dougiedanger

18 hours ago, DoofersDad said:

If the deal fails to gain the support of MPs, as seems likely, the question is, what happens next?  Corbyn says there should be a general election after which a labour government would negotiate a better deal. But the reality is that Labour is also hopelessly split on Europe and if Labour stand on a platform of negotiating a better deal to leave the EU, Remain voters will desert Labour for the Lib Dems in their droves.  Even if by some miracle Labour did get elected, Corbyn is not going to get anything better.  The EU 27 have agreed the current deal and they will not be making changes to that.  Leaving without a deal is nigh on impossible because of the Irish Border issue.  

That leaves the option of a "people's vote".  That would probably be a choice between Remaining in the EU or leaving under the terms of May's deal.  Given that choice, I think there would be a  clear vote to remain as some Leavers feel the deal is worse than remaining in the EU.  A realisation of that may result in the hard Brexiteers in Parliament voting for the May deal after all as it is probably either accepting the deal or accepting we probably won't leave after all.  The vote might therefore be closer than some are expecting but I still think the deal will be rejected.

I therefore think the most likely outcome will be that we end up remaining within the EU (but I'm not risking a joker on that prediction).  May has always claimed that she was a Remainer even though any campaigning during the campaign was lukewarm at best.  If remaining in the EU is what she feels is best for the country and that is what we end up getting, history may conclude she played a blinder.

How could anyone with an ounce of sense or judgement conclude that this chaos visited upon the country by the Tory party and a large number of English voters is anything but an unmitigated disaster.

May has 'played a blinder'?? She barely knows what she is doing from one day to the next, and still you have Scottish voters who would rather tie themselves to the sinking 'UK' ship and the Tories who have created this and multiple other disasters over the years.

If nothing else, this shambles has shown Scotland and England are two completely different places, politically and socially.

Let's get the heck off this sinking ship while we can and chart our own course along with other modern, outward-looking social democracies.

31 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

Scarlet, Scotland's population is at a record high level and still growing, there is plenty of coal still under the ground and under the sea, enough to last more than a century if we were to want to continue to ruin the planet, fortunately we don't and choose to generate our electricity by greener means of which we are world leaders, we have the largest and most sustainable wild fish stock in Europe as well as the second most successful farmed fish industry in the word and Scotch whisky sales do not generate millions of pounds of income, they generate multiple billions of pounds.  Scotland is on the cutting edge of developing wave and tidal energy and has an almost perfect coastline to generate and export it. We are world leaders in online and video game technology, have a healthy financial sector, are home to leading biomedical companies and have a very healthy and growing tourist industry which consists of just a little more than skiing in the Cairngorms for six weeks in a year.  That is to name but a few of the advantages and potential advantages at our disposal.

If you think that being governed by a far more populous Southern neighbour with increasingly different values, standards and ambitions to your own  is the way forward then perhaps Canada should give it a try.

ooft, killer final line for Scarlet P, a good if misinformed in this case poster.

Good point, too, about the younger generation, though Laurence sez their 'stock' is low doon sooth, so maybe they will have to stay and build their country into what it might be, instead of going down with that sinking ship down there. 

Keep posting Laurence lad, with every post you strengthen the case for independence.

The irony of that final line from a Brexit Brit.

Gee, this Better Together thing is really working out, just as well we are too stupid to go it alone and put all our faith in our lords and masters, Boris, Jacob, etc.

Fair play to all the No voters, you guys really called this one, caps doffed.

All the best Scotty.

More Roddies than a Stornoway Parahandy tribute night.

43 minutes ago, MorayJaggie said:

He didn't moan about it when the games were at hampden

He was asking for a ballot as the fairest way of deciding who plays where. Instead, there was another random, unexplained decision with no reasoning given. 

Every supporter should be aghast at the calamities regularly inflicted on the game by the authorities.

Rodgers was complaining about the process rather than the decision, the usual lack of transparency by Scottish football authorities. 

On 8/20/2018 at 2:03 PM, givmeaccccc said:

Yeah the old man was one of the first soldiers from Poland to land in Inverness towards the end of WW2. His camp was in Kiltarlity although there were many other Polish camps in the area. You can still see the remains of the camp but I guess there are very few people alive who know exactly where it is.

Dad was groundsman when the likes of Hamish Munro, Alan Pressley, Bobby Noble, Bobby Bolt etc were playing. He was never a footballer as he was fighting in the War from the age of 14 as the Germans invaded Poland. Looking back I can see how conscientious he was given he had no experience at all in maintaining grounds. It was actually a huge responsibility at that time given the wage he would have received, more a labour of love. The same would apply of course to all groundsmen at every club.

Anyway, still would be interested to fill in the gaps for both clubs, these men deserve to have their recognition as they played a major part in  the history of Caledonian and Thistle.

 

 

That's a great story in itself, your dad, the war and having to set up home in another country. It would not have been an easy job maintaining the playing surface at Telford Street as the drainage was not so good and it could get quite boggy. Thistle Park always had the best surface.

It's an interesting angle on football in Sneck, hope you get some more feedback.

Tell us more about yer da mate, sounds like a top notch guy, was he Polish, a footballer himself, where aboot were ye in Caley Road?

52 minutes ago, Stirling Observer said:

One of my favourite players as a kid, some great memories of him. Always thought he was a striker for some reason. Did he move up front towards the end of his career or did I just imagine it? 

He just had a great knack of being in the right place at the right time for scoring opportunities.

Mind the night he came back from Australia, think he came on as sub, drifted in at the back post to nod home the winner.

Guy's a football legend and a cracking person as well, so sorry to hear this. RIP Herchie.

Quite right, Scotchland would be great if it wasn't for the pesky people.

On 7/2/2018 at 12:36 PM, Inverwegian said:

I’m heading through to the Forres game tomorrow and wondered if anyone knows if there’s anywhere close to the pitch for parking

Aye, just by the dugout.

8 hours ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

... and very probably incorrect, too.

https://www.ft.com/content/6ebd5350-3f8f-11e7-9d56-25f963e998b2

http://uk.businessinsider.com/london-and-the-south-east-effectively-provide-subsidies-to-rest-of-britain-2017-5

I haven't been in London very often since I stopped working at the end of 2015, but the London "Evening Standard" newspaper regularly used to bemoan the fact that London was subsiding the rest of the UK.

In fact, given the population, politics, economy and indeed history of London - always powerful enough to hold sway over monarchs and parliaments - there is an interesting case to be made for independence for London.

Let's hear it then.

Devolution is a joke anyway, either you want to take responsibility for your and your family's future or you hand it over to Rees-Mogg, Boris et al.

I don't know the rights and wrongs of the discussions, but CaleyD shows a remarkable level of restraint in the face of constant, unprovoked attacks on his character.

12 minutes ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

In the late 60s and possibly early 70s, I used to go there for piano lessons - as did quite a few of my contemporaries. The nuns were all very friendly and happy people. La Sagesse (the Wisdom) is, I believe, a teaching order.

One of my strongest memories of the place is that there was frequently the most glorious smell of bread or other baking permeating through the building. Someone really knew the art of temptation!

Thanks, I guess there were plenty hot cross buns on the go!

The person I am thinking of also went on mission work to Africa, and I think spent a great part of her life there.

1 hour ago, Charles Bannerman said:

There was  certainly a convent - La Sagesse - in Inverness until a few decades ago. I think it was in what is now the accountants' office on the corner of Southside Road. Next door used to be Hill Park Roman Catholic girls' hostel, until it burned down dramatically in 1959. What's now St Ninian's Catholic Church was then built on that site. There does rtherefore seem to have been a presence of nuns in Inverness for quite some time, although I don't know how many were local.

The Highlands does have the odd fairly strong Catholic enclave. I believe Beauly is one such example, possibly due to the influence of the Chiefs of the Clan Fraser who seem to have retained their Catholicism. I'm not sure if the Fort William area is another stronghold but there are Catholic churches all over the area.

There would therefore appear to be the means and possibly one motivation in the period in question might have been the loss of a boyfriend in WWI? On the other hand, the scenario I've described isn't maybe all that different from more or less anywhere.

Blair makes reference to St Columba who certainly made his presence felt in the North of Scotland in the 6th century, but in the South West of Scotland, St Ninian is believed to have spread Christianity as early as the late 4th/early 5th centuries. Of course, until the Reformation in the 16th century, everyone was a Catholic and the consequences of that split still rumble on. I could therefore guess that, in the staunchly Presbyterian parts of the Highlands, conversion to Catholicism, never mind becoming a nun, would not have been without its controversy!

Thanks for this, didn't know about the convent. Yes, Beauly and Kiltarlity have high proportions of 'indigenous' Catholics, and I think it must be down to the clan chief's choices.

There used to be nuns that ran a playgroup, Ballifeary way I think.

I think the war may well have been a motivation in the case in question: two brothers died. Also, the person was academically gifted, though from a poor family, so career options may have been very limited.

I think it was very controversial!

Does anyone know how common it was for young women in the Highlands to convert to Catholicism and became a nun in the early to mid twentieth century or at any other time?

I know of one such case, but not of how it happened or why. 

Very niche question, I know.

Blair is Dougal, right??

I wonder which way all these reactionary, backward, bring back slavery and illegalize the gays anti-PC avengers voted in the Scottish referendum?