Celtic have apparently asked the Scottish Government to take a common sense look at their Covid restrictions for football players, but I don’t know if I have ever imagined a greater waste of energy than to appeal to this Government’s common sense.
Yesterday they shuttered the hospitality sector for most of the country, while locking down rural areas after 6pm, claiming this sector was prevalent in the rise of Covid’s second wave. You don’t say, Sherlock. Since August they permitted football fans to gather in enclosed pubs to watch games, while prohibiting games at open air stadiums, contrary to all scientific evidence. We have repeatedly discussed this folly here.
Encourage people into pubs, then blame pubs for the second wave, if only they were prepared to deviate from the policies of a Westminster government, scientific evidence would have had a chance to influence political policy.
Thousands of fans attend games across Europe, all outdoors, all socially distanced, all with strict travel, entry and egress protocols, mandated by governments who are not following Boris Johnson’s cabal. There has been no related increase in contagion – because, as we all know, this is not how contagion happens. It happens indoors, where there is no monitoring.
The hospitality sector needed to be thoroughly monitored (just as the football sector would have been) when it opened. Spot checks should have taken place many times each week, with licences pulled immediately for those who allowed unsafe practices. If it was monitored, social distancing practices would be sufficient to keep people safe.
I saw plenty of venues that had clearly spent a small fortune on partitions, with staff permanently wiping and cleaning handles, and others which looked little changed from the pre-Covid era. There was no consistency, which means there was no enforced monitoring, which means responsibility for the rise in contagion from the hospitality sector lies largely with the government.
If you do not monitor compliance and close offending venues, you know you are contributing to the problem. Despite this, you can continue watch afternoon games in a Dunfermline pub, with as much alcohol as you can consume, without any change in government monitoring policy.
Unusually, this wave of restrictions came several days ahead of Westminster’s planned move. Don’t get me started on it grabbing the headlines on ‘Oh, I forgot Day’. We are bereft of competent leadership in Edinburgh and London. The former can do what they like because their opposition is even less competent than they are, and the latter can do what they like because they have another four years before they need to care about you.
It is thoroughly depressing; our government co-joined twins care nothing of the game, do not expect any amount of evidence to bring about change. As long as they keep their legions of cognitively dissonanced fan boys (CDFBs) on side, competency will not improve. I buy none of their bull, self-promoting careerists to the last. Green and white are my only colours.
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SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 8TH OCTOBER 2020 7:31 PM
It seems I missed an interesting debate earlier on. Anyway, SFTB is one of the posters on here who i have a great respect for. His posts are invariably well written and well thought out. Everything he writes suggests he is a genuine guy. So I have a prediction – in 6 months time SFTB will be advocating an independent scotland.
And if i’m wrong, I’ll gladly buy you a pint :-)
The Mighty Atom
Imagine you’re starving, you have nowhere to stay, you are penniless. Now imagine it’s 1891 and the only ‘option’ is the Poor House. It’s rock bottom, the stigma of it, only compounded the utter desperation and despair. Now imagine your are in a Poor House in Millford, Donegal, it’s 1891 remember, you are a subject of the British Crown, The Glorious Empire, but you don’t have any rights, you are basically despised and looked upon as sub human.
Now imagine you are pregnant. You have barely eaten for the entire duration and suddenly, trapped in a poor house, you give birth to a scrawny little child who, miraculously survives but would never grow taller than 5 foot seven and barely get to 9st as his ‘fighting weight’.
Welcome to the World Patrick ‘Patsy’ Gallagher.
Whatever ‘that thing in every man’ is, Patsy Gallagher’s mother surely had it in spades. Whatever that spirit and determination was that drove Celtic into creation only 11 years earlier, was also coursing through that baby’s veins.
Like so many others, the Gallaghers somehow made the journey to Glasgow for work. The baby grew older and started to play football. Patsy must have been a bit special just to survive on a park in those days, never mind to be even considered to play senior level football.
Even the captain wasn’t convinced. When Patsy walked into the Celtic dressing room for his debut, Jimmy Quinn couldny believe it, ‘You canny put that boy on the park Boss, if you do it’ll be manslaughter!’
Willie Maley knew different.
Soon everybody knew.
It turned out that Patsy Gallacher, despite his tiny frame was a revelation. He could do things with a football no one had ever seen before. He had a new style, an audacity to dribble, stop suddenly, foot on the ball, wait for a defender to commit, then skip away like a deer with the ball tied to his foot. He also had a deadly accuracy with a cross and a surprisingly powerful shot. How could someone so small and light be so deadly with a ball? Like wee Jinky, the more they tried to batter him out the game, the more he tormented them all. That’s why they called him The Mighty Atom.
He was also absolutely mental! One time Willie Maley took the whole team away to a special training camp at a spa in Dunbar, it was for fitness purposes so there was a curfew on the bevy. With Maley himself posted sentry at the Hotel door.
But Patsy fancied a wee hauf, so he convinced a chambermaid to lend him her clothes, stuck on some lippy and mooched past the Gaffer, oot the front door!
So its 1920 something, you’re 5’7 barely 9stone. Wearing a dress and you walk into a bar in Dunbar and knock back a few whiskys! Aye. That. Is. Mental!
(Nowadays…. not so much)
His most famous goal of course was against Dundee in the Scottish Cup Final of 1925, when he waltzed round the entire team from the halfway line, Paddy McCourt style, only to be bundled over by a Dundonian carthorse inches from the goal line. From lying on the ground, Patsy simply stuck the ball between his feet and summersalted over the defender into the net.
15 years at Parkhead, 6 leagues, 4 Scottish Cups, 4 Glasgow Cups and 11 Glasgow Charity Cups. Not bad for a waif from a Donegal Poor House.
I really need to pause here and give credit to The Celtic Wiki where most of this info comes from. If I ever get the hang of this Ill add a click link thing, but check it out! It really is a gift on the internet.
There is loads more there about him but here’s something I never knew…
His wife died at 34 giving birth to their sixth child. He brought them up on his own. He did this while playing for Celtic and working in the shipyards. By the time he died, only 61, he was running a bar in Clydebank. After they buried him they discovered a load of I.O.U.s behind the bar from his regulars. Patsy had never called any of them in.
“So long as there is a Celtic, the name of Patsy Gallacher will be revered, and his sons and their families can rightly be proud of that” – Robert Kelly
The crackpots in Westminster would bring back Poor Houses in a hearbeat if they could get away with it. (Maybe get the Mears Group to run them) Food banks have already been normalised in the last 10 years. Seems to be that people are valued as much now as Patsy Gallacher’s mother was then.
£2 from these T shirts will go to Glasgow The Caring City. Possibly the most underfunded, under recognised and brilliant organisations ever. They help homeless people from Glasgow, as well as from Syria, Afghanistan or anywhere else they’re needed.
Cheers.
above was atolen from Twitter.Des
hh
FT. :-)
eh Frank,i will nip in and steal that pint.lol
:-))
hh
“wealth hittig new highs”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/oct/07/covid-19-crisis-boosts-the-fortunes-of-worlds-billionaires?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
broken
hh
Tom Duff from The Shamrock.
https://the-shamrock.net/2019/10/01/tom-duff-the-unholy-goalie/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
hh
Good morning cqn from a dark, cold but dry Garngad
Oh how I hate International breaks, even more now.
Its damage limitation for us as we wait and see who comes back fit and who does not have to isolate.
D :)
Hello again all you young rebels.
Great wee read back there from AN TEARMANN.
The posts about the mighty atom Patsy Gallagher and the unholy
goalie were not only inspiring but informing and funny in equal measure.
I was lucky enough to watch Jinky so I’ve got a good idea what Patsy
was like, as regards the touring circus and the other entertainment of
that time with Buffalo Bill, Raging thunder, and No Neck, they’ve simply
reappeared as the sevco circus and their headline act El Buffalo.
History repeats itself right enough. 8-))
H.H. Mick
So, what’s this I hear about Triggers Broom FC only being able to list 21 players in their Europa League squad? teams can list 25 but 8 have to be ‘home grown’. Sevco only have 4 ‘home grown players (MacGregor, Arfield, Jack and Stewart). As a result, Defoe, Edmundson and Jones haven’t made the squad.
Now, I do know that this is Celtic Quick News but at least this post is football related….. time for workin’ and lurkin’
Oh and no idea where my 7.20am-ish post has gone so, again, a Big happy Friday from a dry but chilly East Kilbride ;-)
SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 8TH OCTOBER 2020 7:31 PM
P8ddy
‘There were occasional Scots Home Rule supporters on the Socialist side (James Connolly and Maxton & McLean) ‘
###
There’s an assumption that Connolly supported Scottish independence but I’ve never come across any evidence that he did.
And as far as I’m aware Maxton supported Home Rule, ie Devolution, not Independence. That was Labour Party policy.
McLean obviously supported Independence, but was pretty much on his own among the left in that regard.
Re Patsy Gallacher, his pub in Clydebank was The International Bar. Sadly no more, it was part of the demolition for the Shopping centre.
Some of my FOOTBALL hopes:
a) We win the Ten;
b) Diego Laxalt signs permanently and turns out to be as good as Kieran;
c) We win the Ten;
d)Odsonne stays with us and turns out to be as good as Henryk;
e) We win the Ten;
f) Newco go the way of Oldco.
g) We win the Ten.
I have more hopes but it is only fair to leave room for others to add theirs :-))
AN TEARMANN on 9TH OCTOBER 2020 2:36 AM
:-)
RON BACARDI
Was that the same place where Singers was, can’t remember it at all.
Well remember the Treadle, as I was bundled oot of there once.
H.H. Mick
HOT SMOKED
At my age winning the ten, and my Celtic life is complete.
H.H. Mick
MELBOURNE MICK
It was on the opposite side of Kilbowie Road from Singers between The Treadle and Livingstone Street.
Hot Smoked,
Wow, a mega and maybe impossible ask.
I don’t think we will ever see a player as good and committed as the ” King of Kings”.
He is what I would describe as a real Celtic legend..
Cheers and HH.
P8DDY on 8TH OCTOBER 2020 6:39 PM
‘People have a right to self determination and a right to play a part in a democracy. In U.K. terms, Scotland don’t matter. Worse, we have decision foisted on us. None more obvious than Brexit. It the voting was fair, it would have been held on a “majority of countries in the U.K.”, not a raw numbers exercise, because that would always mean England’s wishes would be granted and our access to democracy would be subverted.’
Do the 9 million people of London have a right to self determination?
They voted Labour. They voted to remain in the EU.
The Westminster government doesn’t represent their wishes.
What about the people of Shetland? Do they have the right to self determination?
RON BACARDI
Cheers Ron, maybe I got thrown out of there as well.
GREENPINATA
Hard to argue with that unless you watched the lions.
H.H. Mick
Good performances from our two Israelis, and a half decent one from Calum McGregor over the two hours. Scotland will need to find a way to score away in Belgrade but the prize is a place in the Euros next summer so a game worth playing. Unlike our next two matches which really should not be getting played at all. Republic miss out on playing in Belfast, and are another team unable to score goals, certainly since Robbie Keane retired. Elsewhere Danny Ings scored his first goal for England whilst his contemporaries, Wiltshire, Welbeck and Sturridge are heading for the scrapheap.
Hot Smoked
On 🔥 this morning.
HH
🚒 for Hot Smoked…
“rangers” have a bad habit of turning decent professionals and human beings into snarling growling arseholes.This was particularly evident during the Souness/Smith era.I would hazard a guess that had we signed Alfredo he wouldn’t be rolling around the ground at minimum contact or stamping on players but he would have scored lots of goals for us whilst being allowed to bless himself after scoring (not a requirement for me but something he liked to do at HJK) and I’m pretty sure he would have been a hero to our support.Right enough he would have been sold on by now for some of those Dembele dollars.
.
THE HAND OF GOD
I get a cold shiver when I think what they would have done to Scott Brown if he had chosen to go there.
“…Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the UK’s richest person and high-profile Brexiter, has quit Britain for tax-free Monaco.
Ratcliffe, a petrochemicals magnate with an estimated £17.5bn fortune, has this week officially changed his tax domicile from Hampshire to Monaco, the sovereign city-state that is already home to many of the UK’s richest people…”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/sep/25/sir-jim-ratcliffe-uks-richest-person-moves-to-tax-free-monaco-brexit-ineos-domicile
Words fail me…
HH
BGFC
Is it Time?
Good morning all.
If you don’t do anything else today, I’d respectfully urge you to read An Tearmann’s mini bio of Patsy Gallagher posted at 2:19am today.
And then read it again!
AT – (A)bsolutely (T)remendous.
Thank you.
Hail hail
Keep The Faith
Borgo67…good example….BGFC..these scumbags have no shame it really is time for revolution…come the glorious day these crooks would have their assets redistributed .But I guess no one can really be bothered.
Anyway – scrap that – to the fitba’ (was that fitba’?)
Wee winger (Ryan Fraser) made a big difference when he came on – bit like Jeremy for us, only not as good.
Big Nir and El H were smooth.
Best player on the park was the wee Israeli No 2 – Eli Dasa – what a cracking wee player. From Maccabi Tel-Aviv.
Good penalties – big McLean was super confident taking one so soon on the park.
Felt sorry for Israel to be honest – by far the better team, but just lacking the cutting edge up front.
HH
BGFC
See Swinney and the SQA have just planted all the National 5 Assessments onto teachers. No exam so continuous assessment, to gather evidence, marked by teachers to use to form estimates which the SQA will probably ignore if your kid attends a school in an area of multiple deprivation.
I blame the Labour Party for dying on us.
THE HAND OF GOD on 9TH OCTOBER 2020 10:16 AM
Borgo67…good example…BGFC…these scumbags have no shame it really is time for revolution…come the glorious day these crooks would have their assets redistributed .But I guess no one can really be bothered.
===================
Ballot box would be the right route – if only anyone offered that option – all parties seem happy to allow this to go on. Why do we remain frightened of the power held by a tiny number of people? Naked greed got them to where they are, and a combination of greed, envy and fear stops the politicians doing anything about it.
Offt – good to gibber like a student again for a wee minute :-))
Right – Enough of that -don’t want to add to the politics.
Fitba, fitba, fitba, fitba (and Covid sometimes, but only in relation to fitba).
HH
BGFC
Our Lord and Saviour.
Wants you Reading the data and Believing.
TIME IS….. i am going short.
Patsy Gallagher? Just last week I walked past the wee park in Ramelton where his family were from and there’s a plaque on the gable end of a house with his name and the inscription, ‘Patsy Gallagher a son of Ramelton and a Celtic legend, the Mighty Atom’. He was born in nearby Milford Poor House, but for the people of Ramelton he’s one of theirs!
VALE BHOY on 9TH OCTOBER 2020 10:26 AM
Were teachers not required to do that work anyway to form the basis of appeals anyway?
I think the main difference now is that everyone now knows any awards will be based on the teacher’s assessment which might in some cases strain teacher/pupil relationships.
John Lennon would have been 80 today…
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 9TH OCTOBER 2020 10:15 AM
Good morning all.
If you don’t do anything else today, I’d respectfully urge you to read An Tearmann’s mini bio of Patsy Gallagher posted at 2:19am today.
And then read it again!
AT – (A)bsolutely (T)remendous.
Thank you.
Hail hail
Keep The Faith
—————————-
Back to Basics
high praise indeed from your good self my friend,and praise which should be forwarded to its author ” Des from twitter.
hope your good :-)
hh