A Wee Aural Diversion

Hello, dear readers!  I'm still chiselling away obsessively at my latest account of Better Together's onslaught on the intelligence of the Scottish people, so you'll have to wait a day or so for that. Meanwhile, let me ease your frustration by directing you to a small aural treat.

It's Michael Greenwell's latest "For A' That" podcast, recorded on Sunday afternoon, in which I featured along with the infinitely less hungover and more erudite Derek Bateman, Carolyn Leckie and Andrew Tickell, Michael's co-host, whom many of you will know as "Lallands Peat Worrier".  If you've got 60 minutes to spare, it's well worth a listen, and by the wonders of the World Wide Web you can do so using this link.

In the podcast, our informal brains trust took stock of the events of the past few days, which included, amongst many other delights:

• The Nicola Sturgeon/ Johann Lamont "stairheed rammy" which STV, stretching the boundaries of language to breaking point, had the audacity to term "a "debate".  Yes, it was the wrestling throw-down that had undecided voters running screaming for the hills, pleading for the Banshee-like screeching to end.  It even had me rocking myself to sleep in the foetal position, trying to convince myself it was just a nightmare, and I'm a Yes supporter, as you may have deduced.

• Standard Life making a legally unavoidable and relatively uncontroversial remark about contingency plans in their annual report.  All of which would have been hunky dory if certain blood-sucking capitalists and rampant unionists on their board hadn't then got on the phone to Robert Peston to say they'd definitely-maybe-possibly have to abscond from Scotland with a sackful of loot if we opted to decide things for ourselves in future.  Of course, any journalist worth his salt would be honour-bound to report that, although possibly not with the glee that erupted like a smirking pox over the faces of Robert and his BBC colleagues.  "We wouldn't wish to influence your decision, Scottish voters," murmured Standard Life, nonchalantly releasing the safety catch of the gun they were holding to our heads.

• Women for Independence kicking off their campaign to support a voice that, even though it belongs to 52% of the population and might have interesting things to say, isn't always being heard in the maelstrom of the referendum campaign. With even non-fruitcake opinion polls suggesting that women aren't particularly impressed by the Yes campaign so far, Women for Indy have a hugely important task ahead of them.  And, now that Nicola and Johann have stunk out the airwaves with "The Worst Goalless Draw Ever", it's probably become exponentially harder!

• The explosion of crowd-funding, with Wings Over Scotland proving that if you have something worthwhile to do, and you ask nicely, right-thinking people will throw money at you.  And not just you, but any other decent causes for which you might feel inclined to act as signpost.  This threw certain hysterical commentators on the No side into a bilious frenzy, which makes the whole thing tremendously satisfying in its own right no matter what these estimable organisations eventually do with the money.

Enjoy, and I'll be back with another secessionist rant very soon.