Angela and the klan

It was Statement O’clock last night for the chaps at Club 1872.

In a break with tradition, they were angry about something.

No, seriously…

You can read all about it here.

It would appear the decision by the local authority to refuse permission for a klanzone at Ibrox on match days was entirely in order.

However, that isn’t good enough for The People.

Given their Herrenvolk sense of entitlement trifling matters such as the law shouldn’t’ come into it.

Being treated like everyone else is something that The People fear.

Consequently, local politicians are targeted for being insufficiently staunch.

The idea of the klan plus alcohol outside Ibrox is something that all sensible folk should be against.

I do hope that the local authority stands firm in the face of this campaign to have the decision overturned.

Whether it is at Ibrox or on public thoroughfares, it would appear that this sense of entitlement imbues the true believer with a self-awareness by-pass.

Recently the Orange Order were told that they could not parade past a Catholic Church where a priest was allegedly assaulted when the brethren had previously passed by.

This now has the bowler hat brigade squealing about a religious no-go zone in Glasgow.

It is tea spluttering hilarity worthy of the Monty Python crew.

However, this particular Ministry of Silly Walks carries an ugly malevolence towards the Catholic minority in Scotland.

In a new addition to the stand-up circuit in Scotland, the Orange Order are putting on a comedy night to improve their image.

Well, it is risible.

Today Angela Haggerty lays out the issues in her final column in the Herald.

Given the recent structural changes at the Herald Group, freelance columnists are the most vulnerable in any austerity drive.

When she announced the news on Twitter that her columns in the Herald and Sunday Herald were going it was greeted with a torrent of hateful trolling from the klan.

For the record, her work was often the most viewed and commented upon even days after it was uploaded.

However, such facts would not enter the collective false consciousness of the klan.

The version of her that they have created is of an uppity Fenian bitch to be put back in her box.

Sadly, misogyny plays a large part in that Herrenvolk mind-set.

I’m blessed to know the real Angela Haggerty.

Therefore in that regard, as with most things, I have the advantage over the klan.

In the six years since she edited Downfall this young woman from Bute has been subjected to an unending torrent of abuse of from heroically anonymous trolls.

One who did use his own name while targeting her received six months in prison in 2013.

David Limond featured Angela as “Taig of the day” in his “Rangers chat podcast”.

Initially, the Police did not take her complaint seriously.

Only after it was featured on Channel 4 News did they get their act together.

These are facts that the police themselves admitted in court during the Limond trial.

I remember the standing ovation that she received at the NUJ annual conference a few years ago when she recounted what she had endured.

Unsurprisingly, many of the big macho types on the sports desks in Glasgow where posted missing when she was being targetted by the klan.

Of course, it is not difficult to connect the Ibrox klanbase to the sash cloud outside St Alphonsus.

Indeed, one only needs to look at the acts that are billed to appear in the Orange Order comedy night.

In her final column, Angela recounted her own feelings as a Catholic when she encountered these fine fellows in the wild.

Despite that, she supported the case of the Orange Order to march in Glasgow as a basic human right.

She’s better than the klan, in every way.

Whether they are wearing a sash or a Sevco top we know them by their noise as Fascists have a very distinctive mating call.

We should all work towards the day when they are finally silent.

Only then will Fair Caledonia be able to say that it has finally rid itself of anti-Catholic hatred.

When that day comes it will be people that Angela Haggerty who should take a bow.