Rather Than Focus On Celtic Fans, How About Politicians Get Real On A Much Bigger Issue?

There are few Tories that this blog has ever singled out for praise, but Russell Findlay is one of them. He’s a former journalist whose courageous stand against gangsters and criminals put him into the crosshairs of some very bad people, and he paid a high price for it when he was the victim of an acid attack on his own doorstep.

In addition to that, he has written on the issues which briefly faced Peter Lawwell and ended with our chairman being targeted in a firebombing attack, a crime for which no-one has ever been arrested let alone charged. Findlay is also a frequent critic of the way the Ibrox liquidation was handled and the subsequent police investigations.

He is, in short, a brave and sensible guy. So it was disheartening, somewhat, to see him clamber onto the back of those lambasting our fans for the weekend. We weren’t the explicit targets of his comments – that was our First Minister. But that he felt comfortable engaging in a blatant bit of party political point-scoring with no other point to it is telling of our climate of discourse.

Whilst Findlay was attacking the SNP leader over this, the SNP’s Glasgow Central MP Alison Thewliss was suggesting that clubs be made to foot the bill for the aftermath of title parties and other impromptu gatherings.

Yeah, trying making a law out of that and see how far you get.

It’s a ludicrous idea.

Celtic had no part in this and the idea that they should be made to pay is ridiculous and an example of another political hack clambering onto a bandwagon of condemning without having any realistic solution in mind.

It’s depressing, it really is.

But just to remind people here; we’re talking about ten arrests, not 100.

We’re talking about some litter, not the wholescale destruction of property.

We’re talking about some minor skirmishes here, not a full-scale riot where fans actually attacked the police.

Look, I’m not here defending pissed up neds.

I shouldn’t need to point out that one instance of anti-social behaviour is one too many, but I am capable, as we all are, of a little perspective and some of the headlines accompanying this stuff are ridiculous, and the anti-Celtic brigade, of whom our media and political class has way too many, are milking it for all they can get.

But they are going to find it hard to maintain their level of vitriol, and this month and next in particular.

This is the marching season, after all, when sectarian bigots parade up and down our streets advertising their hatred and bitterness for all to see. That this has gone on much, much longer than a couple of years of title parties goes without saying.

Tax payers in Glasgow have been paying for this stuff for as long as I’ve been alive.

Where’s the rationale behind allowing this hate-fest to continue for one day longer?

Why does our country accept this, why does this city accept this, when we could stamp it out overnight?

We’ve even resisted the need for a Parades Commission.

This is one of those situations where I feel like the only rational response is to demand that those in public office either get real or keep it shut. They refuse to tackle a much bigger issue than a street party with some rubbish lying around, and because they refuse to I am not interested in anything else they have to say when they bang on about this stuff.

Sectarian parades are the epitome of “anti-social behaviour.” You could arrest virtually everyone who attends one.

If our political class, and the police, want to moralise they can do so when they have that right.

As long as we have to tolerate orange walks and a festival of hatred, on an annual basis, with barely a flicker of emotion from the political class here they don’t get to do what some of them have spent the last 24 hours doing.

They are hypocrites and we will tolerate a lot, but we aren’t going to tolerate that.