Today the Celtic board has sent a very clear message to the Scottish government; “Let the people sing!”
The club’s opposition to the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act has reached a new peak.
Celtic has been good on this subject; they don’t get enough credit for it as far as I’m concerned.
They get a lot of stick for “helping the police” and things, as though they had a choice in that. We all know that they are in favour seeing the end of Republican singing in the ground, but they have been staunchly against the idea that singing those songs should, in any way, constitute a criminal offence.
Their opposition to “strict liability” was revealed in January; their stand on this has been solid and unflinching, and a matter of public record, from the start.
The club, as well as a number of supporters groups, has consistently spoken out against this law and its representatives have appeared in front of a number of advisory boards and public information hearings to signal our resistance to it time and again.
In spite of this, as I wrote last month, a significant number of Sevco fans blame Celtic and our supporters for being the architects of this law. Their idiocy is only one part of why this law reeks.
Today’s statement from the club reads:
“We note the comments made today by a number of sources calling for the repeal of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012.
“We have consistently opposed this legislation from the outset as it has been used to create a general presumption that different laws should apply to football supporters as distinct from society as a whole.
“We reiterate our position that the Act should be repealed.
“We encourage and promote positive behaviour within football at all times and welcome any attempt to do likewise.
“However, this Act is unworkable, and once again we call for it to be repealed in the interests of all football supporters and football clubs.”
The comments they refer to have come from a number of high profile free speech campaigners, but in particular from Professor Sir Tom Devine, the famous historian, who has called the law “a stain on the reputation of the Scottish legal system” and said “The legislation is likely to go down in history as the most illiberal and counterproductive act passed by our young Parliament to date.”
He and Celtic are joined by a range of voices from academia, politics, entertainment and the arts who are all stood against the SNP government who passed the Act and who are still dead set on maintaining it, despite a growing swell of opposition from all of liberal Scotland,
This law belongs in the bin, and eventually that’s where it will be.
The number of people from all avenues of public life who’ve spoken out today … this feels like a turning point.
This isn’t football fans shouting in the dark any longer; Liberal Scotland is speaking with one voice on this.
If the SNP aren’t willing to ditch it then it has to be taken to the Supreme Court and then all the way to Europe as a clear violation of human rights and freedom of expression.
The Scottish Government can keep on ignoring our voices, but the simple fact is that these people have a simple choice between seeing it thrown out by the ECHR as the lamentable scandal that it is or they can set it aside themselves.
And by their choice, let them be judged.