Campbell Ogilvie’s appointment as president of the SFA was always controversial. As general secretary and director of Rangers, Ogilvie was the club’s chief administrator during the final 11-year period they refused to employ Catholic footballers. In many other walks of life, this background would make him an embarrassing relic of a former era, but in Scottish football it was enough to see him promoted to the ultimate honour position.
He remained in position at Rangers long after the new regime of Sir David Murray arrived and set aside the decades-old sectarian employment policy but left the club in 2005, joining Hearts as operations director two months later. All of this puts the SFA president in central position regarding the on-going tax tribunal, which is charged with deciding if Rangers illegally evaded tax from a period starting in 2000 and going on well beyond Ogilvie’s departure.
If the First Tier Tribunal finds against Rangers the SFA must ask for Ogilvie’s immediate resignation. The association cannot have a president embroiled in a tax evasion scam which, even before a verdict has been decided, has already caused untold harm to his former club and the reputation Scottish football. The scale of the damage to public finances has yet to be definitively established but it will not make good reading.
The SFA has just embarked on its first proper investigation into whether directors of a football club, in this instance Rangers, are fit and proper persons to hold such a position. Office holders at the association cannot exercise power over the game if they are not subject to the same standards they demand from clubs. Pending this investigation, and the outcome of the tax tribunal, Ogilvie should temporarily step aside. Scotland is not yet a banana republic, public bodies must have robust ethics and must not allow the shadow of contagion to be cast over the body charged with ensuring legal and moral standards are adhered to.
The SFA has some enormously important months ahead. Its president is currently in a position to influence which course it takes and, if the tribunal verdict falls against Rangers, could be implicated in the scandal which precipitated the crisis. While I am sure Campbell Ogilvie will be shown to have acted with impeccable ethical standards, the SFA must quickly establish a structure clear of contagion.
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For there’s not a team like the Glasgow Rangers
No not one and there never shall be one…
Make it happen
HAil Hail
The SFA announced their independent panel would also include Professor Niall Lothian, a past president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and Bob Downes, who is deputy chairman of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency.
SFA chief executive Stewart Regan will also sit on the panel.
The governing body revealed that Regan met Lord Nimmo Smith to define the terms of reference for the investigation.
The inquiry team have been handed the same powers as the SFA to investigate the potential breach of their rules and have been asked to report to the board within two weeks.
Philvis
The Shabby Chapeau kindly ask: Does your Swan supplier sell wild Boar?
obonfanti1888 says:
21 February, 2012 at 15:44
It was clearly tongue in cheek as far as I was concerned.
Hail Hail
My dear,dear,dear,friend.. Awe Naw
Pal.
Let me tell you a Home Truth.
And it is This..
If a Person gets intae a Financial Mess…
By.. Borrowing Money… which He cannot Repay..
then..
The Blame rests ENTIRELY oan the Shooders o’ the Borrower..
NO THE LENDER!
The Banks are only providing a Service.
Those who Borrow and Canny Repay. .must
pay it Back..or rue the Day.
Kojo
yer pal.. who likes ye aloater
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo says:
21 February, 2012 at 15:40
Why can banks be bailed out when they are directly responsible for peoples hardships but the people cant ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And well said that mhan too!
As Ivan Denisovich asked -How can you expect a person who is warm to understand a person who is cold?
eh Philvis? Kojo?
U
Kojo says:
21 February, 2012 at 15:46
unless your a bank ?
aint that right Kojo ?
one word answer will suffice
Hail Hail
greenjedi says:
21 February, 2012 at 15:30
Glenbuck
So somebody who cannot be bothered to work should be given money to do so paid by people who do work hard and in some case earn less than they get on benefits?
I am with you all the way, sur. every unemployed person i have met is a scounger. There is no excuse for them being unemployed in this day and age. They should be forced to do 37 hours menial work until they get a job. If they dont do it they should lose their benefits, if they happen to have wAens they should lose them too as they obv. cannae look after them. And they should get on their bikes and find work wherever it is. None ae this community and extended family guff, white trash should be able to move tae any other white trash community. Norman Tebbit was right on this and so much more. Lose yer job sign up for the 1st job available wherever it is or get nae benefits. That’s no what theypaid their taxes fur and national insurance fur. They paid it tae keep bankers in jobs.
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo says:
21 February, 2012 at 15:45
In that case, apologies to whoever made that comment! Though I stand by the rest of what I said! ;)
Hail Hail!
There are a lot of budding St. David Murrays making their views very apparent today.
Hail Hail
Kojo says:
21 February, 2012 at 15:46
——–
But what about the banks who SELL you loans that you never really needed in the first place. Financiallty irresponsibility is a 2 way street.
Just ask (the former Sir) Fred the Shred
awe_naw 15.40
because if the banks go down they take the whole economy with them in the same way that if Rangers go down they take the whole of Scottish football with them.
kojo,
stupid
Got to ask; those people ripping into the unemployed; what are you doing on HERE at 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon?
Shouldn’t you be working?
Has that Philvis been mixing it again?
He does manage to get a reaction. He should have had a career in advertising!;-)
RE Tescos/Workfare etc
I think there is a middle way which is:
To pay people to do worthwhile work that otherwise would not have been done. We are “making” money, hundreds of billions, via quantitative easing (QE), giving it to the banks for 1% and letting them “repair their balance sheets (i.e. exploit us) by charging us >4%. They lend little of this to business – which was the idea. This is a disgusting waste and transfer of wealth to those who have the most already. It would be much better spent on creating real jobs.
These jobs should pay a living wage (not benefits), and should be new (not a cheap alternative to existing employees). Under those circumstances it would be fair to with-hold benefits if people don’t take the job offered.
jock steins celtic says:
21 February, 2012 at 15:50
Exactamundo
The huns are now finally being controlled but hopefully it is too late for them.
Hail Hail
see when you were a wean,
do you remember when the ice cream van chimes could be heard in the distance, and you knew the van was coming
and you had to hurriedly put on your shoes and get some money, and you went running out the wee hoose to see the van pulling away, and passing by the big hoose, and you had to chase it a few streets till the next stop,
can someone stop that van for me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSLGqESxoyA&feature=related
My dear,dear,dear,friend.. Ulysses McGhee.
Pal.. Good Point.
Fur,as you have quoted..
A Person who has NEVER bin Cauld. Would
find it Impossible to Know the Feeling of The Absence of Heat.
Ah kin thoroughly agree with that..
So..
Whit is Your Point?
Kojo
yer pal.. who likes ye aloater
Billy’s Bhoy says:
21 February, 2012 at 15:52
Aye he´s good … got me talking about The Malvinas last night.
Hail Hail
wonkyradar:
Excellent post. De-regulation has done untold damage to this country and many other countries. Those who say the markets should be left alone are living in a bubble.
Rangers is the premier example of what we’re talking about here. I find it amazing that some of the folks on here who are banging the “punish Rangers” drum don’t understand the parallel between what’s happened in this case and the case of the banks and the requirment for big government regulation of market forces.
If the markets are left alone, if regulations are not strong, if scrutiny is not thorough, if laws are not robust, if oversight is not capable, then evasion, cheating, fraud and theft become the norm.
And in the end, the little guy suffers. Look at the people who work at Ibrox day-by-day. They will pay the ultimate price for the club’s profligacy. Look at the other SPL clubs, who whatever happens to Rangers will be damaged by this series of events anyway. Hearts, Dundee Utd, Motherwell, Dunfermline … all paying a high price for the behaviour of one side.
I am a big government advocate, always have been, always will be. And for the very reason we have been talking about every single day on this site. Rangers, left to their own devices, showed us all what the end results were, as the banks did in the wider context.
Workfare is a scandalous policy, on every level. It is bad for the economy, bad for the people forced into it and it leads, ultimately, to a dehumanising effect in other areas of our system. What next? Depriving people of free health care if their lifestyles contributed to their condition?
There’s also a fundamental ignorance of what the welfare system is for, on this site and elsewhere. The example of the guy who sits on his backside and gets benefits enough to keep him in clover is ridiculous, because the actual number of people involved in that is tiny.
The system exists for the very people decrying it. It exists for us. For hard working people, who fall on hard times through no fault of their own. It is a safety net. And yes, it is open to abuse, but then so is the tax system as we have seen. But this kind of policy uses saturation bombing on the whole system when what we actually require are precision munitions dropped on the bits which don’t work.
But I repeat, the system was not built for the scrounger, the work-shy, the rip off merchant and the local drug dealer who doesn’t make enough from inflicting misery but wants a wee bit more for his holidays. it was created for all of us, for good people having hard times … and I have been grateful for it a number of times in my own life … which makes the patronising claptrap about me never having lived in the Real World such a laughable argument, coming as it does from idiots who have never done the jobs I’ve done, never been gutted when even those jobs didn’t last and have never tried to live on a pittance.
I go away for a hour or so to varnish a few doors and ww3 has erupted on here.
The SFA are to blame, they have allowed minty carte blanche to do what he wanted.
RC Ogilvie should stand down immediatly.
Scottish football has been destroyed all because we won the Big Cup, and in their persuit of emulatiny us the game here is in the mess it’s in now.
Disbandment of the SFA should be our goal.
This would be the best solution all round.
Aw Naw
At least you know the real name for those islands.
The people may claim to be British but they are not entitled to planned health care in the UK on the NHS. Coz like the Rangers they don’t pay their UK Taxes.
Germany’s unemployment rate at record low in December
Strong exports of German cars are helping drive employment figures
German unemployment fell to its lowest rate in December since 1991, according to the German Federal Labour Agency.
The adjusted jobless rate fell to 6.8% from 6.9% in November, the Federal Labour Office said.
This marked a new record low since figures for unified Germany were first published.
The seasonally-adjusted total for the number of people out of work in Germany fell 22,000 to 2.88 million in December.
The agency said the number of people out of work averaged 2.976 million over the course of last year.
News of the figures saw the German Dax stock exchange rise almost 1% by noon on Tuesday.
Continue reading the main story
Analysis
Stephen Evans
BBC News, Berlin
The rate of unemployment fell during 2011, starting the year edging towards 7% of the potential workforce and falling to below 7%. Since the Wall came down in 1989, it has risen to nearly 12% at times, as industries died in parts of the old East Germany.
But now cities like Leipzig are rebounding, attracting manufacturing because the wages are lower than those in the West, but also bright start-ups in technology.
East and West remain divided economically, but the division is narrowing. And the success of German manufacturing exports to China has increased employment. For the first time, more than 40m Germans – about half the population – have jobs.
Economists warn, though, that growth will slow this year, and that could mean people losing their jobs and a further squeeze on wages.
All the same, unemployment at a record low for the last two decades is something most countries would envy, and a sign of the way Germany has rebuilt itself since the Wall came down.
This was equal to an average jobless rate of 7.1 % – down from 7.7% in 2010.
Leading economists expect Germany’s economic growth to slow in 2012, however, in line with other major eurozone economies, which may put a squeeze on wages and jobs.
But, as the BBC’s Berlin correspondent Stephen Evans points out, unemployment at a record low for the last two decades is something most countries would envy, and a sign of the way Germany has rebuilt itself since the Wall came down.
Strong exports
“Germany’s manufacturing and export-driven economy finished the year strongly – piling on another 22,000 jobs in December,” said Anthony Cheung of market analysts RANsquawk.
“Behind the strong performance lie some adept moves by Germany’s exporters.
“As their eurozone markets weakened, they have been very good at moving their focus elsewhere.
“German carmakers have more than compensated by dramatically growing sales to developing markets.”
By contrast, Spain said on Tuesday the number of people claiming unemployment benefits stood at a 15-year high at the end of 2011.
The Spanish claimant count is now 4.42 million, with December seeing the fifth straight monthly rise.
I stopped being wound up by philvisreturns years ago, when I realised he was on a recruitment drive for a left wing political party….. Ach maybe all that jelly’s went to ma Heid.
Party on CSC ….. You innaw Philvis!
V
Excellent post, Paul67.
Hail Hail
In Germany when you go on the dole you get 70% of your earnings from the previous year.
Pity that Thatcher destroyed our manufacturing base for a bunch on Bankers who basically couldn´t count.
Hail Hail
greenjedi says:
21 February, 2012 at 15:03
and philvis
“Everybody who claims unemployment benefit should have to do something to earn it. Now that could be getting work experience with a company, it could scrubbing grafitti of the walls, cleaning river banks etc etc, but nobody who is fit and able to work should be given money to sit on their fat lazy bahookies.”
Well, if they have to do something to earn it, how about calling it a job and giving them a fair wage for doing it instead of £53 pw?
That would get an absolutely spot on thumbsup from me!
And not all unemployed people get the equivalent of £35k a year. Unemployment has increased significantly over the recent past which means that some of those who are unemployed now were not so until recently. Did they always have a fat lazy bahookie or is it just since they deliberately damaged the economy enough to get themselves made redundant.
I wish we could have Declan’s opinion on all this.
Kojo
Pal.
Perspective is my general point.
That there is a whole gamut of greys between black and white.
Not every benefit taker is on the make.
Just like not every benefit maker is on the take.
If you catch my drift…
U
Someone start a song debate PLEEEEEEEEEEASE
We are fighting with each other, with the last week we have just had?
Must be an additive in the jelly that’s causing all this angst.
Mtt
Look guys this is a Celtic blog can we get back to discussing EVERYTHING about the hun demise :-)
HAil HAil
Billy’s Bhoy,,
are you implying it will be established as a tax haven for the corporations soon to be setting up antartic natural resource expolotration and exploitation, surely no.
Hitler was a visionary…a pioneer is always ahead of his time…by the sound of things on here we are finally catching up with der fuhrer…sheidt where is that copy of mein kampf? Does make a good doorstop…
Just the way the cookie crumbles
HAil Hail
Ah well,
we’ve had a week of ice cream, jelly and laughs. I suppose it was too good to last.
Ingredients
100g plain flour
2 eggs
300ml semi-skimmed milk
1 tbsp sunflower oil or vegetable, plus extra for frying
pinch salt
Blending in the flour: Put the flour and a pinch of salt into a large mixing bowl and make a well. Crack the eggs, then pour in about 50ml milk and 1 tbsp oil. Whisk, Once all the flour is incorporated, beat until you have a smooth, thick paste. Add a little more milk if it is too stiff to beat. Add a good splash of milk and whisk to loosen the thick batter. While still whisking, pour in a steady stream of the remaining milk. Continue pouring and whisking until you have a batter that is the consistency of slightly thick single cream.
Traditionally, people would say to now leave the batter for 30 mins, to allow the starch in the flour to swell, but there’s no need.
Heat the pan over a moderate heat, then wipe it with oiled kitchen paper. Ladle some batter into the pan, tilting the pan to move the mixture around for a thin and even layer, return the pan to the heat, then leave to cook, undisturbed, for about 30 secs. If the pan is the right temperature, the pancake should turn golden underneath after about 30 secs and will be ready to turn.
Hold the pan handle, ease a fish slice under the pancake, then quickly lift and flip it over. Make sure the pancake is lying flat against base of the pan with no folds, then cook for another 30 secs before turning out onto a warm plate.
Continue with the rest of the batter, serving them as you cook or stack onto a plate.
Enjoy with some Jelly & Ice cream if you wish.