A Minutes Applause

Have just come back from the Livingston game this afternoon.

Before the kick-off all the fans observed a minutes applause for George Best. I'm sure that George as the consummate showman and rebel would have approved.

Unfortunately had little to applaud the rest of the game as the team lost to Kilmarnock 3-0.

So Long Bestie

Obviously as a Northern Irish born football fan yesterdays news of George Best's death came with great sadness if not a great shock.

There are so many tributes from so many people Malcolm Brodie football correspondent for the Belfast Telegraph who knew George before he even set foot in Manchester.

He was to go to Matt Busby's Manchester United to join England's first choice striker Bobby Charlton and Scotland's Dennis Law.

In 1964 he made his Northern Ireland debut with another debutant Pat Jennings.

He lived a life claiming that he lived up to his name being the Best. In first his autobiography, 'The Good, the Bad and the Bubbly', he had a photograph standing next to Pele with the caption:

Me with the second best player in the world.

However, Pele admitted that Best was the best player he had ever seen. He did dazzle and entertain and on several occasions even after beaten his man would go back just for fun and do it again. he won English and European footballer of the year titles before he was 22. And was a key part in Manchester United's European Cup winning team of 1968. However, he walked out on United in 1974 after a dispute with Tommy Docherty never to return, he was only 28.

He returned to football with lowly Stockport County in 1975 then joined the North American Soccer League. From 1976 to 1982 alongside names like Pele and Franz Beckenbauer, first playing for the Los Angeles Aztecs, Fort Lauderdale Strikers and San Jose Earthquakes. He interspersed this appearances with spells at Cork Celtic, Fulham and Hibernian before ending his playing career at Bournemouth.

Sadly none of George's 37 International Caps lead to one at a world cup. His first was six years after the historic side reached the 1958 Quarter Finals in Sweden, the last in 1977 five years before a glorious return in Spain 1982.

He may have succumbed to alcoholism, but in his death the greats remembered his football from Diego Maradonna to Sir Alex Ferguson, many of his Man United, Hibernian and Northern Ireland Colleagues.

Welcome to Narnia...

...or so it seems. The snow has arrived in East Central Scotland, with a vengence.

The snow started just after 9 o'clock so I was already sat at my desk and hasn't let up yet. At times I have been unable to see Edinburgh City by pass through the snow, which is a bit disconcerting as it is less than 50 metres from my office window.

Now if only I can find my way back to those faux fur coats in the wardrobe.

Blair's Nuclear Winter

It is interesting that within weeks of terrorist suspects’ arrest in Australia, apparently aiming to blow up a nuclear test centre, Tony Blair believes that more nuclear power is just what the UK needs.

The Prime Minister is said to believe nuclear power can improve the security of the UK's energy supply and also help on climate change. But what security will be provided to ensure we don't have a terrorist attack on such a new plant? Also what does he intend to do about the radioactive waste that will be produced? He is creating another damaging by product to cover for his inadequacies in eight years of moving on alternative, totally clean, sustainable energy sources.

I've Been Re-elected

Last night was the local party AGM at the end of a hectic year, what with the general election and the by election. I was returned unopposed as treasurer for another year, no real surprise there then. Also I've been reappointed as a Rep fpr both the Federal and Scottish Conference. So I'll see you all at Harogate, Aviemore, Brighton and TBA in 2006.

There was some changing of the guard as our convernor stepped aside to concentrate on her Scottish Party role. But there is some new blood in the exec, while the old hands are staying on board, they say, only until we have councillors in 2007 at the latest.

No Longer Bottom of the League

After finally getting over all the elections of this year it is a relief to get back to watching football on a Saturday afternoon again.

This afternoon I took the short hop to Dunfermline for what was a real needle match, there is a lot of animosity between the fans and the chairmen of the two clubs. However, we came away smiling as Livingston won away 1-0 and deservedly so. There was a good traveling support we had to queue for fifteen minutes to get to the turnstile. But Paul Dalglish standing in sparkling form and it was he who scored a belter of a goal. Sized up looking to get through from the edge of the box just like his old man. If it is King Kenny we have definitely found Prince Paul.

The result is our first win in the league all season following 5 draws. However most importantly it takes us off the bottom leaving Dunfermline there instead with just one win and three draws.

While we were getting back into the car the draw was made for the semi-finals when we avoided Celtic and got Dunfermline again. There is a real possibility of us getting to our fourth game at Hampden (semi-finals of the Scottish are also played at the national stadium).

My Carbon Footprint

Thanks to Will Howells for this link which allowed me to calculate my carbon footprint.

My house came out at 6 tonnes of CO2 of which most was the 4.35 tonnes for the car. My house came in at only 1.11 tonnes because of all the energy saving and recycling intiatives that I take.

Considering the average UK footprint is 10 tonnes, I've done not too badly. If only I was on a high enough wage to afford a hyprid car I could save an additional 2 tonnes. The worrying thing though is that the average American carbon footprint is 19 tonnes of CO2, almost double that of the UK.