Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

And the latest news from North Of The Border just to complete Fred's day!


Poll: Tories ‘could form official opposition at Holyrood’



Read more: http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/poll-tories-could-form-official-opposition-at-holyrood-1-4076730#ixzz43Mnakq5s
Follow us: @TheScotsman on Twitter | TheScotsmanNewspaper on Facebook


THE Conservatives could become the second largest party at Holyrood in May’s election, ousting Labour from its role as official opposition, a new poll has suggested.

A survey by Survation for the Daily Record newspaper has support for Labour and the Tories tied on 18 per cent in the regional part of the ballot.

And while Labour are ahead of the Conservatives in the constituency section - with 20 per cent backing Kezia Dugdale’s party compared to 16 per cent for Ruth Davidson’s - predictions indicate Labour could be left with one fewer MSP at Holyrood.


Labour could have 21 representatives at the Scottish Parliament, with the Tories forecast to have 22 - their best Scottish election result ever - according to the Scotland Votes seat predictor.

Meanwhile the SNP are forecast to return 70 MSPs, one more than the party won in 2011, with the poll indicating they could win 54 per cent of the vote in the constituency section of the ballot and 42 per cent in the regional vote.

The Greens polled 10 per cent in the regional section, which could see the party have nine MSPs, up from two, while the Liberal Democrats could increase their representation at Holyrood from five MSPs to six.

The UK Independence Party (Ukip) could return one MSP, their first ever representative in the Scottish Parliament.

Looking at the popularity ratings of the party leaders, Survation found Ms Dugdale was behind Ms Davidson and the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie.


•


The Scottish Labour leader scored -9, compared to -6 for Ms Davidson and -7 for Mr Rennie.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon was the only leader to have a positive rating, at +21, while Green co-convener Patrick Harvie polled -1.

SNP business convener Derek Mackay said the poll was “very positive” for nationalists, but an “absolute disaster for Kezia Dugdale on the morning of her own conference”.


He said: “It’s clear people are continuing to reject a chaotic and divided Labour party which isn’t even regarded as a credible party of opposition, never mind a credible party of government - and which finds itself locked in a desperate battle for second place with the Tories.

“And with their complete lack of any positive vision for Scotland, Labour’s position is only going to get worse.

“It’s also heartening to see such positive approval ratings for Nicola Sturgeon - the only leader in Scotland with positive ratings - while Kezia Dugdale finds herself even more unpopular than a right-wing Tory leader.”

But he stressed: “Of course, we do not take even a single vote for granted - and from now until May we will be working harder than ever to maintain the trust of people in Scotland and secure the re-election of Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister and an SNP Government with a track record of delivering for Scotland.”

Ms Dugdale however told BBC Scotland that she expected Labour to “do well” in the May election.

“I want to be First Minister,” she said.

“I want Nicola Sturgeon’s desk, I want her chair, I want the possibility of the power she has at her fingertips, so I’m aiming for that.”

Ms Dugdale stressed she is “committed to renewing the fortunes of the Scottish Labour Party over the longer term” and she dismissed suggestions that the Conservatives could come in second.

“I really discount that in its entirety,” she said.

“Ruth Davidson is funny, she’s charismatic, but she’s a Tory and with plans like cutting £4 billion away from people with disabilities in this country, the party of the bedroom tax and hte poll tax, is still thought of poorly in the minds of Scots.”




Read more: http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/poll-tories-could-form-official-opposition-at-holyrood-1-4076730#ixzz43Mp2v33K
Follow us: @TheScotsman on Twitter | TheScotsmanNewspaper on Facebook

Name withheld

4:16 PM on 19/03/2016
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thereyego

3:56 PM on 19/03/2016
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"Survation found Ms "Dugdale was behind Ms Davidson and the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie."

Possibly the safest place for her.
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Karen G Stewart

3:55 PM on 19/03/2016
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Will Nicola Sturgeon have a new private jet after Mays election ?. Dave
got his recently after whinging that all the world leaders have one.
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Seps Ardum

3:40 PM on 19/03/2016
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Dugdale still hasn't realised that the enemy of Scotland is not the Tories, but the SNP cult. She expends all her energy and bile on the Tories, probably under instruction from the N Korean acolyte Corbyn. Meanwhile she faces the most dishonest politician on the planet across the parliament and let's her spread her lies unopposed and walk all over her. Either she is grossly over promoted or just plain stupid. What should be easy meat, catching Sturgeon telling lies , seems totally beyond her.
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Jane 2 point 0

3:34 PM on 19/03/2016
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SNP have done no good for Scotland, and their continuing divisive ways are only damaging Scotland further. They care only about gifting away your hard earned money on freebies for those who can't be bothered. Maximum state interference in your pay-packet. Nothing to help Scotland prosper; no future past the next raided wages day.

For Scotland's sake, don't vote SNP.

Labour are desperately courting SNP voters in the belief that they can somehow win them back. All they do is confirm to those lost voters they're right to vote SNP.

A vote for Labour is a vote for the SNP.

Liberals at least stand up to the SNP, and Willie Rennie has rightly stood up in parliament and call out Sturgeon and her SNP on many issues.

A Liberal vote would be a vote to support someone who has spoken truthfully about the damage the SNP are causing Scotland.

Greens, sadly, are the SNP with a different colour of face paint. They blindly follow whatever the SNP does, no matter how mad.

Finally, you're left with the Conservatives. All they're promising is to stand up to the SNP. It's certainly better than Labour who are desperate to prove they're more SNP than the SNP. I'd like to know why and what direction they'd rather see Scotland head towards than just being the opposite. Without that statement you feel you're voting for a rudderless ship.

So to stand up for Scotland you can't vote SNP, you could vote Liberal, Labour is just as bad as the SNP, and that leaves you with the only ones who are better for Scotland's future, The Scottish Conservatives.
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thereyego

3:22 PM on 19/03/2016
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How can anyone support a party that plans to bring in the most intrusive surveillance in any modern democracy through the Snoopers Charter.

Taken together with the proposed changes to the constituency boundaries and the intention to reduce funding for opposition parties, the Communist Unionist Nationalist Tory party would do well in North Korea.
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Read more: http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/poll-tories-could-form-official-opposition-at-holyrood-1-4076730#ixzz43MpfAV4Q
Follow us: @TheScotsman on Twitter | TheScotsmanNewspaper on Facebook

The icing on the cake :-

Did Wales (only supports them cause they play in red) win the Six Nations again? :0)

really can't bothered to read 6 pages of c+p stuff .....

anyway, i wonder if the conservatives currently hold any lead over labour nationwide
if they do, it is only because the labour party is such a disgrace with a totally incompetent leader, even if he is principled in a nice sort of tweedy way

Right wing Rabble Rant alert!

Left wing dickhead response!

Abuse alert!

Bless!!! LOL!

Corbyn represents a last ditch attempt at a comeback by the left. Apart from Blair, Labour have not won an election since 1976. Furthermore, apart from Blair, Labour have only been in power for 16 years since 1945. After the next election the left will yet again be a spent force for another generation.

The electorate have rejected every attempt by Labour to get a left wing leader elected.

Hays and Manuel.

Do you mean you prefer a PM who puts his balls in a Pigs head and sniffed in the Bullingdon Club?

The tories and split and in disarray and manage out of self-interest!

A superficial party at the moment, more interested in packaging than content!

i think both parties are currently pretty disgraceful .... but as you don't bother to vote i don't know why you should care

Haystack(69162) "Cameron said in January and this month that he would remain as PM if we vote out"

Before the Scottish Independence referendum 'Dave' said the same thing publicly, but an insider stated afterwards that if the result had been for independence then cameron would have resigned, because he didn't want to be a British PM to oversee the break up of the UK..

Fred1 (69163) "and who the hell would want to be PM if the vote is for exit?"

Someone who puts this country's sovereignty and democracy and independence above that of Brussels political project... Certainly not your camerons or osborne's...
----------------------------------------------------

"5-10 years of confusion."

Only IF the trade negotiations were left to cameron...But that would'nt occur because cameron and osborne would both resign if the vote was for LEAVE...GOOD RIDDANCE!!....
____________________

"and the more sensible will vote to stay in the EU"


Believing that the more sensible will vote to stay in the EU, bellies the idea that they're sensible and that it's the LEAVERS that're the intelligent one's ......

Of course, nothing to do with the influx....




A&E now 'overwhelmed' says top doc as he calls for army of medics to be sent in

Exclusive: Britain's most senior A&E doctor says a crisis in casualty departments is escalating rapidly, with risks to safety amid desperate shortages of medics



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/laura-donnelly/12198069/AandE-now-overwhelmed-says-top-doc-as-he-calls-for-army-of-medics-to-be-sent-in.html

That top doctor should know one of the reason A&E are being overwhelmed and are short of medics, is that a lot of the doctors and nurses are doing the nursing in refugee camps all round europe, instead of being in hospitals in this country...

The same happened with the ebola outbreak in Africa, NHS staff went out there.

You nob Freda cocked this page up again .

A major reason A&E's are packed are because people are bypassing doctors surgeries and going straight to A&E. Various reasons for this: long waiting times, not on doctors lists or can't speak English.
I visit my doctor's surgery very infrequently but when I do, the visit is rarely satisfactory. I can understand why people don't bother.

i agree with the first part, but generally not with the last
that said, i had to throw a tantrum when i wanted a cholesterol test, merely as a check rather than because i had been instructed to do so
apparently i should have had a (total waste of time) doc's appt first

mind you, with modern accurate electronic stuff, certainly heart monitoring can be done at home by those who wish ..... i dare say other basic checks will also be possible in the near future too - eg are you pregnant?

Well, it looks like Dunky Smiff has done for George, Cameroon next?

What a shame we don't have an effective opposition party.

Vicky,

You are so short sighted that I enlarged the cartoon just for you!

As an example, I had an in-growing toe nail that was swollen and bleeding. I went to my doc who made an appointment for some weeks in the future at my local hospital. He also prescribed antibiotics for the swelling.
I went home, googled a chiropodist and saw him the following day. I didnt bother going to the chemist for the antibiotics.
When the appointment time came around some weeks later I decided to attend, as much out of courtesy, and to have the toe checked. I told the hospital doctor that I couldn't wait and had attended a private clininic. His advice was next time come straight to us and ignore the doctors appointment time.