oaksoft

Is it just £74 per week though? Is housing not added to that? And if you are talking about a household then presumably there are child benefits added to that. If neither parent is working, are they both not entitled to claim as well? I don't know about any of this hence the question.

Agreed. Ensuring all kids have access to computers and the internet is one of the first steps in ending the scourge of child poverty and inequality. I'd have thought that it's the sort of initiative that every single person in the country could get behind. I'm pretty sure the other parties are supporting this as well. It makes you wonder what kind of person could possibly find something in this to sneer about. Imagine being the kind of person who is so messed up by the idea of a handful of "scroungers laughing at them" that they'd gleefully screw over the futures of our nation's kids to prevent that. We saw the same thing with the free meals for kids initiative. That is a pretty f**ked up mindset right there IMO.

I'd also add that at some point people need to ask what kind of lifestyle they want. We have low taxes here but look at the state of our country. Crushing levels of poor housing, poverty everywhere, a benefits system which leaves people in desperate trouble and a distinct lack of ambition everywhere. Is that worth saving a bit of tax money on? Personally, I don't think so.

Yes and there's huge potential for big business in it as well if we can aim to become a global renewables and recycling innovation hub (both research and development with potential for some manufacturing as well). I'd definitely like to see Scotland more involved in driving innovative environmental solutions worldwide. IMO this is the sort of vision for Scotland I'd like to see Sturgeon promoting for IndyRef2. All this nonsense about EU membership, currency, pensions and borders at Gretna are all either total distractions or short term problems easily fixed. None of them are exciting to talk about. We need a better vision of what she sees for the country in 20-50 years time which can only be achieved or best achieved through independence. There's just a total lack of an exciting vision from the mainstream parties IMO. There's also scope for pharmaceuticals manufacturing too BTW. And software development of all kinds - not just games development in Dundee.

No fecking wonder. Give this utter shite a rest FFS.

Apart from a spell of about 25 minutes in the second half where we were excellent and pinned them back, I thought our players looked exhausted throughout. Not sure that Austria will beat them out there but it's looking like a straight shootout with Austria to get 2nd place. Denmark already look too far ahead but we'll see.

Actually that's where I'm leaning too but they need to get a bit less mental first. For example, the 60% upper tax level is ridiculous, the insistence on having two leaders, one of each gender is deeply patronising and looks fake, the insistence on keeping the old Forth Road Bridge shut when there are traffic jams each day on the other bridge (long term I want to see car levels reduced but for now both bridges are needed) and then you have the whole wokism and vegetarian/vegan thing. They've got a wee bit to go for me but the whole environmental thing and public transport push is appealing. I also do support the idea of full equality of treatment for everyone. Other parties are just not focussed on this stuff enough but the Greens are a wee bit too extreme right now for my votes to go to them but I am very open to switching to them if and when they calm down a bit. I'd love to give them both of my votes at some point. I really love the idea of a Scandinavian culture here in Scotland and the Greens might be the party to deliver it.

Oh dear Tom. You appear to be offended by what I said. Never mind.

Clarke needs to explain why we are playing 5-3-2 in a game we need to win. What the hell is going on?

I take offence at nothing. Calling you out on being a sexist c**t is a different ball game altogether. How unsurprising that your generation is too ill-educated to know the difference. Your generation will die out soon enough I suppose, and your dinosaur views will go with you.

Anyone would think we were set up to play Italy or Spain FFS. Scared of Israel. Embarassing.

Why the f**k are we playing with 5 at the back and no width in midfield? This is absolutely awful to watch. We're not even pretending to compete here.

Sorry bud, this isn't a game I am interested in playing.

And then at the other end of the scale we have the poor gullible f**kers who will believe literally anything they read from Bob's Rootin' Tootin' website. Peach slices as a cure for covid. FFS. Our beautiful forum is blessed with both special types.

It feels really odd to have played so brilliantly, beaten both England and France away from home......and finish fourth.

He speaks very well indeed. There's our future Scotland captain right there. Love the attitude and the confidence. We should not fear anyone because like he said, we have players in our squad playing at the highest level in the game. The belief within the team now compared to what it was when Clarke took over is like night and day. He's also right about Israel. Stop worrying about what they can do to us and go and take them apart. That should be the attitude from the first minute.

Hang on. Just realised you posted this. What utter nonsense. Worse than Johann Lamont? Worse than Boris Johnson? Worse than the SNP, MSP god-obsessed nutter John Mason? Worse than Natalie McGarry? Worse than Salmond FFS? Hope you enjoyed your fishing trip.

Honestly bud, there's really nothing hilarious about any of this and I know you don't actually mean that. Because of a technicality, this guy has walked free from court after multiple allegations of sexual assault against him. Now those women have to sit and watch this utter charade and apparently there is absolutely nothing which can be done about it. I suspect that he will vanish without a trace at election time with next to nobody voting for him but the fact that he can even have a go at this is nothing short of disgraceful. It's very hard not to be angry on behalf of the women brave enough to make those allegations. So it's anger rather than hilarity that I'm feeling at the moment. I suspect that all right thinking people will feel similarly. A good boot in the baws electorally in May is what this guy needs.

Has she admitted to inappropriate behaviour towards females working for her? When she does, you might have a point when comparing them.

What a game that was. End to end in that second half. No idea how we were supposed to defend against a guy who is 6ft 7in and is capable of bulleting a header like that. Just one of those things. Thought we deserved a point but bringing Dykes off was a mistake. His hold up play was excellent and some of his passing was great. They looked very dangerous on the attack but it's great to see us competing with teams at that level rather than the backs to the wall stuff from years ago.

I know you are joking but I have to say that I've just never been fully convinced that things would have been much different if we had kept things open and let it rip. The reason for saying that is simple. People mixed in supermarkets, in the post offices, in the banks, in offices around the country at work, in delivery centres for the likes of Amazon and thousands of other places. The argument is that without lockdown, deaths and hospitalisations would have been higher but that's a wafer thin argument. There was more than enough breaking of social distancing in all walks of life to have undone and utterly swamped any benefit from lockdown. I'm afraid that we may have trashed the economy for absolutely nothing. IMO vaccines have been the game changer and we're very lucky to have them. We'll find out once everyone is vaccinated and we see what kind of spikes we get, if any, but the evidence is that vaccines are the way out.

Yeah. Our third wave came before we had widespread vaccinations. And since we started seriously vaccinating (half the population), the virus is coming up against a wall of vaccinated people (as Chris Witty said). That is why we're seeing drastic reductions in cases and the break of the link between cases and hospitalisations/deaths when the EU countries are seeing marked increases in cases and NO breaking of the link between cases and hospitalisations/deaths. Israel appear to also have broken this link and so for both them and us, the number of daily cases is becoming an increasingly less relevant statistic. Rejoice Sue. The end may be nigh for all this overly panicky restriction nonsense. Unless of course you fancy a pint in a pub and require a vaccine passport to be allowed in. I do love your claim, with absolutely no evidence, that vaccines CAUSE covid. That had me rocking in my chair with laughter. The question is whether you are just trolling for a bit of fun between Saints games or whether you genuinely hold these beliefs.

@Sue Denim, why don't you actually compare the only two relevant curves which is the current reduction in cases, deaths and hospitalisations this year with the reduction rate last year (which would have been around May time). No other comparisons are useful. Then when you've done that, compare the number of hospitalisations and deaths between covid outbreaks this month and any period of covid last year with comparable daily case numbers. Finally, explain why the case rates for the over 50's have dropped like a stone this month when other age groups are seeing increases. If it's not the vaccines then I'm struggling to see a case for anything else.

Totally forgot we were playing. Hesgoal to the rescue. Looks like I missed all the shite stuff at the beginning because since I started watching, we've looked very decent moving forwards. A few good chances but all shots straight at the keeper.

But we didn't have covid in 2018. 2018 is totally irrelevant. Focus laddie.