LongTimeLurker

Jo Swinson has already ruled out helping Corbyn into power, so what other option do they effectively have other than to prop up the Tories? Something for the SNP to be driving home to Labour voters thinking of voting tactically in places like Kirkintilloch, St Andrews or Wick.

The Mizrahi Jews were driven out or had to flee Arab countries where they had been present for millennia, and for the most part they have no right of return. Presenting Israel as only being a settler colonial project driven by 19th century Zionism is a gross over-simplification of what has happened. Israel can also be viewed as being part of a process similar to what happened in Europe in the previous 100 years and up to as recently as the 90s in Yugoslavia where ethnically homogeneous nation states have been carved out in areas that had previously been highly multiethnic. Also not sure where this white bit is coming into the equation given what happened with the Falasha Jews from Ethiopia back in the 1980s, and given many/most people would tend to view most Palestinians as being white as well. It's very much forced as an analogy because a lot of Palestinians are actually relatively recent Ottoman era arrivals from the Balkans or the Caucasus in ancestral terms. This image, for example, looks a wee bit different from Soweto in the 1970s and a lot more like Pristina in the 1990s: Nobody in the international community is seriously suggesting a one-state solution is the way to go for Serbs and Albanians, so not sure why it has become so trendy to suggest it would be viable or sensible with Israel and Palestine. Hopefully it all gets sorted out eventually in an even-handed way that provides peace, prosperity and democracy to everybody in that part of the world. Long term I doubt Israel will be able to use military force alone to prevail in that part of the world given how little strategic depth they have. At some point they are going to need something like the failed Oslo peace process to work.

Where do the Mizrahi Jews fit into the equation? Israel has a huge Arab citizen minority within its pre-1967 borders, while there are almost no Jews left now in any Arab country. What you have written is a gross over-simplification.

Gaza could have been part of a functioning Palestinian state by now if the Oslo peace process had not gone so badly awry. One-sided criticisms of Israel are suggestive of a deeper prejudice.

Probably more the Gestapo. There were a lot of summary executions of deserting German soldiers and civilians who wanted to surrender during the last few months of the war. The guy comes across as totally crazed by choosing to make that analogy though.

Never said it was.

Hard to believe people can't understand why doing that is in extremely bad taste and hence is something that should always be avoided, but it crops up all too often on messageboards and on social media.

Other companies in recent days have tended to have the SNP at 3%, but some of the numbers in the pdfs with the details can be a bit mental. For example, Deltapoll are stating that 10% of 25 to 34 year olds across the UK will be voting SNP and that the SNP have 5% support amongst women but only 2% support amongst men. That sort of thing suggests some issues with their sampling methods: http://www.deltapoll.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Deltapoll-MoS191130.pdf

Have seen it argued that turnout will be higher this time because the electoral register is more up to date.

Best thing to do to spot trends is check data from the same polling company, so the same methodology is consistently involved: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2019_United_Kingdom_general_election#2019 For example, Yougov is out today and shows the following changes over the last ten days: Tories 42 43, 43, 42 Lab 30 32 34 33 LibDem 16, 13, 13, 12 SNP 4, 4, 4. 5 Green 4, 2, 4, 4 Brexit 3, 4, 2, 4 Looks to me like there was a significant shift from Lib Dem to Labour when people first saw how useless Jo Swinson is over a week back, but not much has changed since then beyond margin of error stuff.

Cumnock and Petershill have licensing applications in and will hopefully be able to get their SFA associate memberships without having to leave the west region, since the SJFA are alleged to be proposing to the pyramid working group that the west region can now join next season without having to wait for the east and north regions' status to get sorted out.

The SNP plan to keep the ECHR as part of Scots Law so there would be no change in that regard.

It's not a case of when 2 positions are opened up but if. My point several posts ago was that the LL have an effective veto over any changes, so turkeys are going to have to vote for an early Christmas to avoid it usually being either/or for the east and west champions rather than usually both

I've already pointed out that they would still be the probable losers on the playoff given there would be two rather than one strong feeder to go along with the glorified pub league at tier 6. What more do you need than that to grasp that I am not suggesting the SoS be completely excluded?

That used to be a Lib Dem stronghold didn't it? Alan Beith was the name of the Liberal MP from what I remember.

You appear to be trying to start an argument just for the sake of it. All I stated is that having the west region champion fighting the EoS champion for the one automatic promotion place from tier 6 that is currently available is something that should be avoided.

The SoS champions would be as much of a factor as they are now under that scenario. Probable losers on the playoff, if two out of three can go up. Not sure what you are referring to with the second bit?

And:

Not so good:

Assuming what has been posted on here is accurate, hopefully the most controversial issue on the 11th is going to be the introduction of a second automatic promotion place from the sixth tier into the LL, so the west region and EoS champions don't have to play off against each other. The problem is that LL clubs will have to sign off on that before any change to the playoff format can be made, and turkeys...

Have to wonder if some on the left started banging on about various forms of identity politics so much and developed an unhealthy obsession with Israel because they despaired of ever convincing the proles that the City of London and monarchy have a malign influence on British society that calls for radical changes to be made a lot closer to home:

The SFA and SJFA are unlikely to ever state that they phorked things up last time around. The face saving way out of this will be for the SFA to invoke the Tay Bridge boundary as what is delaying a resolution in the east until 2021-22 at the earliest, since that prevents both a full EoS-ERSJFA merger or a Tayside only ERSJFA functioning independently as an LL feeder in the view of the EoS and LL and will need the involvement of the HL and SPFL to resolve. In the meantime hopefully the west will enter.

Some people on here tend to flip their lid if the truth is stated on that. The LL and EoS actively blocked the change that the SFA and SJFA were pushing for last season, which was both the east and west regions in at tier 6 as feeders to the LL. If as appears to have been claimed by some on here the SJFA are only pushing for west region entry this season, there is no obvious reason for change to be blocked this time around.

Let's see what the weekend brings. Have seen it argued that the midweek polls tend to have methodologies that favour Labour while the weekend ones tend to favour the Tories.

It all boils down to the SFA, LL, EoS and SoS all having to agree to any changes made to the promotion playoff into the LL before anything can happen. That means nothing will happen that one of those leagues/associations opposes.