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The BBC Used Stewart Milne To Push A Peter Lawwell Conspiracy Theory Yesterday.

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Image for The BBC Used Stewart Milne To Push A Peter Lawwell Conspiracy Theory Yesterday.

Today, on the BBC and in the print media, is more moaning and wailing from Aberdeen’s outgoing chairman. Here, he has attacked Peter Lawwell directly, as if the last accusation – that Celtic and the Ibrox club operate a cabal – wasn’t daft enough.

But this isn’t what it seems; Milne was the useful idiot for a BBC hack who wanted to get him on the record as saying that Lawwell has too much influence.

That Milne so easily walked into making the statement shows you how dumb this guy is; it was an obvious bear trap and he either failed to see it or for reasons of his own voluntarily leaped in.

Milne was initially content merely to talk around it.

“I think it would be fair to say that Peter is a strong character,” he said, which is the refrain of the weak and easily walked over. “He’s in a powerful position. He’s a wise, intelligent guy … I wouldn’t go as far as saying that he runs Scottish football but Peter does bear a considerable influence.”

That clearly wasn’t enough for the BBC, they wanted more.

Milne was actually pressed as to whether Lawwell has too much influence … and he agreed, but tried to weasel out of it in a way which made it clear he was blaming the question. “At times possibly yeah … And I’ll be seeing Peter (soon) and I’ll remind him that you told me to tell him that.”

Of course, The Record took this quote – which was not only elicited by actually tweezered out of Milne who was reluctant to give it – and blew it up even more spectacularly.

Their Sevco blogger McFarlane put up a piece which seemed to suggest Milne had said that Lawwell’s influence is detrimental to the game here. “Stewart Milne claims Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell has too much power in Scottish football,” read the headline.

Underneath is worse; “The former Aberdeen chairman has praised the Hoops supremo but suggested he’s sometimes too powerful for the good of the game.”

Absolute garbage I’m afraid, and the same old conspiracy theory nonsense.

The BBC hack who asked those questions was at it, and so is The Record for blowing up the quotes. The national broadcaster went out of its way to get the story it wanted here. Its questions were loaded, and biased, designed to drive Milne where they wanted him to go.

Of course, The Record is full of crazies who have long believed that Lawwell is the dominant figure in the game here, and that Celtic are thus more powerful than is good for the other clubs. It is nothing but nonsense, a paranoiac fantasy which for some people helps to explain our dominance of the game here without considering the team on the park.

What none of these muppets has been able to do, ever, is give one example – not one – of where Celtic has used undue influence to benefit ourselves at the expense of Scottish football. I grant you this, they have never been able to find an example of where our leadership has helped the game either.

This is a common gripe on this website.

But they are the ones who keep on using this “undue influence” argument, with nothing whatsoever to stand it up. I am sick and tired of it, and for the BBC still to be obsessing over such a discredited conspiracy theory sums up their general malaise.

I might not like Boris Johnson – I hate the guy and everything he stands for – but if his government pushes its proposed law to decriminalise non-payment of the license fee, in effect making it a voluntary endeavour, I can’t see myself ever putting a penny down for it again.

Their standard of “journalism” is rank rotten.

Worse, the evidence continues to mount that it is biased as well.

I won’t pay for that if I don’t have to.

None of us should.

Remember, you can still do our Slapping Sevco quiz at the link below … just answer the first question about who scored our first goal against the NewCo …

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Who scored Celtic’s first ever goal against Sevco?

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