ian1964 10,440 Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 Stuart Waiton updates us on how football fans are rebelling against the eliteâ??s attempts to control them through censorship At a time when the Hillsborough disaster is in the news it is useful to reflect on how the policing of football fans has changed and yet has not changed. Then the overt elitism and snobbery about football supporters allowed fans to be caged in and policed like the scum they were seen as. After the deaths at Hillsborough caused by this form of policing the Sun notoriously (and to their cost) continued with this established line, making up stories about Liverpool fans robbing the dead and urinating on injured police officers. Today another inquiry is being launched into the Hillsborough event and will no doubt find some technical explanation for the carnage. But you donâ??t have to look to the past to find football fans being treated with contempt by the establishment, backed up by the middle class prejudices of the day. Today we no longer have overt elitism. It is unlikely, for example, that the Times will talk about football as a â??slum sport played in slum stadiums watched by slum peopleâ?? as they did in the 1980s. Like the modernisation of the stadiums, todayâ??s elitism is new and shiny, and as with modern prejudices, they are not seen as such. Football fans are now racist, sectarian, homophobic and so on, and the new elite, trained in 1980s radicalism, uses the power of the state to enforce their political correctness. We are no longer physically caged into grounds, but our mouths are increasingly being clamped shut. Authoritarianism is growing in Scotland in particular, with more fans every week being locked up for singing songs or writing offensive words online. The latest case has seen one fan, Stephen Birrell, sentenced to eight months in prison for mouthing off on the Ban Neil Lennon Facebook page about â??fenian scumâ??. Again it appears football fans are being used as guinea pigs for policing. In the 80s CCTV was developed as a â??responseâ?? to fansâ?? behaviour, and ID cards were proposed as a way to monitor this perceived mob. Today CCTV cameras are everywhere and ID cards for everybody are on the political agenda. Joining the extensive and growing use of cameras at grounds we now have listening equipment, because modern authoritarianism is less about controlling what we do than what we say â?? as Stephen Birrell and others are finding to their cost. In this respect the current reactionary measures by Scottish politicians are actually far more dangerous and troubling than the bullyboy tactics of the police back then. At least under Thatcher police intimidation was introduced and defended on the basis of our actions at games, our violence. Now it is our very words that are seen as a new cause of harm, and fans are treated like children who need to be protected from one anotherâ??s name calling. Unfortunately for the SNP, who assumed their politically correct authoritarianism would be unopposed, they now face a serious campaign against their proposed Offensive Behaviour at Football Bill from a variety of sources including fans themselves, who have protested at Celtic Park and Ibrox and are shortly to demonstrate in Glasgowâ??s George Square. The â??scum peopleâ??, it appears, have had enough of the snobbery directed at them by the new elitists and the outcome of the latest authoritarian form of policing is still to be decided. Stuart Waiton is founder of Take a Liberty (Scotland). The petition against the Offensive Behaviour Bill can be found here http://www.thefreesociety.org/Issues/Free-Speech/the-scum-people-rise-up 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 Hope you don't mind Ian, but I moved this in here. I think there should probably be a lot more talk of protesting against the SNP's Orwellian Offensive Behaviour at Football Bill. This proposed legislation is a lot more important than dealing with the BBC and yet it looks as though the BBC have managed to create a massive distraction. The BBC wouldn't try to distract the public while the government sneak through unpopular legislations, would they? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,440 Posted October 24, 2011 Author Share Posted October 24, 2011 Hope you don't mind Ian, but I moved this in here. I think there should probably be a lot more talk of protesting against the SNP's Orwellian Offensive Behaviour at Football Bill. This proposed legislation is a lot more important than dealing with the BBC and yet it looks as though the BBC have managed to create a massive distraction. The BBC wouldn't try to distract the public while the government sneak through unpopular legislations, would they? No problem mate,I did contemplate puting it in here. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 Does anyone know when exactly the protest/demonstration at George Square is being held? Also, are there any protests planned for Holyrood in Edinburgh? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 Right, it may be that the protest at George Square is being planned by the other lot. I can't believe there's all this fuss about the BBC and yet nobody is planning large scale protests against the Offensive Behaviour at Football Bill. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GovanAllan 0 Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 Think the problem is we all know it's crap and just about every other football fan knows its crap. But that wee fat spunk stain Salmond has a majority and they all think it's great. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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