andy steel

He sounded absolutely ridiculous on the radio there, trying to defend the SPFL's latest fantasy - while sometimes remembering he works for the BBC, not the SPFL, and claiming he was only acting Devil's Advocate. Tom English tore his 'arguments' to shreds.

Total waste of money, in't it? The SNP probably don't want to upset Labour, the Lib Dems of the Tories, whose brought the idea in/backed it with vigour: Bilingual roadsigns were instigated by the first Labour/Lib Dem administration in 2003 in the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act, which set out “the status of the Gaelic language as an official language of Scotland commanding equal respect to the English language”. It was passed by the second Labour/Lib Dem government in 2005, and subsequently found backing from Tory MSPs:. “I come from a party that, as Ted Brocklebank rightly said, has given considerable support to Gaelic in the past. The Scottish Conservatives have always understood that Gaelic is an essential part of our heritage and, indeed, our social fabric.” – Liz Smith MSP (Mid Scotland and Fife) “I am proud of the Scottish Conservatives’ record on that. In a speech in the first parliamentary session, the former Labour MSP for the Western Isles, Alasdair Morrison, effusively thanked the Conservatives for igniting the Gaelic revival by funding Gaelic media and education. Alasdair Morrison was right. I am proud of previous Conservative ministers, such as Malcolm Rifkind and Michael Forsyth, who knew the value of the Gaelic heritage and wanted not to lose it but to encourage it.” – Jamie McGrigor MSP (Highlands and Islands)."

I'd be gob smacked and very disappointed if the government couldn't find a better use for £2m than to give it to a financially irresponsible sector like football. Apparently celtc signed a Danish defender yesterday, his wages and fees would probably cover the entire programme.

That wee thumbnail sums up everything that was wrong about that night, which still gets my dander up even yet. If he's aiming for Oduwa's ankle, he's a grotesque throwback acting under orders from a Neanderthal manager. If he was aiming for the ball, he presumably suffers from astigmatism or some other eye condition and, as such, is unlikely to fulfill Burchill's mitigation for the assault, that he might play for Scotland one day. I have never spent much time watching celtc outside of OF games, or when I hear they're getting gubbed in Europe and rush to the TV to enjoy the last 15 minutes. But I find it hard to reconcile Burchill, the slight, elegant striker with the loonball who went on air after this game and talked so much reactionary rubbish. I guess you never can tell.

But if Oduwa plans on a career anywhere other than Scotland, handling the physical is a useless skill for him to learn. Any other league where players go in hard, they won't be on the pitch for more than an hour at most. All Oduwa would have learned from his time with us is how to deal with pressure - that would have been good for him, but I've no quarrel with him putting his legs and career first. Also, if he was aware of Burchill's appalling response after the Livi cup game, it wouldn't exactly have encouraged him to hang about. All in all a depressing episode in the history of Scottish football, regardless of his ability or the reasons for his leaving.

Extremely generous to Livingston's primitive, bovine tactics to use the word 'tackle'. I don't think he was the standard we require. But the village which burns a witch must still feel ashamed, even if she turns to have been a witch all along.

Can't argue with anything Provan says there. But I doubt either the clubs nor, as we can see from replies already, the fans will buy into the concept. Much easier to bleat about everyone else and refuse to look at yourself, regardless of what team you follow.

Yeeeees...and then I look at the post count beside my name on a football message board, and ponder uneasily about the wisdom of pointing out other peoples' inadequacies. At least I post about my own team, in my own defence I'll say that. Fantastic line.

I've just read some frothing at the mouth political stuff on the Herald by someone called Michael Settle, and now this 'report' with random debts and 'tainted titles'. What happened to our city's newspaper? I doubt anyone expects more than a horoscope and Cliff Hanley (showing my age now) from the Evening Times, and I don't remember the Eveneing Citizen, but the Herald used to be better than this.

Kind of dogmatic view of things for my taste.

I suppose a difference is that we need to qualify the first quote - if you'd written, "the common denominator in Islamic terrorism is Islam" then it would be accurate enough, but they are hardly the only terrorists on the planet - the Maoists in that state of Inida who's name I forget aren't Muslims, not are the Mex/Columbian druggies, or even what's left of Peru's Shining Path (thankfully not much), not the ocassional Militia Man in backwoods America. Whereas I would imagine that re.sexual assaults, 99% would be carried out by men so the common denom. would be men, regardless of their orientation. But surely it's a bald statement of fact & I doubt it was meant to be taken as an insult to all men, I certainly wasn't insulted at any rate.

A regressive lefty writes: Well, aye, apart from the bit where she specifically rejects the idea that 'all men' are this or that. Btw 'Alive in Wonderland' would be a superb album titile.

She's used the example of her youth at the football to tie in the shocking events in Koln with something more relevant to men in Scotland, to hopefully get people thinking on the subject. As someone who all too often stretches allusions way beyond their breaking point in ham fisted attempts to come across as all wordy, I don't think she's done anything wrong.

I disagree with the feeling that this will show us where we are against teams from the top league. As the old cliche says, cup games are a one off and anything can happen - the 1-3 against St Johnstone doesn't prove we're that much worse than them, and a 3-1 win over Killie wouldn't prove we're that much better than them. We'll only know once we're promoted and playing week in, week out. Stating the obvious I guess but there you are.

Steady on, Alan - he's suffered enough, surely.

Fwiw I got an email about this titled something like 'Let's Take Football Back' - I never joined this group nor did I actively send my details, and after the most cursory glance I deleted rather than replied. I think claims of 50,000 members can safely be taken with a big old bag of Saxo and it's daft claims like that which leave a bodies credibility busted.

That's kinda my suspicion too - even if it was used for a lick of paint, why not just use it? But I have to confess financials leave me baffed and there's probably 101 reasons why not.

Seems a bit like the usual football board attitude to football fans, turn up, pay up & shut up. If those in power are trying to keep you out, it' all the more reason to keep pushing at the door. Of course there could be some other explanation.

It's a whole new ball game

Of course they are just charges at this point, rather than declarations of guilt. But I'd like to read what, if any, reasons Lord Menzies gave for his decision.

That last point seemed clear from his 'angry' press conference - I couldn't understand why none of the assembled media pointed out to him that he had the wrong end of the stick. Suited us, though, given the performance against Hibs.

Can anyone remember which judge it was who allowed Whyte to appoint his own administrators?

It's an indication of the dsyfunctionality of the last few years that seeing this quoted makes me hugely happy.

You'd have to say that losing 2/3 with a side you've been in charge of for what, 18 months? to a team flung together at the last minute and finding its way as it goes is hardly the stamp of a better team, with a better manager, playing better football, learned on a better training ground. Thy pudding is heavily over-egged, sirrah.

The difference between the club taking action & Gordon Waddell's j'accuse-by-numbers in an earlier post is that the club is working hard to educate everyone who comes into contact with the club to move forward. But it also has to deal with people whose ideas were set in stone 20, 30, 40 years ago, and that's a damn sight harder. So while it's easy for someone who doesn't have to do any actual work beyond dog-whistle articles, it's a much harder slog for the club itself. And that slog isn't helped by a Manichean world view from the media, where things are either acceptable or not acceptable and there's never an evolution from one to the other over time. As a well known hand-wringer I take no lectures from anyone on the subject of how some Bears behave when they are representing our club, but simplistic nonsense won't help either. I guess if your audience is simple that's how you write, but tbh I would rather not write at all if that was my choice.