I can see, of course, where the confusion arises.
A Christmas fund is set up so that one can buy things for Christmas; a holiday fund is set up with the express aim of paying for a holiday; a pension fund for the provision of a pension. So it may have been a wee bit difficult for the Subway man to get his head around the idea that the purpose of an oil fund was not, in fact, set up with the express intention of one day purchasing oil.
You see, Iain, we already have oil. We've no need to buy it.
Bless him, his spell out of the front line hasn't really improved him any. Still Nicola is always ready to explain this sort of thing to slow pupils.
Norway's that long thin country up there, on the right hand side...
Maybe he thought it was for an olive oil fund? Quite a sound idea considering our deep fat frying culture. My vote would be for a Frantoia olive, but from Northern Italy rather than the more usual Sicily (and cold pressed obviously).
ReplyDeletebraco
This blog just goes on getting more and more sophisticated.
ReplyDeleteWhat wine would you take with it braco?
2006 Egoista. A very strong but fruity Alentejo red. Leave it to breath for at least a half hour, as it can be very tannin intensive.
DeleteGreat with a mock chop supper (and pickled egg).
braco
From sophistication to super sophistication...
DeleteStunned!
Munguin said to send round a bottle and he'll have it with his King Rib.
Munguin,
DeleteKing Rib was obviously my first choice, but my so called 'girlfriend' said I was just being pretentious!
Only residents truly understand the Republic!
braco
Well, to be fair Munguin says it would have to be named "President Rib" to be acceptable fare in the Republic!
Delete:)
Wasn't debater of the year talking about gallons of Oil of Olay for every Scot. Maybe he got confused and thought it was for this.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't take much to confuse him the poor soul.
DeleteI dunno about Oil of Ugly, this lot is enough to give you wrinkles.
Dear Gods...
ReplyDeleteIs wee Iain serious? Or just taking the mic?
There is so much wrong with his 'hard hitting line of questions' I won't even bother beginning.
#lesigh
Bless him. He looked really cross when everyone laughed at him. I think I noticed a little smirk on the face of the Hon Mr Martin, aristocrat of the Provan Parish!
DeleteMaybe he sees a promotion in the offing, as wee Iain disappears into the Subway one more time.
Tris,
Deletesorry min. This thread's not exactly on fire, is it? Didn't mean to first post! That's why I always end up around the fag end. Every time I jump in, over confident, the fag end always becomes follows me!
That's why you are the blogger! Apololologies to all. (although now I am on, nobody buy the 2008 as it was far too dry a season to produce a decent tinto).
Sorry min, posted in the wrong place! But Christ, I am hammered! I would say this is definitely the time for Niko to make his move and convert me! That is, in whichever way he fancies his chances (the dirty smooth talker that he is)!
Deletebraco
Ha ha... don't tempt fate there Braco...
DeleteGray really is the sump of intelligence, what a waste of a life.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he was a good Maths teacher in Mozambique.
DeleteHe speaks Portugueses you know.
He survived an ambush of 4 pensioners by buying them a sannie in a Subway as well as the killing fields of Cambodia adventurous chappie.
DeleteSo do I,
Deletebut I don't think even I could have used that simple tool as effectively as he did to destroy SLab in less than 6 weeks of open campaigning!
Languages form the logic structures of the brain. Gray learnt Portuguese in the ex colony of Mozambique. It seems he was pre disposed to understand the colonial aspect of the language, rather than the spectacular cultural river that it truly speaks of.
Portugal will be lost for denial of kinship. It's culturally important global hinterland looks at it longingly and is ignored . Iain Gray should stand for my Barrio (now I am leaving, of course!).
Scotland NEEDS the ability to politically 'speak' to our global hinterland.
God I really am desperate to get at it! I am like a bull at the gate. My tongue is blue and my sleaver is very sticky but seems still to be dripping !
braco
Och thats what he was doing in there? And there was me thinking he was hiding...
DeleteYe gads braco... that was a detailed description...
John Swinney's head hitting the desk said it all,
ReplyDeleteI nearly pissed myself
effing hilarious
John was funny. Bless Iain. He does try...
DeleteIt is, perhaps, the first time in my life that a balding heid hitting a desk has seemed, well, meaningful.
DeleteAs a comment it knocks 'being worried by a dead sheep' for six.
I am warming to Mr Swinney.
LOL yes, it does Douglas. Geoffrey Howe was positively scary by comparison.
DeleteI've had the pleasure to meet Mr Swinney in his office, and a nicer man you'd be hard pressed to come across. I also remember seeing him choosing a seat in the parliament canteen at the same table as some window cleaners and they talked their way through lunch together. Unlikely to see the English equivalent of Mr Swinney doing that!¬
I'd appreciate you folk thoughts on my blog admission: Civic Jungle: Indyref: Why this Labour party member is considering voting 'Yes'
ReplyDeleteThat's me making it public... I think Braco should be pleased with his ongoing efforts? :)
http://civicjungle.blogspot.com/2013/11/indyref-why-im-considering-voting-yes.html?spref=tw
Dean,
Deletevery kind words, thank you. Niko is really going to have to work hard tonight to get my vote now!
Although we all know everyone does have his price!
See you over there.
braco
tris
Deleteyou should read this
Pauper management by G4S, Serco and Atos is inspired by a punitive past
The coaltion's use of private companies to manage the most vulnerable amongst us is inspired by half a millennium of Poor Laws
When the powerful invoke "fairness", and represent the privileged as victims of exploitation by the powerless, it is usually the prelude to some spectacular act of injustice towards minorities, the excluded and the poor
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/25/pauper-management-g4s-serco-atos-poor-laws
Dean I'll go over and read it now.
DeleteBut I have to say I wounded to the core that I ahve tried to convince you for 4 years or so, and Braco has the wit to do it within days...
:¬(
Just gonna read that Niko. The title looks interesting.:)
DeleteDean,
DeleteI can't reply on your blog cause I'm a technoleper. Why not set it up like de Republic min!?
Anyway,
we have had harsh words (and I meant them), but you've definitely shown yourself to have the balls needed to be so public over your opinions! You are (at the moment, and if honest, have been for a while now) representing the best of the 'enlightenment'.
Party affiliation and loyalty, when viewed 'above all' (to me), has always been an obvious symptom of a very, very weak mind, or more probably, a hungry bank account.
And now, I know that is not you. This is important.
I promise to read any argument you have, whatever it is, because civilised argument is, and has always been, our only route to enlightenment.
Yer hingin yer baws oot like Cocho Mocho min! And I like yer style!
Nice Blog.
braco
Dean, I read your blog and it seems to me that logic is indeed leading you towards a 'Yes' vote. Let me ask you a rhetorical question. Is your loyalty towards the Labour party for what the party represents today, or is it for what it once was in terms of its principles? If it is the latter, then Scottish independence will perhaps provide the stimulus for Scottish Labour to regain those principles that New Labour seem to have lost; failing that, a new party may well arise which would suit you better.
DeleteScaraben
Dean. I've left a comment at your place.
DeleteNiko. Wow that was a powerful piece. Why can I not write like that. I've been wanting to say that sort of thing (without, I'd admit, the historical references and knowledge) but just in general terms about the Big Four... but this guy has done it brilliantly.
I think everyone should read it.
How can we have let our country become so barbaric. The last paragraph sums up how low we have sunk.
Thanks for sharing it.
Dean,
DeleteI enjoyed reading your blog. Keep writing.
Yes, I agree Marcia. I thought it was a good piece. Not always easy to start to doubt yourself in public, but to be fair to Dean, for years he's come here and argued his side of the debate and taken a fair amount of abuse in the process...
DeleteIf anyone hasn't looked yet, the link is there and in the sidebar too.
Scaraben... I agree completely. It will have to happen, and maybe they will get some really good people, instead of the career dross they have at the moment.
DeleteDeano
ReplyDeleteyer a frit pleese nasty nats dont be howwiwible to me pleese
ya coward.
Anon/braco
vote how you like i couldn't give a fig
Just tell us why ? you post as anon
and sign as Braco, seems a bit weirdy
Where has your Russian relation gone Niko or Nikostratus or mixed up alphabet or.......
DeleteScotland: Breaking the bonds
I'll be honest Niko, I'm more afraid of meeting you down a dark alley than any of the 'cybernat' charmers on this blog! :P
DeleteDon't worry dean. If he was in a dark alley, he'd have Taz with him, and Taz keeps him in order.
DeleteCH...Good article. Ta
DeleteFirst time I have been on this Blog... really impressed. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Brian.
DeleteNice of you to say so...
:)
Stick around Bongo Brian! I this blog was a physical venue, I'll bet it'd be a charming wee bar 'n' bothy! With a great big Munguin toy stuck on a clouded class windie :D
DeleteI always saw Munguin as the cold glowerin chief in the corner that gives the nod or the naw. It's Tris then, that yet again has the desperate drinker to face.
DeleteAll wood pannelled of course. I always see Ma Cameron's Snug in Aberdeen. But then, I always see Ma's as the imaginery venue for a modern northern Scottish enlightenment club!
Members please. For the full moon of every month, you must ride for knowledge.
Any takers? You would have to buy your own claret of course?
(not you Niko, I have a source of red diesel that can be plumbed in through the second urinal, on the left).
Could we not get a drunken, argumentative, drunken, inventive, drunken, randy, drunken, aggressive, drunken and thoroughly committed to the answers, (and the next round) drunken group of totally uninhibited wide boys, well away from the influence of their own intellectual and financial Clans, physically together one night a month to come to some sort of a decision?
Are we not Scots.
Surely?
braco
Ha ha ha ha
DeleteThank you Dean. That was a fair brilliant thing to say. I sometimes wish it were a physical venue too.
Cheers matey...although Munguin says he'd be in the office counting the money!!!
And yes Braco... that sounds like a good enough way to pass the hours, debating and arguing and... just chewing the cud and drinking whisky.
John Brownlie would even make a trip for his island I suspect...
And Niko would be there too...with Taz.
Ha ha... Thanks guys
I am serious,
Deletemeeting at busy pub bars is just so un 18th century! I am simply not willing to put up with it any more. We need a snug! Have you no concept of history?
Where is everyone? I am in Lisboa, and I can make the enaugural meeting on January, Sunday the 19th. Will I be drinking all alone again?
braco (but just for Nikostratos,........... Anon).
Dean,
ReplyDeletejust to save you the search tomorrow,
http://wingsoverscotland.com/?s=andy+burnham
It was no problem, as I am drinking tonight.
braco
Cheers!
Delete