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WOW! What a SUPER post!!! You know, that is just soooooo true!!!! Cupcake, I've just got to tell you that when I see your fabulous outfits it reminds me of something Ryan Gosling used to say back on The Mickey Mouse Club. He used to say, "You know what, Brit, if a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign". Ry Ry is SO. SMART. !!! LIKE WOW!!! Now you go right on ahead and have just THE BEST DAY!!!! xx

Just to kind of echo what I think I said at this time last year, it remains a struggle putting shows together, and even more so this year. With 5 of the guys putting in the hours and research to turn out a TV show on Wednesdays, it's left to the rest of us to try and pick up the slack with regular shows. Three of us now have kids, lockdown more or less remains in place and life gets in the way, essentially, so we've from time to time got to turn to other voices. Some you'll like, some you'll maybe not, but as folk have said, that's basically how we are with our regular collection of miscreants anyway. The last few months have been great for getting us all involved in all sorts of nonsense (I often wonder if folk enjoyed the Culture pods as much as we enjoyed making them but I doubt it because I had SO MUCH FUN), but the reality of losing half our number for weeks at a time makes everything more difficult scheduling-wise. I'd never say it's a bad thing to have different folk on, as I always feel we get something from it in one way or another, but I appreciate it is a bit jarring when regular listeners are anticipating a certain type of tone and coverage which maybe doesn't arrive.

I have made it to the semi-finals (3rd place in the votes, I think)! Incredibly grateful for all of the votes and support throughout the past few days. Thank you so much to the P&B community. You’ve played a massive part. It’s now all down to a judging panel of music industry people who will narrow it down to the final ten. I don’t expect it to go much further than that, but it’s nice to have reached this position where my music will at least be heard by these people.

when can i go out in the big world?

The whole Coronavirus situation has been horrific for everyone in many ways but it seems to be affecting some worse than others but seeing folk posting from the minute they wake until they sleep is just concerning. Think a break would be good for some, a circuit break if you will.

Tier 1: Verge of Tiers Tier 4: Actual Tiers

As a non-parent and as someone who enjoys the occasional pint or twelve, I'd be happy with that.

Schools staying open....heads gone all over the place on Le tarte et cafe

Well a March-style 'lockdown' might work in terms of bringing down cases a bit - though given the season there'd be a question mark even about that - but the costs are too disastrous to attempt again. What's coming down the chute now wouldn't even do that: closing nail bars and letting pubs sell coffee and soft drinks only while you're still cramming weans into schools at full capacity at level four is not a credible public health intervention. It's just a government cherry-picking what it wants to keep going without any credible basis for those restrictions. The case rates will carry on regardless and we will - once again - get the worst of all outcomes.

Absolutely no one is saying pubs should be prioritised over schools or that getting a pint is more important than getting an education. They're saying that maintaining schools are safe - which is exactly what the government are doing in not enforcing distancing as required in every other sector of society, not making masks compulsory as required in every other sector of society and saying they'll remain fully open without these restrictions even in level 4 - doesn't make sense. You'd have a point if the government said they were aware this was a risk but felt it was worth taking to avoid disrupting education; they have never done this. If that's their approach then they could say so, but their consistent message is that schools are safe. In general, away from the schools issue, people are saying that they want to know what the long term strategy is as even in the event that everything was closed (schools included), a zero-Covid outcome is clearly not possible, so what is the government hoping to achieve through the tier system? Is it simply to stop the NHS being overrun when things get close to that point, as forecasts show is an imminent risk in Lanarkshire, reduce cases until the NHS isn't in danger, open things up at that point then start locking down again further a few months down when cases inevitably increase again? Is it to just to tide us over with as low a case rate as possible until a vaccine emerges, and if no viable vaccine emerges for months/years will we do this indefinitely? No one's saying those are questions with easy answers and I doubt anyone envies governments having to make those decisions. At the same time though they're all entirely valid questions which impact every area of society and people have valid reasons for asking them. It's not just that they want to go out and get hammered, it's people wanting to keep their jobs, see family and friends, catch up on routine medical treatment, be able to do anything outside their house during winter when spending months in the same building could have a serious impact on mental health. Reducing this issue to simply schools v pubs is obviously a ridiculous comparison, and it would only have one winner. The only person doing that is you.

Level 3 - Pubs and restaurants open until 6pm but can’t serve alcohol. Level 2 - Pubs and restaurants open until 8pm, can only serve alcohol with a main meal. Level 1 - People not allowed to visit others at home. This is actually nuts, she’s lost the fucking plot.

While I’m here, calling a TV series a season. f**k off.

What a huge lying c**t. Absolutely shameful pish, and I hope everyone sees through it for the pandering, desperate lie it is. All of the Scottish Tories voted against free school meals, except for Ross, who abstained like the coward he is. These c***s have always been shameless. They keep finding new lows. Scum, fucking scum.

Jason Leitch: Tiers of a Clown

Spot on. I left school in 5th year and now earn a five figure sum. Complete waste of time.

To be fair, I don't think people are annoyed so much about schools being kept open at the expense of other areas, but the rather the SG's dogmatic approach and seeming refusal to acknowledge schools are a risk. To my knowledge they've not come out and said "We know schools are a risk, but they are important and we need to close other sectors to help mitigate that risk". Whilst that wouldn't be any consolation to those who find their livelihoods threatened, it would be a much more honest conversation and one more closely resembling the "grown up conversation" we were promised.

It's clearly an alcohol-transmitted virus though, which is why having a pint rather than a soft drink counts as an unacceptable public health risk and cramming tens of thousands of grotty weans into school classrooms all week long does not.

This is the sort of thing often repeated and it certainly sounds like a good idea. Zero Covid deaths quite clearly are unachievable in this country, so we do have to accept a level of daily death between now and the vaccine which returns society to normality. However, the problem is there is no ‘fixed’ number that we can sit at indefinitely. I’m sure most of us would agree the ten or so UK wide that died through July and August was perfectly acceptable. And yet two months later we’re at a rolling average of 181 and rising. Is 181 acceptable? Through the winter, being absolutely brutal, probably given our situation. You can make a case that better work through the summer could’ve avoided this but we’re here now. But it’s rising pretty quickly from 181 too, and we’ve already ‘baked in’ to quote Chris Whitty further rises over the next month. We’ll pretty easily hit the much-mocked Vallance prediction of 200 per day in November, and it’s likely to keep rising beyond that unless measures have an unexpected impact, or the virus slows down - every indicator from France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain suggest that simply won’t happen. So we’re very much headed for 3-400 per day by Christmas. Is that acceptable? What about 500 beyond that? The point being, we can’t fix the acceptable level of deaths and leave it there. It keeps rising. Sooner or later it would settle down untouched but we don’t know where or when. The fact so many people have died in this country tells you we do have an acceptable level of death. UK wide there hasn’t been a zero deaths day since early March, and at that given the lack of tests it was almost definitely wrong. I’m quite sure in a hypothetical world the UK Government would be delighted to accept 200 deaths every single day between now and whenever a level of population immunity arrives via a vaccine. Nicola Sturgeon would happily accept take the 20 or so population share of that number too. But wishful thinking doesn’t make it true. Unless we’re setting our bar at 1000+ per day there is no magic number that leaves us bobbing along without severe restrictions.

What an absolute grade A, top drawer, fucking arseHOLE

Tier 0: Verge of tiers

What a zloty shite.

People support lockdowns because they still believe that they will 'solve the problem' and reckon it will punish other people's behaviour far more than themselves. When the reality hits that they are in it for the long haul and their own special pleading interests get binned as well they will change their tune. Even if you were a government minister in favour of a lockdown you'd be unwise to bank on that public support IMO.

Respect to the club for doing the right thing and getting an emergency signing in rather than doing a St Mirren and inventing fictional covid cases every week until Carson is back.

Good work everybody. Few more days and we might haggle them down to a fiver.

The Greens are a principled left wing party that recognise that independence isn't the start and end point of building a better Scotland. That's exactly why the ISP and Wings will never back them.

Schools still open though.

Tier 1 plus now.

Not. Craig. Samson. There, that's my expectations suitably managed. Just as well too, as on our current run of luck it's almost inevitable that Chapman will be attacked by a swarm of African killer bees at Livingston on Saturday, and be out until the heat death of the universe.

Just adds to our international defence, I wish him well against Serbia

Its a no from me, Im afraid.

Pupils in this kind of situation were never asked to be at home instead of at school. There were hub schools for vulnerable pupils and, in the blended model, those would continue to have existed. Blended learning does not mean chucking every kid to their own house for 24 hours a day.

I don't think anyone is saying schools should be completely closed but why do the government seem willing to shut down full sectors of society rather than asking school kids to wear a mask? If reports are true then pretty much everything in Lanarkshire will be closed down from next week except from schools which will be allowed to carry on as normal. It doesn't make any sense.

Literally no-one on this thread wants schools to either close or move to blended learning so pubs can be open.

To be honest, I'd be satisfied this season if he completed a handful of games and was a mediocre championship player.

.

Congratulations!

"I repost chain e-mails about cliched things people say on dating sites." Real meaning: I am yer da.

There's no chance that even cutting deaths to 25% of current levels will be enough for the zero Covid crew. I also noticed a fair amount of blue checkers giving it '300 odd needless deaths is a tragedy' yesterday. You can guarantee not one of them would have given deaths by respiratory illness a second thought nevermind a tweet prior to this year. As I said earlier I think the experience of this winter will harden a lot of attitudes against lockdowns and the discussion in the spring about how to go forward will be very different to June/July past.

This is true. The term “unionist” has historically referred to the union between GB and Ireland, not the 1707 Treaty of Union. It’s only really since the lead-up to the independence referendum that opponents of independence took it on themselves (one might imagine cynically, in a bid to link Scottish independence with Irish republicanism and thereby to Irish-up Scottish politics and stir up sectarianism). “Unionist” is therefore a deliberately loaded descriptor of the party and supporters of the union between Scotland and England in general. A more accurate term for conservative backers of the UK state in Scotland would be “c***s”.

Someone's obviously reading the forums and twitter today. Correct decision if they've changed it. Still high but it's a decent product. As others have said, ours at £14 definitely better value than what we got from Dundee's at £12.50.

Tiers for Fears.

I've heard unconfirmed reports that the quality of the commentary is worth the money alone.

I want to be a kitten. Time breakdown spent thus: 80% sleeping 15% battering the shite out of each other 5% eating Remainder split between adventures round the house and pishing/shitting I was told to give them tuna for breakfast and put a hot water bottle under their blanket! Spoilt already

Don’t know exactly but I’d imagine it’ll be 50+ but that’s including sub appearances. Although those appearances were between the ages of 16-21. It has all been covered before but there is no doubt he would not be anywhere near us or this level without injuries. He had his breakthrough season under Grant Murray in 14/15 where at 19 years old he finished the season with 6 goals in his last 13 games at Championship level. He picked up where he left off the next season with 2 in his first 2 games but unfortunately suffered his first ACL injury 30 minutes into that second game missing the whole season. He came back during the Gary Locke season and although he should never have been loaned out he, understandably, took a bit of time to get back to his previously levels. He admitted himself he struggled a bit with his rehab and probably didn’t come back quite as fit as he should have and he has learned from that for his subsequent recoveries. Unfortunately for us at the time, he got his fitness and sharpness back with Dumbarton and finished the season well with 4 in his last 10. Since then all his appearances have been at League One level where he has been a cut above any time he was fit. He has also scored 5 goals in 6 games against Championship/Premier League teams in cup games during that time. It’s a real shame we only got to see Vaughan, Nisbet and Hendry play a full 90 minutes together once (5-1 win at Dumbarton). Would love for him to get 2-3 seasons with regular games and without injuries to see if he can still fulfil his potential. There is a risk this may be one injury too many but the positive is that when he came back last time it was like he’d never been away and scored 2 in his 2 appearances and still stood out a mile. Although I’ve highlighted his goal scoring record his best asset is his creativity, he is superb on the ball and a joy to watch when on it, he will fit really well into McGlynn’s current style. I think he showed enough in his cameo at Tynecastle for us to be cautiously optimistic if he can just get a consistent run of games I think he can still be a big asset to a side like ours at this level. But it is a fairly big ‘if’ at the moment. Apologies, I realise that is a lot more about Vaughan than you would ever care to know! But hopefully explains why Rovers fans have such a high opinion of him.

Absolutely gone @ this Britney Spears account that's appeared.

NGL I had pretty much the same reaction - except I just skipped the entire section and went to Thom's chat about the Motherwell game and Craig's closing part. Having a Rangers fan on to talk about Celtic seemed a bit of a misstep to begin with but finding out he and Tony (who doesn't fall in my 'most listenable' category at the best of times anyway) ended up talking for over an hour was just massive amounts of "f**k.that". Obviously that's a lot less of a disappointment for me because it wasn't my club that was getting the Hand on Heart treatment (or whatever his thing's called) but still, as you say given the usual balanced coverage the pod usually brings it was pretty tough.

Not sure if this is the thread to comment on the podcast but have to admit to being disappointed with the Rangers podcast guy being on this week's show. Don't want to be a c**t about it as I'm still a big fan but the strength of the pod is in the breadth of knowledge of teams across the league, no matter who the club allegiance but he was on for over an hour with almost nothing of substance to say about Aberdeen, but in particular Livingston. I look forward to the Monday pod every week as it's normally a welcome reprieve from BBC/Sky Sports weekend coverage that is predominantly framed through the prism of two clubs, so it was quite disappointing.

That document on the tiers is staggering in its stupidity: Inverclyde score: 1 2 2 3 1 Numberwang verdict: into tier 3 you go! Stirling (worst of all): 2 0 2 0 0 Punted into tier 3 as well. Dumfries and Galloway has literally twice as large a score by the government's own metric than Stirling but the latter has been put under the harshest restrictions in the country for no valid reason whatsoever. The only way that this nonsense should be tolerated is if the courts are given the power to actually enforce/bin measures based on the objective criteria that the SG publishes in the public domain. Letting Clownshoes Leitch make the call by triangulating his desire to save Christmas fur the weans and keeping snippy parents onside is not a credible strategy.

Aye, we're minted. But it helps that these two appointments are fans and one was an ex-player. The only club they ever wanted to enforce covid restrictions for