D'Artagnan

Certainly seems that way. Perhaps we should have a sweepie !

Alex Thomson's latest blog offering about succulent lamb journalism had me, quite literally, aching with laughter. The amusing part for me is that Thomson himself has built and risked his professional reputation in Scotland exclusively around the succulent lamb which is Rangers, gaining either fame or infamy, depending on your perspective, for a series of blogs concerning Rangers, their support, and, as of his latest blog offering, some of Rangers employees. His latest offering in fact prompted me to have a look at Alex in the same forensic way which he looks at our club, its support and employees. As some of you may remember several months ago I was made privy to a series of e-mails Alex Thomson exchanged with a Rangers supporter. Given his recent penchant for revealing the content of private e-mails, I'm sure Alex would agree that's what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Alex arrival in Scotland was prompted of course by the incompetence of Scottish journalists who according to him were â??too lazy, sycophantic and incapable of asking awkward questionsâ? with regard to Rangers financial affairs. Which was in itself rather strange as the Rangers support were in something of an uproar over press comments such as â??tax cheatsâ?, â??financial dopingâ? with our club being likened in one particular column as something you would gladly punch in the face until your hand hurt. But according to Alex â??Glasgow was differentâ?. The man who had reported from war torn Sarajevo, Mogadishu, Kabul, Islamabad, Tripoli and Baghdad, (Alex apparently could list a few more names but he very kindly didn't want to bore us) suddenly was the victim of an alleged online threat, in former city of culture Glasgow. Alex reported this threat to Strathclyde Police. In actual fact though, Alex was very much ahead of the game and his actions were motivated by a desire to expose the lazy and sycophantic, those incapable of asking awkward questions. Which begs the question that if he knew it was a spoof account, and I'm reliably informed the person behind the spoof later apologised to him, why did he waste the time of the Police ? But furthermore, knowing it was from a spoof account why did he tweet the following ? Sorry, perhaps it's just me but I'm struggling a bit here....Thomson knew the threat came from a spoof account, the perpetrator of this spoof later apologised to him and yet Strathclyde Police's conduct according to Thomson â??was shameful quite possibly corruptâ? ? Heaven help us. If that allegation against Strathclyde Police is Thomson's normal form of logic then thank goodness Glasgow is indeed different. Of course careless tweeting has been something of an Achilles heel for Thomson. On the 26th June 2012 he was forced to issue an apology to the Rangers support following an inappropriate tweet concerning the Ibrox Disaster memorial. Attempts of course to claim that he was unaware of the significance of the memorial were somewhat usurped with a review of his own blog of 8.3.2012, where he commented : â??Outside one corner of Ibrox a monument stands to the 66 who were crushed to death on a cold, foggy January night in 1971″ I mentioned of course Thomson's reputation in the opening paragraph, one which he has staked writing the foreword to the book Downfall. A planned serialisation by the Sun newspaper was abandoned in fairly acrimonious circumstances with the newspaper claiming the author was â??tarred with a sickening sectarian brushâ? Such a stain and public humiliation seemed to galvanise Thomson into action with a suggestion that the Sun newspaper was one of a number of victims of threats and intimidation from Rangers supporters. Logic breaks down here again unfortunately as the Sun newspaper do not appear to have made any report to the Police concerning these allegations of threats. Of course perhaps it could be argued that the wasting of Police time with false allegations of physical threats is the domain solely of the unscrupulous... a kind of journalistic underclass. Tweeting does not appear to be a particular friend of Thomson, as it appears to have a tendency to bite back at him big time. His criticism via twitter of MSM, for failing to review Downfall was one such instance. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/best-scottish-sport-reads-of-2012-1-2693614 But perhaps its Thomson most recent offering which underline the depths he will sink to in order to salvage something of his beleaguered reputation. His succulent lamb â??exposeâ? revealed far more than James Traynor going about his normal business as a reporter. It revealed that Thomson is willing to use or sacrifice anyone in order to save that reputation. For in revealing those private e-mails he held up his source like some sacrificial lamb to expose a journalist doing what journalists do. If this was an attempt to alienate the Rangers support towards James Traynor it failed miserably. In fact it generated more discussion as to why Whyte was briefing against our club. So not only do we know who Thomson's source is now, we know he is a thoroughly discredited individual who has lied on numerous occasions. But of course perhaps I fail to give Thomson credit, perhaps there is some bigger plan at work here as per his motivation with his complaint to Strathclyde Police. Or perhaps Alex Thomson is just a complete and utter liability, who has not only damaged his own reputation in Scotland with some seriously flawed judgement, but also that of Channel 4 news, who like Thomson's links to a man described as being â??tarred with a sickening sectarian brushâ? mean they are guilty by association.

Suggestions via twitter the whole show has been pulled.

McConville has just tweeted he is no longer going to be on. Would be interesting to know the reasons behind this.

It gets better - Muirhead from Scotzine is also on. The 3 Amigos. Only mad Phil needed to complete the set.

I have to hand it to Charles Green and Jim Traynor, they have managed to do in just a few months what my many years blogging has failed to achieve â?? upset the press/mediafia and send them into panic mode. What other reason could there be for the increased attempts and sustained attacks which are quite clearly an effort to besmirch and undermine the credibility of Charles Green and James Traynor amongst the Rangers support. Leckie, Keith Jackson and Waddell have all fired their long range rockets of â??forgive and forget and move oneâ?accompanied by â??Rangers are offensiveâ? in recent weeks. However these assaults seems to have had little impact in achieving their goal and it now appears the infamous and feared â??shock and aweâ? is about to be unleashed upon the Rangers support by that veritable vanguard of Rangers destruction â?? BBC Scotland. This benchmark, this epitome, this champion of objective and neutral broadcasting has been called upon to aid the forces of Rangers bashing, in what can only be described as a textbook pincer movement. Shock and awe is about to be unleashed upon the Rangers support by BBC Scotland in the form of Alex Thomson and Paul McConville. These latest mercenaries bring with them a considerable history of battle honours. The former you may remember provided the foreword to a book written by an individual who has been labelled as â?? tarred with the sectarian brushâ?. A book which prompted the following review from The Scotsman newspaper :- This is the same individual who went running to Strathclyde Police with tales of assault and corruption amongst the press in Scotland, only for Glasgow's finest to dismiss his claims out of hand. This prompted the aforesaid Thomson to claim the Polis were in on the corruption as well. Ah nothing like a good old conspiracy theory to cover up your own shortcomings or lack of moral fibre or integrity.. He is also the same individual whose duplicity was exposed when he denied knowing the significance of the Ibrox Disaster memorial. Still, he will be in good company at BBC Scotland â?? the seem to like employing persons skilled in the art of duplicity and denial â?? hence why Graham Spiers got a job. However its good to know that BBC Scotland are using my licence money in a responsible manner by importing guests of impeccable professional credentials whose personal integrity is beyond reproach. I do wonder however if McConville's appearance on BBC Scotland will prompt the Law Society of Scotland to send along an observer given the strict conditions they placed upon him at his Scottish Solicitors Disciplinary Hearing, after he failed to pursue compensation claims in respect of miner's relatives which led to his public humiliation. But with his professional integrity and reputation in tatters Mr McConville has attempted to restore his battered personal reputation by way of his web blog â?? Random Thoughts On Scot's Law. Mr McConville has a penchant you see for apparently waffling on all matters legal. He likes nothing better to ruminate over all aspects of the law in Scotland. It might come as a surprise to some of you that he only managed to ever ruminate once over Scotland's worst ever mass murderer Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, and his subsequent release from prison on compassionate grounds. Compare this to his many hundred Rangers related articles and you will see that his ruminating is particularly one dimensional. A fitting qualification of course for a BBC Scotland appearance. So with the ominous approach of Shock and Awe are Rangers supporters everywhere scrambling for cover ? No not quite. Instead we are laughing at you. And laughing very loudly.

I noticed that Gordon Waddell's column in the Sunday Mail raised a few eyebrows amongst our support. Probably blood pressure too. You have to hand it to the Scottish Press they don't just get things wrong, they get them terribly wrong. I said a while back that until they walk about in our shoes for a while, the differences in perception are going to poles apart. Actually, delete “poles” and insert “universes”. And while Keith Jackson was thumping out the old “forgive, forget and move on” melody, Leckie obviously didn't take my advice about shoes, and saw fit to describe Rangers as “offensive”. Furthermore he seems to suggest that we should be going on a “charm offensive”. Oh how I laughed. All the way to Waterstones in fact where I bought Leckie a copy of an English Dictionary. Because those universes seem to be keeping us galaxies apart in our interpretation of the word “offensive”. So let me get this right. The club who have been, and continue to be, treated unjustly by the Scottish Football authorities, who have been lied about in various press columns and in the media, who have been subjected to the most vicious and malicious witch hunt in the history of Scottish sport, should themselves be going on charm offensive ? You have to hand it to Leckie, as the ridiculous scale goes it's on a par with suggesting a rape victim deserved her fate because she happened to be wearing a short dress. Of course the “forgive, forget and move on” and the “Rangers are offensive” campaigns work well for the Scottish Press. They don't have to examine their own roles and failings in the witch hunt which was waged against Rangers. No need to address their own culpability, responsibility and failure to act as the “moral guardians of society”. Determining and treating someone as guilty before verdict, that to me is “offensive”. Offensive to the fundamental principle that a party should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Blackmailing a party to accept something which a Scottish Court has deemed unlawful, as a pre-requisite to granting a licence to play football – that to me is offensive. But perhaps most offensive of all is that coward's like Bill Leckie and his ilk fail to ask the questions of those who have abused their power, who are accused by many (outside the Rangers community) of bullying, intimidating and lying in their Machiavellian exploits, and yet continue to govern our national game. Seems Scotland has more than one “Offensive Bill”.

Greek mythology tells the story of Cassandra, a feminine beauty granted the gift of prophecy by the God Apollo. However after denying Apollo the right to sleep with her, Cassandra quickly learned that hell hath no fury like a God scorned, as the almighty Apollo placed a caveat on her prophetic gift â?? that despite the ability to predict the future with uncanny accuracy, no-one would ever believe her. Greek tragedies based on this story often depict Cassandra being driven insane with frustration, as her portents on the forthcoming destruction of her beloved Troy, alas, fall upon deaf ears. Fall upon deaf ears. How often in these last few months, as Rangers supporters, can we empathise with, and understand the depth of such frustration. Our frustration, which has now been surpassed by a righteous indignation, is based on events not from the future but from the past. At the very heart of that indignation is a desire sought by mankind since time in immemorial â?? justice. The foundation stone in the building of great nations, but a millstone however for the also rans. The pursuit of justice has inspired mankind for generations, epitomised in Dr Martin Luther King's letter from a Birmingham jail, â??I am here because injustice is hereâ? And injustice is also here â?? in our native Scotland â?? as an ever present travelling companion to Rangers in our club's journey over the last few months. When you condemn someone without trial â?? that is injustice. When you pre-determine someone's guilt and draw up punishments before a verdict is passed â?? that is injustice. When you impose sanctions upon someone which a court has declared unlawful â?? that is injustice. When you honour and award those responsible for the sowing of lies and deceit â?? that is injustice. Former journalist and publisher Alex Mooney is absolutely correct, writing in The Rangers Standard, in describing this as â??The witch hunt which shamed Scotlandâ??. It demotes our nation's status to that of an also ran. It is inexcusable. Nor is it a singular poor judgement made in the heat of a crisis, the frequency of it's recurrence serves to confirm that. Imagine for a moment that rather than being wrought on a football club, the injustices aforementioned had been committed in respect of a terrorist suspect in this country. Would our politicians, our press and media, our social commentators ignore such shameful conduct.? Would the breaches of that suspect's right of equality before the law, the usurping of his right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, be tolerated ? Not only has the injustice imposed upon our club being characterised by deaf ears, but to the shame of many, silent tongues also. Scotland, once of the brave, now of the also rans has a dirty little secret. A secret shame in fact, for it is rarely mentioned. Perhaps by ignoring it they hope it will go away quietly, epitomised by a recent press article which encouraged the Rangers support â??to forgive, forget and move oneâ? when the news broke that both club and support would boycott the Scottish Cup tie with Dundee United. On June 8th, 2012, Dundee United chairmen Stephen Thomson gave an interview to BBC Scotland, with regard to Rangers, during which time he stated :- I recognise that type of language from my days as a harassment and discrimination counsellor. It comes under scale 3 on Allports Scale of Prejudice and Discrimination under the heading of Discrimination. Its manifestation seeks to deny the victim the opportunity to seek that which they are entitled to â?? in this case justice. But not only does Thomson question our right to seek justice, he infers that a consequence of doing so will see further recrimination against us. But do not think for a minute that our â??acquittalâ? at a tax tribunal will prove to be a turning point. One only has to look at the proposed league construction proposals for evidence that the injustice against Rangers is set to continue, unabated. Such proposals have a precedent. In the 1994 Stranraer were in a similar position in that reconstruction would deny them of the promotion they had earned. This was deemed to be unfair and unjust and they were rightfully awarded the promotion their endeavours had earned. Fast forward to today and you will find no such provision has been made for Rangers in an identical position. It was former Daily Record Editor John Allan who wrote :- Have we as a support forgotten how to use the tools of moral resistive force ? Not only use them but use them effectively and strategically ? Those responsible for the injustices against our club, not only remain in position, they continue to administer in a manner which denies our club justice. That is not only Scotland's shame but our own shame also. Its time for us to stop whining and start grappling. It's time for that cold wind to change direction. Let every person who looks upon not only Rangers with a friendly eye, but who has duty to see justice upheld, who desires more for their nation than to be an also ran, issue Scotland with a weather warning â?? Hurricane Justice is coming.

It was in Alabama's Birmingham jail, following a peaceful civil rights protest, that Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famous Birmingham letter and declared to a watching world, “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here”. Whilst I may not be incarcerated in my native Scotland, as I write these words , I can honestly declare that “injustice is here”. Here in my native Scotland and being wrought upon my football club. When you condemn someone without trial – that is injustice. When you pre-determine someone's guilt and draw up punishments before a verdict – that is injustice. When you impose sanctions upon someone which a court has deemed unlawful – that is injustice. When you honour and award those who have been responsible for sowing the lies which deceived a nation – that is injustice. But it appears Scotland has a new secret shame, because no-body appears to have any desire to talk or discuss the injustices which have been heaped upon Rangers FC. None of our journalists appear to be investigating the men behind the Rangers Tax Case, why is there a continued silence and a lack of will or desire to determine where the leaks came from which sustained this blog for so long ? The injustices of which I speak should shame Scotland. In fact I suspect they do. A lot of people have been embarrassed as they are forced to reflect on their own failings during this process. Particularly elements of the press who had Rangers condemned before verdict. It's no small wonder they urge the Rangers support to forgive, forget and move on. Quite simply the truth is too uncomfortable for them to face – the suggestion to the Rangers support to “forgive, forget and move on” is an excuse for them to ignore their own failings, their own responsibilities and their own culpability in the commission of the injustice wrought upon Rangers FC. To their eternal shame some have even resorted to lying on national television in an attempt to squirm out of taking responsibility for what they have scribed. Perhaps when the guilty ones face the uncomfortable truth, and acknowledge their shortcomings, then and only then will we even consider “moving on”.

I think, as a shareholder in the company who formerly ran Rangers, the decision by HMRC to use this company as their test case on EBT's, in conjunction with the fact that someone leaked documents HMRC had seized as evidence, to an unknown person (s) who then utilised that criminal act, to create an impression on their blog that Rangers were guilty of tax evasion, subsequently making the original company unsaleable - warrants a thorough and very public investigation into exactly what transpired, who made the critical decisions and why and whether all reasonable steps were taken to find and extinguish the source of the leaks. In view of the fact that Sir David Murray instructed his lawyers to write to Crown Office asking for a criminal investigation into the aforesaid leaks, I would respectfully suggest to you all that HMRC have failed in their duty to prevent and detect the person responsible for those leaks.

Probably the same kind of precedent Zap which allowed them to usurp the fundamental principle of law and predetermine our "guilt" before verdict.

A very valid fear imo Rab

Have a wee look in the media Craig, since the tribunal ruled you will struggle to find any mention of title stripping - Im not taking my eye off the ball I just think those who were pushing for this to happen have had their gas put at a peep so to speak. I would have left it that way .

I personally, wouldn't have advocated the whole issue being resurrected GS

Well firstly its not revenge or satisfaction with regard to HMRC - more curiosity. For instance why was our club selected over the EPL clubs who have used EBT's ? Particularly when it has been reported that the administration of our EBT scheme by the Murray Group was in fact exemplerary. Furthermore why did HMRC wait a full 9 months on taking action regarding Whyte's non-payment of PAYE ? As to the second point - perhaps he will, and my confusion of the RFFF statement is in no way a criticism of Charles Green. There are 2 issues for me on this - 1. Since the tribunal decision the mainstream media have been very quiet of the subject of title stripping, with a number of neutral commentators (as well as pro Rangers commentators) suggesting in view of the tribunal decision, title stripping should not be on the agenda. Im surprised that the RFFF have re-surrected this subject, but I fully acknowledge they may well be privvy to information which Im not. 2. No I dont expect CG to say "no thanks" - I just didnt expect the offer to be made in the first place.

Im not convinced of that Cotter. For instance how about employing a professional lobby group to push for an enquiry into HMRC and their dealings with our club ? But that's not the core issue here. The titles are of concern to everyone - no doubt. But they are also the property of Charles Green (viz his company with controlling interest of Rangers) - I cannot see why it would not be his responsibility first and foremost to pay for the defence of his investment. When he eventually comes to sell the company he will be selling those titles to the new buyer.

The problem I have with that Frankie is how is it in the best interests of the oldco ? Hypothetically speaking, were titles to be stripped, they would be taken from the package Green bought, not something which is part of the oldco.

I dont have any issues with CG Bluedell, but I just dont see the need for this. CG has bought those titles as part of a package of assets he bought - just like the stadium. I would therefore think that the responsibility for protecting those assets, which he is on record as saying are an investment, should be up to him.

My thoughts exactly. Should Charles Green not be protecting the assets he bought ?

It's been a remarkable weekend. We had Stewart Regan giving an interview for Scotland on Sunday and Graham Spiers hosting a radio show. The former during the course of that interview comments “Charles has made his point but I would ask the question as to why there is a desire to leave “ the latter during his radio show suggested the Rangers support are suffering from a persecution complex. Let me kill both of these birds with one stone and deal with both the question and the accusation. Many years ago I studied at the Church of Scotland's St Colms College in Edinburgh. During that time I learned one of life's most valuable lessons – to understand where people are coming from you have to walk about in their shoes for a bit. So what do see when you don the shoes of the average Rangers supporter ? You certainly see a support with a persecution complex and a desire to leave Scottish football. Forever. So let me present some of the reasons for both. Lets start with our governing football bodies, who rather than await the process of justice, pre-determine the outcome of a tax tribunal and deal with our club from the perception we are guilty. Who draw up plans to punish our club based on a pre-determination of guilt. Who impose punishments on our club, which have already been deemed unlawful by a Scottish Law Lord. And despite being cleared of any wrongdoing by that tribunal, those governing bodies are still treating Rangers with contempt. The new league construction model sees Rangers remain in the bottom tier despite the ever increasing likelihood of earning promotion. Yet when Stranraer faced a similar situation several years ago, it was deemed to be unfair and they were granted the promotion they had earned. So why are Rangers being treated in a different manner ? But it was not only the Scottish football authorities who jumped to a conclusion of guilt. The Scottish media and the Scottish footballing public also jumped on that particular bandwagon. The real problem is that this particular bandwagon appears to be still rolling. “Cheats” ,“financial doping” were terms which were, and continue to be overused, but perhaps the icing on the cake was comparing our club's tax avoidance strategy to the corruption and bribery which disgraced both French and Italian football. The truth is it's never been about sporting integrity, its about an unbridled hatred of Rangers Football Club with the indication being such hatred is not going to go away anytime soon. One only has too look at the response to Jim Traynor's “Gentleman be careful” comments. Mocked, goaded and challenged. Given that our club has been subjected to a witch hunt which should shame Scotland in the last 12 months, with such flames of hatred being fanned by the lies of a blog and a documentary, (which they saw fit to honour with awards) is it any small surprise our football club would make moves to prevent such a repetition ? Or is this club not allowed to defend itself from blatant lies ? Perhaps one the greatest ironies about this article is that the individual who made the persecution complex comment was exposed as a liar recently on national television, denying he had attributed certain words to describe Rangers use of EBT's, when in the public domain, screenshots from his twitter account, serve to confirm that Graham Spiers claims of innocence were false. In essence his conduct and the subsequent lack of accountability for it, from the individual concerned and Scottish media in general, strengthens that persecution complex. So Mr Regan and Mr Spiers, I hope this answers your questions and accusations. I hope the time spent wearing my shoes granted you an understanding of the feelings of the Rangers support and, for your own personal contributions to such feelings - a sense of shame. But I doubt it will.

How has he tried to blackmail them ? As you have attested yourself these cases have to be heard...if that involves players missing training as a consequence of the timescales placed by the judicial committees ruling on the matter its hardly Green's fault. Or should he not pursue monies he believes are due to Rangers ? Furthermore if there was no case to answer why have 3 clubs already settled ?

I don't think it is "blackmail" but rather its a consequence of the process. The clubs who have those players could of course follow the example of Coventry, Sheffield Wednesday and Southampton and settle with Rangers. The fact the 3 aforementioned have, would suggest that the case you refer to is perhaps not so "poor".

Perhaps the issue of stadium re-naming will prove to be the benchmark as to how much input the fans will have on major changes.

Its actually the process I'm more concerned about rather than the subject matter. I know probably 99.9% of our fans would agree with a move out of Scotland. A move out of Scotland would affect us the fans more than anyone else - the same fans who have kept this club afloat against all the odds and rationale. I would have been happier if there had been an acknowledgement of supporters input in any process which saw monumental changes proposed at the club rather than Chief Exec - board of directors - motion passed.

Neither can I GA, but as I said it was more about mechanisms rather than what was actually said.