LongTimeLurker

The vaccines being rolled out have been actively tested in the UK, Brazil and South Africa where variants are dominant. Evidence is already readily available that confirms that the vaccines are still effective where severe infection are concerned. The number of hospitalisations would not be dropping like a stone in places like the UK and Israel otherwise. The significant differences observed on efficacy so far have primarily been on mild and asymptomatic infections.

Unless the constitutional changes relate to fixed geographical boundaries that sounds quite promising for the West Lothian seven if none of the existing clubs raised their possible entry as a pressing issue to sort out ASAP.

Definitely didn't:

He used to joke about being an Accies fan because Ian St John was from Motherwell so not all bad even if some of the Scottish goalie patter grated a bit at times. Barnet became my favourite English club after he compared the Accies to them on Saint & Greavsie.

Should maybe double check but pretty sure it was the Ian St John money that helped pay for Motherwell's main stand. Before my time but I do remember that "Ancell's babes" were still talked about a lot where Motherwell concerned in the 70s and Ian St John was very much viewed as a legendary figure in a Motherwell context when he became their manager. Sad to see him go. Greatly preferred the Saint & Greavsie approach to covering football to what followed. https://footballpink.net/2019-1-30-ancells-babes-steelmen-sinners-and-the-saint/

The SFA's posture in PWG meetings was 4 feeders to the LL (west region, SoS, EoS and east region) with 16 clubs each covered on discipline by the SFA at tier 6 with the leagues doing the discipline themselves for the lower tiers. Hence why their preferred WoS tier 6 format for 2020/21 would essentially be the west superleague plus Bonnyton with WoS clubs perhaps not coincidentally being able to retain their SJFA membership rather than a repeat of the EoS conference format scenario.

PGB is tier 5 and above.

Old and sick people die all the time. COVID-19 was not taking out vast numbers of young and healthy people like H1N1 influenza did in 1918, so what we have experienced is nothing particularly drastic as pandemics go and we now have vaccines available that are pretty much ending it as a serious health problem. Please try to get your hysteria under control

Meanwhile hospitalisation rates are dropping like a stone in the UK due to vaccination despite having one of these variants being prevalent, and South Africa is easing restrictions after cases dropped rapidly there despite having one of the new variants prevalent and having very little vaccination completed: Viruses mutate. That's pretty much a given. There is nothing so far that suggests the trajectory we are on will be derailed by that. Bear in mind that the UK, South Africa and Brazil have been used frequently in vaccine trials, so the vaccines currently in use are already known to be effective against these variants where severe symptoms are concerned. The drops in efficacy that have been reported have related primarily to mild or asymptomatic cases.

...that in turn gave Macron an excuse to close down ferry traffic just as brinksmanship over the Brexit deal was at its most critical phase. Spectacular own goal by Boris.

...but that means diddlysquat in terms of how you could possibly model a similar trend for hospitalisations in Scotland in March when you know there is going to be vaccination of all the high risk groups and a stricter lockdown than what the Czechs have been doing. It's been no secret for months now that nobody who received the AZ vaccine in trials wound up with symptoms severe enough to go to hospital. All the variants do so far is limit efficacy against mild infection.

There are no boundaries right now at tier 6 so fixating over boundaries is a wee bit futile until we hear whether the general consensus amongst WoS and EoS clubs is to tell WL or Dundee/Angus clubs to definitively GTF or come on in and join the party. All should be clearer than it is now in the not too distant future. Where Harthill Royal are concerned they took over Polkemmet Colliery's old ground. That club would probably have preferred the east region setup as the colliery was in West Lothian close to Whitburn and would have been mainly Whitburn in workforce terms: https://canmore.org.uk/site/132674/polkemmet-colliery Harthill Royal were originally called Harthill Royal Bar. The pub in question appears to be on the other side of the county boundary, which was usually the deciding factor in SJFA terms but not as all important at least for now anyway in a senior grade context: https://restaurantguru.com/The-Royal-Bar-Harthill-2

How on earth did they come up with a scenario where it would start going up in March?

Rationally hopefully.

It would have if newly entering EoS and WoS clubs had been slow to get licensed and entry level had been made a membership requirment for an LL2, but if most of the clubs in the WoS premier get licensed as quickly as those in the EoS premier did there's not much chance it would now. That may explain why we have heard very little about the LL2 scenario recently.

When I floated that angle past parkcircus a few days back he soon responded that most of the 14 expressions of interest (?) were not from WL and any new division was likely to be very much west in content.

Get a grip. All that was being pointed out is why it doesn't have the greatest track record.

...is a good way to define the fascist third way of the 1930s if you dump the centre bit.

Do you have any evidence that licensing came into it with Luncarty or are you just making this up because it bolsters your argument? Their ground would be far from easy to bring up to licensing standards. They are a small club from a small village so a bit like Muirkirk in WoS terms in likelihood of putting the funding together any time soon. https://nonleaguescotland.org.uk/luncarty.htm Let's call a spade a spade. Would you have a problem with Harthill joining the WoS if Harthill wasn't a stronghold of Orangeism? You are so shrill about it that it's hard to believe it's entirely about football when we are talking about a village that is mainly within Lanarkshire. As things stand there are no boundaries at tier 6 so there was nothing to stop the EoS adding Clydebank or Luncarty and there is nothing to stop Harthill joining the WoS should the existing members vote them in. The county boundary and/or lines of latitude are an irrelevance at this point unless the WoS and EoS memberships actively decide that's as far as they ever want to go for league games and make this fact known to future potential applicants through a rule change explicitly defining the geographical scope of their league on that basis. If you feel strongly about this then why not try to get your club to put a motion into the next WoS AGM?

Sending old people back to care homes from hospitals to clear wards during the first wave because they believed over the top attention seeking modelling predictions were valid will no doubt be forgotten by many but it won't be even close to completely.

Institute currently play in the second tier but have been in the top tier quite a bit in recent times: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_F.C.

AstraZeneca and Pfizer deserve most of the praise rather than Boris and the cynical way he avoided doing care homes first so he could crow about having a faster vaccination rate than Scotland will be remembered by many. That decision cost lives and was made in the full knowledge it would do so.

...and Blackburn get to stay in the Premier. Vaccine rollouts are going so well that getting to 17 league games played and a ppg outcome shouldn't be mission impossible by June, so odds on second division conferences for new entrants.

Note the bolded and underlined parts above.

Molde might have been better because they won't be playing competitive games yet in Norway, but definitely one of the easier ones that could have come out the hat. Good to see the Ukrainian clubs get tough draws from a coefficient standpoint.