Morons

That Scotland is blighted by sectarianism is a commonplace truism heard a lot these last few years.

It's like saying it rains a lot.

It's often referred to as if it’s a problem like litter, influenza or a dose of the clap. It goes around, it's a bad thing, but hey, that's life.

This approach neatly sidelines a couple of key aspects to the problem which the authors don't really want to look at. The first is that the issue is tacitly backed by a core of Scotland's establishment (legal, educational, church and media). The second is that the problem is often subtly referred to as if it's a problem of those lumpen and undereducated (while there's no doubt it is a useful thing to divide and conquer the poor and oppressed, it's not an exclusive club). There's plenty of rich bigots out there. This is the golf club boors parochial to every sinew. Too tight a grip, slugging the scotch n' soda down a little quickly. Third – an intimately connected with points one and two, is the fact that most are averse to confronting: that it is clubs themselves who hold most responsibility for this problem, which they have nurtured and stoked for decades, knowing fine the financial value in tribal hatred.

This was at the heart of Union Jack’s high profile and completely ineffectual legislation which aimed to stop 'street traders' selling sectarian 'tat', but not club shops selling official merchandise (see Ibrox stores for the last five years).

All of which is distilled in a recent article by 'arch critic' of Rangers and Baptist Rangers fan, Graham Speirs, who has been vilified by being mildly critical of the club and of despairing about the levels of bile he experiences at Ibrox.

After a recent away defeat behind closed-doors against Inter Milan, where only a selection of club officials and hangers-on were allowed into the game the sound of sectarian singing could clearly be heard ringing-out.

Now Speirs has written a piece celebrating the great strides made by David Murray in the Herald, only days after this embarrassing debacle in Milan ("Whisper it ... Rangers might be winning battle against bigots"):

"In the six domestic fixtures played at Ibrox so far this season there has definitely been a dilution of sectarian singing. (For European matches, where the Ibrox atmosphere is traditionally lusty, such modernism may require a little longer) . Indeed, two weeks ago, at the match between Rangers and Kilmarnock, it was striking that there was no sectarian singing at all for almost an hour. This observation might sound like a ludicrous piece of praise, but for Murray and Martin Bain, the Rangers chief executive, any reduction of such chanting is definite progress. Rangers hadn't just become embarrassed by their supporters' singing; as in other parts of Europe where prejudice in football is a problem, supporters of other clubs have taken to mocking or lampooning the ignorant droning of medieval religion which spewed from the Rangers end."

Wow a whole hour passed without a string of vitriol from the Rangers end? Hold the back page Graham.

What Speirs has called: “A breathtaking sequence of initiatives” has he claims halted the bile. “Mercifully, stewards and police are now marching into the stands and ejecting religious offenders.”

I was incredulous on reading this nonsense, given that after the Inter game - when a precise and identifiable group was in attendance - precisely nothing has happened to censor, ban or expel a single member of the Ibrox party. Whisper it Graham, you're kidding yourself. Scotland will only be free of this bigotry when it is rooted out of the boardroom, the accountants spread-sheet and when people are united round a common cause, not poisoned by corporate bigotry.

More fun and games amongst the educational elite here.