There is a convention in politics that I used to find vaguely nauseating, and it was one of the things about the whole gig that I never quite got a grip of and never wanted to participate in. There is so much of politics that is phony, but I always thought that the way leaders pay tribute to one another when they step down was entirely fake.
And yet, over time I came to realise, mostly by watching politicians from the Tory Party of the 90’s talking about Brexit and the national interest, that any failure to do it is extraordinarily petty, and not just because it has become such a standard response.
It is a mark of respect for their public service even if you disagree profoundly with every decision that a person has made. The whole nature of politics is about working on behalf of other people, and even when I’ve not liked political leaders I appreciate that about them.
There are a handful – like Trump, like Thatcher – who are so destructive and cruel that they don’t merit that. But unless someone is of that ilk, unless someone is particularly loathsome, I wholly understand why politicians, who are uniquely aware of the job and its pressures, go out of their way to say nice things to, and about, one another at the end.
Today, Nicola Sturgeon resigned and whatever your personal thoughts about her are, there is zero doubt that she loves her country and worked tirelessly on its behalf, and especially during COVID when I will always be grateful that we had a person in charge here who was not just serious minded but humane and decent and who sweated blood every minute over the awesome, mind-bending responsibility of having millions of lives in her charge.
If you know anything about how the UK government in Westminster behaved at that time – I’m sure you do – you’ll know that she was far and away the most competent and disciplined and serious person in a leadership positon on either side of the border.
The tributes are flowery enough when a person leaves because they had no choice, but she’s stepping down of her own volition – a lot of people don’t believe that, of course, and that’s fair enough – and talking very candidly about how exhausting the job is and how stressful. That’s something everyone can relate to and understand.
And so the tributes are especially effusive today from just about every corner of the political spectrum, and although the media will do its job and dig to find out if there’s another reason for her departure – and they should, that’s their job – friends, colleagues and even rivals can relate to what she’s said today and wish her well.
Everyone except for Douglas Ross, who made a statement which was bitchy, snide, arrogant, divisive and selfish. Rishi Sunak delivered a fine tribute, praising her for her hard work and integrity; the leader of the Scottish Tories released a bitter, vindictive, small-man’s statement which proves, as if there were evidence required, that he’s a political pygmy even by modern standards, a guy vastly out of his depth in a job that doesn’t really have many requirements.
I’ve seen shit politicians in every party. I think Labour in Scotland has over-promoted a real shower of mediocrities over the years, including Kezia Dugdale who was an astonishingly poor leader, though not as bad as Johann Lamont or the hilariously ineffective Jim Murphy, whose personality cult collapsed like the Colossus of Rhodes virtually overnight when he oversaw the electoral annihilation which many of us predicted on the day he got the gig.
I’m still laughing about that to this day, if I’m being honest.
But I do believe that even accounting for the shrieking Willie Rennie, who every fibre of my being cringed against when he opened his gob, that Douglas Ross is the worst, the most ineffectual, the more embarrassingly awful and clueless individual I’ve ever seen elevated to lead a party in this country in all my years of watching them.
I wouldn’t even attempt to list his litany of embarrassments and reversals and U-turns and gaffes and so it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that he’s so awfully partisan on a day like today, on a day when he’s utterly misjudged the moment and released something so crass, so thoughtless, so self-centred and stupid. He’s a joke and this confirms him as a bad one, a Jimmy Tarbuck special, which his party should have sensibly retired long ago.
What does amaze me is that he’s done that, and gone personal and gone low on a day when tributes are flowing, at the same time as he’s whining like a little bitch about a banner that Celtic fans put up at the weekend, and that his fellow refs – totally without the least self-awareness of what pitiful specimens they also sound – are wailing with him.
If he doesn’t have the thick skin to get over a banner like that he’s in the wrong jobs, both of them, and I’m particularly amazed he’s lasted this long in politics, especially when I’ve seen Sturgeon slap him all over the chamber on repeated occasions. The business is just way too brutal for a sensitive soul like him. To borrow an expression from the right, a snowflake.
In truth, of course, this is just another excuse to attack Celtic and its fans, and I find the refs standing by their man to be particularly ridiculous and short-sighted. These people really do think they are special, and shouldn’t be subjected to criticism or scrutiny.
But Ross wasn’t the target of that banner because he’s a bad official. He is a bad official, a honking bad one, with an easy to recognise bias. He was the target of that because he’s the Scottish leader of a corrupt, stinking, reeking party which has waged class war since the moment it took office in 2010, and which has inflicted upon this country not just economic hardship and social chaos, but an unprecedented level of lying and deceit from the very highest offices in the land.
And you know what? The rest of the refs can piss off. They want it dealt with? How? Points deductions? They’ve been doing their level best to accomplish that since the start of this campaign, and frankly I’m not in the least bit impressed by them.
I’ll tell you though, at a time when they are making this much noise about our club and our fans I hope people inside Celtic Park are paying attention to their foot stamping and drum banging because that could have repercussions for us, as I don’t trust them, any of them, not to hold it against us and act accordingly.
Still, for all that, there’s no reason for us to be in the least bit remorseful for pricking the balloon of his ego a wee bit. Ross proved himself today with his press release on Sturgeon that he’s utterly deserving of that particular appellation and several others that I’m too polite to bestow on this blog.
I think you mean Douglas Ross lol
Lol yeah I did.
Think on that. I’m a massive political geek. Even I don’t remember his actual name from time to time.
Not great, really, for a political figure.
Gordon? Dross is getting pelters at the moment for his classless comments, many of those commenting now saying that they agree with the Green Brigade’s message.
Many helpful suggestions as to what adjectives should have been added to the banner to describe him adequately; fat corrupt useless etc.
Add your own.
Hahaha 🙂 Yeah I actually called him by the WRONG NAME!
If he doesn’t have political name recognition by now, even with geeks like me, he’s humped.
What else do you expect from a C>NT
Thanks to everyone who has pointed out, or will point out, that I called this guy Gordon Ross several times in this piece before I caught the error. I just want to say that when a politics geek like me forgets the name of a major political figure – he’s the leader of the Scottish Tories, I’m willing to grant him that – then he’s probably not achieving “cut through” into the mainstream.
In fact, if this guy’s name wasn’t being emblazoned on banners calling him all sorts, I think most of his colleagues would forget him. I know a lot of them wish they could especially after that statement today.
Well said, agree wholeheartedly!
You’ll need to start again James,his name is Douglas.Apsrt from that you nailed it beautifully.
douglas ross, or as he’s called in our house…
That vile little shit!
Nicola Sturgeon..
Loves her country….
And according to the dear leader her people loved her..
Cow of the highest order..
Well shot…
There’s space on the louden tavern bus going to George Square for the sturgeon conga celebration ?
He’s a cunt.
Aye, the establishment (football fkrs) can now work it up Celtic due to these banner antics. Aye well thought out.
Get ready for the retaliation of payback venom without any reason to justify blatant shite decisions.
The Green Brigade are fkn it up Celtic Football Club.
Aye Ross is a CUNT, but the Green Brigade are idiotic suicidal counts.
Do not publicise opinions that are going to knowingly fk it up.
We Ross part of an organised anti Celtic cartel.
Aye Green Bridade banner holders, hope you get some fkn brains
Douglas Ross aka Dross.
Although I wouldn’t spit on him if he was on fire I don’t think the wording of the said banner was suitable . Yes put your thoughts in words but the C word is out of order when so many children are in the ground and see it. How does a parent explain that to his child.
Sometimes the people responsible need to remember that many children are at our games. We all know what he is so his comments are no surprise to anyone.
Ach, swearing is all part of growing up, there weren’t many words that would have shocked me as a child, so let’s not exaggerate.
Exactly..
Nothing wrong with calling a cunt a cunt
Hail Hail ??
Ross is a SCHNIVELLING ODIOUS CUNT!! You cannot even call this Wankstain a Man, She’s the type at school that wid be DESPISED as a grovelling teachers pet or at work as a Grassing wee Cunt!! The HILARIOUS thing is even the Tory HIARARCY don’t even RECOGNISE or ACKNOWLEDGE this Fukin MUNCHKIN!!
I don’t have the slightest issue with that banner. Tory leader at Parkhead should expect that level of ire. And the virtue signallers can piss off too, that word is a very different thing in Glasgow than it is elsewhere. Not a bit worse than “shit” or “prick.”
The only thing I’d have changed would have been addition of the word Tory before c**t, as then it removes the (hostile) media’s ready made “anti ref” slant.
If only the Green Brigade would stand candidates. Against militarism against hunger against landlordism, I would vote for that. Read today that Douglas Alexander is trying to make a comeback. Who in their right mind would vote for him? That useless liar Starmer also confirmed today that Jeremy, one of the few MPs who stands up for the powerless, the voiceless, the dispossessed is going to be blocked. I wish the electorate would throw out all these careerists, parasites and opportunists.
Lol the day he turned on Boris the bawbag the true tories down south started to distance themselves from that PONCE,and he is PONCE of highest quality.
A greedy b*****d of a man with 3 jobs and expenses galore whole voting down free school meals in Westminster.
If you don’t want your kids to hear swearing, then do not take them to the football at all, as you will undoubtedly be surrounded by fans swearing and shouting all sorts of abuse. Unfortunately it’s all part of the match experience, no one is immune to it. Snowflakes should stay away if they are all suddenly find it offensive.
no he’s not a cunt he’s a useless cunt both politically and football wise HH
Know most of us, includin maself enjoyed the banner wording and are havin a bit of a laugh at it, tho ah must agree wi Jim the Tim. It does give ross’s ‘sympathizers’ even more of an incentive tae get their own back wi decisions on the park and ah expect it will. They’ll pick their moments and probably start wi the cup final. Walsh the ref and beaton on VAR, perfect for them.
Let’s face it the main reason we hate Ross is because of his hysterical hate filled red card shout against Simunovic when we played the huns. His intense hatred for us came over loud and clear and the banner was more about that than his political bias.
Less shit about politics. Stick to the football as she has had a strong hand on the NHS and education for many a year. She also gave away 68 million of our money to Ukraine. No need as we contribute as part of Britain . You must have driven on our crap roads .
Aye he’s classless and he’s a tory but as a club we hardly need a situation where a clique that is already against need motivated to increase the decisions that go against us already.
An absolutely crazy thing for the GB to do, if the had the club at heart they wouldnt do such things
i hate the guy…and despise tories…especially scots tories….
i didn’t read what he said about the banner…but just going by your headline james…in all honesty…i think the real lack of class was shown by the GB…..i mean c#nt ?? seriously..?
how shallow is their vocabulary….ffs !!
how many parents brought the kids to that match and had to explain what the word meant…
the club seriously need to get a grip of GB….they are like parentless adolescents out of control…the away ground songs are also a poor reflection on the club and supporters…the media don’t need any help to slag us off…and yet these gits throw them ammo everytime they attend a match…
again….the board with no balls…..
HH
I only know that little creepy looking guy for ” red card red card, red carp” never seen a grown man so excited! And the disgusting ordering off is never spoke of but like frimpongs in cup final why?! Cause we still beat that vermin with 10 men as we done on plenty occasions and we all know the most famous!! 30 minutes to and more in many cases still took care of the cowards