Bloomsbury Bud

I wholeheartedly recommend the exhibition, and I hope you get the chance to see and enjoy it. I'd also add the Portrait Gallery really looks the business these days, I think it had a renovation a few years ago, I've not been there for around 10 years but its a smashing place to visit these days, more so than I could previously recall. I should also mention their WW1 exhibition which is pretty moving.

I went to see a couple of acts at the fringe festival yesterday, in between the acts I took the opportunity to visit the National Portrait Gallery and I saw the John Byrne 'Sitting Ducks' exhibition. Its fantastic, free and I'd recommend it for a visit - its on until 19th October. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/john-byrne/

He's too busy stuffing his son's pockets, must be true I read it here.

My usual seat is towards at the 'away end' of the Main Stand, along with everyone else I found the screen too bright and it disrupted my view of the match now and again. Also it kept wishing Marc McAusland Happy Birthday, and I doubt that was the case.

Point and laugh at Jackson, not to be taken seriously. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/craig-whyte-profile-the-scots-billionaire-1076110 http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2013/aug/19/daily-record-rangers

You're setting yourself up, aren't you?

A Cracken signing, surely

I don't think that's correct. Before the 2011 election Curtice wrote this article detailing that Labour had lost its lead and that the SNP were on course for victory, his article notes from 10 points ahead to 2 to 4 points behind - roughly accounting for the 11% swing. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/apr/17/scottish-elections-labour-poll-position The SNP, and the 'yes' campaign in general, are reasonable to point out they've overturned similar margins, but it was for an election rather than referendum. I'd maintain Curtice is an expert and a credible one.

Completely agree. If you have players with a particular talent then use it to your advantage. I'm not really for St Mirren playing a certain way, I just want to see them winning, which usually means doing things better than the opposition. Play to strengths, if that means playing it long or passing through the middle, I don't care so long the team can carry it off. It was interesting to watch the Dutch playing over the top of the Spaniards at the world cup, exposing their weak and comparatively slow defence and allowing the Dutch pace and power (Robben and RVP) to dominate the match. I also liked Germany's tactic of keeping Brazil's central defence in the match at all times and keeping the Brazilian full backs tied up when in defence. With Muller and Kroos passing through the defence time after time.

I think the gap has narrowed, my guess based on the link is 'yes' does not have sufficient momentum to win: http://blog.whatscotlandthinks.org/2014/07/poll-of-polls-11-july/

On that subject, God Save the Queen/King was written when the Jacobites were camped in the midlands, and contained the line 'and like a torrent crush, rebellious Scots to crush' - by your standard are you advocating a new anthem for the UK as the current one celebrates victory from 100's of years ago? That GStQ/K also celebrates hereditary office is similarly a notion that its reasonable to consider as, at least, a bit out of date - perhaps embarrassing. I don't really like any national anthems (except the French one which I do find stirring, albeit its about a victory from years gone by), but when you nail your colours to the UK it encourages folk to think about those same topics you've used to criticise the 'yes' vote.

In equal measure its fair to reflect that Scotland has a subset of society with deep rooted problems of sectarianism. Mixing those 2 problems is a often a heady and troublesome combination.

While its true that grounds in England do sell booze, the police have discretion to prohibit alcohol sales at certain fixtures. I used to often go to Spurs matches, and when another London team visited Spurs the sale of alcohol was prohibited, as it was when Man U or Leeds visited. Most other fixtures allowed half time and pre match sales in the concourses in the stands - my guess is the club made a few bob from it, but once the staff and other overheads is factored in then I doubt (but I don't know) the margin is anything wonderful. Having seen the drinking at these grounds, I'd prefer it wasn't reintroduced at Scottish grounds. I've not been to a match in Germany, but I have visited the country several times and I've been struck by the German culture of enjoying a drink, without worst excess behaviour which can be experienced here. Bringing back alcohol provided by the clubs wold most likely see clubs make some additional money, but as to whether or not that would lead to a discounting of entrance pricing is something which strikes me as unlikely.

And in equal measure nobody puts any credence in your repetitive discredited dung

Gie it a break Shull, your preference for football is understood. Going on and on (and on) is starting to represent tippy tappy forum posting.

The players from Scotland in the last 3/4 years who have commanded a fee are the ones that can pass, dribble etc - tippy tappy shit it may be; but it does attract transfer revenue and has saved us continuing to pay journeymen on comparatively inflated wages. To the credit of the players we've brought through they can also tackle and 'mix it' when they need to, and last season they also knocked it long if needs be.

Its great that McLean has chosen to stay with us, with the 2 year deal and no doubt a higher wage we now have insurance that any bid in Jan or next summer will need to be minimum 500k. A one season deal would have left the club without any revenue coverage and we'd have been left be stretching the wage bill with no real chance of transfer income. Anyone struggling to understand why this is good news should consider, we can't get better quality than him in the signing market and we've covered our position for transfer revenue from the player in the next 3 transfer windows. So good news on the field and sensible thinking ahead. I do think McLean can develop into a full internationalist (although most likely not while he's still with us), which would be a positive milestone for the team at Ralston. The challenge will be keeping his consistency at the level it was in his 2 strong spells last season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDW-W2J84Hc

You're welcome. In 2013 there was 28 polls published (according to the link) the following average (mean) for each as follows: No 47%, Yes 31% Undecided 18% the Average Lead to No = 15% As to whether or not the gap is closing, according to the link there has been 20 polls published in 2014 the average (mean) for each is, brackets shows comparison to 2013 average: No 44%,( -3%)Yes 35%(+4%) Undecided 16%(-2%), the Average Lead to No = 9% . The gap is narrowing by this measure, across the 2014/2014 period, albeit to your credit the No position has changed little (-3%). Where I would agree with you, is that on balance of probabilities the difference is not being overturned between the respective Yes and No positions with sufficient pace to make a Yes outcome likely. FWIW, I've still not made up my mind but I will vote.

That's not how I read it. 3 of the opening 6 fixtures are at home. 2 of those home fixtures are Dundee and Accies, this is a good opportunity for momentum. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/st-mirren/fixtures

Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_Scottish_independence_referendum,_2014

Rangers were run like Real Madrid and they're in the first division, too.

since DIana Ross missed that sitter?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

Steagall but yes, that's what I suggested, thanks.