politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Reminder: There’ve been only 2 published LAB polls the late

DavidL said:

Alistair said:

DavidL said:

malcolmg said:

DavidL said:

malcolmg said:

DavidL said:

Scott_P said:

SandyRentool said:

What's with the bi-lingual station signs?

Poll-Mhonadh?

When did that start?

26 million quid for the 0.11% of the population who speak Gaelic (but not English) and also don't know which train station they are in...

Or indeed what part of the country since the very few Gaelic only speakers generally live on the Islands. With no trains.

david, surprised you are in the gutter with Scott , many many Gaelic speakers live in Glasgow and the mainland. Poor that you are down to the level of your party.

Many, many is overstating it. My point is that they also speak English almost without exception these days.

Historically, Glasgow probably had more Gaelic speakers than anywhere else after cleared Highlanders drifted down there but that is long gone. Those that speak Gaelic there now have learned it as a second language.

When my wife was a child in Oban they had Gaelic classes in school divided between beginners (like her) and native speakers. The native speakers were normally from the Islands who boarded in Oban during the week and some of them at that time had pretty limited English, at least to start with. But that was far more years ago than my dearest would like to admit or I would be brave enough to say!

Still poor David , plenty still speak it and for the miserly amount spent on it, it is value for money given it is a part of our culture , even if it is only a benefit to the islands, which I doubt.

We spend £17m on BBC Alba for the benefit of 60,000 speakers, all of whom speak English. That's about £283 each. I really question whether that is value for money or fair on the rest of us.

OTOH I accept that there is value in maintaining a highland culture, particularly the music, the dancing and the singing. The Mods continue to be pretty popular and do receive support from the cultural budget. That seems to me entirely appropriate.

But the signage nonsense is just silly. I don't often agree with opinion pieces in the Guardian but I agree with this one: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/dec/11/ian-jack-saddened-by-scotland-going-gaelic

Alba broadcast the rugby so their cultural contribution is incalculably vast. Can you really put a price on that?

Just maybe, if we didn't waste money on BBC Alba more rugby and football would be on BBC Scotland. With a commentary 99% of the population don't need to mute!

BBC Scotland refused to take rugby coverage when it was offered to them for free.

My train turned up 50 mins late last night.

I was willing it to arrive at the destination an hour or more late/

It obliged a single 158 unit pulling a dead Pacer is a sight to behold.

A train full of people and it appears only me knew we were on a full refund knife edge.

bigjohnowls said:

My train turned up 50 mins late last night.

I was willing it to arrive at the destination an hour or more late/

It obliged a single 158 unit pulling a dead Pacer is a sight to behold.

A train full of people and it appears only me knew we were on a full refund knife edge.

I was never hapier than when my london to edinburgh train arrived eactly 61 mins late.

Speedy said:

I wonder why yougov hasn't published their labour leadership poll they did last week.
It concerns me that they don't want their polling to become public and the last one is very old, therefore I have to recommend liquidating all betting positions about it just in case.

Are we sure they did one? Why not publish?

watford30 said:

malcolmg said:

TGOHF said:

richardDodd said:

Joking aside..That must rate as one of the worlds great architectural fuck ups.. it looks like a town hall in a severely deprived third world dictatorship state..where no expoese is spared on fripperies.....ooops

Can you guess if it was on time and on budget or not ?

The answer might push you towards a nervous malcdown.

LOL, the wally dugs are down to commenting inanities to each other. Dumb and Dumber try to converse

That makes no sense - are you typing in Gaelic?

Now all 3 stooges are onboard, dumbest has arrived on the scene

YBarddCwsc said:

Out of interest, do any of the regular Scottish posters speak Gaelic ?

I understand that argument that the language needs help, and sometimes that means money.

But, of course the best way to help the language is to learn it.

I do not speak it but very comfortable about the pittance that is spent promoting it.

Alistair said:

bigjohnowls said:

My train turned up 50 mins late last night.

I was willing it to arrive at the destination an hour or more late/

It obliged a single 158 unit pulling a dead Pacer is a sight to behold.

A train full of people and it appears only me knew we were on a full refund knife edge.

I was never hapier than when my london to edinburgh train arrived eactly 61 mins late.

Saw a quote last week, someone saying on train from London , paid £220 for ticket , it is 50 minutes late, penalty for pulling emergency switch is £50 or £100 , what should I do. Rather amusing.

watford30 said:

malcolmg said:

watford30 said:

malcolmg said:

TGOHF said:

richardDodd said:

Joking aside..That must rate as one of the worlds great architectural fuck ups.. it looks like a town hall in a severely deprived third world dictatorship state..where no expoese is spared on fripperies.....ooops

Can you guess if it was on time and on budget or not ?

The answer might push you towards a nervous malcdown.

LOL, the wally dugs are down to commenting inanities to each other. Dumb and Dumber try to converse

That makes no sense - are you typing in Gaelic?

Now all 3 stooges are onboard, dumbest has arrived on the scene

Ah, a quick paste into Google translate, et voila - 'Hello, my name is Zoomer Malcolm. I live on Penis Island'.

Dear Dear what an imbecile. I bet you sign for your JSA with an X.

bigjohnowls said:

Speedy said:

I wonder why yougov hasn't published their labour leadership poll they did last week.
It concerns me that they don't want their polling to become public and the last one is very old, therefore I have to recommend liquidating all betting positions about it just in case.

I had a feeling a fortnight ago Jezza might not win.

As long as Kendall isnt Lazarus i win.

I still think Cooper will sneak this in the end.

bigjohnowls said:

Speedy said:

I wonder why yougov hasn't published their labour leadership poll they did last week.
It concerns me that they don't want their polling to become public and the last one is very old, therefore I have to recommend liquidating all betting positions about it just in case.

I had a feeling a fortnight ago Jezza might not win.

As long as Kendall isnt Lazarus i win.

The only way Kendall wins is if the ERS have sub-contracted the count to their North Korea office.

If Kendall wins, even Kendall will be going "Hang on a minute....."

I don't see how the numbers work for Cooper. Burnham sneaking it is still possible.

TGOHF said:

just saw dear Nicolas face as she stood through GSTQ - like a pug smoking a nettle.

Or a bulldog licking piss off a thistle? (Which at least has a Scottish angle I suppose).

It's got to be Cooper. The more I think about it the more obvious it becomes. Anyone with Labour's best interests at heart haven't any alternative and Labour are nothing if not survivors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPPbQexwTR4

(For Corbyn)

Elizabeth Warren endorses Trump's tax plan
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/252949-warren-i-agree-with-trump-on-taxes

I'm not a believer in God, or a great fan of the Monarchy. Nevertheless you feel you want to say 'God save the Queen' on a day like this. What an amazing reign she's had.

Back to reality though. I can't quite make out why Corbyn isn't much shorter or much longer in terms of price. There must be some Labour insiders that basically know already.

Burnham is perhaps rarely mentioned because he's had the worst campaign of the four. A year ago if the right levers had been pulled he'd perhaps have replaced Ed with cheering crowds. Quite amazing that he's lost pretty much all that impetus.

He may of course struggle through, but I think he's been found out as the weakest link.


Assuming it's Corbyn then John MacDonald surely won't be happy with anything less than the shadow-chancellorship. Diane Abbot will also be looking for pretty strong support for Mayor, or something in the shadow cabinet. I can't imagine what the likes of Dennis Skinner might expect - on balance probably nothing, but who can guess. Quite who may arrive on the Labour front bench must surely be the greatest dark horse race of the year.

The people that surely must have ruled themselves out are the three other leadership hopefuls. Also Umunna - it's hard to believe that he can form his own little committee for getting rid of, or undermining Corbyn and still get a spot.

Apart from the small (but with monumental downside) risk that Corbyn becomes PM I want him to win enormously - makes my losses on this election smaller (had backed Umanna), makes Labour unelectable (surely!), but also creates the most fascinating framework for political shenanigans since Labour gave up on the NEC as their driving force.

Scott_P said:

SandyRentool said:

What's with the bi-lingual station signs?

Poll-Mhonadh?

When did that start?

26 million quid for the 0.11% of the population who speak Gaelic (but not English) and also don't know which train station they are in...

The total cost of adding Gaelic to Station and Road signs is £0.00

But don't let facts get in the way of your drooling froth.

watford30 said:

Scott_P said:

watford30 said:

Must be due a resignation. Has anyone been left to die at the side of the road recently?

There is another cronyism row

This latest row focused on Springfield Properties, run by Alexander Adam, a property tycoon. Mr Adam and Springfield have given the SNP and the Yes campaigns almost £100,000 over the past three years.

Over the same period, Springfield has been given government contracts worth nearly £1 million.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/scotland/article4549487.ece

Good grief. What's the hideous building in the photo accompanying that article - a prison or a bus station?

The Scottish Parliament Building has nothing to do with the SNP, look at SLAB and their Head of Media Kirsty Wark.

watford30 said:

TGOHF said:

richardDodd said:

Joking aside..That must rate as one of the worlds great architectural fuck ups.. it looks like a town hall in a severely deprived third world dictatorship state..where no expoese is spared on fripperies.....ooops

Can you guess if it was on time and on budget or not ?

The answer might push you towards a nervous malcdown.

3 years late, and 10 times original budget at just under £half a billion in 2004.

Still, the donkey MSPs were very pleased to have clawed back £16 million.

That's Jock-a-nomics for you.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6382177.stm

Labour have already been punished electorally for this (and plentiful other) monumental cock ups. It's one of the reasons the SNP are pretty much guaranteed another 20 years - they are competent.

YBarddCwsc said:

Out of interest, do any of the regular Scottish posters speak Gaelic ?

I understand that argument that the language needs help, and sometimes that means money.

But, of course the best way to help the language is to learn it.

I doubt it, virtually no-one speaks it (occasional hobbyists).

It's promotion is ridiculous (and historically dubious in its promotion as a national language). However, it is not particularly expensive, a few million a year and a drop in the ocean. Having said that, I'd happily see it killed off.

Looking at what has happened to Wales shows the absolutely and clear danger of trying to revive dead, minority languages.

Omnium said:

Assuming it's Corbyn then John MacDonald surely won't be happy with anything less than the shadow-chancellorship. Diane Abbot will also be looking for pretty strong support for Mayor, or something in the shadow cabinet. I can't imagine what the likes of Dennis Skinner might expect - on balance probably nothing, but who can guess. Quite who may arrive on the Labour front bench must surely be the greatest dark horse race of the year.

The people that surely must have ruled themselves out are the three other leadership hopefuls. Also Umunna - it's hard to believe that he can form his own little committee for getting rid of, or undermining Corbyn and still get a spot.

Diane will either be elected candidate tomorrow (unlikely IMO) or she won't be a candidate at although I'm sure she'll get a slot . I'll be surprised if Macdonald is Shadow Chancellor, and equally if Burnham isn't in a senior slot. Skinner would be an entertaining Shadow Leader of the House - he knows the rules backwards - though that might be a bit unlikely.

Oil has fallen below $45 a barrel and seems likely to stay low for some time.

How is this affecting North Sea production?

Is there not a serious chance that Corbyn will step down in six months or less, probably on health grounds? Leader of the Opposition isn't exactly a great job for a fairly old man who probably isn't well used to punishing schedules. Having not originally entered with any thought of actually wanting the job, he's probably convinced himself the opposite for now and is existing on adrenalin. But give it a few weeks and he'll remember why he didn't want the job in the first place.

Too many of his supporters have been unable to fail to overlook the fact that however nutty, or shall we just say not fully thought through, his policies, the problem is Corbyn himself. And he's not even the great charismatic personality some are projecting in their minds.

Tim_B said:

Oil has fallen below $45 a barrel and seems likely to stay low for some time.

How is this affecting North Sea production?

Apparently its cost a fair number of jobs but it was hard to tell from the BBC spending their News programming on hagiographies of a sour faced old benefits scrounger.

NickPalmer said:

Omnium said:

Assuming it's Corbyn then John MacDonald surely won't be happy with anything less than the shadow-chancellorship. Diane Abbot will also be looking for pretty strong support for Mayor, or something in the shadow cabinet. I can't imagine what the likes of Dennis Skinner might expect - on balance probably nothing, but who can guess. Quite who may arrive on the Labour front bench must surely be the greatest dark horse race of the year.

The people that surely must have ruled themselves out are the three other leadership hopefuls. Also Umunna - it's hard to believe that he can form his own little committee for getting rid of, or undermining Corbyn and still get a spot.

Diane will either be elected candidate tomorrow (unlikely IMO) or she won't be a candidate at although I'm sure she'll get a slot . I'll be surprised if Macdonald is Shadow Chancellor, and equally if Burnham isn't in a senior slot. Skinner would be an entertaining Shadow Leader of the House - he knows the rules backwards - though that might be a bit unlikely.

Disappointed to see your beloved homeland, Denmark, show such uncommunautaire feeling in blocking rail links with Germany to stop the asylum seekers.

Dair said:

Omnium said:

I'm not a believer in God, or a great fan of the Monarchy. Nevertheless you feel you want to say 'God save the Queen' on a day like this. What an amazing reign she's had.

I guess if you have no self-respect you might.

The idea of celebrating Britain's most successful Benefits Scrounger, paying homage to a person based on their birth or continuing such an archaic, worthless tradition fills me with disgust.

Well, no.

I am a traditionalist at heart, and I feel that the traditional salute is the thing to do. I'm not paying homage at all.

You're a bit rude aren't you Dair? How's your self-respect?

alex. said:

Is there not a serious chance that Corbyn will step down in six months or less, probably on health grounds? Leader of the Opposition isn't exactly a great job for a fairly old man who probably isn't well used to punishing schedules. Having not originally entered with any thought of actually wanting the job, he's probably convinced himself the opposite for now and is existing on adrenalin. But give it a few weeks and he'll remember why he didn't want the job in the first place.

He's pretty healthy (has just held 99 separate rallies, schedules don't get much more punishing than that) and he's IMO genuinely unself-centred rather than unambitious - he simply sees the job as assisting the cause, and would not think it right to stand down unless he was clearly doing it harm, even if he wasn't enjoying it.

Dair said:

Omnium said:

I'm not a believer in God, or a great fan of the Monarchy. Nevertheless you feel you want to say 'God save the Queen' on a day like this. What an amazing reign she's had.

I guess if you have no self-respect you might.

The idea of celebrating Britain's most successful Benefits Scrounger, paying homage to a person based on their birth or continuing such an archaic, worthless tradition fills me with disgust.

Come, come, surely we should all celebrate the longevity of a descendant and spouse of migrants? And look how well her progeny and their progeny have done, against all the odds. Net contributors I'll be bound.

SimonStClare said:

Evening all.

BBC - Denmark has suspended all rail links with Germany after police stopped hundreds of migrants at the border. - Danish police also closed a motorway between the two countries when some asylum seekers began walking north after being forced off a train.

They say their destination is Sweden.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34203366

I travelled by train from Copenhagen to Hamburg this time last year. It's sobering to think that route is going to be subject to checks from now on.

NickPalmer said:

Omnium said:

Assuming it's Corbyn then John MacDonald surely won't be happy with anything less than the shadow-chancellorship. Diane Abbot will also be looking for pretty strong support for Mayor, or something in the shadow cabinet. I can't imagine what the likes of Dennis Skinner might expect - on balance probably nothing, but who can guess. Quite who may arrive on the Labour front bench must surely be the greatest dark horse race of the year.

The people that surely must have ruled themselves out are the three other leadership hopefuls. Also Umunna - it's hard to believe that he can form his own little committee for getting rid of, or undermining Corbyn and still get a spot.

Diane will either be elected candidate tomorrow (unlikely IMO) or she won't be a candidate at although I'm sure she'll get a slot . I'll be surprised if Macdonald is Shadow Chancellor, and equally if Burnham isn't in a senior slot. Skinner would be an entertaining Shadow Leader of the House - he knows the rules backwards - though that might be a bit unlikely.

Is Burnham the most approachable of the other candidates for Corbyn? I'd have assumed it was Cooper.

If Corbyn is wise he'll stick his supporters in the powerful roles, and let the odd 'enemy' stray into the headline posts. They'll destroy themselves tied in knots trying to explain their views anyway.

MacDonald expects the shadow-chancellorship. He'll have to get something unless he's going to become a sniper in the wings.

However.. their fate is Labour's fate. NP you can't imagine that Corbyn's views are coherent do you?

Moses_ said:

SimonStClare said:

Evening all.

BBC - Denmark has suspended all rail links with Germany after police stopped hundreds of migrants at the border. - Danish police also closed a motorway between the two countries when some asylum seekers began walking north after being forced off a train.

They say their destination is Sweden.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34203366

I am presently up in Esbjerg in Denmark and need to go to Hamburg tomorrow. I looked at trains but have hired a car to do it as the rail links were looking iffy at best. It now looks like I may have issues on the autobahn as well then.

Oh dear...

Has this outrageous and probably illegal dictat against the free movement of people come from Mrs Kinnock?

Tim_B said:

Oil has fallen below $45 a barrel and seems likely to stay low for some time.

How is this affecting North Sea production?

Pedant alert: the price of West Texas crude has fallen below $45. Brent Crude is still at $47.80.

AndyJS said:

Tim_B said:

Oil has fallen below $45 a barrel and seems likely to stay low for some time.

How is this affecting North Sea production?

Pedant alert: the price of West Texas crude has fallen below $45. Brent Crude is still at $47.80.

Dear Pedant - I doubt $3 a barrel affects the question much. The North Sea is one of the higher cost production areas.

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Dair said:

Tim_B said:

Oil has fallen below $45 a barrel and seems likely to stay low for some time.

How is this affecting North Sea production?

Apparently its cost a fair number of jobs but it was hard to tell from the BBC spending their News programming on hagiographies of a sour faced old benefits scrounger.

Sky business news stated today that 65,000 North Sea jobs have been lost. Is this true as we do not hear it on this forum which is surprising if it is true and worrying, as a lot of my Scottish relatives in the North East of Scotland depend on oil jobs both in the North Sea and Worldwide

BBC World News has mentioned the 65,000 job losses there too. If the price stays this low it might close production.

Dair said:

welshowl said:

Dair said:

YBarddCwsc said:

Out of interest, do any of the regular Scottish posters speak Gaelic ?

I understand that argument that the language needs help, and sometimes that means money.

But, of course the best way to help the language is to learn it.

I doubt it, virtually no-one speaks it (occasional hobbyists).

It's promotion is ridiculous (and historically dubious in its promotion as a national language). However, it is not particularly expensive, a few million a year and a drop in the ocean. Having said that, I'd happily see it killed off.

Looking at what has happened to Wales shows the absolutely and clear danger of trying to revive dead, minority languages.

What's happened?

It's pretty clear that the devotion of time and resources being invested in Welsh is undermining the Welsh education system.

Of course the proponents of this complete waste, try and suggest its not true, even put forward Welsh Language Schools getting better results and completely ignoring that its Selective schools that get better results and nothing to do with Welsh.

Meanwhile an entire generation is growing up with a limited education, poor English skills and significant loss of time spent on useful subjects.

Depends what you mean. Yes I suppose the learning of Welsh as foreign language can be at the expense of time for other subjects, but the more meaningful education is the bilingual one whereby everything just about (except English!) is done through Welsh. Now that requires at secondary level that kids are native speakers from home (with written skills too) or have been educated from an early age (bilingual nurseries are available in Cardiff for example dotted liberally around) to be totally bilingual, in which case harder to argue time is wasted as French, for instance, can then be learnt through Welsh, and bilingualism per se is a "good thing" for mental faculties I believe.

I think about 20% or thereabouts of kids are thus educated here now thereby giving the language stats an unusual look with peaks among the old and young and a "saggy" middle around the 50 age range. There are issues with kids not having chances to speak in a social milieu post school though in non heavy Welsh areas.

Who are the PB Welsh speakers by the way folks? I can follow a rugby commentary and have certain reading skills but this side of inebriation my spoken skills are very limited sadly.

Peter Hitchens wonderfully sums up the pro-British realpolitik argument against Syrian intervention in the Speccie:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9622092/forget-chilcot-heres-the-inquiry-we-really-need/

richardDodd said:

Regardless of who commissioned that dreadful architectural disaster..it is not worthy of a new and independent nation... please pull it down and build another one

The architect died between the bid winning and the final plans being drawn up.

Im not a fan of the building at all, it was always a monumental folly but many of its problems come from people blindly following the initial design - to scared to deviate from a dead man's vision. If he had lived he would have mediated between his vision and practical reality rather than trying to implement every last ludicrous detal.

George Monbiot as out of touch as usual 'Those royal correspondents, drowning in their own sycophantic slobber, are a disgrace to journalism. And that's quite an achievement.'
@GeorgeMonbiot

Alistair said:

richardDodd said:

Regardless of who commissioned that dreadful architectural disaster..it is not worthy of a new and independent nation... please pull it down and build another one

The architect died between the bid winning and the final plans being drawn up.

Im not a fan of the building at all, it was always a monumental folly but many of its problems come from people blindly following the initial design - to scared to deviate from a dead man's vision. If he had lived he would have mediated between his vision and practical reality rather than trying to implement every last ludicrous detal.

The worst part of it is that no-one has ever been held to account. The committee who originally selected it (chaired by Kirsty Wark and full of similar Labourite placepeople) or the Labour/Liberal Coalition which oversaw it.

Of course the Labourite BBC Scotland have a lot to answer here. Given that their "exposé" of what went wrong was commission from the television company WarkClements run by Alan Clements and his wife - Kirsty Wark!!!!

SimonStClare said:

Moses_ said:

SimonStClare said:

Evening all.

BBC - Denmark has suspended all rail links with Germany after police stopped hundreds of migrants at the border. - Danish police also closed a motorway between the two countries when some asylum seekers began walking north after being forced off a train.

They say their destination is Sweden.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34203366

I am presently up in Esbjerg in Denmark and need to go to Hamburg tomorrow. I looked at trains but have hired a car to do it as the rail links were looking iffy at best. It now looks like I may have issues on the autobahn as well then.

Oh dear...

Wise move Mr Llama and good luck with your journey - & check your boot for stowaways

HA! Never gave that a thought. I'm actually going in the opposite direction but you never know.

Instant anecdote alert
From what I am now hearing here from the Danes they are most dischuffed with Ms Merkel. Can't quote them ...this being a family website in'all.

Dair said:

Alistair said:

richardDodd said:

Regardless of who commissioned that dreadful architectural disaster..it is not worthy of a new and independent nation... please pull it down and build another one

The architect died between the bid winning and the final plans being drawn up.

Im not a fan of the building at all, it was always a monumental folly but many of its problems come from people blindly following the initial design - to scared to deviate from a dead man's vision. If he had lived he would have mediated between his vision and practical reality rather than trying to implement every last ludicrous detal.

The worst part of it is that no-one has ever been held to account. The committee who originally selected it (chaired by Kirsty Wark and full of similar Labourite placepeople) or the Labour/Liberal Coalition which oversaw it.

Of course the Labourite BBC Scotland have a lot to answer here. Given that their "exposé" of what went wrong was commission from the television company WarkClements run by Alan Clements and his wife - Kirsty Wark!!!!

I'm assuming that it is an expensive building to maintain.

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Dair said:

Tim_B said:

Oil has fallen below $45 a barrel and seems likely to stay low for some time.

How is this affecting North Sea production?

Apparently its cost a fair number of jobs but it was hard to tell from the BBC spending their News programming on hagiographies of a sour faced old benefits scrounger.

Sky business news stated today that 65,000 North Sea jobs have been lost. Is this true as we do not hear it on this forum which is surprising if it is true and worrying, as a lot of my Scottish relatives in the North East of Scotland depend on oil jobs both in the North Sea and Worldwide

If that is the case the rest of the Scottish economy must be going gangbusters.

HYUFD said:

Tim_B said:

Finally - something good about Reading!

The pilot of the BA 777 which caught fire at McCarran airport in Las Vegas lives there.

Kudos to him for his professionalism throughout

Yes, the captain and crew were exemplary in handling the 'catastrophic failure'. 12 folks needed first aid. Great job.

The captain is due to retire next week.

I love it that BA flights call sign is still 'speedbird'. People Express used to be 'critter'.

Alistair said:

richardDodd said:

Regardless of who commissioned that dreadful architectural disaster..it is not worthy of a new and independent nation... please pull it down and build another one

The architect died between the bid winning and the final plans being drawn up.

Im not a fan of the building at all, it was always a monumental folly but many of its problems come from people blindly following the initial design - to scared to deviate from a dead man's vision. If he had lived he would have mediated between his vision and practical reality rather than trying to implement every last ludicrous detal.

It's been years since I read the report, but I thought the issue was exactly the opposite: too many fundamental design changes (partly due to the parliament changing the requirements) once construction had already started?

I remember reading the report, and thinking that it should be a textbook example of a client mucking around with essentially unlimited funds ...

MonikerDiCanio said:

N. Palmer I'm ashamed to say that I'd missed the Danish election and thought Helle was still in power. This nonsense would never have happened if she were still in office.

She's spending more time in Port Talbot these days than she used to I suspect.

Theuniondivvie said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Dair said:

Tim_B said:

Oil has fallen below $45 a barrel and seems likely to stay low for some time.

How is this affecting North Sea production?

Apparently its cost a fair number of jobs but it was hard to tell from the BBC spending their News programming on hagiographies of a sour faced old benefits scrounger.

Sky business news stated today that 65,000 North Sea jobs have been lost. Is this true as we do not hear it on this forum which is surprising if it is true and worrying, as a lot of my Scottish relatives in the North East of Scotland depend on oil jobs both in the North Sea and Worldwide

If that is the case the rest of the Scottish economy must be going gangbusters.

It is, you just don;t realise it.

JosiasJessop said:

Alistair said:

richardDodd said:

Regardless of who commissioned that dreadful architectural disaster..it is not worthy of a new and independent nation... please pull it down and build another one

The architect died between the bid winning and the final plans being drawn up.

Im not a fan of the building at all, it was always a monumental folly but many of its problems come from people blindly following the initial design - to scared to deviate from a dead man's vision. If he had lived he would have mediated between his vision and practical reality rather than trying to implement every last ludicrous detal.

It's been years since I read the report, but I thought the issue was exactly the opposite: too many fundamental design changes (partly due to the parliament changing the requirements) once construction had already started?

I remember reading the report, and thinking that it should be a textbook example of a client mucking around with essentially unlimited funds ...

I suspect you will find that the outline design was all that ever existed - on the back of the fabled envelope . Everything else including the servicing and tiresome details of it all fitting together without gaps and staying upright would have been made up as it went along.