Windsor

I agree with you on that point. It was looking good for Salmond until the current banking crisis. The 'arc of prosperity' he was banging on about all of last year has fallen apart over the last month. Can you imagine if Scotland was independent? Her two largest banks up sh*t creek and not enough capital to prop them up? I don't pretend to be an economist, but even I can see that doesn't bode well. Also didn't Salmond say that he would have proped HBOS up with £100bn? Where is he getting that money from? But then according to some, I'm wrong. Something about oil revenues which we will be saving up from day one of independence (Christ knows how we are going to prop up our large public sector when we are saving all this money, especially as we are supposed to be emulating the low-tax Celtic Tiger). Then they generally say something about wind and wave farms? Anyway, with regards to University fees - I do agree with you (I'm not really that arrogant). Rather than have a system where all Scots get their education paid for - and all English students do not - I think a fairer national solution should be met. The poorest families - regardless of which side of the border they live - should be given assistance. I do sometimes question free University education for all Scots when a good proportion of students come from fairly affluent backgrounds. But then perhaps I'm just getting over idealistic. I'll take it that you were a late developer then?

Tell you what, you can have her bones back, you can even have all the Scotish people living in England back ( lots of them) and, in return, can we have all that money back that is handed over every year to allow the Scottish people all the freebies us English have to pay for, like your f*****g education Windsor. Stop bleating and thank your lucky stars that you are being spoon fed by the likes of hard working English taxpayers like ME!!!! Yes, I know. Its great isn't it? We are practically Royalty - living the good life thanks to you English taxpayers. God forbid that the Scots actually contribute to the exchequer. Anyway - you best be off to bed now as its after half nine. You best get a good nights sleep before starting another day of work to support young sawney here.

Its nice to see that Scotland's nationalist 'Government' is taking the economic crisis seriously! Arseholes. Bunch of timewasters.

Christ! Gordon Brown doesn't have much luck these days, does he?

So does that mean that we are out of the Euro thingy already? I heard someone saying that we 'had to win' this match?

Billy Graham has been hospitalized after a fall. They were reporting that he was released about 10 minutes ago.

That is one of the most politically convenient deaths I've read about. Hmmmm... Lets hope for just one more politically convenient death:

Is anyone else getting bored of the sheer volume of puns being used by the media reporting on the Iceland banking crisis. A new cold war? Frosty relations? Icy relations? Freezing assets? For Christ sake, Newsnight went to the trouble of freezing money as a backdrop to their reporting. Note to self - don't buy any tabloids tomorrow...

I was told a funny story last night. Not a joke, but I'm posting it here anyway. It's a true story - it happened to the lady-who told-me's, friend's relation who lives down south. Her friend's relation was planning a holiday over the summer to Disney Land Paris. They were all looking forward to it especially their kids. Sadly, the granda died 3 weeks before they were due to go away. Obviously this put a dampner on things so the holiday was put off. The kids weren't too happy at this because they had been looking forward to it, so the parents decided that they would go on holiday further south by caravan. They didn't want to leave grandma out so they took her on holiday as well. When they got to their destination, the kids were still moaning that they wanted to go to Disneyland. They were close to the Channel Tunnel so they decided that they would drive across. Only problem was that Grandma didn't have a passport. They then decided that they would attemp to smuggle her over the boarder by hiding her in the caravan. They told her to hide in the toilet and they would let her out as soon as they could in France. Anyway, the successfully managed to get Granny to France and they pulled over at the first oppertunity to let Granny out. The only problem was that Granny had died in the toilet. They don't know if it was natural causes, or if she had been poisoned by fumes. Obviously, mum and dad are no in a state of shock and they have no idea what to do. They decide to come clean and go to the police. So they detach the caravan from the car leaving it at the side of the road whilst they go to police station. When they came back, the caravan was gone. Somebody had stolen it with dead grandma inside. I'm still waiting to hear if either grandma or the caravan have been found... Edit: sh*t - I though this was the Jokes thread. Any kind mods about? Sorted [HCW]

Just think of the slugs you might be slaying, without hearing them scream or even splinter. Slugs are worse than snails - especially the big ones. The problem with large slugs is that when you step on them, you tend to slide and end up nearly falling on your arse. Or is that just me?

Tell that to Alex Salmond and the brown shirts that are constantly on my back. One of his followers informed me that my interpretation of the 1707 Union was wrong. According to my nationalist 'friend', England was desperate for the Union to be signed to put an end to centuries of Anglo-Scottish war because they were losing. When I informed him that the last Anglo-Scottish war ended in the 1540s, and that the Scottish state was struggling to pay her army in the years immediately preceeding 1707, he said I was speaking shite. Anyway - this will count as my rant of the day...

Sir William Paterson Founder of the Bank of England.

Who really gives a sh*t where he is?

Obama is widening his lead in the opinion polls.

Stupid attention seeking bitch. Her friends should be charged on crimes against humanity for stopping her.

Historian Simon Schama said that Palin makes George Bush seem like Karl Marx! He also doubted the long-term chances for McCain, mentioning his fight with skin cancer and that he's 72 years old... Damn - I take it I missed that programme then. I was going to watch it. Was it on the BBC? If so, I might catch it on iplayer. Surely if he gets elected, McCain will just replace her. He only ever took her on board as a vote winner in a desperate attempt to woo those of the Hillary gang who were considering voting for him.

Is Joe Biden turning into the Democrats answer to Bob Dole? He doesn't half like repeating his name... As for Palin, I thought her attitude towards Iraq was disgusting. She cares more about the glory of victory than anything else. Probably the best reason not to vote for her ticket because if she wants victory (something Petraeus said would never happen), the US will be in Iraq for a long time to come. Another thing about Palin. Someone should tell her that she is not running for re-election in Alaska. PS. I think her son was mentioned twice (but then I wasn't paying that much attention).

Human remains have been found in the plane. There was very little left of him.

You'll find that, being a free service, it is cheaper than a shrink. Anyway, what has pissed me off today.... Stagecoach have recently brought in those bendy buses. I was quite happy when I first heard about this because they seat more people, so I need not be left standing at the bus stop in the cold with a bus full of Christmas shopper. Unfortunately they are shite. If I have to sit on those buses for over an hour a sitting, I'm probably going to end up with pneumonia. I was bloody freezing today - and that was with gloves and a scarf. I think I've finally found the real reason behind the Salmond-Souter partnership. Salmond gives Souter a Monopoly in certain areas, and in exchange Souter kills off a number of pensioners (inticed by the promise of free travel). Anyway - it is too cold. If I'm cold now, I'm not looking forward to winter coming.

Having seen some of Palin's previous performances in recent interviews, tonight's debate should be very fun indeed. Listening to her, you get the impression that she has no idea what shes talking about, She is said to be a great debater though. According to some media, she has never lost a debate in her native Alaska - I'm not sure how big an endorsement that is really. I hope I can keep my eyes open long enough the actually see the debate. Only an hour to go...

Jock Wilson, Britain's oldest veteran of the Normandy landings, has died aged 105. http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Oldest-N...aged.4540108.jp

My political plotting has backfired again! Last night I discovered a bebo page set up by people from Fraserburgh called 'Foreigners out'. It is basically a very racist page whereby the townspeople have decided that if the government won't get rid of immigrants, the people will do it themselves. Anyway, when I was made aware of the page it was decorated in Saltire and Lion Rampant flags with slogans such as 'Scotland is for the Scots'. Anyway - I thought it was a beautiful display of what Scottish Nationalism was leading to (afterall we are all constituents in Alex Salmond's Banff and Buchan). I copied the link to one of my friends - a journalist with the Fraserburgh Herald - and suggest he write an article on it. He said he would see what he could so. So the article was set up, ready for me to write in the following week blaming the upsurge in Nationalist support for this outright racism. I checked out the site this morning (membership had already increase by 10) and to my disappointment they had adopted a new skin - the Union Flag. So my plans have backfired in a big way. I can only hope that some of the more patriotic townspeople may oppose the flag and have it changed to support their scottish nationalist identity. Still, the Scotland logo is still there. (PS. Yes, I know I have too much time on my hands)

I can't see why anybody would have a problem with that... To add injury to insult - you chose the right picture for Americans.

If her comments on Russia are any indication it's gonna be a massacre. I'm planning my entire week next week around the VP debate. I have a feeling that debate will be painful to watch. McCain may as well have chosen a Miss America candidate for his VP - or Paris Hilton. I was surprised to hear today that Obama was deemed to have 'won' the battle for American minds in last nights debate. McCain seemed to be ticking boxes of voting groups he wanted to capture. He obviously did much to get the hard Republican vote by his criticism of Obama's public spending plans, as well as making him seem overly liberal. He also tried to snatch the powerful Jewish lobby by claiming that, theoretically, Obama must respect the Iranian angle on Israel. At one point he mentioned the holocaust, did he not?

I'm watching the Presidential debate right now. To be quite honest I am disappointed as they both, in my opinion, performed poorly. Out of the pair of them, I think that McCain came out on top. Obama didn't have the substance needed to debate against McCain's knowlegde. Having said that, McCain told the same joke twice. Senile decay?