Rangers staff risk stoking sectarianism hints Glasgow council boss Susan Aitken

[Gaffer 1,665]

8 minutes ago, Bill said:

Great stuff. What 's your view on it?

I don't know but let me get it kicked off with some hypotheses that we can tackle ...

 

1.  Rangers fans tend to have no need to shout about being fans of our club.  We are quietly confident that our success speaks for itself.  Others shout more because they feel they need to for some reason.  You're asking me to enter the mind of one of "them" and gladly I'm unable to.

 

2.  We are widely regarded as a bigoted support.  By stating their allegiance to our club, they fear being branded a bigot.

 

3.  They are embarassed at being associated with a club that is perceived to have cheated by lots of other clubs' fans.  Has the number of politicians claiming allegiance to our club diminished since the admin fiasco?  Were there many open about it before?

 

4.  Good and smart politicians don't create division where it is unnecessary.  If there's no need to disclose their football allegiance, why do it?  Maybe Rangers fans are just smarter.

 

I really don't know the answer to this but as Stewarty and John said, this is a good discussion for us to have.  I think that it would be incredibly enlightening to reach a conclusion on it.

[Gaffer 1,665]

Or maybe it's quite simply because almost every other football club and it's fans are so jealous of our success that they despise us and want to see us fail.  Why would any politician associate with that?  If I was a politician (please no), I don't think I would disclose my allegiance for this reason.  I feel I'd be rejected by any constituent who supported another team.

[Gonzo79 15,152]

There are several reasons why people in the public sphere don't admit they support Rangers.  Our success and our perceived bigotry are undoubtedly the main two.

 

Mind you, I genuinely think hardly any politicians in Scotland just now actually do support or even like Rangers.

 

Similarly, I genuinely think everyone at SNP HQ has it in for Rangers.  The songs we sing, our flags, our general demeanour ...they hate it all.  And they are friends with people who despise the fact Northern Ireland is British (some of whom have been involved in terrorism against it, in fact).

 

If that sits well with Nats among us when we're belting out Rule Britannia or an Ulster folk tune, then good luck to you.  I find it a bit odd.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Gonzo79

[buster. 5,093]

1 hour ago, stewarty said:

We will not find any political party expousing a position on what football team to support so thats a dead-end argument.   

 

What is more interesting is the pervasive culture whereby a fledgling politician might deem it prudent to their career to keep their Rangers allegiance to themselves.

I'd have thought it wise for any fledgling politician in Scotland not to publicly declare an allegiance to either Rangers or Celtic.

 

I think it less likely for one to declare himself a fan of Rangers given that todays Scottish football enviroment has developed into a bit of a Rangers v the rest........Hence a politican who will be campaigning for votes won't be keen on making his task more difficult.

 

The 'Celtic Minded Activists' have for a number of years been actively trying to push this angle (marginalisation) as much as they can.

Edited September 5, 2018 by buster.

[BlackSocksRedTops 3,728]

5 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

There are several reasons why people in the public sphere don't admit they support Rangers.  Our success are our perceived bigotry are undoubtedly the main two.

 

Mind you, I genuinely think hardly any politicians in Scotland just now actually do support or even like Rangers.

 

Similarly, I genuinely think everyone at SNP HQ has it in for Rangers.  The songs we sing, our flags, our general demeanour ...they hate it all.  And they are friends with people who despise the fact Northern Ireland is British (some of whom have been involved in terrorism against it, in fact).

 

If that sits well with you when we're belting out Rule Britannia or an Ulster folk tune, then good luck to you.  I find it a bit odd.

I'm sure the FM and her ministers have enough on their busy plates at the moment to be worrying about us.

Edited September 5, 2018 by BlackSocksRedTops

[Soulsonic5791 408]

Although to the casual onlooker it would appear that the SNP has more than its fair share of Siol nan Gaidheal sympathisers and its direction dominated by members of the 79 Group, it was not always thus. However, it is difficult to escape the notion that the influence of these two groups on the party in more recent times hasn't manifested itself by way of our supporters, and by extension our football club, being viewed as barriers to realising their objectives.

 

Rangers and its relationship with politics is a multi-layered, complex issue. In my humble opinion, it's also one which shouldn't be overly simplified to suit any one political narrative.

[ian1964 10,720]

I've never felt the need/urge to tell anyone I am a Rangers fan, if I am asked I tell, and that has caused a lot of problems! to the person/s asking!

[Walterbear 557]

1 hour ago, JohnMc said:

This, this, this! This is the debate we should be having, this is the question we should be trying to answer. 

And the answer required a bit of self examination as well as critique of others. 

[Walterbear 557]

57 minutes ago, Gaffer said:

Or maybe it's quite simply because almost every other football club and it's fans are so jealous of our success that they despise us and want to see us fail.  Why would any politician associate with that?  If I was a politician (please no), I don't think I would disclose my allegiance for this reason.  I feel I'd be rejected by any constituent who supported another team.

I’ve felt a lot of these things but so long as it’s safe to do so I’m of an age where I’m not going to hide from anyone. If folk have problems with me being a Rangers supporter without knowing me then feck them. 

[Big Jaws 570]

2 hours ago, Bluedell said:

The SNP's decisions are all taken by individuals, many of which have shown anti-Rangers feelings.

 

On the flip-side, I can't think of one SNP official either at SNP or local level who admits to being a Rangers supporter. Why is that?

You cant in one breath say that The SNP are totalitarian, i.e. an autocratic diktat and then in the next say that the SNP's decisions are taken by individuals on an ad hoc basis. Thats absolute nonsense one is an existential the other is a universal.