Ordinary men and women defeated a wilfully blind government

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With an understatement of historic proportions, Scottish Government minister Annabelle Ewing said should would “respect the will of [the Scottish]parliament” and set in motion the process to repeal the discredited Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.  This is a new approach from a government which has ignored the will of the Scottish Parliament on each occasion on this very issue – despite acting like wounded fawns when others do the same.

The Act was the brainchild of Alex Salmond, who exploited a Celtic-Rangers match which saw two Rangers players ordered off and a brief but angry shouting match between Neil Lennon and Ally McCoist. The game, however, was remarkably free from crowd trouble.

For years Rangers fans were being arrested for offenses of a sectarian nature. Celtic fans had rid themselves of ‘offensive chanting’ but things changed when SNP Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill sat through a Celtic-Rangers cup final deafened by chanting of ‘The Billy Boys’, he congratulated spectators on their behaviour. This saw the return of political chanting from the Celtic support.

SNP minister Christine Grahame made clear the intentions of Salmond’s Bill when she told Justice Committee meeting this Act would allow police to “equalise” arrest figures between Celtic fans and Rangers fans.

It was an appalling piece of governance and sectarian in nature.

61 SNP MSPs voted to retain the act yesterday, as Holyrood heard the most ridiculous nonsense in attempts to justify its place, citing sectarian comments made well away from the football environment. The SNP seem to know there is a sectarian problem, but are blind to any of their own shortcomings.

Credit for this reversal goes in considerable volume to the Fans Against Criminalisation action group, and to James Kelly MSP (Lab), who sponsored yesterday’s vote. Ordinary men and women defeated a wilfully blind, Peronist, government.

We can only be grateful that government does not enjoy a majority in parliament. Its authoritarian tendencies are clear, they did not look at the evidence and reverse their view, they simply didn’t have the votes necessary to continue to ignore all the evidence.

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Help Celtic FC Foundation in the process.
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350 Comments

  1. i agree we are allowing them to get closer by standing still always been the same no matter who has been in charge reluctant to spend even when we have it.

  2. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    Anyway

     

    As I said earlier alcohol has been consumed so our mods might just need to be on major delete mode…

     

     

    Only kidding jobo ☘️☘️

  3. BT

     

     

    Your Dad, a LISBON LION, deserves his medal.

     

     

    I have so many wonderful memories of that time.

     

     

    He deserves it!

  4. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    Tontime Tim

     

     

    A replica medal was given to the squad players therefore the original may still be in the possession of the Kelly family

     

     

    I understand that although my dad never played in any of the matches unlike the rest of the squad he was actually the 12th man

     

     

    If you look at some of the pictures produced by Celtic there is only 15 members of the squad as they must have played a part unlike the only other player/keeper actually stripped for the match

  5. i'vehadtochangemyname on

    democracy

     

    dɪˈmɒkrəsi/Submit

     

    noun

     

    a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.

     

     

    christine graham ?

  6. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    I usually don’t get involved re my dad so I’ll just log off because growing up believing he only played 1 game for Celtic is really annoying

     

    Even Jim Craig mentions it his his diaries

     

     

    Hmmm

  7. Tekkie question.

     

    My interweb is now via 3-4G, nearly always 3G, when it works it’s great, decent megs etc, but it does tend to go down more that my last provider, we have to reset the box so not too much of a bother, more of a pain, question is…..sometimes I can’t get into a site, like CQN but the radio I am listening to, it happens to be Snyde tonight is still going strong via the 3G, why would this be ?

     

    The mind boggles so it does

  8. JIMTIM on 26TH JANUARY 2018 7:20 PM

     

    Brendan wants players in now , the money is there to do so . we were told he has full control of the football dept . I sincerely hope that is the case , but by the deja vu January transfer window so far ,it looks like that may not be the case . One day our inactivity on transfers at this time of year will come back to haunt us , as I’ve said before . We are not as far in front of thems as we should be .

     

     

     

    How far ahead should we be?.We have played around a dozen games more than anyone.We have had horrendous injuries to star players,not squad men.We have won the 1st cup,and 11 points clear.

     

    1 defeat in 75 games.Not forgetting around 5 or 6 of our players playing International games.

     

    I think,all things considered,we have done fantastic.

     

    Obviously not good enough for the nervous panty wetters,of which we seem to be getting an increasing amount.

  9. embramike says ” Yer team’s deid…Beat it!” on

    Tremendous opener after 13 minutes from St Mirren, set up with a brilliant back heel from Lewis Morgan for Smith. Have a player there bhoys !

  10. Cellic don’t need tae buy a ch, what Cellic need, is a manager who’ll dispense wi this, dafty mindset trap, that ye have to play, the fabled, Glasgow Celtic Way, and put a defensive shield in front of the back four.

     

    Ah mean, would NFL’s Cellic team have beaten Barcelona, if he played the Glasgow Celtic Way ?

     

    Would WGS have beaten ManUtd if he played, the Glasgow Celtic Way ?

     

    Would MO’N have got us to Seville, by playing, the Glasgow Celtic Way ?

     

    Would Wim and Murdo and Henrik have stopped the tax evading hun ten in a row, by playing, the Glasgow Celtic Way ?

     

    Would Lou Macari have stopped the tax evading hun nine in a row, if he had the same players that our next manager got ?

     

    Even Mr Stein didn’t play, the Glasgow Celtic Way, every week, and, Mr Stein was the only waan wi the players, who could, play, the Glasgow Celtic Way.

     

    Celtic don’t care about the Old Firm anymore, aye that’ll be the sleekit reason why they agreed for, Celtic fans to be charged £49 for, Old Firm tickets.

     

    Ah mean, imagine Celtic thinking that their rebellious fans would fall for the, £49 Old Firm Same Club Lie tickets trick ?

     

    Ah mean, did Celtic not read the crowd funded “statements” in the obscure hun newspapers that Sqweamed and, Sqweamed and, Sqweamed that, Sevco / Rainjurs are different clubs ?

     

    Ah mean, how out touch are these sleekit Celtic custodians, that they thought they would be able to slip that sleekit £49 Old Firm Same Club Lie tickets dirty trick past the, rebellious, uppitty, cute, sharp as a tack, streetwise, naebdys mugs, non Scooby Doo! pyjama wearing, Celtic supporters, of 2018 ?

     

    Bring Back The Rebellious Pish Flowin Jungle Days – CSC

     

    Anywye,………..HH

     

    ……..oot.

  11. North Cyprus (Baku no more) Bhoy on

    FESS19 on 26TH JANUARY 2018 6:41 PM

     

    Seeing it’s Friday, this album can be downloaded free

     

     

    http://content.jbonamassa.com/MD-Free-Album-2017-FB-Ads_Free-Bonamassa-Album-2017.html?id=freealbum2018

     

     

    Hope it works

     

    ==================================================================================

     

    Cracking 12-track compilation (including 2 new-to-me) from 12 different albums just down-loaded.

     

     

    Thanks very much for the link.

     

     

    Now playing as background to the Dunfermline-St. Mirren game, and far better than listening to McCoist and Craigan!

     

     

    HH

  12. Looking forward to my first match this season tomorrow. Also looking forward to seeing WITS Russian burd:-)

  13. Joe Filippis Haircut on

    Better late than never so the old saying goes but just in case Celtic have not noticed the transfer window is rushing towards a close.We have managed to reduce our wage bill mostly by loaning players out and a also selling a couple of players but I cannot say we have strengthened the first team so it appears once again that Celtic dont like to part with money or there forward planning is poor or maybe it is both.However, for me they never appear to capitalise and strenghen the club from a position of strength.H.H.

  14. CELTARELLAS, when it comes to ‘Europe’ please define ‘competing’ and ‘humiliation’. and how far you expect Celtic to achieve in Europe

  15. kev j

     

    how many celtic fans paid £49 for a sevco ticket at CP? as season tickets were sold out i would suggest close to zero!

     

    I think it’s you that’s trying to delude gullable folk (maybe your one yirsel) by going on about it as though there was a substantial number. on the other hand all away fans would have stumped the full price.

  16. Hearing Musonda high up on our wanted list but other options available if Chelsea don’t want to play.

     

     

    — Celtic Underground (@celticrumours) January 26, 2018

  17. Bacardi

     

    Europe: CL and EL

     

    Competing: CL: Played 6 lost 5 won 1 scored 5 conceded 18 ===not competing

     

    humiliation: were you watching?

     

    achieve: better than that.

  18. fergusslayedtheblues on

    looking forward to the game tomorrow.

     

    will we play two up top ?,Who knows .

     

    One things for sure LG has shown in the PT game that he deserves to be on that pitch .

     

    If MD is to feature ,any thoughts on LG in the number 10 position just behind MD

     

    I think his movement ,control and ability to make a yard of space for a shot could be invaluable

     

    HH

  19. QF

     

    I think Kevs point is that by setting the price of any available single match ticket at £49.00 this distinguishes Sevco as being different from every other SPL team. It suggests our club regard them as the same club.

     

    I share this particular concern of Kevs, albeit that I don’t repeat it in every post I make.

     

    We should be charging £29 or whatever we charge for a game against Aberdeen, Hibs, Partick…

  20. The Blogger Formerly Known As GM on

    Always enjoy watching BR’s pressers in full on Celtic TV.

     

     

    The difference in professionalism and sheer intellectual capacity is really quite stark.

     

     

    Literally pearls before swine.

  21. Jobo

     

    Nothing to do with same club – it’s supply and demand – and the fact that PT supporters don’t trash the toilets