Guy Incognito

The seethe is indeed very amusing, if quite pathetic. Quite a lot of English Labour people have applauded the speech though, as if to say 'look, this is what we should be saying'. Absolutely. She sounds like a young woman who is in politics for the right reason - because she actually believes in something. We can agree or disagree with what it is she believes in, but if there were a few more conviction politicians and few less careerists (or 'signposts and weathercocks', as Tony Benn once put it) then the world of politics would be all the better for it.

They apparently play in something called the Southern League Division One Central, which, my old friend Wikipedia informs me, is the eighth tier of the English pyramid system - four divisions below the football league. I wouldn't imagine the standard will be much better than the juniors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_Langley_F.C. So far, Terrell Miller has played most of his football there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrell_Miller I know it's possible to unearth the occasional hidden gem from lower league football but surely this particular gem might have shone a bit brighter by now. At least Mathieu Manset appears to have some pedigree in professional football. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathieu_Manset

For anyone who is interested, Mhairi Black made her maiden speech today: http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/aa555458-25d4-4125-96ca-c4c9f834cd4c?in=15:06:05&out=15:14:39 Seemingly it has gone down a storm.

My reading of that is that the SG will take a dim view of any employer hoping to do business with them who does not pay its employees the living wage. It isn't as if they are diametrically opposed to the idea; to their credit they have enforced it amongst their own staff: http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/scottish-government-becomes-living-wage-employer-1-3790913 I don't know if the EU rule thing is true. If it is, then Labour including that amendment looks a lot like politicking to make the government look bad. If, on the other hand, it is true, then it weakens the SNP's own pro-EU stance somewhat. It is a pretty poor state of affairs, either way.

Now there's someone I wouldn't mind seeing in the red and yella. I doubt he'll be short of suitors though.

Simple: we vote for a party who support the introduction of a living wage and progressive taxation and doesn't favour a reduction in corporation tax, amongst other things. And if we don't, then hell mend us. But even then, at least we would have chosen our government for ourselves and we could democratically remove them if they pissed us off. Right away, then, our society is fairer. Ignoring the fact that the SG, currently led by the SNP (although there is an election next year), has not 'vetoed' a living wage (it couldn't even if it wanted to; it has no control over setting the rate of the minimum wage and the 'living wage' cannot be legally enforced) as well as the arguable point that it favours a reduction in corporation tax, I don't think anyone in the pro-independence camp is suggesting that Scotland should be a one party state, are they? Incidentally, all I think Scotty was meaning was that national self-determination and social justice are not mutually exclusive.

This would seem to back that up: https://commonspace.scot/articles/1876/poll-shows-nearly-two-thirds-of-scots-are-against-welfare-cuts

One of the reasons I favour universalism is because everyone benefits. Wealthier people pay a bit more via taxation but they are free to reap the rewards of the same as everyone else. And being wealthier, they also have the means to pay their own way should they choose to do so, e.g. private healthcare or education. Means testing, on the other hand, is a bureaucratic minefield and often penalises people who are better off but by no means wealthy. The Scottish Government has it in its gift to raise income tax bands but doing so would be a waste of time, as, currently, if I understand correctly, any increased tax yield would result in the block grant from Westminster being cut accordingly. To be fair, he has point about 'whipped' SNP MPs and MSPs. However, you could argue that a strict whip system is necessary to keep in line a party whose representatives often hold quite divergent political views outwith Scottish independence. It has taken the SNP a long time to get where they are today; they aren't going to want to risk another 79 Group fiasco. At this point in time it looks like the left and right of Labour who are intent on eating each other. To the SNP's credit, they barely mentioned the constitution during the election. Their opponents, on the other hand, apparently couldn't shut up about it: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/what-do-scotlands-parties-really-care-about.1436723513

Welcome aboard, David.

Decent career stats too: http://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=55423

I love it.

A government in that position has a choice between letting a non-profitable industry die and paying its redundant staff unemployment benefit or supporting it, thereby providing work for people, giving them spending power, a sense of self-worth and a tax code. Thatcher's government was in that position and they chose the former.

At UK level you're probably right, sadly. The fact that there is no profound difference between the UK's two major parties makes for a very sterile version of democracy. The governments of Wilson and Callaghan were crap (as was Heath's too, to be fair) and yes, some trade unions behaved irresponsibly; but that doesn't justify decimating the industries they represented. Blackpool Jags has gone into it already, but that effect it has had on some communities was catastrophic. The UK is now a low wage, low productivity economy and that will cause more long term harm to the country than any flying picket. Cameron's economic plan has been criticised by many economists. There was maybe a case for austerity back in 2009, at the apex of the credit crunch, but it is harder to justify now that the economy is back on more of an even keel. I don't agree with the SNP's long-term freezing of CT, on the basis that depriving public services of funds rarely ends well (I wasn't aware of thousands of council staff being made redundant but the standard of street cleaning in Glasgow has varied between poor and atrocious in recent years). The shortfall in revenue, as I understand it, is bridged by payments from Holyrood. In any case, it is high time that a fairer method of local taxation was devised to replace the council tax. The Scottish Greens favour a land value tax and the SSP favour a kind of local income tax. Either sounds preferable to the current system

Really disappointing news. I expected Higgy to leave but probably for a club in England. Seeing him go to Killie is a sore one to take, not to mention a strange move. I hope it is simply a case that they offered him a better contract and that there aren't things going on behind the scenes at Firhill that we should be concerned about.

Puts into perspective complaints about us being referred to as 'Partick'.

If Kingsley is intentional, as opposed to the product of an artist's over-fertile imagination turned accidental hit, then he is a PR masterstroke. Either way, all we need now is for a few thousand of those people who have been reading about him tonight to buy season tickets and we'll be laughing.

She did once say that her greatest legacy was Tony Blair.

It wasn't that long ago that they were a top flight club. Good luck to him. Sad to see him go, but at least he didn't end up at Dundee Utd!

I couldn't understand his anger (save for the fact that he always seems kind of angry, even at the best of times) towards the officials at all. Basically, they have kept his team in it. The two big decisions on Saturday - Walters' offside goal and McCarthy's foul on Martin (I have seen players sent off for less) - went the way of Ireland. By rights, Scotland should have won that game 1-0 and Ireland possibly reduced to 10 men. O'Neil is a strong contender for the title of most over-rated football manager of his era. He had a good spell in charge of Leicester, did what you'd expect any vaguely competent coach to do at one of the OF with an expensively assembled squad and then hee-haw of note. His Ireland team are the dirtiest international football side I have seen in a long while too. Credit to Strachan though, he has picked up the pieces from Levein's dreadful tenure and got his side of good rather than great players believing in itself. Scotland were nowhere their best on Saturday but still managed to get a decent result. That, to me, points to a team that is going places.

Seems a bit strange playing a friendly against a team in the same division as us. I suppose EPL clubs do too, although they usually do so abroad, often somewhere nice and warm, in big, fancy 'glamour' friendlies. Our game will probably be at Dens Park on a Wednesday evening.

Damn. Foxy has been in fine form recently; apparently the first Thistle keeper to keep 10 top flight clean sheets since Craig Nelson. Is he out of contract at the end of this season? Seemingly Ryan Scully has been doing well for Dunfermline though. Maybe he could step up, or at least provide decent back up for Gallacher.

Completely agree. It is important that in an effective democracy the ruling party has an effective opposition. At the moment, the Scottish Greens, who I have time for, are being talked about as potential candidates for that role. While I rate Patrick Harvie as a politician, is there sufficient depth of talent in that party to form a credible opposition to the SNP? I also wonder if any of the Labour MPs who lost their seats last week will stand for Holyrood next year. Murphy almost certainly will, as he has little choice now (that is, if he retains his job). I am not sure my blood pressure could handle Dougie Alexander's wee smug puss popping up on Reporting Scotland night after night though!

For me, this post explains neatly why Labour were able to take Scotland for granted for so many years - people supported the party like it was a football team. "My da voted Labour". I voted SNP last week, largely because I was impressed by my local candidate (now MP). But they are by no means guaranteed my vote for evermore. Labour badly needs a reboot - on both sides of the border. On this side, I think they should copy the Scottish Greens and formally split from the UK body, thus creating a truly Scottish Labour Party with its own policies and values. At this point, with UK Labour licking its wounds and looking to lurch to the right once again, I can see no other way of them stopping the haemorrhaging of their support to other parties, particularly the SNP.

Completely agree with you there. It was a major factor behind my decision not to attend this season's fixture - that and the fact that it was played midweek in the middle of winter (probably the main reason why the attendance that night was so low). I thought exactly the same thing! Build a decent city end stand and there is plenty of room for everyone. Although, it will leave the ground feeling pretty empty for most other games.