exile

To preserve the Mother of Parliaments!

Why a Con-Lab coalition may be needed to save the United Kingdom says Lord Baker of Dorking http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/general-election-2015-why-a-conlab-coalition-may-be-needed-to-save-the-united-kingdom-10092247.html There's more than a whiff of 'let's change our democracy so we can preserve our democracy' and 'let's change what we mean by our union of equal nations, to preserve our union...' BBC reports on this too http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31776943 Plenty of bile in the comments section, complaining about bile!

Old news I know, but difficult to feel too sorry for the Tories when they have the full weight of right wing press and BBC institutional unionism behind them, feeding off lords, olympics, monarchy, etc etc

Interesting Ruth Davidson hoping to hoover up the unionist patriotic vote Humza avoiding talk of nationalism but playing up the progressive Danny playing the I'm a Highlander card Kezia floundering in no-mans land, getting stick from ex Labour voters

The article wording implies it was at least worthy of comment in 2002 (even if not controversial in 78 when he took the peerage), but since the expenses scandals of the last few years, the 'free rail travel, plus attendance allowances' soundbite sits particularly uneasily for an egalitarian Lord. Still can't get my head round Labour Lords. Can I mention John Reid? Once so proud of his image as an ex-Commie 'street-fighter', yet proud to sit in the Lords as Baron Reid of Cardowan.

And just in front of him Eddie Clockerty's dad [Richard Wilson]

We-need-to-talk-about-bbc-scotland http://wingsoverscotland.com/we-need-to-talk-about-bbc-scotland/

All this Ashcroft polling seems very handy for anyone thinking of tactical voting ... as Scottish tactical voting campaigns launch over SNP landslide fears http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/05/scottish-tactical-voting-campaigns-snp-landslide-fears-union-general-election

Toby Young would maybe consider himself an independent thinker, rather than a Tory. Incidentally his dad was credited with single-handedly writing the post-war Labour manifesto (did someone say the only socialist government the UK ever had?)... but eventually 'reluctantly' accepted a peerage, becoming a Baron in the House of Lords. ("The peerage offered him free rail travel, plus attendance allowances in the House of Lords.") http://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/jan/16/guardianobituaries.books

4 referendum related books reviewed briefly here http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/02/union-blues-was-referendum-transformative-moment-scottish-politics (including the not entirely earth shattering revelation that Alan Cochrane admits taking instructions from Darling to edit Telegraph stories to be more pro-No) + Salmond to publish book http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/scottish-independence-alex-salmond-to-publish-book-1-3708359

The Scottish Labour leader’s rewriting of its constitution is a PR exercise by an astute politician, writes Andrew Whitaker http://www.scotsman.com/news/andrew-whitaker-jim-murphy-s-clause-4-moment-1-3708090

SNP's flagship corporation tax cut is ditched as Sturgeon unveils new economic strategy ",,, emphasising measures to tackle inequality." http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/scottish-politics/snps-flagship-corporation-tax-cut-is-ditched-as-sturgeon-unveils-new-econ.119785946

It says bridges and roads all over UK will be plastered with union flags. But aren't Scottish roads funded from Scotland? If England subsidises Scotland then maybe bridges in England should just be plastered with the English flag.

I thought I'd better check I wasn't misrepresenting the poor chap "Murphy was always curious about the world beyond the scheme. “This is on the flight path from London and North America,” he says. “Quite often, on a day without clouds, you would look up and see these planes. You would imagine where they were going – they weren’t stopping here – and think, ‘wow, what a world that would be’.” http://www.scotsman.com/news/dani-garavelli-jim-murphy-the-dynamic-underdog-1-3705170 headlined "Jim Murphy the dynamic underdog" (with a picture of a dog!) Now you mention it I see what you mean, anyone might wonder wistfully about faraway places... but in the context of a presumably carefully crafted media article featuring the lad from Arden seeking to go places politically, it seems odd to make London and North America the objects of wonder... (Eastwood or Holyrood not enough?)

Or in principle, possibly in a play-off but I only remember losing play-offs, or winning against Australia and that was not exactly giant killing, at the time at least.

JM had a 3 page spread in Scotland on Sunday today Apparently he used to look up at the plane tracks in the sky of London-Transatlantic flights and think wistfully of those faraway places...

It may be odd but no harm in considering an alternative point of view, even if it's setting the bar higher. If we had lost to Italy twice but they had lost elsewhere so we qualified at their expense then I'd regard that as claiming their scalp and not the other way around. It would be regarded as a major achievement putting a resurgent Scotland on the map at the expense of the world champions. If you move to head to heads, then when the question becomes was the last time we knocked a bigger team out a competition in a head to head match?

OK - I was originally thinking of rugby, where, however rubbish we are now, we have at least won championships. Then I was thinking that teams even if they don't win championships can still claim a scalp by knocking a bigger team out a cup or tournament or play-off. So, cases like Croatia beating Germany in 1998, or Costa Rica advancing in 1990 or 2014, would be example of qualifying at the expense of more fancied nations. For this exercise I discount cases where Scotland failed to get out a group, even if a higher ranked team (like Ukraine... or CIS, or Sweden etc.) also did. We may have beaten France home and away but we didn't 'claim their scalp' because they qualified and we didn't. It may be a tough ask but several teams have managed it either in tournaments or qualifying. We may have done it most often in qualifying though often those were not against definitely 'higher ranked' teams. Maybe Czechosolvakia in 1977 would be another case - I'm getting hazy there. Of course if you count the home internationals then we won lots and claimed the scalp of England many times. But if so that is our main basis for appearing to punch above our weight? Until this year of course when we could do it by helping knock out Germany and/or Poland.

After Scotland's latest woes in rugby, it got me thinking, when did Scotland (football) last really claim a scalp, in the sense of gaining something at the expense of another team, punching above their weight when something at stake? (Beating a higher rated team, or coming ahead of a higher rated team, doesn't count if we didn't ourselves gain anything. So beating France in 2007 or coming ahead of Ukraine then don't count in this sense). As far as I could remember, the last really significant scalp would be qualifying for World Cup 1990 at the expense of France, though probably qualifying for 1998 World Cup ahead of Sweden would count assuming Sweden would be the more fancied team. Looking back at the stats it seems we won our Euro 92 group squeezing out Switzerland, Romania and Bulgaria - which with hindsight is impressive, though somehow doesn't seem so earth-shattering. So instead of just the last scalp, what was the greatest?

Are Scotland rugby worse relatively than the football team under Vogts and/or Levein? Are Scotland rugby worse than Scotland cricket?

It's just not safe to look at the sports news any time around rugby weekends when Scotland involved. Just about possible to check TAMB for the compensation of some gallows humour At least our own side comments on "utter pish" and pictures of wooden kitchen implements to get a feel for what must just have happened.

Scottish Premiership v Championship. Who'd a' thunk it at the start of the season: In one there's a runaway leader with a 20 point cushion in February... the other is comparatively competitive (top 2 separated by 3 points, bottom 3 on same points...)

yeah that was the programme - originally on yesterday He's like a boorish overgrown schoolboy, taking part in his first debate, who just discovered the meaning of the word 'libertarian'

David Coburn on Radio 4 right now, mouthing off about how they are the only party with the answers... making an Rse of himself, like a boorish adolescent debater... stirring up the audience, ... to slow hand clapping and then heckling... complaining the audience are bourgeois biased to the greens They used to compare Tory representatives in Scotland as colonial governors. Not sure how to describe DC

No. The 'ambassador' role would be based in the Polar Regions Department of the Overseas Territories Directorate of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Looking in more detail... Much of the report is to do with climate, science, security, industries, indigenous peoples... UK has observer status with the Arctic Council - as does Spain, Germany, China, Singapore... Turns out the 144 page report mentions 'Scotland' only once.... there is much more on Ukraine and Crimea...