pet dictator's name here). it is just a formalisation of a system that already exists.

Hay's tweets are links to parody websites. Not quite the same as calling someone fascist scum or racist. Hay's tweets pale into insignificance when compared to Ian Smart's tweets; Ian Smart is followed by everyone who is anyone within Labour, including Dugdale. No idea if your darling Katy Clark follows him BTW.

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I can't be bothered reading this whole thread but Wings has dissected this issue and it's clear that Labour are complaining about someone posting a link to a parody website a couple of years ago. Hay hasn't called anyone a quisling (and so what? It's pretty mild) but merely linked to a spoof article that refers to some unionists in those terms. totally faux outrage from Labour. They must be desperate. Ian Smart on the other hand is followed by hundred of prominent Labourists, including Dugdale who claimed she didn't know who he is - unbelievable dishonesty.

Ordnance Survey maps show bench marks with levels in metres relative to Ordnance Datum. contours etc are all relative to ordnance datum. To work out the height above ground that it reaches, you need to know the ground level at the chimney and subtract that from the AOD level for the top of the stack.

I could foresee a situation where Milliband is replaced by someone else as Labour leader, because he simply is not PM material and will wilt under pressure. Remember that Labour is all about backstabbing and manoeuvring for power - you can bet that there will be Labourites ready to topple Milliband if he flops. I can also see a possibility of a Tory-Labour national government, anathema as that may seem to many - would be great for the independence movement though.

Is the power steering on Minis a hydraulic system? If so, check the drive belt is tight enough. The current Mini appears to be bigger than my X reg Audi A4 Avant. Massive car and definitely not Mini in any real sense.

Don't think many people are going to vote for them - and this sort of desperation isn't going to help them. Transparently a total fabrication. Does the SNP even have a "youth wing"? That MP should be getting his 4rse handed to him on a plate by the press.

The thing that puzzles me is why no exit polls were done. I have a vague notion that that might have been specified in the Edinburgh Agreement, but if so, why? What possible harm could exit polls do other than exposing that someone had been fiddling the results, and why do different standards apply to elections? Exit polls of course wouldn't cover postal votes, but nevertheless if there is a huge difference between the ration of Yes/No votes it would raise serious questions, even allowing for the fact that possibly more older people use postal votes (if Labour hasn't stolen them).

You can get a BMW 3 series with four wheel drive now. i have had Audi A4 estates with quattro for many years now as they are pretty much unstoppable and you can buy an older car with confidence because the build quality is superb, but a 3 series X-drive touring appeals to me.

Ahead in Dumfries? Seriously? If we win here, we win big overall.

Oil price is back over $60 now.

You mean by ruling it out unequivocally?

What, by ruling it out unequivocally? Aye, right.

Seems to me that the vast majority of the 45% who voted Yes will vote SNP as the best option amongst the Yes-supporting parties. There will be some Yes voters who vote Green but in relative terms it will be a fairly small proportion. There will also be some No voters who will vote SNP - that will include no voters who have changed their minds because the Vow clearly has been a con trick and they realise it, and also will include no voters who appreciate that the SNP will stand up for Scotland. I can see why the SNP are polling so well, and I reckon that for once we are going to surprise a lot of the pessimists. The other factor is that the anti-SNP vote is split between Tories and Labour, plus a few Lib Dems. I suspect any tactical voting by these people will cancel each other out to an extent. What will happen is that the mainstream media will go into overdrive with things like Wednesday's Morning Call where Eleanor Bradfor was sat there firing the bullets for another attack on the SNP, and nobody mentioned that the Scottish figures for A&E waiting times were actually the best of any of the components of the UK - it was quite funny though when nearly every called said that they had been seen promptly - that wasn't what Louise and Eleanor wanted to hear, and they took great umbrage when a caller tore them a new one for their clear bias.

Well done that lady.

I have an old Tom Tom satnav, must be about then years old now and probably much smaller in size than the newer ones. I find if it's at the base of the windscreen near the middle, it only obstructs my view of the top of the fascia and maybe the rear edge of the bonnet. Putting it anywhere else involves getting the cable tangled up in the switchgear. Useful for finding individual streets in and stuff like that but never use it for the macronavigation involved in finding, say, Leeds or Cardiff, although it is very good for navigating within unknown towns and cities once you get there. My Galaxy S5 can do much the same job but tends to go to sleep at awkward times. If I really wanted a big feck off satnav, I could use my Samsung tablet with its 10.1" screen but I doubt I could actually see out with that propped up in front of me. Nice to know it could do the job though.

I think that's maybe a sort of default option if you don't specifically say you want Scottish ones. I had some new plates made up and the guy was going to use a GB badge until I said I wanted a Scotland flag on it.

Milliband and Murphy still trying to play the Pavlovian reaction card in Scotland. They think they can shout "The Tories are coming" and we'll all fall in line behind Labour. Not any more. More and more people can see what Labour have become and they dislike it intensely.

I'm sure the Daily Record and Reporting Scotland will call her to account for her lying.

I think you are right.

So is that them delivering the Vow? Duplicitous liars. I see Curran tweeted that she voted against fracking - a blatant lie.

You should be covered for subsidence and usually there is an excess of something like £1000. There is however a definition of subsidence and it is not the same as settlement. I've never been entirely sure what the difference is but it appears to be that subsidence is caused by an external factor such as someone undermining the house or digging a big trench alongside it - I think the insurance covers is "subsidence of the site" so as to rule out settlement which might be caused by inadequate foundations or erosion caused by leakage from a fractured drain or burst water pipe (although that is sometimes covered by the burst pipe clause in the insurance). Before you can claim, you need to know exactly what is causing the movement, and also whether or not it is still ongoing. There are quite a lot of properties which suffered settlement during the war as a result of the effect of bombs exploding and causing a shockwave that compacted the ground. That sort of movement generally doesn't continue after the event. If it's a shop underneath you, check the owner hasn't knocked down any loadbearing walls. Often happens and even if steel beams are out in to support the floors above, the redistribution of loading can cause settlement of the new bearing positions. Sometimes they don't even put in any beams. If in doubt, get a local consulting civil/structural engineer to inspect the property. If you have a factor, that can help with getting everyone onside.