JABBA THE AGNIVORE

RETURNING THE SPOILS

I remember, about twenty years ago, working in a primary school in Glasgow where my P6 class were doing Cycling Proficiency Training. It was a bit of a skive for me as some folk from the police did everything, while I was left to look after the half-dozen or so that weren't doing it. The lessons took up a whole afternoon once a week and the first lesson involved using a special pen, which showed up under ultra-violet light, to mark their bicycles with their post codes. While showing the pupils how it worked it was discovered that one wee girl was in possession of a stolen bike! I didn't find out until school was over and I still remember the girl, tears and snotters streaming down her face, holding the offending bike, flanked by two big, burly, embarrassed-looking policemen. The girl's dad had bought the bike in good faith from an advert in the paper. (This was in the pre-Gumtree days!) Of course, the bike was returned to its rightful owner. Whether the thief was ever caught I don't know; I do know, however, that the girl's dad had lost his money!

Do the same principles apply in the world of finance, I wonder. Now that Craig Whyte has lost his case against Ticketus it begs the question of whether or not Ticketus are entitled to claim back the money they were swindled out of. It seems more than likely that Whyte won't be able to cough up the cash, so is Ticketus entitled to get it back from Lloyds-TSB? It seems quite reasonable to me that they are; so where would that leave Lloyds? Would they just end up another one of the many creditors shafted by Green's 'takeover'? I wonder if the bank would be prepared to just let it go at that!

With all the revelations coming out at the moment it looks as if I may have been right all along about the conduct of Duff and Phelps. There were apparently consortiums (consortia?) lining up to get their hands on Rangers and any one of them could have done the same as Green did: buy the assets, start again and then claim to be the same club. I wondered at the time, and I still wonder, why the assets were not sold to the highest bidder. Why were they just handed over to Green at a knock-down price? There are definitely more revelations to come and if Lloyds are going to lose out they will be insisting that BDO investigate Green's 'takeover' fully.

Meanwhile, Mr Dignity has joined everyone else at Rangers by airing his dirty linen in public. He wants to speak to Green about his relationship with Whyte. He's got a bit of a cheek. No doubt he had his snout in the EBT trough along with quite a few others. If they'd paid back these 'loans' then there would never have been any need for Murray to sell to Whyte! Auld Dignity also voices his shock at the recent, racist language used by Green. He says that this is not what they are used to at Rangers. I suppose the word 'Fenian' doesn't count, then, eh, Mr Smith?

Other folk are calling for a united front behind Green, no matter what. This is necessary, they say, because of the 'Rangers-haters' in the Scottish press. Apparently anyone that publishes bad news about Rangers is a Rangers-hating, Republican, Fenian b-. I take it they'd rather go back to the old days of the Succulent Lamb Brigade, telling them not to worry and that everything's fine? That was how Whyte managed to get his foot in the door: the agnivores, like Traynor, questioned nothing until it was far too late. Like Murray, they all claim to have been 'dooped' while bloggers were able to find out all about Whyte by simply searching on the internet!

With nobody at Ibrox apparently speaking to each other and fighting each other in the papers, Rangers supporters are looking for somebody, anybody to fight their corner. Traynor has proven that he is patently not up to the job, whatever his job is supposed to be! So, cometh the hour, cometh the man: step forward one Chris Graham! Unfortunately, this character has his head screwed on about as loosely as Loony Leggat! I can't be the only one to remember his blog, 'Enemies of Rangers.' This blog mysteriously vanished, and no wonder! One of his 'enemies' was a Glasgow pub. What was the crime of said pub? They advertised showing a Celtic match and said they would be serving jelly and ice-cream if Celtic won! This is what Rangers is reduced to!

And speaking of Loony Leggat, his blog today is taken up, again, with his one-man crusade against Graham Spiers. I don't know why there is bad blood between these two but Leggat must surely deserve some kind of award for sheer, bloody-minded bitchiness! At any rate, he promises us some revelations about the true situation at Ibrox tomorrow. Stand by for a whitewash job!

A new argument has been thrown into the football mix: should there be a minute's silence for Thatcher? By God, I'd like to see them try it in Liverpool! With Green's popularity dwindling by the day he might think that this would be a good way to sook in with the supporters. If he were to go down such a road then he would be in for an almighty shock! The hatred for Thatcher in Scotland transcends any sectarian antipathies. I can't see folk from Motherwell, Bilston and many other places going to Ibrox and standing silent for a minute to commemorate the woman that destroyed their communities!