RickMcD

He worked in T.F. Reid and Donaldson in the mid 60's. I knew him kind of. But he was slightly odd then. Really shy.

I agree, it was a great night but it crossed my mind too that the incessant criticism of SMiSA that is going on might have affected the attendance.

Difficult to answer when we're not sure about the format. Surely colt teams per se would be desirable? I'm a bit remote over here but is it seriously being suggested that colt teams are being promoted by the old firm only and therefore would benefit only the old firm? I can't see that. Would provincial clubs not be cutting off their face to spite their nose if they voted against any proposal.

Got a friend in Glasgow who came from Sarfend. That's how he pronounced it. Always said it was the arsehole of nowhere. Many moons ago Mrs.McD and I were staying a night in Gravesend before crossing to France the next day so we thought we would drive down and see what it was like. I was pleasantly surprised. Not the most beautiful town I've seen, not by a long way, but far from the worst either. I've got a friend over who comes from Lahndahn and recently I mentioned Southend had been a pleasant surprise when I saw it. His retort was along the lines of 'Sarfend! Fackin Sarfend? It's a fackin dive You stupid Scotch kant!' He uses the word 'kant' quite a lot. Dunno what it means. Luckily we don't have Buddies who run down our wee town at the drop of a hat.

How do you know Linfield are Ulster bigots? We are all Spartacus.

I seem to recall a few years go that some geezer on here never shut up about how useless our youth set up was and it was a waste of time and money. Who'd have thunk it right enough? Who was that Bud?

Never read the record and if you look at the fifth item down on the right hand column, that's a good example of why I don't. , 'Rangers, Celtic and a few others'. The so called big two and sod the rest.

The Koh-I-Noor was one of my favourites when lived in the old country. Good to hear it's still going strong. I can recommend The Bangla in Main Street, Bangor if you ever visit Co. Down. Won some big national awards at ceremonies in London.

I've sat on quite a few committees where at the end of a topic under discussion the chairman simply asks if there is any dissent and if nobody speaks up, then it's unanimous. Works well normally. Trouble is on any committee there is always at least one disgruntled member who moans like hell afterwards. Quite often the same bugger over and over who hasn't actually sussed why committees are formed.

Not necessarily disagreeing but what makes you think it will implode immediately? The DUP will love it and feel they can gloat and annoy Sinn Fein. The Tories will have to keep them sweet. They might be odd bedfellows but if needs must?

Don't want to get into an argument about citizens cheating the benefits system but I certainly think the frequently trotted out figures of how much tax avoidance it is estimated multi-national companies 'enjoy' is greatly exaggerated. I've heard it suggested that it comes to more than the cost of our welfare system. Anybody believe that? The total cost of our welfare system is variously quoted as anything from £250 billion to over £500 billion. £250 billion is £250,000.000,000. Makes it look bigger, doesn't it? The country cannot keep it going ad infinitum and the longer it takes for a government with balls to really come to terms with it, the worse it will get.

I know that. It's almost untouchable. Successive governments might tinker a little but it's difficult to envisage any major changes. The NHS is a massive problem. Eventually someone has to bite the bullet but in the hypothetical case that a tory government did so, they would be out at the next election and the new government (Labour if they get rid of Corbynesque characters) would start all over again. A vicious circle. Eventually if the total cost of our welfare state can't be somehow reduced we are looking at a clusterf**k of gigantic proportions.

£160 a week is just ridiculous. I thought in your original post you were implying you spent no more than £200 a month come hell or high water. The cost of the welfare state is horrendous and one day a UK government will have to bite the bullet. A left of centre party never will, and we don't really have a centrist party that could form a government. Can't see a solution.

Think you make some fair points and can't disagree with most of your figures. However, you say you feed your entire family on about £200 per month. Really? Even if you have what used to be called a gentleman's family (wife and two weans) you must be pretty frugal. If you only eat spam and chips every day, it would be difficult enough. For some reason I wouldn't be surprised if you're vegetarian and maybe that would make it affordable. A decent takeaway for a family of four, costing say £30, would knock a hole in your budget. Do you allow for treats now and again? I'm not saying you've lied about your expenditure but it points to austerity gone mad. Vegetarians do apparently contribute more to greenhouse gas emissions so maybe I'm wrong about you being vegetarian. You wouldn't want to fart more than we meat eaters. Would you?

It's almost fifty years since some dude in Birmingham made an extremely controversial speech, largely about commonwealth immigration. It knackered his chance of ever becoming prime minister. Looking back, his prophecy has turned out to be eerily accurate. He was a classical scholar, hence the tone of his speech, Contrary to popular belief, he did not use the phrase 'rivers of blood'.

I've got 'O' level physics and chemistry so I feel sufficiently qualified to add a comment. My favourite peer is Lord Snooty. He had a paper him and his pals read.

Bloody hell, if Freud could read this thread he would probably need to lie down in a darkened room with a cold compress on his napper. Machiavelli would love it. I think Jack will stay. If he gets a pay rise out of St.Mirren, who cares? If he leaves, and I repeat I don't think he will, one reason might be a thread written somewhere which was headed 'Jack Ross must go'.

This is my third attempt at replying. The cat buggered up my first and I buggered up the second. Here we go. In the early 80's before I moved to Northern Ireland, the company I worked for was chosen to advise Coats employees about pension rights and investment advice when they started their early retirement and redundancy programme. Because I was from Paisley and still lived there I was heavily involved. I met a good few guys who had been at Camphill at the same time as me and I knew a fair number of the guys who were leaving. I really enjoyed my regular visits although it was bitter sweet knowing the mills were closing. Like almost everyone from Paisley, a load of my family had worked in the mills in the preceding 100 years. I used to hear the tales, probably apocryphal , about how mill lassies used to handle young boy apprentices. Sounded like fun. The personnel manager at the time told me he was concerned about some of the staff. He had done research on the effects of early retirement or redundancy of long term employees and there were loads of Coats staff at that time in their 50's and 60's who left school at fifteen and never worked anywhere else. Senior management apparently told him to keep quiet as they felt the leaving terms were generous and management felt they had done enough. The benefits were generous, I came across an example of an employee who couldn't contemplate life without Coats. He was a 58 year old manager who had joined at 15 straight from school. He was receiving a terrific pension which he no longer had to contribute to as he already had more than forty years in the pension scheme. He broke down in tears in front of me, in a right old state. He wanted to work for free and couldn't understand why Coats wouldn't wear it. I never did hear how he made out but the last I heard he was doing all right. Another difficulty Coats came across was employees who had lived in places like India and South America. A lot of them lived in very rural areas and quite often they might be the only English speaking person within miles. A lot of these guys seemed to develop psychological problems. I was asked to see a lady in Johnstone whose husband had worked long term in either Columbia or Peru. Can't remember which. The (very attractive) lady told me that her husband had gone native. Instead of coming home on leave, he had taken to going by canoe up rivers into jungle areas where to put it mildly any stranger, let alone a white man. was far from safe. Coats had sent out his redundancy and pension entitlement but he just didn't want to know. Needless to say, his wife did. I was given a number to ring the bloke. Sounds crazy now in this day of mobile phones but in 82 or 83 I had to get the go ahead from my boss. It was a waste of time anyway. I'm pretty sure the phone was answered by the right guy but got the 'no speaky da English'. Me neither. Coats made sure, rightly, that the bloke's wife got her entitlement. The guy's wife told me confidentially, that she was pretty sure he used to take a local girl with him on his canoe trips to interpret. And possibly provide other services. Never heard the outcome. I have a second cousin who retired at that time. He is still around at the age of 91. I was speaking to him at a family funeral a few years ago and he told me he could hardly spend all his monthly pension. The annual increase compounding over thirty odd years made sure of that, I felt almost privileged to have that involvement with The Mills. I always wondered what they were like inside and I got to see some of it. Just so sad that it all came to a terrible end. Pityme's post above more or less says it all. Don't think there was an alternative.

Very generous right enough. Wonder how many suckers believed it. Suppose you were one.

I've been wading through this thread thinking at some point I would find something concrete. But there's zilch. A lot of hot air. Why am I surprised? Que Sera.

You are quite right. The bright side doesn't feature anywhere in his outlook. He is always on the lookout for something negative to say. Suppose he is to be pitied right enough.

You're clutching at straw now.

I've not had the opportunity to read it yet so can you confirm before I do so, are you telling me unequivocally that the SMiSA committee have said so? Or are we again hearing your personal, normally skewed, take on things?

Sure, you knew it. I'll give you nine out of ten for heffort. Suppose you have an excuse living so close to Cockneys who have a thing about haitches.