Club 1872 Response to Ibrox Fanzone FOI Release

[ian1964 10,415]

Vote Wisely Bears

Written by: 1972

Wednesday, 17th October 2018

 

 

Vote Wisely Bears

As you will no doubt know, a number of emails relating to SNP run Glasgow City Council’s intervention on the proposed Rangers fanzone have now been released, thanks to an FOI submitted by Rangers fan group Club1872.

Club 1872 published said documents yesterday and have been supported by Twitter’s @therangersobserver in pinpointing some of the activity undertaken by council leader Susan Aitken and depute leader David McDonald.

The detail is astonishing indicating not only that these two councillors intervened in the process to award a licence to Rangers, but that subsequent activity has involved McDonald apparently brokering a booking at the Ibrox Football Centre to clash with timings of Rangers matches, and Aitken sending very questionable communications regarding evidence cited by Rangers CEO Stewart Robertson.

To add insult to injury, the FOI information released contradicts statements from both McDonald and Aitken, who denied there had been any sort of intervention, before Aitken accused both the club and her critics of sectarianism, for having the audacity to challenge what she’d done, while McDonald was paying scant regard to new GDPR regulations by releasing select emails including personal contact details.

Stewart Robertson’s letter to Aitken, which was released as part of the FOI is to be commended, as is the request itself, and the analysis done by Club 1872 and RangersObserver.

The message here from VB is very simple, and goes out to the any Rangers fans who have voted SNP, or shown any support for the Yes movement over the last 5 years.

You are being taken for mugs by that party, who are working across the country to damage Rangers Football Club.

That should be something you have an issue with, and you should be contacting your local SNP representatives to take action to ensure our club are treated fairly, and you should not vote for that party until such time as there is tangible evidence that the SNP are truly a party for all.

Of course, you are entitled to whatever political beliefs you hold, but you should know that, despite some sterling propaganda, the Nationalist movement in Scotland is not progressive in any way shape or form, and is playing the electorate by picking up policies along the way that it believes are representative of the Scottish people as it drives on it’s one track journey towards Independence.

The arguments over whether Independence is the right solution or the wrong solution may be for another day, however, you should be clear that the Nationalist movement has been hijacked by those of an Irish Republican persuasion with no interest in Scotland, other than it being a tool to drive Northern Ireland out of the UK. Whether we like it or not, our club, as a focal point for Unionism for many years, is in the crosshairs of these people.

That means that, if you support the prospect of an Independent Scotland, then you accept that part of the Nationalist agenda is to damage our club, so at the very least, you should be putting desires for Independence on hold to ensure that the movement you have embraced genuinely becomes a fair party acting for all.

You know what, even though it’s not my political view, if you do that convincingly you may actually win over enough No voters disgusted by the Anti English racism and overt Republicanism to your side.

 

https://www.vanguardbears.co.uk/article.php?i=201&a=vote-wisely-bears

[Gaffer 1,665]

As most of you will know, I've argued against those who attempt to make this a SNP v Rangers issue.  Instead, I've argued that this is a group of individuals (who just happen to be in the SNP) who are acting in such a biased manner, rather than a mainstream party acting against our club.  I still think this, however at the very least some questions need to be raised, and as someone who has no political bias (other than mistrusting all of them equally) I thought I'd raise them.

 

1.  Given that there was an obvious attempt by councillors to intervene in such a sinister way, what are the leaders within the SNP doing to investigate and address this?

 

2.  Given that a significant proportion of the country is now questioning the motives of a party, why is no one in the party attempting to manage our perceptions?  If some of the posters on here were correct (in that few Rangers supporters vote for SNP), then this would be understandable, because they're unlikely to change opinions anyway. However, this is not correct and with around 50% of Rangers fans voting SNP there is a decent number of votes on the line here.

 

3.  With so many overtly bigoted tweets from the SNP representatives, has the SNP leadership taken steps to ensure that this stupidity is addressed?

 

Perception is all that matters in politics, and I find it astonishing that the party is either unaware of this growing concern, or so unconcerned that they choose to do nothing about it.  I'll reiterate that I don't believe there is any evidence that the SNP party is anti Rangers, so why allow certain individuals to damage their party without being seen to tackle the issue?  It demonstrates either poor leadership, or a level of arrogance that is concerning.

 

Politics and football should not mix, however it is inevitable that politicians (as is the case with any profession) will bring their bias into their workplace.  Let's not confuse the two.

 

[Walterbear 557]

Spot on gaffer. These councillors need punished through the ballot box in their areas and by their party. Glasgow Life snr mgt needs sorted as well. Forgive me if I respect every Rangers fan who puts their club first and who ignore people who try and tell them they are not true Rangers fans or more generally how to vote on global political issues. 

[Gonzo79 13,613]

7 minutes ago, Walterbear said:

Forgive me if I respect every Rangers fan who puts their club first

That excludes SNP voters then.

[Bill 13,717]

18 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

That excludes SNP voters then.

Of course it does. I've said many times, you can be an SNP supporter and you can be a Rangers supporter ... but you cannot be both of these things without compromising your allegiance to one or the other, or both.

 

If you take any Rangers supporter who advocates independence and defends the politics of the SNP, you will find someone who repeatedly has to reinvent the nature of one or both in order to find even shaky ground to stand on. As you know from long experience in this forum, you'll find most of them defined by denial and indignation, the twin props of indefensible pretence. Anyone who tries to combine these two deeply incompatible positions is inevitably conflicted and would benefit greatly from the honesty required to make a choice and fully embrace either supporting Rangers or engaging in ScotNattery. 

 

Let the indignation flow. ?

[1972tango 0]

I will never vote the SNP, only safe vote for Rangers in Scotland is the tories. Labour is infested with anti Rangers people too.

Used to be a labour voter but not for the past 10 years have I voted for Labour.  6 years ago I spoke to my local Labour councillor who bleated about

not helping Rangers because eufe/fifa frowned upon politicians interfering in football matters. I explained they only frown upon politicians

when they are asking clubs to boycott tournaments for  whatever reason. Not for helping a club. 

He had no response to that. 

 

If local elections come around, then the Rangers fans that vote for these parties should reconsider after recent events.

It's been going on for years now, and still, Rangers fans vote for them. It's as plain as day they  are anti Rangers , anti

Protestant, and anti British.

Sectarian bigots basically but it's ok, it's Rangers and British patriots that are allowed to  be discriminated against.

We do nothing really about it and deserve the treatment we get for being non violent, apathetic, whatever.  But we can do something about it at the polls.

Stop voting them in.  Voting for independence and Europe, in or out, is another matter.  

How much longer or how much will it take for Rangers fans who vote these bigots in are going to wake up to it all?

[Bluedell 5,329]

1 hour ago, Gaffer said:

  I'll reiterate that I don't believe there is any evidence that the SNP party is anti Rangers,

 

Given the answers to your questions 1 and 3 is "nothing" and "no" and the answer to question 2 is clear to most others, I'm not sure what more evidence you need?

 

Even the usual subjects aren't trying to defend the indefensible on this occasion. 

[Walterbear 557]

2 hours ago, Bill said:

Of course it does. I've said many times, you can be an SNP supporter and you can be a Rangers supporter ... but you cannot be both of these things without compromising your allegiance to one or the other, or both.

 

If you take any Rangers supporter who advocates independence and defends the politics of the SNP, you will find someone who repeatedly has to reinvent the nature of one or both in order to find even shaky ground to stand on. As you know from long experience in this forum, you'll find most of them defined by denial and indignation, the twin props of indefensible pretence. Anyone who tries to combine these two deeply incompatible positions is inevitably conflicted and would benefit greatly from the honesty required to make a choice and fully embrace either supporting Rangers or engaging in ScotNattery. 

 

Let the indignation flow. ?

But that’s only because some folk can’t separate them such as yourself Bill. And that’s just fine by me. Other folk do separate them and that’s also fine. If everyone on the street believes in God it doesn’t mean he exists. Point to Rangers constitution and where it defines our religious or political allegiance?  You can’t. You can only point to people who think like you. 

[Gonzo79 13,613]

15 minutes ago, Walterbear said:

Point to Rangers constitution

Is there one?

 

If Rangers were just a run of the mill football club, we'd be similar to Partick Thistle or Queens Park.  We aren't.  

 

If we're just a football club then all our fans from outside Glasgow are just glory hunters.  Again, it's not that simple.  

[Bill 13,717]

4 hours ago, Walterbear said:

But that’s only because some folk can’t separate them such as yourself Bill. And that’s just fine by me. Other folk do separate them and that’s also fine. If everyone on the street believes in God it doesn’t mean he exists. Point to Rangers constitution and where it defines our religious or political allegiance?  You can’t. You can only point to people who think like you. 

Like I said, denial and indignation runs deep, so deep that some will go to any length to create a make-believe reality where their conflicted values can co-exist. "Other folk do separate them" Yes, by pretending to endorse one thing with this side of their face and the polar opposite with the other. Of course some people see nothing wrong with being two-faced and it's difficult not to define them accordingly.