LongTimeLurker

...think it's a strong indication that you at the very least have a lot of trialists lined up.

Maybe they think they are better off fighting an early election with Jeffrey Donaldson as leader before an Irish language bill gets legislated and the Brexit Protocol gets implemented in full. High risk but if they pound home the danger of SF getting the first minister post maybe they can squeeze TUV back below the quota again everywhere except North Antrim.

Interesting times ahead if that leads to an early election.

Has made some controversial Rangers related youtube appearances over the years.

Prorege on the NLM forum has added this snippet of info about what happened with Westerton United. Post in thread '2021 - Scottish "Pyramid" Developments - Facts NOT Speculation Please' https://nonleaguematters.co.uk/forums/index.php?threads/2021-scottish-pyramid-developments-facts-not-speculation-please.3904/post-97336 They thought they had a ground share agreement. They didn’t.

Back in the 80s in Aberdeen there was a plan for a new bridge over the Don that the Lib Dems were simultaneously supporting and opposing in their local focus leaflets depending which side of the river they were targeted at. You almost have to admire their cynical opportunism.

One of those instances where you need to have experienced just how crazily club officials can behave over something like this to understand the need for that to be stated. Totally understandable rather than unhinged if you have ever been involved with running a league.

The last L1 Gaelic speaker from NI died on Rathlin Island in 1985 so it's more like catering to Cornish language revivalist hobbyists than something that genuinely merits billingualism like Welsh in the northwest of Wales or Gaelic in the Western Isles. SF politicians from NI can usually only utter a few garbled token phrases (Gregory Campbell parodied this with his curry my yoghurt patter) and mainly push it to get it right up the other lot because they know RoI style billingualism becoming a requirement in the labour market is one of Ulster Unionism's biggest fears about UI.

Your last point is probably what keeps Givan in the job IMO. If the new leader moves against him there would probably need to be an election they are clearly not ready for.

The DUP don't mess about once a leader is viewed as a liability. The bizarre part of all of this is that the next leader is probably stuck with Poots's protege as first minister.

Just saving others the effort with the link and relevant quote.

Wonder which of the two BSC Glasgows this guy is aligned with: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-57516928

^^^ https://www.linlithgowgazette.co.uk/sport/football/exclusive-sensational-signing-spree-sees-boness-united-manager-max-christie-snap-up-six-players-from-camelon-juniors-3276430 ..."There are a lot of young boys there coming into an experienced squad and they’ll need to fight their way into the team,” boss Christie told the Journal and Gazette. "They’re of a standard where they’re fit, full of running and athletic types which is what we’re wanting. They’re young, aspirational players looking to prove themselves and hungry for it. "None of them are going to walk into that team but from what we’ve seen we love their attitude and their dynamism and they’re all really committed footballers and wanting to do well. Hopefully we’re providing a platform for them to do that...

Was there not talk of an American investor pumping in money or something along those lines?

Anathema? Think an anti-Boris middle class Remainer protest vote is probably part of the equation given a lot of that northern England red wall focus revolves around working class Leavers and moves the Tories (only an issue in Ayrshire) away from their traditional class politics base onto more of a populist AfD/Trump type territory. This by-election will ultimately be about as meaningful long term as the Orpington by-election was in 1962 (i.e. not very).

There's definitely a reason Unionist has been the preferred terminology in Ulster and to a lesser extent Scotland. The original Tories were pro-Jacobite while Unionism in NI and Scotland tends to be more of a legacy of the Whigs.

In your parallel universe maybe. For years I pointed out factually that the Tay Bridge line of latitude did not actually apply to tier 6 in terms of the rulebooks and had much the same posse of posters doing bizarre intellectual contortions on the subject because they were emotionally invested in the concept that it was in some way crucial. Roll on Monday when that issue should finally be resolved once and for all with the DD postcode area south of the Tay Bridge midpoint feeding into the HL on the way up but not on the way down from the SPFL. Even after the Kelty playoff games SFA officeholders were still trying to strong arm Brechin City into the LL so they clearly never cared about the line of latitude.

^^^at no point in any of my posts were B teams mentioned.

^^^nothing in this contradicts anything I have written.

The Old Firm are clearly not getting their colt teams into the SPFL any time soon. Having them in the LL is a farce where the stated purpose is concerned. Think the only rational solution is for them to set something up in reserve team terms with other larger like-minded full-time clubs (Aberdeen, Hibs, Hearts, etc) of a high enough standard to address their needs.

The rational thing to do is to side with facts rather than personalities. It is normal for Dutch professional clubs to still have an amateur team playing in the lower reaches of the pyramid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFC_Ajax_(amateurs) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SC_Feyenoord The only relatively recent innovation beyond that has been that a limited number of colt teams have been able to be part of the fully professional Eerste Divisie. A big part of the reason that happened was that it was short of its full complement in numbers terms after Veendam and AGOVV folded and most suitable clubs from below didn't actually want to be promoted to fill the vacant league places. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012–13_Eerste_Divisie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013–14_Eerste_Divisie

Here's the google translation of what Dutch language wikipedia has to say about the Excelsior amateur team: In addition to a professional branch, Excelsior also has an amateur branch Sports Club Excelsior. Up to and including the 2012/13 season, the amateurs played on Sundays. Since the 2013/14 season, SC Excelsior has been playing on Saturdays. The current Saturday team plays in the Fourth Division Saturday of the West II district (2020/21). The amateurs play at Sportpark Woudestein, which is located next to the stadium.

^^^ironically his club there, Excelsior Rotterdam, have a second amateur team in the lower reaches of the Dutch pyramid, which is nothing hugely unusual in a Dutch context: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/SBV_Excelsior#Amateurs Part of the problem in the Netherlands is that when they tried to bring in a pyramid a few years back almost none of the top smaller part-time clubs actually wanted to be promoted into the fully professional second tier and the only one that tried to step up, Achilles '29, failed dismally at it and have yet to recover from the experience: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles_'29 Promotion for clubs with first teams in the third tier has now been suspended. That means Jong Ajax & co are arguably needed at the moment to keep the numbers up in the eerste divisie as smaller Dutch second tier clubs have a nasty habit of folding Third Lanark style. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020–21_Eerste_Divisie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweede_Divisie

Bosnian Muslim muezzin turned fanatical Titoist, married ten times with eleven kids and perhaps not surprisingly given that backdrop deported back to the SFRY from the United States for bigamy, the one and only but now sadly deceased Hasim Kucuk: