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Is it not the job of government to protect the NHS and provide a fit for purpose service that we already pay for via the highest tax rates in the UK? Failure on their part should not result in unnecessary restictions on the population. If the NHS is not fit for purpose may we need another of the First Minister' famous adult conversations about how best to fund and provide health services in Scotland. At this stage in the pandemic shutting bars, restaurants and limiting the scope for people to meet should be a million miles away from Cabinet considerations.

They shouldn’t be away partying in Liverpool. Without a doubt. f**k all to do with covid, and all to do with performances and position, night out should have been cancelled because they’re SHITE.

There is absolutely no need for Holt's position. The Head Coach & Youth Coach should be reporting directly to the CEO in Swinney. Rennie should be identifying targets & Swinney should be doing the number crunching, as the day-to-day MD.

Admittedly I'm drunk so I'm going to pick my words carefully here. f**k off you fucking nonce.

Study hard at school

ICT have spent 12 seasons in the top flight since the turn of the millenium, won the Scottish cup, played in Europe, and been to the LC final. They're also top of the league right now. Fair enough if your definition of "big" is something other than "successful" (perhaps you think fanbase is the most important thing - which presumably means you classify 'Falkirk' as big?). However, if ICT are a small team, what does that make Morton? A one word answer will do.

A range of disingenuous comments here. Some people not agreeing with the governments approach to yet another variant isn’t really controversial, and at the moment is quite a widely held view.

She’s a woman with an opinion. You wouldn’t like her.

I’ve been on P&B a long time. I’ve seen some classics and some absolute belters over the years. I have never, in all that time, seen so many posts from clueless fucking idiots in one thread as I have in the last 2 or 3 pages. I couldn’t bring myself to go any further back than that. I’d seen the Twitter posts about this thread, but Jesus Christ on a wooden bicycle, I was not prepared.

Perth St Johnstone party all the time... Dundee not so much.

This Steiner thing has got to be up there with the very worst that P&B has ever seen.

50p is in the meter and The Final League Tables are brought to you by The B-52's - Love Shack PFIZER PREMIERSHIP @WhiteRoseKillie returns to the top for the 52nd time. @alang1993 comes a close second for 15th time. @Salvo Montalbano & @Sylvester Sneekly play in the Europa @Arch Stanton & @Small Bovine Maisonette are in the Mugs Ex-pats @Leeds Saint @Eednud & @Duszek are all ex top level. @Rugster gets the playoff spot WANNABE CHAMPIONSHIP There is a new name on the trophy as @mathematics counts his chickens and wins his first ever second tier title. @The Hologram finally gets up along with @The_Kincardine @gkneil gets the playoff It's like an Angus cup draw at the bottom. as @SlipperyP @The DA & @Arabdownunder head to the seaside. @JamesP_81 fights it out in the playoff LAST CHANCE SALOON SHOOTOUT I'll be setting up a GoFundMe to pay for this engraver, as @Kima Greggs sacks his manager and then wins his first ever league title. It's a Diddy. @pleslie99 & @NJ2 sneak the other 2 promotion slots. @Blootoon87 somehow gets a playoff position from THAT start. A fitting return from @Jacksgranda probably one of the lowest scores ever. But who gives a f**k. It's brilliant just to have you back with us.

Just popped in to say what a bright spot Luke McCowan has been for us. Really talented player that causes havoc. Didn't notice him much whilst with yourselves, but he's now one of our star players.

Then why has no one pushed these c***s off the edge?

Citation please

I know you don’t keep too well but to try to stop young fit men from enjoying themselves, however rotten footballers they are, is just crazy. Its up to yourself and oldies like me to lock themselves away if they wish (I don’t) but please just let everyone else get on with their lives.

Pint of Toto Wolff’s tears please, barman.

IF the Scottish Government introduce / re-introduce restrictions and rules, are they doing it because they’re telling us numbers are about to go stratospheric and, basically, the NHS is going to be swamped? At the same time, they want as many folk as possible to get vaccinated and boostered? We have millions and millions of us who have done just that. Jabbed to the eyeballs. They must be admitting then that the vaccines don’t work even just to an extent that will stop zillions of us swamping the NHS, so why in the name of anything would that encourage folk to ‘roll up their sleeves for Scotland’. Surely to fcuk the vaccines work enough to stop folk pouring into hospitals and overwhelming the NHS? They can achieve that, can’t they? What’s the point any more? Vaccines were the way out, we have them, they want us to keep getting jabbed, but they might need to re-impose restrictions on us because the NHS could be over-run with untold numbers of seriously ill people? Just WTF is going on? What’s in the vaccine vials? Irn Bru?

Group of us had our Christmas day out yesterday, always based around a football match. Last one was away at Gayfield for 1-1 vs Dundee where we all had Linn covered to score so the day was paid for. To Firhill it was for this years event, and we all covered Dowds! Magnificent. A really entertaining match and Arbroath are such a great side. Nouble was so, so entertaining. He took the piss out of the Partick defence despite getting absolutely nothing from the ref, the two centre halves were absolutely all over him the entire game, he was worth the entrance fee alone. Was entertaining seeing Richard "dinna call me Ricky" Foster seething at the end. Pie was poor and the bovril quite expensive, but a wonderful day at the fitba.

Don't understand the wanting to punt Dixon at all tbh - he is the absolute least of our problems. We're worse without him.

Basically aye, very obvious that someone wants him gone. There was a thread on Twitter the other day detailing the links between Stratton, Sunak and Robert Peston. They've all known about this stuff, but hidden it whilst it suited them to do so. Something has made them pull the trigger and now it's very clear that Johnson is no longer their man. I'm enjoying the fact that Johnson will be in turmoil right now, but it isn't the massive cause for celebration some are making out. It shows us in broad daylight how it works behind the scenes with the media. He'll just be replaced by some other c**t whose f**k ups will be hidden and downplayed until the time comes when they are no longer of use.

You are a fucking moron cunt.

Get a third jag if you are over 18. It is medically irrelevant for almost all of you, and doesnt prevent transmission. But nevertheless, its selfish if you dont. We are also desperate to lock you down, and even if every single one of you gets vaccinated, we might just do that anyway Is effectively the message from Sturgeon.

Bad times when I don't want to kick my tele in after watching Johnson on the tele, unlike when I watched NS the other day. 'Get injected ya c***s' is the message she should have delivered as well.

He's thrown a couple in but so did Mitchell. Really don't understand folk on here or twitter who slate him every week. I shudder to think what goalkeepers were available to sign other than him.

I don’t think they’ll even notice I’m here. They’ll be too busy re-reading their own posts and patting themselves on the back on the great job they’ve done.

Maybe he’s just inviting us all to take part in the Downing Street Christmas quiz?

The person who *literally identified* Omicron telling us it's a total shanner and yet we have Sturgeon and Johnson utterly shitting the bed.

I'm certainly not.

That’s for the easy draw they got at the Euros.

.

Liz doing her bit.

Ruth & Mcdaid shouldn't be too difficult given they are only on loan. Krasniqi shouldn't really be in there given we've never had a chance to get a proper look at him on the park. Dixon's our best centre back at the club and I'd also have him as captain so I have no idea why you have him in the punt list. Also to say Lemon's edging towards the punt list is just absolute stupidity, he's had one honker of a game playing beside Ben Hall and he's 18 years old. Looks like a right prospect if he gets the development he needs.

You are not, Holt however that’s another story. Get him in the bin please BPM.

I'm in no way ITK on this, but I suspect the party was arranged months ago and had the approval of the previous manager before it was organised. IMO it's not an issue that folk want to arrange a night out at Christmas with their mates. I don't think there's any employment law in the UK that prevents staff doing what they want in their free time. (with obvious exceptions) They were perfectly entitled to go our for a bevvy. Just as you and I would be, as long as it didn't affect our performance the next day at work. But considering recent results it was extremely foolish for any of them to post about it on social media. Because it gives the impression that they didn't care about results and weren't hurting as much as we are. The sensible thing would have been to keep schtum and enjoy themselves in private, but footballers and sensible don't always go together.

One of the beauties of being the same economic union since 1973 was that migration worked both ways. One shame of Yoonionism is that they have put an international border around the UK to keep out the dUrTy FuRrInnErS How much of a cretin do you have to be to support the continuation of this policy?

Due to the prolonged depressing downward spiral we find ourselves in I have been drawn more and more to watching happier FFC times on YouTube recently. this afternoon I watched a few of the games from the 90/91 season including the two airdrie away games which we won 3-1 and 3-0 coyle playing for airdrie) and our first ever live game v ayr (4-1). quite a few things stood out. interestingly I had forgotten Jeffries lost his first 3 league games in charge (in case rennie needs a precedent!) and quickly turned it round with some amazing signings like Tommy mcqueen from West ham, Eddie may, Alex Taylor and of course Simon stainrod, who was captain. another was how the rules have changed, only 2 subs, both outfield so (for younger bairns) outfield player had to go in goal if goalie went off. the pass back rule to the goalie still existed. the refs looked much older, less fit and let some tasty tackles go. obviously great to see the old terracing too. it was also interesting to see how much the crowd grew from the first airdrie away game to the second. it shows if falkirk can get a good team on the park and play entertaining football the crowds will follow to away games. jock brown in the commentary said 6000 falkirk fans had travelled to airdrie (I loved those games at Broomfield). compared to todays team we had utter creative quality (stainrod, Taylor, may, mcwilliams, mcgivern etc) and power in the likes of yogi, baptise, Neil Duffy. clever defenders like mcqueen and smith. no director of football required to sign a team of absolute behemoths! Great Post match interviews from God and Jeffries. mcgivern saying away fans more forgiving than home ones, not much changed in 30 years then!

Best reaction I've seen https://twitter.com/sniffpetrol/status/1470042544990035968?t=iAKJYfcbiIW9woD6pncIgg&s=19

Week 17 results Another week with 12 points up for grabs but 5 points will secure you 1st this week with 4 players scoring 5. Name Correct Score Correct Result Total Points AndyDD 1 2 5 Angus of the Mo 1 2 5 Clyde85 1 2 5 Wilson92FFC 1 2 5 Bairney Rubble 1 1 4 bobthespider 1 1 4 cb_diamond 1 1 4 dynamo_rumble 1 1 4 Grangemouth Bairn 1 1 4 Jack Phillips 1 1 4 williebraveheart 1 1 4 51 Bairn 1 0 3 African Sunset 1 0 3 BW Charlie 0 3 3 C. Muir 1 0 3 Mon_The_Fife 1 0 3 roman_bairn 1 0 3 Ammo - Airdrie 0 2 2 Bairn in Exile 0 2 2 BFTD 0 2 2 BWAClyde 0 2 2 ebobsboy 0 2 2 falkirkzombie 0 2 2 fatdoug1938 0 2 2 haufdaft 0 2 2 laughing gravie 0 2 2 Marshmallo 0 2 2 shawfielder 0 2 2 watdeadlyone 0 2 2 badgerthewitness 0 1 1 Chapelhall chap 0 1 1 CRFC Blue 0 1 1 esortnom 0 1 1 fifer67 0 1 1 flyfifer48 0 1 1 Jaggy Snake 0 1 1 jpm 0 1 1 Mr November 0 1 1 Polarbear 0 1 1 Stevo Fife 0 1 1 Vegetableman 0 1 1 Zanetti 0 1 1 CoveRangers1922 0 0 0 Wee Jockie 0 0 0 Overall table williebraveheart extends there lead at the top and is now 8 points clear but the chasing pack will certainly not be giving up and it only takes one good set of results to catch back up. Name Correct Score Correct Result Total Points williebraveheart 12 29 65 bobthespider 10 27 57 Chapelhall chap 11 24 57 fifer67 9 30 57 fatdoug1938 9 29 56 CoveRangers1922 9 28 55 Larry Hood 8 29 53 Zanetti 8 29 53 esortnom 8 28 52 Ammo - Airdrie 8 27 51 CRFC Blue 9 23 50 Mr November 6 32 50 Wilson92FFC 9 23 50 badgerthewitness 9 22 49 C. Muir 7 28 49 haufdaft 7 28 49 BW Charlie 9 21 48 ebobsboy 6 30 48 Grangemouth Bairn 7 27 48 Jaggy Snake 5 33 48 BWAClyde 5 32 47 cb_diamond 6 29 47 Clyde85 7 26 47 flyfifer48 7 26 47 Bairney Rubble 7 24 45 falkirkzombie 4 33 45 roman_bairn 9 18 45 51 Bairn 7 23 44 Bairn in Exile 6 26 44 Polarbear 4 32 44 Mon_The_Fife 6 25 43 shawfielder 4 31 43 Stevo Fife 5 27 42 watdeadlyone 7 21 42 African Sunset 8 17 41 BFTD 5 26 41 Marshmallo 6 23 41 jpm 5 25 40 AndyDD 6 21 39 dynamo_rumble 6 21 39 Vegetableman 5 21 36 Wee Jockie 4 20 32 Jambo98 6 11 29 laughing gravie 3 19 28 Glenmavis Diamond 4 15 27 AFalkirkBairnB 4 13 25 Angus of the Mo 3 14 23 marko 2 13 19 Maxismydog 1 15 18 broomiesniper 3 8 17 LeodhasXD 1 14 17 FortescueFotheringhamSmyth 3 7 16 Scott-Replay 3 6 15 scottsdad 1 11 14 thelocalcat 1 10 13 Mantis Toboggan 1 8 11 Karpaty Lviv 2 2 8 CapitalDiamond 2 0 6 diamondman 0 6 6 HoustonSpider99 1 3 6 mcqbez 0 6 6 Silverton End 1 3 6 ewan_fife 0 4 4 Jack Phillips 1 1 4 King Kebab 0 4 4 sparkys dream 1 1 4 Come Away The Clyde 0 3 3 Cambuslang Fiifer 0 2 2 Diamond1924 0 2 2 Reggie Perrin 0 2 2 the snudge 0 2 2 Cosmic Joe 0 1 1 Clyde soccer trendy 0 0 0 dirvy 0 0 0 Week 18 fixtures will be posted shortly, thanks for playing!

This has been discussed plenty on here, but speaking in a wider context, the most (well secind behind the sanctimony and threats) disheartening thing about all of this is a conplete lack of very focused, very loud "WELL FIX THE FUCKING HEALTH SERVICE THEN" from anyone. Setting health service capacity to JUST enough to survive a heavy winter has been and continues to be a political choice. It is now a busted flush. Yet even people who arent on the hook for doing something about that (public, media, self proclaimed experts like the frauds at iSage) are braying for ineffective, nonsense restrictions to peoples lives whilst the virus itself is busy making it clear that its not gping anywhere, and so health service capacity will simply have to accommodate it going forward. Another thing thats noticable though, and I think folk on this thread are and have been guilty of this in the past.... Instead of whinging at folk who want to see less (or no more) restrictions about how terribly selfish they are, tell us what you want. If you want lockdown, say lockdown. If you want hospitality to close down, tell us so, and tell us of the gains using the available data from last time this happened.

This thread turned out well! Congrats virginton

The Big Sleep (1939) - Raymond Chandler It's the second Sunday of the month, so it's time for a new Dead Pool thread. The planet's dying, but so are people. So why not have some fun with it? If you're new to the Dead Pool, it's quite simple. You pick fifteen celebrities you think will die over the course of the coming year (2022). If any of them die, you get points. Whoever gets the most points by the end of the year wins, everyone else is furious at their choices and over-compensates by putting a bunch of oldies in the next year's team and they barely score anything. If you still fancy getting some enjoyment out of people dying, here's what you need to know: RULES To enter, you must be registered on Pie & Bovril before this thread was posted. To enter, send me a NEW private message containing the names of 15 celebrities you think will die in 2022. To make it as easy as possible for me and limit the possibility of mistakes, please try to spell their names correctly. If they use alternate names, please make a note of this. Reasons for a person's fame are welcome for clarification. When submitting a team, please create a new message. In order to have space in my inbox for everyone's entries I have to empty it each year. If you reply to a previous message you've sent me, I won't see it. Seriously, send it on a new message. If you've played in previous years don't send your team via that message, create a new one. I will reply to every message to confirm I've received it, so if I don't, I haven't. For the purposes of eligibility, your PM must be sent to me by 00:00 GMT, January 1, 2022. The game will officially end on 00:00 GMT, January 1, 2023. Despite this, if someone dies in a different time zone, the local time and date will be considered instead. In order to be eligible upon death, your entrants must receive an obituary in a UK-based national news source. Websites concerning a niche interest do not count in this instance - it must be a mainstream news source. If you pick someone obscure or non-British, you may have to find and post a qualifying obituary. I will make every possible effort to find a qualifying link for anyone who dies. The Lauren Hill Rule - American college sports personalities are not eligible. The Liz Taylor Rule - Is someone a celebrity if their child or spouse or relative is famous? Probably not. If their only claim to fame is a well-known relation, they don't count. The Abubakar Shekau Rule - If a pick's date of birth is unconfirmed or unavailable, their points will be calculated assuming their date of birth is the 1st of January of the latest year provided by relevant sources. The Terminal Rule - People who are famous specifically for being ill are not eligible. The World's Greatest Democracy Rule - People who are on death row or facing trial where the death penalty is a possible sentence are not eligible. Fugitives on the run are eligible. Your entrants must be human. Your entrants must be over the age of 18. Your entrants cannot be fictional characters. You are not allowed to kill any of your entrants yourself. If a P&B user is found to be responsible for the death of any of their entrants, they will be disqualified from this and all future Dead Pools. You are not allowed to select any P&B members. If, upon death, it emerges that a celebrity was a P&B poster, this is allowed. It is your responsibility to ensure all of your entrants are alive. Don't do what someone did last year and pick David McLetchie (d.2013). If you pick someone who dies in the final days of 2021 it is your responsibility to PM me with a replacement pick. I would suggest including a short list of back-up picks, just in case. Scores will be updated and posted, hopefully, every Sunday. SCORING Base Points: Each death is worth 125 points minus the person's age. So the younger your picks, the more points if they die. There are several multipliers available: First Blood - The first person to die in 2022 gets 25 extra points. Last Gasp - The last person to die in 2022 gets 25 extra points. Solo Shot - If you are the only person to pick someone who dies you get a bonus of 50 points. Deadly Duo - If only two people pick someone who dies you both get a bonus of 25 points. Captain Bonus - You can nominate a captain of your team who receives an extra set of Base Points added to their score. Inherent Vice - You can nominate a vice-captain of your team who receives an extra set of half Base Points (rounded up) added to their score. (If you do not nominate a Captain or Vice-captain, I will consider the first and second respective names on your list for these positions) Deadly December - If your pick dies in December, you get an extra set of Base Points in addition to any other bonuses. Unnatural Causes - If your pick is murdered, commits suicide or has an accident, you get 30 extra points. I think that's everything that needs to be said. Participation is always high and activity is always lively, so get involved and you might find a new hobby. An extremely weird hobby you'll probably never tell anyone else about, but still a fun hobby. With that in mind, all I have left to say is: GOOD LUCK!

Absolutely mental your team was on the sesh last night. I get it’s a job etc and they should enjoy themselves but it just shows the utter apathy and lack of respect they have for the club.

Always thought Paul Allan looked better than Todd anytime I've seen him play.

“Nicely presented property and great location but the owner was concealing an erection within his pish stained grey lonsdales and wouldn’t look me in the eye, we won’t be pursuing our interest in this property any further.”

I don't remember comments that Le Guen, Caixhina, Mowbray and Lenny should have been "given more time" but when non cheeks clubs sack their manager....

That was a lesson in how to win a game from behind from Montrose. And a lesson in how to throw away a game from a deserved lead from ourselves. I'll start with Montrose who are, pound-for-pound, the second most impressive team in lower league football (behind Arbroath, obviously). As touched upon by their own fans here, they started really poorly, and for the first half hour or so I really couldn't fault our performance. We scored a very good goal - a lovely through ball by Andy Geggan, and a sublime run, touch and finish from Conner Duthie. Eoghan Stokes hit the bar, Duthie had one cleared off the line and our shape was rigid and wasn't budging for Montrose one bit. Then step forward the expected clown school defending. An aimless ball, a bit of pressure from Blair Lyons and Paddy Boyle manages to concede the worst penalty we've lost all season. And trust me Mo fans, that is saying something. I actually feel sorry for Faz. He could work 24/7 with the players on defending all week in training, and that Boyle mistake would still happen. Just as Buchanan's howler last week would've still happened. It's careless individual errors from experienced players, and it's something that has happened far too many times. As soon as we conceded that the real Montrose popped up, whilst we started to retreat into our shell. The second goal was really nicely worked, but Faz was fuming about the defending for it. It was all too easy and allowing players to float along the edge of the box unchallenged is something we were guilty of all game. Despite that, and the fact we slipped into a habit of launching long aimless balls and totally bypassing Carlo Pignatiello, we really should've been level before half-time. Kalvin Orsi's lovely ball sent Eoghan Stokes in, but Aaron Lennox made a superb save. We actually created a decent number of openings (again) today. But (once again) didn't threaten the goalkeeper anywhere near enough. A half decent finisher would have got us 10+ goals already this season. I firmly believe that. The two chances passed up by Ryan Schiavone late on encapsulated our issues. Nobody attacks the ball with any aggression, nobody is sniffing about prepared to pounce on a slack touch or keeper making a save. At 2-1 I felt we were still very much in the game. But then some more lax defending allowed Montrose to seal things. It was a very tidy finish from Liam Callachan, but why he was allowed to travel across the face of goal, find a nice position and tuck a shot into the bottom corner only our back four will be able to answer. I said at the start that it was a lesson in how to win a game from Montrose, and I'll explain what I mean. They started on the back foot, but they stuck to their gameplan and continued to play to their strengths. They never panicked. They clearly all trust each other and trust their gaffer and they knew that if they kept playing to their strengths that they'd turn the game around. It was the opposite for us. We started well, played to our strengths (plenty of good wing play from Duthie and Wilson, and some nice link-up from Stokes and Orsi). Gifted them a daft penalty, panicked and struggled to find any sort of rhythm from that point onwards. Confidence is clearly at rock bottom, and my God does it show. There were a few things that concerned me from that. One is that we didn't play that badly (we defended badly, and finished badly). But still lost very comfortably. That's a huge red flag. We lost because we lacked quality in both boxes. Which is, you know, kind of vital in football. The second is the sheer state of our defensive performances. It pains me to say it, but Falkirk and QOS fans were spot on about Gregor Buchanan. He is struggling big time. His decision making is poor, he's rash in the challenge and he looks like he needs a more experienced head to talk him through the game. Unfortunately he is the experienced head, he had the armband. He looks a shadow of the player he was for us in the Championship. When McGeever is back fit I'd be pairing him with Carsy. Andy Geggan (lovely assist aside) shouldn't really be near our starting 11. Let alone at full-back. Although I appreciate Faz's hands were tied in terms of availability. He's fine to stick on in centre-mid with us 2-1 up to see things out. But he looks like his best days are well behind him. Again, he looks a shadow of the player he was first time around. You can copy and paste a mixture of the above for Paddy Boyle. Left-back and centre-half must be priority positions for us. Edin Lynch did okay for his first game as a centre-back. I'm not convinced he's a League One player (yet), but there's something there. He certainly performed better than those around him anyway. Attacking wise I thought we were alright. Callum Wilson did a few decent bits and bobs, as did Eoghan Stokes. And Kalvin Orsi put in a decent shift. He just never looks likely to score. Quite how we unearth these goal-fearing strikers season after season is beyond me. Even discounting his goal, I thought Conner Duthie was our best player though. He was playing with a bit of confidence, he drove with the ball, he was always wanting to get on it and make something positive happen and he turned in a few decent crosses that we should've made more of. I've been impressed with him this season, after initially questioning why we re-signed him. He has a hunger about his game that quite a few of his teammates lack at the moment. Peterhead next week is now a must-win if we want to have any aspirations of avoiding a bottom two finish now. I firmly believe that. Three points there would make things a bit easier stumbling into January in the hope Faz can add a couple of defenders and someone to stand six yards out and boot the ball into the net.