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This post is fucking massive, so apologies. Had my coffee with John Mason MSP. Now he’s someone I fiercely disagree with on a lot of issues, many of which in the public eye and I think he’s had more than a few shockers of late on social media along these lines. Regardless, it was a relatively pleasant two-hour conversation where I managed to get my view across (I think). I initially raised my issue with “tsunami” phraseology – at that time he was unable to provide me with the ICU/death figures for Omicron. He agreed that perhaps that phrase was not appropriate. He had previously mentioned that whilst he receives e-mails from me, frustrated about the restrictions, he also receives emails from people on the other side. I put it to him that this is likely in large part to the Scottish Governments dangerous scare messaging. He noted this as a possible reason. He stressed again that ScotGov are going for the more cautious approach – I again noted that whilst this was fine earlier in the pandemic, we cannot continue to screech whatever parts of the economy the “matilda pointing at things” government chooses. I have previously raised my concern that football and hospitality are being punished – he disagreed at the time – but I felt that my explanation of why I felt this was the case was listened to. I pointed out that schools remain open and whilst I am absolutely not suggesting they get closed, it makes no sense keeping them open whist punishing private business. The issue of masks (more on that later) in schools and the data showing not a lot was again I feel listened to. I raised the data issues. I spoke to their desperation to use scary SA and Denmark data but when that data was showing the decoupling between cases and hospitalisation/ICU this data was swiftly ignored. I struggled to understand this. He again doubled down on the more cautious approach. He himself believes the government is more cautious than needs, but these decisions come from the top (more on that later) and he himself has raised issues with the panicked messaging and random crowd numbers etc. On the current restrictions. I asked him if he could say with a straight face that “sitting down” and table service made any difference in the data. He could not. I spoke in general about the restrictions, that 2 years in the government needs to provide its citizens with the data that justifies the closing of businesses/restrictions rather than just deciding on a whim. He said this data is difficult to get. I said that whilst that might be the case, continually leaving business in uncertain situations cannot continue. I then spoke about the data in Scotland vs England. Now his previous response here was along the lines of “yeah but if we didn’t do x then the numbers would be higher”. I put it to him that a) you could affectively say that statement FOREVER and b) we have the best real world data in terms of restrictions anyone could EVER hope for on this island with England vs Scotland data tracking perfectly. Again he defended this point – but I fought back strongly on this and being the utter loser I am pointed to the graphs reflecting this for his consideration. It did seem like this got through, and at the Covid committee on Thursday he intends to raise this now. We spoke about next winter. His last e-mail to me was incredibly strange because I asked why there is no consideration for NHS capacity. On this, we didn’t go too deep into the NHS but he did agree that based on this winter the Scottish Government needs to take more time and considering whether they need to act next winter in the likelihood of “new variants”. I raised the concept of the ScotGov bubble. Of course we are all familiar with Westminster bubble but in my head I am astonished that the First Minister believes that a) people are following the guidance in terms of 3 households/limiting contacts and that b) any pubs etc outwith the city centres are actually following these nonsense rules. He agreed on these points and reflected on the massive reduction in “check-ins” and that the government needs to look at phasing this sort of thing out. I then raised the issue of younger people suffering during the pandemic (I’m 28 so not sure I quite qualify). In previous twitter conversations with him, he enraged me by saying that “nightclubs etc” are “extra”. Now I realised 3 years ago that city centre night clubs are no longer the place for me – but I don’t believe it’s fair that he or anyone in government get to decide on a whim what is extra. For example, I put it to him that I am the biggest atheist ever and he is very religious. I feel churches are extra. But he would no doubt disagree. We then had an in depth conversation about how the government actually governs. Because I was intrigued to understand what the role of the “covid committee” actually was, and let me tell you, the answer did not please me. When I raised my concern that Devi is monetising the pandemic with her books and talks, he smiled and agreed it shouldn’t happen. Regardless, it was made clear that the leadership in the Scottish Government are advised (and she does indeed have the FM’s ear), decisions are made on this and THEN the Covid committee analyses these decisions. I was really perplexed by this – in government I’d have thought a far better way to work would be for the committee and the leadership to work together (and cross party) when it comes to speaking to “independent” advisors and making decisions. So for anyone wondering how these decisions are being made, based on the conversation I had with him, it is very clear that the “cautious approach” is being driven by the leadership at the top. I noted the number of times that “Nicola” was used in the answers to what I was saying – basically every answer. I reflected on the recent car crash interviews from Swinney and Humza. On Swinney it was actually him that asked the question regarding crowds and he agreed he was not satisfied at all with the answer. On Humza, he stated that the omicron/with or because of Covid data was hard to collect. I said I understood this – but ultimately 2 years on the government have had plenty time to sort out a system to do this if they actually had an interest in keeping the country open and it’s downright irresponsible not to. This was noted. We then moved on to discuss what happens in the future, and I asked a couple of questions that the P&B masses and some pals put to me: I raised very serious concerns with vaccine passports, in terms of their use, their discriminatory nature and the various domino affect repercussions that come with them. I also again raised this as another example of a shan policy cooked up in Holyrood left to private business to deal with. I raised the very real issue of ScotGov simply saying “aye but France etc are doing it” without considering why (France’s vaccine uptake was a lot lower than UK’s, and in that manner it did work). I stated clearly that this is the exact kind of policy that needs to be backed up by concrete data. And I asked when this, along with masks, will be fired into the bin. He was unable to tell me, but agreed that they cannot remain a part of the fabric of our society long term. Whilst I said they needed binned now because of the clear uselessness in the face of omicron, this was noted, and will also be raised at the covid committee should he have time (each MSP seems to only get around 5-6 minutes to question Swinney and Leitch at these things). On masks I’ve ranted about this many many times with him so we didn’t go too in depth but again, along with masks, he is hoping to raise this issue. I raised my concerns on data/safe modelling by email and we touched on this briefly – he said he felt it was correct that government looked at worst case and based on this. I blew my top about that via email, and I interrogated him on what qualifications within government do MSPs and ministers have to interrogate data correctly. This wasn’t really answered, but when I took issue with the “worst case” scenario not having any probability attached to it, rendering it meaningless, he seemed to roll back on his view. Regardless, incredibly concerning that we’re being governed like this. Moving forward he has said many times he wants this to move to be more like flu – seasonal jabs for the over 50’s and vulnerable. I asked if this was a universal view point or just his, but he wasn’t sure on this. John Mason to put it kindly is an outlier within the SNP, the leadership don’t seem to like him because of his somewhat controversial views, so it’s difficult to assess whether or not the leadership agree on the seasonality and binned the need for 28 year olds like me to be getting jabs left right and centre. “Civil Liberties” was raised by me – he put it that looking at the example of the government wanting to enshrine the UN Rights of the Child into law shows the government is doing more on civil liberties. I noted this point – but in terms of the past two years I was talking about things like vaccine passports which in the discussion overall were listened to. He doesn’t like the restrictions and I think he is likely to not really tow the party line with them like others. For example, I also invited Alison Thewliss for a coffee but it became clear that this would not have gone down well as she is far more in line with Nicola Sturgeon. So to answer someone’s question that was put to me – yes it does seem very much like the SNP government and those representing are telt to tow the line, and we went into detail a bit about how a few years ago it was actually worse in terms of party discipline and not being able to speak out (he raised the trans debate but I had absolutely no interest getting into that). There’s probably some stuff I’ve missed, and again apologies for the long post. I would again stress – Covid and restrictions and the things raised in this thread I have noted have made me a much angrier person over the past 2 years and I strongly recommend voicing your views to your MSP because it almost certainly helps. If anyone’s any other questions just let me know.

Yes they do. If you have joined the FSS you made a specific decision to do so and are willing to pay for the privilege. Season ticket holders purchased the right to attend games or follow on Falkirk TV. Not to purchase shares in FFC. Many in the FSS will also have paid for STs.

A thread for those achievements in your life that, when carefully phrased, sound quite impressive but, on closer examination, quickly reveal themselves to be much less so. Maybe you won a prize every year at school prize giving (but it was for “good attendance”) or you won a national swimming title (but it was for breaststroke). I’ll start with… I have been published in a national periodical…

315 members is still very low considering we had around 1000 people pledging to contribute before the Mark Campbell fiasco. What are people waiting on? Holt's gone, we've got an academy on it's way back and we've got a new management team looking to turn the on field mess around.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59936338 f**k off Jason.

Jason leitch has to be the biggest fanny in the whole of Scotland. His voice infuriates me .he explains things like we are all 8 years old .

Some folk having a tantrum about a member's organisation running a poll of their membership should just come out and say they're desperate for us to sign Goodwillie rather than trying to dress it up.

I'm a member of FSS and pleased they have done this. If the aim of an organisation is to be representative of its members then it should be as transparent as possible. Publishing the results and their course of action is exactly what I'd expect of them.

Pleased to see a majority of FSS voters going against the signing of Goodwillie. Cant do any more really.

1. Janey Godley's comedy. 2. Jason Leitch's overreach. 3. The virus and all its variants.

How is 500 allowed in a stadium in Scotland even remotely comparable to England?

I know a guy who shagged Hayden Panettiere.

No qualms at all with how FSS have handled this. Very unique situation in regards to Goodwillie, and they seem to recognise these polls etc. would really only be for exceptional circumstances - which this is.

10 for Monday, yay.

It's pointless discussing Willie Miller with the Aberdeen da's, I suspect most of them are 50+ and still have wee moustaches trying to look like him.

10 for this morning. Knew them all this time which is always nice (well knew the capital one because of history rather than accuracy).

Ten. No guesses.

10 for Monday, the Q setter need to update his database of answers, in particular regarding the capital of Kazakhstan.

"Not have to do anything to try to contain and control it" is the type of "must be seen to do something" stuff the Granny Dangers of the world lap up. I don't think it's too radical to suggest that NS has become a little too fixated on optics. As for her suggestion that there won't come a time where we wake up and think we don't need to worry about it anymore then this is a rather damning insight into how detached from reality she has become - large swathes of the population are already there. The only "adaptation to pre-pandemic life" I'll be doing longer-term is not voting SNP.

I have scored the same number of international goals as Oli McBurnie.

I hit a shot that hard that it broke the Hampden goals.

7 day Cases Update: 3 Day lag to allow reporting to be accurate. Cases DOWN 23% in last 5 days reported since i produced this last Wednesday. Wow The Tsunami may have gone into reverse gear. All mainland councils with significant drop in infections in the last 5 days. The only problem with this is that it will undoubtedly be used as "proof" that restrictions are working !!!! Total Cases Scotland 7 days 1st January to 7th January were 113,326 to 87,049 Down 23.19%, Positivity was 29.9% now 27.4%. Cases per 100K were 2073.3 now 1592.6 Home Nations Weekly Cases per 100K update : England 1589 to 1925 Up 21.15%, Wales 2199 to 2381 up 8.28%, Northern Ireland 2252 to 2905 up 29.00% Cases in Europe in terms of of numbers per 100K Ireland 2971, France 2842, Greece 2408, Denmark 2200, Portugal 2127, Switzerland 1975, Italy 1839, only countries over 1300. Council progress in last week as follows. Click cases by neighbourhood to see the spread on the geographical map. https://public.tableau.com/profile/phs.covid.19#!/vizhome/COVID-19DailyDashboard_15960160643010/Overview Inverclyde 2,772 to 2,079 South Lanarkshire 2,694 to 2,050 West Dunbartonshire 2,332 to 2,026 Renfrewshire 2,691 to 1,975 North Lanarkshire 2,722 to 1,810 Down 33.50% East Renfrewshire 2,448 to 1,768 North Ayrshire 2,065 to 1,739 Moray 2,416 to 1,719 East Ayrshire 2,344 to 1,696 Glasgow City 2,247 to 1,686 Falkirk 2,055 to 1,671 East Dunbartonshire 2,346 to 1,641 Clackmannanshire 2,094 to 1,640 Fife 1,824 to 1,611 South Ayrshire 2,037 to 1,573 Dumfries & Galloway 1,865 to 1,560 Angus 1,627 to 1,531 Perth & Kinross 1,781 to 1,530 Aberdeen City 1,712 to 1,507 Dundee City 1,824 to 1,486 West Lothian 2,142 to 1,463 Stirling 1,909 to 1,443 City Of Edinburgh 1,868 to 1,398 East Lothian 1,696 to 1,397 Midlothian 1,936 to 1,370 Highlands 1,718 to 1,308 Aberdeenshire 1,522 to 1,288 Scottish Borders 1,756 to 1,157 Argyll & Bute 1,285 to 1,016 Orkney Islands 1,228 to 728 Western Isles 921 to 706 Shetland Islands 634 to 648

What a surprise I'm sure the local MSP is not the only person that gives you the big swerve in real life. Ma wee Dug

From the horses mouth

10 for Monday. Nice,

Still coming out with the “we hope omicron is milder than other variants” despite the fact that several different sets of data proved that to be the case nearly a month ago now.

Reporting Scotland repeating the mewling about not being able to compare with other parts of the UK (Erm yes you you can - the SG and the restriction fetishists just don't like the answers) and oh no the data is now suddenly unreliable because lab delays and LFTs. Absolute drivel - the justification for restrictions was pathetic and they have achieved no demonstrable purpose. That leaves us with the default option in a free society, which is no such restrictions.

Going to be some surge if the peak is still to come...

I think it is pretty obvious that there won't be a poll on everything, FSS said as much in there initial email regarding the poll. Personally, I think FSS have handled this impeccably and if this is how the organisation continues to operate then there is the potential for a very powerful fans organisation.

Can't wait for Nicoles announcement tomorrow

Imagine wanting that in Scotland.

How does she equate “learning to live with it “ as being the same as people thinking we are gonna just wake up one day thinking “oh we don’t have to worry about this anymore” . a slightly ironic statement considering her own government and its band of hangers on were still chasing the zero Covid fantasy not too long ago In the grand scheme of things learning to live with it means accepting it is here and as is part of our life like every other risk and illness which we were allowed to factor into our daily life choices and decision making back in those hazy days of pre March 2020

The Scottish Government couldn’t give a fuck about the Scottish economy. As long as do the complete polar opposite of what the Tories do in England, they’ll be happy.

There's few people I dislike more than Jason Leitch. Yeah let's have a few thousand people in Silverburn and Braehead on a Saturday but noooooo not 1,500 outside at Somerset. It's a farce. I'm a teacher, spending my day in a building with 1,000 people in it, and probably 50% of pupils wearing a mask. Infuriates me I can't go to the football.

I like to tell people I beat Haile Gebreselassie (Olympic champion and half marathon world record holder) at the Great Scottish Run. I usually omit to tell people that he dropped out the race halfway through.

This isn't the normal way of running things. Folk need to calm down. There isnt going to be a vote on every issue or signing. Its quite simply a response to the hugely controversial nature of this one signing. FSS have done the right thing here IMO There needed to be something done and they are exactly the right vehicle for it. They are the early shoots of fan ownership and whilst fans in such a scheme cant expect to get a say in everything, if they cant speak on an issue like this, whats the point?

Okay Gary

The continued clowning of Gary Holt is something I will forever be on board with.

The FM using the example of Denmark in the discussion of Omicron is a really telling moment in all of this. It was pre-pre-data and was contradicted by the data from South Africa, which had more detail, was more comprehensive and, crucially, was further ahead in the wave than anywhere.

no, the FSS has done its job - taken the temp of its members and passed on the info to the directors that represent them, also TBF they never posted it on PnB, it was sent to each member - as it should have been.

Schiavone back to Hearts. We didn’t really see enough of him to fully judge but I thought he looked better than most of our limited options upfront. Felt he was one of those players where once we he scored he could go on a wee run. Unfortunately I don’t think he started a game for us again after he scored against Sauchie.

Wordle 205 2/6

My opinion is based on almost two years of having additional restrictions than England, having restictions for longer periods of time than England, of the FM saying she is not being political and then making an overtly political point, repeated comments by the FM that she makes no apologies for restrictions, of veiled digs that she would do more if she could, repeated comments along the lines of we "just don't know" when erring on the side of caution. Ultimately she will do anything she can to out care the Tories which the vast majority of her supporters just lap up rather than acting for the overall benefit of the country.

Love it when Zingali goes on the swally. #ZingaliOnTheSwally.

See, folk who know things can see all this stuff laid out in front of them. If you're not privvy to anything that's gone on (and that is about 98% of our support) then it's not just a case of opening your eyes and working it out for yourself. How the f**k are any of us supposed to know this Henning c**t is claiming expenses off the club? You make that point as if we're stupid for not knowing. We've been asking questions for more than a decade and it's this shite we get in return all the time. If you know something you can share then share it. Dropping clues so that folk go on their own wee treasure hunt doesn't help, it especially doesn't help when we need a united front and it leads to this sort of argument. You say ask the Trust what's going on because they have answers but those people are already posting on here in the shape of O'Kelly/BSF/Jordo, and even they can't share all the info he's got. Your average Dumbarton fan will know f**k all about this situation and I don't think that's the fault of your average Dumbarton fan. We've essentially had a battle behind the scenes with a "nicey nicey" media front since Brabco arrived.

What a shitty guy you are.

Is there a chance that the Pars players look so good in training because their opposition are other Pars players?