Long live Rangers Football Club

Now, that may be a weird thing for an 'Arab' to say especially one who was born a Roman Catholic and had, for years, despised the rampant sectarianism which, if not encouraged by the Glasgow Rangers club, most certainly ignored it. So why would I want to see the long life of a Glasgow club? There are really only two teams of merit in the Scottish Football league and Glasgow Rangers is one of them; Glasgow Celtic being the other one. If either of these clubs had to fold then it would not look too good for Scottish club's international bearing. The fact that these two teams will, more than likely, be in European games longer than the other Scottish teams can only be seen as good for Scottish tourism. The visiting supporters spending their money in Glasgow pubs and hotels may, possibly, encourage those foreign supporters to return with their families to visit the rest of Scotland. It also gives coverage to the rest of the world that there is such a place as Scotland.
I am sure that the Rangers board will sort this out and, eventually, have Rangers football club back on course. If they are short of money and looking for a mass of small-time investors I think it will do no harm for the game of football in Scotland if the fans from the other teams invest in Rangers to keep it going. Yes, even you Celtic fans. If Rangers go down who are you going to sing against? It is within the interests of all Scottish fans that our big clubs don't fail.
I am just adding this so that I can link to my club. It's not got anything to do with the story but why should the Glasgow clubs get all the publicity.

More:
BBC Scottish Business
Herald

The passing of Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston had a wonderful voice and will be sadly missed by her family, friends and fans.

Scottish academia versus UK Law Lords

Interesting piece in the Herald today. Thanks for the link Alasdair MacKenzie.
What we have, in essence, is the academia of Scotland firing a shot over the bow of the Law Lords of the UK and telling them to mind their own business. The interventions of the UK government, under David Cameron, in saying that the referendum, which is a consultative referendum and not legally binding, according to the UK government, and should have no authority to legality under the terms and conditions laid out at the formation of the Scottish parliament. The legal problem that the UK has is that there is now the reconvened Scottish parliament but no reconvened English parliament. Therefore, when the treaty was signed at the Union of the Parliaments only one of the original national signatories is now present; Scotland. It is, therefore within the right of the Scottish Parliament to decide whether they should dissolve the treaty of the Union of the Parliaments. England can't do that because they don't have a parliament; there is no English parliament. So, leaving aside all the legal talk about whether the referendum will be legal or not under UK law, Scotland is now in a situation where we can ignore the wants of the UK parliament as it has no legal authority to interfere in the legal workings of the Scottish parliament.
The 'squaring up' of Scottish academia to the UK Law Lords is just the opening shot in this particular political sideshow. The trouble with bringing Law Lords into the the political arena is they have a tendency to review how the law should be interpreted. Sometimes it's better to let the old sleeping dogs lie. The above opening shot over the UK's bows should be taken that the Scottish Law big wigs will not take London's interference in Scottish legal affairs lying down. It will be interesting to hear what the senior Judges in Scotland think

BBC on Sport and Politicians

So Alex Salmond gets banned from appearing on BBC TV Sport while a few days later the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, is giving his views on the English Football managerial crises. If it is acceptable for ITV news channel to get the Prime Minister's views on English Football, why is it not suitable for Alex Salmond to be interviewed about Scottish Rugby on a sports channel being run by the BBC?

The truth is that the 'establishment' is more than happy to use any excuse they can think of to stop Alex Salmond coming on TV and dispersing away any of the UK's propaganda about Alex being this, that, or the other thing. When the general public see a pleasant politician making sense and then compare that to the biased coverage that they were unleashing about him on the Scottish and British media sites it dispels any negative notion in the general public's mind that the UK are desperate to portray Alex Salmond as.
The UK government must know that, unless they can fiddle the result, they are going to lose in the referendum. So why annoy a population of a country that the rUK are going to have to trade with? We have a lot of resources that they will like to get their hands on. I believe it is because the Britnats cannot help themselves. I believe it is because they are so corrupted in themselves that their first reaction is to try and destroy and control what they see as within their sphere of influence. They are an  abomination to democracy and would rather see a country destroyed than not get its own way. After independence we are going to have to deal with those types as they try to wrest whatever control they can from us.
Still, its good training for dealing with the big boys in world politics. The object being to stand your ground at all times and show that you are not afraid of them and then duck at the right time as the bullet whizzes passed you.

BBC ban Alex Salmond

Auld Acquaintance

Obviously the BBC and their bodyguards, MI5, have unearthed a cunning SNP plan to subvert the upcoming local elections by pretending to discuss rugby while all the time they will be subliminally converting the true-blue Britnats over to the horrid SNP's chief purpose which is to make the UK government look like a set of puerile, incompetent, war-mongering lackeys under the control of international bankers. Instead of castigating the BBC for uncovering this plot we should celebrate the fact that they have saved us from the ravages of voting for a democratic party that would bring down our loving Westminster. We, the Scots peoples, have been exposed, for far too long, to the temptation of living in a country that cares for its sick, its unemployed and the uneducated.
We think that this match is just a sport played by men with odd shaped balls but in reality it is the essence of English middle-class culture and, therefore, it should not be spoiled by the likes of Alex Salmond whom everyone knows is a kilt wearing, deep fried Mars bar eating, subsidy junkie hell-bent on world domination.


Update:


This link to Newsnet Scotland is well worth reading.

Free education in Scotland trying to be banned by House of Lords

Interesting article in Newsnet Scotland where the House of Lords are up in arms about Scotland's free education system. I would have commented there but I'm not allowed to log in [Dig at Newsnet over].
Again we see the Unionist peers trying to stir it up against the SNP's policy of free education. What they refused to mention was that Scotland cannot do anything about this as they are under the direction of the EU laws. If we were an independent nation then it would be possible for Scotland to try and have this silly law changed where a student from Greece can have free education in Scotland but a student from England can't. That 'right' is reserved to the UK government. So why aren't they doing anything about it. Could it be that it actually suits the UK government to keep this ridiculous law so that they can stir up trouble between the rest of the UK and the SNP's fair policies? Seemingly, one of the peers did speak up for the Scots but we didn't get to hear that on the radio broadcast [link on the Newsnet Scotland article]. Now there is a surprise.

The peers have two options that they can do to address this silly situation:
1. They can urge the UK government to go to the EU and have this stupid law adjusted so that rUK residents can apply for free education in Scotland, or
2. They can introduce a fairer system in England where their resident students can get free education too.

Will they do this, or, more to the point, did they mention this? No, of course not. This is a club to swing at the democratically elected government of Scotland and their fairer policies.
So why didn't the SNP Lords, in the chamber, stand up for the Scottish right to have free education? Well, the SNP don't have any Lords because they do not believe in the House of Lords as they think it is undemocratic and unfair. Hmm, I suppose our answer to those peers should be to Foxtrot Oscar and discuss things that are more relevant to the current situation in the UK instead of stirring political faeces. 

Scottish Defence Force

Again we have the BBC in Scotland putting out scare stories on behalf of their masters in Westminster. We have the BBC quoting Philip Hammond, Defence Secretary. He said:

"The idea that you can break off a little bit like a square on a bar of chocolate-and that would be the bit that went north of the border-is frankly laughable."

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the idea of having squares on bars of chocolate is so that you can break a bit off? If it was not possible to do then how did the UK government manage to form the Royal Regiment of Scotland? The concept of bringing home our regiments to the their country of origin seems to me to be a perfectly feasible idea. What he is worried about is the idea that HIS country's (UK) armed forces will be short of the military personnel and equipment that they think is what they require to continue illegally invading countries to get at their natural resources. Well, Mr. Hammond, that may be your problem but it will not be ours post independence. Of course, any Scots currently serving in the UK's military will have the option, if they desire it, to continue with the rUK. There will be no pressure put upon them to return with our military resources that rightly belong to Scotland. If they so wish they can transfer to a rUK army, navy or air force unit. So what is the problem? The problem for Mr. Hammond is that he doesn't understand that an independent country can decide what it wants to do with its forces. We Scots have more than contributed to the UK's armed forces, not only in manpower but also money, and deserve, upon independence, to have our fair share returned to us. I suspect that the top nobs in the military are already sorting out contingency plans plans for when/if independence comes; they would be foolish to do otherwise. I suspect this is just one of the opening shots in the run up to independence and the partitioning of the debts and assets of the UK.
Then Mr. Hammond goes on to talk about the removal of nuclear weapons from Scotland and hints that we Scots would have to pay for that. Now he is being ridiculous. He uses the excuse that a new port will have to be found to cater for this removal of the nuclear submarines. I suggest that he picks one from this list-minus the Scottish deep water ports of course. From the look of the lists it looks like Wales will have the pleasure of hosting those expensive toys. I suspect that the English voters in their ports will be up in arms at the thought of having nuclear weapons situated in their vicinity. It doesn't matter about the Welsh because they aren't English.  I wonder what the Welsh will say about that? You can be sure that the MOD is already looking at alternatives.