Now look what's happened!

[Beetlejuice]

Shetland and Orkney want home rule!

Why?
1. They don't want to be dictated to by a government based hundreds of miles away that doesn't care about them (i.e. the SNP at Holyrood).
2. They want to keep the revenue from the oil resources based within their waters (67% of the Scottish total) and they don't want it taken away from them by anybody else (i.e. the SNP at Holyrood).

Alex can't say that doesn't make sense, eh?

John Swinney's off up there next week and, if he's taking his wee sidekick with him, there's no wonder Shetland and Orkney are anxious to make a clean break.

http://www.scotsman.com/scotland-on-sun ... -1-2841537

Interesting times indeed ...

[NickB]

Shetland and Orkney want home rule!

Bit of an overstatement surely . . . . it's just something Tavish Scott said at the Scottish LibDem conference.

Tavish, I am afraid, is not that bright. At the conference he put forward the Isle of Man as an example that the Northern Isles could follow. The IOM as a crown dependency has control over its territorial waters to 12 miles offshore. The same limit for Shetland and Orkney would give them precisely zero oil.

Only full independence would give the Northern Isles control over the oil in the East Shetland Basin and West of Shetland, and at the moment it is hard to see any constitutional routemap for that. At the very least it would require MSPs for both constituencies and the Orkney and Shetland Westminster MP to be elected on a pro-independence platform, so short of UDI there is no basis for negotiation until at least 2016. There is no strong grassroots movement for independence in either island group at the moment either, so frankly it's just another LibDem joke.

Someone said to me tonight in the pub that Wille Rennie is secretly on the YES side and all will be revealed in the fullness of time. I wonder.

[jimcee]

Pardon my ignorance, but who is Willie Rennie ? and what is the significance of the pub gossip ?

[NickB]

Pardon my ignorance, but who is Willie Rennie ? and what is the significance of the pub gossip ?

Willie Rennie is the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.



He won a regional list seat for the LibDems in the Scottish Parliament's Mid-Scotland and Fife region at the Holyrood elections on 5 May 2011.

[Beetlejuice]

Good grief! Not a flattering photo!

This is the man who recently said that people on benefits who live in houses that they couldn't afford if they were working should be "incentivised" back into work. A chilling statement, whichever way you look at it.

Wonder how many bedrooms he's got?

[Pentlandpirate]

I'm sure no one would wish to ridicule people for their looks. Everyone should be encouraged to work and make a contribution to life. Far too many people who could work prefer to sit on their backsides at other's expense. It's just a shame that some are so lazy that others have to cough up a chunk of their hard earned pay in taxes to 'incentivise' these people to contribute in some way for their existence. And it's fascinating for a tax payer to think there are some people who have a house, do their shopping, buy clothes and birthday presents for others, pay their bills, run a car, have holidays, watch sky TV and movies, have the latest mobile phone, smoke and drink, every bit of it paid for with money given to them week in, week out, year after year. It's shameful that hardly anyone dares confront the problem, and is exactly the sort of issue that Scottish MP's should be dealing with as a priority.

[Tony the Toad]

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed- interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit- crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life...

John Hodge.

[sleepy]

We'll Tony........, just you tell it how it is. Was it Tavish or Wille who come out with that or is John Hodge the prospective Lib/Dem condidate for A&B? Can't wait for more of the same!

[NickB]

We'll Tony........, just you tell it how it is. Was it Tavish or Wille who come out with that or is John Hodge the prospective Lib/Dem condidate for A&B? Can't wait for more of the same!

He's the BAFTA award winning writer of the screenplay of Trainspotting. I think our resident amphibian was probably commenting on the Irate Pirate's 'benefit scroungers' rant rather than LibDem policies, but I could be wrong . . .

[sleepy]

Does this mean that quoting from a book or any other source is open season for the 'F' word

[jimcee]

Yes, I am surprised that our moderator allowed that post to appear on the site.
Surely there is something in the rules that mitigates against this degredation of the English language.

[Pentlandpirate]

I think in the context it was used, it is acceptable. After all the f word is no worse in today's society than 'bloody' or 'damn' were a few generations ago.

[NickB]

Yes, I am surprised that our moderator allowed that post to appear on the site.
Surely there is something in the rules that mitigates against this degredation of the English language.

It is a quote from a widely respected film based on a widely respected novel by one of Scotland's most widely respected authors, and it was posted in a relevant context.

I am fairly confident it isn't going to lead to an epidemic of random effing and blinding on here, and I don't see how replacing two or three letters with asterisks would improve matters.

[sleepy]

Any chance of using the 'K' word then?

I've heard it on BBC television programmes and that doesn't make it right!

I ain't no prude but I am surprised it was allowed. Well done Tony for changing the subject!

[jimcee]

I am certainly showing my ignorance in this thread, but what on earth is this K word which seems to be more offensive than F.?

Thinking a bit more about it, this F business is probably so attractive because it can be used as a noun, an adjective and a verb, a sloppy misuse of the language because the speaker cannot either drum up, or is ignorant of a more appropriate word.

[Tony the Toad]

'Thinking a bit more about it, this F business is probably so attractive because it can be used as a noun, an adjective and a verb, a sloppy misuse of the language because the speaker cannot either drum up, or is ignorant of a more appropriate word.'

On these terms, in order to increase our vocabulary, we must refrain from using certain words? Bit counterproductive, I would have thought. The F word, for example, is predominantly utilised as an intensifier. If you can think of another word which works so well in this capacity, then please share...

[jimcee]

Well you can intensify all you want, but in the everyday society that abounds hereabouts we seem to manage quite well without any intensification.
Most of the resorters to intensification I have come across either use it to shock or because they find it saves them thinking.

[sleepy]

All right jimcee, the 'K' word is really the 'C' word but I thought the forum and this thread had gone downhill far enough but I see delicacy is out the window.

I've heard it used, usually as a noun in derogatory terms, but, sometimes as an adjective but never as a verb ........unless............!

Maybe we should go back to Orkney and Shetland Independence and the rantings of that balloon Tavish Scott.

..........and then maybe the integrity of the thread was compromised from the start!!

[jimcee]

Purely in the interests of the dissemination of knowledge on the verbal use of the F word, how about "F... you" and "F...off", and even "Go and F... yourself".
Personally I have never used these expressions, but sadly I have been in the company of others who have (but fortnately extremely rarely).

[Foxglove]

Jim..is it so bad that people use swearwords now and then? Although I consider myself a 'laydee' I have been known to utter such words [usually under my breath and directed to myself]. Also..I recall reading somewhere recently that people who swear a lot are 'more honest and trustworthy' than those who don't! It was on the BBC news web page...don't know if there is any scientific evidence to support this though..