LongTimeLurker

Moronic to say the least and something that is a clear BoTP, but I'm not convinced (but certainly still open to persuasion) that it's really any more noteworthy in the big scheme of things nowadays than equally moronic songs about zoophilia aimed at Aberdonians when all of the people singing it probably never go anywhere near a church and are motivated by dislike of Celtic rather than anything related to differing views over transubstantiation or something like that. Politicians, who exploit the lingering tribalism, pretend there's still a huge rigid polarisation of Scottish society like there was 50 or 60 years ago, but the reality is that Senga has been marrying Declan, and Siobhan has been marrying Derek in recent decades and there is a younger generation growing up now, who can often easily swing both ways on these things.

Take away the sky fairy angle as has happened over the past two generations as Scottish society has secularised and all that's left is a backward ancestral tribalism that revolves around what type of school you went to. The political parties with the exception so far of the Greens don't want to touch this issue because there are still enough older voters that actually believe in the sky fairy stuff to make backing full all out secularism with a complete separation of church and state a potential vote loser for them if there wasn't a broad based consensus across the political elite. So instead what we have got until very recently is politicians (Labour, the SNP and Lib Dems have all been at it in recent times, and the old Unionist party that was the forerunner to the Conservatives was very much defined by it) trying to appeal to voters (mainly but not exclusively on the RC side of the fence, the SNP in the Monklands East by election would be an example of the opposite) on a visceral level by tapping into this tribalism in a hot button sort of way. To paraphrase McDairmid it's time to pit the clathe ower the parrot on this stuff and move on.

By way of a reality check. There is no God just as there is no tooth fairy and no Santa Claus. The overwhelming majority of the younger generation grasp this. Splitting children up based on differing ways to worship an imaginary sky fairy is backward and grotesque.

Best way to end so called "sectarianism" is to integrate the schools. Until the politicians and the chattering classes in general are willing to tackle that they should just shut up about it, because they are part of the problem.

They are coming to take me away, ha ha, hee hee, ho ho,...

The Magna Carta, a bit like the literature of Shakespeare and Dickens, is over-rated in terms of its impact in the big scheme of things. Something each generation learns about from the one before and then passes on uncritically to the next out of force of habit as part of the shared set of myths of the nation. It actually very much makes sense to separate Enlightenment ideas from those of the Reformation given it very much revolved around separating church from state. That is something that has yet to be achieved in the UK and was at the root of the failure to comfortably accommodate the island of Ireland.

That's the point of the sovereignty of the crown in parliament notion within English legal tradition (Scots law is often said to differ a bit about where sovereignty ultimately lies with the people being claimed to be ultimately sovereign, but it makes little practical difference). The idea is precisely that parliament rather than the monarchy ultimately holds all the power and can do as it pleases in legislative terms with no US style written constitution to firmly entrench individual rights and freedoms as a counterbalance. The UK predates the Enlightenment, so it missed out on that sort of stuff in constitutional terms at least until the ECHR was signed up to and the authority of the court in Strasbourg was recognised. Cameron's desire to go down this route puts him in Jobbik sort of territory.

Under the traditional Westminster system there was no written constitution and the sovereignty of the crown in parliament gave a parliamentary majority the power to do pretty much anything it wanted, so rights like that were not firmly constitutionally entrenched, but more of a convention respected by tradition that could be suspended whenever it was convenient for those in power to do so. A lot of SNP types would love to ban the walks once and for all. They haven't tried because they know that European Convention on Human Rights makes freedom of assembly an entrenched right that has to be respected by local councils. David Cameron wants to be seen to reduce the influence of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg as a cynical ploy to keep UKIP at bay. Nicola Sturgeon is happy to do anything that drives a wedge constitutionally between Scotland and England, so will use the way it is the ECHR is entrenched into the Scotland Act of 1998 to do the opposite.

The true test of your tolerance is how you deal with people you disagree with most strongly and the real definition of bigotry is being opposed to something to an unreasonable extent. You can be bigoted in the extent of your support of the SNP and independence, just as you can be bigoted in the extent of your support for the Union and the Windsor monarchy. You should maybe check up on which side the Pope was actually on in 1690, although I don't doubt it would also come as a shock to many flute band members. Reality is more complex and multi-faceted than the stereotypes people peddle on this. If I delve back into my family tree a bit the people in my family who were most into Orangeism were also well into the Labour party and socialism given they were from a coal mining background. Your perception of what it is all about may not correspond neatly with what the people involved think they are celebrating.

Bit ironic at the moment that Westminster is making plans to scrap the European human rights legislation which is all that prevents Scottish local councils from banning the walks on a whim, while Nicola Sturgeon is championing its retention but the Union and the Windsor monarchy will still be viewed as being the core gaurantees of civil and religious freedoms.

Started over in that sort of way a few times. You can quickly make friends and become part of what is going on locally in whatever interests you. Not something to be daunted by if it is the right move for work reasons.

The Romans built Antonine's Wall after encountering a fierce shite flinging tribe called the Snedoni on the banks of the Forth.

The best way to check out rail ticket prices and times for individual journeys is this website: http://www.hyperdia.com/ Depending how much time you have on your hands Tokyo-Kyoto can be done on local and limited express trains quite easily (best to not have much luggage no matter how you travel by train in Japan) and you get to see the countryside a bit better that way as well as save some money. A new shinkansen (bullet train) line has also opened to a city called Kanazawa on the Sea of Japan side, which is quite easy to get to from Kyoto by local and limited express trains, so you could do the return trip a different way and check out the Japanese Alps around Nagano on the way: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokuriku_Shinkansen The main Tokyo to Kyoto line is a bit like checking out Scotland by traveling from Edinburgh to Glasgow through Bathgate and Airdrie (there is the Mt Fuji part so it's not all bad), because you travel through a lot of heavily populated industrial areas.

When its the Telegraph championing the PC agenda rather than the Guardian, you know there's a genuine problem.

They would get most of their support from wee Free types on Lewis I would assume? That would have hindered the SNP when Donald Stewart was around, but probably doesn't make much difference now?

6/14 on the footballers (there have been extended periods when I have not watched Scottish football regularly, so have an excuse but still a bit embarrassing) and a 3/10 on the Aussie one.

5/10 and ditto on knowing one by being old enough to remember what happened in the mid-70s in Timor.

Great advice for the most part but not sure about Fukushima. Are you sure you are not confusing it with somewhere else? I know the city well and to me it's a wee bit like recommending Alloa as a tourist destination. Not a complete dump or anything like that but at the same time not hugely scenic or interesting. All the good stuff in that area like Mt Zao is well away from Fukushima out in the surrounding countryside. I'd hazard a guess that you maybe meant Yonezawa or somewhere else up the Yamagata line? I'd also throw in Shikoku the fourth island as underhyped and underappreciated. Never seen it recommended anywhere in guide books or travel shows but a train trip I took from Okayama over the infamous bridge to nowhere down to Kochi on the south side of the island for a lot of the way on a local diesel single carriage railbus was really spectacular.

8/10 for the fitba one, and 6/11 for the normal one and knew 3.

4/10, but happy to have worked out rather than blindly guessed the 5 vowel country one.

A Dave Clark for me, knew 4.

Think that's what the Italian prosecuters suggested happened given they all (Guede included) claim to be completely innocent. Haven't followed this too closely but vaguely remember watching a youtube clip that strongly suggested Knox was guilty and put together a strong circumstantial case to back it up. Suspect it will be a reasonable doubt sort of thing that got them cleared rather than an outright belief that they are innocent.

4 and kent 1.

...and part of the verdict in his trial was that he didn't act alone.