MANY and varied are the arguments for and against independence.

John Watters in Greenock tells us: "A teacher friend had a mock referendum with his class of 16- and 17-year-olds to gauge the thoughts of our young voters. After pretty much a 50/50 split he asked two of the no voters, two girls seated together, to explain their views. They said they 'couldn't live in a different country than One Direction' - the boy band - and therefore would vote No.

"I wonder if it is with these thoughts that the First Minister should think again?"

See, I told you!

MANY mothers will identify with the thoughts of Scots singer Eddi Reader, who commented yesterday: "Big day today - youngest leaving Scotland just like I did in 1979. Family coming up to mop me up. Mom coming to say, 'See!'"

Art of history

THANK goodness the School of Art has been saved. Former student Deedee Ciddihy was discussing the fire there with a fellow former student who suggested that as many of the college's library books had gone up in flames they should make an appeal for all the students in the sixties and seventies who actually borrowed books without returning them to do so, and the library would soon be restocked.

Added Deedee: "In some ways it's a wonder that the art school hadn't caught fire before, when you think that back then we were allowed to smoke inside, in amongst all that turps and paint rags. One member of staff in the library smoked so much that there was always a haze hanging in the air. Probably one of the reasons why the wood in the library was so dark. It was the fag smoke."

French fancy

TOUR guides continued. Eoin Jenkins of Stirling was in France recently where their tour guide, rather wittily, said as they passed a branch of McDonald's that the French preferred snails to a Big Mac because they did not like fast food.

From the leftfield

OUR story about Latin being encouraged again in Scots schools reminds the Rev Eric Hudson in Bearsden of a couple of educated chaps visiting China who came across a bus stop which had written below the Chinese destination signs, the phrase "Sub Lapicinum". Both thought their Latin was quite good, but they were unable to work out what the sign meant. They later discovered that a worker had been sent out to help visitors by painting "Municipal Bus" at the stop, but wrote it from right to left.

Bark worse than bite

WORD from the countryside is that the midges are bad this year. Reader Willie McNish says he was in a shop in Whiting Bay when a local contractor, working in a glen where the little blighters are particularly vicious, was trying to describe conditions. "I saw one with a sheep in its mouth," he told fellow shoppers with a straight face.

Flagging up a problem

AS the hopefully spectacular opening ceremony to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow approaches, James Thomson from the host city heard a chap on the bus tell the woman he was with: "Is no other Celtic fan concerned about this opening ceremony for the Games? It's basically Parkhead hosting a big event of loads of folk marching behind flags and banners - in July!"

Circus japes

A COLLEAGUE wanders over to interrupt us with: "I've just held the door open for a circus clown. It was a nice jester."