Today I contacted Police Scotland about the decision by the Renfield St Stephen’s Centre to withdraw their venue from the Call It Out group.
I sent the following email:
Hello
I am a journalist (NUJ Press Card Attached).
Today I was speaking to a senior person at the Renfield St Stephens Centre.
They told me that they had cancelled an upcoming event at their venue after consultation with Police Scotland.
Please see the attached advert for the meeting.
Can you confirm if Police Scotland consulted with the venue on this matter?
Many thanks
Phil Mac Giolla Bháin
The media office of Police Scotland replied promptly:
“Police were aware that the event was scheduled to take place and visited the centre to get more info from staff but were advised that they had taken the decision to cancel. This decision was made by the centre and not on any instruction or advice from police.”
Hail hail Phil, just catching up with your recent blogs and particularly resonated with your ‘three weans’ scenario. I left the dear Green Place 33 years ago and many a time have said how pleased I am that my three kids (one boy, two girls) did not have to experience the episodes of sectarianism and bigotry that I did as a boy and man at both work and play. Folk down here are shocked when I recall instances and even more so when I state that not much has changed over the years. Guid luck tae Call It Out. Finally, I can assure you that my children’s lovely ‘southern England’ accents are not a downside! Awrabest!
So, in essence, Police Scotland are saying that this was a knee-jerk reaction to threats and intimidation from not-so-unknown “peepul”? I would strongly suggest that Renfield St Stephens Church will have reported these threats to the police and, through lack of response (and leadership) by Police Scotland, they took the decision to withdraw their support of this event for safety reasons. Shame on Police Scotland, and shame on the shameless bigots that made these threats!
The unintended consequences of this is that, in my opinion, this event will be better attended at this new venue. The stupidity of the klan knows no bounds, but when you launch a protest March to Hampden on a Saturday, when the offices are shut, what else can we expect?
On the general sectarianism front, I’m relieved to see that Ian Durrant’s “F*** The Pope” comment was quite innocuous, since he “meant to cause no offence to anyone.”
Kinda like – “F*** The Dalai Lama – but I mean to cause no offence to Buddhists.”
“F*** the patriarch of Alexandria – but I mean to cause no offence to adherents of the Orthodox faith.”
“F*** the Chief Rabbi of Israel – but I mean to cause no offence to Jewish people.”
Of course you meant to cause offence. Indeed the phrase “F*** the Pope” has no linguistic meaning *other* than the offence – it states no fact, offers no opinion, communicates nothing but the speaker’s intent to offend Roman Catholics.
Even Durrant – a man whose head is little more than a structural continuation of his neck, much like a breadstick with ears – cannot possibly be stupid enough to think that that statement would fail to cause offence.
In short, he is a complete and utter roaster, a waste of both space and a single brain cell.
But I mean no offence.
If he did not intend for his statement to get to the ears of anyone who cares about the Pope, or the Catholic church in general, then I believe him when he says he meant to cause no offence to anyone. Doesn’t make his non-apology apology of any value, but he is telling the truth.
What he actually said could, and has, been solely directed at the holder of the post and not and the broad church (i.e. Catholics) such as when the Pope at the time was less than open about the abuse scandal in various countries, or various Popes’ messages about the use of contraceptives in light of the AIDS crisis in Africa. I’m in no doubt Durrant said it as a derogatory insult to Catholics at large, however we should be wary of automatically attributing his malice to all similar statements.
Perhaps you should contact the “senior person” again Phil and let him/her explain the discrepancy.
Something at odds here with statements. According to Renfield St Stephen’s center they cancelled AFTER consultation with Police. According to the Police statement above, decision to cancel had already been made BEFORE they came in to talk. So which one is it?