velo army

It's the mark of a good troll who can derail a thread to the extent that I'd forgotten that this was, in fact, the George Galloway thread. Well played Terry.

Nope. Still nope.

Aye I remembered that wrongly. I thought he'd stood down as an MP before that. However, he wasn't in power at the time and looked in no danger of returning to power. For all the bluster of my quoted post I actually don't imagine too many yes votes were converted to no votes by said "Vow".

Believing a vow made by, amongst others, a man who wasn't in parliament never mind government (G. Broon) really belongs on the calling cards of morons thread.

Just watch it in black and white.

Aye, funny enough after replying to that thread I thought about John Lambie, and how his death (entirely expected, seeing as he'd been smoking senior service since he was about 5) was deeply impactful due to the part he'd played in my young life and late teen/young adult years. And you're right, of course. This does feel forced, and the insincerity gives me the feeling of having my pocket picked. I get that an old royal dying will have deep and profound impacts on people. We often grieve at the death of public figures (Bowie, Maradona etc) and the rationality of it is beyond us in that moment. It could be because their work spoke to us (I felt McIlvanney had written his novels for me personally) or because they represented the Grandfather we always wanted but never had. What we are seeing now is prescriptive, cookie cutter mourning which leaves no room for personal connection. This death has been hijacked by those who want us to feel a particular way about the Britain in general and the royal family in particular. However I see no difference between the fella with his Union Jack hat and me crying clutching my copy of "Docherty". This mawkish Korea-esque display actually acts as a barrier to the empathy that one might otherwise extend to those people.

Modern shite patter thread for this pish.

I will say in G's defence, that if you are a Catholic (and "lapsed" counts too) then using "bead-rattler" is fine. He may have used it for provocation, he's certainly a bellicose poster, but I for one am not at all bothered. I never heard of it until I was about 16 but my mate got called it at work and thought it the funniest thing he'd ever heard. I was in bits too. My da has rosary beads in the picket of all his jackets (every.single.one) and whenever I hear the term I remember my old school pal and think about my eccentric as f**k auld man. It was an attention seeking post. Best ignored rather than engaged with.

William McIlvanney for me. Genuinely thought I'd get to meet him as his books impacted me in a way I never thought possible. I don't think you need to have met someone to feel the impact. People who were part of the magic of your childhood (Maradona, for instance) or whose work impacted you. A lot of the outpouring for the Duke will be genuine. There are those for whom he represents (rightly or wrongly) the passing of a particular England/Britain.

This for me. Also, what is actually being made fun of? The poster who used the Lassie's "who is she" phrase was using her catchphrase to make fun of the fuss being made. Punching up by pointing out hypocrisy and also paying a sort of affectionate tribute. It skilfully manages to poke fun without punching down. Jokes about eating disorders that are clearly just cruel jibes shouldnt be off limits per se, but be prepared to be held firmly to account. It's just using someone else's misery to elevate yourself. Cuntish behaviour. Making fun of the chooky's death has many facets. None of the jokes are pointing and laughing at an old man for dying, they're pointing and poking at the deification in death of a man who many see as part of a parasitic institution that benefited nobody but its members. There was also his use of position to point and laugh at those beneath him. Id also say that if you are offended by jokes about the Duke, let it be known. We could be stepping into unknown sensitive territory.

Then wash them and stop sniffing them ya wrong 'un.

As I said though, he only cares about indy. He also loves Salmond and has absolutely given the Nelson eye to all of that. And, as Granny alluded to above, a lot of Catholics practise performative morality and were virtue signalling millennia before social media was invented. So aye, my old fella is a flawed man whose rigid adherence to ideas causes him to trust in the wrong folk sometimes. He's a contrarian weirdo too. What kind of loony grows up Catholic, in Glasgow, in the fuckin 1960's and chooses Partick Thistle as his team? Mental.

My da recently changed his profile pic on Facebook to reflect his support for the Alba party, prompting an entire heids gone thread in the comments. Absolutely brilliant scenes tbf. I'm not sure what else people expected of a lifelong nationalist and socially conservative Catholic. Some Olympic standard intellectual gymnastics going on too. I have one cousin who is terrified of the danger posed by the GRA but seems to be fine stanning for Salmond. And my da, genuinely, is only caring about indy and is naively baffled by it all the outrage.

So come on, who are the posters who fit the profile?

Quite the hill to die on this. All its doing is bringing the focus back to the historical discrimination and away from the good work being done by your club. It happened, it isn't in place now, they're doing good work now and it should be applauded.

Does he still have the world's whitest teeth?

Fair enough. I don't fancy getting into exactly what the policy was, whether it was a "don't ask, don't tell" kind of thing or whether it was an urban myth that the club never overtly challenged. We can agree that your club had an anti-catholic problem for decades and just leave it at that.

Not a position I. a Lanarkshire catholic (the papiest of papes imo), might be expected to be occupying, but here we are. Rangers are taking a laudable stance in support of their player. It's actually a great bit of leadership which will make it easier for other clubs to emulate should their players be on the receiving end of abuse (and if it isn't happening already, it will). There will be those at the club who bridle at the association Rangers and its support have with sectarianism and anti-catholic bigotry, and who want to move wholesale away from that atavistic shite. Their hand will be strengthened by this. Attacking Rangers for having a history of sectarianism in response to this action is weird. Of course they had a policy of not signing catholics and of course that was wrong. I don't think you'll find too many people defending that record on here. But using that as a stick to beat them with while they're showing strong leadership and great support for a player daily abused because of his race isn't constructive. When your first response to an act of social good is shaming then it's generally because the person or people doing the good have stepped out of the role you had assigned for them. It means that you depend on them being the big bad wolf of the story, on whom you can heap blame and opprobrium. It's what we do when we want them to return to the role we had for them. People will live up or down to our expectations. If we want Rangers to reform (and for their fans to become less interested in the integrity of Derry's walls etc) then the best thing to do here is to praise this unconditionally. People move towards praise, but if they don't get it then they'll move towards criticism and become what we criticise them for (a hug is better than a punch, but a punch is better than nothing). So aye, if you care as much as you claim to about bigotry then you're duty bound to give the sticky buns a hearty slap on the back for this. If you're not doing that then you need to own your part in its continuation. E.T.A. 1000th post!!! Expecting a telegram from the Queen if she's not too busy right now.

Thought it was excellent, albeit a bit daft in places. Good mix of goodies who might be baddies and vice versa. But then I'm a sucker for a Heist film/show. Loved Oceans 11 and 13 (not 12, obviously), Hustle, Inside Man, The Sting etc. Thought there was maybe a thread on this somewhere but couldn't see it so it might just have been mentioned a lot on here when it made the breakthrough internationally. Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao Ciao Ciao! Goran Bregovic does a cracking version of this song. It's my party piece these days. Wonderful stuff. Aye I enjoyed it too, but I kinda wish they'd stopped after the first heist. The reason for going back a second time is pretty weak and is clearly just to satisfy fan demand. Now it's just violent, and gratuitously so, I think. It's good to see the characters again, and Alicia Sierra is insanely attractive, but I think they could have let it lie. In saying that, I'm still keen to see how they finish it all off. E.T.A: Inside Man is one of my favourite films. Denzel is great as is Clive Owen, but Jodie Foster steals the movie. Also, if you love heists, I can't recommend "The Sacred Art of Stealing" by Christopher Brookmyre enough. A clever and subversive heist, witty writing and wonderfully engaging characters (also some decent fitba references).

What did you think?

He does so well as a psychopath in it, and the script does a great job of showing the strengths of being a psychopath in crisis leadership; he takes decisions that ultimately are beneficial, but wouldn't be thought of by one capable of empathy. He's a powerful and formidable adversary whose genius is clear to see; he's often a step ahead. I like that as it gives the protagonists something to overcome and has us invested in their journey. And aye, the lack of shark jumping is great. There's no sci-fi nonsense that insults the intelligence. Everything is explained succinctly which helps us trust in the world being built. I'm looking forward to the next series tbh. They're filming it at the moment, so it could be a year away.

Just finished watching the 2nd series of Snowpiercer and I absolutely loved it. Epic telly. I've tended to avoid dystopian stuff lately due to the negative impact (not major, but noticeable) on my mood, but this show is driven ostensibly by hope. I noticed too how it manages to have women in positions of power and authority without ever needing to reduce the power and agency of the male characters. The characters of Bess and Melanie are engaging and real. Melanie as the antagonist in the first series is one of the most complex, conflicting and interesting antagonists I've ever seen. I genuinely found myself partially rooting for her. The characters are just so damned well written and the whole story is just well done. There was a real opportunity to make this a commentary on class divisions and how demagogues flourish amid desperation. They managed to do that without hitting you over the head with it and just getting on with telling a story, allowing the audience to make up their minds. It's a diverse group of characters whose diversity doesn't feel forced (unlike, for example, The Witcher) and whose diversity is never really mentioned. It's a society where a black man can become a leader by dint of his charisma and competence (and compassion, to complete the alliteration) and that a woman can become the head engineer by being obviously brilliant. The casting is absolutely spot on (the lassie playing LJ is utterly mesmerising and genuinely unsettling) and the pacing of the storytelling is also. Get it watched.

Exactly this. I had similar reservations to @alta-pete but I'm wondering if UEFA require the same burden of proof that a law court would.

Aye, 1994 was the first world cup where they gave 3 points for a win iirc. Utterly ridiculous that we went out in 1974 and 1978 having a win and a draw. That's enough to qualify from any group these days.