Leggat - BBC Man's Leaked Anti Rangers Memo

[ian1964 10,449]

JOURNALISTS inside the BBC headquarters in London, who know a little bit about whatâ??s going on in Scotland, were shocked at the sheer blundering buffoonery contained in a memo about Rangers sent south by Five Liveâ??s man north of the border, James Shaw.

 

In fact, some of the bluenoses down in the Capital were so angry that one of them â?? a long time pal from my days in Engand â?? leaked the bizarre document to me.

 

And all I can say is that I am astounded and amazed at the sheer incompetence of the advice James Shaw hands out about how the Beeb should deal with the Rangers Tax Tribunal result.

 

Astounded and amazed, but not surprised. For James Shaw cut his broadcasting teeth in Scotland at those two bastions of anti-Rangers haters, BBC Scotland and Radio Clyde.

 

And before that he spent a year studying Broadcast Journalism at the City University in London, where that well known IRA synmpathiser, Philmacgiollabhainâ??s pal and Donegal neighbour, Roy Greenslade, preaches his doctrine.

 

In his memo, circulated to BBC staff on both sides of the border on November 14th, James Shaw does not even pretend to any expertise, saying simply that the Tax Tribunal involving Rangers is a long and complicated story and that he thought it might be useful to put together what James Shaw called a â??blufferâ??s guide.â?

 

One thing James Shaw either wilfully or stupidly fails to understand is the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion, the latter being against the law and playing no part in the Tax Tribunalâ??s deliberations regarding Rangers use of EBTs.

 

Yet, not once, but twice in the first three paragraphs of his memo, the BBCâ??s James Shaw makes a reference to Rangers and tax evasion.

 

Subliminal?

 

He also appears to have made the mistake of believing secondary documents are side letters which look like contracts and which could make the EBTs, what he calls, â??illegal.â?

 

Now, it may well be that the Tax Tribunal will find against Rangers. But not for doing anything illegal. That is confusing tax evasion, which is illegal, with tax avoidance, which is not.

 

For a man who graduated from Durham University, James Shaw seems singularly ill informed.

 

All of those many years of working in the BBC environment in Scotland, where rabid anti-Rangers feeling infests the news and sports departments, plus his spell at Rangers-hating Radio Clyde, has possibly warped James Shawâ??s mind and set it into the mind set of those who he has worked and does work alongside.

 

But I do concede that the whole Tax Tribunal-Rangers-EBTs story is a complicated one and I do not pretend to understand its highways and byways completely.

 

However, what is crystal clear is what the EBTs mean in a football context.

 

And here James Shaw seems to be taking his lead from the sinister world of the Rangers hating bloggers, chief among whom are IRA supporting Philmacgiollabhain, shamed lawyer Paul McConville and the mystery coward who hides behind the Rangers Tax Case collective.

 

For James Shaw gets himself in a right old muddle when he tries to explain what â?? if any â?? purely football consequences Rangers will face should the Tax Tribunal should go against them.

 

What Shaw fails to understand is that there is no link between the verdict which will be passed down by the Tax Tribunal and that which will be reached by the football authority.

 

For instance, Rangers could be given a clean bill of health by the Tax Tribunal, but then be found guilty by the football authorities after what many see as the witch hunt against them led by Celticâ??s lawyers, Harper Macleod and their attack dog Rod McKenzie.

 

Making that mistake was bad enough. But then James Shaw of BBC Radio Five Live, in his memo to BBC staff north and south of the border, goes on to make mistake after mistake and blunder after blunder.

 

In a truly shocking and disturbing catalogue of errors, BBC Five Liveâ??s James Shaw tells BBC staff north and south of the border that it is difficult to know what action the Scottish Football Association will take against Rangers.

 

Shaw then goes on to speculate that Rangers results over the 2001-2010 period could be nullified and that that might have an impact on competition outcomes. He then goes on to quote the five Scottish Premier League Championships, four Scottish Cups and six Scottish League Cups won by Rangers over that period as being in danger.

 

Yet the truth of the matter is that any verdict by the football authority on Rangers will relate only to those five Scottish Premier League Championships and will be delivered by the Scottish Premier League. Something which the BBC Five Live man James Shaw gives no indication of being aware of.

 

He labours under the wrong impression that the Scottish Football Association will call the shots. James Shawâ??s bluff has been called.

 

For the Scottish Football Associationâ??s role will be to act as the last football court of appeal. A fact every journalist, with the exception of the BBC Five Liveâ??s James Shaw, knows.

 

And another fact which every journalist with the exception of the BBC man knows, is that the Scottish Football Association has made it clear they have no plan to strip Rangers of Scottish Cups.

 

While the Scottish Football League have been even more clear and unambiguous with regard to the six Scottish League Cups won by Rangers during the EBT years. The SFL say they will not be considering any action against Rangers. Regardless.

 

If James Shaw did not appear to be so poisoned against Rangers by his many years working for Radio Clyde and the BBC in Scotland, his memo would have made one major point.

 

That would be that journalists should ask how, if the SPL witch hunt against Rangers ends in titles being stripped, the SFA, acting as the football court of appeal, could possibly uphold such a sentence while not stripping Rangers of the SFA trophies, the Scottish Cup?

 

Instead, James Shaw has produced a memo which is one of the most slapdash, inaccurate and dangerously deluded documents it has been my misfortune to read for many a year.

 

Indeed, if BBC staffers took it at its face value the result would be a deluge of incompetent, inaccurate and damaging to Rangers reputation reports being broadcast by the BBC on both sides of the border.

 

Of course there may be some who might believe that was James Shawâ??s intention. I could not possibly comment.

 

However, assuming the memo was not prompted by malice and an anti-Rangers agenda, somebody should buy BBC Radio Five Liveâ??s Scottish correspondent James Shaw a book to help him understand how to read the documentation and reports which give a clear picture of what the Tax Tribunal and the Scottish Premier League probes into Rangers, could mean.

 

I already have one in mind. There are two main characters who feature as an aid to understanding the Queenâ??s English. Their names?

 

Janet and John.

 

....

AND....

 

A shameful admission. Yesterday I omitted to include my best wishes and hopes for a speedy recovery for Sandy Jardine.

 

Letâ??s hope this Rangers legend is soon back at Ibrox, where I saw him make his debut as a teenage right half in a 5-1 win over Hearts the week after Berwick. If memory serves me, Hearts scored first.

 

Get well soon, Sandy!