NL: Torquay United v Notts County 7:45pm 17 March 2020

rjdgull 

A good point, and possibly a last chance for many to go out and get some badly needed fresh air before possible further Government action curtails their movements ....especially older fans threatened with being put under impending house arrest for several months. And a badly needed bit of income that the club will be very grateful for. 

An ideal time for those Siamese twins, TUST and 'TUST Lite' (TUOSC) to issue a joint statement urging the community to get themselves up to Plainmoor tomorrow evening. Stop off at a supermarket for a bit of panic buying on the way home and you've killed two birds with one stone ....(three if you pick up Chinese flu at the match).

'Torquay Till I Die'

AJ.

There you are again, promoting the idea of a united fan base. Quite right too, AJ. Don’t stay in that joint membership closet of yours too long. With your energy on the subject I’m sure you’d have much to offer over and above your annual fees.

Rob  

Thank you, Rob. Yes, it’s a recurring theme of mine, and can I recommend the always interesting ‘TUSTWatch’ thread to you, where I’ve gone into the subject in much more detail, particularly by encouraging the supporter base to keep a close eye on organisations that may have already caused a rift within the fan base, who remain the chief reason for division, and whose motives could well be considerably different from what might first appear on the surface.

Remove that vital service which ‘TUSTWatch’ provides, and you're in the decidedly unhealthy position of these organisations almost exclusively marking their own homework. And as you may have seen from their ‘official’ output, they seem, without exception, to always award themselves high marks.

So any hopes of returning to the days of a united fan base, naturally require speaking out against the forces of disunity. I won’t elaborate too much on this here, as ‘TUSTWatch’ does a far more comprehensive job. But the starting position for all fans already involves certain fundamentals that can be taken for granted. Unspoken and obvious, and commonly accepted. All supporters want 'what’s in the best interests' of their club. All supporters want 'good governance' for their club.

You don’t need a separate grouping for fans that think like that, as they all do already. The Torquay United Crochet Club that meets on a Tuesday afternoon, it’s a given that all their members want what’s best for the club, and also favour good governance. The Torquay United Pigeon Fanciers likewise. Harmless, and we’d all wish them the best.

But find out that they have ambitions for gaining ownership, an ownership that would be restricted to members of the Torquay United Pigeon Fanciers only, and people start to sit up and take notice. Find that they’ve asked for and secured agreement that Match Day ambassadorship should be denied to anyone who is not a Torquay United Pigeon Fancier member, and more ears would prick up in alarm.

Are those signs of a united fanbase or the steady and stealthy emergence of an elite within that fanbase ? Then instead of crochet of pigeon fancying, you  learn of an organisation that was the brainchild of Left Wing politicians, with the aim of persuading progressive Leftists to set up offshoots, with the attempt to attach themselves to local football clubs up and down the country.

They’re small in numbers, particularly locally. Consider the pitiful numbers that attended the most recent TUST AGM, or who could find a reason to sign up for the newer organisation ‘TUST Lite’ ?

Of course we can’t, or wouldn’t want to ban ‘Progressives’ with a mutual interest in football, banding together in the hope of using the football club to push and spread their philosophy and societal aims. But they’re a small section within the fanbase who have acquired a disproportionately loud voice for themselves, a voice I suspect that will be given more prominence thanks to their influential political connections both locally and nationally. Resulting in deeper and starker divisions being created and exposed between fans. TUSTWatch (coronavirus and censorship permitting) will continue to push for a united fanbase, to remind fans of the obvious and accepted common aims of all of us, which we’ve sadly seen hijacked and sloganised by those break away groups with a particular agenda of their own.

Thanks again for your support.

AJ.

Not sure why you are still jumping up and down about this.    No great miss this season imo and i think you were extremely fortunate to get the free range of the pop side for the
whole of the previous season.    I have nothing against the TUST but i can certainly see why the ownership pulled the plug on that arrangement.

That makes a lot more sense than some of the posts I receive. 🙂

I have some good news for you pete, the details of which I will divulge later. 🙂