There’s a peculiar political tradition in the UK that not many people understand. It happens deep within Westminster, away from the public eye. It only gains attention when the party in question is engulfed in scandal or crisis, and even then, the media only focuses on it briefly. It’s the weekly meeting of the parliamentary party.
Under normal circumstances, these are rarely scrutinised or explored in any great detail.
Last night, there was a symposium for Ibrox supporters, offering them the chance to ask direct questions of the manager. Astonishingly, they had to pay nearly £40 a head to attend. The money was supposed to go to a charity foundation, and I presume it did. Still, charging such a high fee for what was essentially a Q&A session hints at the type of people who attended – those who, I suspect, aren’t truly representative of any football fan base.
Parliamentary party meetings only make the news when a major scandal breaks or there is significant internal debate. Yesterday, there was such a debate over the Labour government’s decision to cut benefits for pensioners. Personally, I think it’s outrageous, a scandal that shows politicians who preach about tough choices often do everything they can to avoid them, opting instead to punish those who can’t defend themselves.
If you’re a corporate tax avoider, a company polluting public waterways, or one that cheats consumers, you can nearly always get away with it. The government will not legislate against you. But if you are none of these, then, as Neil Kinnock once famously said, “I warn you not to be young. I warn you not to fall ill. And I warn you not to grow old.”
Over 50 Labour MPs abstained from the vote – a significant number, even considering the 400 MPs they have in the Westminster Parliament. Earlier this week, a meeting of the parliamentary Labour Party managed to quell what might have been an even bigger rebellion. This is typical of such meetings, especially those held in the wake of serious concerns. These are forums where people are meant to turn up, question the leadership, and hold them to account. Yet, more often than not, attendees seem to seek reassurance instead.
There is a crucial difference here. If you’re going to demand answers and a clear plan to rectify a bad situation, you’re doing the job right. But if you go there just to feel reassured that you’ve been heard and things are on the right track, you’re inviting yourself to be taken for a fool.
This pattern repeats at parliamentary party meetings. It happened throughout Johnson’s premiership, for instance, where he would spin brazen lies, and MPs would leave the meetings saying, “He’s listening. He understands our concerns,” when in fact, he had done nothing of the sort.
So, knowing this, I wasn’t surprised to see that many who attended last night’s meeting at their white elephant, Edminston House, to “question” the manager came away feeling reassured – just as I’m not surprised when I read reports of Celtic fans who attend forums meant to hold our leaders to account but leave feeling calmed, even though no real questions are answered, and no coherent strategy is presented. Some people just want to be told that things are fine.
Last night, the Ibrox manager answered a series of questions which, I’m told, were vetted by the club beforehand – an absurd notion if true. The questions did seem to be pretty tame, and the response muted, yet somehow many people left feeling better about him as a man, if not necessarily as a manager. How they’ve been “turned around,” I simply don’t understand.
When asked about leadership, he said intelligence isn’t a quality he looks for in a leader.
He seemed to suggest that while many players want to be vocal in the dressing room, some don’t say the right things. This is a fairly severe critique of his own players. The quote is garbled, but we can decipher its meaning.
“I’ve seen some players wanting to be leaders who can speak to the group and have the personality not to be afraid in front of the group or in difficult moments. But if you say the wrong things, it doesn’t help, so it’s important to say the right words,” he said.
This can’t be something his vocal players would want to hear, and yet he outdoes himself with the next part, which is even worse.
“A good leader is also somebody who can change his message depending on who he talks to. That’s a massive one. Not many players have that quality. Some people become better when you are on top of them all the time. Some need more support or something in between; it depends on the situation. A good leader in a group understands, feels that, and does it in a good way. It’s very important for a manager to have a few of those types in your dressing room.”
Changing the message depending on the audience? That sounds like someone whose main skill is telling people what they want to hear. What people want from a leader is consistency, encouragement, and support – not pandering, which is the very opposite of leadership.
His comments and statements are now becoming positively Trumpian.
This guy cannot be far away from the point where he starts ranting and raving about Celtic fans eating their neighbours’ pets. Even when he’s impressing some of their supporters, he is making the rest of us scratch our heads in total bewilderment.
He spent much of the night begging for time. For fans to wait and see. He must know he doesn’t stand a chance of getting that, either from the club or the fans themselves. This is what happened with the Johnson meetings of the Tory Party … he would go in there and tell the room how he was listening and learning and asking for the chance to see through his plans … and MP’s would troop out and tell the media that they would give it to him.
But then what? Within weeks they’d be back in that room in full-on crisis mode all over again, and he would come in again and tell the same lies.
The Ibrox fans who were comforted last night will very soon – perhaps as early as this week – be expressing their doubts all over again and that is not going to end. He is in the kill-zone and he is not getting out of it, no matter how many times he offers up reassuring platitudes.
This guy is in dire straits now. He is in a terribly weak position, and asking for time – which he surely knows he won’t get – is a sign of desperation.
Even those fans who attended and were impressed by what they heard must have realised this is a man on the edge. He won’t get the kind of unconditional support he needs – the kind without time limits or hard questions. He got away with it for one night and managed to charm a handful of those present, but the wider base remains distinctly unimpressed.
I think, what he is trying to say, in whatever garbled form it may have come across, is that different people are motivated in different ways, so if you have a message to impart, it might be simply a matter of tellign one person straight, but another person may need a more ‘flowery’ version. It’s usually targetted more about how someone sees a reward than how they receive the message though
Agreed. It’s a skill of a leader to know how to deal with different personalities.
The Ibrox board have unbelievably given Clement a long term contract, so the guy has every base covered financially. Since 2012 the Board at Ibrox have had to end and pay up the contract of 5 managers, whilst Celtic have had to end and pay up the contract of one. The successor club at Ibrox thought they could go on acting like the arrogant Liquidated club and because of that continuing arrogance they have built the successor club on very shaky financial foundations. Can they afford to sack Clement? That is the question.
“How they’ve been ‘turned around’ I simply don’t understand”
(In jest) – I do… They are simply Guillibilly Sevco Huns !
On swallow swallow they seem slightly in the majority in favour of him staggering and stumbling onwards…
Probably because he used language about Celtic like ‘The lot across the other side of town’
We get it Fillipe Fillop – Us Celtic supporting Bhoys n’ Ghirls have broad shoulders and know just fine well how it works in Glasgow ya know…
Regarding The Labour Party cutting The winter heating allowance for pensioners, my old mama mia loses £300 and her sister still keeps hers, ma maw will have enough to get by but is very pissed off about it, she is lucky, not so lucky is one of ma neighbors on the street who misses out on a poor works pension and has to pay rent to the council as well…
Labour should be bloody ashamed and really so should any Celtic supporters who voted The Butchers Apron Loving Bastards in, at least ma Old yin’s voted SNP and they got in at their bit and mine…
But if you’re a Celtic supporter who voted that lot in and are gonna struggle with the loss of your winter fuel allowance then sorry (not) But Hell Fuckin mend youse !
Off topic –
Interesting panel member on Clyde Superscoreboard tonight, none other than a certain Willie Collum no less…
He’s admitted that Celtic should have had a penalty on opening day when The Kilmarnock goalkeeper committed common assault on Kyogo in the box – says it was Hawkeye that made the decision to disallow The Kyogo Goal in The Glasgow Derby and well done to the Celtic fan who ripped him to bits for calling The Glasgow Derby by it’s pre 2012 description and demanding that he refer to it correctly as The Glasgow Derby…
He says that The Sevco goal v St,Johnstone was ok and it was the referee’s body language that was wrong… Jeez oh his ‘body language’ – He says that the penalty Hearts were denied v Sevco was ok…
He has just stated that in no way will he allow it to happen ever that referees will have to declare who that they support or did when younger and we should ‘trust their integrity’ as anything else is ‘insulting’ to his referees ( I say cheats with whistles, flags and monitors) of course and have ample evidence to use ma description…
The Motherwell fan that hosts it did to be fair pull him up with plenty interesting questions, he didn’t totally mealy mouth or soft soap him in any way…
Not sure if you’re listening to this James – Perhaps If not then you’ll be technologically savvy enough to get a playback catch up – And give us your as always awesome take on such things !
pseudonym
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noun
A false name; especially, a fictitious name assumed by an author in order to conceal or veil his identity.
James!!! James!!!! Are you in there? Come on now James, time to come out now.
Clachnacuddin, while I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments regarding the contemptuous actions of the red unionist party and especially the wanton disregard for their Scottish constituents perpetuated by the newly elected Scottish Branch office MPs, respectfully,I have to point out that this is a Celtic Blog covering Scottish Football.
Celtic has always been a Club open to all and that means that we have some fans who will have a different Political outlook . This Blog isn’t an appropriate venue for airing Political points. If James raises a political point in his analogies then fair enough then we should feel free to comment. Otherwise it’s a Scottish football site with a particular emphasis on Celtic and it’s noisy neighbour.
We don’t want to alienate any of our fellow readers or turn the Blog in to a series of Party Political Broadcasts so we should stick to Football. Now if James was to develop the idea of an open forum as previously floated then fair enough.
Aye – Only involved politics in this one because James raised political points that I kinda agreed with along with a football point (Fillipe Fillop Q & A) and an off topic point that was all on me (Collum on Clyde Superscoreboard)…
Definitely agree the footy and the con men and con women (political politicians) is a bad mix SFATHENADIROFCHIFTINESS but James did raise an opinion on politics as well as football in this particular article !
As always – you are the architect of reason…
Now and again perhaps I am not (rather a rebel rouser that wears my emotional heart on ma sleeve) etc – However I stand by ma comments in my post on this occasion my good friend !
Respect.
The problem with parliamentary party meetings is that they’re only attended by party members and party luvvies, hence why they are never a true reflection on the real publics opinion.
They were set up ( pretty much like the parliamentary select committee) to give the appearance of accountability and governance to those looking in from the outside, pretty much like what happens at our clubs.
And of course the questions are vetted and loaded in such a way as to never be too controversial or prize away too much information., but those who attend are just as culpable as much as those who carry out the vetting for letting it happen. If you are going to make the effort to go to these things then make the effort to ask the right questions and make the right noises. For example let’s look at what you highlighted regarding the winter fuel payment issue, as I was highlighting on a particular programme on the radio today this shouldn’t even be a topic of conversation. The topic should be why do the elderly even need a winter fuel payment!!!? The question should be why in the hell are our energy cost so high, why are our energy companies allowed to make so much profit, why after almost 25 years of investment in renewable energies are our bills not coming down any but in fact rising faster than they ever have, and thats not to take into account the millions and millions of pounds of tax payer subsidies that these companies have had over the years to supposedly get these schemes off the ground (yes get this people, we’ve effectively been double dunted for our energy supply). These are the sort of questions the need answered. These are the type that truly matter. But, if you want to be in the party, if you want to be in “club” then you will never be allowed in with this sort of scrutiny.
Thank you for reading and staying with me on this one everyone if you did!
God bless you all. Goodnight.
I hope we are wrong on how long Le Manneken Pish has left. Every day with him at the helm is excruciating for the Hun! I have a feeling that they will think twice due to the cost of getting rid of him due to his new contract, and keep him for the duration of this season unless it looks like they might not qualify for Europe.
I hope so anyway, I’ve got a years supply of popcorn in!
Such a magnanimous Klub, the ‘ahem’ charity will do well….
Belgian waffler has no other solution other than time…. It will be a matter of weeks before it’s pitchforks and torches.
The ISS can track his gargantuan heid without visual assistance, from space (Cleemon…(silent t))