An "internet bampot" responds

We were the target of the Scottish Press with our far fetched theories and agendas. Dismissed out of sight as little more than “internet bampots”. Of course such dismissal was often based not on the often well researched evidence which had been collated, but more on the accusations we levelled. I remember in particular one article about BBC Scotland which received particular criticism from many quarters, sadly many on Rangers forums, when I alleged Pacific Quay had a particular anti-Rangers sentiment running through it. Unthinkable for most back then. Who within the Rangers community would argue with that now ?

And what of my fellow internet bampots with their conspiracy theories, agendas suggesting dark and sinister forces at work in our country brought together with a common purpose by some Opus Dei like controlling force – could be straight out of a Dan Brown novel. Unthinkable ?

Well we have the aforesaid BBC Scotland receiving stolen evidence, publishing it online and making award winning documentaries. I doubt there would be many within the Rangers community who would view their coverage of our club as fair, balanced and objective. Their language in reporting, their choice of words, the manner of their presentation, leaves little to the imagination as to the motivation behind the foregoing. Nor their hatred of our club.

Now in my internet bampot mode I have long campaigned that the Rangers Tax Case Leaks came from within HMRC themselves – a fact dismissed (though not denied – very clever) from HMRC themselves. We all know the drill after hundreds of letters “HMRC do not comment on speculation about breaches of confidentiality.”

But in the clamour to destroy our club the SPL cabal made one of their biggest ever mistakes with their SPL Commission. And this is where it became interesting. For not only did the learned Lord Nimmo's commission review the evidence, I believe they detected a considerable rat at work.

[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.

We will discuss this further in due course but just for the moment lets look at the use of the word trigger in that statement. Its is used to describe a catalyst, a reaction to more activity. Which tends to suggest that the documentary and information presented by the good old fair, balanced and neutral BBC Scotland has been anything but fair, balanced and neutral. Particularly in light of the findings of a 1^st tier tax tribunal and an SPL commission.

And what of the reference to “productions”. If they are productions then they must be evidence, and there is only one organisation which seized evidence in the Rangers Tax Case – the same organisation, who funnily enough, do not comment on speculation about breaches of confidentiality.

Which is likely to make my blog particularly interesting over the next few weeks for a number of reasons. You see I asked the Right Honourable David Gauke to confirm for me that HMRC had reported the theft of this evidence to the Police. But David Gauke MP declined to answer, instead he passed me to HMRC Ministerial Correspondence Unit who sent me a long winded letter which avoided answering my question. Needless to say I have requested confirmation from them as to my original question. In the meantime my enquiries with Strathclyde Police confirmed that they are currently undertaking a criminal enquiry with regard to the leaking of evidence – Rangers Tax Case.

It coins a new saying – Hell hath no fury like a Rangers shareholder scorned.

One wonders if HMRC will answer my latest enquiry with a refusal to comment on “speculation” about breaches of confidentiality when Strathclyde Police are busy running a major investigation into such leaks ! Oh dear – someone somewhere has a lot of answers to give the Rangers support and I'm sure I will not be the only one demanding them.

But perhaps the dark and sinister forces at work made a considerable mistake last weekend when they temporarily broke cover, Amazing how many legal rights lawyers, top QC's just happened to be in the Gallowgate last weekend on the occasion of an illegal march. Amazing how many politicians were suddenly lobbying Kenny MacAskill about “heavy handed policing” so much so that the Justice Minister was forced to make a statement. In fact it reminded of another situation at Berwick a few weeks ago involving the Rangers support which I described as “almost contrived”

And now today remarkably, we have the Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins forced to write a letter to The Herald defending their position despite the fact it was an unlawful protest.

Dark and sinister forces at work within our society ?

Unthinkable ?

HMRC & The Ticking Clock

“We do not comment on speculation about breaches of confidentiality”

I'm sure many of us who have written to this organisation are familiar with this statement. In fact I'm willing to bet that thousands of Bears across the world have letters with the aforesaid phrase included. My advice – keep them, you may find a need for them in the future.

I asked HMRC a different question. Well actually I asked it of David Gauke MP at the Treasury who, interestingly, rather than answer the question, referred me to the Ministerial Unit at HMRC. The question I asked, as some of you will be remember was “Did HMRC report report the leaks relative to the Rangers Tax Case to the Police ?”

I receive a long winded response which failed to answer the question. In other words waffle. I have sent another letter asking for confirmation.

You see HMRC have a problem. A problem which increased in magnitude following the Nimmo Report, where the learned Lord Nimmo commented in [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.

Now allow me to elaborate. The term “productions” is a legal description for evidence i.e. the murder weapon in a murder case would be a “production”. What Lord Nimmo is referring to is the various documents etc. which were seized during the HMRC investigation into Rangers and which were evidence or as Lord Nimmo  refers to – productions -  in the BTC. Now in any criminal or civil case for that matter where there are copious amounts of productions the investigative body will keep what is known as a Production Register. This carefully catalogue every single evidential item and assign it a Production Number for easy cross referencing at a later date.

Therefore when the Rangers Tax Case Blog was proudly revealing yet another “exclusive” which some in the journalistic community were moved to describe as “sourced from within HMRC” it would have been a simple matter for someone at HMRC to review the document on the Rangers Tax Case Blog and then compare it to their own Production Register. If any of that documentation matched then that should have set alarms bell ringing (actually booming) within HMRC.  So did they ?

If they haven't then they have failed to take all reasonable steps to protect confidentiality, furthermore they have failed to take all reasonable steps to protect evidence which they have seized, and I would respectfully suggest that given  they are bound by the Official Secrets Act, they have failed, not only to investigate, but report a crime which is rightfully viewed as grave in this country.

But let me give HMRC the benefit of the doubt for a moment. Let us suppose they did cross reference the exclusives on the Rangers Tax Case Blog with their own Productions Register and found that they matched. What action did they take ?

 Did they instigate an internal enquiry ?

In fact were they qualified or equipped to undertake such enquiry.

Given that such leaks constitute serious criminality did they report this to the Police ?

It is perhaps significant that following the result of the FTTT Sir David Murray, through his legal representatives, wrote to Crown Office, asking for a criminal enquiry to be launched into the leaks. This suggests that no such enquiry was currently underway and that HMRC had not reported the leaks to the Police.

Of course the Police have different powers and tools for investigation than HMRC. The Police have DNA/Fingerprinting, the power to search homes, seize computers demand ISP addresses as well as many other investigative tools and powers which are not available to HMRC.

The spotlight is now firmly focussed on whether HMRC took all reasonable steps to protect the confidentiality and security of the evidence it had seized.  That spotlight will not be turned off until every Rangers fan has answers to the question posed in this article.

Tick Tock.

Scotland the Depraved

Hark when the night is falling
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.

3 Journos & not a Cluedo between them

It was funny last night watching the mercurial Graham Spiers attempting to minimise the sins of Doncaster and Regan by suggesting the pair had “bodged” things. No actually Graham, they suppressed the fundamental right of innocence until proven guilty, resorted to bullying and intimidation of SFL Chairmen (one even accused them of corruption), indulged in a spot of blackmail, and even defied the courts of the land by imposing a transfer embargo which had been declared unlawful (even with their advantage of making up the rules as they go along) Now Graham I knew you were stupid – I just didn't realise you were THAT stupid.

But overall, despite a stellar performance from Chris Graham, last evenings Tonight programme was a huge disappointment. You see I had tuned in hoping to see something of a “Whodunnit ?”, something along the lines of...  Rev Green in the ballroom with the candlestick.  After all, with three great journalistic sleuths in Thomson, Spiers and English we had an investigative trio capable of giving Enid Blyton's Fabulous Four a run for their money.

And the source of the mystery ?

[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

This little gem appeared in Lord Nimmo's report, and what particularly delighted me about it was the thought of a considerable number of  arses collapsing as they read it. Furthermore it made Spiery's hissy fit at Chris Graham for use of the a word (agenda) all the more strange, as Spiers himself had tweeted about it earlier in the evening.

“Fascinating, too, that Nimmo Smith makes clear distinction between his and Big Tax Case, and also references the BBC quite a bit. #rangers “

Let me spell it out for Mr Spiers.  Colonel Mustard or Rev Green or a Miss Scarlett, has made their  way, furtively, into the the evidence store and removed  productions from the evidence cabinet. They have then copied (or perhaps passed originals) to the BBC who used the stolen or copied evidence in a documentary. This documentary was then presented in such a way that it appears to have been some kind of “trigger”.

I have a thousand questions but let me just start off with three.

(1) Who broke into the evidence cabinet ?

(2) Whose evidence cabinet was it ?

(3) Is it appropriate that a public broadcasting organisation not only receives stolen evidence, but actively uses it in a documentary which is presented before the relative hearing ?