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An inability to process separate threads concurrently and consistently kind of proves my point. Its very difficult for individual MPs or MSPs to do anything about services that are devolved to local government, even if they are the FM. They can influence and lobby and understandably Nicola Sturgeon's voice will carry more weight than most but policy and implementation is the responsibility of the council. My MP has just become PM but I'm not expecting the potholes in my road to be fixed anytime soon, business rates to be reduced so that the boarded up shops in the town centre can be occupied or there to be no need for the food bank to exist.

Unfortunately that's one of the realities of life. When I was a kid I was on holiday on the Isle of Man and very nearly caught up in this. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerland_disaster We were planning on going that evening but as it was raining we went during the day instead. If it hadn't been raining then maybe I wouldn't be here today, who knows. Life goes on though.

And Clarkson is a bit of a hunt so there you go.

Interesting that you know all that and yet just the other day on the Indy Ref2 thread, you were implying that the problems in Govanhill were the fault of the FM. i think you're the one that must struggle with complexity champ.

The Union of the Crowns was in 1603 when James VI acceded to the English throne. The Act of Union was not until 1707 so for 104 years there were two sovereign states on these Islands that shared the same monarch. Scotland becoming independent would effectively be repeal of the 1707 Act of Union - and a whole load of other subsequent legislation. The position of the monarch need not be changed, she would still be Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, nothing would have changed there. However, that would be the only context in which the UK had any meaning. On the list of big important things that would need to be sorted out, I don't think it's particularly high up in the list.

So if you know all that, then why are you pretending that the Westminster budget is not relevant? Thats a rhetorical question, I already know the answer.

Some top trolling in some of these appointments. The Brexiteers have all been given the "you broke it, now you fix it" positions. If it all goes wrong or if there are compromises on things like Freedom of Movement or the Single Market then it'll be their fault and not the Remainers. I'm sure Andrea Leadsom is going to have great fun explaining to farmers why they aren't getting subsidies or Fisherman why they've had to do a deal on maintaining the basics if the CFP. Priti Patel off to DIFID, which she'd previously said should be abolished and which will keep her out of the country

How the budget is spent on a number of these areas are decided on by Holyrood/Local Government. How the overall budget is distributed is decided by Holyrood. The size of the overall budget however is largely decided by Westminster and that impacts directly on how Holyrood and Councils act. But then you knew that already.

Not at all, in fact I'm delighted that they didn't. I'm not going to work myself into a rage about what Iain Martin or Alan Roden think about it though.

You really are the board's biggest MOPE by some distance, aren't you?

Corbyn on the ballot. Let's see who's got the bollocks to stand against him.

Easy with a compliant/lazy media. I wouldn't put it past them to have put the window in themselves. Remember how at every European Championship and World Cup you'd get a story about some random English person being attacked in Scotland by person or persons unknown. Attacks that were all over the media but where there were no witnesses and no-one was ever charged let alone convicted. They work because most reasonable people believe that it's possible some nutter would do that. Funny that we haven't had any of these in either 2014 or 2016. I wonder why that might be, especially given that there's a much more heightened political atmosphere in Scotland.

Remember the Birmingham schools radicalisation scandal when there was a big fall out between Gove - as Education Secretary - and May which resulted in Gove being sacked by Cameron. I doubt he'll be in the next cabinet but nothing would surprise me know, I've suspended all disbelief as far as UK politics is concerned.

You might well be correct however the key difference is that Rangers fans haven't been running round for the last 4 years telling people how much they aren't missing the old firm games.

There's a big part of me that thinks that the PLP might be keen to force a GE just so that they can prove that Corbyn is unelectable. The only thing that makes me think that won't happen is that will mean that a load of them will lose their seats, either via reselection, or via the ballot box. They won't want to give up their cushy number.

Who knows, but it would be kind of funny if Cameron's last act as PM was to have the juice ripped out of him by Andy Murray in front of a global TV audience.

Nice wee but of everyday racism there.

I really don't understand that viewpoint, it just seems counter-intuitive to me. I can fully understand someone who believes that Scotland should be out of both the EU and the UK, I don't agree with it but I can understand it. I can also understand someone for who remaining in the UK takes primacy over everything else. However, I can't understand who someone who professes to support Scottish Independence would actually oppose that on the basis of remaining in the EU. While there's been quite a few people in the press expressing that opinion - I've never heard anyone explain why they have come to that conclusion apart from Fishermen who have a very narrow self-interest.

Signed for the U21 rather than first team squad. http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/newcastle-united-sign-6ft-3in-11590153

She's been my MP since she was elected in 1997 and while clearly I've never voted for her I would have to say that she comes across as a very active and good constituency MP, even after becoming Home Secretary. I don't agree with her politics but personally she comes across as being pretty decent. She's also a lot taller than she appears on TV. i suppose it means that if she becomes PM we'll get a whole range of nut job candidates on the ballot paper next time rather than just UKIP.

I bet the T-shirt didn't say that at all.

Lots of direct quotes in the original article. Newspapers make a lot of stuff up and twist things even more but they tend not to do that with direct quotes. It's too easy to caught out on that as you just have to go back to the original notes or recordings.

That's what I had, and you're right, it's fantastic.

With Theresa May it's a case of what you see is what you get, whether or not people think that's good or not. Given that she's been Home Secretary for six years - one of the cabinet posts where you are most likely to get involved in some sort if scandal or fiasco and get sacked - I'd imagine that any skeletons that might have been in her cupboard would have come out long before now. For Leasdom, she's more of an unknown and that can work in her favour as she can present herself as a "breath of fresh air". However, it also means that she'll be put under a lot more scrutinity than she's ever been before. You're already seeing that with accusations that she's lied on her CV and some of her crazier previous comments coming to light. It'll be interesting to see how much more of this comes out in the next couple of months. Personally I can't see past May but stranger things have happened.

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