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The SNP Majority Is Gone. Time To End This Offensive Act.

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Today we’re living in a country where no party has enough seats in the Parliament to rule on its own.

That means each has to horse trade, and unpopular and regressive legislation is going to be that much harder to push through onto the statute books.

But of course, there’s already one shameful piece of legislation on the books which many in our support and in the wider footballing community have worked tirelessly against. It’s the Offensive Behaviour At Football Act.

After last night, there’s no longer an SNP majority to keep it.

There are rumours that a number of MSP’s are already planning to table a motion for it’s immediate repeal.

Every other party in the Parliament has pledged a repeal in their manifesto.

There’s a chance here for one last round of lobbying, and I suspect that it’ll be enough to deliver the result we all want.

It might sound counter-intuitive to start that the day after an election, but these people have made us promises and those promises now have to be kept. There are also council elections next year to think about, and I cannot see how any party that wants the support of the Celtic Family can turn away from us if they’ve previously pledged to stand by our side.

There will be pressure from the SNP administration, and some of the language they will use will, itself, be grossly offensive to a lot of our supporters.

We’ll hear that a repeal of this Act will set back the cause of tackling sectarianism; we’ll hear that it’s standing up for the rights of pissed up neds and hooligans and people living in another century. We’ll be told that actually the Act has benefited Scottish society.

All of that will be bullshit.

This Act has criminalised political expression; nothing more.

It’s defenders are affront to a free and open and democratic society and some of them know it, and even they have a window now to do the right thing.

This Act was supposed to be up for review, and they have one last chance to decide it’s not worth the battle that will inevitably follow.

It’s a battle they now stand absolutely no chance of winning.

So one last push, friends.

One last stab at it.

This is an opportunity I honestly didn’t expect us to get.

With the SNP poll lead in double digits for months now, I thought their return with a majority was as near certain as anything could be.

I’ve also had my doubts about how strong the commitments of certain people were, who probably never expected to have to deliver on them.

Now they do.

Ironically, it’s the rise of the Tory Party and the complete collapse of Labour’s vote that has given us this chance.

We need to take it.

Foremost amongst those who’ve been fighting against this Act is James Kelly, formerly the MSP for Rutherglen, who lost his constituency seat last night but stays in the Parliament through the Regional List. He is said to be preparing to act today.

Let’s give him, and the others, the support they need to put this where it belongs.

In the trash-bin of history.

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