When I checked my phone this morning it was full of emails and texts about Kevin McKenna’s seminal article in the Observer on the treatment, or lack of it, Neil Lennon experienced during his years in Scotland. It placed a mirror in front of the former Celtic manager, for Scotland to look at its reflection.
The prime targets were not missed: the Scottish Government, the SFA and the conspicuously idle anti-racism bodies, while the “reserved professions”, the Tories and the C of S were marked for historically nurturing anti-Catholic and Irish sentiment in Scotland.
People outside Scotland will read in horror, perhaps tinged with a whiff of moral superiority that their own communities are not similarly afflicted. This, ironically, would reflect the moral superiority many in Scotland viewed the English with last week, as a sizeable minority of their apparently poorly-educated, old and white voters backed candidates who align with racist, misogynistic and homophobe views.
In CQN comments section Scotland has often been parodied as the worst small country in the world, which is absurd. In truth, its panorama of human values vary little from those shared by our neighbours or anywhere across the globe. To think otherwise invests more weight in racial traits than I’m comfortable with.
Order your dedicated copy of Tommy Gemmell’s All the Best at the fancy new CQN Bookstore.
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ernie lynch
17:51 on 25 May, 2014
Ye still reading the Sunday Sport?
Have the Hibs players met before?
canamalar
I trust you guys. That´s obviously not coming across but its the truth.
HH
Jobo
Great tip, hope you lumped on Rory. :)
Magners time.
Aff oot..!
ernie lynch
17:51 on
25 May, 2014
archdeaconsbench
17:46 on 25 May, 2014
‘Anyone else hear the BT panel before the game say the rumour was that Butcher was walking after today, regardless?’
####
That would certainly give credence to the rumour that he and Neil Lennon are longtime gay lovers and are intending to elope together.
========
That might explain some of the results against ICT in previous seasons.
Astute advice from John Park for Celtic to pull the plug on the Kevin Thomson interest.
BackInTheDay CSC
Or just back oan the crack???
The championship play off in England is reputedly worth &100m (making bobby Zamora the £200m man )
Anyone got an estimate of the value of the Scottish play off …. £1m ?
If this Hibs team get relegated it will be years before they come back. Very, very poor. No organisation, lack of skill, lack of guts. Young Stanton though is a player.
I predict a predictor!!
With the world cup just 18 days away, we thought it would give us all a wee bit of interest and fun, if we ran a predictor competition.
It will follow roughly the same scoring format as the league predictor but maybe with a few twists and turns, and the cost will be £10 each.
All monies will be paid out as prize money.
So if you would like to take part, drop us an email at cqnpredictor@gmail.com
Happy Lisbon Lions Day to you all.
CRC
Penalties
ernie lynch
17:49 on 25 May, 2014
Billy Boy
17:26 on 25 May, 2014
‘How do you cope living in such a bigoted country’
#####
I wonder how Neil Lennon would answer a question like that.
##########
Question out of context again.
He stayed for 10 years plus so I would think he would recognise their is a real lot of decent people and some nutters.
I have met and dealt with those bigoted nutters since I was a wean so I know them for what they are.
Penalties
Pens at Hibs
Sadie’s bhoy
Butchers teams are always big bruisers who are hard to beat … He inherited a team of wee guys and does not know how to adapt his tactics to suit
Shame for big terry ;)
Is that Butcher in his mock huddle?
Ho! BillyBhoy..!
(From ‘The Mail’)
Independent Scotland will need an extra 500,000 foreign workers over 20 years to make ends meet, claims Treasury
By Alan Roden
01:35 25 May 2014, updated 01:36 25 May 2014
24,000 extra migrants a year needed in independent Scotland – Whitehall
By 2035-36, that would mean a near 9% rise on Scotland’s population
An independent Scotland would have larger fiscal deficit per head than UK
An independent Scotland could open its doors to a huge influx of immigrants who would fill a city the size of Edinburgh, Treasury chiefs have claimed.
The UK Government’s most detailed report to date on the seismic impact of a Yes vote will be published next week, which includes an in-depth analysis of demographic changes.
A separate Scotland’s weaker fiscal position would mean a rapidly ageing population would have to be countered by a massive rise in foreign workers – a policy endorsed by the SNP.
Strategy: Alex Salmond wants to lift restrictions on non-EU immigration if he wins the referendum
Over the 20 years from the first year of independence in 2016, Whitehall chiefs have calculated that net migration – the difference between those leaving and those arriving on these shores – would have to increase at an annual rate of 24,000.
By 2035-36, that would take the total to an eye-watering 480,000 – a near 9 per cent rise on Scotland’s current population, placing unprecedented strain on health services and housing.
The alternative would be to increase taxes or slash public spending to ensure the government could afford services for the growing number of elderly pensioners.
Next week’s paper – set to be launched in Scotland by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Al exander – is being billed as one of the most extensive financial analyses since the last Labour Government examined, and rejected, joining the euro.
Top civil servants using independently-verified modelling have been working on the project for months, and aim to produce a definitive figure of the ‘Union dividend’ for every Scots family. Their five main findings are:
An independent Scotland would have a larger fiscal deficit per head than the UK from the outset in 2016-17;
There will be a continued decline in North Sea oil revenues, putting extra pressure on public finances if Scotland is not part of the Union;
Scotland has a more rapidly ageing population than the rest of the UK, driven by a shrinking working-age population;
There would be huge costs to create a new state, and a premium on borrowing rates could send interest rates soaring;
Key SNP policies, such as an increase in free childcare and a cut in corporation tax, would cost at least £1.6billion-a-year.
Scotland’s OAP population will rise from 1.04million in 2010 to 1.49million in 2066.
But the working age population is only expected to increase from 3.3million to 3.6million.
That will create a ‘dependency ratio’ of 2.41 workers for every pensioner, compared to 2.64 in other parts of the UK.
Alex Salmond’s proposed solution is to lift restrictions on non-EU immigration if he wins the referendum, bringing in more workers from abroad.
But despite repeated requests for precise estimates, the Scottish Government has so far failed to produce detailed information.
A senior Treasury source said next week’s paper has modelled a ‘high migration’ scenario, which could reduce the dependency ratio to the same as the UK’s if there is not a similar influx south of the Border. ‘To get the demographics simply to match the UK, Scotland would have to go up to the “high migration scenario”, which is 24,000 people a year net, so that’s more than tripling in migration relative to Scotland within the UK,’ the source said.
‘Over the 20-year period that we looked at that would basically be the equivalent of adding the population of Edinburgh to the Scottish population.’
Alex Johnstone, Scottish Tory spokesman for transport, infrastructure and climate change, said: ‘Migrant workers play a vital role in Scotland’s economy, and many of our successful businesses would not be able to cope without them.
‘But under the SNP’s hare-brained separation plans, we would need an open-door approach just to have a fighting chance of balancing the books. That would require a different immigration policy to the rest of the UK, which would without question mean border controls were an absolute necessity.
‘Not only would that be divisive and inconvenient, it would harm the Scottish economy, which is why breaking up Britain is such a bad idea.’
Scottish Labour’s pensions spokesman Gregg McClymont added: ‘Pooling and sharing our resources across the whole of the UK means pensions are more affordable in Scotland. Only separation puts the pensions of Scots at risk.’
He added: ‘Alex Salmond needs to come clean about how much extra immigration would be needed to pay for pensions in a separate Scotland.’
A record 248,000 immigrants are already living in Scotland after an influx of migrants from Eastern Europe. The total number of people living in Scotland, but born outside the UK, now stands at 7 per cent of the population.
But Mr Salmond plans to go far beyond official projections that Scotland will be home to 9,000 more foreigners every year by relaxing rules on minimum salary levels for entry.
A spokesman for Finance Secretary John Swinney said: ‘Scotland is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, more prosperous per head than the UK, France and Japan – but we need the powers of independence to ensure that wealth properly benefits everyone in our society.
‘On immigration, net migration to Scotland is already more than 10,000 a year, and independence will allow us to have a flexible policy to suit our economic needs.’
——-
‘Scotland For The Scots’?
‘Aye Right !’
Welcome To The Tartan Banana Republic…
Of Wee ‘Eck..
‘Oh,Don’t-Stop-Di-Carn-Ival !’
[ TSD…Ever Seen The State Of Yon SFTB Tryin’ To Do The Limbo Dancin’…? Ed ]
Still….Laughin’
Up The HOOPS !
Viva Owenie’s Granny !!
Thomson miss..girfuy ..Hun
Thomson misses
Thomson misses.
Good.
Roon ye Thompson
Goal Accies ..1-0
Thompson missed HA score
Goal Hibs 1-1
Jimbo
I lived in Edina Place for a few years mid 80s. Went to two Hibs games and enjoyed it. Got a main stand Hibs end ticket for a cup tie v Celtic. I was on my own and took a good doing when we scored. Have never liked them since.
After 2 pens, 2-1 HA
2-1accies
2-2
3-2accies
3-2 HA
Great pen from the number 99.
What?
3-3
4-3accies
Get in !!
Hibs oot
Edinburgh Derby alive and well
Hibs relegated