vikingTON

Also mentioned in another Westminster-based analysis: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/25/humza-yousaf-forgot-the-rule-leaders-who-want-to-look-tough-look-stupid It would be quite fitting if the Greens contrived to get themselves emptied from government over this.

Degrowth does nothing to explain how the lights will be kept on or the heating used in a still actually baltic country, never mind the unstoppable and rightful desire of billions of people to improve their standard of living above their current God-awful level. It also does nothing to address issues of how food is grown to make agriculture more productive and genuinely sustainable. Any Green political party that still outright rejects nuclear power and GM crops in favour of dung for dinner and here's a bottle tax alternatives does not represent a serious solution to their cause but are rather just 'back to nature' fruit loops. With the Malthusian consequences that would have for 8 billion people on the planet baked in to that perspective.

Alba are pretty much the mirror image of the Greens in terms of flailing around on opposite sides of utterly tedious culture wars and identity politics, so it seems like an easy W for them to keep Slater and the other fruit loops defeated and stewing on the side lines. Not least because further opening a schism between the SNP and Greens opens up significant opportunities for Alba* or any other pro-independence party on the second vote next time round. * It probably won't actually be Alba who exploit because they're incompetent, but that's not going to be their attitude right now.

Presumably the tears and snotters all over Lorna's original work prevented the utter word salad in that third paragraph from being spotted and professionally redrafted. Student union level diddies.

Party activists under most circumstances - when polled - will support the policy that puts their party in power, or has been signed off by its leadership. That's a vote of confidence in their own party. That doesn't make the actual content or idea of the Bute House popular - I doubt anybody will have wean names or tattoos they need to change now it has come to an end. Your previous point overlooks the reality that Harvie/Slater put their neck on the line to defend their cushy ministerial posts and are the undoubted, massive losers of the week's events. That they are blowing smoke is only to be expected to appease their own base of activists. Any government that relies on the support of proven clowns like Slater and Greer deserves blown up.

Massive, raging wee guy energy emanating from the fruit loop vegans here. Not the best idea for your membership to announce its intent to sink the government - when the actual party in charge can just empty you first. Thanks for playing anyway.

https://news.stv.tv/west-central/train-line-to-remain-closed-after-a-massive-sink-hole-appeared-under-the-tracks Passengers forced to change service at Airdrie will be forgiven for thinking that they've already entered the bottomless abyss.

Nobody's keen on playing 4 times a season - it's just an established function of the league system for 30 years now. It isn't a major concern either way outside of the next reconstruction proposal being put forward and going nowhere. There's really no evidence to support the second part of that post. It's not as if the Highland or Lowland Leagues are hotbeds of tactical innovation and youth development because they have a larger league structure. I'm in favour of larger leagues in principle, but the idea that they'll have a significant effect on the quality of football is overstated. No it hasn't, you've set up a straw man argument here.

Perhaps you should try harder and your 'contributions' wouldn't be so utterly irrelevant.

An open but poor quality game between two teams visibly low on confidence after recent form. Arbroath had some concerted spells of pressure to score though I think we probably had more chances in total across both halves. The difference early in the second half was caused by improved decision-making to exploit openings that were present throughout. Precious little for either team to take from that going forward. We just need to consolidate our position and take a ruthless approach to the squad going forward. Other than Quitongo, none of the many players whose jacket should be on a shoogly peg made a case today.

Every team that finishes top of their league should have the opportunity to achieve promotion if they meet the required standards to progress. That's a functioning pyramid structure and already have that in place. There's absolutely no reason why automatic promotion should be granted for winning a league. It doesn't actually strengthen the quality of the levels above if the 'best' from a regional tier comes up every other season and stinks the place out reliably. You're appealing to 'common sense' because there's no other reason to justify your personal preference; having already abandoned the claim that a 'bottleneck' exists in the current structure.

The obsession with 'holding the keys to Bute House' is part of the problem. There's no point being in government when you have pretty much no drive left to deliver serious reforms and the ministerial talent pool resembles three tadpoles in a shrivelling puddle. All parties of government require renewal on the sidelines eventually. Fruit loop Greens letting Scottish Labour in to run a minority administration - while ending Yousaf's leadership - would be the best possible way for the SNP to reinvigorate itself and draw a line under the past few years.

I have no time for West Ham as a club and their nauseating fan base, but this is the wrong take. They want rid of Moyes because their club has collected a large number of quality attackers over the past two seasons, but his tactics inevitably revert to 'shitfest from set pieces and hoof it to the big man, wee man partnership' of Antonio/Bowen. When you do have players like Kudus, Paqueta capable of picking teams apart and others not getting a look in (Cornet was signed for fairly big money and has made 20 appearances in 3 seasons), then it's fair to conclude that Moyes is not getting the best out of their particular squad.

Why would they have to do this to address your weirdo conspiracy theory? Did you attend that play-off? What part of that contest supports your theory?

Abbey Vale are 4th this season with no chance of promotion. A completely competent team at their existing level - not one that has reached a 'bottleneck' from progressing at all. They've haven't lost out on shipping 200 goals in a single Lowland League season, just because a handful of pyramid anoraks insist that All Champions Must Be Promoted.

As opposed to filling it with games against rancid B team outfits which you were all over instead.

The reward for winning a league title is the trophy and status of champions. They are not being denied that by having to demonstrate their worth to move from a local tier to a regional tier of competition, and in turn from a regional to a national tier. It's bizarre that Scottish football has developed this fixation about 'ventilation' and harrumphing about play-offs, when the end result is that the best equipped teams play at their appropriate level and those that aren't equipped do not get caught miles out of their depth by a promotion that isn't appropriate. The only issue I'd raise is that licensing should have been made compulsory and the terms tightened much, much sooner - to stop the likes of Cove and Edinburgh City pushing well above the tier that their overall club structure reflected. That would have rewarded more sustainable development by clubs from the traditional non-league, even if the replacement rate is smaller.

The system is therefore not a bottleneck for the reasons already set out. Which EoS or SoS team are ever likely to be banging their heads endlessly against a glass ceiling from this stage onwards? I'm not seeing any at all - particularly with more clubs likely to enter both leagues from above in the near future. And once the West region finally catches up in terms of licensing, the handful of clubs similar to Bonnyrigg, Linlithgow etc. will progress upwards at a pace determined by merit. The idea that there will be three crack outfits battering down the door to the LL each season if only for the cruel and unfair play-off is a fantasy.

No it isn't, because literally none of the clubs taking part have been denied promotion on a regular basis. What sort of bottleneck allows Bonnyrigg, Bo'ness, Tranent and Linlithgow all to sail through to a higher level without a problem? Have St Cuthbert's Wanderers been cruelly denied their right to err, stinking the place out and conceding 200 goals in one season at a higher level?

None of these points are relevant to your claim that there's a bottleneck in the current system preventing clubs from progressing on merit through the (LL path) pyramid. There categorically isn't a bottleneck affecting EoS teams from progressing. There categorically isn't one affecting the SoS either. So rather than being a 'pyramid' problem, it is in fact a minor issue for one particular, recently-formed league. And one that wouldn't actually be solved by your clamouring for automatic promotion for all league champions anyway.

What eligible and qualifying clubs - under the existing rules - are being held back? There's no demonstrable 'bottleneck' in the EoS. Every obvious candidate to move up has easily done so already; with plenty of less obvious candidates now with a chance of doing so as well in the near future. There's no demonstrable 'bottleneck' in the SoS. Dalbeattie were flushed out of the LL on merit and have been down for one season only. And with the best will in the world to these clubs, previous candidates like St Cuthbert's/Creetown are not exactly being cruelly denied their obvious place competing at a much higher level. Which leaves us with the West of Scotland. A league that has failed to produced a licensed winner to compete in most years; and when it did, its entrant fared as well as English clubs did in the Champions' League this season (hubris -> bottle-job -> dismal exit). It's really not an issue for the pyramid structure as a whole then: it's a WoS issue only. That might well change in the future but at the moment there is no such bottleneck.

Hopefully someone can provide a word by word transcription service and post it on here.

This degree of utter delusion (see also our centre back partnership above) is why we can't actually have nice things. Even when all available evidence from recent weeks points to the need for an utterly ruthless purge of deadwood, you never disappoint in puffing up gubbins squad filler.

O'Connor and Baird are quite clearly not 'one of the best partnerships in the league', which is why the former has spent the entire season struggling to win his spot over Kirk Broadfoot (87). With only the possible exception of Airdrie, none of the top half teams right now would be falling over themselves to break up such a momentous 'partnership'. I'd offer O'Connor a new deal but only if we can sign serious competition for centre back, with Darragh going into next season as our centre/right back cover option. He needs to earn a starting spot instead of dining out on a decent first season - reminiscent of Baird in his first spell at the club who was also overrated by the fanbase when his overall performance level was too inconsistent to make a genuinely effective defender.

The onus is on those claiming that a break clause is widespread in lower league Scottish manager contracts to back it up with evidence. The barrage of entirely logical arguments against discredit that claim until evidence is produced. That's how fact-based analysis works: I can understand why you might be having difficulties with that.