JABBA THE AGNIVORE

A NEW YEAR BUT THE SAME OLD SONG

David Leggat, in his bile-ridden blog Leggoland, is predicting an aggressive stance from Rangers in the New Year. Of course, this comes as a huge surprise given all the shy, shrinking violets at Ibrox we have come to know and love! He seems to have a new source at Ibrox; I wonder who it is? He says that Rangers' 'enemies' are going to be dealt with, including Radio Clyde and Radio Scotland. The latter, especially, is on Leggat's radar, being, so he says, extremely unpopular with Rangers fans.

"And that unpopularity has become even greater since the departure from the BBC Radio Scotland studios of Jim Traynor, leaving Cosgrove and Cowan with greater freedom than ever to slag Rangers.' 

Well, I think that clears up who Leggat's new source is at Rangers! It also confirms what everyone thought was the case about Traynor for years and confirms the link between Leggat's rantings and the latter-day outpourings of Traynor in the Daily Record!

He sums up his latest hate-fest by telling us how we're all in for a shock in 2013 as Rangers fires back at its 'enemies.' 

Speaking of the New Year, Leggat lets us all know where he stands with his shameless proselytising in his post of 31st December. Apparently, Hogmanay is an old Presbyterian custom! That'll be news to all the pagans that celebrated the festival in Scotland long before John Knox was even a twinkle in the local farmhand's eye! It will also be news to the Church of Scotland, who tried, unsuccessfully, in the Seventeenth Century to stamp out the celebration of Hogmanay among the lower orders.

I think my favourite lie in Leggat's shocking re-writing of social history is this:

"To this day, when the Bells Ring out the Old and herald the New, I am not ashamed to admit to shedding a tear. A wee droplet from the eye in memory of bygone days of yore, for family long gone and times gone with them. For an era when Scotland was a better place, a more tolerant and tolerable nation."

That'll be why all the Irish Catholics had to live in a ghetto in Garngad and why my grandad was beaten up by the police because he was absent-mindedly whistling 'Faith of Our Fathers' on his way home from mass!

In reality, Scotland was ruled by a kind of Taliban up until modern times. Conformity rather than conscience was the watchword. Enjoying yourself was frowned upon and people would sneak to the pub or to dance-halls in case they were seen by the neighbours or, God forbid, the Meenister! A great mind like David Hume was shunned and he was refused a chair at Edinburgh University because he was an atheist, while the Darien Venture was hampered in part by Scottish refusal to recognise quinine as a cure for malaria because it had been discovered by Jesuits.

Even into the Twentieth Century the Presbyterian Taliban continued to exert its influence. Everyone knows about the 'What school did you go to?' question when applying for a job. Christmas was frowned upon and was celebrated clandestinely.

Fortunately, those days are gone but right-wing supremacists like Leggat would love to see them back. Back in the day working-class Protestants might be made to feel like miserable sinners, while local worthies flaunted their communion tokens; but at least they could comfort themselves that they were better than 'They Kaffliks!' This is the Scotland that Leggat misses!

The whole thing is completely risible, of course, but the frightening thing is that there are lunatics out there that hang on Leggat's every word and believe that it's the truth. God help us all if these folk come to the fore again. We need to watch out. After all, they probably all laughed at Mein Kampf when it first appeared!     

 

"As my auld Scots Presbyterian granny used to say..."