SCOT goes POP!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2146939/Da...

2012-05-21T04:47:23.613+01:00

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2146939/Darling-hosts-secret-summit-kill-Scottish-independence-Edinburgh-home.html

http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/political-news/unionist-campaign-calls-on-blair-to-embrace-its-cause.17641581

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/darling-says-blair-will-fight-scots-breakaway-7769669.html

Having watched the clips of all of the songs, the ...

2012-05-20T19:12:35.705+01:00

Having watched the clips of all of the songs, the Balkans and the Baltic states seem worth listening to. The one I like the best is Croatia. I also like Israel.

Go Loreen!!!!!!!

2012-05-18T18:19:20.147+01:00

Go Loreen!!!!!!!

Tynecastle is well below. Apart from Croke Park, ...

2012-05-17T00:51:37.567+01:00

Tynecastle is well below. Apart from Croke Park, Ireland has six other GAA stadia that are nominally above 30,000 capacity, but in some cases (possibly all) that's due to standing room, so they probably wouldn't be suitable.

A bid needs 8-10 stadia: a certain number with a c...

2012-05-16T19:07:20.594+01:00

A bid needs 8-10 stadia: a certain number with a capacity over 50,000, so many over 40,000 and the rest over 30,000. (Can't remember the quantities, sorry.) So Hampden, Parkhead, Ibrox, Murrayfield and the Millennium would be fine, but you'd be struggling for the rest. Throw in Croke Park and the Aviva and you're nearly there.

Do any other grounds in Scotland hold over 30K? Pittodrie certainly doesn't and I'm pretty sure Easter Road doesn't - what's the capacity at Tynecastle these days?

Scotland/Ireland had a bid for Euro 2008 rejected ...

2012-05-16T12:25:26.326+01:00

Scotland/Ireland had a bid for Euro 2008 rejected at the first stage by UEFA. A number of reasons, one of them being the reliance on 3 stadiums in one small city (Glasgow).

"Are Gaelic football matches held in prett...

2012-05-15T19:33:20.827+01:00
"Are Gaelic football matches held in pretty big stadiums?"

Yes, Croke Park is the fourth-largest stadium in Europe (well, according to Wikipedia!).

I think under the old format, Scotland and Wales could have launched a bid on their own, but with the tournament expanded to 24 teams a third country would be required.

Three host nations? Not quite sure how that would ...

2012-05-15T19:18:04.456+01:00
Three host nations? Not quite sure how that would work. However, I suppose Hampden, Ibrox, Celtic Park and Murrayfield aren't enough stadiums for a whole tournament, and Pittodrie, Easter Road, Tyncastle and Tannadice probably aren't big enough (nor will the new Aberdeen stadium).

Obviously Ireland has the Aviva stadium, but what else? Are Gaelic football matches held in pretty big stadiums? I'm guessing Wales are in there for the Millennium stadium, Swansea's ground and Cardiff's ground. Why aren't Scotland and Wales enough on their own?

Ignoring all that though, doesn't it just make you feel that little bit closer to independence? Just a wee bit?

Or not perhaps. I don't intend to watch a min...

2012-05-15T17:50:56.313+01:00
Or not perhaps. I don't intend to watch a minute of any part of the Olympics never mind the U23 footie.

I liked the last couple of posts about independenc...

2012-05-11T13:58:10.161+01:00
I liked the last couple of posts about independence on Better Labour where James Mackenzie became more stroppy teenager than usual and said something like "God I'm bored of this now" before closing the comments down. He's comedy gold.

I see Jeff's resurrected his "time to ditch the liability that is Salmond theme" as well.

The biggest compliment I can pay them is that I suspect the Cllr Alex Gallagher thinks that despite being non aligned, keen to engage with independence supporters (coughs loudly into hand) and applying a moderation policy that's not even remotely "dickish" it's a cracking good read.

Aww, I didn't realise he'd replied to me! ...

2012-05-11T09:09:26.725+01:00
Aww, I didn't realise he'd replied to me! Shame Better Nation has started closing comments down so quickly recently. Can't really understand the logic behind that.

I can't stop laughing... Killer indeed James....

2012-05-11T00:16:57.570+01:00
I can't stop laughing...

Killer indeed James.

"The people who created the electoral syst...

2012-05-07T14:16:10.541+01:00
"The people who created the electoral system decades ago can hardly be blamed for failing to foresee yesterday's results."

True, but they didn't have to foresee absolutely every eventuality to realise that they were introducing a very, very silly system!

The Greek PR system was devised in entirely differ...

2012-05-07T14:02:15.174+01:00
The Greek PR system was devised in entirely different circumstances than today's. It probably made sense then, and looks to have been designed to solve the problems with forming stable majority governments in the period before the military putsch.

In detail, if you look at the '74 election, the winner was got 40-odd% and that was true up until things went tits up. And whereas the opposition was a bit fragmented in '74 or '77, by 2004 the winners (ND) had 45% of the vote and the main opposition (PASOK) 40%. So although the 50-seat bonus looks odd, there were good reasons for it.

It has only become highly distorting because ND and PASOK have lost so many votes (ND down 15 points, PASOK down 30!). The people who created the electoral system decades ago can hardly be blamed for failing to foresee yesterday's results. Five or six years ago nobody could have foreseen them.

I like Kate Higgins posts. They read like the reas...

2012-05-07T10:14:59.940+01:00
I like Kate Higgins posts. They read like the reasonable, well argued kind of stuff I wish all Labour Party supporters would write.

Then I remember she's SNP and I just don't understand where she's coming from at all.

In fairness, the SNP didn't win on every
2012-05-07T02:40:06.618+01:00
In fairness, the SNP didn't win on every measure - they're the biggest party on only 11 councils compared to Labour's 14 (which Johann Lamont described as "double that of the SNP". S'pose it's too late for voters to punish her for innumeracy).

Ce sont de bonnes nouvelles! I know my French fri...

2012-05-06T19:34:13.067+01:00
Ce sont de bonnes nouvelles!

I know my French friends are over the moon!

When I buy an apple I don't want a pear. Same ...

2012-05-06T18:46:49.283+01:00
When I buy an apple I don't want a pear. Same thing with the election results I look at the last one for the same council. Had a look at the Dundee seats with increased percentages, SNP top the poll in 7 out of 8. Most of the Green's 2nd pref in the West End seat went to the SNP candidate so that knocked the Tory out. You must find out where the 2nd pref are going in these multi-member wards and we did that in that ward.

Yes, another example is that the SNP won just 20% ...

2012-05-06T18:15:55.806+01:00
Yes, another example is that the SNP won just 20% in the 2010 Westminster election, and 45% in the Holyrood election a year later. Does that mean Cochrane and his ilk would have said the SNP vote had climbed 25%? Of course not, they made a comparison with the previous Holyrood election, just like the rest of us did.

Holyrood and local elections are different, as the results on the same day in 2007 showed. You have to compare like with like, not cast around for whichever contrived comparison will best suit the narrative you want to peddle.

One of the annnoying stats, used both by Cochrane ...

2012-05-06T18:06:14.298+01:00
One of the annnoying stats, used both by Cochrane in the telegraph, and somebody in the Scotsman was that the SNP fell from 45% last year to 33% this. This ignores the 12 percent of the vote that went to Independents. Most of those are in the highlands, islands, and other rural areas. I'd imagine that most years the "independent" vote splits fairly evenly between libs, tories, and SNP in Holyrood, Westminster, and Euro elections. Very little would go to Labour. Has anyone figures on who these independents vote for. My hunch is that many will be disaffected libs --so while the snp definitely declined on 2011, its more likely that they are on 38% lab on 33 tories on 16 and libs on 9

An island of sense in an ocean of shit... Posted ...

2012-05-06T16:19:39.776+01:00
An island of sense in an ocean of shit...

Posted by:
Bill Pickford (who refuses to open a Google account!)

if you havent, please join the Scottish Independen...

2012-05-06T02:48:13.614+01:00
if you havent, please join the Scottish Independence Convention. Thanks.

The thing is that Labour simply cannot accept it w...

2012-05-05T15:03:02.903+01:00
The thing is that Labour simply cannot accept it when they lose.

We saw this is 2007 - many Labour people plainly considered 2007 to be a draw because they lost by only one seat (and, besides, had more constituency MSPs, despite a lower vote share).

It was the same in the 2009 Euro elections - despite the SNP hammering them by vote share, they called that a draw as well because both parties won the same number of seats.

Labour types still deny that the Tories won in 2010 because they didn't get an overall majority - you'll often see them taunting Tories with the "fact" that they've not won since 1992. They just can't accept that they were beaten.

Even in 2011, as unambiguous a result as you're ever likely to see, many claim that the SNP win is really illegitimate because of the low turnout.

So we really shouldn't be surprised that they think they've won the local elections this year as well. They remind me of Old Firm fans - they've never lost a game, just been cheated by the ref, so it doesn't count.

Of course, they may simply be innumerate, which their record in government and proposals in opposition make a distinctly likely scenario.

Yes, it looks like the SNP's performance in Sc...

2012-05-05T13:42:59.622+01:00
Yes, it looks like the SNP's performance in Scotland was only really bettered by Labour in Wales.

The SNP's result compared to the Lib Dems UK-w...

2012-05-05T11:11:05.052+01:00
The SNP's result compared to the Lib Dems UK-wide is of course still remarkable, as the English council elections had three times as many seats up for grabs (3638) compared to the 1223 in Scotland.

Had the SNP's results been scaled up proportionately, the results in England would have looked like this:

SNP 1,263
LAB 1,188
CON 785
LIB 289
GRN 26

Or across the whole UK:

LAB 2,158
SNP 1,687
CON 1,005
LIB 431
GRN 40

So the SNP wouldn't be the 3rd-biggest UK party, but in fact the 2nd-biggest...