“When the God’s wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.” – Oscar Wilde.
I spend more of my time than I should listening to the discourse on the right these days.
It fascinates me endlessly, and in particular over in the US where the gun-nuts and the militia loonies are praying for Trump to complete his political comeback.
These people regard themselves as the last keepers of the American flame.
Maybe they haven’t listened to this guy, or maybe they aren’t as patriotic as they think they are, because I have listened to him and there is no graver threat to the Constitution that they claim to hold dear than he is.
No greater threat to free speech, free assembly, the freedom to worship, the freedom from unlawful search and seizure.
He respects the freedom to bear arms, but whilst President he wanted to put armed troops on the streets to kill protestors, and use federal law enforcement authorities to hunt down his political enemies. He wanted to throw journalists into jail.
I listen to these people and I think to myself, “be careful what you wish for.”
Because if you allow one autocrat through the doors of the Oval Office you’ve fundamentally changed the country forever, and although Trump has been there before that was then and this is now. A man who tried to ferment a coup to hang onto power would abuse it like never before if the electorate willingly handed it back to him.
I had to laugh yesterday, uproariously, as Humza Yousef was elected First Minister of Scotland. He would have been my choice had I been eligible to vote in the election for leader, but as I’m not a party political activist anymore, and never have been a member of the SNP, it was ultimately for their members to make that call.
What amused me was Ibrox’s reaction.
Not that of the club, although I am sure that they are far from happy about it.
No, I mean the fans, so like the right wing lovers of Trump who believe that they are defending the Constitution by denying Democrats the White House. The Ibrox illiterati always believed that Sturgeon hated them and leaned our way.
I happen to know she was one of the people in Scotland who was least interested in the game, and would happily have never heard another word about it. The idea that she harboured some deep dislike of their club was as stupid as it was ridiculous.
Yet The Peepul despised her, and I never understood their reasons for that. They celebrated her decision to leave as if their club had won a critical fixture. And throughout the last month I’ve been waiting patiently for the other shoe to drop.
Yesterday it did. With the clang of a hammer coming down on an anvil.
Now, the First Minister is a dyed in the wool football man. One who has criticised their club and its fans openly on social media and in front of the cameras, not to mention from the ministerial chairs in the Parliament itself.
And he’s a Celtic fan.
Not a theoretical one – the references to Sturgeon being a Celtic fan were not hypothetical but fictional – but an actual one, a self-confessed one. Her constituency included Ibrox, so she was ever careful not to upset the neighbours. He’s in Pollock, and I daresay he does not have the same concerns on that score.
Let’s be clear here; we have one director on our board whose hatred of the SNP borders on the pathological, as is the case with most Labour members of his generation. Still, I do wish Brian Wilson would remember that he represents us now and is no longer on their Scottish team. Good relations with the government of the day would not go amiss.
Still having a self-confessed Celtic man in that job will certainly not hurt. I daresay most of our directors know the guy from long acquaintance and have the utmost respect for him, and know that he only wants good things for us.
The idea that this is a government that instinctively wishes us ill was always a stretch. Now it’s unthinkable.
Expect a far greater level of engagement between this government and football, and watch carefully how it manifests itself. If this guy gets together with the clubs – and he will want to – in order to root out certain issues in the stands I think that there will be changes nobody expects, least of all those who won’t obey the law.
But it also might – just might – be the moment this country gets real about tackling the bigoted dirge that flows out of certain stands, most notably the ones across town. He has no reason to turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to that.
I daresay that there are few high profile political figures in Scotland who are less tolerant of that kind of behaviour than he is, and he’s proved it time and again.
I can see why Celtic might see an upside in having such a man in office. Certainly, he will not go out of his way to harm our club and that’s important to note. Our board has no reason to be concerned, and indeed many reasons to feel optimistic.
But any enthusiasm we feel about this change will certainly not be felt across the city. In fact, I can tell you that the general mood over there is pretty dire in relation to his being elected.
It was their worst nightmare writ large and if you think they were vocal on the “issues” they saw Glasgow City Council having with them, that’s nothing on how they will be, at the first opportunity, about the guy who weighed in so publicly on the George Square disorder and the video allegedly of their team belting out a sectarian song.
Their new head of media, Alasdair Morrison, is a former Labour MSP and he is active on Twitter where his feed pours out a screed of anti-SNP bile, and he clearly has no love of Humza Yousef and has made that abundantly clear in the last 48 hours.
Indeed, one of his “selling points” to the Peepul was when they informed the media, upon hiring him, that he had “assisted the club” in an unofficial capacity in their “battles” with Glasgow City Council’s SNP leadership and the Scottish Government headed by Nicola Sturgeon. He markets himself as an arch unionist and they have no issue with that.
Throw into the mix Yousaf being a self-confessed Celtic supporter and, ladies and gentlemen, you can see how crazy this must be driving them inside the walls, and when this outcome was blindingly obvious it’s a measure of how dumb they are to have missed it.
So things are perfectly poised for some future flashpoint.
We don’t know where it will come from yet or how it will manifest itself, but we know that it will.
We know it will happen because these Peepul will scrutinise every move made in their vicinity and the first time they see something they don’t like the screaming will begin in earnest.
In the depths of their forums it has already begun.
Ibrox fans got what they wanted.
Whether they want what they are going to get … well they are already regretting the outcome.
Wee Nicola – A Tim.
The logic goes like this. She doesn’t support the ibrox club, ergo she’s a Tim.
They find it difficult, if not impossible, to imagine that a sentient human being could have no strong feelings on football, particularly them and us. In their world, if you are not staunch, you are agin them as there is no other option.
One more ingredient in the mix that will make next season one of the most enjoyable “banter years” yet…
Important thing is how he goes about bringin the country forward and that remains tae be seen. We know that a large percentage of the ibrox persuasion will vote tory and for all the wrang reasons, even when they’ve hardly enough money tae put the heatin on because ridiculously, these people will actually put ‘religion’ before their welfare, even tho half of them never see the inside of a church and couldnae hold a theological discussion, regardin catholic-protestant differences, if their lives depended on it. Time’ll tell whether he’s the correct choice, regardless of whit team he supports. As for Brian Wilson, would like somebody tae tell me exactly what he does, apart from sittin behind Dermot Desmonds arse and pickin up his (probably more than modest) paycheck. Strange for somebody who’s always bleated on about ‘socialism’ !
Hopefully sort out the Billy Boys culture,
Spelt Kulture, as in Klan.
Love it, love it. Laughed my head off when the hun fans drunkenly swanned around George Square with their yoonyin Jack’s celebrating the resignation of Nicola.
Wee Red card Ross is their Tory hero… they’re welcome to him and his boss Sunak.
Hail Hail.
The problem now intensifies 100 fold for the new First Minister ! Every single decision Mr Hamza Yusaf makes ,it will be forensically examined by followers of Ibrox ,then criticised and blamed for all of Scottish society’s ills . Just wait for the first sport related decision made from Cabinet… The lies and fake news mob will be working on warp speed ! Man ,the daily Record will be relentless in its hounding of the new FM as a unionist rag for starters .
@ JC. Yep and thats exactly whit will happen.
Yes a privately educated guy who attended Hutcheson grammar school, yes he knows what it’s like for working class families who are struggling. He is actually closer to a Tory background than a working class one. Somebody else who can patronize people.
How can you say you wanted him to be first minister, what has he done ?
Hes’ failed terribly at every ministerial position he has held.
So he been rewarded for failure.
25,000 SNP members voted for him. Is he going to call for an election?
Remember him & wee Nicola were calling for a General election when Boris left his post, saying ” its undemocratic for the new Tory leader to be prime minister because only 70k tory party members voted for the new leader. He/she doesn’t have a mandate ”
So if the SNP don’t call for an election the hypocrisy is there for all to see.
The first edict should be to demolish the auld hoor remove the poisonous filth permanently
“BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR”
We’ll get back to that in a minute.
Politics,like religion should never be mixed with football. Wee Nicola knew that. And being astute that way is why she kept her gas at a peep.
I personally feel she had a contempt for the sport because she saw the dirty side of it ( the dead Klub, and our own interaction with it) and probably focused on that, and didn’t want to sully herself with it, to the detriment of our game really.
As for her replacement, Humza in the hoops! Be careful what you wish for! As you know I declared in a post sent to one of your blogs a few weeks ago (that for some reason you did not allow) that Humza would win this contest outright, despite the fact that Kate Forbes in everyway was and is a far better candidate for the job. She has sound core family values,of which we are missing from general society at the moment, she was focused on her role in the cabinet and was making great inroads with her policies relating to the economy. She has a wonderful strategic view of an independent Scotland for the future. I’d be interested to know your reasons why you backed Humza. Is simply because he is one of “us”, which he is not of course, not really. None of these people truly represent us because they represent a party and the party will always come first. Be in no doubt about that.
For those of you wanting to see our country finally take its rightful place as a sovereign nation, and stand up independently in its own right, sadly he is the man who will put independence as far back out of reach as it ever has been. His appointment is already causing a huge fracture within the party (this was meant to happen btw) which in turn will see it slowly disintegrate. This will allow Labour to win back seats that they had lost previously and never thought they’d gain back. The winning of these seats will ensure that in the next general election that Labour and their Jimmy Saville loving leader Kier Starmer will creep over the line into governance in Westminster where we will see the bid for independence dead in the water. Be careful what you wish for.
So Humza for our blue blue friends across the river will be a blessing in disguise,and I think that many of them already know this as the attempt to cling on to the last vestiges of rule Britannia AMG God save the king. They may yet be singing God save the first minister!
Agree with every word you say Henrik, can’t see James logic, Humza is the closest to an idiot you can get, with a private education.
Having read this post I can understand why your previous one was not allowed. I am no great fan on Kier Starmer but your disgraceful comment about him puts you on a par with Boris Johnston – hope you are comfortable with that. I thought Kate Forbes was a competent minister and that she was unfairly criticised for her beliefs, but her behaviour during her campaign was disappointing and probably contributed to her losing.
Really Jorge? Which part was disgraceful. These are my own views based on plausible evidence. Certainly nothing to do with the low life and opportunist that Boris Johnson is. Starmer was head of the CPS at the time. The Saville case was at the forefront of the media at the time. Due to Savilles high profile and his connections he was probably told to bury it or decided to do so himself. Either way he is culpable. I have utterly no respect in any capacity for paedophiles or those that harbour or facilitate them.
If he knew and as I have stated there is plausible evidence he did, then I stand by my comment. It my be tough for you to read and for that I apologise but in the end the truth will out. God bless you.
Re the Starmer jibe, after The Blob made the comment in Wastemonster the issue was fact checked by several indépendant sources and found to have no credibility.
This story, and it’s rebuttal, was carried by several of the English Broadsheets. However the usual right wing gutter press persisted with the lie. Even dear old Auntie Beeb had to be forced to publish a retraction.
I’m no fan of Starmer, he’s just another ‘Establishment’ toadying Unionist.
@ Henrik. Probably the most accurate (imo) comment ah’ve read on here today.
Glad you think useless is an upgrade James.
his criticism of the george square riots was just mere words no one in the police force was held accountable for the shambolic policing that took place they were actually escorted to the city centre while drinking and belting out all their usual bile and as for sturgeon she stepped in at the bollingoli farce by saying the next two games should be postponed when after the murray park breach of the rules she said it was a matter for the football authorities lawwell just sat back and accepted it and we were on the backfoot after that. i do not expect anything to change as the new club are above any laws.
Celtic out of goodwill should honour the new prime minister with a season ticket next to Rod Stewart HA-HA-HA
Exactly my friend!
I had to laugh yesterday as I was listening to radio Scotland and they were promoting one of Humzas election pledges which was he was going to push for a section 30 order. So in effect get the begging bowl out to ask if we can be independent,.or have our referendum on independence. Does no one see the irony in this situation!! It’s the same as what’s happening over in Ireland. People and parties (Sinn Fein) are pushing for a united Ireland but at the same time this self same party is selling the soul of Ireland to the Americans with all sorts promises without realising, much the same as Scotland and the Scottish people, what a force they could be truly standing on their own.
He might do ok as FM” or might mess up as in his last few posts hope he has learned from past #uck ups give him a chance UK election soon anyway so maybe might not mess up to much ?????.
A classic example of “be careful what you wish for”……
I also suspect the the new FM’s religion might rub the blue knuckle draggers up the wrong way lol ?.
Blimey…. I thought it was a Celtic Blog, not an SNP one. It’s when you start spouting your rediculous political beliefs, that you start to sound like a moron.
Yes my friend you are 100% correct. I think most of us on here due to our ties and affiliations so much want an independent Scotland and with what has just happened, it seems further away than ever now if you look at the macro political machinations rather than the micro. That is why it has crept into this post, but I also suspect James likes throwing in these wee hand grenades now and again! ?
Now this really is the most intelligent thing, I,VE heard today.
When the God’s wish to punish us….? Why the apostrophe? If you wish to find faults in anyone you must be fault free yourself. Everyone seems to think now that when a word ends with a S that you insert an apostrophe. It has become a joke that doesn’t say much for modern education.
As for Yousef: I don’t think for one minute that he will be in the least interested in favouring Celtic. He knows which side his bread is buttered. We’ve had all these so-called powerful men, even on the board like Wilson, Reid and Lord Livingston, who sat with their mouths
closed when the going got tough. Anyway, we don’t need any more accusations of favouritism levelled against us. Just put the ball in the net and that cancels out the need for laments.
As for Trump, he allowed more freedom of religion than the catholic-by-name-only Joe Biden. Just read up on his record of turning a blind eye to the criminal damage on churches, mainly catholic, all over America on a daily basis.
I’m a lot late to the party, wow. Right so we’re playing Ross County on Sunday. HH