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Never thought Matteo was that good anyway and it would've been no great loss if he never played for us. That said, I think his decision to play for England would have to be looked at in the context of the time. European regulations meant that if he'd opted for Scotland, he'd be counted under the three foreigners rule. I believe that Liverpool put him under pressure to opt for England. Mind you they tried to do the same to Don Hutchison and he told them to stuff it.

I reckon he's being lined up by UK Labour as a scapegoat after May 7.

I'm really struggling to think of someone who could be considered a stand out at club level and a flop for Scotland. Certainly not in the last 30 years or so. Well I can think of one, Duncan Ferguson, but that was a bit of a special case. I wouldn't call Hansen a flop necessarily, he would have had a lot more caps had Stein not gone for Miller and McLeish as the first choice centre back partnership. The right choice IMHO as although Hansen was probably a better player than McLeish at the time, Miller/McLeish was a better partnership than Miller/Hansen. Outwith the two seasons before he left Celtic to go to Arsenal, Charlie Nicholas's career was average at best. I'd put him firmly in the category of promising youngsters who fail to live up to their initial promise.

I saw Michael Foot speak as leader of the Labour Party at a number of CND rallies in the early 1980s. He was a confirmed unilateralist, I'm not so sure that was something that you could say about the leadership of the SNP at that time. However, both the Labour Party and the SNP are very different organisations nowadays.

The game you are talking about, the 1-0 defeat in Kaunas, was the second game in a double header. Ferguson played in the first game withdrew after suffering an aggravation to the pelvic injury he had been playing through. Rangers next game was on the Saturday, he missed that but played in the next game after that which was 10 days after the Iceland game. I've no doubt that there are plenty of examples of games where he's pulled out of squads and played for his club on the Saturday, I've given one myself, but as you say, he's hardly unusual in that. I guess it does demonstrate how facts get forgotten as time passes but perceptions are strengthened. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/r/rangers/2908265.stm

Come on, the guy who threw the egg gave himself up and was convicted. If he'd been a plant don't you think it would have come out by now. That's not to say that Murphy hadn't been inciting such an incident for weeks and that they didn't make the absolute most they could do out of it, but its laughable to think it was a set up.

I've just been looking at his record, he was only at Blackburn for 16 months and was out injured for half a season after he broke his knee at Newcastle. During the time he was at Blackburn - outwith that major injury - he played in every Scotland match, but your point is valid. In his second spell at Rangers, from what I can see there is only the friendly at home to Croatia which he pulled out of the squad from - along with most of the other Rangers players as there was an OF game the following weekend. In this period, the other friendlies he missed, he was never included in the squad in the first place. This could be for a number of reasons, he could have been injured at the time, the manager may have wanted to use a more experimental squad, he may have agreed with the manager to be left out. I think its the first spell at Rangers where this all comes from - which also coincides with Berti Vogts being the manager loads of friendlies - a bit more difficult to establish with these if it was genuine enough but there its obviously something that has stuck with him throughout his career.

That has to be taken in the context that for a large chunk of his career he played with niggling injuries and on painkillers, for a number of years he always seemed to be scheduled for some form of minor operation at the end of a season. Of course he would play as many games as possible for his club but then I would expect the vast majority - if not all - professionals would do the same. Cameron House aside, I can't really remember many occasions that he let us down for qualifying games. I also remember being 2-0 down away in Toftir when Ferguson and Lambert between them got a hold of it at half time and dug us out of a right hole.

I'd accept that the polls are accurate if only that all polling companies have been reporting pretty consistent results for several months now. That said, I don't think it will translate into the number of seats that is being predicted. Essentially every seat in Scotland has been turned into a key marginal - or a by-election if you like - and in those circumstances a lot of local factors and the personalities of the individual characters come into play. The polls - with the exception of the Ashcroft constituency polls - don't pick this up. I reckon there will be a lot of recounts and I suspect there will be a cases of Labour having majorities of baw-hair proportions.

SNP canvasser leave your gate open as well.

ISAs are for tax planning purposes Andy, but then you knew that. They are an example of when government uses the tax regulations to promote specific behaviours they want to encourage for economic and/or political reasons, mortgage interest tax relief was another example. Tax avoidance is looking to use tax regulations in ways in which they were not designed for purely to avoid paying tax, EBTs being a great example. Not illegal but not right either.

Sarah Smith tearing Coburn to pieces on Scotland 2015. Not that that's difficult but it's good popcorn viewing.

No Duncan Hothersall?

Yes

Aberdeen City - Yes 41%, No 59% Aberdeenshire - Yes 40%, No 60% East Ayrshire - Yes 47%, No 53% North Ayrshire - Yes 49%, No 51%

Hard to disagree with that.

Come on, everyone knows the Queen is a UKIP supporter.

Completely agree here - it's clearly not the same person. A point though regarding Suzanne, the nurse who is also an actress. Wings was completely spot on with that but made the mistake of getting the wrong actress, who would have needed serious make up to pass for the nurse in the leaflet. A couple of days later he got it right when he got the correct details for her other job as an actress and also that she seemed to be "friendly" with one of Richard Simpson's aids. Of course by that stage the story had been rubbished and was whatever is the internet equivalent of chip papers.

Think you need subtitles for that last one. This always cracks me up.

English economy in crisis at discovery due to low oil price.

I agreed with her comments regarding David Coburn, homophobic and sexist abuse and the Saudi regime but very little else. I'm not the one whose posts drip with xenophobic bile; real Aberdonians, not many North East accents, colonial problems. It's pretty clear what that's code for.

Some of the crap that you come out with from time to time for a start.

She's pretty consistent in standing up and calling out any form of bigoted abuse.

1949 Ireland Act if you are interested. Passed when Ireland became a Republic. A good starting point and precedent for rUK approach to Scotland following independence.

Citizens of the ROI can vote in UK elections. In fact since 1948, Irish citizens are not considered as foreigners under UK law.