DoofersDad

Despite losing to Celtic and today's draw, we are still 5th in the recent form league. Midden are bottom and could easily get sucked into the relegation dog fight.

1-1 full time. Disappointing but a better result for us than the pars as far as relegation goes but we need to do better if we want to aspire to top six. Agree re Winnall. Why is here here if he doesn't get on the park.

C'mon Caley. Let's get the winner.

Sounds as though Dunfermline have had several chances to extend their lead. Terry making changes but Proctor stays on.

My day goes from bad to worse.

Yes, there was no sign of the road having been treated but the gritting lorries passed about 4 times whilst I was there and the road was soon in a good condition. Should say, the boys in blue were brilliant.

Munro for County :tears:

I should have been inside East End Park at the moment but I am sitting at home and my car is in Kingussie. For those who travelled down this morning and saw a small grey Citroen crashed into the embankment just south of the Tomatin bridge, well, that was me! Fortunately only my pride is hurt. A really nasty bit of black ice did for me and I slid gently off the road powerless to do anything about it. The police were already attending an incident further up the hill on the North bound carriageway and an officer came down to check on me. Whilst he was talking to me a people carrier hit the same spot as me and nearly turned over before ending up straddling the central reservation. That vehicle was brought to a sudden halt and a young child appeared to have been quite badly hurt and the ambulance was at the scene for quite a prolonged time. I sincerely hope it is nothing too bad. So 3 separate accidents within half a mile of each other and within half an hour. Just goes to show how isolated dangerous conditions can be. It'll have to be the supporters' bus next time for me. C'mon Caley

In the eyes of the law you are innocent until proven guilty. But he has not been proven innocent, the prosecution simply failed to prove he was guilty. He is therefore innocent. But that does not mean he didn't do what he was alleged to have done, and in saying that, that in turn does not mean I have any opinion on whether or not he did actually do what it was alleged he did. If this sounds as though this is all a bit of a grey area, I would say, no, it is a clear case of Black and white.

I don't suppose too many folk will be interested in this subject to be honest. I have always been opposed to nuclear power but I do get rather irritated by some of the hysterical over-reaction to some of the radiation risks. Undoubtedly some people have been harmed and some have died as a result of releases fron nuclear power stations but this will be significantly fewer than have died as a result of radiation released from burning coal and hugely fewer than have died as a result of other pollution caused by burning fossil fuels. The focus on radiation risks mean the really scary stuff gets ignored. My objection to nuclear power is that if it was to become the standard source of power generation in the world there would be pressure on reserves of uranium. The limitations on uranium reserves is the reason given for exploring breeder reactor technology which was what was happening at Dounreay. Without getting technical, breeder reactors convert an inert form of uranium into plutonium which can then be split in a reactor to create energy. And because there is far more of the inert form of uranium than the fissile form, the breeder technology would allow the world's reserves to last some 50 times longer. The problem is that in order to extract the plutonium and convert it into usable fuel, it is necessary to extract it into a relatively pure form which would allow it to be used for nuclear weapons just as easily as for new fuel. Indeed, the French, (being far more honest than the British) have been quite open that they moved into breeder technology for military reasons). Once you have the raw plutonium it is a relatively simple task to make a viable nuclear bomb. The difficulty in obtaining nuclear weapons is obtaining the plutonium in the first place. Relying on nuclear power in the future therefore would mean that large quantities of the raw material for nuclear weapons would be available for any country which possessed the full fuel cycle and would become a common item of commerce. Not only would that present a security risk between nations but the chance of this material getting into the hands of terrorsits would hugely increase. This is seriously scary and I feel it is a risk too far.

I think or hope we are all saying much the same thing. If keeping the business going is the best way for HMRC to recover any tax due then they should support that. What they should not do is accept a lower settlement just to keep the company in business should it ever come down to that.

That's a good point but I don't think the situation really is comparable. For a start, Leeds never quite went under even if they were seriously weakened. If the same fate befell Rangers (i.e. surviving but dropping down a couple of divisions) my guess is they would bounce straight back up. Leeds were one of the top clubs in Europe under Revie but have never been one of the truly big clubs. Their history and fan base is not like Rangers. They are a club that enjoyed short lived success at the highest level and in that sense are a bit like Nottingham Forrest who enjoyed even greater success than Leeds and then fell away when that could not be maintained. Leeds have recovered and are where they are now because they have reached their natural order of things and over the next 20 years or so they will probably be in and out of the Premier Division from time to time. They are not where they are because the financial crisis they faced is holding them back. Rangers are a bigger club in a weaker league and will bounce straight back to the top two in the premier division on no time if demoted.

Maybe he's a secret Tink.

Of course no-one wants to see folk lose their jobs if they are not personally responsible for the mess at Ibrox, but the Goverment's and HMRC's prime responsibility must be to the taxpayer. It would seem a bit strange not to persue recovery of taxpayers money in order to save a handful of jobs of people who chose to work for a dodgy enterprise, whilst at the same time the Government is maklng hardworking public sector workers redundant because of public spending cuts. These cuts are made a little severer than they should be because Rangers haven't paid their taxes. It is Rangers football club that has a responsibility for these people and not the Government and its agencies. If HMRC is successful in recovering the money owed then the Government will be able to employ far more people in the public sector than were ever employed by Rangers. Talking of jobs, I understand Ally McCoist has been offered a job with Sky. Apparently he starts his satelite dish installation course on Monday.

Happy to keep discussion of wider points to another thread. If this goes ahead I'll be happy to use the area in the corner to stand on occaisions when it is dry. I don't get to very many games due to other commitments. I hope I will be in a position to attend more regularly in a couple of years time but I'm afraid the wish to remain dry will take precedence over my wish to stand. Hopefully there will be more youngsters like Luke who will revel in the atmosphere a standing area can create and this will in turn encourage others to share in that experience. I wish you every success in this project.

Very disappointed with Alex Salmond today courting the votes of the Unionists. He said that the most important thing here was the survival of Rangers football club. Wrong Alex! The most important thing is that the tax payer gets as much money possible out of the criminals who run that business.Whether or not Rangers' survival is good or bad for Scottish football is not the issue here. Those running the club, past and present have been deliberately withholding money from the taxpayer - money which could be used for a whole raft of essential public services which are being squeezed at the moment. Carer support for the elderly, books for school kids, repairing crumbling roads, investing in the NHS - you name a worthy use of public spending and Rangers football club is stopping it happening. It is extraordinary that there is a mindset in this country that almost accepts failure to pay tax as a bit of bad luck and those who fail to pay can negotiate with the authorities to agree to pay back whatever minimal amount of their debt they can get away with. They then start again buying into a debt free company owned by their mates who bought the assets at knockdown prices. They then find new ways in which to spend money they haven't got and steal more from the taxpayer. Every asset of the club should be sold and those responsible for the theft should have their personal assets including money hidden in other companies identified to pay back as much of the debt as possible. They should be allowed nowhere near a football club again.

Oddquine, people often raise points here which ask for a response which never comes. I guess I phrased it hoping to spark a resonse - and boy did you give one! Good to see Don's positive post on this as well. No offence intended and certainly not to the youngsters who are clearly finding things so tough this year and whose interests we are all concerned for. Great to see your passion - may you never lose it.

I see there is now a severe weather warning for snow in the north on Saturday. I hope this does not affect travel arrangements but we'll need to see how that pans out. I intend driving down.

I don't think this is the answer for 2 reasons. Firstly, it is not where people want to be. Folk prefer a more central position and don't want to be away in a corner where you don't get quite the same overview of the game. Secondly, your "hardcore" argument is correct only up to a point. Those who like standing may be a little more "hardcore" but they aint stupid. I am all in favour of standing but give me a choice of sitting in the dry or standing in the rain and I'm afraid my bum will be on the plastic. So whilst applauding your intiative and effort in this, I personally don't think there will be enough hardy souls to make this work. I hope I can be proved wrong. To me, the frustrating thing is that there should be no need to consider these elaborate arrangements. The tragedies which led to all seater stadia occurred in huge grounds with poor crowd control. Proper crowd control and far greater number of barrier rails on the terracing would prevent disasters even in the bigger grounds. The answer is for the authorities to wake up, do a proper risk assessment and accept that the real reason for the loss of life in the past was not terracing per se - but I can't see that happening anytime soon. Is the other option not simply to have some sections of the existing seating where you are allowed to stand and others where you are required to sit. People would have a simple choice and we would all pay the same and no extra cost or work would be involved.

I take it that Rangers would be due a share of the overall gate receipts for the match? Presumably we would withhold that to partly offset their debts to us.

I do care if we go 3 years without a penalty. It means the cheating b****rds on the other side are getting away with holding and shirt pulling in the box.

I seem to have raised your hackles somewhat Oddquine but don't have a go at those who are asking perfectly reasonable questions and expressing concern at the current position of the under 19 squad. We are on the same side here and want youngsters associated with the club to have the opportunity to develop and do well. What I mean by being outclassed is that as far as I am aware they are 9 points adrift at the bottom of the SPL U-19 league with 2 points from 14 games with a goal difference of minus 37. This is not good. It can't all be attributed to poor refereeing decisions and bad luck and it must be dis-spiriting for the youngsters. It is also significantly worse than in previous seasons. I agree that it is unfortunate that the club does not give more coverage to the youth teams but there is presumably absolutely nothing to stop anyone associated with the youth set up putting the occasional post on here to keep people informed. Those giving of their time may feel they get no support but it is difficult for people to give support if they don't know what is going on. As for the reasons for the disappointing league position, Luke and yourself have given a number of explanations, some of which are more compelling than others but which on balance make it reasonable to assume that this year was never going to be a good year but that next year should be better. It is important for the club that the youngsters are given every opportunity to develop so please excuse some of us for actually taking an interest in what's going on.

Very poor crowd but I don't suppose there were many in the away support, Chic and Terry and a handful of others.

Should've asked them for our share of ticket sales 3 years in advance.

Don't really care who plays, it's how they play that bothers me. Too often Terry has picked the side that many of the fans would have gone with and they just haven't turned up. Changes are forced and suddenly everyone is up for it. If the lads can't get up for this one then they will need to keep away from Terry after the game. We should be OK whoever Terry picks - as long as Barrowman isn't playing