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theblueskyeman

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    Clint hill

    in Jimmy Bell's Kitroom

    Posted

    He whipped the crowd up at one point in the second half and fair play it worked. Good lad played with his heart on his sleeve you can see he's just getting too old tho his body isn't keeping up. His heads there tho

    Tav & O'Halloran

    in Jimmy Bell's Kitroom

    Posted

    Looked like there was a bit of misunderstanding between the pair last night. Remember Tav really smacked a short simple pass at MoH and he's fumbled it then you could see he was raging. Thought there was a few times Tav could have laid him on but chose to cut inside instead but lost the ball. It'll come good the. Things like that look to be getting sorted out this season

    Cracking Vb Read

    in Jimmy Bell's Kitroom

    Posted

    Makes you wonder if this is why the likes of Sutton and O Neil have come out and said that we shouldn't be stripped of any titles because they know full well they were using tax avoidance schemes other than ebts and this all may be exposed sooner or later?

    This week has seen an explosion of moral hypocrisy in Scottish football; a moral hypocrisy which sadly has become rather common place in the last five or so years. The catalyst for the latest explosion was HMRC winning its appeal against oldco. Predictably, this ruling has brought fresh calls from various media pundits and high-profile fans to strip Rangers of titles won during years in which EBTs were used.

    The call for title stripping is both morally and legally absurd, and is supported by the weakest of arguments. On the legal side, nothing in the latest appeal had any bearing upon previous rulings regarding sporting advantage, as anyone who has kept up with the facts and doesnt have a pre-established agenda against the club will admit. The moral argument is also completely flawed, as I will show here.

    Some, like Jim Spence, Alex Thomson and Graham Spiers, have argued as follows. Despite being legal at the time of use, because EBTs took advantage of a loophole Rangers exploited Scottish football for their own benefit, and also exploited the taxpayer. Thus, morally speaking, they cheated (Spence, Spiers) and won titles fraudulently (Thomson).

    However, this argument is an extremely bad one for the following reason. Many clubs, in Scotland and elsewhere, have taken advantage of various tax loopholes. So the conclusion generalizes: if Rangers are guilty for the aforementioned reasons, so are the other clubs. Thus, by parity of reasoning, every club which has ever exploited tax loopholes should be title stripped.

    I suspect that Spiers, Thomson, Spence et al. would reject this. But they have given us no principle reason to do so if Rangers should be title stripped, then so should Celtic, who used EBTs in 2004-05, and another loophole involving film companies between 2001-2006. So should Arsenal, who used EBTs between 2001-2006. When the target is Rangers, principle goes out the window title stripping is discussed with regards to this club by these individuals because they treat it as a special case a club which they hate. I have seen no arguments by any of these individuals to refute this point. At base, then, we have journalists quick to moralize on one instance (Rangers) but choose to ignore violations of the same moral principle when it comes to other clubs (Celtic, Arsenal, etc). That is clear moral hypocrisy.

    To highlight this, I want to look more closely at Celtics own tax avoidance scheme. In the early 2000s, the British government, in an attempt to incentivize domestic film production, provided tax breaks to film companies. Many Celtic players and staff, including CEO Peter Lawwell, director Eric Riley, Neil Lennon, Johan Mjallby and John Hartson established film companies; companies where they would subsequently put money earned from their Celtic contracts. Why did they do this? Simple, because they would avoid taxation on that income (roughly, by spurious investment in film technologies). The following displays the various companies, and their beneficiaries:

    • Bobby Petta - The Film Develpment Partnership II LLP - Feb '04
    • Chris Sutton - WRP Dryvac LLP - Aug '04
    • John Hartson - The Mamjam Technology Platform Partnership LLP - Apr '03
    • Neil Lennon - The Mamjam Technology Platform Partnership LLP - Apr '03
    • John Harston - The Casedirector Technology Partnership LLP - Apr '03
    • Neil Lennon - The Casedirector Technology Partnership LLP - Apr '03
    • Neil Lennon - Ingenious Film Partners 2 LLP - Apr '03
    • Momo Sylla - Inside Track 1 LLP - Dec '03
    • Momo Sylla - Ingenious Film Partners LLP - Mar '05
    • Eric Riley - Inside Track 3 LLP - Jul '03
    • Johan Mjallby - Malvern Media LLP - Dec '02
    • Johan Mjallby - Jubilee Film Partnership LLP - Mar '05
    • Martin O'Neill - Inside Track 2 LLP - Dec '03
    • Martin O'Neill - Inside Track 3 LLP - Dec '03
    • Peter Lawwell - Inside Track 3 LLP - Dec '03
    • Alan Thompson - Owen Film Partnership LLP - Apr '06
    • Alan Thompson - The Film Development Partnership II - Sep '03
    • Alan Thompson - D IV LLP - Sep '03
    • Stan Varga - The Gala Film Partners LLP - Feb '04
    • Stan Varga - Innvotec 3 LLP - Mar '05
    • Stan Varga - Innvotec 6 LLP - Mar '05
    • Stan Varga - The Invicta Film Partnership No 23 LLP - Mar '06
    • Craig Bellamy - Cherwell Films LLP - Mar '05
    • Craig Bellamy - Orwell Films LLP - Mar '05
    For my purposes, the technical details about how this tax-avoidance scheme works are irrelevant; what matters is the fact that employees of Celtic FC used a loophole to avoid filling the HMRC coffers. This is indisputable. For more on the technical details, see:

    http://williampoole.blogspot.ca/2013/02/wp-archives-jun-04-2012-celtic.html

    http://www.<No links to this website>/news/neil-lennon-tax-scheme-blow-1173612

    So why, if morality and doing the right thing are so important to Spiers, Thomson, Spence and a host of other bloggers, journalists, etc., then why are these individuals, and their employer, Celtic FC, not being chastised and denigrated as tax cheats? For there is no principled reason for the moral argument, as I have called it, to be applied in the case of Rangers but not Celtic (and others). The reason, as you have guessed it, is moral hypocrisy Rangers are to be held to a different moral standard than Celtic; presumably because these individuals are partial to the latter.

    Thus, as my analysis demonstrates, the moral argument against Rangers is just bigotry in disguise; a convenient excuse to further kick around a club which has been, since 2012, subjected to all sorts of illegal punishments. This is demagoguery at its worst: faulty arguments and poorly constructed justifications such as these are part of the press-gang tactics being used by various factions in Scotland to cow the SFA into further, unjustified punishment of Rangers. It happened in 2012, and is potentially happening as we speak.

    Thank You To Everyone In Attendance Today.

    in Jimmy Bell's Kitroom

    Posted

    Good to see the bold Sasa Papac in with the fans :clap:

    Nacho was above me givin it the old wanker sign to the papes. Gave us all a lift, after that it was full pelt while that lot sat and watched us. Nowhere near as dejected as usual after gettin beat off them cos we sung our heart out loud and proud. And let's face it we knew well before this our teams got major fuckin problems. Well done everyone had a good day despite result?

    Barry Ferguson: No regrets on Paul Le Guen fall-out

    in Jimmy Bell's Kitroom

    Posted

    I was at Inverness that night, pretty sure it was Rankin that scored a late winner, I honest to fuck wanted Le Guen to succeed but almost every single Rangers fan at the game that night was massively pissed off, it was a horrible night around the Christmas week I think and iys a fuck off 7/8 hour round journey, it might have been the exuberance of youth but I'd have had a thing or two to say to Bear that night who told me it would be all OK, we were out the Title race by Halloween, we were a total soft touch, we had just come off a 3rd place finish and could see it going that way again, I can't say I fully disagree with Ferguson taking issue with PLG's assessment that night, no-one should be accepting those type of weak performances

    Things That People Near You Shout at Ibrox

    in Jimmy Bell's Kitroom

    Posted

    Was workin down south near London around the time Gaza had signed for Middlesburgh. Was workin with a fella who supported Wimbledon when they played at Selhurst Park and he took me along to a game against Middlesburgh where Gaza was makin an appearance. The teams come on the park at the corner of the pitch there where I was sittin and when they came on I ran down the front and gave it "GAZA GIS THE SASH!!" He turned round with a big surprised grin and gave a mad wave in the direction of the stand. Dont think he could believe it. Gave the same again when there was a corner and he was standin at the front post and you could see he had the giggles a bit. Gave us a wee buzz at the time.

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