Bill

I think what @JFK-1 might be saying is he would rather see a root vegetable become President than set aside his obsessive hatred of another candidate. That's nice, turnip or beetroot?

One of my family recently returned from Sweden after three months. The deal is you have to fill out a Govt form with your UK residence details and internal travel plans to get there, with the obligation to present it to the authorities on entering the UK. In actual fact no one took that information from him when it was offered and he was waved through immigration without the slightest hindrance. So exactly what information is Jeane Freeman talking about?

Yes yes but what about Biden?

FFA would force Holyrood to borrow heavily at punitive interest rates, leading to rampant inflation, hyper-austerity, wealth taxes, industrial collapse and social catastrophe. You know that, I know that, Sturgeon knows that and BoJo knows that. It's the price we will pay for giving the SNP the reins of power. It's also a price none of us who live here can accept, however attractive the lesson would be to watch. It would destroy the SNP but it would also destroy the lives of almost all people in Scotland.

What exactly is the problem with statues of people who were engaged in some way in the slave trade? I mean, they're dead and they're not coming back. The UK hasn't been involved in slave trading in over 200 years and I can't see that changing. Why would anyone feel so threatened a statue or of something that took place centuries ago that they have to remove a statue, a lump of stone or bronze? A statue doesn't endorse or revive slavery any more than removing it guarantees there will be no slavery in the world. Why attack a statue of a long dead Brit when there is still real slavery in many parts of the world, particularly the Islamic world? No one protesting against slavery has ever been a slave, ever owned a slave or ever seen a slave. Most black Brits couldn't find Africa on a map if someone turned it the right way up for them and they certainly wouldn't there, or if they did they'd book themselves on the first flight back to the relative opulence of Southwark, Lewisham, Lawrence Hill or Handsworth. The whole affair is such a crock of shite it beggars the question of how western society can possibly survive its own conceit and hypocrisy.

Why set limits?

Don't be obscure. Names must be named.

Like many others, this treaty may not be enforceable but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist or it doesn't have validity. Nor does it mean breaching it, as China is doing, is without consequences. China is now the main threat to world peace, more so than the Soviet Union ever was because China has more spending power, greater control over foreign debt, greater trading reach and is driven by a greater need to control external resources. China's handling of Hong Kong has served to make it clear to the democracies that they have a serious challenge brewing and that relationships with China cannot be defined in terms of international law. That changes everything.

From the point of view of a vendor, a presale is essentially to provide a tangible indication of demand and to generate a order book against which a higher level of supply can be justified. In many cases it also provides forward funding support for manufacturing, reduced borrowing or can be used to negotiate better supply/payment terms with third party manufacturers. Of course it’s also a way of publicising a new product and stimulating interest but the idea this was nothing but a marketing move by Castore is to be blind to how businesses actually work behind the facade of public relations. To me, this is a good business strategy that benefits all parties. It certainly has nothing to do with shortages or failure to supply, both of which are just figments of anxious minds.

How did Scotland ever sink so low? I'm embarrassed by so much of my own country, which in 50 years has gone from a place to be proud of to an absolute shithole. And it's all down to the poison of nationalism, Scottish and Irish.

Perhaps the message to the doom merchants is to wait until there actually is a shortage before complaining about a shortage

It takes a strange and perverse logic to criticise Castore for not supplying a product that we already know has a planned release date a month down the line? The pre-sale volume of 50,000 shirts has nothing to do with availability. It is a notional quantity that can be pre-ordered, nothing more. No one has been or will be left empty handed. Where the hell does this level of negativity come from? Are some of us so damaged by previous disappointments that we can no longer see straight. I'd think it was time to pack it all in if it had that sort of effect on me.

It does seem unnecessarily harsh to be criticising Castore on the second day of presale in the middle of a global pandemic. I’m actually quite impressed they’ve achieved what they have and suggest it confirms the good decision made when Castore was chosen as a partner.

Both Labour and the Conservatives in Scotland seem to have settled into comfortable irrelevance, a role played by the LibDems for decades. Nothing sums this up better than the election of Jackson Carlaw as Tory leader ... well meaning but largely invisible and nowhere near up for the fight it will take to dislodge the SNP. Sturgeon maintains a hold on power for the sole reason she has no effective competition. Every aspect of government you look at tells you the SNP is as inept as it’s dishonest but the solution to this and much of the blame for it lies with a abject standard of leadership in other parties. Sadly, there’s no quick remedy for the lack of talent - Labour and the Tories have very little and it’s clear the SNP has the square root of none.

You would think that, just once, these people would look at the world around them and ask themselves why everyone else is heading in a different direction. Every other country in these parts started playing football in June but Scotland has to wait a further 4 months. It's beyond belief.