Germinal

Ashley: Reports of workplace abuse "overplayed". Later: "SD deserves the cane if abusing system".

Ashley: docking workers 15 mins pay for clocking in 1 minute late "not acceptable". "I don't know who set it up".

Ashley: I can do a better job for SD employees than Unite. No plans to engage with Unions.

Ashley: I don't run SD, it runs itself.

Ashley: I only see flagged issues when they become red flags.

Transline, Ashley lackeys, getting absolutely slaughtered. Painful to watch but deservedly so.

Crikey, we might be held responsible for our actions! Quick lads, call a tame journo! Of all the keech in that pile of ordure is the idea that the public purse should pay for facial recog software. Fitba has burned thru millions, they can't expect freebies for things like that. Bottom line is football has run out of time and options and to a large extent public sympathy. It either acts or will be acted on. No more room for the likes of Petrie to airily dismiss assault as exuberance. The government that acts is accountable, every three years, to the voters. We'll see who's more popular, football clubs or that govt.,but I know who my money is on.

Bit surprised to see rab agreeing with Michael Matheson. Strange bedfellows.

My money's on Frank Mulholland.

I can't put into words how smug I am feeling right now. Pressing the wrong button, indeed.

Gordon Waddell's summing up of who did what poorly would carry more weight if he hadn't forgotten to include the media reaction. For all they say we are 'blaming the messenger ' won't wash if the messenger is deciding what the message is - the daily record story being a prime example.

This can't be the same Humza Yousuf who, despite that photo in a celtc pub and lengthy statement about it from the RST, was recently elected with a majority of over 6,000? If you ever needed rock solid proof that 'Scotland' as a political body cares not one jot for football, or Rangers, that result is it. Outside of the online, rock solid Bluenose - excuse the shouting - NO-ONE CARES. I do understand this is not exactly flattering for us but denying a very obvious political reality is going to get us nowhere. If, as some hold, the SNP hold football (including Rangers) in mild or even strong contempt they're reflecting Scotland as a whole. I doubt any political party - and the others haven't exactly been rushing to our aid - will start pushing support for football fans as a policy any time soon. Last person who tried that was Jim Murphy with his 'bring back the bevvy' routine & we know how that ended. If we continue to fight an imaginary enemy instead of focusing on very real ones we've had it. But it's a free country! I find the refusal to concentrate on fighting important, winnable battles in an effective way absolutely bewildering but then again, no-one said life makes sense & it'd be boring if we all thought the same.

I don't get why, if interfering last time was a mistake, we would want them to do so again? I'd have no objection to some review once all the facts and criminal charges are by with, but I can't see what would be gained by stomping in immediately. Surely that would just create another frenzied, 'shame game' atmosphere?

WoS is dreadful & the guy who runs it has done so much damage to the Nationalist cause, Unionists should be lionising him. Importing the politics of Northern Ireland as a solution to not liking the SNP is just about as insane a suggestion as I've ever read. I was hoping FMQ's yesterday might have brought the subject up, I don't know if there was one or not though. But my local MSP made a speech the other day so there are definitely people there - has anyone brought it up? And if not, why not? Michael Mathison on GMS was appalling, but if he'd mentioned Rangers we'd be complaining as well. I can't remember the figure exactly but over 1,000,000 people voted SNP about three weeks ago, if we're suggesting none of them are Bluenoses I think we're into the realms of fantasy. Rangers can shout about the SNP but it will achieve nothing beyond making us look slightly hysterical: we have to focus on what we can actually do, such as ensure Petrie gets the bullet, or people are prosecuted for assault, or news outlets which connive with mendacity are highlighted. Wider Scotland doesn't like football the way it did, and it doesn't like the Old Firm especially (celtc fans will have to come to terms with this eventually...at least we know how we're viewed!). Wider Scotland is perfectly happy for football to be legislated into next week, and frankly the more we stamp and shout the less tolerant wider Scotland becomes. You may not like that or agree with the reasons why it is so, but surely you'd want to find a way to combat it rather than to help it on its way? Anyway, according to Twitter this morning if you're a Rangers fan and don't hate the SNP, you're not really a Rangers fan, so what do I know? If that's the benchmark, and this thread appears to back it up, I'll be going the same way as neutralscot!

I'm stunned at the lack of political response. It just doesn't make any sense. But I'm fine with the OBA, the fact that lots of people against it want it renamed the "Offensive Behaviour at the Football Only Fur the Hunz, But" means it's doing something right. Not sure about the police and democracy, I've always been with Max Weber on that one. But he didn't have much of an answer, & neither do I.

Me neither, Uilleam. But I'm concerned at the turn things have taken. If we cannot trust the police to operate professionally we really are up the creek, and neither their actions on Saturday nor their (unofficial, granted) story of today give me any confidence in them whatsoever. Certainly they've never been very friendly at the football but I understand that, they're not there to be our pals. But this is veering off into an 'us v them' scenario and frankly, it is scary.

Not that I know of, but then again, they have neither denied it nor told Mr Steele to kindly shuddupahisface, so their position is a little ambiguous.

[tweet]735848480770564097[/tweet] Didn't take long for someone to make it even worse. Naturally, ensuring journalists are neither criticised nor held to account is of far greater importance than any possible hostility between football fans and the police. If I was a member of the PFS I'd be inclined to ask Mr Steele if he could refrain from chucking any more petrol on the bonfire.

I don't see the line softening - acknowledging that there are Bears who misbehaved, and that we will help find them, is absolutely the right things to say. Once you've established that, & we failed to do so at the weekend, you can put the boot into the people responsible, which Robertson did. I'm pleased with his statement.

Also worth noting that, to the best of my knowledge, not a single person in a close off Cathcart Rd thought to film this mob rioting & bung it up on social media. Unusual in this day and age, that out of about 60 flats, there wasn't a solitary person civic minded enough to get evidence for the surely upcoming court cases.

I'm not sure how these thousands of fans could see the Hibs fans come on, then leave the stadium, then make their way up Cathcart Road, all in time to stop police getting there 'in 30 seconds'. We must have some superfit supporters. If, though, as our hero above says, the police strategy for dealing with trouble was belting down 'relatively clear' roads while 20,000 fans are leaving the stadium, you really do despair. Every single game i have ever been to - even the local junior side - has seen a temporary but emphatic jamming of the road outside. If the police couldn't get through to deal with the mayhem on the pitch, it isn't because of some fans pointing at their watches but because the cops were caught on the hop. But it reeks of cobbled together excuses, two or three days after the facts and after the bright sparks have got their heads together to come up with a story. 15-20 minutes of fans attacking police vans, and not a single officer felt the need to get stuck in? Anyway, given the propensity of CCTV and police with cameras I have no doubt at all that footage of this disorder will be made available double quick. But credit where it's due, the sleekit reference to Northern Ireland will ensure many file Saturday under bigot Rangers fans. Job done.

If we were adhering to some consistent standard fair enough, but we're not, so there's little point applying one only when it comes to signing players.

Ordinarily I'd agree with John Mc, we're supposed to be that bit better than the rest. But after Saturday, what's the point? In a country where no one ever has to take responsibility for their actions, it's a waste of time even trying to maintain some kind of standard.

Not really worth the effort, plenty of people posting in complete bewilderment at how we got to this stage already! Cheers anyway.

I wouldn't expect any better from the sport bosses, but to be entirely fair Regan actually did 'get it' right away. Says a lot about the others that Stewart Regan comes out of this looking the best.