CorrieHarrier

I've been kinda resigned to going down since about February. Poor management decisions, an obvious lack of confidence from the players, lack of leadership on the park, and a complete loss of form from previously top performing players has only served to highlight the reckless board decision with regards the length of Forans contract, given its likely we can't afford to be relegated or pay compo to terminate his contract. From a previously prudent club, I find it an extraordinarily naive bit of business, assuming there isn't some kind of escape clause off course, and if there is, it's an extraordinary show of loyalty to Ritchie Foran that he's still here. 

That said, I've got a sudden strange feeling of optimism now we are going to get off the bottom and give ourselves a sniff of a chance in a playoff. Not because Mo is back, although I'm glad he is. It's because we are Caley Thistle, and if there's one thing we have consistently proven through the years is that we can defy the odds.

I've seen almost nothing this season to merit this optimism, we deserve to go down as things stand, but I also know we still have enough quality individuals here to shi*fest our way into the playoffs if the players stop hiding, feeling sorry for themselves and give us some performances that are long overdue. 

We will beat County. Dundee are going to drop more points and give us a six pointer against them that we are going to win. Sitting here bitching about our demise before it's sealed is pointless. I'll be getting behind the team for the remainder. We may have had a nightmare of a season, but it can still end on a high, and then action be taken to improve for next season. 

I'm in Bologna. Going to Venice>Slovenia>Hungary>Romania. If heat is like it is here in Italy then it'll be hard going. Likely need all subs early on. it's above average temperatures, proper roasting. 

I really hope we go for it and get it right up them. We can do it, early goal and attack them all over the park. I shall be getting steaming afterwards then lots of trains back to Bologna :) 

Mixed emotions for me. I'm ecstatic that we've qualified and want to go, but if we win the cup I'll be in India and miss the second qualifiers :( . Better qualify for 3rd round!

Brilliant news and justice served. Delighted for the boy. Its a real shame this has overshadowed the best result, imo, in the clubs history.

I've lost a lot of respect for Celtic and what little I had left for the SFA. If anything good comes of this, it'll be P45s for those clowns that continually make a hash of the running of the game in this country.

Let's get back to celebrating the deserved victory and enjoy the run in to the end of an amazing season.

Just got back this morning after an impromptu session in Glasgow yesterday :D

Superb day,unbelievable performance from the whole team, rough as a badger today but have basically just spent the day watching the goals on a loop. RAVEN!

The Lib Dems and the Liberal Party before them, are adept at defending seats where they are incumbent and I strongly suspect that,while they will suffer losses, they will return to Westminster with more seats UK wide than the SNP.

Aye, despite the polling that's my gut feeling on it too.

Latest Guardian projection has labour and SNP, 326, able to win a confidence vote, possibly requiring another party for majority.

Tories and Con Dems, 298 unable to form government, even with UKIPs, 302.

Labour, SNP, Con Dems would obtain a solid majority. 355.

All the projections out there are pretty ropey though to be honest. Gonna be quite exciting on the day.

I agree it is going to be very interesting. UK Polls over the last couple of days seem to showTories and Lib dems improving with UKIP losing ground. The position of the Lib Dems will be crucial because they are the only party which would give support either to the Tories or to Labour. They could easily be the king makers here and may well be in a position to wring some significant concessions out of the others. Electoral reform would be good but at the very least they will help to squash the more extreme policies of both left and right. I think that message will be atractive to the electorate at large and I think they will end up with a pretty decent vote at the end of the day.

Yes, they could well still be of influence. We'll need to see how the numbers stack up, but it's seems to me they're on a bit of a damage limitation excercise with their well documented tuition fee "pledge" and general impact of being in bed with the Tories for the last 5 years.

They could conceivably lose their 3 rd party status to the SNP also, and with it the priveldges that brings in committees, PMQs etc. I think theyll certainly be down in seats but with a disaffection for all the big parties, it might not be as bad as suggested.

Latest Guardian projection has labour and SNP, 326, able to win a confidence vote, possibly requiring another party for majority.

Tories and Con Dems, 298 unable to form government, even with UKIPs, 302.

Labour, SNP, Con Dems would obtain a solid majority. 355.

All the projections out there are pretty ropey though to be honest. Gonna be quite exciting on the day.

Branch manager gets slapped down by head office....

The sad part is that he was exposed by his own party rather than our media.

As tremendous as the TNS poll looks, it's pretty old data but entertaining nonetheless.

With Labour holding huge majorities in a lot of seats it needs a massive swing for the SNP to win, and while polls have them mopping up just now, even a very slight Labour recovery could see them turn obliteration into just a massacre. Milliband won't get close to a majority, IMO, regardless of how they perform in Scotland anyway.

However, even better than the polls, news today that hot on the heels of being stomped on by Ed Balls, Jim Murphy's shameless, flat out lies have been exposed again by his own Uk Labour masters. "We won't make cuts in Scotland" said Jim, repeatedly in the debates, and as recently as yesterday. Really Jim?

Chukka Umunna delivered the biggest slap down to date for Murphy in confirming the cuts as Labour appear to be conceding defeat in Scotland. ... "The leader of Scottish Labour will not be in charge of the UK budget"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=8-OUxLmxNi0

What the London based unionist parties are offering is three similar shades of Sh**e.

Yup... I know.... the choice between Labour, Tory and Libdems is a bit like choosing between Measles, Mumps and Chicken Pox.

 

But none of them is quite in the same league as getting the (Yellow and) Black Death.

Er, ok. Thanks for your input.

Achtung! I actually find it hilarious listening to to the British nationalists continually bleating about the referendum, which they won FFS, and how it's all the SNP are interested in.

It goes some way in explaining the mentality of UK Labours northern branch and the contempt to which many in Scotland now hold for them. When Scotland was promised change, told we were valued in the UK, and voted to remain in this "family of nations", was it somewhere in the small print that we weren't then allowed to vote SNP?

In a democracy, are campaigners and political parties required to abandon their views, stop making their case and go away?

In the face of a barrage of UK propaganda and almost complete media opposition, 9 out of every 20 people in Scotland voted Yes, many in the hope of charting a different path to the one offered by centuries of London rule. The simple fact of the matter is that the issue of Independence will never be "put to bed" as the British nationalists would wish. Scotland is moving forward, democracy will be heard, and if the UK fails us it will likely be what leads us to the next referendum, through a majority voting for it at Holyrood. The SNP, or any unionist party, have no right whatsoever to rule out any referendum, for any period of time, except the term they may be elected to at Holyrood.

That said, I haven't seen many Yes supporters advocating another referendum soon, nor does the SNP. If it's even going in their 2016 Scottish election manifesto is itself debatable just now. They will off course always seek to bring new powers to Holyrood. But all this only suits the Labour GE15 rhetoric.

The fact is, for the general election, Labour and the Tories have ruled out full fiscal autonomy for Scotland. So why the hell are they still talking about it?... Because they are crapping it at the thought of Scotland actually having a voice in Westminster. As irony meters explode, some are even calling this undemocratic. And still these same people scratch their heads as to why we'd vote SNP.

What the London based unionist parties are offering is three similar shades of Sh**e. More austerity, more cuts, a decrease to the Scottish block grant and a further squeeze on public services and pressure on those that can least afford it. But still, 100 billion is spunked on renewing trident. 50 billion on HS2. Big business dodge tax while the benefits of the poor and disabled are targeted. The piece de resistance for me, paedophile sex offenders are protected by the official secrets act. I'll give as much of that a miss as I can if you don't mind.

The SNP, Greens and Plaid are offering the option for to push an alternative, progressive path with the influence that a strong voice in Westminster will give in a hung parliament. And Westminster needs that voice to ensure Scotland gets all that was promised to it and protection from the rest.

Thanks for your response, PullMyFinger. You better watch what you say, or you might get Bann(erman)ed from the thread!

Bann ermaned from the thread? Missed that, was this a troll or one of the really bitter together bunch maybe?

This is an argument that is often rolled out and one which on the face of it sounds convincing. I certainly don't know what countries these all are but I do know that many of these countries were previously under the subjugation of a larger power in a way in which even the most ardent of nationalists could never honestly argue that Scotland is. The countries of the former Soviet bloc spring to mind, for example.

Yes it might initially sound convincing but in reality it is completely and utterly irrelevant when you look at the circumstances. I think pretty much all of the countires in question had been forced into a union within living memory of its citizens.

[b

Escaping communism for example though, doesn't feel to me as a Scottish citizen, any more or less valid a reason for independence than me wishing to have a country with its own government, in charge of all it's revenue and resources rather than ruled by a government on the banks of the Thames.

I think if you are going to highlight the numbers of citizens leaving some of these countries to come here, it would be fair to say also that much of this is down to the accession of countries to the E.U. and that the migration of people has been to many other countries that are themselves independent. The U.K. Is ranked only 3rd or 4th in Europe I think in terms of volume of migrants taken in. It would be fair to say large numbers of Scots have left the U.K. also and indeed that with this recession the U.K. is in, many Poles, Hungarians etc are going home now with more opportunities there for them.

You're right though, it's important to compare like with like and on the face of it we'd be better looking at the list of countries that have become independent of the U.K. over the years. I won't bother linking a list as its as long as both arms but obviously includes the likes of Austrailia, Ireland, India and many African nations. I did have a chuckle whilst reading an article on India's independence that criticised the British government for "leaving Indians poorer, exhorting high taxation in cash from an inpecunious people, draining Indian revenues to pay for bureaucracy and sterling debt, and not ensuring the gains from capital investment were reinvested in the Indian economy but rather to London". During the Indian independence movement the U.K. also used a tactic of trying to pacify India with some devolved powers. Certainly sounded familiar somehow.

The problem with comparing other nations in terms of economic and cultural benefits though is the differences in population, infrastructure and resources are huge. Many of these countries, even ones that are flourishing, have come from a position way behind ours. Scotland has one of the best set of accounts of any developed nation which gives a great foundation. Scotland also owns 90% of UK oil, 50% of UK gas, 25 % of the renewables of the entire EU, 60% of UK fisheries, 60% of UK forests, 85 % of Hydro capability and whisky makes up 23% of all UK food and drink exports. And, all for 8.6% of the UK population! It's not rocket science and its no leap of faith for me whatsoever to believe we can flourish in a way similar sized nations with relative resourses like Norway have. This together with our famous ingenuity leads me to ask, why are we not doing better? Why are 1 in 4 Scots children living in poverty? Why do we live in a country with such an inequality in health and such a gap between rich and poor?

All the facts in the debate point to the chance to build a better country and it speaks volumes that there is no positive case for the union to be seen or heard from the Better Together campaign, but they're good at telling us what we can't do and publicising ludicrous scare stories.

I'd like to see some sort of tie in between season tickets and the centenary club draw, maybe with an option to increase price for a decent sized win. People like a flutter, a pre season competition open to season ticket holders whereby you predict our scores for each game of the season, with a supporters league table in the match day program and prizes at the end of the season would also be popular IMO.

This is a blow, he's been great this season. Hopefully he'll make a swift return and some solace for me is I thought Devine looks pretty decent so we can shuffle things.

Peculiar rant for a first post! Would be able to take it more seriously if you could actually spell the one word pertinent to your thread. IndependEnt, IndependEnce! Don't mean to be picky but it totally detracts from the content of your post, especially as a first poster - it's like you don't know what you're talking about- A troll, no doubt! "You had one job..."!!

Apologies if the spelling irritated you, my dyslexia can get the better of me at times and my screen can resemble a fruit machine with spell check, but it doesn't mean I'm daft or understand what I talking about.oh and not trolling either, I don't see how that's possible from that argument really.

A very minor spelling lapse does not detract from the validity of the points made by the poster athlough I would be interested to know his or her views on the under utilisation of Connor Pepper

Thanks, I think pepper has done well enough with the little time he's had to merit being used more often as a sub at least but I wouldn't start him ahead of Mackay or Doran as I think the team almost picks itself.

Cretinous hypocrisy from Westminster and the other unionists today. On the one hand, in UK contexts, they're describing an oil boom, reserves of £1.5 trillion. Record investment. Record jobs. 2 million barrels a day by 2017. On the other hand, if Scotland were independant, this pesky oil is bad for Scotland, how could we cope, uncertainty, too wee, poor etc.

Oil and gas provides one 5th of all of the exchequers income, yet it's somehow a disaster for us! You couldn't make it up.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/oil-and-gas-strategy-will-promote-billions-worth-of-new-investment

The BBC are reporting new oil boom in North Sea. Funny ... could have sworn they were reporting accusations John Swinney made that up a few days ago.

Yes it's 1979 again, lots of jam tomorrow will be promised by unionist parties in the form of promises of further powers. Except, we're not allowed to know when, what flavour and how much, and they won't discuss it until after we vote no and let them carry on shafting us.

When people decide what to vote, I hope they make an informed choice rather than one the media and Westminster tells them is right. We're being lied to on a daily basis by pretty much the whole of main stream media. I hope people can research the facts and make a decision on them, rather than fear stories.

It shouldn't be about party politics or personalities either. Those are for general elections and there will be new options on who we elect in an independant Scotland. Its about choosing what sort of country we want to live in. The main thing for me is we'll be electing a democratic government that Scotland chooses, not England, Wales and N Ireland and it will have the powers and resources to act in our best interest, not impose the austerity cuts, bedroom tax, poll tax, relocation and savage cuts to our defence force, waste billions on Trident, kill our shipyards and industry... It's a long long line of betrayal and failure. Scottish MPs voted against the illegal Iraq war, against benefit cuts, against the bedroom tax- Westminster imposed them.

There's been 34 or more countries become independant since 1990, many smaller than Scotland and with less resources. None looking back and many of them thriving.

I've grown up with this Independance issue dominating politics and i find it pretty tedious actually. We should have been independant in 79 but for a rigged referendum and the burying of the Mccrone report. Lets just get on with it FFS! This country has all it takes to be better.