Scarlet Pimple

It's got an Italian ring to it though...

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/scotland/28943049 Killie could be dominant this season. If we can beat them we can .....win the league!

Is he Paul the Apostle? Or Paul from ..."Peter, Paul and Mary"?

The Westminster Government has about 50,000,000 pounds in a reserve savings account to meet future pension issues.Did you know that Caley D? Have you ever seen any of these politicians running around in anything but really large and swanky carswith 65 bodyguards alongside? Perhaps if they spent their taxpayers' money more carefully then the bodyguards might be surplus to requirements. Ghandi didn't need such large defensive entourages did he? And maybe you could cut out a lot of the expenditures which ALSO do not benefit your economy...e.g.the stipend paid to Her Glorious Majesty each year which is very large taking into account that she is probaly one of the wealthiest women in the British Empire, let alone the U.K? Currently uprating overseas pensions will amount to only 0.5% of the entire British pension budget.Do you want me to repeat that. Why, that's only 100 M.P's moat cleaning bills......? For Great Britain it's time to cut your cloth accordingly. And then you can find the money to pay out afew more pounds to ex-pat pensioners. Reciprocity Agreements--your having a laff! If they ever meant anything once, believe me they don't anymore. It's a Public relations stunt and throwing "update" bones to a very small and ever-decreasing (dead)number of pensioner dogs, who are NOT LIVING in one of the 4 countries we have mentioned,costs them peanuts and it's great for the image -- good-hearted,honest injuns in suits. Yes-sirree! When Scotland gains independence then you can also cut your gas bills especially since they are far,farhigher than anything we have paid recently in Canada, although our gas fluctuates wildly too depending on whether it's morning, afternoon or evening. Oh! And I spent two years in the RAF also, when I was a youngster, and got paid generously---three pounds, three shillings a week in the last six months of my two year stint, dearies. Does that count for anything? I mean I saved you from the bad Russians who were always lurking around in their Migs on the German border didn't I----just like they are currently doing in Ukraine? My spies now advise that they dropped their military paratroopers into Ukraine within the last day or so and tried to infiltrate the country over an internal lake as well but were beaten back by the Ukrainian army. Same old, same old...funny how the newscasts over here have not reported this and the fact that oil has been found inside eastern Ukraine and Prime minister Putin is upset since he doesn't want the Americans to come near the border? Yep, the times are a changing' and pensions still need to be uprated though since we don't have access to the resources he does.......

Right--it was Chamberlain. Smile. Yes, he was a bit different to Winston wasn't he? "Peace in our time and all that chaps." Where are the access to the Smilies when you need them..... Gone with the wind, eh chaps?

John H will be looking for grit, determination and a high work rate. The passing thing can be instilled as soon as he settles....noit a problem.

Just what I have been saying in my post a couple of days ago about the contents of the pamphlet produced by the Government scribes giving the background and reasons for not upgrading the pensions of ex pat pensioners who live in ex-Commonwealth countries. I.e The Government in Westminster has no moral compass. They lost it a long time ago and have never found it because they also found it very convenient to NOT search for it. Whether or not the new Scottish self-goverment will turn out to be any different morally remains to be seen but, at least, a change is as good as a rest....eh? I agree with much of your post CH2, especially the second last paragraph which sums things all up in a nutshell. Change doesn't take place overnight and usually it's after a cataclysmic event like the 2nd world war, or even the Great War (the 1st World War) which was supposed to be the war that ended all war--yer having a laugh SP?

Baloney Sneckboy. He used positive thoughts to muster an increase in armaments, urgently review and strengthen plans to thwart Hitler, inspire the population of London during the Blitz by walking amongst them and the rubblesurrounding them, bucked up the spirit of the British public by strong defensive broadcasts of the like of"never surrender "exhortations; and a hundred other positive actions including setting up the Bletchley Park facility to break the Germans' communication codes which allowed for the U bOat menace to be defeated handily-eventually, resolving to give the Jerries a taste of their own medicine by fire bombing half the cities of Germany (e.g Hamburg had temperatures of over 1,000 degrees), bottling up the German U-boats by attacking their pens in St Nazaire,France etc. If he ever suffered depression and doubt he did not express it to the people but bore his own burden ofresponsibility unflinchingly. i.e positively.

The majority of ex pat pensioners live in two countries one of which is Canada. Therefore these two countries have the greatest to lose in terms of income. And picking on these two countries to deny the pension to the expats who live in them serves the purposes of the British Government well because it curtals the extra pensions they would otherwise have to pay out greatly. The Canadian Government has to step up and pay pensioners on minimal incomes(for whatever reason, including the ex pat one) what is called the GIS -Guaranteed Income Supplement, otherwise these poor people would be out on the street or going to the food bank daily in the downtown Eastside then sleeping in tents or subsidy to these old folks that the Canadian Government wishes to curtail in order to be able to pay OUR old people (more and more retirees are coming onstream each year)a decent pension as time goes on. Are you aware that we revealed a shocking case of one old fellow in Toronto who was existing on 5 pounds per week from his British pension, presumably because he was not receiving a Canadian pension as well for reasons of non-qualification probably. Regardless of the reasons, this is a disgusting situation for any old person to have to bear and the only reason that there are not more of them revealed is because many of these older folks have now died. In fact they probably did not know how to do anything about it, illness, alzheimers. etc., having taken their toll and operating daily on reduced abilities it can readily be understood how such a situation can develop if left on their own. One old pensioner over 90 years old,named Bernard Jackson, had his name appended to the appeal to the Court of human Rights as a litigant along with ,as I recall, 12 others asking for justice and equality. He was a radio operator who stood on the sands of Normandy on D. Day and could easily have died in defence of Great Britain and our allies during the 2nd world war. He came onto the beachhead the day after the invasion so he was very lucky indeed to escape death, unlike others from all Commonwealth countriesYet his pension is now minimal through erosion. Do you agree with that Caley D? This is a very honorable man who put his life on the line to protect your future life, limb and freedom of thought and he alsopaid what was requested of him in terms of his N I contributions when he was in Britain as a worker. Are you saying that HE does not deserve equality and justice? What possible reason can one advance in this case to substantiate disadvantaging him of his rightful pension now in his golden years when he needs it most. My pension is not the tops, either from the U K or from Canada, for the reasons eloquently stated by Scotty--neither of us paid contributions for the whole working life in either country so both our pensions are negatively affected and reduced accordingly.But my pension is exactly determined by the total of N I premiums that I paid and nothing else. Don't forget Caley D that inflationary increases in British salaries must be taken into account when reflecting on whether we should get an increase every year. Obviously,then,since British taxpayers are paying uprated taxes as well and have been consistently doing so over the years I presume, your statement that we don't deserve it is not correct. I think it is clear, also, that you , unlike Scotty, have not read the pamphlet through since you ask questions to which he knows the answers but you don't. The pamphlet is very explicit and I didn't find it very boring or very difficult to read. What it does do is clinically expose the thoughts and actions of successive British Governments who think nothing of spending money like water on frivolous projects without restraint , as all Governments do of course, yet cry Mea Culpa with their hands over their hearts, and eyes lifted to the spiritual ceilings of their very wealthy abodes, whilst deeply regretting that there is no money for pensioners abroad--BUT for those in Germany, Swaziland, France or the USA uprating are just fine and peachy. Self-serving hypocrisy no less. Sorry , Guys, I have to break off now to scrutinise my bank statement which, increasingly is overdrawn more and more as the months go by a lot quicker now than ever before. And to Charlie Bannerman --awa and bile yer heid, what do you know about all this anyway?

If Mr Deila can intone that he has 16 very professional players then that is good enough for me. The players he had on the park were not quite as dynamic as ours in terms of the fact that we won but they also played as well as they could and that's a top team Celtic had out. On his day and game Kris Commons is a dynamite player. The movers and shakers in the history of the past hundreds of years were people who I assume dwelled on the positive and put aside negative thoughts. They kept the positive visions they had in the forefront of their lives and did not allow doom, depression uncertainty, etc. to cloud their forward-thinking momentum. So, all I would say is .."why not say something positive and forget to qualify it with negative comments. That's much more inspiring and a heck of a lot more fun to read.

Thank you Don, much obliged. So impressed by this team. My oh my! This team , on this display, has John Hughes needing to be commended!. ICT has everything a fan could want. Plays like confident champions. Fit as fiddles,. Sharp as tacks. Urgency evident at all times. Verve and determination on dsiplay with every pass. And some very skilled players. Killie next week will be a test they play hard and have skill and you can see the determination in the team also. Could be quite a match. have to put them away early I think. The Dons-sluggish and looking more like carthorses than thoroughbreds. Motherwell got something but kinda losing it a little. Bit slow on the takeoff -taking too much time to think I fear. Partick no, not this year anyway. Hamilton. coming on strong and also has determination and pace And poor old Hibs. Where is TB when you need him? Thinks: Where is terry B. anyway?

For those of us who have been following "The Big Scottish Independence Debate" here is the explanation in full of the issue of why ex pat British pensioners who live in an Ex -Commonwealth country have never had an uprating nor ever will get one. The pdf for this article is attached. This is the official British Government pamphlet which, as an in-depth exposition of the initial reasons why this issue came about away back in the 1920's, followed by a "no-change policy of the Westminster autocrats since that time, based on their openly-admitted reason for the non-uprating policy being because it would cost too much money, is well-written. It seems to be a simple statement of the facts without political embellishment or attempts to convince the reader of the validity of the British Governments policy which no successive Government of any political stripe has made any real effort to change . Several court challenges have been made by the International consortium of ex-pat pensioners using several good reasons why the current negative policy should be abandoned and a summary of these reasons and the Judges' replies are also annotated within this pamphlet. Each judgement rejected these reasons out of hand, more or less stating unequivocally that Governments have the right to adopt any policy they like if it can be proved to be of benefit to the country under their Governance (or them, in essence). Thus confirming that fairness could never be an issue for their consideration if it conflicted with the reason(s) they give for rejecting the appeal. In the first challenge, the presiding Judge in the high Court in London was one who shared chambers with Cheri Blair who, of course, is the wife of Tony Blair ex Prime MInister of Britain. Does that tell you something? Subsequent appeals to the International Court of Human Rights at the Hague suffered similarly. The last court case was heard before the Court of Human Rights and was rejected by a majority judgement. In the pamphlet, on pages 18 and 19 as I recall, you will note that one of the august judges who wrote the final judgment commented that no value could be attributed to the fact that these pensioners had all contributed National Insurance contributions as much as any other pensioner who subsequently decided to remain in Britain after retirement, because these contributions went into general revenue from which all pensions are paid. Meaning that there could be no direct link to these National Insurance contributions, thus invalidating a claim from us pensioners to equal payments including subsequent upratings. If that isn't one of the most specious and disingenuous arguments against fair treatment for all pensioners, regardless of where they live, then I have yet to hear it. When I paid N.I. contributions we were not informed that if we ever went to live overseas our fate would be to NOT receive the upratings given to every other British Pensioner. Yet, had I refused to pay these contributions, I soon would have suffered vicious Government wrath and penalty impositions against me wouldn't I? In short we, the ex pats, were at that time, like all others, forced by co-ercion to pay these contributions. Accordingly it set me thinking..."why would he use such a stupid argument as that if he did not have a very good reason to reject the appeal but couldn't rationally justify rejection otherwise?" The answer, IMHO, is as clear as crystal: the first Lordship shared the chambers of the wife of the Prime Minister and subsequent rejections lack credibility and fairness. So ...who appoints judges anyway? Answer: Governments!!!!!! And it is to them that these judges and higher officials owe their positions, power, huge salaries and expense accounts and so forth and so on. Therefore you can see what we ex-pat pensioners are up against and we need all fair-minded British Citizens to add their voice to the mounting criticism in Britain against the current Government policy on this matter. If you agree with our sense of injustice please talk to your friends and ask them to contact their M.P. to express their views and urge them to support fair treatment for all pensioners --all 500,000+ of us-- who live in ex-Commonwealth countries. This begs the question : how can we ever win and get justice and Answer"" it does seems asn01457.pdfs if we can only do that in the court of public opinion and not bet attempting to geta fairness from the lega profession n.

Is it possible that we overseas wallahs can see some video somewhere? The BBC won't allow us to see their stuff since we are not in the U K and our UTube seems not to be showing any of our matches this season. After the pre-season videos what has happened? --change of plans in this respect perhaps?

Yes BM, I doubt that Celtic will be amenable to allowing him to go to a superior team than them in the Scottish Premier league. Hoch! Hoch!

You guys should try getting the management of the establishment to import some beer from Canada. Canadian is a favorite, and Ironhorse from just up country here in B.C., is a nice one with body to it.

NaH! He's got his phone...Rigged...so that the message is re-directed to his dog's kennel.

Recently I had the same problem. But fiddles with the plug- in on the computer for the stereo headphones and by slight adjustments of the positioning of this plug- in the stereo came back. I used to have the headphones plugged- in to the back of the computer but now favour the front connection which has two holes-one green for the headphones and the other of the two round holes is for the speakers as I understand it. Cheers SP

Due to a challenge with my eyesight I misread a post above as refugees instead of referees. I.e many a word spoken in jest.......

Celtic boss Ronny Deila on BBC Radio Scotland Posted at 14:41 "In the first half we had three very big chances and they had nothing. The second half was more even and we were too passive. I wanted more intensity in the final 20 minutes but Inverness played well, so congratulations to them." A little bit of sour grapes, perhaps, then the grudging admission which served to explain away the loss...."ICT played well Mr Deila, this result will not happen too many times to your team this season so you could easily have not said the first 14 words and shown your class by giving our team the accolade and left it at that. On the day you failed. Still, your job is on the line already since you are somewhat of a new and unknown quantity at Parkhead and the Celtic hordes won't tolerate too many days out like this I'm afraid.

Before the match started I was in a relaxed kind of state and saw the scoreline in my mind--just as it turned out. I also figured the crowd would be 6,000 or so. Frankly, for a match like this the actual crowd at 5832 was close but still disappointing. What with the change of pace demonstrated by ICT recently, the new tactics proving their worth and honest and straightforward-speaking Manager doing his best to bring good changes to Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, one can only hope tat the current success will be rewarded by greater support. Goodness, as a Caley Thistle fan what more could you ask--who would have thunk it, eh?

Sounds like Celtic had some experienced players out there so no excuse really. At least that's what it seems from afar. What a start to the season for ICT. Go for it John. Vindication is looming and the Naysayers are trying to decide which parts of the humble pie they will have to eat?

Have Caley Bitoff more than they can chew IHE?

I detect a change in your viewpoint, DD, which is encouraging. You are talking about "we" and "us" as if you are a true Scotsman now. It had to happen; the longer you stay in a country or place then the more you grow to love it and identify with it. This is not about Scotland or England per se -- it's about FREEEEDOM! All you need to do now to solidify your position is by voting yes and the loop is completed. Welcome to the club, Doofers Dad. You're the man. YES!

C'monn--you can't blame Willie --all he does is collum the way he sees it.