"Scotland gets a lot of income from North Sea oil"

If only. The income goes to the UK government who, with their great wisdom, spend it on long term "oil investments" such as bombing Iraq

I didn't intend to bring religion into it. I just wonder whether there are things of which we must remain forever ignorant. The "god" reference was a sarcastic stab at those who are not comfortable with ignorance. We seem bound to concepts such as "before" and "already existed" and find it difficult to shed the concept of time in our understanding of cause and effect. But this always leads to endless turtles. "created from nothing" is a convenient answer, and it may well be true. But I'm not sure how we would ever know.

"before the big bang"

What do you mean by "before"? Don't we have to face the possibility that there may be certain properties of existence that are impossible for us to even ask about, never mind understand. Perhaps the only choice is God or ignorance. The only certainty is that I don't know.

"I take it you are unfamiliar with concepts like "bacon", "flowers" and "coffee" then?"

Any reason you left out napalm?

"UKIP is definitely the Tea party of the Conservative Party in the UK"

But much funnier.

People in Newcastle, Carlisle and parts of Lancashire might disagree about the benefits, but I agree with your general point. And rather than simply waiting to be charged, I hope Scotland will take a more active approach. For example, rail improvements from Scotland to the north of England might be something that Scotland would propose and be willing to fork up the lion's share of the cash for. But it would resolve to money, and who perceives most benefit. These things can usually be thrashed out round a table.

For me, it's not about whether they guarantee my enemy's destruction, but whether they increase or lessen my own chance of destruction. Under the cold war, while uncomfortable, I believe they probably reduced the level of warfare. And I still think that three superpowers having such weapons may be a good thing. But for the life of me, I can't think of any circumstances in which the UK would actually fire one of these things independently of the USA or what a possible target might be.

But, but, all those resources make us an obvious target for evil countries who would like to exploit us. Aren't we much safer to share those resources with a friendly and mature country in return for their protection, guidance and economic skills? Especially a country that has the clout to negotiate on our behalf with those devious Europeans.

Could you explain how the Trident missiles help to defend me or my family? I prefer not to pay for them because I see them as pretty much fucking useless.

On the other hand, we frequently get low flying military aircraft over our house, on training runs. These don't come cheap either, but I see them as a useful thing to have and am quite happy to pay my share for them.

Still? I thought they had moved out in 1992. Or is there something other than the Holy Loch base?

Is it strange if you base your beliefs on rational foundations, but base your actions on other concepts? I don't believe in god because I see no evidence. I sometimes play golf, which makes no rational sense, but I enjoy it. I'm not sure what values I apply to either of these things.

Are you sure it wasn't you that was smoking at the time?

Perhaps you mean Sakurajima?

Scotland started its space exploration work in the 19th century.The first rocket (see link) encountered some technical difficulties, but we expect to get those sorted out soon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...

this and that

"I don't know of any remedy for superstition."

The just have to be taught not to walk on the cracks.