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Listed below are comments made by forfar-loon between Saturday, 10th October 2009 and Sunday, 22nd November 2009.

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• The SFA should sacrifice their blazers 10:50am on 22 Nov 2009 Absolutely agree yet again Jim! In the age of freedom of information we are entitled to transparency and accountability in public office at the absolute minimum. It should be made clear to all fans exactly what the blazers are up to each year. Each one should have to be re-elected by the fans every 4 years - a suitable period that gives them 2 chances at qualification for major tournaments (for the full national teams as well as U21, etc.), as good a measure of success as any.
  
  To put the mileage expenses into context: the law allows us mere mortals to claim at a rate of 40p mile for the first 10,000 miles driven each year, then 25p per mile thereafter. Quite how the SFA justify awarding themselves £4.60 per mile, or eleven and a half times the normal rate, I've no idea. I'd love to hear Gordon Smith's answer to that one! Ask him for us Jim, and let's hear his answer here!
• Wise warning 12:12pm on 16 Nov 2009 Mr Salmond, of course, knows that only too well. He has also argued, repeatedly, that we should be wary of talking down the entire Scottish financial sector on the basis of admittedly severe setbacks in large-scale banking.
  
  Let us remember, too, that other parts of the world have suffered substantially in the financial crisis.
  
  We are not alone, not uniquely damaged. Collectively, let us strive to repair such damage as has been done.
  
  Well said Brian, careless talk costs jobs.
• All to play for? 4:06pm on 13 Nov 2009 Cheer up everyone, you could always go watch a movie...
• Making the changes 10:08am on 05 Nov 2009 Phew, after getting a "page not found" 404 Error (and a nice reminder of the old test card screen!) when refreshing the Blether the links have reverted to Tory blue. No orange, yellow or green links as yet, yet more blatant Tory-Labour bias from the BBC, depending on the wind direction and Jupiter's position in Sagittarius.
• Making the changes 10:01am on 05 Nov 2009 All the links have suddenly gone red! Does anyone else see this or is it just on my computer?! Surely now there can be little doubt of the BBC's Labour bias!
• Making the changes 1:34pm on 04 Nov 2009 Will this be enough? Will Sir Christopher Kelly's recommendations, if implemented, be enough to ease public anger over MPs expenses?
  
  Yes and no. Yes in the long term, but no in the short term. I'm sure many incumbent MPs will be "double jobbying" themselves at the prospect of losing their sinecures at the next election.
• Striking a balance 09:12am on 27 Oct 2009 Looks like Labour are struggling in Wales. Interestingly the Tories seem to be the ones to benefit rather than Plaid Cymru. There may yet be a safe seat for dean down in the Valleys...
• Scottish football needs 'czar' 11:34pm on 24 Oct 2009 Spot on as usual Jim! Let me be the first to nominate YOU as the football czar! Amidst all the doom and gloom surrounding Scottish football you've put your finger on the problem - our kids have no less potential than anyone else's, therefore the coaching and/or conditions MUST be the problem.
  
  The solutions are blindingly obvious: play the game in good conditions, emphasise skillful passing football allied to good organisation. If that means using the latest artificial turf with rubber crumb then make the investment in that rather than in puffed up wages for some third-rate has-been (or more accurately never-quite-was) who played twice for Gibberovia 6 years ago. Play in good weather, i.e. late spring, summer, early autumn. Get kids playing futsal. Experiment! (we have nothing to lose!) Get some Dutch coaches in to teach the kids (and our youth coaches) at 5 clubs, French coaches at another 5, German at another 5 and Spanish at another 5. See which one makes the most impact after 5 years and do things that way in future.
  
  PS Vive la revolucion at Tannadice! Let's see more of this fresh thinking at every other club.
• The plebiscite to end all plebiscites 4:33pm on 10 Oct 2009 #306. oldnat295. Jimmythepict
  "daily express"
  
  Oh my. So the EU is going to seize all Scotland's oil and gas, eh? It must be true if the Daily Express said so!!! [stitches sides back together, re-attaches head]
  
  No wonder some people on here are reluctant to reveal the source of their "wisdom".
  
  #303. InfrequentAllele Very interesting post, thanks for that. I can just picture the EU technocrats all having to apply for a work permit in newly independent Flanders...or maybe not.
• The plebiscite to end all plebiscites 00:13am on 10 Oct 2009 With regard to the possibility of an independent Scotland having to re-apply for EU membership, I'd like to share a couple of thoughts.
  
  Firstly, given that there isn't much in the way of precedence for dealing with seceding states in the EU, I'd be somewhat suspicious of anyone who claims to have a definitive answer on the subject. And as the last 10 years have sadly demonstrated, international law isn't exactly watertight in any case.
  
  Secondly, Scots are currently EU citizens and as such are entitled to work and live in any other EU country. Many, many thousands do just that. Would the EU really countenance repatriating them all, should that entitlement vanish on independence day? Just suppose the remainder of the UK somehow retained EU membership - would all the Anglo-Scots be herded up the A1 and M6 and shoved over the border? And what message would the above treatment send out to places like Northern Ireland, Wales, Catalonia, the Basque Country, Corsica, the north of Italy, Flanders, Wallonia, etc., where substantial numbers of people vote in favour of secession?
  
  No, it's always worth remembering in these discussions that countries are groups of people, not mere abstract geographical entities. I rather suspect the EU would want to avoid anything quite so unseemly, especially when the "new" member has attained independence through democratic means. Scotland's strategic location, abundance of natural resources, long-standing cultural and trading ties to the rest of the continent and EU-compliant legal system would make us a shoe-in. And if all that is still not enough, I suspect the EU would be only too happy to reward the country that had weakened it's most Euro-sceptic member.

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