Snow, The Nanny State and Namby Pamby Fans

[Dashing Bob S]

Was down at the old chaps last night, and in between listening with infinite patience to that poster boy for euthinasia's Daily Mailesque tirades for an hour, his rant finally struck something of a chord when he waffled on about 40,000 trudging through snow and ice, drunk beyond reason, lurching and sliding to ER or Tyney for the derby, hurling bottles and cans at each en route, for the privileged of standing, crammed like sardines, onto a crumbling death trap of a terracing.

Have we as a society and as fans, become too damn soft?

[Tricla]

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Was down at the old chaps last night, and in between listening with infinite patience to that poster boy for euthinasia's Daily Mailesque tirades for an hour, his rant finally struck something of a chord when he waffled on about 40,000 trudging through snow and ice, drunk beyond reason, lurching and sliding to ER or Tyney for the derby, hurling bottles and cans at each en route, for the privileged of standing, crammed like sardines, onto a crumbling death trap of a terracing.

Have we as a society and as fans, become too damn soft?

Aye.

But the Cooncil and the Polis etc have become especially soft.

If the game had been on today we'd have been there in numbers even if those numbers might have been slightly diminished.

I suppose it's a sign of the politically correct, health and safety, cotton wool hell hole that we live in now.

In saying that, how the fluck did the Alloa game go ahead if a game in our Capital City can't!!??

It's not as if todays opponents were travelling from a remote location either.

[.Sean.]

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Aye.

But the Cooncil and the Polis etc have become especially soft.

If the game had been on today we'd have been there in numbers even if those numbers might have been slightly diminished.

I suppose it's a sign of the politically correct, health and safety, cotton wool hell hole that we live in now.

In saying that, how the fluck did the Alloa game go ahead if a game in our Capital City can't!!??

It's not as if todays opponents were travelling from a remote location either.

Certainly is



And it's ****ing *****.

[Sergey]

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Have we as a society and as fans, become too damn soft?

Probably down to modern-day footwear, Bob.

Cheap, synthetic soles on machine stitched (or glued) shoes are accidents waiting to happen in this weather.

I'm convinced that the majority of folks in A&E can be quantified to a poor or ill-advised choice of shoe.

[Phil D. Rolls]

I'm all for letting the game go ahead regardless of the weather, if people do so at their own risk. By that I mean anyone injured can see to their own fractures and not burden the health service.

Besides, most of the the time there was snow in the old days, the pitch would have been unplayable. I'm afraid this is a dilemma of the modern age, caused by undersoil heating.

There are actually a lot less games cancelled due to weather than there used to be. That maybe explains why so many people are feeling hard done to (perhaps time to start thinking about a girlfriend/divorce/pet). I remember going a month without a match.

Maybe if there had been this molly coddling in the past, the likes of Ibrox, Bolton, Hillsborough and Bradford might not have happened. A wee reality check is needed from some, people have been killed at the football in the past, and that is a pitiful waste of life.

As an alternative, maybe it's time for us all to be investing in tackety boots, gaberdine coats and bunnets?

[snooky]

The reason for all this H&S baloney is nothing to do with their concerns over your well-being, it's all because they don't want a lawsuit if you hurt yourself.

Alas, it's the American way ....sue, sue, sue, sue, sue etc.
"It's not civilization as we know it, Jim."

[--------]

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Was down at the old chaps last night, and in between listening with infinite patience to that poster boy for euthinasia's Daily Mailesque tirades for an hour, his rant finally struck something of a chord when he waffled on about 40,000 trudging through snow and ice, drunk beyond reason, lurching and sliding to ER or Tyney for the derby, hurling bottles and cans at each en route, for the privileged of standing, crammed like sardines, onto a crumbling death trap of a terracing.

Have we as a society and as fans, become too damn soft?

Aye, but Bob, IIRC the reason we trudged through snow sleet, wind and rain, over icy treacherous pavements, doing the old Cap'n Scott to get to ER in the old days was BECAUSE we were all usually drunk beyond reason.

And the only reason most of us stayed perpendicular for 90 minutes plus half-time was BECAUSE we were crammed in like sardines - we couldn't fall over if we'd tried.

At least, that's what the bits I can remember were like....

[IWasThere2016]

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The reason for all this H&S baloney is nothing to do with their concerns over your well-being, it's all because they don't want a lawsuit if you hurt yourself.

Alas, it's the American way ....sue, sue, sue, sue, sue etc.
"It's not civilization as we know it, Jim."

Most that is wrong with this country can be blamed on the lawyers, the Americans or the afore mentioned Polis and Cooncils (Politicians)

[Carheenlea]

I know the tone of this thread is tongue-in-cheek, but the blanket cancellation of the full SPL card was too hasty in my opinion.

Instead of Saturday afternoon at Easter Road, where the under soil heating would have likely ensured a perfectly playable pitch, I had to endure the torture of Princes Street and The Christmas Market where thousands thronged the streets on pavements which had not seen much in the way of shovels, ploughs or salt. Trying to negotiate the corner round to St James` Centre you could have been mistaken into thinking the ice rink had been relocated to there. Should the City Centre have been declared a disaster zone and shut down till the streets were "safe"? Going by the SPL`s logic, yes.

The worrying thing is that a precedent has now been set, and blanket cancellations will be called for as soon as the weather does not look too great, and you can bet your boots that it will only be a matter of time before a game is postponed because it is too cold for the fans..

What`s so problematic about Pitch playable - Game On, Pitch unplayable - Game Off? We as fans can make decisions on whether we go or not. Had the weather been like what it was on Tuesday/Wednesday then fair enough, call it off. The forecast proved to be correct for cold but clear weather for weekend, with roads all open.

An extreme and over cautious decision.

[Hibby D]

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Was down at the old chaps last night, and in between listening with infinite patience to that poster boy for euthinasia's Daily Mailesque tirades for an hour, his rant finally struck something of a chord when he waffled on about 40,000 trudging through snow and ice, drunk beyond reason, lurching and sliding to ER or Tyney for the derby, hurling bottles and cans at each en route, for the privileged of standing, crammed like sardines, onto a crumbling death trap of a terracing.

Have we as a society and as fans, become too damn soft?

When you put it like that, aye

[EH6 Hibby]

Only in Scotland could it be considered acceptable to expect primary school children to travel in these conditions to get to school but feel it necessary to cancel football matches.

[Removed]

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Only in Scotland could it be considered acceptable to expect primary school children to travel in these conditions to get to school but feel it necessary to cancel football matches.

but my kids have been off school as well

[EH6 Hibby]

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but my kids have been off school as well

My 6 year old son has been back at school since Wednesday, and his school is about 15 minutes walk from Easter Road. He's hardly done any work mind, but he's been at school.

[Hibby D]

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My 6 year old son has been back at school since Wednesday, and his school is about 15 minutes walk from Easter Road. He's hardly done any work mind, but he's been at school.

But your son and his pals don't go to the boozer for a couple of hours beforehand


I hope?

[Hillsidehibby]

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Aye.

But the Cooncil and the Polis etc have become especially soft.

If the game had been on today we'd have been there in numbers even if those numbers might have been slightly diminished.

I suppose it's a sign of the politically correct, health and safety, cotton wool hell hole that we live in now.

In saying that, how the fluck did the Alloa game go ahead if a game in our Capital City can't!!??

It's not as if todays opponents were travelling from a remote location either.

Plastic Pitch?

[Jack]

There's more people coming from further distances than there ever was. I think a lot of consideration has been given to them and the likelihood that there will be a bigger crowd midweek.

[snooky]

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Most that is wrong with this country can be blamed on the lawyers, the Americans or the afore mentioned Polis and Cooncils (Politicians)

The trouble is, we bring this about on ourselves by listening to these <spit> lawyers who tell you that you can get ££££££££££££££££££ for stubbing your toe on a flagstone.
Emm.... just look where your going, buddy and you won't stub your toe.

We've created a 'blame' society - just like the wonderful US of A.

[aussie_hibee]

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Most that is wrong with this country can be blamed on the lawyers, the Americans or the afore mentioned Polis and Cooncils (Politicians)

Aye, us polis should all just resign and let the public look after themselves. A survival of the fittest and vigilantes would make the world a much better place!

FWIW I think you'll find that if you speak to a copper, they want the PC mad world to go back to it's old ways. We are not the cause of a soft society but more the victims of it.

[Removed]

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Plastic Pitch?

Don't think that was what was actually meant. Most of the spl pitches were probably playable yesterday so the fact that Alloa have a 3g is relevant to the lower leagues. Only reason we never had a game is because they called of all spl games midweek. I think it was the right decision at the time. The guys who make it can't win, too early get slated, too late get slated. They don't have a crystal ball folks.

[jdships]

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I know the tone of this thread is tongue-in-cheek, but the blanket cancellation of the full SPL card was too hasty in my opinion.

Instead of Saturday afternoon at Easter Road, where the under soil heating would have likely ensured a perfectly playable pitch, I had to endure the torture of Princes Street and The Christmas Market where thousands thronged the streets on pavements which had not seen much in the way of shovels, ploughs or salt. Trying to negotiate the corner round to St James` Centre you could have been mistaken into thinking the ice rink had been relocated to there. Should the City Centre have been declared a disaster zone and shut down till the streets were "safe"? Going by the SPL`s logic, yes.

The worrying thing is that a precedent has now been set, and blanket cancellations will be called for as soon as the weather does not look too great, and you can bet your boots that it will only be a matter of time before a game is postponed because it is too cold for the fans..

What`s so problematic about Pitch playable - Game On, Pitch unplayable - Game Off? We as fans can make decisions on whether we go or not. Had the weather been like what it was on Tuesday/Wednesday then fair enough, call it off. The forecast proved to be correct for cold but clear weather for weekend, with roads all open.

An extreme and over cautious decision.

Totally agree with you
I had a chat with a Grade 2 Ref yesterday morning
He reckoned the SFA took this "opportunity" to cancel the games to try and diffuse any possible backlash against the referees after their "strike "

Not beyond the bounds of comprehension I suppose

[Lucky_Jim]

The lyrics from the Proclaimers' excellent song 'Everybody's A Victim' immediately sprang to mind when I read this thread:

"Everybody's a victim,
Seems we're going that way,
Everybody's a victim,
We're becoming like the USA..."

As with so many of the bespectacled Hibees' observations on life and society this one is spot on. The nanny state, health and safety obsessed, risk adverse society that we now live in is yet another gross import direct from the USA. It all started with nonsensical situations like lawyers successfully suing coffee shops for not warning customers that the contents of their coffee cups are hot....as the great Homer Simpson might say, doh! What were they expecting ffs?!

The balance between rights and responsibilities has swung massively out of kilter, to the point where nobody takes any personal responsibility for their lives or actions. Health and safety legislation was hugely important in the days of an industrialised nation, where many folk worked in dangerous factory environments with little or no legal protection against the fat cat owners who would happily put their health and wellbeing at risk in order to squeeze as much profit out of them as possible. Now we all sit in comfy offices where the biggest health risk is dropping the stapler on our foot, yet H&S legislation has never been more prominent.

In a day and age when people will happily sue the Cooncil when they slip on a patch of ice on the pavement it's no wonder the authorities take the sort of action the SPL did this weekend.

God, I sound like some sort of Torygraph reading reactionary....I promise you that's no the case though!

Jim

[Phil D. Rolls]

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The lyrics from the Proclaimers' excellent song 'Everybody's A Victim' immediately sprang to mind when I read this thread:

"Everybody's a victim,
Seems we're going that way,
Everybody's a victim,
We're becoming like the USA..."

As with so many of the bespectacled Hibees' observations on life and society this one is spot on. The nanny state, health and safety obsessed, risk adverse society that we now live in is yet another gross import direct from the USA. It all started with nonsensical situations like lawyers successfully suing coffee shops for not warning customers that the contents of their coffee cups are hot....as the great Homer Simpson might say, doh! What were they expecting ffs?!

The balance between rights and responsibilities has swung massively out of kilter, to the point where nobody takes any personal responsibility for their lives or actions. Health and safety legislation was hugely important in the days of an industrialised nation, where many folk worked in dangerous factory environments with little or no legal protection against the fat cat owners who would happily put their health and wellbeing at risk in order to squeeze as much profit out of them as possible. Now we all sit in comfy offices where the biggest health risk is dropping the stapler on our foot, yet H&S legislation has never been more prominent.

In a day and age when people will happily sue the Cooncil when they slip on a patch of ice on the pavement it's no wonder the authorities take the sort of action the SPL did this weekend.

God, I sound like some sort of Torygraph reading reactionary....I promise you that's no the case though!

Jim

Except that we don't, and for those who still work in manual jobs and dangerous environment, H&S legislation is a great protection against mad employers.

I agree there are too many lawyers though.

[The_Todd]

A DBS thread never fails to hit the spot. He throws in the grenade and stands back to watch the carnage.

[Sylar]

Is DBS a US Marine?

[ginger_rice]

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The balance between rights and responsibilities has swung massively out of kilter, to the point where nobody takes any personal responsibility for their lives or actions. Health and safety legislation was hugely important in the days of an industrialised nation, where many folk worked in dangerous factory environments with little or no legal protection against the fat cat owners who would happily put their health and wellbeing at risk in order to squeeze as much profit out of them as possible. Now we all sit in comfy offices where the biggest health risk is dropping the stapler on our foot, yet H&S legislation has never been more prominent.

Jim

good post Jim especially like the point regarding rights and responsibilities, far too many people can quote "their rights" but refuse to accept that their actions have a consequence for themselves and others.

With regard to H&S legislation I used to believe every bad thing I heard and read about the Health and Safety executive until I became a trained H&S rep and started to work with H&S officers, often it's not H&S to blame but some over zealous jobsworth.

This is always worth a look. http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/index.htm

[EuanH78]

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Totally agree with you
I had a chat with a Grade 2 Ref yesterday morning
He reckoned the SFA took this "opportunity" to cancel the games to try and diffuse any possible backlash against the referees after their "strike "

Not beyond the bounds of comprehension I suppose

Thats what I was thinking as well. The speed and decisiveness of the call off seemed quite uncharacteristic of the SFA and I instantly started looking for the hidden agenda

[alfie]

The problem is indeed that we have a 'blame' society. What we need is a 'responsibility' society.

People should be responsible for their own actions e.g. stubbing their toe on a flagstone, and let H&S rules maintain a safe environment at work where they (H&S) belong. It's time for people to behave like adults. For instance they should wear decent footwear in bad weather. That way they wont fall on their erse anyway.

Viva la revolucion, that's what I say!

[jdships]

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Thats what I was thinking as well. The speed and decisiveness of the call off seemed quite uncharacteristic of the SFA and I instantly started looking for the hidden agenda

Interestingly if you notice there has been very little complaint from the clubs ( other than ICT and rheir problem is cash flow) which backs up your take on the speed of the SFA decision .
Were the clubs "put in the picture" and told to keep quiet ?

[7Hero]

pretty pointless comparing the alloa game as only a few hundred probably went.

gets a bit different when thousands are going to the game, lack of parking, crap conditions on the pavements and edinburgh already is a joke to get around in the snow (parked cars still on the main road as opposed to side streets causing havic).

perfectly correct decision to postpone, the club would have less folk through the doors with these conditions so financially better for them to postpone it anyway..

[Saorsa]

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pretty pointless comparing the alloa game as only a few hundred probably went.

gets a bit different when thousands are going to the game, lack of parking, crap conditions on the pavements and edinburgh already is a joke to get around in the snow (parked cars still on the main road as opposed to side streets causing havic).

perfectly correct decision to postpone, the club would have less folk through the doors with these conditions so financially better for them to postpone it anyway..

Do you think more will turn up on a cold midweek night for a 7:45 KO (when the game will probably now be played) than would have on the Saturday for a 3pm KO? I doubt it.