And then seven members of the Green Brigade are arrested for singing 'Roll of Honour'. Apparently this song is likely to cause offence and even result in an affray. Who is it going to offend? Who is going to start fighting over it? Why, The Peeppul, of course; and we can't have them being offended or being 'forced' into fighting and vandalism, can we? On the other hand, singing about being up to your knees in a section of the population's blood, or calling for folk to 'go home' is not likely to offend anybody, is it? Well, that's what it seems like since there has not been one single arrest or one word of condemnation for The Peeppul's songbook.
Of course, McMurdo, with breathtaking hypocrisy, is straight in there to point fingers. According to him, the seven members of the Green Brigade are guilty of "racist, sectarian and terrorist glorifying behaviour". Racist? Racist? What the hell is he on about? Where's the racism? And as for sectarianism, pots and kettles spring to mind. I wouldn't sing the song myself (I don't know it, for one thing) but it is hard to see how you can call it sectarian. Is there anything in the song about Catholics being better than Protestants? Is there anything in the songs about hating Protestants or wanting to murder them all? I thought not.
And then we come to the 'terrorist-glorifying' bit. It has often been said that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. If we are going to take a narrow view then there are other songs that will have to be banned. 'Free Nelson Mandela' is one; after all, according to the South African authorities, he was a 'teerroreest'. And what about films and books about the French Resistance during WWII? Maybe we should all start complaining about being offended about every little thing and see how far our justice system is prepared to go!
The truth is that our police and justiciary are biased, as in taking one side against another. In essence, it looks like things have not changed that much since the days I talk about in my book. The Orange Lodge, The Peeppul, Rangers 1 and Rangers 2 are 'their' side. Irish Republicans, even the Irish and those of Irish descent themselves, are still the 'enemy'. I might be exaggerating the case but it certainly seems that way. Let's look at another of McMurdo's allegations.
According to McMurdo, the Green Brigade Seven, and others, are guilty of "traitorous sentiments". So praising anyone connected with Irish Republicanism is 'traitorous'. The implication here is that the ones they are praising were traitors, so singing, chanting etc about them is traitorous as well. Strangely, however, there is never anything said about praising another band of 'traitors'. Edward Carson started up the UVF to fight against the British Government and secured a cache of arms for the purpose from the Germans. Praising this character, though, seems to not even raise an eyebrow. In fact, they've put up a statue of him at Stormont. It seems, then, that only one 'side' can be termed 'traitorous'.
McMurdo has a point with his other object of hate: the Dundee Utd fan that wrote on Twitter, mocking those that died at the Ibrox Disaster. There is no excuse for this kind of thing and Merlin is quite right to condemn it and the guy should be prosecuted. Again, however, double standards are at play. Many young boys had their lives ruined by James Torbett. Were Celtic guilty in all this? If they were, it was down to negligence, not intention; exactly the same as the negligence of Rangers that caused the death of 66 people. And yet, this episode is deemed a worthy subject for jokes and humorous songs and chants. Even Gordon Smith thought it was worth a chuckle. Has anyone been prosecuted for causing distress to the victims? Of course not!
Isn't it strange how our football authorities and police force have decided to show a sectarian, biased side at this particular juncture in time? Now, what could have caused this bigotry to come crawling back out from its hiding-place? There's really only one thing that's happened recently that could possibly have caused this: the referendum result. It looks like the 'NO' vote has boosted the confidence of the bigots and given them what they think is a mandate to return to the Old Ways.
The Daily Record joins in with its usual lies. The mayhem at George Square on 19th September, which was filmed and photographed for all the world to see, has resulted, it appears, in ONE arrest. One Darran Murray was filmed swigging Buckfast, making Nazi salutes and singing 'pro-Union songs,' whatever they are. The DR, meanwhile, goes on about how "officers attempted to separate hundreds of rival supporters", "Union supporters and Yes campaigners arguing" and how "fighting broke out". Anyone that has seen the videos etc knows that's not what happened. A gang of thugs attacked the YES campaigners; it wasn't two sides arguing and fighting. I suppose that wee girl attacked that hooligan with her saltire flag? I fully expect, in the not-too-distant future, that our media will find some way to blame the YES campaigners for the violence!
Back to McMurdo and, of course, Merlin wouldn't be Merlin without providing some comedy gold. He talks of "Rangers fans and other respectable people" as well as "embracing and accepting of all seemingly only applies if you are not a Protestant, Unionist, Loyalist or supporter of the Glasgow Rangers". Brilliant stuff. It's the way he tells 'em! McMurdo's solution is akin to America rounding up all the blacks and jailing them because they hate the KKK! Or perhaps the 6 million Jews that died in extermination camps were guilty of bigotry and racism because they hated the Nazis! Oops. Did I say 6 million? I forgot; McMurdo is friends with one of UKIP's most prominent holocaust deniers! Sorry, Bill; it didn't happen - Communist lies and all that!
Meanwhile, continuing the comedy theme, the Rangers (sic) Supporters Trust is setting up a rival merchandising outlet, selling black-and-red-coloured fanwear. All the profits will apparently be used to buy shares to give The Peeppul more say in the running of the club. They really haven't thought this one through. If they expect to oust Mike Ashley and the rest by this route then they're in for a nasty shock. They can buy all the shares they like but the incumbents at Ibrox have got a ready-made solution. All they need to do if the RST gets its hands on a bunch of shares is have a preferential share issue. Ashley, Blue Pitch, Margarita and the rest can snap up the new shares, effectively maintaining their present percentage holdings, while the share percentage of the RST would halve overnight. I'm sure Ashley is quaking in his boots as we speak.
They're asking for "fans with experience in merchandising, design and manufacture to come forward and help expand their range." Now, I don't know about design and manufacture but I do know somebody they can approach about merchandising; a world expert in the field, in fact. He currently resides at a chateau in France and his merchandising expertise extends to convincing thousands that a new football club was a continuation of an old one. I'm sure he'd be more than willing to help out; for a small fee, of course!
Over at Ibrox, Mr Blobby, the Bisto FC Chairman, is currently 'in talks' with Llambias and Leach, Mike Ashley's henchmen. Apparently, he, Mr Blobby that is, invited this pair to work for the club as consultants. What a coincidence, eh? They'll be having 'interviews' soon for the posts of CEO and Director, to replace Wallace and Nash; I wonder who'll get the jobs? Meanwhile, Mr Blobby says of Llambias, "He’s a consultant. I’m sure everything will turn out for the best."
Aye, they're coming down the road. And Ashley saw them coming!
"Erzi black-an-rid terry-towellin' soacks. Only three furra pound now!"
they worked out that out of the 4m voters, 0.5m of them were your unionist, loyalist, bigoted scum, brits to the core. now that is only 12.5 % of the population and the question has to be asked, how can this minority have so much backing from the media, police etc ?
ReplyDeleteits nice to know that the vast majority of Scots are decent people and hopefully once we break free from the union then all the scum will kill themselves ......happy days lol