Drew

FFS, that reminds me, I have you on ignore for a reason!

I never claimed to have a point. I just go and support my team

I can actually see stark similarities between these folks and yourself. Never going to games and knowing hee haw about fitba, but happy to try and court attention by whoring themselves under the banner of the club in a desperate bid for attention on the spurious basis that they have some affinity with the Mighty Mirren. Like them, you should stick to doing what you do best - in your case, cleaning toilets!

The cult of celebrity. A scourge of the modern era Chris Brookmyre goes to most games when he can, but actually doesn't otherwise talk that often about St Mirren as far as I can tell. That's because he is busy getting on with what he does best. He doesn't need to hang his hat on anything else to gain attention and publicity. I'm not sure how many others who are in the public eye regularly attend matches. Not many, I wouldn't have thought. That would suggest that they are not sufficiently motivated or are too busy doing what they are good at. We don't need people crawling out the woodwork proclaiming their love for the club. It is most likely that they would primarily be motivated by the opportunity for a bit of publicity. If they had to go to such lengths to acquire that, are they really of any great worth to the club? I would suggest not. Nah, not for me. What we need is a good manager, good players, a stable financial base, a passionate support, and Gus MacPherson (apparently). Not celebrities.

Cost of fuel and location of petrol stations? Aye, reckon so. Lot to be said for being able to 'fill up' very inexpensively at home, with free topping up if you plan ahead. I'm pretty sure the salesman we spoke to mentioned that he had just sold a similar car to a guy from Oban.

This has become very tedious indeed. Line needing drawn, I feel.

Pretty sure my wife was reading up on EV car sales stats by geographical area, and, interestingly, Argyll & Bute apparently has one of the biggest (if not the biggest) uptakes in Scotland. This, despite it being a very dispersed, rural area with limited population in terms of land mass. We wondered whether this might have something to do with the relative cost of fuel in more remote rural areas. There will no doubt be other factors. Outside London, I think Scotland has the largest number of charging points per head of population, and, as I mentioned earlier, has additional subsidies for installing charging points. Still a very long way to go (not least for people who live in flats as you say) but there will have to be considerable investment to back up the policy pledges. We are due to pick up the car tomorrow, so progress updates to follow....

We clearly need more options in the wide areas, but if OK plays Coulson in the left mid role, we could probably get by until January. My biggest concern is what would appear to be the paucity of goal scoring threats in the current squad. Perhaps NBM will shine now that we have a new manager, and I certainly haven't written him off, but if there is a decent striker out there who is available, I hope we would take a look.

Aye, he looks a player.

Under contract, so couldn't join up until January. Motherwell also interested, seemingly.

Reflecting a bit more on this, and in the wake of the Stubbs clusterf**k, I can just about see the value of having someone who has broad oversight of club affairs on a consistent basis, and can report back any issues as and when they arise. Certainly before things go sour to the extent they did under the previous management set-up. I would have assumed that is one of the roles of the CEO, but perhaps he (Tony) has other responsibilities that mean it is difficult to be constantly tuned in to general day-to-day affairs at the club. Gus is a level headed guy, and is actually a pretty decent human being when you talk to him. He just might be suited to this oversight type of role, and possibly fancies a new challenge without having to be under the spotlight as a team manager is in this division. Perhaps it is time to get back to supporting our club without feeling the need to question and scrutinise every decision that is made by the people who are charged with this responsibility. It is easy to throw your tuppence worth in from the sidelines, but not always particularly constructive.

Agreed. It is all a bit beige.

That pretty much covers all his posts

Christ on a bike, between this and the W7 thread, I can't remember quite so many sweaty boabies getting frantically waved around for many a long year

FFS©

So Gus has been brought back to be Tony and Oran's butler?

Is that not the manager's job?

Hmm....

This is all becoming a bit of a storm in a tea cup. I'm not sure that the decision not to allow the group to display the banner was proportionate in terms of the potential for difficulties to arise as a result. It seemed pretty innocuous to me, but I don't have responsibility for the running of the stadium, so not my call to make. On the flip side, I don't think the decision to prohibit the banner being displayed is as outrageous as some seem to be indicating. It was a judgement call, and sometimes these have to be made. As others have suggested, it would be hoped that it wouldn't take a great deal of pragmatism and common sense on the part of all parties to resolve this and allow us all to get on with furthering our shared aim of supporting the club.

She hates giving cars names, but I might suggest that one.

I don't disagree with any of that. The technology is key but supporting it with the required infrastructure is critical. Long way to go.

There will be a requirement for many more on-street charging points. As things stand, unless you have a driveway or garage, you're unlikely to be eligible for any of the grants available to subsidise installation of a charging point. This is clearly a major issue that will need to be addressed. In saying that, as my earlier tweet suggested, some folk seem to get by without a home charging point. Charging points/stations have varying power levels and therefore speed of charge. For a pretty standard battery - say 22kw as we will have - a slower charger (3.2kw) will charge a fully depleted battery in about six hours. A rapid charger, however, would recharge the battery in about 30 - 40 minutes. It seems most people settle for recharging to about 80% when put and about. We're having a 7.5kw charger installed at home, and it will fully charge the battery in about 3 hours. The car lights will run from the standard 12v battery in the car.

Ach well, everyone needs a bit of drama in their lives

Heating fan and air con use must affect the mileage range though, same as in petrol and diesel? Aye, probably. The range is certainly reduced in the winter by all accounts.

Aye, as pod says, I understand that the electrics run off a standard battery.