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Showing content with the highest reputation on 18/03/20 in all areas

  1. If the new head of PR was a RC and a member of the SNP then the press wouldn't mention it. Apparently being a Protestant and a unionist is some sort of crime in modern Scotland that the press have to emphasise someone's political and religious views and suggest that they are unsuitable for a job because of it. Imagine the uproar if someone was branded unsuitable for a non-religious job because they were a RC and a nationalist. Neil Cameron is a bigot.
    8 points
  2. Literally AND metaphorically.
    3 points
  3. Tae a virus Twa months ago, we didna ken, yer name or ocht aboot yeBut lots of things have changed since then, I really must salute yeYer spreading rate is quite intense, yer feeding like a gannetDisruption caused, is so immense, ye’ve shaken oor wee planet.Corona used tae be a beer, they garnished it wae limesBut noo it’s filled us awe wae fearThese days, are scary times.Nae shakin hawns, or peckin lips, it’s whit they awe adviseBut scrub them weel, richt tae the tips, that’s how we’ll awe surviveJust stay inside , the hoose, ye bideNae sneakin oot for strollsJust check the lavvy every hoorAnd stock-take, your, loo rollsOur holidays have been pit affNoo that’s the Jet2 patterPit oan yer thermals, have a laughAnd paddle ‘ doon the waater ‘Canary isles, no for a whileNae need for suntan creamAnd awe because o this wee bugWe ken tae be..19The boredom surely will set in,But have a read, or doodleOr plan yer menu for the monthWi 95 pot noodles.When these run oot, just look abootA change, it would be niceWe’ve beans and pasta By the tonand twenty stane o rice.So dinny think yell wipe us ootAye true, a few have diedBubonic, bird flu, and TbThey came, they left, they triedYe might be gallus noo ma freenAs ye jump fae cup tae cupBut when we get oor vaccine madeYer number will be up.
    3 points
  4. I'd love to work from home but I am a lollypop man?
    3 points
  5. I genuinely don't believe they can relegate Hearts any more than crown Celtic winners on the matches still to be played. This is unprecedented circumstance and is unlikely ever to be repeated and there should be no winners or losers. I should have added as fans we did not pay for our season tickets to have to accept being shafted by the authorities. I would hope the club would be making their and our feelings known. We should not be rolling over and handing them a title without winning it.
    3 points
  6. I'm sure I'm not alone in despairing at the rise of disrespect and self-interest that's flourished in this country over the last 50 years, deeply fragmenting so of much of our social fabric. We live in an increasingly divided and adversarial society, where identity politics has poisoned almost every corner of our lives, where it's cool to be a victim and our status comes from blaming and condemning others. Well here's a chance to fight back and change things. Not by out-blaming the blamers but by caring for our neighbours, assuming personal responsibility for our own actions and how they affect the wider community. Instead of panic buying and resenting the intrusion of this virus into our own lives, here's a chance to do something we haven't seen much of for a very long time - to stop complaining and start caring for others, instead of obsessing about ourselves. There are a hell of a lot of older and less able people who are going to have an enormous challenge just getting by over the next few months. Almost every one of us can help them in some way and we need to start doing so. Whether it's by minimising their risk of infection by taking ourselves out of circulation as much as possible or by actively supporting them to stay safe and reducing their loneliness. It isn't political and it isn't defined by anything other than humanity and common decency. There are help groups springing up all over the country - join them or start your own but let's change for the better.
    2 points
  7. Neil should have deferred. Asking for tolerance then castigating David Graham for being a Northern Irish Unionist and member of the Orange Order is Neil's problem, and numerous others in both the Scottish print and broadcast media. Rangers have appointed David Graham, why not give him a chance? In the open spirit that Neil calls for, why doesn't the current part time Journo tell of his preference on bed sheets? Egyptian cotton as opposed to Irish Linen? You see Neil took his redundancy last year, suffers from the black dog. He ploughed his hard earned into a Boarding House on a west coast island. Does Neil prefer his guests start their day with honey or marmalade? Should Neil's guests know Neil's background? We know when the OO marches, the DUP are a legitimate political party pursuing a perfectly legitimate political agenda, and David Graham has never pulled on a balaclava. Compare and contrast with Neil's favourites, has anyone at Sellik Park gone into land deals with Slab Murphy? I think Neil knows the answer to that one; maybe he can help out with this one, when's the date and time of the next Opus Dei march? You know that organisation founded by Franco's personal Bishop? Bang another gong, your guests are waiting on their dinner.
    2 points
  8. So it sounds like Morelos is 13 stone, pretty fit and goes to the gym ...
    2 points
  9. As usual the story has been sensationalised for clicks The truth is he is investing, part of the share issue as we were told He isn’t investing £20m and he isn’t buying out King etc He is a new investor, it is new money and it is good news but the rest is sensational bullshit The share issue will be announced very soon, best to wait until then because stories of new ‘sugar daddy’s’ and spin is completely unfair on everyone in the support
    2 points
  10. I’ve never heard of David Graham but wish him well in his appointment. My only concern about him is whether he had sufficient PR experience for will be a very difficult role at times in dealing with a very biased media in this country
    1 point
  11. ..."it’s just that his successor shouldn’t be a DUP and Orange Order member." Sectarian statement in print. This journalist should be decried for using hate speech by RangersFC.
    1 point
  12. A point to remember is this crisis was delivered to us by Communism and the cure will be delivered by Capitalism.
    1 point
  13. 1 point
  14. Well, what a magnanimous soul you are. I actually praise something you said and instead you respond with vitriol. I'm expressing an opinion - or is it only you who are entitled to have an opinion? As for spewing bile you have done more than your fair share of it.
    1 point
  15. Hurrying up justice can be dodgy there was a well known sheriff in the Glasgow courts who loved to spend his weekends fishing more criminals got a not guilty or not proven verdict on a Friday afternoon than you could shake a stick at .
    1 point
  16. Jesus Christ, why don't you just stop this crap. Are you afraid there won't be an opportunity to spew your bile after this is all over? Times change, intelligent people acknowledge that and know when to stop sniping. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's sick of it. Right now there are no neo-liberals, only fellow citizens.
    1 point
  17. Sign seen at a bowling alley, perhaps not very well thought out beforehand.
    1 point
  18. I'm not sure a fall in stock markets has any effect on most businesses unless their share price is somehow tied into bank covenants or the like. The issue for most businesses in the short term is a trading one and in particular cash-flow. Companies exporting in various currencies might take an exchange rate hit but from what I can see the exchange rate fluctuations generally favour UK companies so far. Any opportunities for market investment will be focussed on existing businesses with the strongest balance sheets that are best placed to weather this storm and take advantage of the demise of others that flounder in the meantime.
    1 point
  19. Once this crisis is on the wane the markets will bounce back
    1 point
  20. Magnus Linklater in The Times ALEX SALMOND TRIAL | SKETCH march 18 2020, 12:01am, the times The bravado of old was barely in evidence magnus linklater https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/the-bravado-of-old-was-barely-in-evidence-l8f03qqv3 He took the stand with some of that familiar bravado. The Saltire tie was back in place and the suit had been carefully pressed. He is pale-faced and has lost some weight, but he still carries that air of political self-assurance we remember so well. Alex Salmond may be fighting for his reputation and his professional future, but even in the High Court, subjected to cross-examination on the most intimate details of his private life, he reminded us that once he had been Scotland’s first minister and the most powerful figure in the land. Questioned by the defence counsel Gordon Jackson, QC, who has smartened himself up considerably, with a haircut and a relatively clean shave, he described himself as “journalist, TV presenter and retired politician”. Mr Jackson took him through his political career, beginning at university, when politics took precedence over exams, his election as an MP, MSP and at times both, a man who bestrode Westminster and Holyrood with ease. We were told of his rise to power as leader of the SNP, the election victories of 2007 and 2011, his time as first minister and the transfer of leadership to his successor, Nicola Sturgeon. This was an Alex Salmond more restrained and low-key than he had ever been in his heyday. He was punctilious towards the judge, referring to her respectfully as “my lady”, he deferred to counsel and apologised when he misheard a question. He even coughed discreetly into his elbow, in the required anti-viral manner. The court was witnessing a different Salmond from the first minister we knew. His manner grew more confident as he described the places he had worked, including St Andrew’s House, the Scottish parliament and Bute House, surrounded by a staff of 20 or more, in an atmosphere “quite unlike anything else in government”, as he put it, “working 24/7 and living out of their pockets, with people knitted together and more informal than the civil service or any other environment”. He spread out his arms as he recalled the “blurring of the normal boundaries between social and professional life” and the pressure that went with the job. He recalled the prestige that was attached to working in his office and how it was viewed as a fast track to other jobs. Not many people, however, could take the pace for more than two years. Mr Jackson took him through the allegations against him – the Scottish government official who said she was invited to re-enact a kiss from a Jack Vettriano Christmas card; the civil servant who allegedly woke up in a car during a trip to China to find him stroking her cheek; the woman who claims he touched her bottom as they both posed for a picture; the SNP politician who told the jury she travelled in his car and said that the first minister’s hand rested on her knee throughout the trip; the party employee whose evidence was that Mr Salmond recounted a dubious anecdote about a drunken journalist in the drawing room at Bute House; the serious charge of attempted rape, which he denies. On these allegations, Mr Salmond’s response was that they were either light-hearted, taken as a joke, “high jinks”, consensual, or simply untrue. “Totally and utterly harmless” was one of his responses. “A fabrication” was another. On one occasion, he conceded, things had gone further, when he said that he and a female Scottish government official, relaxing in his bedroom at Bute House after the day’s business, found themselves “lapsing into a sleepy cuddle, lying side by side on the bed, with her feet still on the floor.” Though both were fully clothed, it was, he said, “the kind of thing that happens when you are tipsy. It shouldn’t have happened”. She stood up, and said: “I’ll have to be going. This is a bad idea.” Mr Salmond says he sat up and agreed. She left, saying: “Good night, first minister.” Later, after she complained and one of his private secretaries spoke to him about it, he apologised. Alex Prentice, QC, for the prosecution, took a dimmer view of the allegations. After raising the incident involving the Vettriano painting of a couple about to kiss, Mr Prentice asked bluntly: “Did you give any consideration to [her] feelings?” Dissatisfied with Mr Salmond’s response, he repeated the question three times. “I assumed she would accept the joke in the manner I had intended,” Mr Salmond explained. Mr Prentice remained unimpressed. As each allegation was raised, Mr Prentice asked about the difference in ages between the first minister and the witnesses involved. Where he was in his late fifties, the women were mainly in their twenties. The age difference between him and the woman to whom it is alleged he told the dubious joke in Bute House was 31 years. “Do you still think it was appropriate to tell [her] a story about a penis?” he asked. “It was told in levity and jest,” Mr Salmond insisted. “Did you grab [a senior civil servant’s] backside because you could get away with it?” Mr Prentice demanded. “No,” came the answer. Two differing views of a powerful figure and the way he ran his office, his private life and the country.
    1 point
  21. Salmond leaps to his own defence. In short: "I'm just a soul whose intentions are good, Oh, Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood", aka The Fat Man's Burden (well, he's no Burdon). From The Guardian Alex Salmond tells court charges are fabrications or exaggerations Former first minister of Scotland faces charges of attempted rape, sexual and indecent assault Severin Carrell Scotland editor @severincarrell Tue 17 Mar 2020 16.47 GMTFirst published on Tue 17 Mar 2020 15.19 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/17/alex-salmond-tells-court-charges-are-fabrications-or-exaggerations Alex Salmond told a court that numerous charges of sexual and indecent assault, and a charge of attempted rape against him were deliberate fabrications or exaggerated. The former first minister of Scotland, who denies the charges against him, told the high court in Edinburgh the 13 charges he faces of attempted rape, sexual assaults and indecent assaults on nine women were false or based on misinterpretation. Originally indicted on 14 charges, he was formally acquitted of one sexual assault after the charge was dropped by the prosecution on Monday. Speaking for the first time in his defence, Salmond told his lawyer, Gordon Jackson QC, with hindsight he wished he had been “more careful with people’s personal space”, but added that many incidents were “being reinterpreted and exaggerated out of any possible proportion”. Asked by Jackson why some charges were exaggerations, the former Scottish National party leader said: “Some, not all, are fabrications. They’re deliberate fabrications for political purposes. “Some are exaggerations that are taken out of proportion and I think that the impact of some of the publicity of the last 18 months might have led some people quite innocently to revise their opinions and say: ‘Oh well something happened to me’ and it gets presented in a totally different way.” Salmond is accused of sexual assault with intent to rape against one complainer, the Scottish legal term for complainant, known as F, who cannot be named for legal reasons. Salmond told the jury the incident at Bute House, the first minister’s official residence in Edinburgh, was based on “a legitimate grievance even if it isn’t what happened”. Salmond denied F’s allegations that in December 2013 in one of Bute House’s bedrooms he had ordered the complainer to lie on the bed, sexually assaulted her by touching her across her body over her clothing, pulling up her dress and kissing her repeatedly after getting drunk on a potent Chinese spirit. Salmond admitted he and F drank the spirit, known as Maotai, but claimed they shared the bottle during a long work session on government papers. One box of papers involved documents from a recent visit to China and Hong Kong and he told the court: “I thought it would be appropriate to toast the correspondence with Maotai.” He claimed they became tipsy, and as F prepared to leave he kissed her on the cheek before they fell on to the bed in a “sleepy cuddle”, fully dressed, “for no more than a few seconds”. They both immediately realised they had made a mistake, he added, and he said she later accepted his apology after she reported the encounter to a senior civil servant. “I have never attempted to have non-consensual sexual relations with anyone in my entire life,” Salmond said. He also made a counter-allegation against complainer H, a former Scottish government official, who has accused him of attempting to rape her during a violent encounter at Bute House in June 2014 and of a sexual assault in the same building the previous month. H alleged Salmond had insisted they drank Maotai together. The former first minister told the court H had made both incidents up. He told the court they had had “a consensual sexual liaison” which took place in August 2013, which H had initiated. They had kissed and caressed each other, he said, but without undressing. “We both realised it wasn’t a good idea and we parted good friends, with no damage done,” he told the court. He said allegations by one senior Scottish government official, known as complainer A, that in 2008 he had touched her buttocks and the side of her breasts, as well as kissing her on the mouth, are “a fabrication from start to finish”. A’s allegation he had assaulted her while they danced in a nightclub in 2010 was “ludicrous”, he said. He would never have assaulted her but this was also a very public venue, and they did not dance together. “It’s a fabrication, just as she has encouraged at least five other people to exaggerate or make claims against me,” he told the court. He was asked five times by the prosecutor, Alex Prentice QC, whether he considered the feelings of another civil servant, B, who accused him of trying to force her to reenact a Jack Vettriano painting of two people kissing by pulling her towards him. Salmond replied: “I assumed she would find the circumstances as funny [as] I did.” He had earlier told Jackson: “It was a joke, high jinks, it was a bit of fun,” he said. B had “misremembered” the event, he added. Salmond told jurors there was frequently “blurring of the normal professional-social boundaries” between him and staff in his private office, because they worked together round the clock, in a high pressure working environment. During his cross-examination, Prentice repeatedly asked Salmond, now 65, whether he had considered the large age gap between himself and the female officials he has been accused of assaulting, who were in their 20s and 30s at the time. Salmond said the age gap was irrelevant as any familiar conduct was “non-sexual”. Salmond insisted he respected women and repeatedly denied the prosecutor’s assertions that the allegations against him were correct. He admitted stroking the face of complainer D, a civil servant, several times as she slept beside him in a car during a visit to Hong Kong; he did so because he was trying to gently wake her up. He said he pulled D’s curly hair several times too, as a friendly gesture, and had tapped another complainer, J, a former Scottish National party employee, on the nose. The hearing continues.
    1 point
  22. For those that are interested I append below the URL for the modelling of the virus done by Imperial College. This is the model that was mentioned in the press briefing today. Unfortunately, it's not very cheerful reading. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf
    1 point
  23. Having a laugh is far better than panicking.
    1 point
  24. Enough to make you want to reach for a revolver. ? My 89 year old grandpa has informed the family that he'd rather get Corona virus than spend four weeks indoors (and his activities validate the comment). Great to see some of us have some humour and spirit left.
    1 point
  25. Well allow me to retort. You're coming across as among other things a hypocrite who I have seen chide others about becoming personal. Then after claiming to be done responding went on to remark to someone else that i'm a liar, talking nonsense, and angry. Which in your view obviously isn't becoming personal. Well since you presumably don't see that as getting personal neither is this. You're coming across as a frankly peculiar, hypocritical, angry liar trying to project your traits on to me. Ranting away such bizarre shit as my purpose in posting is to say i'm in the US to a group most of whom probably know that. Then angrily telling me I should get out of a country I think isn't perfect but are apparently compelled to tell everyone i'm in it as if it's some badge of honour and all while I hate it. In addition some babble about being off topic when referring to a potential problem with guns in my immediate vicinity and this country during an unprecedented global crisis when it's bang on topic regarding the crisis. Let me hazard a guess that this small sampling of headlines from today aren't from these people you 'know' Guns and groceries: Shoppers rush to stock up as coronavirus fears spread Los Angelenos Flock to Gun Stores During Coronavirus Scare Pandemic frenzy: Gun owners stock up Virus fears fuel spike in sales of guns and ammunition Are the headlines off the virus topic? What do you and your expert knowledge due to some people you know think of that? Maybe these people just think they can shoot the virus? You got around to telling all those unhappy with the SNP to get out of Scotland yet Mr angry? Or maybe all those unhappy with Boris Johnson that they should get out of Britain?
    1 point
  26. The season IS over. It's just that in the process of declaring it over the SPFL and SFA needs to find a way of awarding the league title to Celtic. Presumably this will be achieved by simultaneously buying off telling Hearts there will be no relegation this season and next season there will be 14 teams in the league. Everyone is then happy, no?
    1 point
  27. It would make a lot of people feel a whole lot better about themselves if they did a lot more for others. Just a thought - they now know this virus remains active for up to 72 hours on hard surfaces, 24 hours on cardboard. Everything lifted from a supermarket shelf has already been handles by someone else to put it there in the first place. If collecting/delivering shopping for isolating neighbours, think about wiping down every item first. A dilute bleach solution will do it but the link below offers wider advice. There's no point introducing the virus into someone's home while trying to help them. If self-isolating yourself, think about similar measures you need to take on your side of the door. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prepare/cleaning-disinfection.html
    1 point
  28. If you have an elderly or infirm neighbours chap the door and offer some assistance, its nice to be nice .
    1 point
  29. Is he on his own or does he bring a company with him? I reckon PR needs more than one face. At the very least one bombast and one weasel. If a swivel-eyed fanatic is what’s required I am available and not expensive.
    1 point
  30. I didn't realise Rangers had contracted the DUP to act for us. As far as I can see he wears a Rangers shirt, not a DUP tie, and has renounced his political position. I never fails to amaze me how willing we are to allow the media to dictate the tone of what we think about this or anything else. Let's not be like the media goons who try to exploit us.
    1 point


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