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Scot Gov’s absolute contempt for Scottish businesses has been evident throughout the pandemic. At every turn Scot Gov has made Scottish businesses bear the economic cost of their dogmatic fixation with enforcing significantly tighter (yet often completely arbitrary, contradictory and ineffective) restrictions (often unsubstantiated by anything resembling actual science, and too frequently unresponsive to the data cited as their justification) than the ‘reckless Tories’, just to ensure that no- one could possibly doubt that Nicola and the SNP ‘care more’ than Boris and Westminster. Scotland might have the highest Covid infection rates in the U.K., suggesting that our tougher restrictions have been largely ineffective, and the extra damage to our economy largely self-inflicted, but at least we’re the most conspicuously virtue-signalling Covid cesspit of Europe. Now that furlough is ending, and our southern counterparts have seemingly accepted that Covid is transitioning from pandemic to endemic status, Scot Gov’s continuing fixation with differentiating ourselves from England by rolling on needlessly tighter restrictions (e.g. Covid passports, which will punitively burden the already beleaguered nightclub, live music and events sectors, still struggling to recover after almost 18 months of closure; and now the Scottish travel sector, which has been at breaking point for ages, with barely a hint of the relaxation of restrictions that other sectors have enjoyed, seems set to be burdened with the continuance of onerous testing requirements for the fully vaccinated that are about to be jettisoned down south) is seemingly no longer the government’s financial responsibility. It won’t be the Scottish government that picks up the tab for the ongoing restrictions on business - it will be Scottish businesses, as our direct equivalents down south prosper by comparison. Not that Scot Gov ever really did pick up the tab for their draconian restrictions: three of my businesses - a nightclub, an events production company and a concert promotions company - remained closed throughout the bulk of the last 18 months due to government restrictions, but the last two picked up a paltry 20k each in total in government grants (excluding furlough), despite seeing their entire turnover decimated and substantial six figure annual contributions to the Exchequer wiped out. Even at the height of the pandemic and the restrictions, Scot Gov only subsidised a fraction of business losses and a selective number of businesses, often through competitive and hugely oversubscribed funds, allocating limited amounts of cash (often on ‘merit’ - which tended to mean the same snouts monopolising the same troughs, allocated by the same funding bodies, or prioritising support to firms that were most in danger of becoming insolvent, which might on the face of it seem reasonable, but is an essentially speculative method of supporting the economy - gambling on the businesses that are most likely to fail, while denying funding to prudently run businesses that were deemed able to carry the traumatic cost of the government’s restrictions entirely from their own painstakingly accumulated reserves). Scot Gov has since day one of the pandemic been fixated with levelling down - penalising and demoralising successful businesses and entrepreneurs; artificially propping up barely solvent and fly by night businesses and rewarding the usual suspects (with all the potential for fraud and rigging the system that entails). Scot has never, at any stage, shown the remotest interest in fairly and transparently distributing on an equitable basis the funds it has been allocated from Westminster for Covid business support (let alone dip into the Barnett Formula allocation / Independence campaign treasure trove). Hospitality businesses will never forget how strategic framework funding (the raison d’etre of which was to compensate businesses that were closed or otherwise adversely affected by government restrictions) was withdrawn well before punitive restrictions on businesses were lifted. Indeed strategic framework support was withdrawn from nightclubs long before they were even allowed to reopen, an utterly scandalous policy that has been compounded by the mandating of Covid passports for the sector. And now that furlough is ending, with all other funding channels long closed off, Scottish businesses are expected to pick up the tab for enforcing onerous vaccine passport entrance requirements when Scot Gov, in typically incompetent style, has barely introduced a functioning QR code system for the fully vaccinated, let alone an effective app. Business owners are tearing what’s left of their hair out in frustration. As usual there is absolutely no clarity to in terms of how this system will operate, or how we’re expected to enforce it. Scot Gov seems to think that business owners will suddenly get on board with enforcing a regulatory regime (that even the government don’t understand) which, if properly enforced, will drastically reduce their footfall and profit margins, all without any financial support or compensation whatsoever. Cloud fucking Cuckoo Land.. I’ve been active in the business community for over 30 years, and have extensive contacts and colleagues in many sectors of Scotland’s traumatised economy (including hairdressing, which you so blithely dismiss - my wife is a salon director, in a company that is about to lose a second outlet due to the financial effects of Covid). And it’s not just hairdressers, gym owners and nail salon operators that I know - we have a good friend in the travel industry who has been trying to keep her business afloat during uniquely challenging times, with little or no assistance from the Scottish government, and has recently had to give up the lease on her Edinburgh shop. I know many people throughout the hospitality, live music, events, arts and culture sectors (some of them are even quite bright - though clearly not Jason Leitch and Linda Bauld level intellects obviously) and the general feeling is that the Scottish government has failed them. These sectors have been scapegoated, penalised, punished, marginalised, under-funded and undermined by a Scottish government that is now viewed as not just laughably incompetent, not just ‘not business-friendly’, but as a clear and present danger to Scottish business. Alienating and undermining huge sectors of the Scottish business community seems to me to be a huge gamble on the part of the Scottish government. The Scottish economy is on life support, and the businesses and people that drive it and generate tax revenues are demoralised and angry. Given that Scotland’s economy is already hamstrung by a higher level of welfare dependency than most comparable European countries, I’d have thought stimulating and energising our moribund economy would be at the forefront of the Scottish government’s priorities as we emerge from the pandemic, but apparently not. It’ll be fascinating to see how the the SNP can cobble together a convincing economic case for independence from the remnants of our shattered economy…

Frightening to think what we'd have done to Falkirk with Chucky MacLean available. Anyway that was an excellent away performance. Came with a gameplan that highlighted Falkirk's weaknesses (e/g if they still had Declan McManus they'd have won 4-0, but they don't, so they won't hurt us much despite having all the ball) and be clinical when the chances come our way. I thought our defence and goalkeeper were superb. And I'm very confident in saying that Callum Wilson is a far, far better football player than Billy Gilmour.

Maybe our chairman can commission an independent review into why we are so fucking shite?

The final league tables are brought to you by Madonna - Like A Virgin PFIZER PREMIERSHIP 3 is the magic number, yes that's how many he got wrong @WhiteRoseKillie wins his 46th title. @Tynierose looking for a pumpin in his bridesmaid dress again, 22nd time. @Salvo Montalbano & @Helpma are in the Europa Cup @peasy23 & @Bully Wee Villa are in the Mugs Cup Sunset at @Leeds Saint lights out @The_Kincardine and a blackout at @Eednud The all go down. @Duszek is in the playoff. Look out your driver. WANNABE CHAMPIONSHIP From start to finish @Geaky leads the way to his 9th second tier title. @The Hologram 21 points in the middle were enough he goes up. One more to go up, but who? @Arabdownunder & @The DA will get two bites of the cherry. @Ronaldo Jeremy goes off early @Culter Away leaves early @ArmadaleKillie nowhere to be seen. The all hit the beach. @NJ2 is in the playoff. Look out your putter. LAST CHANCE SALOON SHOOTOUT Kissing the cup for the very first time @scottsdad is in the history books of P&B quizzin with his 1st Diddy title. (Welcome to the winners club). @Spring Onion can be proud @Cardinal Richelieu sneaks in the tradesmen entrance. Playoff time for @JustOneCornetto & @mathematics @Jacksgranda, can give himself a handaround once he is back from marchin. Spoony. Playoff soon!

What a picture this is. Look at what that goal meant to him.

It's not independent academic expertise though, because almost all academics are in fact experts only in a very narrowly defined field. Jason Leitch is no more qualified to talk about the spread of an airborne virus as an expert than Sir Tom Devine (second best academic of modern Scottish history) is to talk about the events of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. A fact that Leitch's roll call of spectacularly wrong calls in the spring of 2020 demonstrated. The best that you can realistically expect is that academics will be capable of effectively processing evidence and best practice from other fields, but not all of them are actually capable of doing so. And they are not uniquely qualified to do that job. The onus is on them to set out the case with evidence in the public domain; not least when their policy massively diverges from the EU with a much larger cohort of galaxy-brained public health academics.

Aberdeen fans

Nice, professional routine win. Always tricky coming to these sorts of teams. Slight disappointment not to get the clean sheet.

Really do think we should offer Wilson another year. He's been saying he loves it here so strike while the iron is hot.

It would be fucking epic if the sculptor was a Dee and the unveiling of the statue revealed a raging Jim McLean launching a punch at a startled John Barnes.

Tbf the thought of all of those incels in one place is quite scary. They just cant get anything right. Opening up, desperate to appear more ‘caring than the tories’ so held off over a month meaning we reopened just as schools went back, result being massive reinfection which could have been a far less steeper curve as has been seen down south. We’ve retained far more restrictions yet have led the world in infections too. Now just as air travel had a wee chance of a good october they go and hibs it with this pcr pish. Its all safety theatre shite from them. We’re just gonna travel from Manchester and get it right up your pcr tests meaning you will get even less data Leitch you lettuce of a man. Absolute pish for the Lovejoys. The sycophantic arseholes who get a stauner everytime Scotland looks to tighten a restriction or not move the same way as England, they are the social media version of the wee free’s, fucking desperate to have restrictions for a virus that’s never ever ever ever ever ever going to go away.

I can see me getting some mileage out of this photo this year

That's my wife to a tee. Unbelievably wearing. This morning was an example. Yesterday my stepdaughter asked me to leave her son off at Meadowbank today at 8.50 (he's doing practice for his transfer exam - 11+ in old money). "Leave him at the front door and make sure he doesn't leave his pencil case in the car." Off we head this morning (they were staying with us as my stepdaughter had had major dental work done yesterday and was in a great deal of pain and half zonked out on medication). Before we leave my wife tells him "Phone granda when you get out and he'll come and pick you up." I leave him off, complete with pencil case and watched him go in the front door. He wasn't sure when he finished but it didn't matter as he was to ring. He didn't know whether he needed a mask or not, and I forgot to give him one when he got out of the car. Arrived home to 20 questions. "Did you go in with him?" No, I was to leave him at the door. "Did you give him a mask?" "No he didn't think he needed one." "Oh, they won't let him in. He won't know where to go, he's never been there before." "Was he not there last week?" "You know they're here every Saturday." (Not last Saturday they weren't - totally ignored.) "When do you pick him up?" "He's to ring." "No, no, no, that's no use he'll be hanging around for 15 minutes waiting on you arriving." "O.K., I'll be there for 10, it won't last less than an hour." 9.45 on the dot "You need to be away, it'll take you 15 minutes getting there." It only takes 5 minutes when it's something I need to do, but it's always 15 minutes when it's anything to do with her. Off I went, got parked, just after 10 the phone rang "Granda, I'm finished." "I'm in the car park." Down he came, into the car. I asked him had he been there before - last week. Did he need a mask - no. Did he know where he was going - No, I asked at the desk. Next year he'll be at the secondary school, they're going to have to unwrap the cotton wool. He's going to be getting a bus, he'll have to cross the main road to get it, he'll have to know where to find his bus to get home, he'll be changing classrooms every 45/60 minutes he'll have to remember to take his schoolbag with him. He's going to have to get a bit of responsibility, he's quite capable, after all he knew to ask at the reception desk where he was supposed to go this morning, he's not 5 years old anymore. When I was 11 I was getting two buses to Pittodrie with my pals and going to football matches unaccompanied by an adult, not to mention other things, TLDR: Women, eh?

I can't speak for anybody else, but the only reason I dislike these marches is because some of the participants might be working-class. Struggling to think of any other reasons why I, or others, might find them a bit distasteful.

Big day today. Would like to thank all of the folk who got us to this point. Players, management and Board members past and present ( every one of them stood up to the plate - my undying appreciation and respect. Most will never know the work that went in). Elected members - some who've been so so helpful. Trust members and friends and family who've supported the club through all the tough times. Volunteers who've given their time and talent so selflessly. The fans who could easily have turned their backs but didn't. It's been a journey that really started in '97 with formation of UCS ( although some were involved much earlier ) in the Boilermakers. Steedmen's cynical selling the ground with no permission to build a new one then grasping anything he could by selling club to folk he knew nothing about - and didn't care about their intent. The initial enthusiasm of Hall's takeover and the sense of betrayal when the Dublin story came out. The boycotts, the demonstrations, the placed stories in Low's compliant press about how the fans should accept the inevitable and the offer of subsidised travel to see Liffeybank at RDS. The ballboys and the tannoy guy walking out ( Eddie and Stevie etc al xx ). A coffin at Glebe Park and McCall's GIRFUY. The 29 at Cappielow. The one win season. That surreal day at Love St. Ben fucking Plevey. The utter embarrassment at stories about twats in the Isle of Wight sending a packet of biscuits and tea bags, of vans breaking down. Of Stevie Morrison having to go in goals against Hibs. The brief glimmer of hope of McGhie and Viola. The attempts to put together a scheme at East Rothesay Dock. UCS Trust. Airdrieonians going bust. Airdrie Utd and Ballantyne's maw. Hall having "the last laugh" and not allowing us to up our bid. That day in the Atlantis ... Then the day in the Unity. Douglas Smith and Glenhead. West Region Juniors and Tom Johnson ( I'll be forever grateful TJ ). Budgie McGhie. Johnstone Burgh. St Rochs and late winners. The impromptu night in the Maltings. The Cup Years ... Tayport, Bonnyrigg, Bathgate, Peasey and Pollok. The move to Holm Park. Rugby Park and Big Chris - 4000 Bankies and more. No open top bus but what a night in the Town Hall. All the Sporting Dinners at the Golf Club. The moves up the divisions - the glory of "The Diddy Cups" ... Daz at Largs. 3 top 4 Premier finishes with no money ( thanks Budge ). The relegation ... new manager ... and promotion Another Cup. Cllr O'Neill. Alasdair, John ( RIP ) and our trips around Mountblow, the Knowes and the permanent move to Holm. Our Maryhill year. Our return and the return of the Moff. Our licence. The view from the Terrace. Our ground a work in progress but ... there is progress. So here we are. Together. Have a great day. Cheer til your voice is hoarse but take care - there's still a virus. We are the Bankies and we deserve our day so very much ...

Seven years on from the independence referendum, and it turns out that we're not Better Together after all. Who'd have thought it? Have your views on independence changed since 2014? I voted Yes in 2014, and nothing since then has made me think that I was wrong to do so. If anything, events since then have only reinforced my belief that Scotland should be an independent country.

What a brilliant, brilliant photo and brings back so many magic memories. How we could be doing with these ‘greats’ today.

Its pretty much been said already. Nouble was outstanding. Deceptively quick, powerful, strong, telescopic legs and good touch. He has it all. It defies sanity Livi sent him out on loan and its hard to believe they wont recall him as soon as they can. That said, to absolutely no surprise, Nicky Low ran the show for them. I doubt there's a better deep lying 'quarterback' midfielder in this division. Arbroath absolutely won a watch getting a fit Low back at this level. I expect he'll eventually break down again but until he does he's a fantastic signing for them. Nouble did great on the goal but it doesnt happen if Low doesnt recycle the ball, beat two defenders and send in a wicked cross. Arbroath were a decent side before but the addition of Low and Nouble makes them far better. Thats probably the best opponent we've seen. No real complaint from our side. We didnt do enough really. The longer the game went on the more likely Arbroath were to score on the break than we were to equalise. The sending off didnt help us. I'd rather have seen Connelly go through on goal. After it Arbroath sat deeper, we resorted to crosses to their taller defenders and were wasteful. Disappointing but not to take away from Arbroath who were excellent. Campbell is doing it again. Enjoy your weekend Lichties.

If our fans keep renewing ST's in their thousands f**k all will change. We will probably sack the manager, there will be a huge turnover in players but we will replace hopeless jobbers with another group of hopeless jobbers and we will go through the same scenario again next season. Holt needs to go and so does Deans. The Rawlins need told invest or f**k off as well. Get real fans onboard who actually care about the club and won't continually accept this shite.

FIVE YEAR DEAL FOR CALLUM WILSON.

I previously voted for SNP for the past 3 or 4 elections prior to this year's (where I didn't vote at all). I've said it at least half a dozen times over the course of this thread. Too often nowadays, having the gall to be criticising the party you voted for is seen as a massive taboo by large sections of a party's followers, this isn't limited to the SNP but they too have a large and honestly dreadful, unbearable element of it. I expect a party to be challenged most fiercely and uncomfortably by it's own members and voters. The opposition will always challenge because that's what their job is but real criticism comes for your own members. Challenging decisions from within and disagreeing is seen by too many of these types as a bad thing whereas it is the only way to truly drive progress. This is why the SNP have floated along for several years now and lets be honest, underperforming on just about every metric, because there's too many folk from within who'll first tell them their shite doesn't smell and believe it or are too afraid to upset the apple cart as they know that the most rabid defenders of them won't have it. Or be chasing IndyRef2 and f**k the consequences of what we have to suffer through to even get there.

I was in Austria and the LFT I had to get before getting on the plane to fly home was absolutely free, funded by the Austrian Govt and also free to visitors to help boost tourism. The English plan seems entirely sensible to me, scrap this requirement and the Day 2 PCR, but require an LFT to replace the PCR on Day 2. If the LFT is positive then follow the normal process of an NHS PCR test and they can genome the f*ck out of it if they want. This absolutely smacks of the SG wanting to be different for the absolute sake of it. Surely nobody swallows the BS of "we need to keep sequencing PCR tests for the sake of the UK and the World"........

Unfortunately the events of 2012 have shown them they are untouchable. When they died the other clubs, official organisations, media and government panicked then colluded to concoct the lie they didn't die as apparently the Scottish game and society can't function without them. The worst that could happen to them, happened, and remarkably the new lot have come out of it even stronger than the deceased. Hand that kind of advantage to a bunch of vile, arrogant supremacists and this is what you get. It's just going to get worse too as they up their 'we'll teach you to mess with us' revenge tactics for the perceived injustices that never actually happened.

Prediction time. I wouldn’t normally go balls out but I can see no other result than the DB’s winning by at least 2 and it really wouldn’t surprise if we scored 4 or 5. In Griffiths and Cummings we have 2 quality, prolific strikers. McMullan is in the form of his life, in the top 2/3 wingers in the country (certainly outshone Boyle when we played Hibs) and he will want to show the DABs what they chucked away. Marshall is brilliant going forward and provides the danger from wide left. We have McGhee (will be the best player on the park IMO), Adam and Anderson who all love a goal from midfield. Fontaine and Ashcroft have scored more from corners than any CH pairing we have ever had. Together McGhee and Byrne do not get overrun in midfield, very solid and in the case of Sean Byrne downright nasty. Since the Legend came in our biggest weakness, the defence and GK in particular, have massively improved. COVID and injuries have prevented us being at full strength all season, tomorrow we will be and these cuntos are getting a hiding. ETA - dead ball situations - Leigh ‘The Dee’ Griffiths and Charlie Adam?? Also our team is Derryied out of its nut. Fuck the DABS.

Only another 1 sleep and the daily £10k loss for United to suffer until the blue pound turns up.

That'll be me a Granda then. Wee boy. Mum and baby doing well.

Bit of a bizarre reaction. I doubt you'll find any QoS fan (or any fan who's had the pleasure of watching Low) who doesn't rate Low highly. His injury record is horrific though and if he sees out his contract at Arbroath without picking up and injury it'll be a major surprise. Given how good he is and how likeable he is I hope he doesn't but looking at the record it's not wild to suggest he may get another injury. If he wasn't injury prone he'd never have been at clubs like ours.

Sheerin wanted Ross and we even paid money for him. Sheerin waited until the loan market opened up to allow him to get Ruth. Sheerin saw Wilson and Ompreon on trial and yet he still signed them. Sheerin is every bit as guilty as Holt for the situation we find ourselves in.

Some laugh the amateur Tade causing full-time QP to lose the plot completely.

I’ll get slaughtered probably but i don’t think Sheerin is the whole problem here. Ian Fergus seems to be the only positive thing Holt has done for us. Get him emptied now. People keep talking about budget but it’s clear that we’ve been fucking about with no real investment in getting the required quality in. You can argue that if you add Ompreon, Wilson and Ruth’s wages together you might get a decent player but we haven’t done that. Almost every signing has smacked of hoping for the best. Be fucking frightening to see who the 2nd and 3rd targets in each position would have been.

No need to be so cross, guys.

Just call the game off, close the thread and we can all pretend it never happened. Rancid pish.

Zanatta ending up being our best signing, and being the only c**t on a one year deal. f**k off.

It's good to be back, first pint of T in nearly 2 years

112 years ago today Thistle played their first-ever match at Firhill, the stadium of dreams, the palace of the gallus. It's the place we've called home since 1909, but there's a lot more to the old ground than just Partick Thistle. Which Olympic champion ran at Firhill? Which Jag was born closest to the ground? Heard about the time we burned the pitch? Firhill's stories are as weird and wonderful as the club itself; join us for a 30-minute celebration of The Life And Times Of Firhill Park → Supporting the piece, we have 14 new list pages → breaking down all the (mainly non PTFC) Firhill activity from 1909 to date. Our ambitious Firhill diary → goes for the full megalist approach. Happy birthday Firhill!

Roxy the guard dog, doesn't like other dugs, doesn't like strangers, mad protective..... Lying snoring cuddled into "her" 5 month old staffy

Ahh right so because his family are there makes a difference to what’s ok to sing or not dab logic Like I said you can f**k off trying to dictate to us what we are singing after the filth you lot have sang down the years. I wonder what sort of abuse Charlie Adam, Griffiths, McMullan, Cummings, Gowser and McPake get on Sunday with family members in attendance but is that different? I’m not a fan of the man’s off field antics.

So that's the premier cup in Scotland underway and unless you had a vested interest in the teams competing you wouldn't have known it had started, at least where the BBC's pitiful (even non-existent coverage) is concerned. I know no-one should be surprised any more, but given everything (return of fans, more and more teams getting in via licensing, biggest ever first round draw for a while etc) you would have thought the Beeb might have at least tried (other than the live game on Monday, which in itself is a joke of a decision on their part). But, tonight, no score updates, no preview of Saturday's games on the website, not a dickie bird. If it had been down south they would have been all over this, a preview of some of the interesting ties, a little bit of background to some of the teams competing, a live (even if online) game from tonight, tomorrow and A.N other, and so much more. I know things have changed with the way television coverage is and was, but going back (and there are clips on Youtube to prove this) but in the past Sportscene would have had a 'Road to Hampden' show packed with highlights of all the rounds (the fact they had extended highlights of Ross County v St Cuthberts proves that, even if it had the ignominy of Chick Young's involvement...) Nowadays it just feels as if, unless Rangers and Celtic are involved, they couldn't give a shit.

Some c**t bleezin through Dryburgh just now shouting about United being shite. I'm guessing it's not @Szamo's_Ammo. Good times. Bring on the morn. I will be attending this for the first time as a new Granda, this however will not stop the profanities coming out my gob.

Boom there it is

These are sectarian hate marches and they should be banned. Simple as that. If it’s supposed to be a celebration of King William and the Boyne then why are folk turning up in Rangers tops, singing sectarian songs and intimidating the public? It’s indisputably offensive and disgusting behaviour. These marches clearly have no place in Scotland in 2021. Get them banned.

Can we agree that Tade looked better in 5 minutes than that useless streak of pish Jones has all season

This is getting embarrassing all round. Let it go lads and if you can’t, take it elsewhere. Who runs the country (there all useless c***s anyway) is not nearly as important as giving these cuntos a doing tomorrow.

Refreshing to see the opposition fans melting down and going at each other for once.

Absolutely broke me today when I was going for the train at 10:30am that I had a last minute call that I had to go to work today. Fuckin brilliant win and safe journey for the 416 ayr fans.

The insistence on including Goodwillie’s ‘goal’ in a 3-0 defeat is even more ridiculous after his first today. Would’ve been an unbelievable way to mark a centenary.

Last game of the season in South Australia State League 2. Adelaide University had to win to finish top and guarantee promotion. They ended up drawing 1-1 with Seaford Rangers 1 and finished second and into the play-offs for promotion. These pics are from the reserves game just before the main game. Uni won 4-0.

So there’s a difference about what’s acceptable to someone alive and dead? What kind of common decency is that ffs. Common decency shouldn’t matter whether someone’s dead or not The songs you lot sing and the people they’ve employed is why we call you the filth. Did the filth not sings songs about Tommy Coyne’s wife death? Like f**k I’m getting dictated to by a dab what’s morally correct or not

You'd be as well just wearing a t-shirt saying "I'm a nonce"