FLAGGING UP BIGOTRY

Well, Alloa's cunning plan seemed to work out and Sevco were lucky to escape with a draw. I haven't seen Warbs moaning about the pitch yet; he's still trying to work out the best way to explain how his players weren't given enough room for a decent run-up for a convincing dive in the penalty box. It's just a pity that Hibs couldn't manage to take advantage. The funniest thing in the papers this weekend, though, was wee Barry Ferguson moaning about a referee. He had two of his players sent off, while Elgin had one and 'Fergie', as the Daily Record calls him (There's nothing like showing how neutral you are, eh?) is absolutely blazing. When will he get it through his head that, no matter how much he talks about Sevco in his column, his Ibrox days are gone, and along with them have gone the preferential treatment he used to rely on!

Nearly as funny, but more pathetic, is the news in the DR that Rangers (sic) and Aberdeen are going to 'join forces' with Celtic in opposing the ECA's madcap scheme to only have Europe's elite competing in the Champions League. And that's just the headline; the article is much worse. The whole piece is about how Sevco, with Aberdeen's help, is going to fight the proposal. Quite how an associate member of the ECA, with no vote and no history at all in Europe is going to do this is not explained. Almost as an afterthought, the Record says, "Celtic’s Lawwell, in his role at the ECA, is also determined to fight tooth and nail to protect Scotland’s place in the competition." It's a good job Peter Lawwell had Sevco to point out to him what he's supposed to do and I'm sure he'll support their endeavours to the best of his abilities. Aren't we lucky to have Sevco to lead Scottish football?

Not in the least bit funny, meanwhile, are the threats by Vanguard Bears over the proposal to fly an Irish flag in North Lanarkshire to commemorate the Easter Rising. They say that if the proposal is approved, then "the 24^th April will see a gathering like no other to vehemently oppose this despicable action". That sounds suspiciously like a threat of violence to me. According to these Nazis, it was Cairde na hÉireann that originally asked for the flag to be flown. That, of course, is like a red rag to a bull.

The writer goes on to state how "As recently as 11^th September 2015 this group had its main office in Glasgow raided and members charged under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act." That, however, does not tell the whole story. What happened was that the police, for no apparent reason, raided the office, went off with a bagful of CDs etc. and charged the old guy that works in the shop under the Terrorism Act. You can read all about it here. (You'll need to scroll down a bit.) As usual, The Peeppul rewrite things to suit themselves. In an earlier article on VB they spoke about "the George Square No Vote celebrations that were hijacked by nationalists intent on trouble". I read that with my jaw hanging to the floor at the sheer effrontery of it! As for the old guy that was arrested, nothing more has been heard so I assume the police got nowhere with their charges and the whole matter was quietly dropped.

Now, imagine that a large cache of weapons had been discovered at Cairde na hÉireann's office; The Peeppul would have cause to greet about that. Would anyone, especially The Peeppul, accept as a defence that the weapons had not been used against anybody? Not at all. The intention was there and that's good enough for condemnation and even a conviction. Please bear with me on this; there's a good reason for me going with this scenario.

The VBs say about the Easter Rising, "At a time when Britain, indeed most of Europe and their fellow countrymen were dying in the trenches halting the German jackboot, these rebellious cowards staged their rising". Halting the German jackboot? What planet is this guy on? It was all about the men of one empire fighting against those of another. It was a struggle between elites, with ordinary men doing the actual fighting. It's worth pointing out too that the majority of men fighting in the British Army did not even have the vote!

Anyway, in 1914, not long before the war started and while tensions were running high between Britain and Germany, one Edward Carson and his UVF smuggled illegal arms from Germany, with the sole purpose of fighting against the British Army. Here's where my earlier scenario is relevant. It doesn't matter whether or not the guns were used; the intention was clear. The man was a traitor. And yet, there's a fucking great statue of the cunt at Stormont. I wonder if Vanguard Bears would like this statue removed.

Taking advantage of situations has long been a facet of war and revolution. The great victory won by Washington after he crossed the River Delaware only happened because the British garrison was completely relaxed and off-guard, not expecting an attack on Christmas Day. Maybe VB would like the flying of the Stars and Stripes banned as well. Britain itself was not averse to attacking natives when they were engaged elsewhere, often stirring up trouble for the purpose, as was done with the Ndebele and Shona tribes, between whom a war was started so that the British could mop up the pieces and get all the diamonds, ore and coal reserves in what was to become Rhodesia. You can hardly blame the Irish men and women for taking advantage of the situation that presented itself in 1916.

Everyone has moved on since then; even the Queen has apologised for the brutality shown against the Irish people for centuries. All over the world the Irish diaspora will be celebrating the events of 1916, which eventually led to a free, independent Irish state. Even those with no Irish ancestry will be joining in, realising the significance of the event. There will be no problem anywhere with this; even in England there will probably be some commemoration events taking place. Not so, however, in Scotland. Vanguard Bears states that "We will defend our rights and traditions as citizens of the United Kingdom, unlike the current Scottish Government who seem hell-bent in eradicating it." As we always suspected, it seems that those 'rights and traditions' wholly consist of hatred and bigotry.

All the moaning and griping has reminded me of 1989, when there were to be celebrations throughout Europe to commemorate the French Revolution, one of the most important events in history. Margaret Thatcher was vehemently opposed to any such celebrations, stating publicly that the French Revolution was 'not that important'. This led to much ridicule in the press and even a humorous book on Thatcher's view of history. Her supporters claimed that Magna Carta was actually more important to the foundation of modern democracy than the French Revolution. No wonder The Peeppul loved Thatcher so much; she was just as deranged and detached from reality as they are!

It appears that my new blog about Serious Religious Discussion has been a non-starter. I was beginning to think that nobody was interested until I discovered the real reason for the lack of activity; no bugger is able to post comments. I've changed the settings around but it doesn't seem to have made any difference. I might as well give up, since it looks as if it will be less of a discussion and more like me pontificating about everything!

Finally, doing research for a book can have its drawbacks. For my new one, which follows on from 'Fear and Smear', I was looking on Amazon for those ridiculous translations, by a company called Itchy Coo, of Roald Dahl books into what the translators call 'Scots'. You know the kind of thing I mean; I'm sure I've moaned about it on here before. Now, however, when I'm looking at the websites of newspapers etc. I'm being stalked by adverts for this pish, as if I'm interested in a 'Scots' translation of the Gruffalo. (I didn't even like the original book!) Talk about suffering for your art!

"Flags? We didn't have flags at Brentford. In my experience...blah...blah...blah...drone..."