Thanks for that soi 2, a good read including the comments from others.
Geographically how many areas (I assume mainly in the west) would be 90% plus in favour of remaing in the Union? And, if the vote for independence was yes, would we see civil disturbances similar to those in Northern Ireland?

There'll probably be a right dummy spit by that fucktard Salmond when we point out he can't have access to Trident and we won't be accepting Scottish bank notes anymore.

The new import duty on scotch eggs is what'll really fuck him up though.

Salmond thinks it will be okay to keep Sterling as the currency thus having the Bank of England as lender of last resort. You could'nt make it up.

It'll never happen anyway, Buckfast is brewed in Devon, we stop that crossing the border and Salmond's head will be on top of the flagpole at Edinburgh castle.

Thanks, just to put this article in a wider context. The author was the football agent responsible for bringing Mo Johnston to Rangers. Chat at the gym today, is he is a well known after dinner speaker at sportsman dinner events. Particularly popular with Rangers supporters clubs.

The thing is, this isn't about Rangers punishment. It's wider there's a lot going on. The independence referrendum is polarising society. Are you British or are you Scottish ? Are you both ? The national side support has been hijacked by an increasingly political Tartan Army. One of my mates is a Tartan Army diehard and here is an after match facebook post -

'Holy fuckin campaigns ruined on 1st day again! Theres absolutely no chance now (unless super rhodes is unleashed!) so lets look to a brighter, non orange, unionist-free and flourishing Scotland as an independant free state! Bring on the referendum 2014 and a fresh outlook to international fitba where we'll start fae scratch wae the worlds top goal scorer, shining in Euro 2016 with the hosts, our friends, (The Auld Alliance). Alba gu brath.'

What the fucks all that got to do with the national team ? This is why Rangers supporters are turning their back on it. It's not our team anymore.

I don't think the referendum will be for independence. I couldn't imagine Northern Ireland style trouble erupting if it went through. There isn't enough hatred !

The crackpot Scottish Parliament had some bill lined up to ban alcoholic drinks with caffeine in them. It came to nothing but that would have killed Buckfast imports. I read somewhere there's the same amount of caffeine in a bottle of Buckfast as eight cans of coke. That was their sneaky plan to get rid of the scourge of the tonic wine !

The quest to change history is gathering pace now. The Celtic propaganda machine and their puppet journalists are firing on all cylinders. This is the start of the Lord Nimmo Smith inquiry. Should Rangers be stripped of league titles and honours ?

Charles Green the Ranger's chairman's response -

http://www.vanguardbears.co.uk/index...reen-statement


The Rangers Football Club Limited will not attend tomorrow’s hearing (Tuesday, September 11) of the SPL-appointed Commission investigating the circumstances surrounding the use of Employee Benefit Trusts by previous owners of the Club. The Club cannot continue to participate in an SPL process that we believe is fundamentally misconceived.


Neither the SPL, nor its Commission, has any legal power or authority over the Club because it is not in the SPL. For that reason it has no legal basis on which to appoint its Commission. The Club ceased to be subject to the SPL’s rules when it was ejected from its league. Our lawyers have made that point repeatedly to the SPL in correspondence and yet our requests for an explanation from the SPL have been completely ignored. The SPL’s silence on these issues is deafening. The outcome of the SPL’s process will have no legal effect.

Furthermore, we ask the question genuinely. Why did the football authorities do nothing to address an issue that was public knowledge for at least two years, and was reported in the Club’s accounts for several years, before the Club went into administration and was subsequently taken over by new owners? HMRC contacted the SPL regarding EBT matters in October 2010, they met to discuss what documentation the Club had lodged with the SPL. Did the SPL launch an investigation? Did they appoint a Commission? Did they ask to see EBT correspondence? Did they ask any questions at all? No. They did absolutely nothing.


Why is the SPL rushing to judgement now when it has been sitting on the matter for 2 years? Their haste is particularly difficult to understand when the tax tribunal judgement is imminent. The factual issues in both cases are identical. We have to ask why is the SPL so anxious to issue a judgement in this matter before the tax tribunal’s findings are made public. The position is even harder to understand when one of the reasons the SFA did not pursue any form of disciplinary charge on EBT matters following Lord Nimmo Smith’s April report was because it was felt unwise for the SFA to pursue the matter when the tax tribunal judgement had not been made public. Nothing has changed as the judgement still has not been made public. Why is the SPL rushing ahead when in April the SFA felt it unwise to do so?

Rangers was not the only club in Scotland to use EBTs yet nothing was done and little has been heard about it. Also, Rangers stands accused of achieving sporting advantage unfairly – yet there is little debate over the fact in all the years EBTs were in existence at Ibrox, the Club often failed to win either the league title, or the main cup competitions. Furthermore, the period concerned saw a significant downsizing of the playing squad both in money spent on transfers and players wages.

This is a good article on Follow Follow... one of the best on the subject I've read.

Honours withdrawal would be legitimatized cheating.

http://www.followfollow.com/feat/edz...18/index.shtml



On three consecutive days Scotland’s newspapers carried interviews with Andreas Hinkel, Tom Boyd and Neil Lennon that were thinly-veiled excuses to publicise demands Rangers should be stripped of all silverware accumulated over the past decade.The perennially boorish Lennon has gone as far as comparing Rangers’ use of Employee Benefit Trusts with drug-taking cyclists at the Tour de France. That Scottish football writers facilitated this shameful exercise should come as no surprise. However, there must be concern that pressure is being exerted on football authorities by forces which have already succeeded in making their influence tell.

In response to the torrent of cant and disinformation, it should be emphasised that the SPL inquiry is simply addressing whether Rangers made payments that were not declared in players’ registration forms. The ‘cheating’ angle is a red herring. Many clubs in England use tax avoidance schemes. Players, managers and senior officials of Celtic have used tax avoidance schemes too. Celtic used an EBT for Juninho and did not declare it in his registration form. While this alone demonstrates the brazen hypocrisy of Rangers’ antagonists, the argument related to ‘gaining a financial advantage’ is specious in any case. Were HMRC to have accepted Rangers’ use of EBTs as valid, then the club would have done nothing wrong. Alternatively, were HMRC to have clamped down on the use of EBTs at an earlier stage, then, due to punitive penalty charges and interest rates, Rangers would have faced a financial disadvantage far exceeding the money originally saved, although the club would have survived. However, action by HMRC seems only to have been launched belatedly and the mere threat of a forthcoming bill was sufficient to force the club into administration and, finally, liquidation. Most would accept that the club has paid the ultimate price and now faces years of relative penury.

The issue of whether Rangers consciously broke the relevant football rule governing remuneration is a moot point which cannot be ascertained until the outcome of the First Tier Tribunal is published. Rangers will have argued that these disbursements were discretionary loans while HMRC will have asserted that they are really contractual payments. Should Rangers have included the payments in SFA/SPL documentation the club would be admitting that tax was due, thus rendering EBTs pointless. There is really no way round this problem which every other club using EBTs will also have encountered.

While the club effectively admitted early last year that the EBTs related to Flo and de Boer were operated incorrectly and offered to settle with HMRC, the SFA only launched an inquiry (subsequently passed on to the SPL) a fortnight after the club entered administration. The pretext for doing so raises worrying questions. Ostensibly, Stewart Regan acted in response to a muddled newspaper interview with former director Hugh Adam which contained several wild allegations and contradictory claims; it was clear he knew very little about EBTs. In contrast, the SFA report into ‘corporate governance’ at Rangers casually dismissed as inadequate several public statements by former directors warning about Craig Whyte.

At the root of this issue is the unmistakable whiff of humbug. The rule on the declaration of payments is in place primarily to safeguard players’ interests. Former Rangers players are hardly complaining and it is hard to see who has been disadvantaged. Moreover, senior football officials will have known all too well about the questions related to EBT use. The authorities did not raise these matters with Rangers until it was far too late for remedial action and the club’s hierarchy had been decapitated. The suspicion arises that the SFA and the SPL essentially tolerated EBT use in regard to player registrations and have performed a U-turn due to pressure from the media and vested interest groups.

There is nothing wrong in principle with insisting that Rangers are punished for genuine wrongdoing. However, in order to be credible, punishment must be in proportion to the crime and bear comparison with that imposed by other football authorities. It is therefore worth considering why it is being demanded that Rangers are penalised far more severely than clubs south of the border which found themselves in similar circumstances. The Rangers support has largely accepted the swingeing penalty of demotion by three divisions for setting up as a ‘newco’, although Leeds, Middlesbrough and several other English clubs were treated far more leniently. However, no reasonable person could possibly tolerate a situation in which Rangers were stripped of league titles and Scottish Cup wins in light of the fact that, quite rightly, no action whatsoever was taken in regard to Arsenal FC which achieved corresponding success when it operated EBTs or, indeed, any other English clubs in the same position. Furthermore, league titles have only been removed previously within UEFA as a result of grave offences involving bribery and match-fixing.

The sheer vindictiveness of the witch-hunt directed against Rangers has been astounding. Therefore, we cannot rule out attempts to rewrite history using the flimsiest of excuses. That Rangers FC is provisionally languishing in Division 3 with a devastated squad, facing a registration embargo and a succession of financial penalties is surely sufficient retribution for alleged ‘offences’. Rangers’ enemies, though, want far more than their pound of flesh.

Enough is enough. Any decision to withhold trophies on the basis of a technical legal debate surrounding paperwork would be tantamount to legitimatised cheating on a massive scale and lose Scottish football any remaining credibility.

I despise that evil little toad Neil Lennon.
Have I mentioned that before?

Rangers 54 titles, Celtic 43 titles, wonder if that has anything to do with it!!

Get with it mate, I have hated them for decades pissedme