Turnbull Hutton, who resigned as Raith Rovers chairman in November, died last night after a short illness. When Scottish Football League chairmen were presented with an Armageddon scenario in 2012 his voice of dissent was first to be heard. Those at the top of Scottish football tried to convince SFL clubs it was in THEIR interests to grant newco Rangers access to the second tier of Scottish football. Hutton saw through this and called-out the presentation by Stewart Regan, Neil Doncaster and David Longmuir, chief execs of the SFA, SPL and SFL respectfully, for what it was.
Craig Whyte bought Rangers in 2011. Within months his team crashed out Europe and he had devised a plan to liquidate, phoenix with a newco and present the SPL with a fait accompli – give me a place in the top flight and I’ll save your league programme and commercial deals.
Once Duff and Phelps were installed as administrators Craig lost control. Had he been able to force through a quick liquidation there is a very good chance the SPL would have voted to allow newco access to the top flight. Newco would have been debt free and able to strengthen their team in 2012.
It would have destroyed Celtic, who had no choice but to resist. As the weeks passed, one by one, SPL clubs said ‘No’. By May the baton passed to the Scottish Football League, who would not only be asked to vote newco as a new member, which the rules permitted them to do, but to elevate this club to the Championship.
The cost of liquidation and becoming a phoenix newco was established by Turnbull Hutton. The rules permitted the applicant club would ask to be voted into the bottom tier of the professional league structure. Hutton insisted the rules be followed, nothing more. For this, Scottish football is in his debt.
You have three days left to bid on the fabulous hospitality for four people one day at this summer’s Open Golf Championship at St Andrews, which takes place from 16-19 July.
The auction is in aid of the Celtic Quick News appeal to build a fourth school kitchen in Malawi for Mary’s Meals. Shuttle transport for the five minute journey to and from the golf course as needed, with beer, Gin and Whisky tastings throughout the day with the master distiller.
You also have the chance to create a unique CQN single malt whisky cask worth potentially £5000 for future CQN charities, and you will receive a bottle of this very special single malt whisky to commemorate the great day when it is bottled in several years.
Eden Mill is Scotland’s newest and most innovative distillery and brewery incorporated in February 2012! Located just 2 miles from the famous Old Course itself it provides a perfect base for hospitality for yourself and 3 friends on a day of your choosing at the forthcoming open golf championship on July 16th to 19th.
But this is so much more than just a day’s hospitality at the home of golf. Before taking to the course to watch, you will enjoy a breakfast roll or two and discuss your perfect single malt whisky with the master distiller.
Whilst you and your friends are enjoying the golf he will seek to surpass your favourite whisky by using the best barley to create the right wash and recommending the right type of barrels for our very own unique CQN 1/4 cask of single malt. A cask which will mature and provide over £5000 of future funding for our charities in a few years’ time.
You will return to the distillery by shuttle bus for lunch and an optional beer tasting and then for afternoon tea with a tutored gin and whisky tasting with the owner capping off a memorable, unique and very special day for your group and for CQN.
My thanks to Eden Mill for their incredible support. You can bid on the auction here.
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jamesgang
A good friend of mine passed away a few weeks ago, a man who many on here would know of, Peter Watters from Dumbarton, the cancer eventually got him, anyways, when you mentioned father Ted and comms, it made me think of Pete, he never watched it, couldn’t bring himself to watch such blasphemy, yet he would sit it the bar night after night and cuss like a cusser thing, drink the drink, he was a scream, miss him big time.
HH
Sips
The company I have just quit issued all staff with a stress cow …. ;)
Rest In Peace, Derbyshirebhoy.
Sorry to hear about Derbyshirebhoy’s passing. I had some contact with him when we both complained all the way to the BBC Trust about the Nevin/McLean stitch-up. He was obviously a decent man and a true Celt.
Sorry too to hear about Turnbull Hutton.
RIP to both good men.
TET
Can you believe I didn’t see Father Ted till I was living in Australia for a year in 1998-99. Mibbee I was just drawn to it cos I needed a ‘fix’ of home….even if it was my brothers and sisters in Ireland rather than Scotland.
I loved it from the first. And was so struck that ‘Ted’ had already passed by that point.
Half my family come from the Highlands so the Craggy Island thing rings true.
I hope you’re well bud. And that Mrs TET is in grand form too.
HH jamesgang
Four – nil Sankt Pauli…
Fantastic night, locals saying the best they’ve played all season.
Plenty of Celtic like tunes…
Nighty night lhads and lhassies
TET
Bet he’ll have a celestial pint of Guinness with Dermot Morgan…..(Father Ted)
My heaven is a great place……only the best…..sipping the dark stuff……….
HH jamesgang
and eating my Mum’s shortbread and tablet……..
TET.
Don’t get upset about a typo, life is too short as we’re finding out more frequently as time rolls on.
Now,Turball Hutton…there was a man who had balls, he stood his ground against the stitch up.
He didn’t back down to the pressure and threats from the hun rabble, he stood proudly and led a case to deny them what they thought was their God given right….being the we are the people badge.
The fight continues..bedtime for me, huns that think they’re back, need to be put back in their cupboards tomorrow.
night night you board-loving, conformist yes-man bassa!
jamesgang
We are good thanks, Mrs TET is getting better by the day, as teh weather is, linked, I reckon so, but I reckon the lack of fags is the main thing, and the dugs are loving all the extra walkies.
HH
TET
my job is all about lungs…..so while i never nag,……i’m overjoyed to hear what you say!
Bedtime for me…..again……
have listened to del amitri over the last hour…..makes me maudlin for days of yore and youth…..both gone forever…….
Night TET. Night Timdom……
HH jamesgang
Philbhoy
21:08 on 6 April, 2015
No need sir, none taken,
may only good things come your way.
Derbyshirebhoy R.I.P
Stpatricks bhoy or petethebeat
If you know of any his family can you pass on my deepest condolences and that of others on here.
jamesgang…
Ye bloody well nagged me about smoking, the last time we met…good on ye. Some of it sunk in…mind get Yer missus to fix Yer Jammies :))
Sips
If i didn’t love you i wouldn’t care!
anyway it’s pure selfishness on my part cos my jammies aren’t fire-proof!
HH jamesgang
PeteTheBeat
Thank you very much I am sure that Peter and his dad Tommy will be having a laugh.
R.I.P.
Hail Hail.
rip derbyshirebhoy.
Good night all
Tell those close to you how much they mean to you,
So on that note love to you all especially those who may find themselves alone.
Ohhhhh and the roasters canny forget the roasters:)))
Just logged on, sad news about Derbyshirebhoy.
May he rest in peace.
Rest in Peace, Peter.
Just catching up with CQN and read the sad news about Derbyshirebhoy. He will be remembered in my prayers tonight along with Turnbull Hutton. RIP.
I am so sorry to hear of Derbyshirebhoy’s passing. RIP.
My condolences to the family and friends of DERBYSHIRE BHOY
R I P
RIP Derbyshirebhoy YNWA,
Night all. Night wee Oscar my hero God bless x x
P67 – I’m not comfortable with your assertion that events spiralled out of Craigy’s control when they went into administration. Duff & Phelps were his chosen administrators, yet they failed in an administrator’s most basic task – to keep the business as a going concern and stop it going into liquidation.
Sorry and saddened to read of the passing of Derbyshirebhoy; the blog loses yet another interesting and committed Celtic Supporter.
”To see oursels as others see us!”
Clocked on to the Football TV Schedule to see if the game was being broadcast only to read this:
Scotland: The Most Nannying of Europe’s Nanny States
Forget a blue-painted Mel Gibson yelling “freedom!” Now it’s all about the mandatory salad bar.
Brendan O’Neill | April 6, 2015
Many Americans, when they hear the word Scotland, will think of Mel Gibson in blue facepaint yelling: “FREEDOM!” That’s how Scotland is viewed by non-Scots the world over: as a plucky, liberty-loving nation that sits atop snooty England and longs to be free and wild and beer-soaked in a kilt.
Well, if that’s how you see Scotland, you urgently need to update your mind’s image bank. For far from being a land of freedom-yearning Bravehearts, Scotland in the 21st century is a hotbed of the new authoritarianism. It’s the most nannying of Europe’s nanny states. It’s a country that imprisons people for singing songs, instructs people to stop smoking in their own homes, and which dreams of making salad-eating compulsory. Seriously. Scotland the Brave has become Scotland the Brave New World.
If you had to guess which country in the world recently sent a young man to jail for the crime of singing an offensive song, I’m guessing most of you would plumb for Putin’s Russia or maybe Saudi Arabia. Nope, it’s Scotland.
Last month, a 24-year-old fan of Rangers, the largely Protestant soccer team, was banged up for four months for singing “The Billy Boys,” an old anti-Catholic ditty that Rangers fans have been singing for years, mainly to annoy fans of Celtic, the largely Catholic soccer team. He was belting it out as he walked along a street to a game. He was arrested, found guilty of songcrimes—something even Orwell failed to foresee—and sent down.
It’s all thanks to the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act, which, yes, is as scary as it sounds. Introduced in 2012 by the Scottish National Party, the largest party in Scotland the Brave New World and author of most of its new nanny-state laws, the Act sums up everything that is rotten in the head of this sceptred isle. Taking a wild, wide-ranging scattergun approach, it outlaws at soccer matches “behaviour of any kind,” including, “in particular, things said or otherwise communicated,” that is “motivated (wholly or partly) by hatred” or which is “threatening” or which a “reasonable person would be likely to consider offensive.”
Got that? At soccer games in Scotland it is now illegal to do or say anything—and “in particular” to say it—that is hateful or threatening or just offensive. Now, I don’t know how many readers have been to a soccer game in Britain, but offensiveness, riling the opposing side, is the gushing lifeblood of the game. Especially in Scotland. Banning at soccer matches hateful or offensive comments, chants, songs, banners, or badges—all are covered by the Offensive Behaviour Act—is like banning cheerleaders from American football. Sure, our cheerleaders are gruffer, drunker, fatter, and more foul-mouthed than yours, but they play a similarly key role in getting the crowds going.
The Offensive Behaviour Act has led to Celtic fans being arrested in dawn raids for the crime of singing pro-I.R.A. songs—which they do to irritate Rangers fans—and Rangers fans being hauled to court for chanting less-than-pleasant things about Catholics.
Even blessing yourself at a soccer game in Scotland could lead to arrest. Catholic fans have been warned that if they “bless themselves aggressively” at games, it could be “construed as something that is offensive,” presumably to non-Catholic fans, and the police might pick them up. You don’t have to look to some Middle Eastern tinpot tyranny if you want to see the state punishing public expressions of Christian faith—it’s happening in Scotland.
It gets worse. SNP officials have said that even singing “God Save The Queen”—the national anthem of the U.K.!—could be a crime at Scottish soccer. If it were to be sung by Rangers fans, say, as a way of winding up Irish-identifying Celtic fans, then that could “become offensive behaviour,” an official says. You know a nation has truly lost the plot when it outlaws the singing of the national anthem in certain situations. Imagine if American football fans were told that they sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at their own peril, because if someone in the stadium finds their patriotic warbling offensive then they could be arrested. Welcome to Scotland.
Not content with policing what soccer fans sing and say, the SNP also polices Scots’ smoking, boozing, and eating habits. It was the first country in the U.K. to ban smoking in public. Last month it announced that it will ban smoking in cars with kids. It is currently pushing through a ban on smoking in parks. And it has its eyes on smokers’ homes: if a public-sector employee, like a doctor or social worker, visits your home, he or she has the right to say that you should “not smoke when they are providing [their] service.” This, of course, is the ultimate goal of the global jihad against nicotine: to move from making bars, cars, and parks smokefree to making our homes smokefree.
Scotland has set itself the Orwellian-sounding goal of making the whole nation, every bit of it, smokefree by 2034. What will happen to any smoker still lurking in Scotland after the glorious dawn of the 2,034th year? It’s probably best not to ask.
Scotland is also plotting to put a sin tax on booze. The SNP blubs about the fact that “alcohol is now 60 per cent more affordable in the U.K. than it was in 1980″—that’s a bad thing?—and so it is pushing through the Alcohol Minimum Pricing Act, which will impose a state-decreed price on all liquid pleasures. It is trying to push the Act through, I should say: it’s being held up by a legal challenge from the Scotch Whisky Association which, understandably, doesn’t want the state telling it how much it should sell its wares for. I would say “God bless those whisky makers,” but I’m not sure how much you’re allowed to say “God” or “bless” in relation to Scotland these days.
The SNP insists minimum pricing is “not a tax.” Yes it is; it’s a sin tax, the taxing of larks, the imposition of a kind of Prohibition-for-the-poor, where, in the words of John Stuart Mill, “every increase of cost is a prohibition to those whose means do not come up to the augmented price.”
Scotland’s great and good also watch what the little people eat. Last month, BMA Scotland, an association of doctors, declared war on Scotland’s “culture of excess” and said ads for junk food and booze should be banned. The SNP wants to go further: it’s agitating for an EU-wide ban on junk-food ads, clearly keen that all the peoples of Europe, and not just poor Scots, feel the stab of its Mary Poppins extremism.
There is even—get this—a discussion in Scotland about making salad bars mandatory at restaurants. Yes, there exist actual officials who would like to force businesses to serve you vegetables, even if they don’t want to and you don’t want to eat them. Concerned that “Scots are 30 years away from reaching the World Health Organization target of five portions of fruit and vegetables a day”—apparently the average Scot only eats 3.5 portions a day—there is talk of “beefing up [get it??] the number of greens by introducing mandatory salad bars.”
And then there’s the authoritarian icing on the cake, if Scotland will forgive such an obesity-encouraging metaphor: the SNP’s Children and Young People Act. This Act plans to assign a Named Person, a state-decreed guardian, to every baby born in Scotland, in order to watch him or her from birth to the age of 18.
Due to come into force in August 2016, the Named Person initiative is truly dystopian. Once, it was only abandoned or orphaned children who became charges of the state; now, all Scottish children will effectively be wards of the state under a new, vast system of, in essence, shadow parenting. In an expression of alarming distrust in parents, and utter contempt for the idea of familial sovereignty and privacy, the state in Scotland wants to attach an official to every kid and to keep tabs on said kid’s physical and moral wellbeing.
There’ll be a state spy in every family. In Scotland, Big Brother is not only watching you (it was recently revealed that Scotland has 4,114 public-space CCTV cameras and “camera vans,” which drive through towns filming the allegedly suspect populace); he’s also watching your kids.
In Scotland, we see in gory Technicolor what happens if the so-called nanny state—such a weak, quaint term for this lifestyle tyranny!—is allowed to run riot. Scotland is creating a truly cradle-to-grave system of state meddling in people’s lives, where from birth to adulthood, and everywhere from soccer games to the pub, from the CCTV-saturated streets to your local restaurant, you’re being watched, finger-wagged at, told what you can and can’t say, what you should and shouldn’t eat, where you can smoke, how much you can drink, even how passionately you may bless yourself.
Let Scotland the Brave New World be a salutary lesson. Challenge every act of state authoritarianism you encounter, because they will speedily accrue and you’ll end up living in a nation where you can’t even freely sing the goddamn national anthem. Adopt a brilliant Scottish turn of phrase and say it with abandon to all those who would interfere in your life: “Get tae f***.”
Brendan O’Neill is editor of spiked in London.
This may be of no interest to anybody but I thought I’d post it and let you decide for yourself. It reminds me home a wee bit.
A few excerpts:
6:30:
Former Fox News reporters and bookers say that they are afraid to be seen “talking to the wrong people”. Working for Fox meant you were constantly being monitored. It created a culture of fear. If you challenged the heads of the network On ideological matters, you were history.
42:00:
Many Fox News stories are meant to generate fear; for example, stories about what to do if there’s a “dirty bomb” attack. Fear is a great motivator and organizer; even when there is no real evidence for it. Terrorism is the ultimate fear-baiting; and when people are fearful, they are more likely to support military interventions. Talking about terrorism also means that you can avoid talking about other issues, like the economy.
1:09:13:
A Call to Action – Media control is a political issue. People need to demand accuracy.
Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism
Facking strength, not pl, poile of pish, CL, Celtic is [s Celtic is De@ad! Celtic is DEAD !!! Ce;litc is dead. CQN is dead. All dead.
Passion, passoion – need some help here….is this the deciding factor?………
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9hvDFmfQOY
Kitalba
The first article is so full of inaccuracies it belittles the valid points unfortunately.
FFM
Easy big fella. Your one of CQN’s most valued posters for me but sometimes it’s wise to take a step back.
Sure, you know that yourself.
HH FFM,
how y’all doing fella? Chillax and enjoy the chat.
Here’s a good choon I have not heard for a while. Ms. June Tabor. What a performer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBhhNhnu2vo
TC45
Am I the only one on the blog?
No posts for 100 minutes.
Looks like it Ciarans Dad 2 , is there a CD1?
For those who can’t sleep this is music for the Soul from The legend Terry Callier..
http://youtu.be/X8Ufi80zi54
Nightshift CSC
KTF
KTF
Lost the original password. Ciaran does have 2 minis (younger brothers) however.
Hail hail
Coincidentally my brother has a Ciaran with 2 younger bros.. And an older one. You’re not by any chance in ML5 are you ? :)
KTF, no, in Houston, Texas.
Been a few years since I have been to Motherwell. Always hated the stand opposite the Main Stand as their fans whinge for every decision.
Hail hail