Caledonian Craig

Great to see Gauld called up and I welcome it. He has already proven himself at SPL level and his inclusion in Sporting's Champions League squad says what they think of him for the future. I doubt he will feature for us in the upcoming matches but he has the potential to be a big star for us so why hold back? Get him in.

Spot on Blantyre. If the referendum had taken place two years ago the vote for yes was 20% so why sing Flower of Scotland two years ago? Besides if you are really, truly for Independence then why would you stop singing it now? I would say it should be sung now with far more belief as it is nearer than it ever has been in this old 's lifetime.

Not as many as would be hysterical or happy if we weren't to sing it. Question:- Why were we singing the anthem when opinion poll two years ago had yes vote at 20% (and remember polls are pretty accurate to a percent or two)?

You are totally missing the point though. I have pointed out many instances where fans sing songs with words or even songs they wouldn't be enamoured with but they do it to support their team. That is why we go to matches - to support the team. The national anthems help get players motivated and so not to sing it because one is having a hissy fit could have a detrimental effect on the team (small but a negative effect all the same). I am sure nobody here wants that. In any case if you voted yes then you have even more reason to sing Flower of Scotland. And if I were to look at it a different way putting more emphasis on the lyrics then surely we would have to have binned it if a yes vote was the result as lyrics speak of rising to be a nation again' in future tense so song would then have been irrelelvant. I must add I disagree on it and say yes or no it is still Scotland's anthem and should be bellowed out next month.

They never voted for it in the 90s because it was so far off - much further out of reach that it is even today a few days after the referendum - that is my point. And yes I say they would still sing GSTQ as it is a means of supporting the team not the queen. I mean I bet there are loads in the Tartan Army that despise the film Sound of Music but join in with all choruses of Doe-a-Deer. And likewise with many other songs we sing - we do it in support of our team and the players who do say it is a big boost so what exactly are you hoping to achieve by not singing Flower Of Scotland - unless you have given up on Independence forever.

And I'll say again - do you honestly think 100% of England fans love the queen? I'd hazard a guess a lot would prefer to be rid of her but they will still sing GSTQ. Same with other nations. Fine - I get your upset with the referendum result (plenty of us are) but why did you sing the anthem in the 1990s when Independence wasn't even a remote possibility?

FFS everyone. Do you think England supporters are 100% royalists? Of course they aren't but they still sing GSTQ. There are many such national anthems around the world that the lyrics may not go down best with a lot of supporters but guess what? They all still sing it. Why should Flower of Scotland be any different? Just bear this in mind people - we always hear the players (past and present) saying what an honour and a lift hearing the national anthem being sung by us with great passion. Do you want to water down that element of match day and deprive our players of a much-needed boost? And for why? Because you are throwing a hissy fit? If you really, truly want and believe in Independence you will boom it out even more as a show of your own defiance and belief - unless you are now admitting to yourself that it will never happen?

Spot on. On another thread we had a no voter explain why he voted no. Well sorry but can anyone please tell me when we last had a Westminster government that hasn't lied to us. I will list for those no voters my gripes:- Poll Tax from Tories. Sheer and utter rip-off to ensure the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Closure of mines and shipbuilding yards by Tories. Privatisation by Tories. Led into a war against Iraq based on lies, lies and more lies. What's more the troops were poorly equipped. Scandal after scandal at Westminster - too many to mention. Disbanding of several of Scotland's most famous regiments. Losses of pensions. Introduction of tuition fees and now English students are piling into Scotland yet still voting for those that are hitting them in the pocket. Sorry no voters but we have suffered far too long with this ineptitude and sheer incompetent governments. Westminster have been given far too long to screw up our country and I would much rather see it run by Scots for Scots.

Exactly thplinth. And Westminster are all set to back another war well air strikes against the Islamic State as well.

Yes and you sung the song I take it last year when we would have lost the vote by even more when polls had yes at 20% so I don't see what you are saying.

So why did you go to games when opinion polls put the yes vote at 20%?

What nonsense. You have sung the national anthem since it was adopted in the 1990s at a time when polls probably had votes for independence at around 10 to 20% so what has changed since then? If anything you should be singing it with even more pride now as 45% was within touching distance of independence.

Pretty pathetic comments made underneath the article questioning whether he wrote it with all his faculties intact (nasty dig at his illness).

Nope.

Kind of echoes what I have been saying the last few days. The union lovers are the older generation brought up on tales of Brits fighting the Nazis in World Wars but those days are long in the past now and countries in the UK having a swiftly growing population that are desperate to go their own ways. There is no going back now for the union. Even hope of a war uniting everyone again isn't a possibility as any new World War will be settled by the dropping of nukes - instantaneous armageddon.

Well if taxes have to be raised how about hitting the toffs hard - after all we all know they were the no voters.

Put it another way - we have all sung the song through the 90's and 00's with great feeling when Independence was so much further away. I mean what were the opinion polls standing at? Nowhere near 45% i would guess. Now we are at 45% so surely the words can and should be sung with even more belief.

Yes I agree. Is the referendum deemed fair and just if promises were made at the eleventh hour that shouldn't have been allowed to be made by Brown that changed the natural course of the vote and gave us the result we got? And then that could quite possibly be topped off by those promises not being kept. Remember that Brown's promises were a panicked knee-jerk reaction that came a day or two after the poll that showed the yes vote had a lead. After the promises the no vote in polls surged. It evidently was a key part of the campaign and a key reason for people voting the way they did and even some have been quoted on TV as saying as much. So if these promises aren't kept what action could the SNP take?

And what if the promises made by Westminster either aren't met or are less than was promised?

Absolutely spot on.

Absolutely. Just remember that Brown's pledges came out of a moment of sheer blind panic after the first opinion poll putting the Yes vote in the lead. Thereafter the no vote edged back ahead again undoubtedly on his pledges. Any referendum/election won built up on falsehoods merits another vote.

England wants it's own parliament as do Wales and Northern Ireland, almost half of Scots voted for Independence and yet you still think the union is rock solid?? You are living in a time of say four generations ago. The union gave security to many in dark days of World Wars One and Two where English, Scots, Irish and Welsh fought alongside each other in the trenches and died for one another. To coin a phrase from our national anthem 'those days are gone now' and a swiftly growing move to localised governments and seperation of one ruling body is now in place. The union is dying and I'd guess it may have no more than a generation left in it.

The union is crumbling like a digestive biscuit as we speak, the no vote has eroded immensely from the start of the campaign and already the supposed promised powers by Brown (the worst PM of recent times) leaves many no voters already regretting their decision. The cork is out of the bottle or cracks are in the dam...independence will happen it is just a matter of when.

Alfie Moon I made this point yesterday. These 'powers' pledged by Brown and his cronies - does anyone actually know what they are? And also who decides if they are sufficient enough powers not for Scots to demand a re-referendum as the powers don't go far enough? I mean if we look at facts here the opinion poll that had unionists smearing their pants was the one that had yes vote in the lead about a fortnight ago and this triggered Brown to make his panicked pledges and the following opinion polls tipped things back the no way so these pledges had a big influence on the vote. That being the case if they prove to be a sham surely Salmond and the SNP would be well within their rights to demand another referendum on the grounds of misleading promises from the Better Together group.

Elsewhere I have already hypothesised over the reason for Edinburgh's vote. Lets not tarnish the whole city as many there ached for Independence. Those that voted no I'd guess would be the many toffs with 5K houses in Morningside and two or three cars. They live in oppulence and that is all they care about so they are happy with how things are and to hell with everybody else. Also take into note the many uni's there are in the city with English students up here because their own country won't pay tuition fees yet still voted no (oh the hypocrisy) and there were two of them wrapped in UJ's grinning broadly on news the other day. That is two large groups to account for so many votes plus you had those petrified/blackmailed into voting no by under-handed tactics.