A long walk to the Bar

[Batcher]

Make sure you eat different meals. We don't want the entire Yes campaign to be wiped out by one batch of dodgy mushy peas.

Doubtful. Mushy peas isn't normally on the menu in Scotland.

[Ticktock]

Doubtful. Mushy peas isn't normally on the menu in Scotland.

Of course not. They're vegetables.

[Batcher]

Of course not. They're vegetables.

We have peas. We just don't choose to mush them up in vinegar

[Ticktock]

We have peas. We just don't choose to mush them up in vinegar

Perfectly understandable.



The vinegar would cut through the oil when you're frying them.

[malvolio]

Wrong on so many levels.

For a start, Alex Salmond is a backbench MSP. The Leader of the party is Nicola Sturgeon and the leader of the Westminster group is Angus Robertson so why do the Tories, Labour and MSM make Salmond out to be the bogey man and using him in their election posters?

Possibly because they have correctly identified the power behind the throne? Organ Grinders and Monkeys come to mind.

The Gordon seat he is contesting isn't a safe Westminster seat for the SNP, it's been held by the LibDems for years with a 5 figure majority.

Ignoring the point that nobody will vote Lib Dem this time round, Salmond isn't going to contest a seat he may lose

Salmond is not a career politician. He was an economist at RBS for years before he was an MP. He is better qualified to be chancellor than Gideon who folded towels in Selfridges as his previous job.

He is one now. However, if he is that brilliant an economist, why were his financial proposal post independence so far away from anything that a separate Scottish economy could possibly achieve? He couldn't even explain its currency.

Isn't sending MPs to represent their constituants at Westminster democratic? Everyone who votes for them knows the SNP stance against the Tories so, if elected, those MPs will have a mandate to carry out their constituants wishes.

Their constituents' wishes perhaps. However, he's not saying that, he's saying he will use his party's seats - representing no more than 5% of the UK population - to decide who gets to be Prime Minister. That is not any kind of democracy I would recognise.

This isn't a new stance although the English media only seem to have picked up on it now. The SNP have always said they wouldn't support the Tories and Nicola Sturgeon was repeating that during her recent sold-out tour. The Hydro in Glasgow sold all 15,000 tickets quicker than they did for Kylie.

It's only become important now that SNP may be in a position actually to do some real damage to the UK. Before, nobody really cared about their little fantasies.

If you have a mandate from the people then that is using democracy properly so your last point is mute.

See above. It is not moot, sorry.

As I've said before, it's a win/win for the SNP whoever gets in and we will be further along the path to independence.

An independence which a majority of your people said they didn't want. Now who's ignoring democratic process?

[MicrosoftBob]

We have peas. We just don't choose to mush them up in vinegar

Apart from pea busters presumably

[zemoxyl]

A lone walk to the bar.

would make it impossible for David Cameron to govern if the Conservative leader fails to secure a majority in May’s election

Latest odds :
Labour minority 5/2
Tory minority 3/1
Labour/Tory coalition 18/1 +

Again I'll go with Cameron taking a minority government for maybe 6 months before a leadership campaign takes him out. He's more or less softened the path to that himself.

[Batcher]

Possibly because they have correctly identified the power behind the throne? Organ Grinders and Monkeys come to mind.

The SNP have made several changes to their policies in the time Nicola has taken over so you and the others with that view are wrong.

Ignoring the point that nobody will vote Lib Dem this time round, Salmond isn't going to contest a seat he may lose

Gordon is his local seat so he's not parachuting into a safe seat as you are suggesting.

He is one now. However, if he is that brilliant an economist, why were his financial proposal post independence so far away from anything that a separate Scottish economy could possibly achieve? He couldn't even explain its currency.

That's an opinion. We are one of the richest small countries in the world on GDP and oil is a bonus, not a millstone around our neck. The currency will have been the £ and some in the UK government have admitted that. None-the-less, we will learn from that and be prepared the next time.

Their constituents' wishes perhaps. However, he's not saying that, he's saying he will use his party's seats - representing no more than 5% of the UK population - to decide who gets to be Prime Minister. That is not any kind of democracy I would recognise.

Funny that. We have 1 Tory MP representing no more than 5% than the Scottish population yet get ruled by a Tory government. That is not any kind of democracy I would recognise. How does it feel to be ruled by a foreign power

It's only become important now that SNP may be in a position actually to do some real damage to the UK. Before, nobody really cared about their little fantasies.

Just because you took no notice of Scotland in the past (maybe you should represent your IPSE members in Scotland better?) doesn't mean they are fantasies. As a contractor I value my independence, why can't you see that a small nation would want to be independent? What does the I in IPSE stand for again?

An independence which a majority of your people said they didn't want. Now who's ignoring democratic process?

We accepted the referendum result so we are not ignoring the democratic process. It's Labour and Tory who seem to be rerunning the referendum. The referendum process has got people in Scotland engaged in politics and that's why the duopoly are worried. They prefer it if people don't vote.

[Batcher]

Derek Bateman - The Chips Are Down

I feel for those who don’t want in power a party dedicated to breaking up Britain, but isn’t that to deny the very result delivered by Scots in the referendum? The SNP lost. They are not heading to Westminster to raise the saltire but to rearrange the existing Union – as expressly required by the No campaign.

[malvolio]

The SNP have made several changes to their policies in the time Nicola has taken over so you and the others with that view are wrong.

Hadn't noticed any substantial shift in their demands for independence but hey... I accept I'm not that interested in the lower level stuff

As for the rest, to put it simply, I and 90% of the UK don't want Mr Potato Heid anywhere near the levers of power.

Incidentally, your isolationist paranoia is showing: there are a large number of IPSE members in Scotland, around 10% of the membership.