Hear, Hear the pipes are calling.
The problem is Scotland is not hearing. It has not been hearing for some time, and it continues to turn a deaf ear to the truth.
Quite simply - Scotland can't handle the truth
For several months now it has vented it's hatred on a football club and sought to justify that hatred with accusations of “cheating” “financial doping”, in fact if you believed everything which had been written in these last few months, soldiers on front line service have been deprived vital equipment, children essential textbooks, all because of a certain football club.
Two very high profile commissions have ruled on these allegations. Men of considerable knowledge and expertise in their relevant fields, and have dismissed various claims from tax evasion to cheating, to gaining an unfair sporting advantage. Its there in these learned men's published findings but still Scotland cannot accept the truth.
Scotland would rather form it's opinion on the commentary of a now defunct web blog, which operated a very one sided perspective, based on stolen evidence it had received. Or on the “expert” opinion of a disgraced lawyer who is not allowed to practise law without some degree of supervision. The credibility or accuracy of the aforementioned doesn't matter – they say what Scotland wants to hear, even if the song they play is at odds with the truth. Its no longer a search for the truth, because the truth has been published. – its a search to justify their hatred of Rangers FC.
You get an understanding of the depth of such hatred, and how deep it runs when newspaper executives comment on the result of the tax tribunal as follows : “Its a fu**** government conspiracy”
But there is considerable truths which the published findings do not address and allow me to highlight some of them.
Scotland's football authorities usurped the fundamental principle of a presumption of innocence, both declaring and treating a football club as guilty before hearing, and tried to strip it of it's fairly won titles and trophies. If in any doubt please refer to the 5 way agreement. The men responsible remain in charge of the governance of our national sport.
Those same men decided to impose a transfer embargo on Rangers FC which a court ruled as unlawful and out with the scope of punishments available. That embargo has been imposed as a result of blackmail by those charged with governance of our game.
A legal firm whose neutrality was always questioned, have relentlessly pursued an investigation into Rangers FC. Rumours that one of their representatives commented to Rangers officials during the investigation “You bastards have been cheating us for years” did little to assuage any fears regarding objectivity. It will be interesting to see what the final bill is for what was described as “low level intelligence gathering”
Richard Wilson in today's Herald on Sunday touches on the subject..
That was a prejudicial and misguided decision, and the commission's verdict calls much else into question. Rod McKenzie, the Harper McLeod lawyer who presented the case against Rangers, had to accept during the hearing there was a different interpretation to SPL rules than his own.
But the aforementioned pale into insignificance when we consider [98] of Lord Nimmo's findings, perhaps I should remind you all what that was, as it appears to be something our press and media are reluctant to discuss it. They would rather pour over the fine print with their apparently newly acquired ”legal expertise.”
[98] Meanwhile, BBC Scotland came, by unknown means, into possession of what they described as “dozens of secret emails, letters and documents”, which we understand were the productions before the Tax Tribunal. These formed the basis of a programme entitled “Rangers – The Men Who Sold the Jerseys”, which was broadcast on 23 May 2012. BBC Scotland also published copious material on its website. The published material included a table containing the names of Rangers players, coaches and staff who were beneficiaries of the MGMRT, and how much they received through that trust. It also listed the names of people where the BBC had seen evidence that they received side-letters. This event appears to have been the trigger for more activity in response to the SPL’s request.
Despite this observation from Lord Nimmo, its apparently ridiculous for any Rangers fan to utter the terms “agenda” or “witch-hunt”. Of course it's entirely possible that the stork baby's gps was defective and she flew right into the HMRC evidence cabinet, opening same in the process, collected a bundle of documentary evidence items, (which she had clearly mistaken for a new born baby), continued on her journey but alas dropped the bundle over Pacific Quay right into BBC Headquarters. Just a bad day at the office for the stork baby ?
After all if there was no agenda why on earth would anyone break into an evidence cabinet, steal documentary evidence and then pass it on to a media organisation ? Why would that media organisation then make a documentary ( for it's objectivity and neutrality note Lord Nimmo's use of the word “trigger”) using that stolen evidence before the relative hearing ?
But let me put to rest once and for all this much muted notion that Rangers fans should forgive, forget and move on. Even if we were willing to do so it would be a pointless exercise and allow me to explain why.
Because our capacity for forgiveness is easily outstripped by the depth and depravity of Scotland's hatred of Rangers.
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