The Crown Office and the cover up

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The criminal justice system in Scotland (and south of the border) is on its knees.  It lacks funds to appropriately prosecute crime, this week I spoke to a shopkeeper who closed a business which flourished for decades, citing, among other things, the inability to deter shoplifters.

So what does this have to do with football?  We learned yesterday The Crown Office has increased its allocation to deal with the malicious prosecution of Rangers administrators and those who purchased the assets.  By March this year, £51.7m had been paid out, and additional £8.8m has been set aside to settle on-going matters.

The Crown Office have accepted they maliciously prosecuted people involved in the Rangers period in administration.  High barriers normally have to be overcome to get the Crown Office to prosecute anyone.  This case is remarkable in that it was pursued without necessary evidence, an inquiry – of sorts – will follow.

The headlines will explain that Newco Rangers’ founding director, Charles Green, was one of the victims, as well as insolvency practitioners and others involved around the time of the failure of Oldco and incorporation of Newco.  No one yet is calling out who went after them.  Why they went after them.  Or on whose behalf they went after them.  The latter question is perhaps the reason no subsequent prosecutions have taken place.

I have no time for Green, Duff and Phelps, Whyte or any of the other characters involved in this tale.  But, in 2012 and 2013 the Scottish media led a campaign against those who sold Rangers assets to the stakeholders of Sevco Scotland.  It was partisan and it was coordinated.  It went hand-in-hand with the malicious prosecutions.

Innocent people were harassed, arrested and subject to years of pressure.  The guilty sailed off into the sunset, untouched by the law.  There is a custom for civil actions (like this compensation episode) to be paused while criminal prosecutions take precedent, it never goes the other way around.

The Crown Prosecution Service would rather we all looked the other way.  News desks across the country know all about it because they were foot soldiers in the game.   They are limited in what they can do, but if they could find 10% of the agitation they used a decade ago, the powerful might think twice before opting for a cover up.

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363 Comments

  1. Plenty on here who didn’t fancy Leigh Griffiths coming to us.

     

    I haven’t seen enough of Shankland to make a comparison. Is it even a worthwhile comparison? Just a thought.

  2. Have we been linked with Shankland (in the papers/media) or was it someone on CQN saying we should go for him??

  3. There were people opposed to Griffiths coming to us but there were also people opposed to us signing Chris Killen. They were right in one case and wrong in the other. It can’t easily be boxed in as being snobbish about signing Scottish players.

     

     

    Me- I can’t work out if Shankland is our best bet until I know who else we are considering in his transfer fee and wage bracket

  4. Reading back, I notice a few posters claiming that Sevco’s published wage bill of £64m is for football personnel only.

     

     

    Not true. The figure is the wage bill for the entire company, from cleaner to CEO.

  5. lets all do the huddle on

    shankland would be a good signing i reckon for the period of time we need him when we are missing players

     

     

    but then he will just be on the bench when the players return

     

     

    if i were him i would be thinking i was good enough to bag an english championship team as a first team starter and earn a pile of cash at the same time

  6. garygillespieshamstring on

    I think Novo (I know) was quoted as saying signed for the hun instead of us because he had more chance of a game there.

  7. 2 reasons I don’t think we’ll sign Shankland…

     

     

    1. Miovski is a better player

     

     

    2. We don’t deal with Hearts.

  8. lets all do the huddle on

    2. We don’t deal with Hearts.

     

     

     

    nonsense

     

     

    what about Jack Jordan?

     

     

    we signed him in 1947 from hearts

     

     

    from what i remember he only played 1 game

     

     

    what a day that was

  9. Celtic were “interested” in Lawrence when he was a kid at Aberdeen … again pretty sure Winning Captains from here posted at the time … Lawrence then went part time became a personal trainer then worked his way back from Ayr United to scoring goals internationally… I would sign him in a heartbeat

     

     

    Not Kyogo standard (who is) … in my opinion he would be an excellent addition to the champions of Scotland 🍀

  10. Tosh McKinkay fae Hertz

     

     

    Mikey Mikey Galloway …

     

     

    Ekeren CSC

     

     

    Oh Mikey Mikey 🍀🍀🍀🍀

  11. Shankland is a yes for me

     

     

    20+ goals a season for us

     

     

    Weakens the huns if they want him) and the mini huns

     

     

    Kyogo can get an early summer and get his shoulder fixed and we won’t lose goals

     

     

    Big Oh can learn from someone who is a similar height and plays a similar holdup game

  12. lets all do the huddle on

    Mikey Mikey Galloway …

     

     

    Ekeren CSC

     

     

    i wasnt really at jack jordans only game for us in 1947 😄

     

     

    but i was in ekeren for this game

     

     

    great trip

  13. Come on you bhoys in blue …

     

     

    Jack Hendry

     

    Greg Taylor

     

    Calmac

     

    Stuart Armstrong

     

     

    McTominay tic fan

     

    McGinn … dint mention the the McGinn windae he could have signed if he wanted … he didnt :-)

     

     

    Would have been suspended every 2nd week in the Spl

     

     

    Mon Ecosse 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

  14. I hope the Celtic Share holders don’t get railroaded by the Celtic Board over the issues of the Green Brigade ,there in my opinion more important things needed to be addressed,ie more outlets to be built outside for the ordinary fan who gather outside with really no we’re to go except a few sports bars inside Celtic Park,which is designed for the ones who can afford to go there ,

  15. lets all do the huddle on

    Big Oh can learn from someone who is a similar height and plays a similar holdup game

     

     

     

    so you think Shankland is a better player than Oh then?

     

     

    would that not be a bad commentary on our signing policy if that is true?

  16. I know Jobo is a big fan of Scotland but I have to say I have very, very little interest in these games. I did when I was younger but that has dwindled to about the same level as my interest in Japan V Paraguay in netball!

     

    Are other CQNers of the same mind or are Scotland games still of real interest?

     

    Not important, I am just curious.

     

     

    I think my lack of interest is at least partly to do with my distrust of the SFA .

  17. Prestonpans bhoys on

    Mikey Galloway was four doors up from me in Grove St Musselburgh. Had green buntings outside his house when he signed for us. 👍

  18. lets all do the huddle on

    more outlets to be built outside for the ordinary fan who gather outside with really no we’re to go except a few sports bars inside Celtic Park,which is designed for the ones who can afford to go there

     

    —-

     

     

    i think a more accurate way of putting this is that they were designed to keep certain folk out!

  19. Let’s all do the huddle 7.36pm

     

     

    Sadly my only ever euro trip (so far)

     

     

    What about the Ekeren birthday cake … and the Celtic fans singing happy birthday …

     

     

    Went on Phil Cole’s bus … £55 quid with ticket included , 72hrs of mentalness

     

     

    Happy days

  20. lets all do the huddle on

    Are other CQNers of the same mind or are Scotland games still of real interest?

     

    —‘

     

     

    i think the 😴 emoji was invented for international football these days

  21. THE_HUDDLE on 19TH NOVEMBER 2023 5:04 PM

     

     

    Have we been linked with Shankland (in the papers/media) or was it someone on CQN saying we should go for him??

     

     

    First i read of anything it was from Carpe Diem on here.

     

     

    HH

  22. Hot Smoked 7.40pm

     

     

    Funnily enough the older I get the more Scottish I feel

     

     

    Totally different sport from Celtic and totally different outlook … but I want Scotland to do well and hope I pass that into my daughter

  23. LETS ALL DO THE HUDDLE on 19TH NOVEMBER 2023 7:45 PM

     

     

    Yip, that`s me :-)))

     

    Cheerio for now.

  24. garygillespieshamstring on

    Hot smoked

     

     

    Never really had any interest in Scotland games.

     

    Celtic supporter in 60s and 70s, was brought up with the view that Scotland international team wasn’t a place where Celtic supporter or players were welcome.

     

     

    I haven’t changed over the years.

  25. GFTB on 19TH NOVEMBER 2023 7:47 PMFair enough but it is just the opposite for me.

     

    Again ( and definitely this time ! )

     

    Cheerio for now :-))

  26. lets all do the huddle on

    Went on Phil Cole’s bus … £55 quid with ticket included , 72hrs of mentalness

     

     

     

    i went on the phil cole bus to lyon (the bad night for henrik) thinking we would be cool for bringing a bevvy on it.

     

     

    but they told us to stick it in the hold.

     

     

    we were ragin

     

     

    even worse when the regulars were all pished cos they had put voddie, JD etc in coke bottles cos they knew the rules!

     

     

    and they had the same Tones tape on a loop all nght from dover on the way home

     

     

    #OnlyOurRiversRunFree

  27. Boring … 12mins gone

     

     

    Both teams to score already up

     

     

    Super John McGinn …

     

     

    After Calmac gets him the pen

  28. Let’s all do the huddle …

     

     

    For Ekeren they said “no drink on the bus” as soon as we left Coatbridge we went on the motorway then the bus done uturn as somebody forgot their passport … it was the parish priest fae Kirkwood … no way they would have turned the bus round if it was any other punter … when we hit the motorway the no drink policy was gone … the bottle openers were getting passed around and on the “tv screen” was “the Ra on manoeuvres” my mate said so we aren’t allowed in I have a beer but watching the Ra in training is ok 🍀🍀