This should be a teachable moment for Scotland.
As I have written here before, Fair Caledonia has incubated a Fascist subculture based around Ibrox on many occasions.
As I watched the chaos unfold, I thought this was a dress rehearsal for the dignified disorder.
The performance art at George Square on September 19, 2014, was due, in part, to a miscommunication within klan circles.
They riot plans had been put in place if the YES side had prevailed.
Two years earlier, as the old Ibrox club was in Administration, the then First Minister Alex Salmond decided to embark upon a kite-flying exercise.
He told a foreign journalist that Rangers were “woven into the fabric of the nation” and; therefore, HMRC must give them some leeway on them millions they owed.
Thankfully, Hector told him to back off, and Rangers deservedly died.
Last night his successor, who usually shows a deft touch on Twitter, failed to read the room.
It was hardly a strong condemnation to what was unfolding in a city under lockdown.
This was not lost on many, including veteran journalist Brian McNally.
I have dealt with Ms Sturgeon’s office, and I know that she has competent PR people advising her.
Finally, she or someone close to her realised what was happening and that her initial Tweet was not a good look.
Brian McNally nailed it with this observation.
What was newsworthy was the police’s approach to this street theatre which made a mockery of the lockdown rules.
Consider this:
A city is in lockdown because of a pandemic. Social distancing is known to save lives.
Then the Police gave an escort to a crowd who are flagrantly breaking the lockdown.
Got that?
What was on display over the weekend was a mutant strain of British nationalism mainly found in Scotland and Narne Arne.
There were similar scenes in Béal Feirste and, as with Glasgow, the police’s role in tacitly approving of the disorder was in evidence.
Today, my colleague and friend Angela Haggerty nailed it.
In both cities, we saw the Proud Boys of a dead empire.
Although it is anti-Irish racism that defines the klan, other hatreds are available.
Of course, Ibrox was the focus of klanAnon before they were given a police escort to George Square.
A police escort…
Not for the first time, I find my life as a journalist and writer colliding.
My new novel Native Shore is based around the period running up the IndyRef2.
Very similar scenes in George Square were already in the manuscript months ago!
If the good people of Scotland don’t know today that they have a fascism problem at Ibrox, then they’re willfully blind.
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Big thank you to the Rangers fans for the possibility of the season finishing early depriving their club of a full season invincibles tag as well as the opportunity of creating a new points record in the SPFL.
It’s one thing rioting when your team loses a match, Newcastle, Manchester and Hampden a couple of times come to mind immediately, but the Cup Winners final win in Barcelona and the aftermath will be long in the memory of the citizens of that city.
By contrast we took 60,000 plus fans to Seville, lost the match, but left that city with the best wishes of the population and a welcome back anytime message from the city Mayor.
Celtic were given the invincible tag because they were unbeaten in league and 2 cups.
Sevco can’t be called invincibles though the media are doing a good job ignoring that.
I’m sure sevco can only equal Celtics points record 106pts
Phil, I think you’re being somewhat harsh in your comments on fans of The The Rangers. I mean, are you seriously saying that if you had been alive in season 1892-93, when Celtic won their first title you would not have indulged in ‘over- exuberant’ celebrations? And do you really think Glasgow’s finest would not have laid on an escort? Of course they would—-straight to the fucking Bar-L !
Read on another blog that the Scottish Government want to cancel the game on the 21st due to Public Health concerns but Sky have objected. Who the f … runs the country? The 4th estate ?…Why have votes, elections mps, smps councillors when the media have the
Sky have pandered to the huns for years, and have ramped it up for the last 3 years….eg Translating Morelos’s Spanish into subtitles…criminal !!
Sky ( and the rags and radio programs) have contributed to the toxicity of the mentality of the klan. It was so peaceful years ago when they were playing in the lower leagues.
Celtic plc should ve buried when they had the chance…
The real question, the burning issue that must be addressed is: as a dutiful law-abiding tax paying citizen who has always done what my government has asked, can I apply for a police motor cycle escort to the Loch Morlich campsite, thence to the Cairngorms Northern Corries for a weekend’s climbing? I have not been there for over a year. I need a break.
Or is it only those and such as those who have access to this facility? Lewis
Wonderfully put Lewis, But you must realize that this is Scotland and police escorts for neo fascist sub cultures are a regular feature of the duties of PC plod. Law-abiding citizens need not apply. I truly despair, for some time now, I have given reserved support to the SNP, simply to attain a rightful independence for Scotland. The sad and shocking stance of the SNP in not only this, but in many related to the ” union ” forces, makes me wonder, are we possibly better off being ruled by Boris and the monarchy ?
If COVID were not an issue I wonder if an impromptu St Patrick’s Day Parade to George Square would receive the same honour from Police Scotland as the sectarian mob from Ibrox did…….. I think we all know the answer.
No surprise to see the reaction of the Ibrox clubs fans at the weekend. Who would have expected anything else and congratulations to Police Scotland for their part in the shambles at George Square.
I’m not as downhearted as I expected to be with our poor response to their challenge this season.
Our transfer business has been abysmal and has to be addressed now.
Just a thought….. if someone offered me another 9 IAR with Scottish and League Cups aplenty whilst the Govan club win heehaw I would take it in a minute.
One trophy for the Govan mob with ten years of pure misery and failure thrown in, that would do for me.
Joe,
Not seen you post for a while. (Nor do I know who you are..)
Always enjoy your comments, especially when you remind lurking huns, that they let their club die, after decades of cheating, tax dodging, stealing charity money to name a few.
We’ve had a good laugh at their demise for 9 yrs, which has only been bettered by achieving The Rebel Treble…. (and the quadruple.)…
Hail Hail.
Every town in Glasgow had this yday and the Police Scotland stand bk as ever DISGRACE
I was until 2 months ago an SNP member but I have been that dissolusioned I cancelled it. I’ve wanted independence all my adult life, but I’m starting to believe if we were independent we would be like northern Ireland and end up run, ironically, by unionists and become a protestant country. As someone else said maybe better the devil you know.
I haven’t jumped ship yet but I’m wondering where I put my life-jacket.
Lennon is being proven to be more accurate in his “rant” with every week that passes.
Brendan, the SNP appear to have lost their way. Mr. Salmond’s hubris did it for me. Power appears to have corrupted their ability to consider all political issues. I am going to join The Scottish Green Party.
This is for the Sevco lurkers on the site…
Your new Club and all its supporters have the same thing in common as an unemployed teacher….No class.
And I’ve no doubt that the “Scottish media ” will soon be turning its attention to Celtic’s intentions regarding clapping the Champions onto the field.
I have two things to say to that….
Feck off ….not a chance.
But…I sincerely hope that all associated with Sevco…do at sometime in their lives…
Get the Clap.
Hail hail.
Somehow I can’t believe The South Wales Police would have acted in the same way if we’d got together outside The Principality Stadium last week after beating England!!!
Our board have been facilitating this clubs resurgence over the past 10years in so many ways, as a supporter of Scottish Independence I find myself between a rock and a hard place. I find myself either having to remain governed by a right wing Tory government elected by the majority of English people in election after election, or putting my trust in a Scottish government that is too weak and cowardly to instruct Police Scotland to implement the law when dealing with The supporters of the new club at Ibrox at such an important time in the fight against this pandemic.
As I’ve stated before the board of Celtic isn’t blameless in the triumphalist attitude of these people we had them on the canvas and facilitated their comeback for misguided business reasons. Peter Lawwell Dermot Desmond and the rest of the board have proven that they are business people first and supporters of Celtic FC last.
In our family we have had 3 ST’s for over 25 years and personally my 1st Celtic game came in 1950 but I will be thinking long and hard whether to renew or not.
Rangers players celebrated with the fans after Saturday’s game with St Mirren. They should therefore be in quarantine as required. Will Slavia Prague be happy to allow them into the country never mind play a game against them on Thursday? The Czech government might have something to say about that!
A very good point that I hadn’t thought of.
Having been an snp voter all my life , they will not be getting my vote again until they they break up police Scotland and start arresting all supporters involved in the mayhem at the weekend .
As a lifelong SNP supporter, (and paying member up until recently), I am thoroughly disillusioned with the ‘entryist’ Sturgeon – who has totally derailed independence.
I had already come to the conclusion that London will never allow independence – for (their) national security reasons, if nothing else.
The very public unmasking of Sturgeon, the “malicious” COPFS and now the ‘covid complicit’ Police Scotland is highlighting extremely disturbing truths about our own, wee country.
I honestly don’t know now if Scotland would be a better place with independence, and now thinking ‘better the devil you know’… 🙁
Being a veteran Celtic fan of many years having seen the winning of the champions cup and Nine in a row (twice!) I do not recall the celtic fans desecrating the square,fighting amongst themselves,destroying memorial benches and vandalising shop fronts etc. etc.
June 2020… The Klan folks “defend” George Square… March 2021… No so much eh? Don’t think this is finished either … The image that sums it up for me Morelos be ring driven to training slugging champagne in his car fans everywhere !!!!??? A word of condemnation anywhere ??
The SNP are afraid of them, The Police are in bed with them and the Tories are their political allies.
It’s no coincidence that the rise of the tory vote in west central Scotland coincides with the demise of Kulchur Klub 1872 and the subsequent rise and of the ultra reactionary kulcher Klub 2012.
The Scottish people know exactly what we have at ibrox, a biggoted club that is a dinosaur which puts it’s fan right to celebrate in public over life and has no place in the modern world.
The trouble is it’s ingrained into the establishment from top to bottom and the SNP seem happy to let it be.
The whole club is a cesspit of hate
Did Nicola Sturgeon think by congratulating sevco that she’d get a lot more people signing up and voting SNP all she’s done is lose thousands of proper SNP voters and then to ask the rangers fc to tell the supporters to go home instead of asking police Scotland why their officers weren’t doing the job they’re getting paid for they’re not there to pose for selfies with the halfwits but to uphold the law and during a lock down they should be handing out fines to every person breaking the law.
This institutionalised sectarianism will be with us always ,no matter what we say , what we do . No matter who we talk to or petition .our voice as always will be heard but our concerns will never be acted upon
It’s not sectarianism it’s racism, the puppet media spin this line as to it being a problem on both sides, that it’s a football problem, which it’s not, abusing and discrimination against catholics particularly Irish catholics is what’s interwoven into the fabric of Scottish society, nil by mouth and shown racism the red card doesn’t cover racism towards catholics, they recruit racists as ambassadors, that how catholics are measured and valued,the media portray it as a problem on both sides, I was brought up a catholic and have never witnessed or heard of abuse violence or vandalism being direct at any other religious denomination, yet this is a common occurrence against Catholic Churches and priests, I’ve witnessed the police allowing them to stop outside Catholic Churches and perform this ignorant uneducated violent disgusting behaviour whilst police officers stand laughing, this is the norm in bonnie Scotland
One parallel between this and the insurrectionists who stormed the White House was that both Trump and “Rangers FC” were asked to tell there supporters to go home. Neither did. Both know exactly how to play to there audience. On another note can you imagine how many Sevco fans would of heeded the First Ministers advice about going home, how many Sevco fans would of cared about spreading Covid, how many Sevco fans would of cared about the lockdown being extended, how many Sevco fans would of cared about Scotland losing fixtures in the forthcoming Euro championships? The answer of course to all of the questions is zero, in fact they would probably take delight in causing such despair. As one of there poster boys said about going abroad with “Rangers”, “always give them a reason to remember we were here”! Strange bunch. The assistance now of the police is disturbing though.
Some things never change.Remember what the guy said in Casino “you people don’t understand you are only our guests here” never a truer word spoken in Scotland,as the first minister shows these words are true.Why are we giving the impression we are against racism,as even the SNP leader cannot hide her feeling
It was Mat Damon,in The Good Shepherd, apt really with pictures of wild beasts being herded away…!!!
Absolutely shocking. Only 7 fines handed out. Yet a 61 year old NHS worker is fined £10k for protesting a 1% pay rise.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-manchester-56312817
The SNP are a joke and so are police Scotland. The SNP have politicised the police and the crown office, so much so that an inquiry into the FM got told to take evidence down, so AS couldn’t use it in oral testimony but the spector are allowed to keep it up on their website. The same crown office who wasted £50m in am illegal, malicious prosecution of RFC administrators.
I think I might go away camping at the weekend, if the police try to fine me I will just laugh and show them pictures of this past weekend. I will make sure I wear a celtic top , so as when I go to court I can claim discrimination.
While I agree they were wrong to celebrate, can you honestly say Celtic fans would have stayed home had they won 10 in a row?
You can moan all you like about a pandemic that is nothing more than a bad flu and has seen lowest numbers both in hospital and in infections yet no relaxing of draconian rules that never before has the general population had to suffer.
They claimed getting the R rate below 1 would see the end of lock downs, well it’s been below 1 for weeks now, yet they move the goal posts and still the healthy are being punished.
I said I disagree with them celebrating, but not due to any flu, simply this gives the power mad crowd in government an excuse to keep us locked up.
Enough about a fake pandemic and I reiterate Celtic fans would have done the same, so before calling the kettle black have a think about your own fans.
If there was one comment that personifies the Trumpian level of intelligence it’s that one…’fake pandemic’….dear oh dear…..go to George Square last night yourself James…?
After more than 20 years in the health service I think I know a fake pandemic when they claim there is one. We have has TB, Sars, Bird flu and even aids to mention but four, not once were the healthy quarantined.
The evening news quotes deaths from any reason after 28 days. IF you catch it 99% have no ill effects other than flu like symptoms and you self quarantine for 10 days, why quoted deaths 18 days after a normal person would be covid free? Why has there been no deaths reported due to stroke or heart failure or even flu? 60,000 a year die from FLU.
As for deaths, there has been 0.013% of the world’s population died from this, an insignificant number in the scheme of things.
People need to wake up and see the lies being told.
As for being there? No I live in the east and have never once supported either of the bigot brothers.
My son is a hospital porter with part of his duties to take the poor unfortunates who succumb to this horrible virus from the wards to the mortuary, in full protective gear. He’s also never had to transport as many oxygen bottles throughout the hospital as in this past year. Is the earth still flat from your viewpoint?
Only one team had a sectarian policy, and it’s never been Celtic, fake pandemic….just ask my niece in the IT wards….ignoramus from the east (who are obviously free from a bigotry of their own).
John Thomas would seem more appropriate…
Still suffering from SevCovid-1690 James?
Celtic fans were roundly condemned after their good natured celebrations by the SNP Govt,Celtic fans were in celebratory mood they did NOT desecrate memorial benches,fling racist and homophobic lnsults and generally set out to intimidate.The response from those in power was lame and feeble asking pretty please that the mob go home not using their powers to MAKE them disperse thats the difference
Celtic has won four consecutive trebles and a Second 9 in a row and on none of these occasions have Celtic supporters trashed George Square or anywhere else for that matter.
The new club has won one trophy in its short history and the fans as usual have done what they always do; behave like animals and Yahoos in scenes reminiscent of Manchester 2008. It’s why they’re called huns and Scotland’s Shame.
Different shite, same flies. A permanent embarrassment and an occasional disgrace.
Nail on the head.
Got shit all to do way celtic,ya tit..my good friend is in a induced coma today,but am sure if you explained to his wife and children that if they bring him out and just give him a lemsip he be just dandy in a day or two they can calm doon!!!
Spot on.
You absolute knob, obviously have the same mentality as a hun, thousands of families have lost loved ones and friends that they certainly wouldn’t have lost to the flu, zip your head back up the sawdust is splilling oot again.
Celtic fans may well have been out celebrating had we won the ten.I doubt,however, that they would have trashed the place.
I was going g to add to the replies but I think both Lewis and TimTim nailed it.
The best wee bigoted country in ra wurruld.
Sort of like how BLM gets treated over in the US
Well I did write in as a response to ‘Dead Empire dead club on Saturday with just such fears of the worst when the league was finally one. The point I made was that whilst most sporting fans celebrate success – an essentially joyous moment – Ibrox success sparks off a process of triumph. Triumph although initiated by success is not satiated by it. Triumph requires a defeated enemy, literally and visibly crushed, spiritually and physically. ‘The peepul’ are never more dangerous than at moments of success. It was my misfortune to be caught up in the aftermath of the Easter Road game where Jock’s Stein 9 in-a-row came to an end. I was wearing no colours, simply returning home after a day’s work when the violence and vandalism exploded around me on Leith Walk.
The mauling that Manchester experienced after their defeat in 2008, was nothing compared to the mayhem of Barcelona 1972. Publicly wearing pride and support for our club aside, the next few weeks are going to see a process of violent retribution carried out. Please stay safe, keep away from this virulent pestilence.
Oh aye! And write to your local MSP and MP for an explanation as regards the astonishing police behaviour.
HH Lewis
I was going to say the average IQ of Klan members was 55 but after checking the evidence it’s actually just 1.
Brilliant!