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Zorro

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Everything posted by Zorro

  1. I’ve said it time and time again; Keir Starmer is the most dangerous person in U.K. politics. He lied his way to being leader. He has hidden who his donors are and how much they have contributed. You can’t get much information on his time as director of public prosecutions, so he’s shielded from the fallout of high profile cases which happened on his watch- Assange, horizon etc. He overseen a purge of left of centre politicians and members from the Labour Party. He has condoned genocide and collective punishment. He has u-turned on so many promises and pledges that it is impossible to know what a vote for Labour means. Unionists often accuse independence supporters of following a cult- voting Labour now is akin to joining the Moonies.
  2. It’s possible that it could also have been prosecuted under section 17 of the communications act; covering malicious electronic communications. Guess what, it hasn’t happened despite widespread criticism and condemnation of “bullying cybernats”. Murdo Fraser is simply acting like a petulant child, stamping its feet, because it has nothing better to do with his time. A search of his criminal records would show no trace of this “offence”. His twitter post was recorded as a "hate incident", though this was not attached to Murdo Fraser's name. The data is anonymised and used to identify trends. In fact, without Murdo’s involvement, nobody except his small Twitter audience and the parliamentary standards committee would have know or cared that he held such views. However, I find it saves time to simply assume that all Tories are intolerant and hold some form of bigoted views.
  3. Aren’t most laws open to interpretation though? Ask two lawyers the same question and you’ll get two different opinions. Pay them enough and both will find opinions that match your own. Personally, I’m not convinced that allowing the public a greater say on what constitutes offensive behaviour is a bad thing. I certainly think most Orange parades would have had greater restrictions on them if it was up to the public. And therein lies the nub of the problem. To quote Iron Mike -“Social media made y'all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it.” People like Murdo Fraser have grown used to being able to use their social media as a platform for expressing their “dog whistle” views, free from consequences. Furthermore, as we saw in the Joanna Cherry v The Stand, they are actively weaponising human rights and equality legislation to suppress opposition to their views. “Protected characteristics” is the new battle cry of the “freedom of speech” enthusiasts. Perhaps you’re right. Maybe instead of all this new legislation, what we need is a return to playground rules. If Murdo and his type risked a punch in the puss for deliberately antagonising someone, maybe he’d have second thoughts about it. Take away the protection afforded by assault legislation and perhaps we’d see more civilised discourse. It must be disheartening for the staff at QE and doesn’t fill you with much confidence in the inspectorate. As an outsider, it seems the hospital is trapped in a negative feedback loop- poor reputation> difficulties in recruiting staff> suboptimal outcomes> poor reputation…. Like any part of the NHS there will be a lot of very good people, trying their best, in very challenging circumstances. But if they are reaching out for support, highlighting their concerns, and being ignored, frustrations will continue to grow. HIS have dropped the ball here. They had QE staff that were very well placed to support the inspectorate in achieving their stated goals, and for whatever reason chose to turn a blind eye. They have let down the patients, relatives and staff that use or work in the hospital. There needs to be an independent inquiry into why this happened, and heads should probably roll.
  4. Really? Singing in the street can see you charged with breach of the peace, while an orange order band playing sectarian music outside a chapel would be ignored. Tell me that’s not true? What you mean like breach of the peace? Protestors are routinely harassed by the police and charged with breach of the peace. Block the road into an oil refinery and you’re almost guaranteed to be arrested and charged with it. Protest against a war and you could face the same. You’ll certainly be filmed. Your actions will be recorded. All the data will be collected and stored…..exactly like it would be for this law. Show me a law that lawyers aren’t happy to make money from?
  5. I take it you’re familiar with Breach of the Peace? We seem to have survived with that public order offence on the books.
  6. Tbh I’d already written them off.
  7. The drainage system at Dens hasn’t had any major work on it for years. They didn’t even do anything with it in 2005 when they installed undersoil heating. The top surface was removed, pipes thrown down and a new pitch laid on top. It was the cheapest option. Unfortunately, the depth of the undersoil heating pipes also makes it difficult to aerate the pitch and this has lead to a level of compaction, which causes water to lie on the surface. Their second bout of administration in 2010 lead to the stadium being bought by a Utd fan to help keep them going, but all maintenance work, including on the pitch, was downscaled. This has had lasting consequences. Since 2016 the pitch has really struggled to cope with heavy rain as the drainage deteriorated further due to silting. This left them with a pretty grotty looking surface, which suffered multiple problems and postponements. After regaining ownership of the stadium a new surface was installed for the 22/23 season. Again, any attempt to improve the problem with drainage was ignored as it was too costly. The father and son ground staff, haven’t been put on gardening leave due to their ineptitude. Indeed they have received many plaudits for their work over the years. This move goes back to the new pitch being laid in 22/23, when they highlighted the importance of dealing with the drainage system, but were ignored. This move was akin to buying a new rug to cover the big puddle in the middle of your living room- a move the Dundee owners thought would make the issue disappear; well at least until they’d moved home. As more games were postponed the owners didn’t like being reminded that they were told this would happen. They also resented the idea of spending even more money on the pitch.
  8. I suggest you reread what I wrote instead of what you think I wrote. The only person countering an unmade argument here is you.
  9. I don’t think Saturdays result had anything to do with being “unleashed”; there wasn’t any huge tactical switch or a single change in personnel. What we witnessed was a combination of a change in attitude from the players and confidence returning as we got ourselves back into the game. In the first half we looked like we were suffering a hangover from the Aberdeen game and feeling a bit sorry for ourselves. We are a good side- probably even a very good side in this league. Once we remembered this, we looked much more like ourselves. To get there, I suspect a few players got a rocket up the arse at halftime and the team as a whole were reminded why we were competing for fourth place in the first place. When we came back out and started winning our 50/50’s, began picking up the second balls, ran harder, moved the ball quicker, we got our just rewards. My advice to the manager would be stick with what you’re doing because it’s working. Nobody ever suggested that SC was too cautious in the first half of games or that he made changes because he was worrying too much about our opponent's, and I definitely see parallels about how both of them go about their business. Everything is done to give us the best possible chance of getting a positive outcome. We might not like every choice they make, but we should respect them. Finally, I think we all need to take a step back and get a little bit of perspective on what we’ve achieved. We seem to be amping every game up as the be all and end all. Having rewatched the whole of Saturday’s match, I think I’m as guilty of overreacting to circumstances as the next man. A couple of set pieces aside, St Mirren hadn’t really created much. We had possibly two clear cut chances, to their three, and I'm not even sure if the Mandron header was onside tbh. I think we’ve got sucked into worrying about the table too much or looking ahead to going to Hampden, instead of taking things one game at a time, and letting things play out. I also think the big and noisy away support rubbing our nose in it, made this feel even worse. I don’t know what the solution is, but I’m going to try and just enjoy things because this is definitely better than worrying about relegation.
  10. In one of the interviews I watched McInnes said he wanted Wright’s height in the middle to deal with Mandron.
  11. Dundee also wanted more time, including delaying the kickoff, to get the game on. They can’t have it both ways. This is 100% down to Dundee. Like Aberdeen, they’ve penny pinched on the upkeep of their pitch and stadium because of pipe dreams about new stadiums. Those chickens are now coming home to roost and they should be fined for this latest incident.
  12. There’s only so far you can progress in football if your solution is to just keep booting the ball into row Z. Most of the better sides have keepers who are comfortable dealing with these situations, and or defenders who are comfortable shielding the ball under pressure. It also becomes an extremely easy out ball for the opposition, where they’re guaranteed to regain possession in the attacking third. With most teams having someone capable of throwing the ball a significant distance, these throw-ins become as good as giving away corners or freekicks around the box. What I think we’re seeing at the moment is the next step in our team’s evolution. The defenders have definitely been more vocal in their complaints about the keeper not dealing with some of these balls. This makes me think we’ve been working in training on transitioning from a team who kicks the ball out, and into a team who tries to use these opportunities to turn the opposition defence or pickup second balls in attacking areas, by dealing with them better.
  13. If my calculations are correct, I think we’ll have three home games from those last eight matches- Ross County, Celtic, Hearts. We’ll still have to visit Tynecastle, McDiarmid, Easter Road, Ibrox, St Mirren park. IMO, six points is not insurmountable given our away form and the tricky home fixtures we’ll face.
  14. I think it’s between us and Hibs for fourth place now. Like you, I can’t see St Mirren getting much from their next three matches. Hibs seem to have hit form at just the right time to cement their top six place. It would take a similar run of form from Dundee to squeeze the Buddies out.
  15. I think most players accept they’re going to be booed after a first half performance like that, but it was Del saying he can hear what’s being said that makes me think there was more to this than the booing.
  16. It was almost worth being so bad in the first half to get that performance in the second. I’ve been through some real highs and lows in my time watching us, but never to that extent in 90 minutes.
  17. I just said the same on the match thread. I think some fans may have said a bit too much for Del’s liking.
  18. Sure…I booed the team off the park at halftime, they deserved it. They were lethargic, second to every ball, the communication was next to nonexistent, and too many players looked happy to leave it to their teammates to make a fight of things. My son was so depressed by the performance that he organised a night out with his mates in Leven. And if you’ve sampled the delights of McPhails, before hitting Truth nightclub, you’d know you have to be in a pretty bad place to consider this as a pick-me-up. I was surprised that there were no changes at halftime. Watching Del’s interview, I get the feeling that someone in the crowd maybe overstepped the mark with their criticisms of Vassell and his teammates, and this perhaps influenced that decision. Whatever the reason, the change was like night and day. The very same people who had put us in a very deep hole, all stepped up and dug us out off it. i don’t think the team can ever be given enough credit for the guts they showed to turn that around. I won’t ever forget the giddy sense of joy I felt as goal after goal went in. My son was stunned into simply repeating “a cannae believe it” as he grinned from ear to ear. Watching the St Mirren support; so proud and boastful for 60 minutes, melt away was just the icing on the cake. Thanks Del. Thanks guys. So proud of the lot of you
  19. As far as the SFA are concerned, games involving Killie & St Mirren never have and never will be crucial. Teams like us are used to road test these guys for 30-40 games before they’re let loose on either of the arse cheeks.
  20. I suggested him a while back as someone we should be looking at. He has that knack of arriving in the box at just the right time. Comfortable playing on either side or through the middle which is another positive
  21. Looking at his stats, he does seem very card happy. Especially keen on the colour red. I know it’s a long shot, but hopefully there’s someone decent on VAR to keep him right.
  22. If FFP was supposed to achieve what they claim it’s for, it could have been done extremely easily by limiting debt and preventing teams from signing players once they’d breached that level. The idea that a rich benefactor putting their hands in their own pockets, is the same as a carpetbagger coming in and saddling a club with unsustainable levels of debt, being the same thing, is fundamentally flawed. In each instance of a club failing, it has been their debts that have been the issue.
  23. Lamine Yamal- 16 years old and absolutely bossing it in the knockout stages of the Champions League. What a frighteningly exciting and entertaining player. Hopefully we get to see his full potential and his career isn’t blighted by injuries or off field issues like so many before him.
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