If it wasn’t for the Newsnow filters which prevent these articles from going on their servers if they contain excessive bad language the invective that would naturally find its way into this piece would be almost off the scale. To call what I’m feeling anger doesn’t do it justice.
To call the emotion I feel for our press contempt is too mild for my liking.
I know some of you miserable hacks read these; tonight your profession here in Scotland is a joke, and you are amongst those on the stage in the clown feet and the facepaint. Stop pretending to be journalists; you are gutter trawlers, chasing easy headlines and ignoring real news. Especially if that Real News is happening at Ibrox.
Cause why cover that when you rake through Celtic’s bins?
Nothing like an easy life eah? If you lot had to do real work you would drop dead of exhaustion and shock on the first day.
Friends and neighbours, isn’t it momentous to learn that our intrepid hacks can actually do basic research when they want to?
So own up, don’t be shy; who was it who got the night’s big exclusive amongst you miserable shower? Take a bow. Which of you – the profession that hasn’t bothered to do forensic analysis on the Sevco accounts although a weekend has passed – trawled through the Paradise Papers to find information about Dermot Desmond?
The rest of you, on your feet. This deserves a round of applause.
I joked last night that if Dermot wasn’t in the Paradise Papers that I would be sorely disappointed, but I knew that my own disappointment at not getting write something witty about that would be nothing compared to that felt in our newsrooms. How pleased they must be there that they got to write their pitiful anti-Celtic story, even if it does not one bit of harm to us.
But they can make the connection, however tenuous; Celtic and tax avoidance. Because our billionaire majority shareholder wants to keep as much of his money as he can. Which, by the way, he did using all the legal means at his disposal.
Legal means. Yeah, you want a lesson in what that means?
Listen, as I’ve written many times, if Desmond wants to play fast and loose with the authorites he is entirely within his rights to try, at his own risk and if he’s breaking the law I hope he gets caught and punished. If you want to pass a law that makes what he and others are doing illegal then great, I’ll vote for it, just tell me where to sign … but it does not infringe upon Celtic because none of his money is used to fund the running of our club.
It’s the hypocrisy I find unpalatable. It makes my stomach turn.
God, if we had a convicted tax cheat funding our club we’d never hear the end of it. If that same crooked congenital liar had gone in front of a judge and claimed to be “penniless” the press would have shrieked accusations’ on every front page. If a mere fortnight later he was openly boasting about spending millions on a new manager and players our media would have reported him to the tax authorities themselves.
We all know this. We all know what they are. We all know the agenda here.
And you know what? Enjoy your night. Enjoy the moment.
But stop pretending to be other than you are … a discredited joke. Gutless frauds hiding behind NUJ credentials which hide the truth; you are Sevco apologists and PR reps with press cards.