RickMcD

Let those who have shown interest make up their own minds. Do you think there is some kind of con going on, a giant stitch up? I don't. I honestly believe that REA has the best interests of St.Mirren at heart and as far as I can make out virtually everyone who has met him believes him to be a man of integrity. If you think it's too risky then leave it alone. Others can make up their own minds about the level of risk and their desire to help our team despite said risks.

Give me the breakdown of the 'debt' of £1-75 m. I admit I worded my post badly. Of course shares can almost always be sold (St.Mirren's seem to take a long time) if you can find a buyer. I should have said without the consent of the fans who own the majority 52%. How much of the £1-75m is grants? I thought a fair bit was though I admit I don't know. When you say riskier, do you mean a riskier investment? If so that may have to be the case. The status quo is not available and if the CIC/Co-Op doesn't proceed soonish would you blame the syndicate if they lost patience and sold to the first bugger who came closest to matching their valuation? You seem broadly in support of community ownership principles but you just go on criticising the whole project. I don't think anyone thinks that what is being proposed is beyond criticism but exactly what do you want? If you can come up with a scheme with no risk and no borrowings, I wish to hell you had told us about it a while ago.

Honestly, somner9, as someone who has always had some sympathy with your views and some of your questions, I think enough is enough and I really feel that for the good of St.Mirren you want to give it a rest. I'm still a bit uncomfortable with some aspects of the set-up and I'm unhappy that a few directors appear to have been treated a bit shabbily but there appears to be virtually total agreement that the CIC/ Co-Op is the best route for St.Mirren so for goodness sake let's get bloody well on with it. I worked in investment markets for years and a golden rule with any form of equity investment is, if you can't afford to lose the money then don't do it. £10 or so a month over two years isn't a fortune and I imagine most fans attitude would be that they can afford it and they don't care a toss whether they see a return, provided St.Mirren FC benefits. £3,000 is a bit more to lose but I'm sure the guys putting it up will be equally realistic. What has to be set in tablets of stone is that St.Mirren FC cannot be sold once the club is in the fans ownership. That has been stated over and over again so I assume it is true and can never change. Those who are too uncomfortable to proceed should keep their hands in their pockets and I think it's time for the good of St.Mirren they keep their mouths shut. We've heard all the arguments ad nauseam. It's put up or shut up.

Don't remember condoms but she used to be smoking most Saturday and Sunday mornings. Got to hand it to the Parisians for naming their biggest erection after a condom.

I'm a bit worried that this is yet another indication that the SFA is still doing its damnedest to keep Rangers in the SPL. It's a sop to non-rangers fans to soften the blow when it's confirmed. I hope I'm talking crap but when all the powers that be in Scotland and I'm including all the SPL clubs chairmen seem desperate to help rangers, I think they will survive. It shouldn't, it stinks to high heaven and I don't see yet how it can come about. But I'm afraid it will. rangers might be in the doldrums and have a few tough years but in four or five years time normal service will be resumed and we'll have old firm domination. I say again, I really hope I'm wrong but would you bet against it? Come on HMRC. You might be our last hope.

I've recognised a good few and didn't let on although I think I gave one away accidentally. A couple I was convinced I knew were wrong. Some I should know. I'm sure you all know what it's like when it's right there on the tip of your tongue but you can't quite get it.

I though a hippolyta was a wee sausage.

For a while in the sixties a crowd of my pals and I went to the Templar Halls on Saturday nights. Nobody used the 'New' in the title. We were probably a bit young for it but as has been pointed out it wasn't licensed so there was no problem. It was a rough joint. We saw a hell of a lot of bloodshed virtually every Saturday. It was positively frightening but exciting at the same time. When we began to spread our wings a bit we discovered the likes of The Flamingo (Flam) in Paisley Road West. It made the Templar Halls look like a dive. Actually, it was a bit. Sonny your dad must have been fit. That was a hell of a walk. My wife Mark 1 lived in Penilee and I walked back to Glenburn many a time. I was knackered.

Me tae.

Yes, tried it Elaine. Because it was pre-1855 we have to rely on old parish registers. Unfortunately a few of us have tried everything we can think of but no success. The burial book from the church for that period apparently went missing around the 1950's. Galling that.

I actually did a bit of research into this church a couple of years back. I've got Lambies in my family tree on my mother's side and there's a family of that name buried there almost certainly distant relations of mine. When I was doing the research Tannahill's name cropped up. The original name of the church was the West Relief Church. I think initially it was intended for the poorer working classes. Tannahill was buried there because no other church would have him. He had committed the mortal sin of suicide. He was in an unmarked grave for years until the Tannahill Society erected his memorial in the 1850's. My distant ancestors lost two children on the one day in 1805 and they are buried there. They were 2 and 4 yrs.old. Must have been hellish. We've tried to find what happened to them but can't. Do any of you know if there was an epidemic that year? There was a big cholera epidemic in the 1820's that killed a lot but I can't find any mention of one in 1805.

OK, I was wrong. I ain't saying what I thought it was because (a) I'd look stupid and( the one I thought it was might come up soon.

I'm pretty sure I know it too but if I'm wrong I promise I'll own up.

I was in the Wishing Well shop hundreds of times and I used to think it was a weird name for a shop. I never associated it with the well round the corner. Thick or what?

I really do hope you are right. Logically you are but we all know logic hasn't played much of a part in Scottish football in the past. The administrators keep coming out with positive statements but maybe that's par for the course. Remember this crowd were hand picked by Whyte despite HMRC not being very chuffed that they couldn't appoint administrators. I wish HMRC would come out with their final conclusions and just get on with hopefully closing them down.

I hope you're wrong but fear you may be correct. The rangerstaxcase article yesterday seems to think that a CVA might not be on as nobody seems willing to put in enough to make it attractive to any of the creditors. They also think and a lot of commentators agree that HMRC have to send out a message that entering a piddling little CVA and carrying on more or less as before (presumably without cheating) isn't on. I'm almost waiting to hear that the SFA or SPL are going to help r*ngers out. Nothing would surprise me.

I don't think there were really any failures from the England point of view over the two innings. I'd say you were right,Bud,In that they would almost certainly have won more quickly if Monty had been picked. Wish he could bat a bit. Cook did well, the pressure is off Strauss a bit, KP was brilliant, Anderson was brilliant and Swan showed why he's about the best bowler in the world at the minute. Jayawardene is world class.

I'm watching it ,Bud. I think England will win it but obviously not today. Jayawardene is the key as usual.

When I was at school we always heard about shawls and the Paisley Pattern etc. And how many of us Buddies older than say forty haven't had at least one if not several family members who worked in the mills. A month or two back someone posted an old map of Paisley when we were talking about the Royal Oak. When I looked at the map I was absolutely amazed to see just how much of Paisley was taken up by by the 'cloth' industry. That whole section of Paisley was flooded with it. A real eye-opener.

Sorry if I waded in too soon with the Forbes Place pic, Sonny. I thought it was a building name you were looking for. Today's is like a lot of them, I should definitely know it but I'm buggered if I can place it. Keep it up. Great stuff.

I agree completely. Surely they can't survive? There is another entry on the rangerstaxcase site today which must make pretty hellish reading for gers fans.

You're right,Qarsaan, no shame. Owing the tax man big dough is bad enough and with the added (cheating) advantage their EBT gave them over their direct opposition they are a bloody disgrace. The more of the minutiae that's oozing out the more it turns my stomach. If the Scottish Football hierarchy doesn't have the balls to simply kick them into touch then it's time FIFA or UEFA did. How anyone in football, even their army of dickheaded fans can have any sympathy for them is beyond me.

I've no idea what the building is but by chance my son who lives in Paisley mentioned to me that in yesterday's Paisley Express there was a great photo of a very frosty Forbes Place taken from across the river. I can read parts of the PDE on-line but can't get photos. Can anyone post it somehow?

Told you KP was a tosser! What an innings. I did kind of forecast it. He should have listened to me years ago.

In football as well as cricket nowadays there is a tendency never to drop the really big names. Over the last couple of years it has infuriated me how many chances KP got. His stats for the last two years don't make particularly good reading. If he had a brain he would be dangerous and the idiot still hasn't taken on board the fact that cricket is a team game. I actually crossed swords with Piers Morgan about Pieterson a couple of years ago. Morgan kept going on about how badly KP had been treated and how a world class batsman couldn't be dropped. I got fed up reading his shit and e-mailed him. He responded in his magazine article quoting my e-mail allegedly but what was printed wasn't even close to what I said. The bastard ridiculed me. He and KP are good drinking buddies but that shouldn't blind you to his obvious faults. The thing with the big bugger is that every time when he must be very close to getting dropped he comes up with a big ton. He could even do it today. In the EPL, I wonder if some of the big stars have it in their contract that they can't be dropped. Rooney,Ferdinand, Torres, Carroll and many more have got away with it at times. I'm not saying they never get dropped but without question 'ordinary' players will get dropped a hell of a lot quicker. I know the temptation to keep the really big players in the team must be great but how some get away with it for so long amazes me. Looking forward to a good day's play today. Really so far it has been England v Mahela Jayawardene.