Still, at least you get an apology from me. That's a lot more than any of the numerous creditors are ever going to get from David Murray, Rangers or The Peeppul. Not that an apology would do them any good without some cold, hard cash to accompany it! As The Peeppul celebrate their latest 'victory' over HMRC, it never occurs to them that it's a completely hollow one. If our judiciary keep insisting that the EBTs were loans then BDO are going to increase their efforts to get these loans repaid. While the Bisto Kids are celebrating, all their heroes will be carrying extra weight in their trousers. They'll never say it but everybody that's benefited from an EBT is probably praying every night that HMRC finally wins its case!
Even though it's not headline news anymore, Kellsiegate is still rumbling on in the background. Annie Brown had a piece in yesterday's Record saying how religion, nationalism and alcohol are a dangerous mix. Somebody mentioned the big riot at the funeral in Wishaw, asking if we were going to ban funerals now. It wasn't like one of The Peeppul to come up with something like this independently so I had a quick look at McMurdo's site and, sure enough, he says exactly the same thing. Is there even one of them that thinks for himself?
The big difference between Glasgow Green and the fight in Wishaw is that the police were actually doing something about a disturbance in Wishaw. Once the fight started reinforcements were called in to deal with the situation. Meanwhile at Glasgow Green the police just stood about, while a helicopter whirled about overhead, making sure that nobody disturbed the party. Folk drinking, pishing on the grass and bouncing bottles off each other's skulls was all just good, clean fun. If anything needs looking into it's how the police behave at these events. If any other group behaved the way The Peeppul did then there would have been hundreds of arrests in Glasgow, instead of just eighteen.
Annie Brown joined the calls for the march in Edinburgh in September to be banned. This, however, would be playing right into the hands of the Orange Order. Do you honestly think the Orangemen want this parade to go ahead? They've already invited a couple of bands from Ulster to take part and I'd imagine that there'll be a big crowd of hangers-on riding over on the ferry with them. Add the usual crew of sky punchers and you have the makings of a major PR coup for the 'YES' vote. Anybody still undecided will soon make their minds up when they've got drunks intimidating everybody on Princes Street and standing pishing in Princes Street Gardens, Red Hands of Ulster waving about everywhere and plenty of sectarian songs. The denizens of Edinburgh's New Town will have a complete fit! Imagine as well that Hibs beat Bisto FC in the Petrofac (I know!) Cup and Hearts beat them in the League and there's even more chance of violence and rioting.
On the other hand, if the march is banned then it gives the Orange Order the opportunity to play the victim. All the shite about the 'fascist' SNP, a vote for independence being a vote for republicanism and freedom and democracy being eroded will be trotted out. And you know that the Daily Record and the rest of our media will suddenly be on the side of the Orange Order. It's not just the Bettertogetherers that don't want this march to go ahead; I really doubt that the Orange Order want it to happen either. Like I said, they're just looking to play the victim. If the march is allowed to go ahead then I suspect that they'll find some excuse to cancel it themselves and then crawl back under their rock.
The Bettertogetherers have finally decided that they will, after all, take part in a televised debate on STV. Cameron, however, is too scared to show face and it's being left to Alistair Darling to take on Alex Salmond. So Darling will have to stand there and defend all the current and future policies of Westminster, including targeting the poor and the sick and the plans to leave the EU. The attitude of Labout these days is evident in what one of their spokespersons had to say about the upcoming mass strike by civil servants, teachers etc, "...both sides have a responsibility to stop it happening". So the businessmen have the Government on their side while the workers now have nobody. Better Together, right enough!
Did you read about Charlotte Church? The poor soul has spent her way through her multi-millions and now faces having to work for the rest of her life. She says that she has enough to live comfortably but wants more than that; she wants to live in luxury. The few million she's got left is apparently not enough for this kind of lifestyle. I wonder what team she supports?
Meanwhile, there are a couple of things that I've changed my mind about in the last day or so. The first item was prompted by the story about the bakery that refused to make a cake supporting gay marriage because the owners are Christians that don't believe in gay marriage. My initial reaction was to support the bakery, since it's unfair to penalise somebody for their beliefs. On second thoughts, however, how far do you allow this sort of thing to go? The bakery is in Northern Ireland so you can imagine that it's some sort of Presbyterians that own and run it. Christmas and Halloween are also against the beliefs of Reformed Protestants but I bet they churn out cakes by the dozen on those two occasions! If you want to run a business along religious lines and only cater for people that believe the same as yourself then you really need to run something like Carruth's Grotto (Does that still exist?) and not a bakery!
The second thing I changed my mind about is the Falklands. I swallowed whole the lie that the islands were British before Argentina even existed. After having read up on it I've found out that this wasn't the case. The British actually kicked the Argentinians off and planted their own lot on the islands. As usual whenever they planted folk on an island it was Scottish people that they used. Throw in a few Welshmen and some sheep and you're ready to claim that you're standing up for freedom and democracy by keeping the place British. A bit like the situation in Ulster.
One of Nazi Germany's aims in the Second World War was just a continuation of German aims in the First War: Lebensraum. The story was that Germany needed to stretch out so that her people would have enough space to live. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was one manifestation of this; another was the plantation of Germans into conquered territories during the Second World War. Germans were given land in Poland and parts of Russia, with locals serving as slave labour. The Nazi government moved so many people in this way that they ended up not having enough workers to keep the German economy going, resorting to using Jewish and POW slave labour.
At the end of the war, I've never heard of these Germans being asked to vote on whether they wanted to stay on their new lands or whether they were going home. Any history books I've read are all in agreement that Lebensraum was not only a failure but morally wrong and against international law. But weren't the Nazis doing exactly the same as the British had been doing for years? And yet the Lebensraum Germans were rounded up and sent home in the name of freedom and democracy while British settlers are left in situ for the same reasons!
Finally, a couple of stories that reflect what kind of society we're living in at present. I was reading the heart-breaking but heart-warming tale of an elephant that had been in captivity for fifty years, suffering hunger and abuse, finally being rescued. There were British people involved in the rescue. Now there's a job that a lot of people would love to have but they'll never get the chance. I'm not disparaging the motives of the rescuers or their commitment but, as usual, only a certain type of person will get a job running an animal sanctuary, as well as many other exciting and rewarding jobs. You'll need more than an education, your CV will need to stand out from the crowd. So how do you manage this? Easy.
Rich folk's children are always away on expeditions on Operation Raleigh and the like. Ordinary kids will never get the chance. I remember a teacher in Glasgow trying to sell a raffle ticket to raise funds for her son to go on one of these adventures. When I voiced the opinion that it was unfair that ordinary teenagers never got the chance her answer was, "But they couldn't afford it!" As I then rudely pointed out, if her son could afford it then he didn't need me buying a raffle ticket, did he?
There's a story in the papers now about a bunch of rich kids from Eton going on one of these adventures to Svalbard in the Arctic. This kind of trip can't even use the excuse that they're helping poor people or the like since there's nobody there! Anyway, one of the boys was dragged from his tent and killed by a hungry polar bear. Of course, the poor brute ended up shot just for acting naturally. So there you have the logic of the situation: a polar bear is slaughtered just so some rich kids can have a sparkling CV that will outdo any oiks with similar, or even better, qualifications. And I bet one of this lot ends up getting a job running a wildlife sanctuary to stop those filthy natives murdering animals! Ah, Britain. Don't you just love it?
"Let's see, now: Loyalist fleg, check; list of bigoted and racist songs, check; knuckle-dusters in case there's any Fenians there, check; KKK uniform to frighten the 'darkies', check; BNP membership card, check; speech about how we don't want to mix with Catholics, blacks, Muslims or Eastern Europeans, check. Right, I'm all set for the 'Better Together' march!"
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