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Bruce

Listed below are comments made by Bruce between Friday, 20th November 2009 and Monday, 21st December 2009.

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Non-Old Firm teams don't hate losing enough 6:31pm on 21 Dec 2009 Interesting blog as usual Jim and as usual interesting responses. I'm not sure about the mental toughness part though, surely playing for Dundee Utd would make that a pre rec for agreeing to sign for them in the first place lol.
I agree that I think the gap is probably narrowing a little bit between the teams. I also believe that the success of Aberdeen and Dundee Utd(spit) in the 80's was down to good managers and good players who resisted the urge to move on for more money or were happy where they were etc etc.
The difficulty now, and more so in my opinion, is that when a club gets a good player either the old firm will try and buy the player or the player will move down south for footballing reasons(money). That makes it very difficult I would imagine for a manager to build a side, also clubs need to sell in order to keep going.
The old firm can moan about lack of competition within Scottish Football for their crap showing in the European Comps but that just deflects from their own shortcomings. Go back to sharing gate money and a more even split with tv money would help solve that problem, of course they will never go for that.
I suppose the simple fact is that the Old Firm do have better players, and in many ways get decisions that the other teams don't. However, I do believe that the gap is slightly narrowing now. The Old Firm are not great anymore, Rangers don't have an Ally McCoist and celtic don't have a Paul McStay and long may that continue as far as I am concerned. I believe a more level playing field in regards to players can only help the Scottish game. My Team, the mighty Dees, have some good young players. if we can keep them, maybe we can over the next few years have a go at staying in the SPL if we get there and these same players can then go out and prove they are as good if not better than the Old Firm. Maybe it's not so much mental toughness but belief, the non old firm players need to believe in their own ability more, maybe then they will give the old firm clubs and fans the games they seek and we will see a challenge to the moaning two again.
But then if that happens then the old firm will try and sign them on the cheap, stick them in the resrves to ensure that they have no challengers. Oh the wonders of Scottish football, don't ya just love it.
A wee side point, Dundee FC are top of the league, won the Alba Cup and are not losing at Dens. You couldn't pay me to support any of the other want to be football teams in Scotland, well maybe Arbroath ( great pies ).
Are refereeing tensions really class war? 6:13pm on 15 Dec 2009 The standard of refereeing does appear to have gotten worse over the years, or maybe I have gotten old and cynical being a DFC fan. I do remember my absolute annoyance at Valentine (The DUFC Fan) when he got a derby. It could be that players today maybe don't have the same level of respect for officials as it was in the past or as we suppose it was. But I also think that works both ways. Some refs show a total lack of respect for players and managers, we see it on the TV each week. Well you do if you support an SPL side because the BBC in their wisdom still don't cater for the other 80% of fans from the lower league clubs who don't get highlights. Jim I seem to remember a previous blog when I asked you to change that, it hasn't happened so I can only assume that you are either not the sport reporting god of influence I thought you were, or your an arab and that would explain it all. Anything to keep the Dees Down.
Anyway maybe a way forward for the ref situation would be for all young players coming through now to take a course in refereeing as part of their football education and for refs to spend some time with clubs to see how the day to day operation works, maybe that would foster some understanding on all sides.
Family affairs 5:27pm on 15 Dec 2009 Well Brian, you have a non story as your blog and the story that we should be discussing is again left to members of this blog to raise.
Glenn Campbell's interview (attack) on the First Minister last night was a disgrace. When will the BBC get a grip of the shameful way that interviews and mis quotes are atrributed to the SNP. I assume I pay my licence fee for non partisan balanced reporting, sorry that's Euro News and not BBC Scotland. What will it take for the BBC to get a grip, non payment of the licence fee? Mass emails to the Director General?
I was disgusted last night, people around the world last night watching that or hearing must think we are a country of monkeys. That a paid employee of the BBC can show a complete lack of respect to the First Minister of Scotland is in my view enough to take this man off the air. I haven't been this angry since your bias blog against the Independance White paper.
Irrespective of which political party anyone supports the way that interview was conducted was shameful.
Spending money 5:59pm on 08 Dec 2009 Interesting blog. I agree with John that it would be interesting to see how they measure the various aspects of the needs based formula. Either way though surely this system would just lead the way to independence. If we are to be so poorly funded, as in our rightful share of the cake is to be cut to fund other parts of the UK, then surely we now need an open and honest assessment of the financial implications of independence closely followed by a vote. I actually don't think a system of this kind will come in unless the unionist parties have decided that English independence is the way they want to go. What this debate might do though is wake up the unionist party leaders to an honest debate, I have admitted previously that I am a NAT having previously been a labour supporter. The time is right for the debate to happen. Sadly what we will see on here is the nats like myself being attacked by the unionists who will then come up with no solid argument as to why we are better as a union. The best I have seen is that we won't have a say on the world stage if we are poor little Scotland. Well you know what thats fine because I actually don't want to tell the rest of the world how to live, maybe what we can do is demonstrate to the rest of the world the things we can do right and maybe they will follow.
The battle over class sizes 4:17pm on 04 Dec 2009 I watched FMQ's last night for the first time in ages, mainly due to never having the time. I actually thought that Alex Salmond wiped the floor with Ian Gray, Tavish Scott, Annabelle Goldie and I thought Wendy Alexander might actually cry.
However, I did get an insight watching it. I now understand why labour, the torries and liberals are so negative all the time. They are actually void of any talent on their benches. Alex Salmond demonstrated that he is so far ahead in getting his points across that the others look like they are scrambling around for ideas. If we had an honest media in this country the SNP would be light years ahead in the polls and anyone seriously thinking about voting for labour would be ashamed to admit it. Bring on the election if the best labour and the rest have to offer is their leaders, maybe then people will vote for the party that might not always get it right but at least stand up for Scotland.
Soft landing 8:30pm on 02 Dec 2009 This blog is supposed to be about education but that seems to have slipped away into a wider debate of what stats mean and who is bad or not.
I suppose for myself if the Liberals and Labour were planning a vote of no confidence that I feel would have been a mistake. Education has suddenly not gotten bad in 2 to 3 years under the SNP. The simple fact would appear to be that education has been getting worse for many years. This could be down to Governments of every shade getting too involved when maybe we need to encourage schools to have a far bigger say in what and how they teach based on the needs of children and young people in their local community. Is Fiona Hyslop to blame, I don't know but the politics of blame in education just seem off somehow. Maybe it's all our responsibilities to try and get it right, as a parent and as a society.
In some ways I would have liked to see a vote of no confidence as it would have shown the Liberals and Labour for what they really are, they just don't appear to have the best interests of Scotland at heart. The constitutional debate has to happen, doesn't matter what side of the fence you are on, it has to happen because it's time for the people to have a grown up debate, hear all the facts and make a decision. This decision is too important for politicians to make and I am sorry if I offend anyone I wouldn't let Ian Gray or Tavish Scott make that decision for me, likewise Goldie and Salmond. It's up to everyone of us to make the decision and the sooner all the politicians stop acting like children and start acting like the people we hope they can be, have the debate and take the issue to the people, then maybe we can move on as a country based on what the country wants.
Taking it to the max 09:23am on 01 Dec 2009 # 35 PickledPete

I think you will find that more money is spend per head in London and areas like Birmingham etc than in Scotland.

But either way this debate is not about oil, or who gets what and when. This debate is about the people who live , work and die in Scotland who now require the right to decide their own constitutional future. This is not about being anti English, Welsh or Irish. The vast majority of Scots would wish their neighbours well and all the best, this is about the democratic right to decide. A lot of people, mainly England if you believe the press coverage, are angry about no vote on Lisbon and fell they have a right to vote on the treaty. I agree we should have the right to vote on the Lisbon treaty, but surely then the same applies in Scotland to the question of how we want to be governed. The 'We' being the important part. It if for the people to decide, not the party leaders of the unionist parties. Tavish Scott does not speak for Scotland, neither Gray, Salmond or Goldie. It is time to put this issue to bed for 50 years either way.
The SFA should sacrifice their blazers 6:31pm on 23 Nov 2009 I could not agree more with you JS. Peat and Smith are a sad joke on Scottish Football. Things have got to change and soon because people are being turned off the game beacause of the following:
Poor Product
Over Priced
Cheating players

I mean lets look at a few examples, Dundee Utd wanting to charge again for a product that fans have already paid for is a disgrace. Over priced merchandice, over priced food and drinks at games. Players cheating like we saw in the Ireland/France game last week etc etc. Don't the powers that so called be actually see that they kill off a little more of the game each week for people like myself who can always find other things to spend our money on, and are some weeks now.
The SPL stiffles competition, the BBC spend very little on the SFL while spending a fortune on the SPL, EPL and Formula One. A luke warm coffee costs £1.60 at the Alba Cup Final, a pie near £2 at Dens. All of this turns people away. On top of that we have people like Smith and Peat who love the positions they hold but in reality offer little or nothing to the debate and are slowly preciding over the death of the game in this country.
Change will no doubt come but too late, the fans will continue to stop going to games, FIFA will continue to be run like the SFA on a larger scale and people like me will find other things to do with our time and our money.
On the plus side, I am a dee, we won the Cup, the Calley fans were great as well as the DFC fans. The match programme was worth every penny, the match was great in the end, the food was still crap and over priced. maybe there is hope, but it's not coming from those who run the game but from the ones I was sitting next to yesterday, they make it worth while.
Under pressure 5:42pm on 23 Nov 2009 First of all don't you mean what a result in perth on sunday.
Interesting blog as usual, lots of questions from Brian with no answers really. Either way I think what we need to remember is that when Councils let staff go it is normally the lower paid ones who actually spend their money in local shops, rather than senior management who don't live in the areas they work in. You then have to figure in that the other losers will be the elderly and the young, the unemployed who really need the services that tend to be cut, by that I mean the non-statuatory services. There are going to be job loses, I might even be one of them, things are going to get worse before they get better. There are lots of people we can blame but they are going to be fine with their pensions and pay offs. I just hope that people remember when the next election comes around the MP's who had their fingers in the biscuit tin, they let the bankers gamble with our money, they are using our money to try and fix the problem, they will take our jobs to ease the borrowing or they hope they will and they will expect your vote because in the past we have been sheep to the slaughter and let them away with it. I for one will be keeping this in mind next year at election time, and while I know who I will be voting for I will also be asking some questions if any of the candidates actually show face where I live, they probably won't though.
'Just say no' 4:31pm on 20 Nov 2009 This blog is a bit all over the place, still interesting though. Anyway I might as well put my tupence worth in on a few points. First of all I am a Nat Voter, might as well get that out the way. Wasn't always. Voted Labour in my firstvote to realise that if the Torries are in power ( Major at the time )then a vote for labour is an absoulute waste of time as when I was looking for them to stand up for Scotland, to stand up for me they just didn't. They then gave up all their principles to chase the centre vote in England and all but abandoned Scotland. I don't see that that has changed over the years.
The SNP are not perfect, but then they have only had a serious role in power for 3 years compared to what 70 years for labourin Scotland. For my way of thinking they just can't do any worse, and at the very least they will stand up for Scotland.
I am even not going to moan about the English, when the Torries get in next year, which they will, England will have voted for the party they want to govern them. The problem I have is two fold, they certainly will not represent the views of the vast majority of people in Scotland and no doubt a lot of Scots will vote Labour next year when we actually need Scotland to vote for the party that will stand up for Scotland. Weather you agree in seperation or not surely what will be vital is our voice being heard, sadly I just don't think that will happen. But I will live in hope that Labour voters after the next election will learn that labout gave up on you , on us, a long time ago. Sadly the voters in GNE haven't learned that lesson yet but I think within the next few years they will when they notice that you know what the Labour MP you voted in has changed nothing and is actually singing to the London labour tune.
The plus side is that most of the posters on this blog make good points for their particular beliefs, doesn't matter if I agree or not, it shows that we can have healthy debate even when the BBC abandoned that a long time ago and became the publicity section of the labour party.
Either way we are in for an interesting 12 months, the torries will be in power, jobs in Scotland in the public sector will start to go, services will start to become stretched and poor,local econmies which rely on low paid public workers will start to close as we have no money to spend but at least I will have another 4 or 5 years to watch labour MP's do nothing for me and mine, but they will be fine. They will have a job and a legion of voters who will vote for them not matter how crap they (Ian Gray) are while they try to rebuild their english vote. Then maybe the voters of this country will stand up and realise that anything other than a vote for the party that will stand up for Scotland interests is a wasted vote.

Well my rant is complete, I await my slagging from my fellow posters, I am even looking forward to Christmas.

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