Smarmy Arab

The new chairman purchased a dire situation 18 months ago, no need to go into detail, losing money, entombed in the 2nd tier etc. My understanding is the chairman has considerable experience in business and had looked under the bonnet so to speak. He has invested heavily in back room staff, and put in place a new manager, who had requested a complete squad overhaul within months of taking over. Thus far the chairman has delivered. Removing old staff cost a small fortune, the aquisition of new staff at all levels cost a small fortune, he has also spent considerable monies on maintaining the stadium, money he will not recoup - not so with regard to the new staff, who can theoretically at least yield a considerable return upon promotion. I would also envisage a return on Shanks, (maybe a couple of others) if he can avoid serious injury! Not quite sure why so many in the media are soiling themselves over this relatively modest business plan, a look at United's books over recent years would see the potential at Tannadice (over £10 million in transfer fees alone) twice taking 28,000 fans to Hampden in the last decade. Let's remember Rangers, Dundee, Hearts, Motherwell, Livingston, Gretna all went under with millions of debt, we did not, we sat down with creditors and cleared the debt, and are now trying to restructure the club after some catastrophic mismanagement. I heard Stuart Cosgrove moaning about this the other day (he does little else these days) and notice some vitriol directed down the Tay on these pages, no change there but we all know what a resurgent Dundee United would mean for Saints (both) Hamilton Ross Co et al, you all see us in the rear view mirror....be afraid, be very afraid! I am quietly confident we can win promotion this year, in each year of the last decade one team runs away with it following New Year, this year I hope it will be us. This is already our strongest showing after the first round of fixtures and we have a stronger squad than any of our competitors, this should tell in the end. (I have not thought so in previous years!) Look on the bright side, we will bring a big noisy crowd up twice a season, which will please your bean counters no end, and would you really rather play Hamilton or St Mirren?

Every team outside the cheeks will go through a period like this, Saints are just early! Hopefully Tommy will rally the team for a while and pull clear....that said I suspect it could be a bunfight between 5/6 teams for the drop this year.

As far as I know he still scouts in England for United.

Heard Tommy post match.....oozed class....what legend you've got there!

Nat Onal is on the mast head. So you are proposing a model along the lines of Ireland, (as is the Growth Commission) . Low tax tiger economy.....now who is the Tory! Serious question, is the GC an effort to convince those on the right wing of scottish politics that an Indy Scotland would mean a massive shrinking of the welfare state and new bare-knuckle neo liberal tax haven....like...er..... Ireland? To present an argument that this constitutional debate is a choice of nationalisms would make a Jesuit blush.....only a nationalist would even begin to make such a binary self referential, reductionist case. I will tell you again, 'unionist' is a position I arrive at, having examined the evidence, not a position I start from, that is NOT A NATIONALIST position, it is a pragmatic position. The problem (one of them!) With nationalist politics is it begins every discussion with a conclusion, then the work back....the GC is exactly that....if you want Indy this is the cost. (A welcome addition to the debate, as it at least acknowledges the deficit and dangers of over reliance on a volatile resource.)

RE The Nat Onal, there are a number problems with this publication. Firstly it is only a 'newspaper' in the sense that the Socialist Worker is a newspaper, it is in reality a propaganda sheet for the SNP. Secondly the journalistic quality is akin to the Daily Express, regardless of its political view point this hardly 'changing the landscape of Scottish journalism' as the claimed at their launch......all they have really achieved is dropping more turds on an already stained landscape. Even a cursory glance at the comments section should horrify anyone who cares about our political discourse.....blood and soil nationalism in all its vainglority. It's initial print run was over 60k, it is now well below 10k, an echo chamber if ever I saw one.....disappearing up itself rapidly.

Tory? You know perfectly well I have been a member of the Labour Party for the best part of 3 decades. Try as you might you cannot equate every No voter as a Tory. Since the SNP lost their heartlands to the Tories they now rely upon west central Scotland for their votes.....hence they must harvest the (understandable) anti tory vote since deindustrialisation You still fail to appreciate the many people who can see past emotional nationalism and are comfortable with the connections across these islands,.......that being part of the 5th largest economy on the planet, with a high degree of autonomy and continued shared institutions is a perfectly reasonable position to take. 2Js is schooling you to that effect and shrieking 'unionist' or 'Tory' in a shrill tone, at anyone who askes a question shows how far you (and your movement) are from winning the argument among reasonable people who are unconvinced by indy.

Nicola Sturgeon et al. Could not give 2 f*cks about what is 'good' for Scotland, they would have us living in tents....so long as we are 'independent'.......emotional drivel! The appointment of Blackford shows the way they are going.....no more persuasion just use their political position to cause as much damage as possible. They are a f*cking disgrace.

I guess uou are talking about 'political correctness'. Any atempt to police language is problematic, but i thing much of the criticism of PC is hysterical. Language is powerful and has consequences, ergo I have no problem with analysing the language we use and assess the social consequences of racist, sexist or homophobic discourses bequeathed to us from a less enlightened age of slavery and empire. This generation have never had more freedom of speech, if you are telling me western civilisation is under threat because 'you can"t say n***** or p***' anymore I would suggest you are in need of a reset.

I would absolutely accept lies on both sides, but there were some whoppers central to Salmond's case, not least of which........Yes told us we would better off, they lied. The No campaign told us a Yes victory would unleash a generation if austerity......the SNP after 2 years of reseach now admit this is a certainty.....project fear? The SNP also know their prospectus will be a hard sell this time....hence their antics last week, they have lost the argument and are now a wrecking ball....on the outside of the tent p*ssing in barely begins to describe their current demeanour. Edit...i am not accusing you personally of anything, i am merely observing nationalist populism and how it rolls.

Exactly my point Kyle....nationalism does the work of the right.......always. The GC released last week has let the cat out the bag, not only were the Yes campaign cavalier with the facts in 2014, they now admit independence will inevitably involve a hand-break turn to the right, a generation of austerity, an eye watering squeeze of the public state provision in countless fields, currency chaos........but to their followers so what?......we will be free! No longer is the debate about how best to provide, thrive and survive, it becomes an invidious cocophony about flags, identity and how awful 'they' (English/toareez/Unionists) are!

'Unfortunately many of these questions are not able to be asked at the moment, due to a well coordinated leftist narrative, and more worryingly, a pretty significant erosion of freedom and expression that I see in action already.' Not sure what you mean by this Herts.

Some reasonable points here Kyle, it is of course a democracy and yes political engagement is a good thing, however when I take a step back and look at what is happening.......... I can remember when Quebec was the go to scenario for the Scottish Nationalists, for good reason there are a number of similarities. By the late 20th century the Quebec Nationalist party were polling in the 40's and had gained control of the political apparatus, but they could not quite gain the required majority for 'independence'. They used their political position to centralise and politicise everything they could, particularly in the field of language and culture. (sound familiar?) Try as they might, they could not convince the majority that partition of Canada, tearing Quebec from a large diverse democratic economy was in the cultural, political, social or economic interests of the people of Quebec or Canada. For over 20 years the nationalists obsessed over a constitutional question and the economy became stagnant, with little investment coming in and worse still investment flowing out, thousands of people and businesses relocated to escape the turgid reality and uncertainty of neverendum. This situation became so dire the SNP quietly dropped any talk of Quebec, and switched affections to Catalonia....how is that working out? Yet another minority nationalist movement who ignore the wishes of the majority, force through an illegal referendum and the Catalan economy faces capital flight, political paralysis and a grim outlook for the future, with their leadership now jailed facing charges of sedition. The UDI was greeted with indifference across the EU, no significant support anywhere least of all in Spain, whilst in Catalonia itself the mass mobilisation of civil action has simply failed to materialise. All this so that a few emotional fanatics can march around, singing songs and waving flags in a state of arousal? Odds are the Scottish situation will end in similar fashion, if there is another indyref all available evidence suggest the people will again reject it. Scotland is now in a neverendum situation, over a decade of constitutional bun fighting, authoritarian technocratic managerialist centralisation, complete with rebranding into a moribund language, gleefully led by cynical self-interested Pied Piper politicians, with mood music provided by similarly self- interested artists, writers and poets. Whist Mr Blackford led his heroic troops in an undergraduate stunt last week, back in Scotland we discover the Scottish Government have been f*cking around with journalists and political opponents FOI requests in case they reveal damaging truths about how they conduct their business, how democratic......and another example of why an indy pressure group should not remain in office indefinitely. Brexit certainly presents a curve ball, but in the cold light of day, are we really saying we should follow a major constitutional clusterf*ck with another one?

If only this were so HSF. Referenda are supposed to settle constitutional questions, this has not been the case in recent times. We had a 2 year campaign around independence, the most fantasticist, wonderfulist expression of democratic engagement in the history of democratic engagement (allegedly), the issues were covered ad nauseum, the turn out was record breaking, the losers have never accepted the result, and have been agitating for another everyday since. If we held another and the Remain side won the Scexiteers would simply go for a 3rd and 4th till we got it 'right'. Look at the mess over Brexit......recent experience tells me that referenda are divisive and deeply damaging and fail to yield the promised 'settled will'. I may well be somewhat misanthropic about direct democracy, but I have yet to see it deliver progress.

Get used to it, it appears the zealots of the indy movement will not, or can not get the message.