Wee-Bey

Celtic have been good tbf. Or Bratislava are dogshit. Or a bit of both.

Post 2014 I don't think either side have learned much from the referendum, except the No side's extreme reluctance to even entertain any dialogue on having another one for obvious reasons. The SNP subsumed the broader movement, it became very top down and the whole idea was put into a vehicle for SNP electoral dominance for a decade, with next to nothing in return except an enabling of a host of elected and non elected public purse parasites and calls for 'one more push' and 'it's just round the corner, one more election bro, honest'. Very telling that support for independence remains the same, but support for the SNP and party membership has taken a big hit recently. The British State continues to lurch from crisis to crisis, much of which is their own doing, with public services deteriorating and scandal ridden, hollowed out institutions. Still nothing in the way of any type of vision for the future beyond Boris Johnson's 'levelling up' (a cruel hoax deliberately left vague so the press could attach their own thoughts to what it would mean like 'eleventy new hospitals' or a 'Northern Powerhouse') and Keir Starmer's 'Change' (the guy at the top will be wearing a different coloured tie)

I doubt he's reading tbh.

If Scotland becomes independent, you'll be arrested and thrown in jail simply for saying you're British.

Enjoyed that Marshy contribution. What a poster he was by the way.

I'd much prefer that minds were focused on the fact that thanks to Israel, every other bunch of f**king headbangers knows that it's now possible to plunge a country into chaos with one intercepted shipping container and that there's the possibility that there is still remotely triggerable IEDs hidden inside consumer devices and we don't know how many there are and how many haven't detonated yet.

Some interesting comments, I'll add my own. I worked on the bins at the time and one of my strongest memories was seeing almost every 2nd house in the schemes with a Yes poster in the window, then going up to Morningside to see the Better Together ones with a few student Yes' thrown in, followed by knocking on a few doors myself one night and having Labour MP Sheila Gilmore knock mine one night and trying to engage her, before she f**ked off immediately after her opening pensions gambit didn't land. It's a lot easier with hindsight of course, but it's no surprise the polls narrowed and indeed remain very balanced on the issue. The Yes arguments were and are a very open question to every individual, 'what type of country would you like to live in?' The No side were and are still, trying to defend the status quo. Easier back then than it is now of course as the increasingly rapid decomposition of social democracy has really turbocharged since the vote. The campaigns matched this, with the Yes side having some real grassroots and community led groups, ranging from anti nuclear/anti war folk to feminist groups to small business owners and so on. I wouldn't describe it as a fully 'bottom up' movement but it felt very broad. The No side felt and was imo very top down with Better Together. Exhausting itself with low political cunning, topped up with miserablist nostalgia, leaving little space for any plan or vision for the future. Exemplified by the 'shut up and eat your cereal'. That's a long post. I'll do post 2014 in another.

The timing is interesting, why 'blow', for want of a better word, a very valuable espionage asset like this now? It's a big one off type move and you can be sure there's plenty folk in Iran right now opening the back of their phone to have a look. Talk of this being a prelude to the invasion of Southern Lebanon. Chinese electronics manufacturers looking at that Middle East market right now.

Reports of emergency services radios and devices in electronic retail stores bowing up. Seems increasingly likely that far from being a targeted attack on Hezbollah, they've just stuffed explosives in all manner of communication devices entering Lebanon and then detonated them.

9 for Monday 7 for Tuesday

We had a referendum. Despite it being arguably the biggest political event in this country in living memory and a moment where we witnessed an unparalleled interest in politics by your average punter, where folk who had never voted before (and probably haven't since) went down to tick their box, there's very little in the way of marking this anniversary. Neither the SNP or the Unionist parties seem much inclined to discuss it to any degree, or provide any retrospective thoughts. Was it a good idea to let the plebs have such a big say, or should the sensible and important people be left to get on with it and democracy should strictly be a once every 5 years you pick the least worse arsehole on your slip ? What are your favourite memories ? Would you like to do it again ? Do you think we'll get to do it again ? Is the country in a better state after the result, and if not, who actually 'won' the referendum then ? What figures involved are no longer around who should be ? Who is still around who shouldn't be ? What does the future hold for both this issue and Scottish politics in general ?

Who's all chipping in for some private security for the big moist boy, so he can make it to the big day?

Local media and town papers are now just generic shite owned by the same 2 or 3 arsehole organisations with virtually unreadable web pages due to pop ups and ads.

Think he's just trying to ignore it and posting through it tbh. Gonna have to come clean soon Throbs

Moving on to some grammar stuff now on Duolingo and fml.

The Lib Dems are an utterly pointless rabble.

I think this is the case for most folk who watch golf. It was their regular season finale at the weekend and I'll wager it was comfortably only the 3rd most watched golf tournament of the week, despite the quality of the top end of their fields. That's even taking into consideration the fact that the casual fan probably rates whoever is actually playing a close 2nd behind the importance of the event. (I rate the quality of the venue equally alongside those, but I'm that hipster architecture nerd) I've watched a fair bit of LIV since it kicked off, although not much of it this year. They'll need to make significant changes to their format going forward if it's to break out of the novelty status, but considering it's just purely a vehicle to normalise the Saudi state, force the PGA's hand and get them a seat at the table, I doubt they'll bother.

Crikey. That'll do it.

Seems a terribly designed finishing hole when everyone has to walk back up the fairway.

The big Scandinavian!!!!

Boutier is a killer. Ice cold.

The commentary.