Jedi2

What was the crowd at the Thistle game?

It was indeed a superb free-kick for Thistle's last goal.

Went along to City v Thistle. Strange game. Thought City did relatively well, 1st half, looked solid enough at the back, and seemed to be coping, with Thistle struggling a bit to fashion many chances. 2nd half, once the 1st went in, City essentially collapsed and in fairness, Thistle were very clinical after that. Didn't feel like it was going to be anything like that scoreline at HT, but Thistle clearly had some gears to move up.

24 out of the 40 Bill's announced affect Scotland, so over half. (According to the Scottish Parliament's Website) Including Equal Pay for ethnic minorities and people with disabilities, GB Energy, National Wealth Fund, Banning Fire and Rehire, and Zero Hours, Statutory Sick Pay, new Council of the Nations, Border Command (Immigration), Renters Rights, Cyber Security, Bank Recapitalisation in the event of small Banks going under, ending Heridary Peers in the Lords, phasing out Vaping and Smoking. On the same day, Angela Raynor dismissed JD Vance's comments about the UK, so not quite 'cosying up' to Trump.

Glad to see @lichtgilphead an authority on every subject under the sun is now an expert on Education as well.

Foreign investment is not 'bad', no, as long as it doesn't involve a firesale of assets. Would it fall initially under Independence? Yes, as Scotland at the start wouldn't have a Central Bank, would still be using sterling, amd wouldn't have had the opportunity to build up reserves of foreign capital. Therefore foreign investors would see Scotland as a 'riskier' prospect as it would take time for Scottish businesses to find a level in International money markets, as these had decoupled from the UK At the moment as 'part' of the UK, Scotland is clearly doing pretty well in terms of FDI. I don't like Kate Forbes in the sense that she is a neoliberal with very Tory tendencies on public services.I do however think she is generally a person of 'principle' as she won't back down on her views when challenged on them. Her saying that FDI is 'doing well' in Scotland, isn't 'bad', no...see the point about this being while Scotland is part of the UK above. Therefore Scotland appears to be an attractive enough place to do business in...again while 'part' of the UK.

Have never disputed that Teacher Recruitment, 'solutions' to the NHS, etc only apply to England. The point still stands that starts have been made. As they have with the National Wealth Fund and Immigration. We do know of course that the SNP are currently aiming to cut over 400 teachers in Glasgow alone.

It works out at around 10% of UK govt spend at WM..(despite Scotland having 8.2% of the UK population the spend is 'higher' to account for Scotland having around 50% of its budget devoted to public services, so if WM spent an extra say £10 billion on Health, Scotland gets an extra £1 billion. The Barnett payment in the last year was £41 billion. Barnett is funded by taxes gathered across the whole of the UK, and of course the Scottish govt keeps and spends all tax raised in Scotland as well, with most tax powers aside from NI, fully devolved. It means that for every £100 per person benefit of spend in England, the spend is worth £126 per person in Scotland. Obviously during the Pandemic and the recent Cost of Living situation, there were increased payments by the UK govt to Scotland to cover these...Scotland would have struggled to cover furlough etc if say we had become recently Independent following the 2014 vote. Under Devolution the vast majority of services are under the control of the Scottish govt aside from NI, pensions, foreign affairs, defence and broadcasting. Of course how money is allocated and spent in Scotland, has been entirely decided by the SNP for the past 17 years.

I know...a whole 7 days in power and they haven't cut waiting lists or hired 6500 new teachers yet...absolutely chancers. Meanwhile I see that Kate Forbes is trumpeting Scotland having the 2nd highest foreign direct (private) investment.outside London..which is while being part of the UK of course.

So no comment on what the increased spend on the NHS or Education is yet, which of course also goes to Scotland as a percentage....reason being we don't yet know what it will be

Don't disagree that we need to 'see the numbers' regarding 6500 teachers (over a 5 year period of course), number of houses (same), and waiting lists. And yes 'halving' violence against women and girls is essential but will also take time However it is at least a 'good' start to already be getting the foundations in place. Not yet convinced that the first 2 years up until 2026 of (any) govt will be long enough to say 'look Labour have failed' for Holyrood, and given that most of their policy proposals only affect England and Wales in any case... At the same time no-one has any idea what 'events' could transpire between now and then..the Tories after all, came in, in 2019 promising to level up, but that was shelved in fairness due to spending £400 billion on furlough and vaccines (as well as shuffling cash to their pals for PPE of course). Also in 2019 we didn't then have Putin attempting a full invasion of Ukraine which pushed up energy and food prices across Europe. Labour also need 'luck' to have a term in office which isn't derailed by outside forces of wars, pandemics, and indeed a Trump re-election.

Based on?

TalkSport are probably leading with 'England have lit up this Tournament'. They are going to be the worst side to win an International Tournament in living memory...Greece at least had a really decent defence.

Unfortunately Spain don't have their name on the trophy...sometimes the (worst) stars just allign in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So in summary...Labour 'charlatans, liars and thieves'..don't expect them to do anything they say. ....start implementing the Manifesto pledges within the first week.. aye, but what about Health, Education and Housing in Scotland..er, these are all fully devolved. Aye...so they have let Scotland down (again)...expect a comfortable SNP win in 2026 as a result