Salt n Vinegar

I don't think you're taking this issue seriously. Typical cooncil, stamping all over people's fun. Nothing quite like watching 2 elderly dudes battling in their gardens blowing leaves backwards and forwards between their two gardens while refusing to bag them up. It should be in the Commonwealth Games! (Ok, it's obviously a made up scenario, but such an event would be fun to watch...)

Maybe, but if we had an elected head of state he could only be appointed by the electorate and be turfed out on his rear end by the electorate. Not quite so easy to dislodge old Charlie boy and the rest of the Corleones. Bow and curtsey, there's a good placid population. Under our current system, our illustrious monarch could put Blair into the Lords at some point in the future and His Lordship could end up in a government role like Mr Malcolm Offord... oh, sorry, I of course meant like "Lord Offord of Gravel". You know, that bloke who was effectively rejected by his own local Conservative Party in the Lothians when they placed him so low down on the "List" that he had no chance of being elected to the Scottish Parliament by the electorate ... but was put into the Lords and is now a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland in the motherfekker of Parliaments. Democracy? Aye, right. One revolting office perpetuates the existence of the other. Bin the lot.

Well, that's that fekked. The strapline at the bottom of the Sky News page on TV at the moment says "Israel's Ambassador to the UK says there absolutely cannot be a two-state solution with the Palestinians."

That sounds like something Trump would say, mid rant about woke issues.

Heath/Wilson... Thatcher/Kinnock... Major/Blair... Johnson/Corbyn.... Sunak/Starmer... (Time for a quick Battlestar Galactica and others reference.) All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again. We've been seeing this pish about 'Labour will sort it this time' for decades. The only way to get these revolting Tories permanently out of our hair is for Scotland to get out of Westminster. Nothing else will do it. By Christmas 2029, these malevolent asswipes will be back with a 50+ majority and someone like Braverman, Badenoch, or FFS even Farage as PM.

It's the Tories' answer to the housing crisis. They're going to stick a family of five in it and cover it* with a tarpaulin. * - the pothole, not the arse crack. Even the Tories aren't that cruel. Yet.

Oh gawd.. another punfest. My heart isn't in it because someone usually has to expleen them toe me. We should fight these tooth and fingernail.

Aye, it's been a 'book in advance' system for a few years now. Introduced during COVID.

He didn't give a source for the info, but I think I've heard James O'Brien say this morning that Rwanda has an absolute say on who goes/doesn't go there under the scheme and that the UK will have no control on that aspect at all. Obviously some use of the expression "taking back control" with which I had been previously unfamiliar.

Plus there are the added attractions of the post-holder being able to be booted out by the electorate AND not be at the head of a probably similarly abolished class/honours/forelock tugging/know your place system. I appreciate it might be hard to dislodge someone from a post when some folk apparently think a supernatural entity appointed him for life and wants his heirs and successors to keep the lineage in power, but it's worth a go IMO.

It's not all doom and gloom. We are in the Edinburgh area and can usually get either a phone or face to face GP appointment within a few days. I had a GP surgery based physio appointment and a scan (for 2 different reasons) within 3 weeks of asking*. A close relative has another specialism phone appointment later this morning having been referred for one less than 2 weeks ago. Obviously our experience isn't mirrored everywhere, but neither are the less good experiences fully representative of the work across the country. An area where a lot of improvement work is needed is NHS dentistry. Edit to add * within the past 3 months

Every cloud...

I realise that "scottish tory" might not still be around but it is stunning to see the argument about the monarchy and alleged income generation rearing its ugly head again. As someone far more eloquent than me once put it, France and Italy got rid of their monarchies quite some time ago - unless someone wants to claim that not a single tourist has set foot in those countries since, we'd have to conclude that the tourists might still visit the UK ex-Royal residences.. after all, they'd actually get access to them as paying visitors a lot easier than they can now, and for more of the year.

I understand that as part of the scheme, some residents of Rwanda will be able to claim asylum in the UK. Anyone know on why anyone staying in a "safe" country like Rwanda could possibly want asylum in such a welcoming place for asylum seekers as the UK?

In a valiant attempt to get back on topic, I understand that His Most Britannic Majesty has appointed a pro-homeopathy doctor as head of the royal medical household. I confess that I was surprised that there was such a thing as the "royal medical household", but have been rather put off looking at the homeopathy angle because of the Wikipedia entry I found for it. I know that Wikipedia isn't always a perfect source of information, and I am almost hoping there is a typo, (maybe something to do with the eyes?) but I was surprised at what I read about the royal medical household's membership... "Current roles include a Personal Doctor to the King and Queen, Physician to the King, a Serjeant Surgeon, Apothecaries to the King, Occultist to the King, Dentist to the King, Orthopaedic Surgeon to the King and Surgeon Gynaecologist to the Queen." IN THE 21ST CENTURY THERE IS AN OFFICIAL POST OF OCCULTIST TO THE KING? Info on the web is a bit sparse... please, please, can someone at least confirm that the post has been, and remains, unfilled?

It's not in alphabetical order so I'm not quite sure why "drunks" are at the top of the list. No mention of rapists or child abusers either. So never mind real wrong un's, they're going after "witches"? Still, blasphemers get a free pass, so presumably that particular imaginary crime is cool now. Looking at these two particularly odd looking folk on the right, I'm not particularly surprised that "w@nkers" doesn't appear on the list.

Maybe someone well qualified in medicine? Or at least someone carrying a defibrillator.

Welcome! 3 posts on an ostensibly football forum, none of which concern football. As a former presenter of Question Time might have said, not scientific but interesting nonetheless.

If I had a half baked drunk auntie like Kylie......... never mind ......

Could do with fewer questions and more singing! (And dancing...)

She's on telly just now in a new "An Audience With" knocking it out the park.

It has to be said. Kylie Is an absolute belter.

Well, IIRC, there is precedent for a Maggie return. Kim Il Sung is Eternal President of North Korea despite the fact that he died in 1994. We've had powerful monarchies and we've tried democracy... maybe time to give necrocracy a shout? If that doesn't work, with our apparent obsession with Gods, after necrocracy we could go for full theocracy and be ruled by popes, rabbis, imams and the descendants of The Rev Ian Paisley or perhaps even the likes of Pastor Jack Glass. Time for a lie down...

The very fact that allegedly serious publications are even raising the possibility of a BoJo second coming (MATRON!) should be enough to demonstrate to voters in Scotland that we need to get out of the Westminster shambles.

1) defeated MPs should get the same level of help as any other punter who loses his or her job. No less, but certainly no more. Why them and not the folk who used to work at your average wee shop or pub? https://www.gov.uk/browse/working/finding-job 2) the idea that there are MPs who don't know how to write CV is absolutely risible.