O'Kelly Isley III

When McKenna is on form he is dynamite. He had a brilliant article on private education in last Saturday's Herald which provoked possibly the most pompous letter I've ever seen in a national newspaper the following Monday.

I'd agree with that, and over 11m viewers suggests that there is definitely an appetite. I enjoyed last night's game and I genuinely hoped that England would win, as the chauvinism that goes with American sport chokes in the craw. 'Military Veterans' football scarves ? WTF is all that about ? I live in hope that they fail in the final.

Me too, and let's not forget the juvenile behaviour of the Liberals, utter madness for a party trying to position itself as a serious alternative to the insanity of Brexit.

Can someone just remove the words 'of Labour' from this thread title ?

Hmmm, more chance of it than Corbyn ever forming a Government. FWIW, my view on these anonymous Civil Service briefings is a coded cri de cour for Labour to find a leader capable of removing the Tories and resolving a soft Brexit, so demented has Whitehall become of the present situation.

Plus, but minus Fife.

You mean, the kind of folk people trip over at Labour Party conferences ?

The only thing Labour is capable of ending is in fourth place on both sides of the border.

The Daily Mail obviously trawling around until they can find a poll which fits it's rabid anti-EU agenda. Be that as it may, if this graph is in any way accurate it tends to again highlight what a downright dishonest and utterly simplistic binary proposition was presented to the UK electorate in June 2016. As most people aren't political anoraks like we are, presenting them with a choice of 'Do You Like Ice Cream, Yes or No ?' was always going to dumb down the debate. And so it has proved.

It would be a right hoot if Johnson or Hunt were forced to park Brexit if Trump snaps his fingers in a war (to end all wars) with Iran.

On the 100th anniversary of the scuttling of the German Fleet at Scala Flow I watched Caroline Flint (again) advocate a Brexit policy which will effectively scuttle the Labour Party.

America is now trying to manage economic decline by force of military blackmail. That tactic largely succeeded in the 20th Century (Vietnam being the obvious exception), but it won't in the 21st. China and to a lesser extent Russia will not buy into American hegemony; indeed the Chinese have already made huge inroads into Asia and Africa based on an economic strategy, whilst the US ploughs on with the Monroe Doctrine. Secondly, the ongoing destruction of the environment will inevitably lead to alternatives to oil, so the current American pursuit of controlling it's supply and distribution may quite soon come to be seen as capturing the market in analogue telly's.

I have a friend aged 60 with a lifetime of employment with the UK Civil Service who has now tendered his resignation because he cannot square his conscience with the roll-out of Universal Credit.

Irrespective of the weekend's issue, Johnson is about to undergo scrutiny of a kind that he has never experienced. As is Hunt, for that matter, the difference being that all Hunt has to do is keep his head down and plod along, something that Johnson is serially incapable of doing. Everyone is banging on about how the membership will decide this contest; be under no illusions, the Tory Party is a ruthless and unsentimental machine par excellence, and I expect MP's and officials to now be prepared to torpedo Johnson for the next fall from grace. We may not have to wait long.

As a matter of interest, where did you see confirmed evidence of financial gain ? As for Carrie Symonds, she is probably now caught in the relationship from Hell - seriously questioning her partner's behaviour but circumstances heavily limiting her ability to choose to walk away from a potentially abusive future domestic agenda. Always assuming of course that she is not also as volatile as Johnson.

In normal times this episode would have been accorded a Weinstein-type reaction, but so biased is the London print media that short of shooting the Queen, Johnson will be able to ride this out. For his adoring disciples who will be voting on the Tory leadership the get-out-of-jail in all of this will be the revelation that the neighbour voted Remain - says it all really. Remember, we are talking about the Peter Alliss 'Tell the old girl to fling on a steak' mentality for most of these people.

Well it sure as f**k won't be 'Can We Still Be Friends' Zen. But hey, what do we old farts know about something, anything ?

'Fair enough if Wilf is impacted'. Really ? A guy who has supported the club since 1970 and has invested Christ knows what of his own money, time and goodwill in DFC is to be waved goodbye in order that a bunch of here today/gone tomorrow kids can batter f**k out of a drum ? Really ? Here's a simple test; if these lads are serious about following Dumbarton then presumably they can do it without crossing a threshold that irritates and in some cases genuinely ruins the experience of fellow supporters. In other words the club needs to grow a pair and draw a code of what's acceptable and what is not. By the lights of some of the wise guys posting on this subject, and the intolerance and disrespect is frankly disgraceful, I'm one of these old buffers. But I was once young and madly enthusiastic about the Sons....singing, shouting, banners - the whole shebang. But I'll tell you what; if anyone had ever told me or my mates that our conduct was causing diehard fans to chuck it then I'd have been horrified. I should state that Wilf is a close personal friend of mine, and his decision has saddened me immensely. For people who purport to wish the best for DFC there are some gey strange attitudes on here at times.

As a classical scholar Johnson will be well acquainted with the word hubris.

Are you seriously trying to suggest that the lurch to the extreme political right in the UK, and England in particular, is not intrinsically connected to racial attitudes ? Brexit is this phenomenon writ large and the word 'Immigration' runs through it like a watermark. And I'll need to take your word for it on Scottish attitudes on Johnson - we obviously move in parallel universes.

Sorry Granny, but sometimes certain people virtually command only the one moniker....Jacko, Gazza, Bjork and Gandhi for starters.

My biggest fear is that Boris finds the task of delivering Brexit and uniting the country more difficult than he imagined, and we all discover that he really is just a fat, vainglorious incompetent bawbag. That would be a disappointment to a lot of frail, elderly racists.

It's now over a year since I set foot in a Wetherspoons - I refuse to give that p***k Martin a brass farthing.

There writes someone who has never experienced a pressurised sporting situation. Alexander's nerves and composure were shot thro after the decision to retake the penalty, and I'll hazard that like me, she's probably wondering today how every penalty she's ever seen has passed of without retake - it was a piece of utter shite. If you doubt what I say, watch that second penalty again - Alexander is so confused she's like a drunk trying to stay on their feet by the time the ball is struck.

There's an air of school's out euphoria about all of this, as the election of Head Boy reaches its thrilling conclusion. What jolly japes and larrikins ! However, back in the real world, anyone who thinks that any of these four tits is capable of applying a handbrake turn to the most disastrous course charted by a democratic nation in modern political history is every bit as much a fool. By mid-August Johnson or whoever will be backtracking furiously as the EU and Ireland prescribe another, but larger, f**k-off pill. What happens thereafter is anyone's guess but rest assured, Ann Widdecombe's coupon will still be a condom full of walnuts.