In The Old Curiosity Shop, Dickens speaks of a dull eternal weariness. This week, with the end in sight, the people are tired and exhausted, driven to somnolence.
There's a shared estimation that we've had enough. After this week's Kelvingrove debate, maybe by Wednesday or Thursday, there seemed to be a collective feeling that we'd run our course. We'd reached the end of our tether.
Then everyone started to turn toward madness. Someone tried to sell their referendum vote on eBay. Others were having ice water thrown on themselves...even Salmond and Darling were at it.
And praise the comedy gods, Archie MacPherson crash-bang-walloped into the narrative…whooooooffff!!!!
I won't lie about Archie. I've pilloried, prospered and benefited from his perceived comedy persona - as have many comedy writers - from writing about him.
In Only an Excuse? he was always typecast (for comedy purposes) as a Blue Nose and a pure Rangers man - just in the same way Chick Young was always painted as a Rangers fan, despite in reality being a fervent St Mirren fan.
Satirists take the minutiae and amplify it. It was probably highlighted that his voice was louder and more excitable when Rangers scored than it was for Celtic, ergo Archie is a Rangers man.
This would manifest itself with tremendous excitement at the likes of Gio van Bronckhorst and Michael Laudrup tying their laces or taking a throw-in, and a tired, apologetic, thin and jaded voice when Henrik Larsson bagged a spectacular hat-trick. But that doesn't make him a bad person, just adds to the case for the comedy defence.
Most of Archie's eulogising of the teddy bears or something ted-related would always end in a glorious whoooooffff!!! as his ginger comb-over flapped in the wind. It always got a laugh because it was over the top.
It wasn't just that, to my generation, growing up he was always a diminutive figure in Scottish football, a big presence and a real personality. With his hair and ubiquitous and indeed famous sheepskin jacket, he was never off our screens, either in the studio or coming from the sidelines at a foggy Cappielow or windy Broomfield. I remember excitedly watching him in Scotch and Wry when Rikki Fulton mistook him for Bamber Gascoigne.
As a Rangers man from Shettleston, of a certain vintage who worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation, it was hardly a major shockeroonie that he came out as supporting the union.
Archie's comments are also consistent with the message from most Better Together supporters. Full of negativity and fear, he claimed he was driven to speak out of 'anger'. Where is the positive message? It's all 'I don't like it, it's a gamble'. 'No'. What sort of positive vision does this show? Unfortunately, Archie speaks for many of that generation who are fearful and pessimistic.
I'm still waiting for the Better Together side to offer up some kind of social message, one of looking after your brother. It seems to start and end with the word 'I'. The most charitable line seems to have come from BT HQ. The BT followers feel sorry for anyone needing food banks in Liverpool as well as Glasgow. It's all spiteful asides from yet another Better Together supporter with an unconstructive, complaining, tale of woe.
Archie stood up and had his say, which he's entitled to do. He said: "The wrong road is the yellow brick road which they (Yes supporters) are riding...which ends in deception, deceit and fantasy."
(Of course, Archie's always had it in for anything in green, so he's hardly likely to love the Emerald City…)
His work as a sport journalist is worthy of being on the national curriculum, his commentating was exemplary, you only need to listen to the current crop to realise how brilliant he was at effortlessly capturing a singular moment. All his books are great reads and Better Together supporter or not, he will always be a legend in our house. He helped pay for it.
Douglas Alexander was called a f****** liar by some Gordon Ramsay type maddie on Radio Scotland's Morning Angry phone-in. He claimed he had also been called "scum", a "quisling" and "Judas" after speaking out for the Union earlier this week. I actually don't believe that…A Yes voter allowed on the BBC?
It's now starting to seem like quite a concern for news media down south that the threat of a Yes vote in the referendum might happen.
They're finally waking up to what many on the ground have known for some time, there's a real groundswell and momentum toward a Yes vote and this week that simply couldn't be ignored any longer.
For me, the turning point wasn't Salmond's victory over Darling in the debate. It was when Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS, came out as a Yes supporter.
I'm away to sell David Cameron's soul on eBay.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article