aDONisSheep

Easy Tiger! I'm not quite sure that the vitriol and invective is called for. Even I'm holding off on complete condemnation until I've seen the first budget (although I'm not holding my breath)! Some people had/have a more positive-bias than others (more than you or I it seems). Some people are just not 'political animals' (to the extent that you and I are). Maybe, we're the ones that should spend a bit more time chilling on the sofa, watching reality TV. It would make a change from shouting at clouds . Yours aDONis

In fairness to Moomintroll. Most of my Labour leaning friends thought Starmer et al, would be more left leaning once they got elected. As regular readers will know, I am not 'ahem...' a big fan of the 'snivelling, duplicitous, genocdice appeasing knvt'. But, back in the day, I backed him for leader, so Mommintroll is not alone. That said, I'm not averse to ALL of the Pink-Tories actions. Settling pay disputes is a plus and I'm not completely against removal of the WFA (with a major caveat of means testing). However, the general punching down, condescending attitude to the poor and sick, his stance on Israel and his immigration rhetoric, are all appalling. I still live in the hope that he/they will change, but... Yours aDONis

The devil is of course, in the detail. On the face of it though, I think this might be a worthwhile experiment/deal. Scottish football is so staid, I don't see the harm in 'looking' at possible innovative ideas. The FoH will hopefully maintain a controlling stake, and keep the ship steady, whatever the relative success/failure. It sure makes a change from finger crossing, that the next (*insert team name here) 'sugar daddy', really has the clubs long term interests at heart. Yours aDONis

Loomer and MTG having a bit of a tiff, it seems;

This made me smile.

FTFY

I like 'day-tah' Dave, but let's not kid ourselves, his tenure to date has been a bit of a shyt-show on the field. I've never hated an Aberdeen team, as much as I did that Glass, cluster-fvk team, with the racist's friend as captain! (NB: I saw the teams of Alex 'fvkkin' Miller, Aitken, the '95 team, uncle Ebbe [I liked] and the nadir of the Dingus as manager fiasco [who I wanted to get as manager]). On the other side of the coin, I've loved some of Aberdeen's initiatives. I'm particularly pleased with the Red Shed, stuff. It's encouraged a new passionate, younger generation of fans, that I thought we were losing to the EPL etc. The absolute scenes at the end of the County game, were terrific IMHO. Yours, 'sit-doon-min' aDONis

I see Labour have been forced to become slightly less genocidey.

Lucy Connolly about to do more bird! If that's what happens to racists, then 'so be it'.

I don't think there's too much wrong with the Hertz team. I don't rate Naismith at all (and I liked Calderwood for us) so that shows you how pysh-poor I think he is! It's a bad run for sure, but there's enough quality in that squad to turn it round. Problem is, you've got two weeks to stew on where you are, and then you come back from the break to Whore FC away! That could be a chastening experience, then St Mirren away, which I think is a must win, but won't be easy. If that goes wrong, then there could be unbearable pressure by the Ross County game. IMHO you should bin Naismith (he's a knvt in any case), and get in McInnes (who I've always liked and respected, even after we'd binned). Yours aDONis

As someone who absolutely loathes smoking and thinks it's for the weak minded and downright dumb. In addition, smokers are no more than litter-louts that smell (IMHO)! So from that completely open minded stance... I'm not really in favour of the the ban (as it appears to be proposed). I do wonder if the science fully justifies a total ban, and wonder if the legislation may be tweaked to areas that it applies to areas that are 'under cover' (e.g. beer garden marquee) rather than open spaces (e.g. a bench at the back of a beer garden). A subtlety in the law may allow the hospitality industry a bit of leeway, and not 'exclude/discourage' what I would think is a significant proportion of their customers. There is also a proportion of our society, who don't congregate around pubs, but rather places like shisha bars. If (like me) you think pubs perform an important role in our cultural and social life, the same can probably be said for shisha bars. As I said, I don't like smoking, and I think that the proposal to continually raise the legal age was a decent idea for phasing it out, I think this proposal is an 'unnecessary' step too far. Yours aDONis

I've been watching the MLR (haven't seen the final yet). My Team (Freejacks) had a 1/4 final v Old Glory DC (part owned by the SRU I believe). Good game. Freejacks got some 'home' decisions (IMHO) and won. But, the most notable thing was that Rob Harley (yes that Rob Harley) can still play a bit. He was Old Glory captain, and described by the Freejacks coach as a 'horrible' player (it was a compliment, not an insult). As a side note, MLR is pretty entertaining, just about every team has a focus on attack, it's all on artificial pitches, so running is the order of the day. Yours aDONis

As part of my survey of my brain, pre election, the most common terms used to describe Sir Kier were. Dishonest Duplicitous Kvnt Spineless Zionist stooge And weirdly; DuplicitousDishonestSpinelessKvnt! Did a similar survey today and only change was the addition of; Child starving, snivelling, zionist, genocide appeasing kvnt! So he's still more popular than David Lammy and Lisa Nandy. Yours aDONis

I'm not completely dismayed by today! For one, I'm not as against the removal of the universal winter heating allowance as much as you'd imagine. I do have some issues though. There seems to be a significant number of people eligible for pension credit, that don't claim it. Hopefully, this will prompt them to apply/look into it. That said, I'm sure many are just completely unaware that they'd qualify, so that needs addressing. But removing it from those that don't need it, isn't that bad a policy IMHO. I am of course furious that Labour still haven't grasped the nettle of wealth inequality, and are proposing some tinkering around capital gains, rather than a wider view of the tax system. I'm also quite pleased by the announcement of improved offers for public sector workers and junior doctors. So far I give them a D. Which is an improvement on the C, they were at prviously*. Yours aDONis *C stood for c**ts

Didn't get a chance before, but enjoy yer Euro adventures. I don't know anything about Cercle Brugge (or see the match last night) so I'm just going to say we'll done, and go get a result on their patch. All the best. aDONis [Insert - I remember when McInnes used to take us on Euro adventures smilie]

Bombing kids in Palestine. Although, in his defence, he does sometimes put on a 'sad' face.

Shyt the bed, now we're getting hung up on merits of measurement and whether relative poverty exactly maps onto actual poverty! To a certain extent that's just semantics, we are the 6th largest economy in the world, but we're near the bottom of comparable countries in terms of child poverty. This policy is simply cruel, lifting it won't cure 'poverty' but it will alleviate it for a couple of hundred thousand kids. Labour previously abhorred it, but have now decided that it's not really a priority (for reasons known only to themselves) and that those poor-kids it would have helped, need to 'suck it up'. Labour have the levers, they even have the leeway (see Ukraine example). They have chosen not to. KNVTS! Yours, aDONis

You say 'victim card' I say, "that's pretty ill informed", As for, "Fall over backwards to finance your lifestyle". You do know that nearly 40% of Universal Credit claiments have jobs don't you (well according to the DWP that is) and 69% of children in poverty were in working households. Single parents (predominantly women) are expected to fulfill the 'Claimant Commitment' in which if your children are 3yrs + you spend 30 hour per week looking for work (or else you get 'sanctioned'). Don't fall into the trap of intolerance and think that poor people are all scroungers, they aren't. The following is from the House of Lords Library on Child Poverty, it's a really good report I recommend that people read it, it's not long or particularly dry. https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/child-poverty-statistics-causes-and-the-uks-policy-response/#:~:text=It added that this meant,from 36% in 2011%2F12 "1.2 Selected stakeholder comment In a press release issued following the DWP release, the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) said the estimates represented a “record high” for child poverty in the UK.[6] The group said the release showed that “100,000 more children were pulled into relative poverty (after housing costs)” when compared with a year earlier. It added that this meant “4.3 million children (30% of all UK children) were in poverty” in 2022/23, “up from 3.6 million in 2010/11”. The group’s press release continued: 69% of poor children lived in working families 46% of children in families with three or more children were in poverty, up from 36% in 2011/12 poor families have fallen deeper into poverty: 2.9 million children were in deep poverty (ie with a household income below 50% of after-housing-costs equivalised median income), 600,000 more than in 2010/11 36% of all children in poverty were in families with a youngest child aged under five 47% of children in Asian and British Asian families were in poverty, 51% of children in Black/African/Caribbean and Black British families, and 24% of children in white families 44% of children in lone parent families were in poverty 34% of children living in families where someone has a disability were in poverty"

I absolutely agree, but as you describe it, it's a policy decision, but that policy decision has a direct impact on those that have no voice and have absolutely no input into their situation (children of poor families). It feels like you're pretending that the government finances are the same as household finances, they aren't. The government has lots of levers (and resources are not so limited, that we "can't" make these decisions). It's that we choose not to. For example, we (the UK) have just committed to £3.6bn p.a. of military funding for Ukraine, 'for as long as it takes'. (I don't think this is a bad thing). But the fact is, we don't have to do that, it's outside of our NATO commitments. For less money, we could alleviate the curse of poverty for hundreds of thousands of children. We choose not to. Just the same as we choose not to impose wealth taxes, or balance out capital gains tax rates, to get more money into the system from the top. Ultimately, it all leads back to the fact that the people who suffer most, are the poorest in our society. In the real world, there are more children going to bed hungry (which leads to all sorts of longer term issues), than there would otherwise be, because we (the UK Gov) have decided that they can wait for pink austerity to deliver some jam tomorrow, rather than pulling the other levers available to help them. Yours, gooooo Labour! Your thrifty-ness means I will get that bigger fvk-off telly sooner, and that's more important, than some piss-poor childs welfare! aDONis

Mystic Meg stuff that.

Fvk me, do you live on Walton's Mountain. Do circumstances never change in your world, do people never die, get divorced, become ill, become unemployed? Also, whilst I'm at it, how does any of your logic work. If I have a problem with you, do I get to take it out on your kids? Yours aDONis

I'm going to say it, but I think Liam Williams is one of the finest players I've ever seen! I love the way he plays. Even him butchering a 2 on 1 v SA for the Lions hasn't dampened my admiration. Yours, bromance. aDONis

I'd have fvkken done it for £7 quid!

I agree. It's a reward for putting your resources into finishing higher up the table. I think that's where Leinster went wrong this season. They focused on Champions Cup, managing their squad rotation at the expense of the URC and came a cropper. It's an absolutely astounding achievement by Glasgow (and by Munster the season before). Made all the sweeter, by the fact it had to be done "the hard way". Glasgow have shown, that there is no reason why the Scottish clubs shouldn't be dining at the same table as the Bulls, Stormers, Leinster and Munster. Forza Glasgow and pull yer finger oot Edinburgh! aDONis

I am still fvkkin buzzin' about this. Wrong MotM for me. Anyone that plays tight head for 80 mins at altitude v Safas, and spends his time bangin' back rowers for fun should get it. Zander, come on down! What a fvkkin shift! What a performance. Also credit to Ruan Nortje. Simply a class act in defeat. Yours aDONis