Rayvin

Still interesting though - seems good at 'management' as well as just tactics and football. He's going to be a damn sight better than the Charnley-Carr combo from our last couple of seasons anyway.

I wonder if we'd be more or less in the position we're in now. I think the longer we go from the relative success of the Keegan/Robson era, the less influence that time period will have on the overall trendline of our success. So yeah, we'd have gone down, probably had a wholesale clearout, maybe headed into financial ruin, but eventually we'd have come back right? Then again, the Keegan era got us to 52k seats, and with 36k it's less likely we'd have had the financial muscle to pull back. There's a million other variables mind.

What do you think would have happened to us if we hadn't won?

That's probably why it wouldn't happen. Besides anything else like, if Sturgeon does block it then trying to get it through will probably take the rest of our lives, however they decide to do it. Let's hope she's successful. Seems to have more about her than Mayhem anyway.

Quite possibly. If Sturgeon manages to prevent Article 50 being triggered (I'd say that this is a remote chance at best, as No. 10 will just ride roughshod over her if it has to) then I could see the union falling apart as London looks to fulfil Brexit by jettisoning Scotland. Although that said, is there really a mandate or the political will for anything approaching the amount of turbulence that would happen were all this to come to pass?

That's a fair comment, but in a landscape that just dealt us Brexit and Trump, I'm not sure that the answer is as much of a given as it would have been 10 years ago.

Wonder if he'll ever be able to do that again...?

I think you're putting a lot of faith in Spain there, although your first point might swing it. Spain is reverting to a right wing police state. They've just outlawed making fun of the police, royalty, and politicians. In that kind of climate, they're going to protect what they see as their territorial sovereignty, I think, over fishing. That said, if the UK did cast Scotland aside, as you say, maybe that'd do it. Not sure we would do that though, it'd take a fucking brave politician... I suppose it might go to a referendum - it'd be a nailed on outcome then. Or the EU just brings them straight in, past Spain - that's also possible, but might well lead to Spain quitting the union in the longer term. I think whatever course of action comes up from this, it'd have to have Spain's full backing.

Just to add, it's not like the rest of the media don't have an agenda anyway... At least Wikileaks, if it does have one (it does) has to wield it through the relatively benign means of withholding information (if it does this at all) and the timing of releases. BBC esque in that respect.

Really? I thought that they would have to. If they don't then great, it really strengthens their position.

No it wouldn't, it'd have to apply and would inevitably be blocked by Spain. But that said, I don't think they'd be able to remain in the UK if they stopped this...?

Ok so this is a grim story about a guy who drugged and raped several men, some of whom died from overdoses. The guy got a full life sentence and it sounds justified. However, he didn't mean to kill the ones who died, and so had to dispose of the bodies - he left one in an open grave, and then when he killed another one a few months later, left him in the same position, but with a suicide note: As part of an elaborate cover-up, Port faked and planted a suicide note purporting to have been written by Whitworth claiming he had taken his own life by overdosing on GHB in guilt over accidentally giving Kovari a fatal dose of the drug during sex. The note, which was taken at “face value” by investigating officers, included the line: “BTW, please do not blame the guy I was with last night, we only had sex, then I left. He knows nothing of what I have done.” Had police attempted to trace that “guy’, which they did not, it could have led them to Port. How in fuck does a note that reads 'BTW please do not blame the guy I was with last night' fail to be followed up on? Too right the families are suing the Met. Full story: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/25/serial-killer-stephen-port-jailed-for-life

How would that scenario even play out though... That'd be it for Scotland in the UK, that's for sure. The hatred would be palpable. Obviously that's what Sturgeon wants of course, so that's a win for her, but it'd be a very strange time for the UK. Would we then have to have another referendum because Scotland was no longer included and what constitutes the UK had changed? This is never going to happen of course, but if Scotland left the union with the parting gift of saving the country, they'd have done us a massive favour.

... There's some right fucking weirdos on this board mind

She is beyond contempt, fully agree. The Guardian noted that the Daily Mail was the only paper (aside from the FT) not to have this story as it's front page the other day, and also noted that it claimed he killed her because his house was going to be taken off him and given to immigrants. I find that incredible.

So now we're implicated in this paedo nonsense, on a separate claim... https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/24/george-ormond

He cited a few other things like the lack of a preseason as well, but that was in there, aye.

I wondered this too...

Did you do military service?

I'd be happy if we exceeded £20m in terms of a statement of intent in fairness. That said, I'm not convinced that these massive amounts are actually bringing in quality for the teams spending them...

Aye tbf to Essembee, it's not like he ever brings up things from the distant past to make an obscure point.

That's quite possibly the reality of the situation but I still have hope that someone will come up with something.

It also wasn't driven by 'the people'. It was driven by 'a select few people'. But anyway, otherwise I grudgingly agree with him - especially concerning where the far left and far right meet, that's a really curious phenomenon. Globalisation is irreversible and the duty of the left to fix it so that the benefits are spread more evenly. The centre-left can't - it "tried" and failed. The left could. Either way, someone needs to come up with an answer and I don't even mind if that person is Blair as long as the solution makes sense.

Blair is so well loved in this country that it's hard to see how such a move could possibly backfire.