Scot Gov wants to talk about Celtic, not the deaths

If you want to criticise Celtic for taking a January holiday while the country suffers and you have been stuck at home for 10 months, go for it, there’s acres of space below.  The football bubble is difficult to reconcile when people are currently falling ill and dying in such numbers, the optics are poor; Celtic, really?

But if you are responsible for setting the rules of the football bubble, like the Scottish Government are, you are responsible for what is permitted within that bubble.

If you gave specific permission for Celtic’s trip to Dubai, like the Scottish Government did, you and you alone have no right to issue PR statements of condemnation.

This contrasts with the Scottish Government’s congratulatory comments for Newco after punishing their players who broke bubble rules, a marked contrast to their reaction after Celtic punished Boli Bolingoli.

I get that this Government is a world leader at PR, that their leader appears to spend much of her day preparing and delivering her message of PR brilliance and that they effortlessly dig into Celtic without self-awareness.

And I know this is a lot easier than their day job, like deciding whether to send infected patients to care homes or not, running an education system, controlling a police force who witness sectarian crime without concern, and ensuring NHS hospitals do not have to issue statements of regret after poor cleaning-related deaths.

All this magnificent PR keeps eyes away from how that day job is being performed.  Scotland has a death rate higher than all but six countries in the world, including countries run by incompetent fools, like the rest of the UK – who we continue to shadow for inexplicable reasons – and the US.

Your government wants people to talk about Celtic, not look at the death count.  The former is embarrassing and the latter is worse only in Peru, Belgium, Italy and three former Yugoslav countries.  I am not part of this cult.