In health promotion, there is, sadly, such a thing as the “Glasgow Effect”.
When other factors are built into the equation, the dear green place still has a statistically significant mortality rate compared to other major cities in the UK.
In stark terms, Glaswegians have a 30% higher risk of dying before they are 65 (considered a premature death) than people in comparable de-industrialised cities such as Liverpool and Manchester. They die from the big killers: cancer, heart disease and strokes, as well as the “despair diseases” of drugs, alcohol and suicide.
Behind the research are real human tragedies of lives cut short.
According to the National Records of Scotland, the figures for “average healthy life expectancy” for men in Glasgow is a shocking 54.6 years.
Preventing such events by taking early corrective action was my first thought when a buddy sent a message about the breaking story of the Premier League and Manchester City.
I’m currently down the Word Mines and working on a health angle for one of the main characters in the sequel to Native Shore.
He is a Glaswegian, so consequently, I had been reading about the “Glasgow Effect”.
The entire narrative is one of prevention, and that’s where I made the connection.
Now, I think it is a good thing that the Premier League is taking action against Manchester City.
Dear reader, this is what football authorities are MEANT to do in such circumstances.
As ever, viewers in Scotland have their own programme.
The death of Rangers in 2012 was preventable.
What was needed was an early intervention by the governing authorities, possibly alerted by the local media.
Since the start of the 1990s, the Ibrox club had been spending ruinously.
Their delightful fans loved it as an array of star players ascended the marble staircase.
This was the era of the infamous succulent lamb dinner.
A combination of the chaps at Hampden, the Stenography Corps and the Ibrox klanbase were locked into a situation where no major intervention was possible.
Austerity at the start of this millennium would have stabilised Rangers.
However, they were facing a rejuvenated Celtic with a significantly bigger stadium.
Consequently, they would have been simply the second best if they competed fairly.
As the world and the UK Supreme Court knows, they decided to cheat and lie.
There is an obvious clue in the strapline to the title of my book Downfall.
In fact, I couldn’t have made it clearer:
How Rangers FC self-destructed.
The fatal pathogen in this scenario was the intervention of outsiders who didn’t see the cultural significance of the favoured franchise at Ibrox.
The HMRC inspectors were outsiders, and the City of London Police were also outsiders.
Between them, they put together the evidence that would become the Big Tax Case.
It was no surprise that the local media remained onside until the day that the CVA was rejected in June 2012 and the death certificate was signed.
There are still some trace elements of journalism on the news desks, and that is why that Herald front page, the featured image, is factually correct.
The Stenography Corps would soon go their Orwellian act together and spouted the Charles Green mantra as the Ibrox klanbase was lured back inside the stadium that John Brown played for.
There was money to be made out of the denial of the grieving.
Millions disappeared into the Sevco triangle in the early years of the new club.
Again it is outsiders who will play a key role in preventing the new club from suffering the same fate as the old one.
The fact that Rangers 2.0 is on a UEFA financial watch list is a good thing.
No one in Nyon wants to see clubs going bust.
The key word in the new FSR ordinances is the middle one:
Sustainability.
Put simply, if a football fan is watching a team that is affordable, then the survival of that particular club is assured.
The current iteration of Rangers can sustain a playing budget that is easily the second highest in Scotland.
Sadly for the supremacist Herrenvolk at Ibrox, second doesn’t do it for them.
They seem addicted to a course of action that has no thought for future consequences.
Perhaps we should call it the “Ibrox effect”.
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What happens when a team is liquidated?
The simple answer is that there becomes a vacancy in the football league and the playing license is awarded to a different club!
Because Rangers ceased to exist in 2012 a vacancy opened up in the football league in Scotland.
Said license was awarded to a team called Sevco.
It doesn’t matter what name they go by now Sevco Rangers is still a different club.
As you know, they were not relegated but a new club was formed under the auspices of a new ‘holding’ company and the vacant license was illegally given to this new club.
Surely if they are the same club, as they claim to be, then they have the right to challenge the legitimacy of their ‘relegation’ (I know Rangers were not relegated! Please see above).
Surely the awarding of a vacant license back to the original club would be nothing short of corruption?
Surely?
All of these journalists who have expunged the Summer of ‘Club 12’ from their memories.
If Rangers were demoted/relegated why were the fixtures released with ‘Club 12’ appearing in every round?
Surely one of the other 30 clubs would’ve moved up and taken that place. Was it maybe because we didn’t have 30 other clubs that Summer. Where did Rangers go? Where were they hiding?
We all know they weren’t hiding.
The stone they were under was made from granite and will forever be.
Self awareness has to be taught from an early age, by parents and grandparents who possess self awareness. This is the reason that they will never have it in any degree. It’s a case of monkey see, monkey do!
Actually, going by some recent research I was reading, I’m probably doing monkeys a great disservice. And the only degrees of anything most of them will ever have any interest in will be their masonic degrees.
Sadly, I doubt this is anything other than an attempt to get the Government off the Premier League’s back):
“They also note the timing of the statement given the white paper on football governance is about to be published. It is felt that bringing this case it likely to be used by the Premier League as evidence of them being able to deal with governance issues itself.”
These charges just seem like a reheating of those UEFA brought and were given a thrashing in the courts, leading to FSR.
I’ll curtail any celebration until I see meaningful convictions and punishments.
I saw a comment from one of the brethren in relation to Man City…that he hoped unlike them ..Man City would get “due process”..evidently an avid follower of American crime TV progs. And completely delusional as per.
Thankfully it’s no contagious,… is it Phil? 😇
Celtic came within EIGHT MINUTES of an insolvency event in 1994.
Since then, the club has remained financially cautious.
Ange has the largest football budget in Scotland a s a result of decades of hard work.
That wasn’t the reason I joked about it Phil, I remember only too well the hearse hired by the record, parked outside Paradise. Nah, unlike that lot, I know we are run properly on a ‘sustainable financial basis and not built on sand like those across the river.
Was a poor attempt going by your reply, no harm, no foul, play on…
And long may Ange reign @ Celtic Park.
Best since Jock by a country mile…
It’s laughable how they can’t see it, but mabye they do and can’t bring themselves to say we cheated
Aberdeen fan in peace…had a good chuckle at “simply the second best” line…good one…
The Ibrox effect fantastic 👍🤣 every point spot on Phil. Pity that the klanbase just don’t get it.