LongTimeLurker

You would be more likely to get pigeonholed as being RC based on that, but as AFJ explained it is a combination of things. There are small things when people are talking like how they would say the alphabet when they get to the letter h that are used to tell people apart.

Agree on the Glaswegian in a crowd thing. Think it's mainly mannerisms that makes Glasgow folk stand out a mile, but it's difficult to pin down.

If you see somebody with ginger hair, freckles and pale skin there is a better than average chance that they will be either Scottish or Irish. That kind of thing.

Tied into looks that tend to go with having a lot of Gael ancestry.

Sean vs Shaun usually narrows things down a bit in the same way as Stephen vs Steven. What always gets me is the way people from both parts of the island of Ireland often assume I am Roman Catholic based on my looks. Leads to awkward moments in social terms when the penny finally drops that I'm not.

How many people of a Unionist persusion have you ever met that are called Siobhan? I'd be amazed if you have even met one. How many people of a non-Unionist persuasion are capable of balanced discourse about the DUP? Sadly not that many as it is easier to deal with people as crude stereotypes.

^^^ still thinks I'm pals with Willie Frazer obviously despite many posts making it clear that I am an atheist and regard religious people of all persuasions as deluded.

Their supporters will definitely want those things, but what's the source that Arlene Foster included that?

It's been 20 years away for as long as I can remember.

Think she is High Anglican and the daughter of a CoE vicar.

Not sure whether someone called Siobhan is likely to know what the DUP are up to. If you want to know what's happening in NI you are better off reading what they are saying in the Belfast Telegraph or the News Letter or checking out the Slugger O'Toole website. Given Buckfast is made by Cistercian monks why would the DUP be fans of it?

Where are you getting that from? The DUP don't want a hard border. Nigel does.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/10/rethink-hard-brexit-plan-could-sink-scottish-tory-leader-ruth/ Speaking at a photo call of her 13 MPs following the Conservatives’ stunning result in Scotland, she confirmed they would take the Tory whip at Westminster but also warned “they will vote entirely as they believe they should.” WTF? Was this sort of thing not what Murdo Fraser wanted when they were fighting the leadership campaign.

Think it's mainly about player development as the U-20 league format isn't getting the job done. If the colt teams start off in a division with the top LL and HL clubs (probably mainly the former) as appears to be the plan there's no guarantee they will ever actually get into League One and League Two. Most of these players don't wind up making it and the colt teams didn't exactly set the heather on fire in last season's Challenge Cup when weakened lineups were often being fielded against them. It's arguably more likely to ease the path of the likes of Spartans, Cove Rangers and East Kilbride into League Two and lessens the danger of smaller SPFL clubs tumbling into a regional league format, if there are now ten plus more teams playing at a national level.

Sounds like there are big changes coming in 2018/19 if the colt teams proposal goes through and that's the way that the SFA will be able to restructure all of this.

The main selling point of Stormont to the DUP is that they can block issues like abortion, gay marriage and an Irish Language Act where direct rule may not be to their liking. It's more the UUP types that want to pretend they are living in the Home Counties.

They won't talk that up again to the extent they did this time mainly for the more mundane reason that it didn't work to anything like the extent they thought it would.

I'm an atheist as well and share that posture although I'd use gentler language like deluded. Closer to home why do we still have faith schools? NI isn't the only place in the UK where the religiously observant tail still wags the dog.

Agree with everything else but think you are wrong on the bolded bit at least where the elite in the RoI is concerned. They'll still be happy to have NI as a containment zone for politicians they would rather not have in the Dail (e.g. Gregory Campbell holding a yoghurt carton) and for pragmatic economic reasons of not wanting to take over the responsibility of paying for a place that still doesn't come close to covering its costs in terms of taxation generated. Think what it will do though is boost SF's electoral prospects in the RoI.

They wanted to add an SPL2 as a second tier and everything below that to be regionalized with colt teams thrown in. This all happened only a few years ago, so do you really not remember?

The SPL only really wanted the first division clubs when the merger happened to form the SPFL, so the full-time clubs would not be in any way heartbroken if the two lower divisions adopted that posture.

Where do you think the money comes from for the league and league cup payments that your club gets every year? You are being subsidised financially by the interest generated by the top flight clubs, so is it unreasonable to expect that you should have to put up with colt teams in exchange?

It basically means a relatively soft Brexit that keeps freedom of movement and trade intact and hopefully people will be able to see beyond the DUP's stance on certain social issues and realise what a massive opportunity that is. The question will be whether Theresa May can hold her party together on that long enough to make it actually happen without having any Douglas Carswell type defections to UKIP and whether other pro-Remain parties would step into the breach to help out if that became a problem. As a pro-Remainer I hope so but a key problem is that Labour's rise was fueled by ex-kippers so they are not likely to play along for cynical self-serving reasons.

OF fans form an outright majority of people regularly attending SPFL games and their armchair fans are what attracts the lion's share of the TV money. That doesn't mean there automatically needs to be colt teams in the lower division, but it should be taken into consideration when people start arguing that SPFL fans are opposed to this. The proposal could be a lot worse from what I can see. A U-23 format open all the way up to the division below the parent club is what normally happens on the continent and that would lead to Rangers B and Celtic B teams in the Championship, but there is no danger of that sort of thing with a U-21 format because most 19 and 20 year olds don't make the grade.