LongTimeLurker

Defensive about what? All I am doing is pointing out that you are posting complete drivel. There are lots of legitimate reasons to attack the DUP and/or the UDA without making stuff up.

They were upset about Colt teams getting straight into the SPFL, but not so upset if they join the LL instead. Not sure what doesn't add up, especially if as has been suggested elsewhere the LL clubs get an automatic promotion spot out of it.

The UDA just shot someone called Colin in a "sectarian shooting" in Bangor. Aye, OK if you say so. Having to run into paramilitary scumbags of various descriptions from time to time (wasn't it Dee Stitt rather than Jackie McDonald based on the pictures that were plastered all over twitter?) kind of goes with the territory for NI politicians. Has it even been proven that the UDA ordered this shooting or was it a petty squabble over the proceeds of crime related to recreational pharmaceuticals? Time will tell I guess.

Think you are falling for propaganda. The SDLP were closely aligned with Labour at Westminster post GFA up until they got wiped out electorally last week with nothing untoward happening. On the Unionist side of things, nobody got their knickers in a twist about the Conservative-UUP alliance back in 2010 in terms of the GFA being threatened if they won.

If you are already running your first team as a football club, have a plastic pitch and already have a development team under contract where are the huge extra expenses? Think the only significant stumbling block is when renting another club's ground is involved over concerns about wear and tear to the pitch, but for the likes of Kilmarnock, Hamilton Accies, Falkirk and Dunfermline that's not likely to be a problem.

Doubt it on Corbyn because of the minute's silence over Loughgall, but setting Corbyn aside they have worked with both Labour and the SNP in the past when it has been in their interests to do so.

Alex S led the referendum campaign as recently as 2014. What it shows is that politicians of all stripes will play their games to power and cut and mark the pack as Jake Burns and SLF put it. Even the Lib Dems had Simon Hughes as the straight choice for Bermondsey back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Anyone who thinks Corbyn and Sturgeon wouldn't be the ones doing a deal with the DUP at the moment if they were able to is in cloud cuckoo land.

So you see Cardinal Winning as having been pro-LGBT rights? Did Alex Salmond ever tell Brian Soutar that he could keep his Stagecoach money after the section 28 debate outed him as being deeply opposed to equality for LGBT people?

Gordon Brown tried to do a deal with them in 2010: http://metro.co.uk/2017/06/11/labour-tried-to-do-deals-with-the-dup-last-time-there-was-a-hung-parliament-6701733/ and a bit further back the SNP under Alex Salmond were happy to be portrayed as Cardinal Winning's friends when they thought it would win them votes even after the section 28 stuff.

It would obviously be better if the Alliance party were the dominant force in NI politics, but that doesn't change the fact that there are currently a lot of people in the rest of the UK suddenly making a lot of noise about what is wrong about the DUP when they haven't given two Rafael Scheidts over the highly negative impact that DUP policies have been having on some people's lives in NI over the last few decades, because they find it a useful weapon now that they are winding up with a Tory government courtesy of the DUP. These same people wouldn't bat an eyelid if the DUP were propping up a "progressive alliance" instead because it's really all about what's good for them.

There is no solid evidence that they are pushing for that and unless Nigel Farage has some compromising pictures of Arlene Foster there is no obvious reason why they would use any of the limited political capital that they have gained out of the election outcome helping UKIP's former leader.

It being at Larne implies the custom checks apply to goods moving from NI to the rest of the UK. Sinn Fein are pushing for NI to have a special status in the EU after Brexit in a similar way to what Nicola Sturgeon was calling for where Scotland was concerned. https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2016/1208/837566-calls-for-ni-to-have-special-status-within-eu/

Think if you listen to what Arlene Foster is actually saying and ignore all the bizarre hysteria, it's clear they would prefer no special status for NI and a soft border with the RoI, but if there are customs checks required post-Brexit they have to be at Newry rather than Larne. I seriously doubt that they are going to blow their chance to influence something as critical as that so a few lodges and flute bands can walk down the Garvaghy Road. All you have to do is go on the Belfast Telegraph website or Slugger O'Toole to get what's happening there unfiltered by a London media outlet that doesn't fully understand the place.

My guess is no when there are issues like Brexit to be dealt with. The nightmare scenario with a hard Brexit for Ulster Unionism was the NI-RoI border issue being resolved by giving NI a special status within the EU and imposing the customs checks at Larne rather than at Newry as that would be a stepping stone to UI. The DUP's main focus is likely to be on that issue rather than the Garvaghy Road

In the HL catchment, Ross County, ICT, Aberdeen, Dundee, Dundee United and St Johnstone (maybe need to double check where they are in relation to the mouth of the Tay) all have development teams. If they all joined the HL a split into two divisions and allowing access to clubs like Banks o Dee becomes easy to achieve. In the Lowland League area there are eleven clubs with development teams and if they all hopped aboard an east-west split is easy enough to do. That's not what is being rumoured though on other threads. Apparently the favoured option is another national dvision above the HL and LL but below League Two starting with four (?) colt teams and the HL and LL clubs that are most interested in progression to the SPFL and the carrot would be that promotion out of that division becomes automatic, while the club 42 vs the HL/LL playoff winner format would now be implemented at the bottom of this new division.

...which means they wouldn't have the costs associated with the demands set by the SPFL so something doesn't add up. Elsewhere online people are claiming that it's more than just the Old Firm, Hibs and Aberdeen. The only the Old Firm only angle made sense was when they were trying to shoehorn two teams into the bottom tier of the SPFL. That's not the case now. If you check out recent development league seasons you'll find that Rangers usually don't finish in the top two and that last season Ross County and Hamilton Accies finished ahead of Celtic.

Why would they need to have more than one stand open at League One and League Two level when clubs like East Fife play at that level with only one stand?

It's only possible with freedom of movement and trade kept intact through something like the EEA status that Norway has. The problem with the Brexit referendum was that people didn't grasp what they were voting for if Leave actually won as they were led to believe that things like hard borders were no more than scare tactics.

Have posted on here several times that I would probably be on the Yes side in an Indyref2 if there is a soft rather than a hard Brexit, have been critical of the DUP on this and other threads in recent days based on the antics of Noel Little in the 1980s, Iris Robinson's completely over the top homophobia and Edwin Poots's creationism and genuinely am completely atheist, but I still get pigeonholed as being something I'm not by certain posters such as yourself who respond to some Mrs Bunfield stereotype they have in their head rather to what I have actually written. As for devomax, borders are a pain in the neck which is why making them as soft as possible is generally a good move.

I am none of the three things that constitute PUL being atheist, pro-Devomax where Scotland is concerned and opposed to all forms of terrorism and the tweet that was posted was by somebody called Siobhan Fenton who I had assumed was the journalist because I couldn't be bothered following the link. I find the DUP wanting Nigel Farange involved with Brexit far fetched given they don't want a hard border and having Nigel on board is highly likely to result in having one. Time will tell whether I am right on that.

No problemo, offline for a few hours. Will be interested to see how many pages will have been churned out when I log on again.

Aye ah wid.

^^^ This. I would have made a similar comment if a journalist called Mervyn was being held up as the Oracle of Delphi where Sinn Fein was concerned for similar reasons.

Which they did quite a bit in the past on things like early day motions. Alex Salmond and Ian Paisley shared an office at one point and got along very well.