Maboza

Well, actually you couldn't have got that more wrong. £1 = £1 , so for your holiday to Wales scenario your £5 = £5. As for us being better off - this is not suggested to be delivered by the value of the currency increasing (against England, Wales, NI) but rather the wider economic benefits and opportunites that independence brings. From a starting position of a higher GDP than the rUK (good), a higher tax take per head (good), a lower deficit than the rUK (good) means we're in a pretty decent starting position in comparison. Worth noting that on your £1 you have already paid tax & national insurance from the initial figure of roughly £1.33 (depending on your level of earnings). So it becomes a question of where those taxes go and do you get the benefit of it? i.e. will you be 'better off'. When you consider that the SNP propose to keep the NHS firmly in public hands (compared with the privatisation of it in England through PFI), propose to keep free student tuition (as opposed to the £9k per year fees in England - incidentally those £9k fees come out of your £1's after they've taken the 33p taxes - I'd rather that they came out of the 33p taxes if you ask me). On top of that I would rather my taxes went towards other things such as transport, schools, universities, welfare policies (such as childcare) to provide opportunities make Scotland a fairer society and grow the economy rather than billions on Trident nuclear weaponry and illegal wars. Investments in the country to attract business and higher skilled jobs which provide the opportunity of more and higher paid jobs (which won't increase your value of pound but will increase the number of them that you have). And going back to your holiday to Wales for another simple but significant thing - if you chose to fly Glasgow-Cardiff with FlyBe then you're flight will be cheaper with the reduction of Air Passenger Duty (tax) in Scotland which you would benefit from (and give you more £1's) - the wider scenario being that air fares to Scotland are cheaper which entices even more visitors to boost the tourism industry in Scotland (already worth £9bn) and this in turn contributes to making the economy go round. So that ^ details the value of your pound and why it is so much more than that. We don't need to spend much time on why the currency union is of benefit as simply put - there is currently a huge amount of trade/exports from Scotland -> UK and from UK -> Scotland. A currency union allows the simplest continuation of that relationship without any barriers to trade and associated transaction costs.There are a number of currency options but this is the preferred one for the above reason.

Apart from the obvious fact that in this scenario, Scotland doesn't actually have any debt to default on. But, then, you already knew that.

Welcome to the club. Fingers crossed for this one!!

Why isn't his wife in the photos above rather than 'Lord' McConnell? PS. You've lost me on the Irish politics comment but quite frankly that's not surprising as I have no idea what relevance that is nor do I know what you are even referring to. I'll refrain from getting dragged into your argumentative nonsense thanks now that I've made my point on the complete contradiction from McConnell but you will continue to argue anything and everything so youcan enjoy doing that with someone else. http://news.bbc.co.uk/winterolympics2002/hi/english/curling/newsid_1841000/1841047.stm

Oh dear....

Newton hasn't been himself the last few games but I hardly think we can fault him for what he's added over the past 12 months. Over that piece he has been well worthy of his place and has spent the last few months stuck out at right-mid which I'd assume isn't his preference but also worth noting that this coincided with the up-turn in form as we re-jigged the formation and Teale got injured. I'd suggest that Newton has provided a decent attacking/defensive balance out there. I'd love him to stay (assuming it's just a quick dip in form) but if he wants a Championship move then good luck to him!

Simple fact is that we don't have a strong enough bench. McLean and Teale already injured, McGinn going off injured and we're screwed I'm afraid. Harkins certainly hasn't worked out so far and I simply don't see anyone else on that bench that looks like coming off the bench to make an impact. We've done well with McGinn, McLean, Naismith and Kelly coming through. We need a few more to appear or for Danny to make better signings.

Maybe we need someone who can shoot from outside the box.

YASSSSS!! Was going to stick him on first scorer but Hills website didn't have him. Mon the Saints!!

Jim Goodwin - St.Mirren cup winning legend. He's an asset to our team and contributes greatly to allowing our more skilful players express themselves and win matches. i'll defend him to the hilt as he adds to our team and goes out on that park as someone fully determined to win the match for St.Mirren. Challenges like this being highlighted may not be pretty but i honestly couldn't give two hoots. Nothing is made of Mackay-Steven jumping into Sean Kelly leading with the arm in the first half when he was never getting anywhere near the ball and it was 10 yards in front of the linesman. Goodwin may well get a ban. It may well not be his last either but I'd rather have him than not. As others have said - plenty of other teams have them - Black, Lasley, McCulloch, and whoever else. These are the guys that everyone loves to hate. Simple fact is - we'd be weaker without Goodwin (Murray, Millen, Aber, etc.) and that may well have allowed Dundee Utd to stroll around the park to win the match the exact way McNamara wanted.

Can't quite believe how quick everyone is to demand he is sacked, demanding to finish his career and generally string him up! By all means question his actions, question the fact that he has previous and the fact that he has let himself and the club down but what the hell is going on with everyone being so offended by absolutely anything and everything these days. It's like people are just waiting on the next news story to come along so they can get all worked up and cry 'outrage'. Without us knowing the full details - it appears that the boy has acted like a tit. Let him take his punishment (whatever that may be) and move on. Talk of chucking him on a scrap heap is hardly the way the rehabilitate him by taking him away from his distinct talent in his life, denying his opportunity to work to his full potential, contribute taxes back into the economy and public services and hopefully sort himself out for the sake of himself and his family.

'Don't jail McGowan, Paul, Paul McGowan'.....

He plays a key role in our team and is someone with absolute determination to be a winner when he goes on the park. I remember Templeton playing for Hearts and getting the ball right on the touchline at halfway line of the west bank and before the ball had even got to him you could see that Goodwin was going to be the winner there. He slid in hard and screaming like a madman as wiped the ball out of the park and Templeton had sh*t it and felt the challenge as Goodie got up laughing and giving him a wee pat on the back. Brilliant.

Didn't Bone sell Lavety and possibly Gillies?

Cornell looks fairly decent and not bad shot stopper but I think it looks as if the communication between him and the defence isn't good enough and leads to a few hairy moments. At times he's also not commanding enough. Example last week where John Sutton scores from a cross that is 6 yards out. Step off your line and get a fist to that cross!

I thought about saying something about Thommo. Absolute legend, but I can't think of the words. I'm just going to rip the heid aff it instead.

Wee Nigel playing for the Fakes tonight. Still 1-0 up on the night (Tade) but with a 2-0 deficit to overturn. game on here for anyone interested.... http://www.trt.net.tr/tvcanli/canli.aspx?kanal=TV3

I remember exactly which guys you're talking about! haha. Spotted them a good few times and seem to remember them going tonto at opposition fans (possibly at Ibrox) whilst wearing said matching slacks/chinos and jumpers draped over there shoulders and tied in a knot.

By releasing players who's contracts had expired and presumably having had contract clauses for others still on the books regarding reduced terms if the club were relegated.

As mentioned on another thread. 10000 hours isn't setup to put money into the football club in the short term. So if we're no longer in a position to be able to run as a break-even business - they can't bail us out.

Is it not as simple as the potential for reduced Sky TV revenue meaning that it will be more difficult for St.Mirren FC to continue to be run as a break-even business (without at least some internal investment even short-term for us to adjust financially) - the CiC isn't setup to put money into the football club until years of debts are paid off so this presents the CiC with a problem.

Unless there are no other bids. Spin to frighten fans toward 10000hours bid. The current board are wanting their big pay day! 10000hours was always the vehicle for them getting that payday as no-one wanted to pay £2m for a football club. It dropped to £1.5m and now 10000hours has come short on that despite the unprecedented fan support that has come in this last week. Now the chips are down and the selling consortium can see the pound signs disappearing we will see if they are true to their words that they are interested in the best future for the club in which case they'd cut their losses.

Speculation was that he's on £1800 a week at Dundee and they're just getting him off the wage bill so there wouldn't be a transfer fee and it was pretty certain he was going to Killie.

Yeah that bit confused me too.

Agreed. I'd expect that'd be the long-term goal and a good position to be in. I wonder why we're not maximising this just now. It was certainly supposed to be the benefit of the new stadium. I can only assume that we either don't have the capable staff or ambition at the moment to drive that part of the business. Either that or there's simply not a market for the use of the stadium - which would be more of a concern. That is something we do need to understand and if that scenario occurs, does the CIC nominated person(s) who control the club simply remain in control of the club? ....but no longer with any duty of care to the CIC (which has folded?) I've signed up to see what else is to be said. Way too many questions just now so will need to wait for the opportunity to get answers.