bazil85

He's also only 19, at his rate of improvement he'll be the next Scotland international from the St Mirren youth academy. Improved leaps and bounds this season.

Is your claim actually we would have been in a worse position if we went into lockdown earlier? For a person that claims the pandemic has been "over" for almost a year, you don't half contradict yourself with some of your posts.

Would love to hear your first presser following my appointment... ‘gritted teeth’ comes to mind.

Another massively frustrating outing for St Mirren. Desperately missing these forward players, hopefully that’s Dennis back fit & he just remains fit for the rest of the season. We are owed a bit of luck with that. Erwin yet again a liability, I make that, almost every single game he’s featured in.

What you’re basically saying here is ‘I’ve made a point, unless you change your view and agree with me, you have issues with your own engagement’ Just nonsense Oakster, you’ve made a points false, I’ve pointed out why it’s false, accept it. 👍

Your point was along the lines that restrictions are based on political not health guidance. That isn’t true, sure there is obviously political decision just like anything else that governs the nation but restrictions are for reasons beyond the political. It is perfectly reasonable and logical from a health of the population perspective to be very cautious in returning to normality.

And we can get some focus on the real issues, like what brilliant banter it is that SMISA want £1,500 for a panda suit...

Do you not think fully trusting the public is a tiny bit idealistic given the last 14-15 months? We are also pretty close to people being allowed to travel for self catering breaks I believe, if a bunch of Scotland has open hospitality, people could technically legally go to these areas and use the pubs, I would bet they would in large numbers compared to places without open pubs. Again spreading the virus. For me it's where you draw the line regarding attendance to pubs in these areas, mitigation of such pent up want for many over the last year and management of the cost and reward for so many businesses in so many of these areas, especially if reliant on tourism. You can claim it's all political if you want but there is certainly economic and public health concerns that are factoring into keeping these places closed.

Wouldn't likely be zero if they opened up in a manner where people were coming in and out and mixing. You open pubs in these areas, you encourage travel to them and the virus spreads. You open pubs in a lot of places like this and don't allow travel, many may not have the business to keep them going as there will be a heavy tourism requirement for a lot I imagine.

You say it is all political based and not on health data but that's simply not true. The rest of your post has been the attitude that has largely seen many countries caught out multiple times by not acting cautious or promptly enough. We know how fast a wave can hit and how devastating it can be. We are rolling out a vaccine program, it isn't close to done, it hasn't even hit the 50% mark yet & there remains multiple unknowns over it. What you've quoted is very positive news but it doesn't mean a cautious and slow easing as vaccine rollout ramps up is not a scientifically sensible approach to the countries health. What's the political gain here? We have four different controlling political parties in the home nations and all have arrived at similar conclusions to ease the lockdown, that is mirrored in countless countries the world over at various stages of their journey. I'm struggling to see the pollical gain that governs these decisions you might be getting at.

To err on the side of caution. Surely over this year+ you have seen how quickly things can change and generally when things have relaxed it's came back to bite governments? Things will relax, there is a roadmap but we do not want to fall at the last hurdle (hopefully) so to speak. What political benefit is there in going against the science and health data? And where is this science and health advice that we should all be just kicking on as per?

There is still much that isn't known about transmission/ long-term protection with the vaccine and the majority of the "protected" high priority groups have only had the first jab. This claim is simply unfounded, much like last autumn when you claimed "all" restrictions should be lifted. Your view isn't one focused on protecting the vulnerable, the current collective stance across the UK (largely) is, while cautiously moving closer to normality. In my view it seems lessons have been learned from going too fast in previous re-opening.

Have to say, more Ralston repairs and a Panda costume... it’s times like this you have to miss a good old LPM breakdown 😅 Please find details of the latest £2 Spend ballot and other news from the SMISA committee. April £2 Spend This month we have two potential projects to vote on with a total cost of £7500. The first is to provide a contribution towards the cost of materials for the refurbishment of the first-team facilities at the club’s training ground at Ralston. This project would see substantial and lasting improvements made including a new roof and improved drainage, ventilation and insulation around the site as a whole. The first team is training primarily at the SMISA stadium currently due to the situation at Ralston and this investment would go some way towards allowing them to return to the training ground on a more regular basis. If voted through, this would be a joint venture between SMISA, the club and Kibble. SMISA would provide a contribution of £6000 towards the costs of the materials, with the club footing the bill for the outstanding amount. Kibble would then oversee the project and supply the requisite labour and management at no additional cost. The second option this quarter is to support the purchase of an additional professionally-designed Paisley Panda costume. The furry mascot has become well-established over the years as one of St Mirren’s most famous and visible marketing assets. As well as greeting the crowd before home matches and hosting the half-time “Bung a Baw” competition, the Panda often makes appearances at other club events including a number of the St Mirren Charitable Foundation’s community projects and fundraisers. The current suit is more than a decade old now and somewhat dated and Colin Bright, organiser of the children’s matchday entertainment and a SMISA committee co-optee, would like to replace it with a new one. The cost of a properly padded and insulated professional suit to cope with regular use, often in outdoor winter conditions, is £1500. Members can choose to support one, both or neither of these projects, with any unspent sums retained in the bank for possible future use.

I don’t believe the ‘headline’ which is similarly being reported across multiple news outlets which ultimately links to exponential excess death in the US (mainly linked to Covid) is wrong. Do you? I’m struggling to understand what your actual concern is with this story, could you elaborate?

I think you’re putting up some barriers here to getting and reporting data. Yes population growth will impact like for like statistics along with any deep dive into death causality in the US but there is enough in the data stream for this to be newsworthy. It shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone that Covid has hammered into excess deaths in countries like the US & we can argue all day on the interpretation of the figures but the overarching message behind these stories is very clear IMO.