As debate rages on in the aftermath of Saturday’s sectarian beano in Linfield, the BBC journalist Tom English last night mounted a staggering defence of the Loyalist flute band The Shankhill Defenders, insisting they are known for their “cross community” work in the North of Ireland.
Even when shown proof that they had in honour of a sectarian murderer, a Catholic killing Loyalist, just hours after being photographed with the Sevco team, English was still giving them the benefit of the doubt. The more evidence he was confronted with as to who these people are the more desperate he got until he was finally reduced to calling out the “Celtic fans” who were “annoying him” as he “tried to find out more.”
I’ve seen some pathetic, spineless, crawling to the inhabitants of Ibrox in my time, but this really does reach a new low.
English’s comments are disgraceful.
I can’t put it any other way. They are cowardly, shameful and unbecoming of someone who works for the national broadcaster. There is not a single person outside of the Sevco circle who does not think the pictures of their squad on the park with that band were horrendous.
Trying to find some minor justification for them … it’s outrageous.
It’s absolutely beyond the pale. It is an insult to the intelligence of every license payer in Scotland.
English could have said nothing at all. He’s done that before, when asked to comment on some of the shocking behaviour out of Ibrox. It would have been better, in fact, to have simply ignored the inquiry than to come out with crap like this.
This sinister episode has already sent waves of revulsion around this country and it has done untold damage to the career of Mark Warburton, an Englishman who had never been exposed to this kind of ugliness until he took his seat in the Blue Room.
If English wanted to “find out more”, if he really wanted to, he could have simply listened to what he was being told, by more than one person, and read the information being presented to him, from more than one source on who these people are.
The fact he ignored all that to look for “proof” that they do some minor good is simply breath-taking.
Harold Shipman probably saved lives too.
Maybe English wants to speak to the BMA about that some time?
This goes beyond pandering. It makes you wonder whether English is vying for an invite next time around.
It also makes you wonder why Sevco even bothers to pay a PR firm, when the national broadcaster is more than willing to take up the slack for free.
What makes it worse is that on 17 August, English was not quite so ready to look for positives when he posted the following tweet in response to the Green Brigade’s Palestinian flag protest.
Guess what? The Green Brigade gives donations to foodbacks. They do charity work that’s never properly heralded in the mainstream press, which is to say nothing for the tremendous good that protest and the ensuing fund raiser have done. They really are a “cross community” organisation. Do they get credit for it? Do they Hell. The BBC and other media outlets treat them with disdain bordering on contempt, even as they try to make allowances here.
When English was called out about the double standard, the strongest criticism he could muster was to call Saturday’s scandalous sectarian stunt “ill judged.”
What, was “idiotic” too strong a word?
Saturday was more than idiotic.
It was stomach churning. It will live a long time in the memory.
The more people like English ignore this stuff, the longer it will go on. Sevco’s directors know they can make excuses for the worst excesses of their own support; they’ve done that repeatedly since their Cup Final shame, and English was one of those who initially spread the blame before backtracking under pressure to lay it all at the door of Hibs.
We know he lacks the spine to confront this club as he should.
But to try and spin this, a gleeful cavorting with sectarian bigots which involved players, coaching staff and even some club executives … it’s deplorable.
The national broadcaster is scared to death of Sevco, or some of its staff are in sympathy with the worst of its behaviour.
Either way, English and others are an utter disgrace.