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I'm genuinely stunned as to how Neil McCann is alive. He's so abundantly thick as sh*t it's a wonder he knows how to breathe.

It means that, as far as I can see it, there have been peaceful protests and appeals to authority for the ruling classes to have a greater understanding (in this instance) of the societal racism that plagues the lives of black people in the world. Not that there aren't institutionalised racist attitudes in place against Asians, Indigenous Peoples and all the way down to Scottish people or Sicilians to differing degrees in different areas. In general, however, we have objective evidence that points to black people being on the shitty end of the stick more than other races and peoples throughout the world. For five hundred years, half a millennium, the societies and laws that we govern ourselves on have directly attributed to the detriment of black people and it's only in our lifetimes that the final few of these laws have been eradicated. Of those laws how many were abolished with just peaceful protest? Did slavery in the US end with a handshake or civil war? Were Jim Crow laws repealed with pleasant gospel singing or mass protest? Even if you want to bring it closer to home the Brixton Riots kicked off after years of abuse at the hands of police and it ended with the Scarman report that pointed to institutionalised racism in the Met. Protests and riots do not happen in a vacuum. They are what happens when people have ran out of other options from the Storming of the Bastille to a statue getting slung in the Avon. People have been pointing out these injustices for years and their voices are not heard or dismissed out of hand. Gary Younge, Darcus Howe, Benjamin Zephaniah and Raymond Antrobus (and hundreds more) been writing books and articles, appearing on telly, petitioning parliament, performing across the country and consistently been models of the decorum and lawfulness that you speak of and have been asking that the UK government takes a look at its imperial past, looks to decolonise the laws and the make up of the country and full embrace and endorse the lives of its black population. None of this information has been heeded. When they have asked, as, for instance, Graham Campbell has, to look at ways to educate people about the basis of where these statues and street names come from. How they could be used as a weapon to teach us. What additions could be made so as to not remind and ridicule black people about their status in the country and how their lived condition is incongruent with their legal one. What changes have we made to accommodate these appeals? f**k all. All of that was ignored and has been for decades if not centuries. Toppling one statue of one c**t has done more for their cause than their combined output. The folk throwing ropes around metal racists and dragging from their plinths may be standing on the shoulders of the giants who came before them and educated them for the need to take action but they're still the ones taking action and should be applauded. If yer more worried about law abiding citizens than what is right then you're one of the fannies Martin Luther King wrote about from a Birmingham Prison. I just thought calling you a shitehawk was a little less TL;DR

I could maybe, possibly accept this if it wasn't so selectively applied. A massive part of British identity is based on wilfully ignoring the historical context to anything. I'm tired of specious arguments about how we shouldn't impose our values on the past. "It was legal at the time!" they shout. Well, yes, of course it was. Atrocities committed by governments as opposed to individuals are often 'legal'. What the Nazis did in Germany was legal. Segregation was legal. Something can be legal and clearly, plainly immoral. "Most people at the time saw it as acceptable!" they scream. Pretty sure that the millions of people being kindapped, transported, maimed, raped and murdered didn't see it that way. Erasing their perspective is a fascinating insight into how you view the world. The rallying cry of "We mustn't sanitise history!" comes mostly from those dedicated to sanitising the reputations of individuals they admire and an empire they are proud of.

There was a time when Hearts fans source of grandeur was starting a season quite well and winning the league in September. Now? Well, there is a very slim possibility that they might have been successful in begging the entire league to expand to save them from relegation. Sad to watch.

FTFY

The statue removals are absolutely fantastic and a great way of making racist gammons shift uncomfortably in their seats. The folk raging about statues being cunted into rivers are the same absolute fucking vermin who have absolutely no problem with migrants and their kids drowning in the Med. If creepy fuckers like Wattoo and Jeremiah Cole's latest tragic alias are raging about something, taking the opposite position is very likely going to be the right side of the moral argument.

Oh so you think it's cheap to maintain Disco lights, do you?

14-10-10-10 is a lot more palatable, only if permanent. Hearts' reputation though in Scottish football is forever fucked, wherever they end up. The footballing equivalent of one big long temper tantrum until they get what they want. 'Waaaahhhh, waaaaahhhh!!! Keep us up, boo hoo hoo!!'

I’m still struggling to work out how “the slave trade was/is bad and we shouldn’t commemorate the people who perpetrated it” is an extremist position.

Excellent news for struggling clubs. If this coincides with an announcement later today that - in some bizarre volte face - that Hearts have been saved, we might as well all just give up on Scottish football.

I'll double down on that bet. In my experience, people who give a fúck about systemic racism, or homelessness, or inequality, tend to give a fúck in general. It's what I see as being a decent human being. Not cool or virtue signalling, just decent. As wattoo said previously, we are all subject to a capitalist system. The difference is that some of us don't accept that this system is unchangeable.

It's not the pandemic he's living through; it's the Winter of Discontent.

The guy has just pitched up £3m. He isn't going to come on and say thanks, really good but you know what James, not even close to fixing things. Saying 'help protect' and 'early as it's safe to do so' isn't overselling.

Every single person will accept that there have been examples from history when breaking the law was justified. This is just a subjective viewpoint dressed up as an objective one. "I'm all for Mr Schindler's right to argue that we shouldn't kill all the Jews. But surely the correct action is to petition his local member of the Reichstag, not just take the law into his own hands? Any law abiding citizen has to see that."

I'm not hugely in favour of introducing Colts teams to develop Scots-born youths as future internationals for Republic of Ireland.

God bless Gary Harkins.

So far as phase 2 goes, I'm really not fussed about the pubs reopening. They'll be absolutely mobbed and sitting in a beer garden (which, for most, will likely be the car park with some seats in it) doesn't sound too appealing. I'd much rather be able to get my haircut, go the gym or get a game of 5s. Hopefully the current trend continues and phase 3 is only a few weeks away!

Prefer alsatians tbqh

14-10-10-10 was something I'd have been reasonably happy with at the start. The status quo was my preference but I wouldn't have minded this instead because it's probably the best way to handle the extraordinary circumstances. However, in light of Budge's behaviour of late and the general screeching of some (but not all) Hearts fans online I'm tempted to say f**k them.

We were far too slow to act when the virus hit and as a result I think Sturgeon is being ultra-cautious on the way out to (over) compensate. Plus, with the shambles that is going on south of the border, this slow and steady approach with clear phases definitely makes us, and her leadership, appear more competent - which it obviously is. However, we are moving out of this far too slowly. The virus is declining everywhere, no other country has seen any sign of a second wave upon coming out of lockdown (which begs the question of how effective extended lockdowns are anyway), our number of cases is tiny, and there are parts of Scotland with no cases at all. There is going to be a huge knock-on effect of deaths from this lockdown in 6-12 months with delayed operations, delayed cancer diagnosis etc, and we have already seen increases in issues relating to mental health. In addition, the economy is taking a tanking which leads to all the problems associated with that. Politicians understandably know they will be judged on the 'Covid league table' by how they have dealt with this particular virus, so they have almost a tunnel vision at the moment. But the health and economic consequences of an excessively long lockdown are going to far outweigh positive impact in battling Covid. As someone else said, they wouldn't wait weeks to put in measures upon knowing they were necessary, so waiting weeks to remove restrictions that are no longer needed makes no sense.

Mental that New Zealand has no cases yet has loads of 5G...

I seen Neil McCan strangely citing Andy Robertson as an example of why colt teams should be backed, which makes little sense to me. "The classic example is [Liverpool and Scotland defender] Andy Robertson, who left Celtic but is now captain of our country. He's captain because he got real football at a good level, and afterwards a brave manager took him to Dundee United - then he went on to flourish." Yes Neil, but if he was playing for an old firm colts team rather than Queens Park, how likely is it that he'd have been able to go to Dundee United and get first team exposure at that level so quickly? Seems to me that he'd have been more likely kept in the Celtic system that released him, kept in the Colt team until and unless they decided to take him into the first team squad of celtic proper, rather than making the jump to Dundee United and competing against the likes of the Celtic first team. The colt system seems far more likely to have hindered Robertson, rather than helped him. Especially since every article and interview cites his punting by Celtic and rebuild at Queens Park as vital character building.

I'm rarely surprised by racism in this country but I've got ot admit, even I've been taken aback by how in less the a fortnight, the right have gone from the morally defensible position of "I get why people are angry but they should protest peacefully," to "Here's why slavery was actually fine."

#BackInBlackMatters

James Anderson has given an initial donation of over £3 million

My counter proposal would be Old Firm colts can be accepted in to the lower leagues when a Clyde Colt team is accepted into the Premier League. I'm sure old firm fans will be as interested watching Clyde colts as I would be watching the Old Firm future rejects.

Are you in prison?

Law abiding citizens are shitehawks tho'.

GGH retired.

Maybe the numbers wouldn't be minuscule if they hadn't cancelled everything?

Come on. It would be far too obvious to promote the idea of colt teams by using an actual example of a colt team working. Not our Neily, he's too edgy for that. He'll go the opposite way and argue that someone leaving Celtic and getting experience with another club is a staunch 'go colt teams' argument.

Removing things like statues and renaming streets or buildings is not airbrushing history. The history isn’t being retold in a different way or hidden, these things are being demoted from being an object of commemoration and reward to going in a museum or a river. This in itself would be a powerful historical event, making it rather than airbrushing it. How can people understand how these things have changed when the majority of a predominantly white society have no idea if they have or not? Racism in the U.K. is most often hidden, in the form of having to apply for jobs or flats more than three times the amount a white person has to (I know friends in both those categories) and being unable to demonstrate this is racism because they always just have “better candidates”. I didn’t know anything about the history of Colston till the statue was brought down. These things teach us nothing where there is no explanations about what they did and most people walk straight past them.

Would rather have the virus than watch rugby tbh.

#announceNads

Oh great, another shan Trust organisation to get local fatties to do laps around the park instead of focusing on the actual point of a professional football club.

There's no chance a third of our fans will hate the new home kit It's a beauty!

As the old Rangers' attempt to exile the paupers has been mentioned a few times lately, here's the skinny for those who aren't familiar. Check out the headline in the Herald at the end https://borussiabeefburg.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/the-press-sided-with-rangers-in-their-illogical-attempts-at-bullying/

Why should anyone take annual leave during a pandemic and not be able to get some quality time away from work later in the year, if they so desire? Employers need to do more for their employees, not the other way round.

Hitler relegated Cowden? Heil Heil the Pars are here...

Can't help feeling this post would have more impact if it had been by anyone other than the inventor of the sex pram

Quite a lot of people seem more upset about statues being toppled than they are about black people being murdered. Such views show exactly why protests like these are still relevant.

Yes, but only when full to the brim with ****.

I'd love to say that the absolute mutants standing there were in no way representative of the people of Bainsford / Langlees, but they are absolutely representative of the people of Bainsford / Langlees

This was a good laugh a few weeks ago but it’s boring as f**k now. Get it moved onto a blockbuster trial lead by Leslie Deans IMO.

Ferris Bueller's Day off. Spoiled wee w**k.