THE VICTIMS

When it comes to Nazi Germany everybody, especially in Germany, tends to forget that Hitler and his party were democratically elected. Emergency powers were declared after the Reichstag fire but this was allowed under the Weimar Constitution; legitimacy was scrupulously observed. Everyone in Germany was overjoyed at how strong their country became, with full employment and trampling over everybody else in Europe. If Jewish neighbours disappeared, well who cared? Once things went bad, however, and folk were hiding in the rubble of their destroyed homes to escape the vengeful Russian army, they all cursed Hitler and his associates. It was nearly impossible for the allies to find anybody in the whole of Germany that ever supported the Nazi Party.

We're seeing the same kind of thing now with The Peeppul. During David Murray's tenure they were all happy to dominate Scottish football, waving flags and shouting 'We arra peeppul!' None of them cared where the money was coming from and if anybody asked awkward questions they were shouted down. A different story now, eh? It's hard to find any of them that has a good word to say about David Murray now that the glory days have gone.

The Peeppul can't accept their own part in their club's downfall. Like the French at the end of World War II they look to assuage their own guilt by picking on scapegoats. The French shaved the heads of women that had slept with Germans; The Peeppul want to hang Craig Whyte. McMurdo is scathing about this lynch-mob mentality; but even he is trying to peddle the myth that Rangers was the victim in all this. He says:

"Convictions would certainly prove that Rangers were the victims of a scam or swindle but, given that the team, the club and its fans have had to endure three seasons of agony as pariahs and lepers i.e. being treated as wrongdoers, how will this be given redress by the footballing authorities, member clubs and football hacks who all queued up to give Rangers a severe kicking when we were down?"

How the hell were Rangers 'the victims'? Remember, all the swindling and tax dodging were to keep the best team they could on the pitch. Then they were allowed to illegally split the business into two parts, invent a phantom 'holding company' and start over, pretending to be still the same club while stiffing hundreds of creditors. They were even allowed to go straight into the league ahead of the queue; again illegally. It is absolutely impossible to show that Rangers was in any way the injured party; mainly because it obviously wasn't.

McMurdo and his disciples are determined that everybody and his dug, outside of The Peeppul, is guilty of destroying Rangers. The SFA, the Scottish Government and anybody else they can think of are all part of a big worldwide conspiracy to kill off Rangers. They really are that stupid. It's incredible that these morons can really believe that a business that overreached itself and collapsed is the fault of everybody with an Irish surname!

One of Merlin's Mob sums up the feelings of them all with this pish:  "...we used to have a them and us class type system , we can now add to that an underclass that have been given Carte Blanche to insidiously enforce , troll , abuse , stalk, menace and in some case use acts of violence to force a nationalist socialist agenda on the majority".

That'll be the folk that abused John Bishop on Twitter, eh? Isn't it strange how the papers pussyfoot about when it comes to telling us exactly what kind of people, or peeppul, were dishing out the abuse? Not that there's any doubt; Bishop only got bombarded with vile abuse when he put a picture up of himself at Celtic Park. An 'underclass' right enough!

But, never fear; according to McMurdo God is going to sort everyone out for what they did to 'Raynjurz' come Judgment Day'. For, as it says in the Old Testament Book of Merlin, Chapter 16, Verse 90, "And the Rangers-Haters will burn in the Big Bad Fire." According to McMurdo, there's going to be a goat involved as well. It looks like the Afterlife is going to be one, big, Masonic get-together!

Hector, over on Mick's blog, pointed us in the direction of this interesting article: http://www.onfieldsofgreen.com/not-playing-in-europe/  It's fascinating stuff, but, rather depressingly, I'm the suspicious type. Considering the way the new club has been allowed to parade itself as being 'stull Raynjurz' I'm of the belief that rules will be bent until they almost break to ensure that Bisto FC get into Europe if they manage to qualify. UEFA will just take the SFA's word for it and I'm willing to bet that nothing at all will be put in Bisto's way. Even if they were playing against Newcastle United to qualify for the Europa League there'll be some way that it'll be allowed to take place. After all, Ashley only owns 9% of Bisto FC, doesn't he? You wait and see!

I forgot in my last post to say an RIP to good old Arthur Montford. My abiding memory of Arthur is of my parents moving the indoor aerial about and fiddling with the vertical and horizontal hold on the old black-and-white telly as the screen struggled to cope with Arthur's sports jackets! I also remember him appearing to be the consummate gentleman. You couldn't imagine him being an obnoxious bully like Alex Cameron or being as blatantly partisan and shouting everyone down like Jabba. The only time I remember him raising his voice and getting overexcited was when he shouted, "...and Argentina, here we come!"

It got me thinking about some of the old sports presenters. I remember the name Brian Marjoribanks although I don't remember much about him, apart from him coming to our primary school to crit our student teacher; he was a tutor at St. Andrew's Teacher Training College. Somehow, I don't think Jabba would have liked him!

My favourite commentator, however, was the incomparable Jimmy Sanderson on Radio Clyde. His constant name-dropping was hilarious; "Jock Stein was saying to me only the other day..." His best, though, was when commentating on a Celtic match in the 80s. That was when he came out with the classic line. "And Maurice Johnson leaps for the ball, his blond hair glinting in the autumn sunshine!" Aye, they don't make them like that anymore!

A collaborator shows his shaven head.

A BIG LEAGUE FOR THE BIG LIE

It seems that there is now a massive push in our media to try to cement the Big Lie once and for all. And not just in the media. Even the police and justice system are getting in on the act, desperately making it look as if 'Rangers' was the victim. Meanwhile feelers are being sent out to see how everyone will react if the top league is extended to possibly eighteen teams. The Establishment is ready to go all-out to do whatever it can to help this ailing, new club.

All the stuff about David Murray, Walter Smith and even Sooperally going to be called as prosecution witnesses shows that there is a determination to somehow prove that Craig Whyte defrauded Rangers. Murray will be up on the stand, telling everyone how he was 'dooped' while the rest of them blame Whyte for everything that happened. The fact that all those creditors were defrauded will be Whyte's fault, as will the current financial crisis at Ibrox. The only thing that won't be mentioned at all will be the dreaded 'L' word.

The fact is that Rangers was defrauded by nobody. Whyte handed over his pound coin, as per the contract, and Murray signed over the club. It is even debatable whether Ticketus was swindled. If the hapless Sooperally had managed to qualify for Europe things would have turned out alright and anyone that pointed out Whyte's history would be shouted down, as they were right up until things started to go wrong. Ticketus would have got their money, administration and liquidation wouldn't have happened and Keith Jackson would still be telling us that Whyte had wealth off the radar.

Looking at Whyte's history it's easy to see that he's a Walter Mitty character, a dreamer with big ideas but no ability to back them up. If anybody wanted to commit a crime then there could be no better fall guy than Whyte. I wonder if any tough questions will be asked of the witnesses; for example, how long they actually knew Whyte. It seems like a massive coincidence that Whyte came in when the only recourse left to Rangers was to shut down and start again. It is also a massive coincidence that nobody at Rangers, least of all Murray, suffered financially through any of this. It's going to be interesting to see exactly what this court case will be about.

McMurdo and his disciples, meanwhile, have finally started up their new bigot brigade. Apparently they're going to retain the services of a solicitor to do something about all the 'Raynjurz Haturz' out there. They're still going on about how hard-done-by they are. He had a guest blogger on yesterday, banging on about how "Our club seems under constant threat and attack these days." And who is supposed to be mounting these threats and attacks. Talk about being full of shite! And this guy lives in Canada, so how the hell does he know about threats and attacks?

He certainly can't be talking about Colin Duncan in the Daily Record, whose recent, vomit-inducing article would be called paranoia if it came from a Celtic supporter. You can read his article here; just make sure you're sitting down and not eating anything at the time. He goes on about FARE having an agenda against Rangers (sic) and how they never have anything bad to say about Celtic. It seems to have escaped his notice but they don't need to say anything bad about Celtic; our football authorities, police and media are always on hand to do that job. Strangely, though, they never seem to notice when The Peeppul are belting out their bigoted and racist songs. Maybe if the powers-that-be did their job fairly and impartially then FARE would never need to get involved at all!

What seems to have inspired Duncan to spout this pish is the seeming fact that FARE have not condemned Tonev after his 'guilty' verdict at the hands of the SFA beaks. He says, "Regardless of the fact no hard evidence was presented – it was one Aberdeen’s word against Celtic’s – the case against Tonev was proved." Where the hell does he get that from? How the hell was it 'proved'? Maybe instead of castigating FARE, this clown should be looking at this disgraceful verdict, arrived at, as he himself says, without a shred of evidence. Maybe he should look at the disgusting verdict against the Hearts fan that attacked Neil Lennon, or the way that those that sent home-made bombs to Lennon were made out to be harmless buffoons. Perhaps if these filthy bigots didn't get off with so much then there would be no need for the likes of FARE.

I see that Bisto FC is still in deep shit and are considering yet another share issue to raise funds to get to the end of the season. It's going to end up that those shares won't be worth the paper they're printed on the way they're going. And yet, The Peeppul still think they're 'coming down the road' and that Ashley's going to give Sooper a massive war chest in January. It seems to have escaped their notice that, so far, Ashley hasn't put one penny into the club. He bought his shares from somebody else, not in the share issue and has been content to lend the club money rather than plough any of his ill-gotten into it. Isn't it about time that somebody did the decent thing and performed euthanasia?

It's looking increasing likely that Bisto won't be winning promotion this season; they might not even make the play-offs. Desperate times call for desperate measures and Gordon Strachan is the latest one to suggest a larger top tier. If, by some miracle, Bisto manage to win promotion then this idea will be quietly dropped. In the more likely event that they don't then we're going to hear more and more about this scheme. After all, as we're constantly being told these days, Scottish football can't survive without Rangers (sic) being in the top division.

If they do decide to enlarge the Premiership just to accommodate one club then it throws up some interesting possibilities. Not only is it probable that Bisto won't gain promotion but Bisto won't even exist unless they start cutting back drastically. They might have to cut things back to such an extent that they cannot manage in the brand-spanking-new, all-improved top tier; what happens then? Suppose they end up finishing eighteenth in an eighteen-team league? Since we're told that we need 'Raynjurz' in the top tier then the only answer is to enlarge it again; probably to twenty teams. Pretty soon every club in Scotland, including amateurs and school teams, will all be in the Premiership. It sounds ridiculous and it is, but what else are they going to do to keep Bisto FC in the top tier?

Sporting Integrity has become a dirty phrase in our media; an excuse to 'demote' Rangers (sic) and deprive Scottish football of much-needed revenue. In reality, however, our sports journalists are disingenuously pretending ignorance of what the phrase actually means. If all that matters is money then we'll end up in the situation where two teams, Celtic and whatever team plays out of Ibrox, are never allowed to be relegated so as to safeguard the revenues generated by these clubs. Hardly fair on all the other teams, is it? And how are they going to achieve this without the nonsensical infinite extension of the top tier? The only other way is by cheating in individual matches, like a few expedient sendings-off and penalties; the kind of thing that has been going on to help Bisto through the leagues. It would be a shameful situation to get into.

If the Premiership is enlarged then it's the start of a slippery slope. I don't know about you but I'll certainly want nothing more to do with Scottish football if it happens. It won't be a sporting competition anymore but a fiasco.

"Aye, wae wur aw dooped, so wae wur! Ah never believed aw thae stories aboot billionaires 'n' 'at. Aye, Ah know Ah said ay hud ma full support, but Ah wiz only kiddin' oan 'n' 'at. It wiz aw Whyte's fawt that wae goat beat wi' Malmo an' Maribor 'n' 'at. An' Ah loast a loat-a money, 'n' 'at, so Ah did. Ah mean, £850,000 a year - how's emdy supposed tae survive oan that? An' the bastard stole wanny ma steak bakes anaw before ay left!"

LOST SOULS

The famous historian AJP Taylor once said that, at Nuremberg, they hanged a few middle-ranking Nazis and then assumed that the rest of Germany had been somewhere else at the time. The same thing seems to be happening at Ibrox. A few middling characters are being lined up to take the fall while the big boys get off Scot-free. The ridiculous warrant for old Barney Google's arrest and the supposed 'search' for him is all a red herring. Are we meant to believe that he jumped off a train on the Forth Bridge and is currently running across the glens, handcuffed to Madeleine Carroll, with the local police in hot pursuit? More likely he's laughing his arse off as he and Charlie sip Remy Martin in front of a roaring fire of £20 notes.

Rather strangely, The Peeppul are getting a bit excited over these arrests. Being the collective-mind solipsists they are, they cannot understand that there is an actual, real world outside Govan. Their logical, if you can call it that, thinking process is: four men have been arrested for fraud, these four men were connected to Rangers, ergo these four men must have defrauded Rangers. They have got so used to playing the victim that it cannot seem to penetrate their thick skulls that nobody defrauded Rangers. On the contrary, all the defrauding was actually done on behalf of the dead club.

Remember that season when Craig Whyte was the man in charge? He held back the PAYE of his employees mainly to be able to afford to put a team on the pitch. He didn't bother to hand over VAT for the same reason. Meanwhile, he had paid off Rangers' debt to the bank by borrowing money from Ticketus. Rangers, as it had been for years, was on very shaky foundations. But it would have worked if it hadn't been for that pesky Sooperally getting kicked out of Europe early.

So who suffered when Rangers ended up like an upside-down goldfish at the top of the bowl? Not Rangers. The assets were snapped up for a song and a new club started that was allowed to pretend to be a continuation of the old one. Meanwhile Ticketus, HMRC and many others were left to whistle for their cash.

So if these guys are hauled up in court for fraud, it can't possibly be for anything that was done to Rangers. The problem is, however, that all the blame for everything is going to be shifted onto their heads; unless, of course, they come to some kind of deal to hand over the ones behind it all. David Muray, Duff and Phelps, Charlie Boy etc should all be up before a judge. It won't happen though; I've no doubt that these guys have already been well paid to keep their mouths firmly shut!

Meanwhile, as I thought, the Derry Dinosaur Jockey, Gregory Campbell, is desperately looking for some way to appeal the decision vis-a-vis Celtic receiving 'state aid'. Does this guy ever actually do anything for his constituents? All he ever seems to be interested in is Celtic and getting South Korean cars renamed. And it seems that McMurdo and his disciples can't accept this decision that exonerates Celtic because it was made by 'Celtic's friends' in Europe. They're all riled to hell about it.

It's only just struck me that the whole thing has been a ruse all along. All this shite about Celtic and the GCC was probably made up, in the full knowledge that there was no evidence whatsoever and that the EC would clear Celtic of any wrongdoing. The Peeppul being as gullible as they are would obviously believe every word. Cue lots of anger and hatred directed at the EU. Now, who do you think this shower might vote for in next year's election? And remind me again which party McMurdo belongs to. The plot thickens!

And talking of thick, The Peeppul were all up in arms over a t-shirt being sold online by Burtons. The company that makes them is called 'Stolen Souls' and they obviously thought it would be a laugh to make a t-shirt with a 'Stolen Souls' football team. A quick Google search and they got hold of a picture of a Victorian football team. A couple of changes here and there (including removing a star - they wore kid-oan stars even then), a few skulls bunged onto the shoulders and - Hey Presto! - they've made a team of 'Lost Souls'. Unfortunately, however, they should have taken a closer look at which team the photo showed. Anyone else would have had a laugh at it, but not The Peeppul. This was a picture of the 'Gallunt Pie-In-Ears,' whom we are all supposed to venerate as if they were Old Testament prophets. The paranoid overreaction of The Peeppul to this t-shirt was hilarious to behold. Mark Dingwall, of FollowFollow, told the Daily Record, "The obsession of fans of other football clubs with Rangers points to it being someone with a very unpleasant agenda." Christ, you daren't say anything! No doubt they'd think my 39 Steps allusion above has got something to do with the Ibrox Disaster!

Which brings me on to the poor sod that died at the Scotland vs Ireland game. I've no doubt that it was a tragic accident but some of The Peeppul are already calling for an investigation into it, hoping desperately that Celtic can somewhow be blamed. What there should be an investigation into is all the booing of Aiden McGeady and the reports of anti-Irish chanting that went on during the match. Strachan and big Ugly McQueen should be in court for stirring up racial hatred. One of McMurdo's disciples has this to say on the subject, "The booing of McGeady was a timely reminder to me that Scotland is, in fact, Scottish." What the fuck does that even mean?

Sticking with McMurdo and he's now promoting some madcap scheme for a whole-of Britain league. Of course, the 'Quintessential British Team' would be welcomed with open arms. I can just see them clamouring for this scenario in Manchester! And everybody's favourite bigot is back with his cut-and-paste thoughts for the day. This time the windbag has a long piece about sexual abuse among Irish Republicans. I don't know the details since I didn't bother to read it, which is probably true of 'wulliewonthe' as well. These clowns really are incredible. Stories are emerging about the sexual abuse and murder of children by top people in the British Establishment and all these fuckwits can do is try to deflect! So much for only being concerned about the children!

While 'wulliewonthe' has been digging about in the internet trying to find dirt on anyone Catholic or Irish, I've been doing a bit of digging of my own. I think I've already said that I decided to take up Mick's challenge and write about the 'Better Together' campaign and, by God, there is some juicy stuff hiding away in the dark corners of the internet. It's not so much that I've made discoveries but I've found discoveries that others have made, which, linked together, make for very interesting reading indeed. You'll have to wait until the book comes out to read about this, unless, of course, somebody else joins the dots before then!

"Fuck me, boays! How the hell did wae end up like this?"

"It's your fault, ya prick! Ah telt ye wae shouldnae take that boat trip wae Bill Struth!"

THE MONSTER MASH

I wonder if Jordan Rhodes will be taking the field on Friday evening. You know Jordan Rhodes, the striker for Scotland, who is as Scottish as jellied eels, Yorkshire pudding and Eccles cake. He qualifies to play for Scotland because he attended primary school here while his dad played for Scottish clubs. Under such ridiculous rules can a player be entitled to turn out for a country that is not of his birth. I wonder what Gordon McQueen has to say about it?

It used to be that you played for the country you were born in and that was it. The rules were relaxed in the 1970s and, with one or two short periods of strictness, they have been relaxed to the point of not particularly mattering much anymore. Remember Jack Charlton, scouring the planet for anybody that had ever tasted Guinness to star in his ROI team? And then we had, a few years ago, some stupid story about Nacho Novo somehow being eligible to play for Scotland. I remember one joker in the pub suggesting that the Scotland manager should start looking at African players. The argument could be used that the player's ancestors were cannibals, who had eaten Scottish missionaries, so the guy had Scottish blood in him! Ridiculous, I know, but I'm surprised somebody hasn't tried it!

Still, if the rules say that something's okay then everybody has to go along with it. It seems, however, in Scotland that it's only okay so long as you don't sign up to play for one particular nation. Paul Paton is a native of Paisley, who opted to play for Northern Ireland since his dad came from Larne. Good luck to him, although he might end up behind bars for a certain incident in the west-end of Glasgow. Now, I wonder; if Scotland were playing against NI, would the two Gordons, Strachan and McQueen, be calling on the Scotland fans to boo Paton throughout the match? Where have they gone? Gordon? Gordon?

One last word on the poppy brouhaha. We should count ourselves fortunate that all those men gave their lives for us. Just imagine, if Germany had won either war we would be living in a society where we would be forced into glorifying the armed services, wearing symbols to prove our allegiance and listening to constant rhetoric about how wonderful it is to die for your country. Wait a minute...

Meanwhile, The Peeppul are getting all excited at events taking place at Skaro. It seems that Mike Ashley has handed back the naming rights that he bought for a pound. This has been accepted all round as great news. They never learn, do they? I would imagine that if Ashley has handed this back then it means that there's no money to be made from it. That, surely, doesn't augur well! He obviously doesn't expect any great advertising prospect to emerge from renaming the stadium, which means either he reckons the club is going nowhere or he reckons the club is going nowhere!

While the likes of McMurdo is shooting his load all over the place about a real, bona fide billionaire being in place, they're obviously not looking at things closely enough. They don't think about things like Ashley not buying into the share issue but buying shares from somebody else. Effectively this means that he hasn't put a penny into the club. And it looks like he has no intention of doing so either. He loaned them £2m and is now lending them another £1m. It won't take long for him to be the major creditor; what will happen then? I doubt there'll be any kind of warchest for Sooper come January; unless, of course the board decides to borrow more from Ashley! Never mind, maybe they can give Sooper some of the billions upon billions they're bound to get for Lee Ashley.

The Union of Fuckwits are still on the case, complaining to the AIM about Ashley. They're banging on about his merchandising deals etc. What the hell do they expect the Stock Market to do about it all? He bought shares, legally, hasn't done anything without informing the market and...well, that's it as far as the Stock Exchange is concerned. They couldn't give a damn about anything else! And I see Graeme Souness has stuck his big beak in as well, cursing all and sundry because they dared to turn down an offer he was involved in. I like seeing pictures of Souness; it alwas reminds me of his torn face as he stormed into the tunnel as Blackburn Rovers, 'the men', had just been beaten by 'the boys' of Celtic!

Finally, I see Mike Ashley's investment company is called MASH, and they keep going on about MASH on McMurdo's blog. Maybe it's an omen. The theme song from the film, MASH will make an appropriate background score when it all goes tits-up!

"Hello, playmates! It's your old pal, Big-Hearted Bill Struth again. Now what's all this I hear about folk going to boo a couple of lads that are playing for the Republic of Ireland. What the hell is the world coming to? In my day we'd have shot the whole bloody team! Remembrance Day? What I remember is V.E. Day, when somebody came into the shipyard to tell us it was safe to come out. We were only just out the gates when we heard we were still fighting against the bloomin' Japanese! I almost got knocked over in the rush back into the sheet-iron shop, I can tell you! Ayyyyyyythenkyaow!"

MOVING ON

Predictably, there was the usual outrage today over the Celtic match on Sunday. How dare they not wear poppies on their shirts! And, of course, we get the story of the minute's silence being disrupted. Looking at the video helpfully provided by the DR, it's fairly obvious that the shouting is coming from outside the ground. It's not a protest or anything; it sounds like somebody shouting for their mates or such like. It also sounds like one person inside the ground started shouting at the start, but you can hear everyone around him going 'Shhhhhh!' and he soon shuts up. Hardly the big show of disrespect that the media is trying to paint it!

I'm maybe being paranoid here but remember that time they started the minute's silence before Neil Lennon got a chance to come out the tunnel? That was obviously deliberate so that fingers could be pointed. I've got a feeling that the same thing has happened at Pittodrie; starting the minute's silence before everyone is in the ground. Stranger things have happened.

The DR hotline, of course, has all the indignation we've come to expect, as does McMurdo's blog. One of the disciples has this to say:

"I just knew that going on to the Daily Record web site today i would find a story that somehow brings down Rangers or Protestants and sure enough there it was….
Revealed: Care worker arrested over indy ref violence is member of flute band with links to Ulster paramilitaries
Of course there was nothing regarding the disgraceful events at Pittodrie. There may eventually be but first they will have a few stories to remind the world how evil us Proddies are."

Where does it say that the guy supports Rangers (sic)? Obviously this guy writing assumes that if he's a bigot, then he must support the team at Ibrox. As Jesus put it, "Thou hast said it!" In fact, the only way the guy can be called a Protestant is if you take a very wide view of what a Protestant actually is. He's probably never seen the inside of a church, couldn't tell Justification by Faith from a slap in the teeth and thinks the Bible is, as one so-called Protestant lad once told me, "fulla kafflicks!" Only if you identify Protestantism as hating Catholics can this guy be called a Protestant. Most decent, church-going Protestants would be horrified to be linked with this individual. His band is even barred by the Orange Order, for God's sake!

Further to what I was saying yesterday about being told to 'move on' and forget the past only when it suits a particular agenda, it's hard to forget when it's thrust in your face constantly. What am I going on about? Well, one of McMurdo's disciples provides a link to show the Irish Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, attending a Remembrance ceremony at Enniskillen, while the Irish Ambassador laid a wreath at the cenotaph in Trafalgar Square. All well and good and a sign that the UK Government and the Irish Dail have put past hatreds behind them. But what of those of us that live here that are descended from the Irish?

Let me say straight off that I don't consider myself Irish, don't feel Irish, have never been to Ireland and don't pretend to be Irish either. That, however, hasn't stopped certain people telling me to 'Go home' and that I'm not wanted here; they don't want any of us here. That suddenly changes when a footballer decides to play for the ROI national team. He's a traitor. Confusing, isn't it? Not only that but the Scotland manager wants the fans to boo him when the two teams meet at Parkhead. I wonder what the reaction would be if Scotland were playing England and the English fans started to boo all the English players that opt to play for Scotland. There would be outrage and accusations of racism. Strangely, though, there have been no accusations of racism levelled at Gordon Strachan!

So let's see if I've got this straight. We're not wanted here and, in fact, on McMurdo's site and others of that ilk, we're accused of trying to take over the country. We're a huge threat, apparently, and one that needs to be countered fast. If one of us dares to play football for the country that they all want us to go back to, however, he's a traitor! No; I still don't get it. I probably never will. On top of that, we've to wear a poppy to thank all those that died for our freedom, while those that go to the most extreme lengths in this respect don't want us to have the freedom to live here unmolested. And they're calling for teams that don't wear a poppy on their shirts to be punished in some way. The argument is that we should commemorate those that apparently died for our freedom by not having the freedom to say that we don't want to wear a poppy! Where's my paracetamol?

REMEMBRANCE FASCISTS

As usual at this time of year, we get the words of hatred thrown at anyone that decides that they don't want to wear a poppy. James McClean, of Wigan Athletic, was this year's hate figure as he refused to wear a poppy at Friday's match. Of course, McMurdo and his disciples are straight in there with the usual bile towards anybody that's Irish.

One of the disciples calls those that won't wear a poppy, 'fascist bigots'. McMurdo, meanwhile, uses phrases like 'conform,' 'uniform' and 'stricter policy' - which all sound rather fascist to my ears! And then we have that old chestnut, 'Those men died for your freedom.' But isn't forcing people to wear a poppy taking away that freedom? So in that case they didn't die for freedom at all.

What these clowns don't get is that the ordinary man in uniform in WWI was not fighting for freedom and democracy at all. In fact, more people had the vote in Germany than in Britain and it's been estimated that over half Britain's fighting men had no say in the running of their own country. Anybody that has studied history can tell you that all the Great Powers were spoiling for a fight for nearly two decades, Britain included. At various times in the 1890s and into the 20th Century, Britain was all set to go to war with the USA, France, Russia and then Germany. It had nothing whatsoever to do with 'freedom' and 'democracy'.

So why did so many men enlist in WWI? The answer lies in what I remember from the 1970s. Germans were invited to Remembrance services and the letters pages in the papers were red-hot with angry pensioners, who 'remembered' how German soldiers raped and pillaged their way through Belgium, throwing babies into the air and impaling them on bayonets. These people were incensed that such bloodthirsty savages were invited to remember the fallen. If we are to accept that German soldiers did behave like this, then those old people were right in their indignation. If it had been merely propaganda then those men in WWI were fighting for a lie.

Memories of WWI were still raw when WWII started. There was none of the enthusiastic volunteering to go and fight that there had been in 1914 and conscription had to be introduced. It wasn't that these men were cowards or traitors; they just didn't want to go and be killed for some place on the map that they knew absolutely nothing about. They didn't care about Nazi ideology; in fact they either knew nothing about it or, in some cases, actually agreed with it. Of course, the propaganda machine went into overdrive again.

With all that we know nowadays about the Nazis, it is easy to see WWII as a great moral crusade. At the time, however, that wasn't the case. Black propaganda was needed to make everyone hate and fear the enemy. People of my parents' and grandparents' generations still refused to have anything in the house from Germany well into the late 20th Century. I remember at my graduation my mother caused a bit of a row for condemning people around her that were applauding a Japanese girl going up to collect her degree!

The bulk of the ire of McMurdo's Mob is reserved, of course, for Ireland and the Irish. McMurdo himself talks of those 'too bitter or cowardly to sign up.' He adds, for good measure, 'Of this small band, the IRA was formed.' Again, this shows a remarkable ignorance, or disdain, for history. Everyone expected that the war was going to be over by Christmas. For many Irishmen the sooner this 'sideshow' was over, the sooner they could get back to the main issue of Irish indpendence. The UVF felt the same way; they refused to hand over the weapons they had imported from Germany, keeping a hold of them to fight against British troops once the war with Germany was over. And, yet, those that joined the IRA are supposed to be 'traitors'!

Then we get the old, old story about German U-Boats refuelling in Ireland during WWII, even though this actually never happened. The truth was that the British High Command was as keen as anyone in keeping Ireland out of the war. Ireland was still getting over the Civil War and hardly had much of an army to speak of; the country would have been invaded and overrun in no time. It is perhaps understandable that Irish folk were not keen to have British soldiers stationed on their land, while the British High Command did not want to have to fight a war on two fronts. Ireland, therefore, stayed neutral, while a heavy armed presence was maintained in Ulster, ready to help out should the Germans decide to invade. Keeping Ireland neutral also meant that supplies from America could be channelled through here and many Irish merchant seamen lost their lives to the U-Boats. None of them were hiding in shipyards!

The Irish seem to have been vilified in this country since time immemorial; lies are still invented to make them seem like some kind of 'enemy within'. And those of Irish descent are subject to the same bile and lies. Every heard the story of Celtic Park leaving the floodlights on to guide in German bombers? This would have been some feat considering there were no floodlights there until the 1950s! And when Catholic men returned from both wars they were told to 'piss off' as their kind weren't wanted in the heavy industries of Glasgow.

And what of the dead from the Catholic Irish community in Scotland? Do we mourn the 15 or 16-year old brother of my grandfather, shot for 'cowardice' by his captain? And what about the thousands of others that stood before a firing squad due to shell shock and mental illness? And we've to remember the dead of other wars as well. If some IRA man shot the bastards that set my great-great grandmother on fire and laughed while she died, am I to mourn them? What about those that fought against Indian independence or against insurgents in Africa; do we mourn them, even though they were guilty of some of the worst attrocities in history? McMurdo would have it that they were just following orders. I remember hearing that excuse somewhere before!

And what of the six million Jews murdered in extermination camps? I don't see any mourning for them. In fact, they're never mentioned at all unless it's to provide some kind of support for Israeli aggression. (Of course, McMurdo has at least one friend that denies that the Holocaust happened at all.) What about the army friends of my father, killed in Palestine by Israeli terrorists? Do we remember and mourn them, while supporting Israel's 'right to defend itself'?

The big problem is that, despite what The Peeppul might think, Britain was not always a force for good. There are millions around the world that have good cause to hate Britain for what they did; in India and Pakistan, the Middle East, Africa and in Ireland. Mention any of this and you're told that 'it's in the past' and that we should 'move on'. So let me get this straight: people that fought against Britain for their freedom have to move on and let the past go while we are told to be grateful to a whole generation of men massacred in a pointless war? The fact that lies have to be told about these men dying for our freedom, while others that did die for freedom are vilified, only goes to show that the whole thing is all about glorifying war. Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves et al would hardly recognise the war that we are constantly being told was fought. There was nothing remotely glorious about it.

So if we are to remember those that died in historic wars, then surely others are entitled to remember the past as well? Nobody is forcing anyone not to wear a poppy; the same privilege should be extended to those that don't want to wear one for whatever reason. It is churlish and chauvinistic to remember those that died at the Somme and Ypres while denying others the right to remember their own people's history and how they died at the hands of British soldiers. In this respect, the poppy has just become a representation of British Nationalism at its worst, which is the reason why I don't want to wear one anymore.

P.S. If The Peeppul are so proud of Scotland's contribution in the World Wars then why does their team insist on wearing an English poppy?

A HOME FROM HOME FOR THE PEEPPUL

What is it with the paranoia of everybody with any connection to Ibrox these days? We've now got the ned's ned, Barry Ferguson, bleating how he's a hypocrite (no argument there!) and, like the baby balloon in the old joke, he's let himself down. But here's the clincher - he says, "I understand there are a lot of people out there who really don’t like me and who are desperate to see me fall flat on my face as a manager." Really? To be honest, Barry, I don't think anyone really gives a toss. That Bisto FC paranoia is certainly contagious!

I see Merlin and his disciples, meanwhile, are getting a bit over-excited about the future. PZJ is back from his Accountancy-for-Beginners course and poring over the Celtic paperwork again. Could somebody tell this moron that the very fact that these accounts are readily available precludes the possibility of anything untoward being concealed therein? A more impressive feat would be to get a hold of Rangers and Bisto accounts! But, then, everything is changing at Ibrox. Mike Ashley is going to bring up some superstars from Newcastle, Bisto is going to trounce Celtic in the League Cup, win a treble and then take their 'rightful place' at the top of the Premiership. And then the sponsorship money is going to flood in and they'll be dominating Europe before you know it. Maybe it's just me but it seems like we've heard all this before.

Another thing that got the Merlinites in a tizzy was the Sussex town of Lewes. Like many of us, they'd probably never heard of the place before; now, it's an honorary member of the Bigots-R-Us Club. The news that they were going to burn an effigy of Alex Salmond was everywhere the other day. I don't think it was the idea of burning Salmond that annoyed folk so much as him being dressed in tartan and accompanied by the Loch Ness Monster; there was something a bit racist about the whole business. Of course, The Peeppul saw it differently; especially when they got onto Google and discovered the nature of the Lewes Bonfire Night celebrations.

Of course, Guido Fawkes gets a roasting. But so too does the Pope.

But there's nothing sectarian or bigoted about it, you understand. And it's not meant to represent the actual Pope; it's symbolic. Symbolic of what? Anti-Catholic bigotry? There can be nothing else that it can possibly stand for. Meanwhile, one group involved in the Bonfire Night festivities carries the following banner. Again, though, there's nothing sectarian or bigoted intended.

It looks like The Peeppul have found their new home if Scottish independence ever comes! The excuse for all this shite is the so-called 'Marian Persecutions'. Around 280 Protestants were put to death; 17 of them in Lewes. Of course, nothing at all is said about the many thousands, both Catholic and Protestant, who were killed by Henry VIII. I suppose you can't be counted a Protestant martyr if it's one of the modern-day Protestant heroes that executed you!

And what does this picture remind you of? Somehow I don't think I'll be in any hurry to visit the town of Lewes, where, it seems, racism and sectarian bigotry are perfectly acceptable!

Meanwhile, it's that time of year again. Rather than remember the fallen it's all about support for 'heroes' and re-writing history so that all those useless deaths in WWI were all about 'preserving democracy.' One old soldier, who was there, summed it up succinctly:

"Armistice Day, you remember the thousands of others who died. For what? For nothing."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/last_tommy_gallery_03.shtml

FINDLAY PIPES UP

Donald Findlay has riled up The Peeppul. Who ever thought we'd see those words together? He's stated that the new entity playing at Ibrox is not, as far as he is concerned, really Rangers. Cue lots of rage and anger (no death threats as yet, but give it time) and questioning of Findlay's mental faculties. They even have a go at him for singing The Sash that time. Strangely, up to now, that incident was everybody else's fault and a complete overreaction by the 'Raynjurz Haturz'!

Even Sooperally gets involved. He says, “There are lots of supporters who feel the same way, that they have lost a little bit of the identity, their own personal bond or relationship with the club." Those'll be the shareholders of the old club, who suddenly discovered that all they had were worthless shares in a phantom holding company. Or maybe they're the debenture holders, who no longer 'own' a seat, even thought they're told it's the same club! Anyway, Sooper clarifies things by saying, "As long as sumday's signin' ma pye cheques, Ah don't really gie a flyin' fuck!"

McMurdo's mob are just as riled. I had to laugh at one of them, who says, "Couldn’t care less what Donald Fudlay thinks or says, he belongs to a profession that most folks think are full of people bent as nine bob notes". That'll include Nimmo Smith then, will it? Or the whole legal set-up in Scotland that allowed a company going into liquidation to invent a 'holding company'? Yes, bent as a nine-bob note right enough! 

Meanwhile, the Daily Record is getting all excited about the League Cup semi-final between Celtic and Bisto, calling it the 'return of the Old-Firm fixture' when it patently isn't. One of Merlin's disciples has this to say:

"The very fact that the Old Firm Game has been resurrected and they are creaming themselves at been given the opportunity of sharing the park with the most successful team in the world says it all for me. End of."

Eh? Any Celtic sites that I've looked at show that most Celtic supporters are pretty much underwhelmed at the whole idea. Their main concern is over the trouble that's bound to happen whenever The Peeppul put in an appearance. Oops, no, I've got that one wrong, as one of McMurdo's disciples points out:

"Keep laughing off anything the press conjure as they go fishing down the Ibrox U-bends. Scotland always expects more from Rangers fans, and rightly so."

Is this clown living in the same reality as the rest of us? All the whole world expects from The Peeppul is bigotry and hatred and extreme violence if things don't go their way. Still, he's right about one thing: the Daily Record is already starting to paint a pretty picture of the Bisto Kids. I mean, look at this headline:

"Firefighters rescuing 25-stone man forced to wear GAS MASKS - because he hadn't washed in 5 years."

Now, that's not very nice, is it? And while the DR goes overboard about this fixture, they have revealed that the SFA have already chosen the referee. His name is Billy McBoyne, but he has recently changed this to Hugh Dallas. An SFA spokesman has said, "This is the same Hugh Dallas; he always has been and always will be.' Helpfully, the DR also provided a photo of the man:

I see Gordon Strachan is calling for Aiden McGeady and James McCarthy to be booed and jeered and treated like pantomime villains. As Keith Jackson helfully points out, "McGeady and McCarthy have been branded turncoats by some fans who have not forgiven the pair for choosing to play for Republic of Ireland rather than Scotland." And which fans would they be, pray tell, Mr. Jackson? This is a pretty disgusting move and it looks like Strachan, or somebody above him, is playing the bigotry card to entice The Peeppul to the match. It looks like 'The Famine Song' is being given official sanction.

And just to give The Peeppul an added incentive to turn up with their bile, Strachan has chosen 'Rangers Ace' Lewis Macleod for his squad. The Daily Record loses no time in telling us that this lad has "won two league titles". It forgets to mention, however, that these were in Divisions 1 and 2. So he's hardly what you would call top-class. In reality, it's just a sop to The Peeppul.

I can see this match turning into a trial-run for the League Cup semi-final; at least as far as The Peeppul are concerned. Strachan is not usually as stupid as this, so it really makes you question what's going on. If the match turns into a huge bigot-fest then fingers are going to be pointed in Strachan's direction. He's probably wishing he'd kept his mouth shut already.

Speaking of bigotry, if you're as old as me you'll remember how in the late 60s and into the 70s (and even 80s) the big enemy held up to the people of Britain was the Irish Catholic. As well as a figure of hatred and fear, the Irish Catholic was something to be made fun of. Remember all the jokes about thick Irishmen? The TV joined in this as well, with programmes like 'Me Mammy' and 'Never Mind The Quality, Feel The Width' relying on the 'strangeness' of Catholicism for their so-called humour. If you don't remember these programmes then you're lucky. The whole point of these shows was that Irish Catholics in particular, and Catholics in general, were something 'outside' and 'strange'. Catholics were scary people, not to be trusted, so what better way to deal with them than to laugh at them, the way film-makers did with Hitler and the Nazis during WWII.

There is now a new enemy being portrayed: the Muslim. And so, predictably, we have a programme making fun of them, 'Citizen Khan'. Just as they did with comedies about Irish Catholics, the makers are at pains to point out that they're laughing 'with' Muslims, not at them. Have a look at one episode and you'll soon see that they're lying through their teeth. Just as they did with programmes like 'Me Mammy' they're showing the Muslim as 'strange' and 'other'; someone that is not like 'normal people'. It just goes to show that the UK is still a racist nation, no matter how much they claim otherwise. What a pity we're still lumbered with being a part of it!

"What's that? Mike Ashley said wur a new club? Well, abslootly; wae ur. Ah've said this all along...etc...etc...etc..."

HONG KONG PHOOEY

"Ally McCoist says those who previously said 'We don't need Rangers in top flight' have changed their tune."

A headline in today's Daily Record (where else?) with Sooperally gloating over the low attendance figures at football matches. He goes on:

“Gone are the days of ‘We don’t need Rangers in the top flight.’ Sadly, because it’s too late, there is now a little bit of common sense being shown."

and

Asked if those responsible for vetoing a reborn Rangers being parachuted back into the top flight now regret their stance McCoist said: “Knowing the pigheadedness of some of the people involved, no they won’t. But let’s be honest, was it for the greater good of Scottish football? Of course it wasn’t."

Give it a rest, Ally, for God's sake! Your old club was liquidated. I know none of you like to hear this and avoid using the 'L' word at all costs, but it's the truth. You were lucky that your new club was allowed into the league at all and you should be down on your knees thanking our corrupt football authorities for this travesty, rather than bleating about not being allowed to cheat your way into the top flight. Note that, Sooper: 'into' not 'back into' - your new club was never there in the first place!

As for the 'greater good of Scottish football' I take it everything is all down to money. It doesn't matter about rules, or the spirit of the game or anything like that - that's just for the wee diddy clubs, eh? It really is despicable the way they're allowed to get away with this shite. Greater good of Scottish football my arse! All Sooper, The Peeppul and their friends in the media and the Scottish football authorities are bothered about is whatever team is playing out of Ibrox. If Sooper was really worried about the greater good of Scottish football he'd bugger off and take the whole rancid crowd with him.

It seems it's a Sooperally Special in today's Record; there's another article with his ground-breaking views in the paper. He decides to have a go at John Guidetti for daring to suggest that Celtic would beat Bisto FC if they were to meet in the League Cup. He says, “With the greatest of respect to John, I remember getting excited about my first hat-trick but that was against 11 men." Now that has to be the biggest case of pots and kettles ever! If it hadn't been for opposition players getting sent off Bisto would still be languishing in the bottom division. I suppose for somebody as thick as Sooper irony is something they make railings out of!

Undaunted, he decides to round on Ronny Deila as well. His crime is stating the obvious: that Bisto is the weakest team left in the League Cup. According to Sooper:

“In normal circumstances he would be right but in the past few years nothing has been what it seems in Scottish football. You have three of the five biggest clubs in the country playing in the Championship. That would tell it’s not normal circumstances."

Er...maybe it's escaped Ally's notice but nobody forced those clubs down into the Championship. Relegation, it's called; or, in the case of his club, promotion. Hibs went down because they got slaughtered by other teams week-in, week-out last season; that would suggest that the other teams were better than them. Hearts, on the other hand, ended up going down because they had to cut back, instead of cheating everybody like a certain other club. They're gradually building back up again and should be able to compete with the big boys when they get promotion at the end of this season. And they didn't spend a shit-load of money to do it!

Meanwhile another passenger has jumped aboard the gravy train. His name is George Taylor and, according to Gary Ralston in the DR, he has 'hoovered up' 3.2% of Bisto shares. 'Hoovered' makes it sound as if the shares are rubbish, which, considering the price is probably correct. The dearest lavvy paper money can buy! Anyway, apparently this character was one of the, as Ralston puts it, "syndicate involving Letham, Paul Murray and Dave King whose proposed investment of £16m was rejected in favour of Mike Ashley’s £2m emergency finance package." I don't know why they keep saying 'investment' when it was blackmail, pure and simple!

No word on whether this Taylor character is a billionaire, or has wealth off the radar but he is seemingly a managing director with Morgan Stanley. It's worth having a look at this company on Wikipedia; it's been involved in all manner of financial chicanery - and that's just in America! Chris Graham has accepted him as one of their own (his name won't be going on Ze List just yet!) and says,  “The more shares in the hands of genuine fans, the better.” Oh dear! Every time they come out with something like that you just know they're going to have to eat their words somewhere down the line.

Taylor hails from Hong Kong and the secretary of the Hong Kong Rangers Supporters Club (I know!) said: “He is a member of our club, a true bluenose. I’ve known him for 10 years and trust him. I’ve spoken to him and he only has the best intentions for Rangers.” Well, that's that; everything will be alright then, eh? Somehow, though, it seems we've heard all this before.

A final word from the Daily Record: "Rangers will be...missing keeper Steve Simonsen for today’s Scottish Cup clash at Dumbarton. Simonsen crashed his head against a post during the win over St Johnstone." We know how he feels. We've been banging our heads against a brick wall trying to get The Peeppul to accept the truth for over two years now!

The black and red shirt, from Rangers Supporters Trust.

 

"During the administration crisis the club endured, red and black scarves became a symbol of defiance and pride in the club as fans showed their commitment. Red and Black now symbolises the spirit of determination which saved the club."

 

Do you think they missed something out in that blurb?

Also, the sizes only go up to XXL - how is any Bisto FC supporter going to fit into that?

 

 

 

 

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