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Showing content with the highest reputation on 26/12/21 in all areas

  1. I’m sorry but this is just over-simplistic rubbish. I run four businesses in the nightclubs, live music, events and hospitality sector and I’ve never voted Tory in my life and never will, and I’ve never espoused conservative beliefs (either with a large or small c). My vote traditionally went to Labour, but I’ve mainly voted SNP in the last decade or so, and I voted for Independence, precisely because I envision Scotland’s future as a moderately left-leaning state with a social conscience, ideally reintegrated within the European Union, which I thought (and despite my dissatisfaction with Sturgeon and disillusionment with the quality of those around her, still think) would be hugely preferable to decades of Tory hegemony, Brexit and continuing to be ruled from Westminster. It’s incredible how quickly heavy-handed governmental measures that would’ve been formerly regarded as authoritarian and illiberal have been normalised and embraced by the centre left, and there is doubtless an element of schadenfreude involved in some quarters at seeing businesses and entrepreneurs struggle, even if the pandemic has disproportionally crippled small Scottish businesses and disproportionately rewarded the multinationals and the super rich. The death of the high street and the decline of the Scottish arts and entertainment scene has only further lined the tax-avoiding pockets of the likes of Jeff Bezos, Rupert Murdoch and Reed Hastings (Netflix). A welfare state needs to harness the economic power of the young to service the welfare needs of the elderly, and it simply cannot be predicated upon a moribund economy and a demoralised business community. I don’t run my businesses because I’m a rampant Tory capitalist, and I don’t come from a privileged background (I inherited nothing and built my businesses from scratch). I do it because I’m passionate about music in particular and culture in general. During the first lockdown, I paid all my full-time staff 100% despite furlough being 80% (and lower), and now during this (minimum) three week shutdown for nightclubs with no furlough, I’m still paying my full-time staff 100%, with absolutely no government support, other than the vague promise of Sturgeon’s ‘lucky dip’, an as yet unspecified (and almost certainly insufficient) amount of support to be given to those nightclubs that elect to close rather than repurpose themselves as socially-distanced bars. So far am I from being a right wing fat cat, that for the majority of our working lives, my wife (a hairdresser) has earned more than I have, and indeed our mortgage was secured primarily on the basis of her secure income, as my businesses were regarded as ‘too high risk.’ Only in the four or five years before Covid did my investment of 30+ years in my respective businesses result in my earnings finally exceeding those of my wife. I was never in it for the money tbh, so it never mattered to me that I never made any more than a relatively modest living, even from working 80+ hours a week, 7 days a week. One thing’s for sure though, I know how much tax revenue my businesses have contributed to the economy over the last three decades, and it’s certainly not negligible. I’ve already said that I think Corporation Tax should be raised in Scotland and the increased tax revenue ring-fenced for investment in our massively under-funded and long-neglected NHS, which was in crisis long before Covid hit. I’m not sure that aligns very well with an ‘individualistic, essentially right wing standpoint’. My contention since the start of the pandemic is that younger generations are being disproportionately penalised and stigmatised (the nadir of which was the ‘don’t kill grandpa / granny’ TV ads run by Scot Gov back at the height of the first wave). Ultimately this virus has never really represented a significant threat to the health of the young, yet they’re not only expected to make huge sacrifices to protect the sick and elderly, which the vast majority are happy to do without complaint, their jobs are now regarded as disposable, and their passions and interests (football, live music, clubbing, culture) are the first activities to be restricted by the government, irrespective of the data, vaccination levels or the vaccine passport scheme, that were until recently the key to returning to normality, or the massive amounts these sectors have invested in Covid mitigations. Not only do hospitality, live music, events and related cultural (theatre, cinema, arts etc.) sectors primarily service the interests and passions of younger generations, they overwhelmingly employ younger people. And in the events, arts and live music sectors particularly there are huge numbers of young freelancers (and self-employed) who barely received any government support during the first lockdown and haven’t even been part of the conversation during this new Scottish mini-lockdown (which effectively extends from nightclubs to live music and arts - almost all concerts, and many theatrical productions, pantomimes etc. have been cancelled due to the pingdemic, or the new social distancing regulations rendering events unviable). I know countless self-employed freelancers who have worked for decades in the music and arts sectors who have had to abandon their careers, often taking menial jobs in less vulnerable sectors due to the lack of government support. Similarly a huge proportion of young people who formerly worked in hospitality (one of the largest employers in the country, particularly of young people) have had to bail out due to the ongoing uncertainly affecting hospitality and the utterly demoralised state of the sector. These sectors are now in existential crisis. They have been consistently marginalised, stigmatised and now vandalised by the government, who at no point have acknowledged their importance to the economy, to mental health or to young people’s social development. It’s all too easy for the entitled older generation with their comfortable nest eggs, property and pension schemes (built up during the halcyon days before Covid), to demand of the young that they keep them safe, but to erode their job opportunities, and the social and cultural opportunities (that they themselves doubtless enjoyed to the full as young people) by consistently stigmatising and scapegoating these sectors strikes me as fundamentally selfish and indefensible Protective safety-first measures that prioritised public health over the economy that were perfectly understandable during the pandemic phase of Covid are no longer fit for purpose during the endemic stage, with successively weaker variants encountering a considerably more immune (both by vaccination and natural infection) population. The mountain of accumulated debt already incurred by putting everything on hold for the best part of two years will need to be paid off, and most of us in business acknowledge that a more onerous tax regime is an inevitable part of that, and the only way to achieve this is by re-energising the economy, not by continuing to panic and close it down every time a new variant rears its head and the media slips back into scaremongering mode.
    36 points
  2. As a fellow Scottish independence supporter, I genuinely wish you weren’t one as you do far more harm than good spouting nonsense like this. Calling everyone that disagrees with you Tories is a brain dead move.
    16 points
  3. Martin Rennie post-Clyde on January transfer window plans: "That's something the club have really had in motion before I got here and that's why they have the kind of set up that they do, with the structure that they do, so they've got players to bring in" All this stuff about Holt just being the grunt dealing with contracts is obviously absolute bollocks, despite people trying to pretend otherwise. After his last two windows, he's genuinely getting a hand in recruitment again. This club is a shambles. Why do we keep doing this to ourselves?
    15 points
  4. What is all the pish about being rabid right wing torry's? I want restrictions done away with now that we're 2 years, 3 vaccines and half a dozen anti viral drugs into this shite . i'm not going to change my mind on this (what i think is a perfectly logical belief) just because I find myself agreeing with some people I wouldn't normally agree with, that's fuckin mental johnson and rees mog like getting their hole, does that mean i should no longer enjoy getting my hole becuase rabid right wingers also do? sit the f**k doon
    15 points
  5. It’s fairly ironic that the person calling everyone a Tory is the same person who voted for the right wing policy of leaving the EU and limiting the amount of refugees coming into the UK.
    14 points
  6. She's definitely deid but they've got a decade of deepfakes to tide over losers like the OP
    13 points
  7. Well thats shite, because I have never and will never put an X in the box for a right wing party (or cause, like you did) However, having a belief that current restrictions are over the top, not neccessary and over the piece, damaging is categorically not a right, or left wing opinion in any way. That you seek to categorise opinions on covid restrictions going forward as a cut and dried left/right, SNP/Tory choice is a huge minter and betrays exactly what I have been saying about you and your like all along. This is about political capital for you. A game in which you back your team all the way. Numerous people on this thread have commented how discomforting it is that their views on covid response are aligned with the views of the English Tories, and here you are trying to accuse those folks of actually being tories. Its hinestly pathetic to watch. The only consolation I suppose for you is that you arent the only one. But as we all know, you have to frame it in this way, because you will never actually tell us what you want. Just tell others that they are wrong.
    12 points
  8. This is a very good article from Stenhousemuir's chairman. https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/scottish-football-has-been-let-down-and-i-now-wonder-if-something-deeper-is-at-work-iain-mcmenemy-3507024
    12 points
  9. The only thing threatened by Morrison today was the pigeons nesting in the North stand whenever he hit a cross.
    11 points
  10. Did Dundee relegate Kilmarnock?
    11 points
  11. All the diehard SNP supporters who dismiss critics of the SNP as Tories had literally nothing to say when the SNP and Tories stood side by side and fucked over renters at the start of the Covid crisis. An actual instance of Scottish nationalists and right wing unionists standing side by side to f**k over the precariat.
    11 points
  12. Imagine voting for Brexit then coming on here calling everyone Tory apologists, what a mess.
    11 points
  13. The thing about racist "intention" is that's not how racism works generally. It's an unconscious bias. The very fact that you've named more deserving players who haven't been called out for laziness, but are more deserving, ought to give a clue that there is something about Adeloye that causes an attentional bias towards his perceived laziness. I don't think the commentary team should be shamed for it so much as just having it pointed out so that they can learn from it. Too often folk get super defensive at being "accused" of racial bias but it's generally because there's a huge shame component attached to it. We all have racial biases (and other in-group vs out-group biases) as we're wired for it. Studies have shown that even those who don't suffer from self-diagnosed osteo-racism (they say they don't have a racist bone in their body) will make negative judgements on someone based on their race. Anyway, we didn't have a game today, hence the intrusion. Enjoy your evening honest men (and bonnie lassies)
    10 points
  14. (a) where did anyone say that they wouldn't support a player and (b) if someone is *publicly* pushing a particular political viewpoint (as opposed to holding them privately), then people have every right to form an opinion or react to it - that's the whole freedom of speech thing that people like Steve Barclay and other ERG types (and presumably our Liam) are really keen on.
    10 points
  15. 10 points
  16. "Next year just say ”kurwa” to everyone. It means Merry Christmas." Yeah right! I know the odd swear word and enough not to die of hunger or thirst...just no idea how to put them into a sentence. I should like I have tourettes...I just shout a word. About 5 years ago at her family dinner (22 people sitting there) they all did this thing where each took turns to say a little something. You know, "I hope you all have good health and wish you success for the new year" etc. I thought I would try to impress them (big mistake) so I asked her to quickly tell me something to say. From the reaction I knew something was not right... everybody pissing themselves...the her aunt gives the thumbs up to me and says "Gooooood" My dear beloved had got me to stand up in front of her mother, sister, aunts and even a grannie to announce "I have a very big penis". Lesson learned!
    10 points
  17. Whether she is here next Christmas or not bothers me not one way or the other but if Nicholas Witchell croaks that'll do me. The only thing worse than the royal family themselves are the toadying arselickers that hang from the coat tails of their (completely uninteresting) lives.
    10 points
  18. At times like this some people lash out at the wrong targets. As Oweny said in an excellent post the other day, Mike Mulraney has been a brilliant owner for us. You're never going to agree with everything a chairman does, but his work in improving the Recs, getting the community more involved, and hiring good managers and backing them has transformed the club. The best decade in the history of Alloa Athletic just wouldn't have happened without him. We are a wee club who have overachieved massively and the chairman has been absolutely key to that. And as for singling out Leodhas, that's utterly bizarre. The one problem here is the decision Mike made to hire Barry Ferguson. I think we were all surprised and worried about that one, but hoped the chairman had seen something that made him feel that Ferguson had progressed as a manager. Unfortunately we saw very quickly that he hadn't. Scattergun summer signing policy with several players simply not good enough coming in. Strange team selections and lambasting players from the touchline. Deciding Neil Parry wasn't his number one was never going to be popular with the fans but it was his call and he was entitled to make it. Freezing Neil out and not being open with him was totally unnecessary and caused a lot of bad feeling. Running over to confront the fans at Dumbarton added to that. Our best managers have always succeeded in getting people pulling together. This one from the start seems to have been sowing division. He inherited a great dressing room, albeit it needed freshening up, but one full of players who you could be sure would empty themselves for the club. To turn it into this rudderless mess within a few months, and spend a significant amount of money at the same time, is quite incredible. I'm not convinced he has any of the qualities required to be a good manager. It was a mistake appointing Ferguson. Everyone makes mistakes. But the club really need to address the issue now and not allow things to get any worse by allowing Ferguson to oversee the transfer window.
    9 points
  19. KVV was immense. Big anti vaxx fool.
    9 points
  20. We've never had so much fan representation on the board - so we're told. Well the fans are chanting at games for Holt to f**k off every week and the main social media message board for fans (this one) is calling for him to go. Either get him to f**k or come out with a clear and coherent reason why he's worth keeping or you're unable to get rid. edit - and don't give us the pish that he's at the club 24 hours a day working hard, so are the carpets.
    9 points
  21. Our commentary is fucking dreadful. How the f**k can they say we have controlled this game?
    9 points
  22. You've just made that up.
    9 points
  23. Yes, working somewhere at the age of 18 means that he is a raving Tory, as that is the only possibly reason that anyone could ever criticise Nicola Sturgeon.
    9 points
  24. Got our first ever Christmas card from our neighbours across the road David and Theresa. David is actually called John and I think this was their way of telling us that we've been calling him the wrong name for 7 years.
    9 points
  25. f**k the privileged auld rat. The French and the Russians had the right idea.
    9 points
  26. To be fair to Falkirk fans, I think they’re more than aware of how rubbish they have been for a long while. I think Falkirk fans have moved long beyond the point of meltdowns.
    8 points
  27. The above ratings are interesting, but I thought Forrest was shite. Shinnie nearly caught Kelly out from distance, but kicked it wrong, so it didn't work. Bruce has been touched by Hamilton, so fully expected him to score. Kelly 0/3 for vaccinations SOD - solid 7 Solholm - A+ Mugabi - 7/10 McGinley - 6.5 Donnelly - 4 stars Maguire - smiley face Goss - 7 Shields - 90mph Van Veen - 9.5 Woolery - yellow Grimshaw - a'ight Ojala - medium
    8 points
  28. Spoke to someone today who said there was no substance to the Maxwell story , thought it was a bit of sportsmanship
    8 points
  29. Dundee FC of Dundee, you just got Cormacked.
    8 points
  30. Is Granny still spewing his "if yer no with us yer a Tory" pish? Fucking minter.
    8 points
  31. And back to the kids logic for Granny. Honestly, you are an absolute parody poster these days. Stick to supporting Utd mate, at least theres some credibility in your head in the sand, unwavering backing of your football team. Trying to shoe horn your own political bias into every single conversation and twisting the words of others to try and shame them into silence is fucking pathetic. Once again, since you are hard of thinking and I might just accept that on boxing day, you're maybe still pished. Covid response should be data driven. The pandemic now is at a different phase from the blunt force that made up our only credible response pre vaccines. If there is no data suggesting hospitals are in danger of being overwhelmed, there should be no measures. Further to that, each measure put in place should at least make sense, be proportionate and have a demonstrable impact. If you can explain to me how any of that makes me right wing or a Tory, by all means crack on. Please note that "thats what the tories are saying!!!!!" Will not be accepted. You are the sort of idiot who would call someone a Tory if they agreed with a tory that the sky was blue.
    8 points
  32. Our Alfie is 12 today, in great condition for an old timer.
    8 points
  33. Amazing that folk are openly defending themselves against being a Tory and the person levelling the accusations is the most prominent poster on here who voted for Brexit. Don't let his simpering 'I voted it then but regret it now' act fool you, Danger is in no position to take the moral high ground on anyone being on board with right wing philosophies. He's a self loathing old man who loves projecting his own personal deep rooted political tendencies onto others.
    7 points
  34. He has more league wins as Ayr manager than David Hopkin.
    7 points
  35. Embarrassing and awful. I don’t care if this new board has been in place for 3 minutes or 3 years, Holt has to go. He’s assembled the worst squad known to any living Falkirk fan. There is absolutely nothing about that squad at all , he was brought in to make us better and he’s made us significantly worse. Paul Watson should be signed at midnight next Saturday as he’d improve the defence 10 fold. Why do we constantly make the wrong decisions?
    7 points
  36. You set aside the football related selfishness (because it also applies to yourself and I guess you don’t want to label yourself right wing) and claimed much of the other sentiment is right wing individualistic leaning. Frankie pointed out that there are other reasons people want restrictions to end. Made you look a bit of a fanny if truth be told. You made a daft claim and got called on it. The idea that wanting no restrictions makes you right wing is frankly laughable.
    7 points
  37. Remember when the people who moaned about the boards decisions and appointments said we should all get behind the team and Holt! f**k off!
    7 points
  38. Get him to f**k! Had more than enough of this absolute shite, something needs to change!
    7 points
  39. "I don't think people should be barred from going to the football". "HORRIBLE RIGHT-WING TORY!"
    7 points
  40. This is utter fucking nonsense. I’m not selfish, your selfish vibes too.
    7 points
  41. Another one for the ignore bin.
    7 points
  42. No Goodwillie, no Clyde fans, no sub goalie, 3 subs, 3 points. Fucking get in!!! Get it right round you Marshmallow ya fucking creepy wee b*****d. Enjoy your red dotting spree whilst I enjoy this pint ya fucking weirdo.
    6 points
  43. Why is the guy who assembled this pile of shite still employed by our club? Surely he’ll be gone by the time the window opens. As for the players, an absolute disgrace. Another group of imposters who shouldn’t be anywhere near our club.
    6 points
  44. 19 points behind, think it's just out our grasp.
    6 points
  45. Offer Rangers what they want for James Maxwell. What a performance. Whole team put in a shift (I even include Sean McGinty in that). Enjoy the rest of your Boxing Day lads.
    6 points
  46. HOW THE f**k ARE WE 5th We all know these aren’t the best group of players but fair play to them. Clearly showing a bit of graft and desire that was missing earlier in the season! Still can’t believe we are 4 points off the playoffs
    6 points
  47. Well done Ayr. Well deserved against a team that always keeps on giving to teams that have been struggling for ages. We have great form for that. Enjoy your Christmas guys.
    6 points
  48. Here again to say it's a fucking disgrace that this club are backing Holt in his position considering was involved in the regime which signed a large number of these c***s. The new board backing him are making a rod for their own back by keeping him on. I'll be emailing the club tomorrow morning. Not expecting anything but by f**k if he's still there, this club will not be moving forward.
    6 points
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