A timely book

I haven’t read Mr Whyte’s book as it isn’t available to purchase until next week.

Consequently, I cannot express an opinion on it.

Of course, that will not prevent the clairvoyants within the Ibrox klanbase from proffering their own oven ready book reviews.

That is exactly how they reacted to the news that I was preparing Downfall for publication in the summer of 2012.

As sections of the book were being written, edited and re-written a tsunami of one-star reviews were appearing on Amazon.

Apparently, Billy the literary critic was busily telling the world that this was the worst book that he had ever read.

The fact that, at that point in time, the book did not exist was quite an achievement!

Indeed, the existence of the “psychic reviewer” became an in-joke between me the editor Angela Haggerty and the Alex Thomson of Channel 4 News who had agreed to write the foreword.

What was not funny was what would then befall the book editor, a  young woman in her twenties who had just left college as a qualified journalist.

She did a stunning job turning around the manuscript in such a short period of time.

However, in publicly defending the book she became a target for the Ibrox klan.

A man called David Limond exhorted his audience on the “Rangers chat” podcast to target Ms Haggerty.

She featured on the “Taig of the day” slot on the podcast.

That was Scotland 2012 folks.

Thankfully, due to the diligence of Channel 4 News, this podcast was downloaded.

Consequently, the less than zealous police in Glasgow were able to pursue Mr Limond even though they had missed the original opportunity to get this vital evidence when Ms Haggerty had first made her complaint.

The investigating officers admitted to their negligence in open court when Limond was found guilty of threatening Ms Haggerty.

He received six months in prison.

You can read about the case here.

I direct you to Professor Greenslade’s report because he was not squeamish about being accurate apropos the court’s ruling.

Limond was found guilty of a race hate crime against Ms Haggerty.

The word “Taig” is aimed at people of Irish heritage.

For the Ibrox klanbase it serves as their “N” word.

The reportage in the Scottish media preferred to hide it under the blanket term of “sectarianism”.

It is almost as if, in their eyes, the multi-generational Irish community does not exist in Scotland.

Almost…

Mr Whyte will already know that the Ibrox klan has a bedrock aversion to inconvenient truths.

Of course, there was a time when he was greeted on Edmiston Drive like Scipio returning in triumph from the Second Punic War.

These days Mr Whyte is a bête noire among the self-pitying lynch mob at Ibrox.

According to serialised excerpts in the media today Mr Whyte confirms this Alex Thomson exclusive from 2013.

 

This is rather timely given that Mikey Stewart referred to that story on Radio Scotland last week.

It was this broadcast that led the BBC to, at least temporarily, dispense with Stewart’s services.

Ironically, in doing so they merely proved Mikey’s point about the influence of Traynor.

I hope that Mr Whyte does well with his new book.

Since he was talked into taking on Rangers, he certainly has been through it and then some.

This book was always likely to see the light of day after he was acquitted of all charges in 2017.

I am confident that what he reveals in his book will largely vindicate the contemporaneous reporting here of those historic days.

It is worth remembering that the narrative that I preferring here was in direct contradiction to the award-winning pish of Keith Jackson et al.

This site is fully searchable and free to view so you can go and check for yourself.

I think it will be an excellent companion to Mr Whyte’s book which is published next week on Administration Day.

Well done Craig!