Rangers Enemies Have Lost All Perspective and Self Respect

This week is shaping up to be one of the most important in Rangers history.

I’ve stated before that I’m not a daily blogger, and don’t intend to be, but there really is enough material at the moment to keep any Rangers blogger busy enough to do quality daily blogs if they have the time available to do so.

The obvious story this week, which could run and run, is the SPL agenda to strip Rangers of titles for the period that they were using EBTs from 2001 to 2010.

Rangers unofficial blogger Chris Graham, and Rangers head of media James Traynor have both exposed the agenda this week as an absolute sham, with the specific EBTs that the SPL wish to exploit for their agenda laid bare, and proven to be within the SPL rules.

Now, history will tell us that both the SPL and the SFA do not have a great track record at being fair towards Rangers. It is also notable that some apologists in the media wish to dismiss the FTT ruling in favour of some of the evidence submitted as part of the ruling. Clearly, “judgement” means little to these apologists, with some citing the John Terry case, where legally Terry was found not guilty of racism, but found guilty by the FA at their own kangaroo court.

The very fact they wish to use this injustice to strengthen the SPLs case to do as they wish is not surprising but very representative of the agenda of those who hate Rangers above all else.

So, despite the “case” made by Traynor and Graham, I sadly expect that the commission will not back down at this late stage and will indeed strip Rangers titles, and set Scottish Football down a road that it may never recover from.

Make no mistake, despite one newspaper misquoting Ally McCoist saying Rangers would just have to accept any decision made, any decision to strip Rangers of titles will begin a legal war between Rangers and the SPL, and enrage even the loyal supporters who just now are agonising over missing the Dundee United cup tie.

Some of the statements I’ve seen from some supporters on Rangers sites, and on Twitter, has been absolutely clear that the scenes of Belfast post the flag issue, may well be on its way here to Glasgow. I share this fear, particularly as I feel there are those out there who are delighted at the PUL Community’s displays of anger and consequently their vulnerability to negative propaganda.

Unfortunately, I expect that anger levels may not recognise this risk, and that this city could indeed experience some ugly scenes in the coming weeks.

Of course, the sheer hatred towards Rangers doesn’t just come from the SPL, with one such hater, MP George Galloway,  recently taking time out from serving his Bradford constituents, to request that the Government pursue Rangers for the PAYE liabilities of Rangers Oldco former corporate shell.

http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/913

In an astonishing rant, Galloway states

“That this House notes that the owners of the club now playing in the Scottish Third Division called Rangers claim that it is the same club with the same history as the liquidated club also known as Rangers; further notes that 14 million in VAT and PAYE was withheld in the run-up to administration by the previous Rangers; further notes that the club is now cash-rich through a share issue which raised in excess of 20 million; condemns the use of insolvency laws to avoid paying tax owed; and calls on the Government to take steps to reclaim the outstanding monies from Rangers and to bring forward legislative proposals to prevent clubs and companies sidestepping their liabilities through liquidation and then carrying on trading with effectively the same name and in exactly the same business.”

Of course, Galloway’s words look written in the kind of anger one would expect of a Rangers hater, but they also show a distinct lack of understanding of business, and raise several questions. Why for instance, is Galloway concerned about such a sum owing, when High Street retailers and firms who have recovered from Administration via the Newco route haven’t attracted his attention? Why the sudden interest?

What about “GAME”?

The High Street Shop, was rescued from Administration by OpCapita through a Newco route, owing over £180M to creditors, and created under a firm created for acquisitions by OpCapita in 2011

https://www.duedil.com/company/07837246/game-retail-limited

If Galloway is that concerned about public money, why no mention of Game? Why not pay all of his expenses out of his own salary, or gift his £1.4M flat to Shelter?

He could also question why HMRC’s pursuit of Rangers forced the Oldco corporate entity in to Liquidation, with the “Big Tax Case” that hung over the club nullifying their ability to raise the kind of sums that could put them on an even keel, or how the corporate governance of Rangers, the SPL and the SFA wasn’t strong enough to stop the club being raped by Craig Whyte.

Galloway has ensured that he has far more freedoms than many public figures through his various libel actions, which have afforded him a licence to silence many political commentators through fear of legal action.

The problem with his creating such a persona though, and such a reputation for being litigious, is when his own claims or rejections of allegations are not backed up by legal action, people start believing the allegations.

One might wonder if it is at all possible that an MP can be assaulted in an international airport by a baying “sectarian” mob, under the most comprehensive CCTV system in the country, yet no one can be arrested?

http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/top-stories/galloway-tells-of-mob-attack-1-1320305

Are the Police really so incompetent that they cannot protect public servants, are they part of some conspiracy, or has Galloway got a vivid imagination?

One should also note, that the litigious Mr Galloway also has not sued Jemima Khan over her claims of him converting to Islam at a ceremony more than 10 years ago.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/apr/26/george-galloway-jemima-khan-muslim

If someone isn’t telling the truth, then why hasn’t that been clarified in a court of law?

The irony here is that the current consensus of thought on the management of Rangers EBT’s was that there were administrative errors and oversights, but that their operation was both legal, and fully declared to the authorities, while Galloway is apparently no stranger to Administrative errors of his own. Surely of all people, Galloway should sympathise?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9194168/George-Galloways-Viva-Palestina-could-be-removed-from-Charity-Commissions-register.html

Lastly for today, the Sunday Mail’s report yesterday about the Forces reeked of a complete stitch up.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/rangers-remembrance-day-parade-branded-1558062

It seems that whoever was offended by Rangers support for the Forces, has such strong morals that they will write a complaint, then leak the answer to a tabloid rag in an attempt to give Rangers negative publicity.

If the complaint was a genuine one, they would not have sold their story to a tabloid.

Luckily, Rangers responded with a statement, but the shame is that the naïve service head allowed himself to be stitched up in such a fashion

http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/3228-club-statement

One can only hope that the decision makers within the forces are not so naïve when they throw our hero soldiers and sailors in to battle.

Bill

WP Archives April 12: Glasgow – The Toughest Gig

Posted on April 26, 2012 by williampoole

The following article was published on the 26th April when The Telegraph ridiculed the alleged threat to C4s Alex Thompson.

Thompson, in a fit of anger, made some calls, and The Telegraph pulled it and apologised.

Yesterday, The Telegraph published an update on the “case”, as a footnote to one of Roddy Forsythe’s hatchet jobs on Rangers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/rangers/9357195/Rangers-problem-dumped-on-laps-on-Scottish-Football-League-clubs.html

It seems that Forsyth hasn’t liked the cut of the arrogant Thompson’s jib.

So, with it now confirmed there is no threat, despite an almost desperate wish from Thompson to get one with his continual baiting of the Rangers support, it is now time for me to republish my blog post.

……………..

When I was growing up, my mother and father used to regale me with the legends of the Glasgow audience, and how the stars of yesteryear used to roll in to Glasgow with an ego the size of The Apollo, and leave broken by the harsh Glasgow audience.

In a perverse way, Glaswegians have always been proud of this ability to act as judge and jury on any act.

As I got older I thought the Glasgow audience had mellowed, and allowed several talentless cretins to go about their business in public, without so much of a heckle.

Well those days are over my friends, and the Glasgow audience has found it’s modern day ego to crash, in the shape of narcissist Channel 4 news reporter Alex Thomson.

I wrote previously about Thomson being a useful idiot for others manipulating him, and wrote that his credibility was sliding

http://williampoole.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/useful-idiots/

As I wrote about the “assault” claims not covered by the fake tweet also being questionable, I fully expected that he would raise a concern with the Police, and the enquiry would die a death as is does with normal people who report a suspected crime with little detail.

What I didn’t count on would be the media wanting a follow up, in order that they could write some story about a big bad Rangers fan threatening a defenceless reporter.

When they followed it up, they were told, presumably what Thomson was told, that it was laughable.

The Telegraph reported:

Meanwhile Strathclyde Police have dropped an investigation into a complaint by the chief correspondent of Channel 4 news, Alex Thomson, that he had been threatened physically by other journalists after arriving in Glasgow to cover the story. In a blog entry that was widely repeated in newspapers and such media sites as UK Press Gazette, Thomson wrote: “What I didn’t expect were the insults (and in at least one case, a direct physical threat) not from fans but from Scottish journalists. Sarajevo, Mogadishu, Kabul, Islamabad, Tripoli, Baghdad… I could bore you with more – in none of these places have I ever got this interesting reaction from local journalists. Only in Glasgow.”

However, Strathclyde Police found no evidence to support Thomson’s complaint. “Frankly, it was laughable,” a source told Telegraph Sport.

So, Thomson has built a career on credibility by reporting on the front line from all these war torn cities, then had it smashed in Glasgow, after his evidence was rendered “laughable”

I’m told that he has spent the last week baiting Rangers fans on Twitter, in what appears to be a calculated attempt to goad one or two in to threatening him.

It’s sad to watch, as Thomson tries desperately to try and recover some credibility

It’s also predictable. From the day he stood outside Auchenhowie challenging Rangers fans on camera to support Celtic when Rangers go out of business it’s been patently obvious what his game was.

There has been an agenda at work since day one, and it has been exposed.

Thomson has been found out, and he has his own stupidity to thank for it.

If he wasn’t all over twitter and blogging about the “threats”, he wouldn’t have had to report them and be left looking very very silly.

I used to be warned as a kid daily not to get in to a bad crowd, and to think for myself.

If Thomson’s mother has done the same, she’ll be upset now at her son throwing away all the years of toil and effort in doing just that. Listening or giving any credibility to maniacs such as Matt McGlone or Phil Something

 I could get used to the Glasgow audience chewing up and spitting out talentless cretins.

 When’s the next Spiers gig?

Bill

Update: I have been made aware that Thomson has now resorted to comparing Ally McCoist to war criminals, in a crude effort to deflect attention from himself on to McCoist, and most probably to continue to bait Rangers supporters.

I suspect it will be more likely to bait Mr McCoist’s lawyers

http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/21st-century-rules-applied-rangers/1302

 Bill

WP Archives April 12: Useful Idiots

For many years Rangers supporters have labelled Graham Spiers “The Useful Idiot”.

He served his purpose well over the years to the agenda led schemers in the Scottish media, almost always complying with this or that agenda.

His track record of disgraceful comments about Rangers includes disgusting comments about heroes Bill Struth, Davie Cooper and Jock Wallace.

His negative comments about the Rangers support could fill this whole blog. If you are a Rangers fan you will be well aware of his hatred for our club.

Spiers has always given himself extra licence to attack the support by continually reminding his readers or listeners of his Protestant background, or the fact he “used to support Rangers as a kid”. At the weekend on Twitter he claimed to stop supporting the club 25 years ago. 1987 really would have been a strange time for any Rangers supporter to turn his back on the club. After all 1987 was the year that the excitement and investment of the Holmes/Souness revolution resulted in the first league championship for 9 years.

We all know Spiers is not your normal football fan but any supporter from that era knows for sure that Spiers is either a weirdo or a liar, or possibly both.

We are always given the impression that his decision to stop supporting Rangers was a moral decision.
Strangely, when Celtic fans displayed the worst case of racism ever witnessed in Scottish football just months later in january 1988 at Rangers player Mark Walters, it didn’t start a campaign from Spiers against the Celtic support.

Nor when in the early 90s it became apparent that Celtic had covered up 20 years of child abuse at Celtic boys club by Jim Torbett.

Clearly these two issues required the very morality of Celtic Football Club and it’s supporters to be questioned.

That’s not to mention the continual vocal support for the IRA from the supporters of said club.

When Spiers wrote a disparaging article about Davie Cooper on the Saturday before a Rangers v Motherwell cup final known as “The Cooper Cup Final”, it became patently obvious to even the most gullible bear from the era that Spiers had never been a Rangers fan. You’d think therefore that this cosy arrangement whereby Spiers writes in the football section about anything other than the actual game to please his masters would last forever.

Wrong.

While Spiers is still used and abused by the mentally ill Phil O’Gorman, or whatever he is calling himself this week, the schemers know that Spiers just doesn’t have the credibility any more to get the message across to anyone with any intellect. Years and years of errors, laziness and complacency have put paid to that.

So, the agenda schemers from the East have been scouring the planet for another useful idiot, albeit one who appears to have some credibility, and a brass neck that won’t see him made a fool of any time he gets in to debate.

According to blogger David Leggat, the next journo to be approached by a group of activists including Phil Whatshisname and Matt McGlone was veteran BBC journalist Hugh Pym, who politely declined.

I’d have thought Republican Roy Greenslade would fit the bill, but perhaps he would have been too obvious a choice.

So, up stepped Channel 4′s Alex Thomson. Thomson, the Oxbridge educated war correspondent who has reported from the ground in Afghanistan, The Balkans and Africa looked to be real coup.

Until he swung in to action, like a fourth rate stand in for John Wayne.
His first report promised much but delivered nothing other than the sordid spectacle of him bullying an old man for old news (Hugh Adam).

His second report saw him bullying an incompetent and very uncomfortable looking Stewart Regan. It must have been “So far, so good” then, as the agenda schemers clearly wanted a bully with no scruples.
Unfortunately it then started to go downhill.

Thomson broadcast to Channel 4 viewers at the end of March that it had been two years since David Murray owned Rangers, when, as Leggat pointed out, it was nine months.

He had previously stated he bought a ticket at £30 for the recent Old Firm game and sat in the Rangers end. On his blog his “photographic” evidence was taken from the Celtic end. The ticket should have cost £42. Did he lie or is he just stupid?
Then we come to his latest embarrassment.

Since his first visit to Glasgow Thomson had claimed that a local journalist had physically threatened him, after taking umbrage to Thomson’s claims that Glasgow’s sports hacks were lazy and afraid of asking the difficult questions.

The ultimate irony is that Thomson had been consulting Graham Spiers, who has written match reports from his living room and written copy for press conferences he has not attended. Not doing background checks on the credibility of sources is also a huge mistake.

That’s not to mention the continuing dialogue with McGlone and Phil Gillisomething, who spend every waking hour on an agenda against Rangers.

Of course Thomson has already been manipulated to broadcast republican Propaganda in the form of a documentary on “Bloody Sunday” some years back. Of course Thomson claims in public never to have met Macsomethingorother, although I am informed that there is a strange coincidence of both Phil and Alex living in Belfast at the same time in the late 1990s. What a coincidence.

So, what of the claims of a threat?

As time has gone by, without any formal complaint to the Police, no one being charged and no one being named, Thomson started being challenged on Twitter by both Rangers fans and Celtic fans to name, shame and press charges.

Thomson then promised to reveal all on a Radio Clyde phone in, and provide evidence of said threat of physical violence

What followed was probably the biggest embarrassment of the lot, and an error symptomatic of sheer laziness and trust in a group of manipulative liars.

Thomson went on Radio Clyde and quoted a threat via the medium of Twitter by a fake account in the name of David Leggat. The Twitter handle @LeggoisBlotto really should have given the game away that it wasn’t Leggat.

A Quick look on Celtic Minded confirmed that the account was set up by a user called “MK Ultra”, who also Tweeted as Leebowers.

As far as I can see, references to both accounts on Celtic Minded have been deleted in a desperate attempt to cover the tracks of said person, who clearly doesn’t want people to know a) he was behind both accounts, and b) that the fake Leggat account threatened Thomson.

I also understand that any posts on Celtic Minded that include such detail were chopped last night.

So, the much talked about threat to Thomson as it stands amounts to a tweet from a fake account set up by a user of Celtic Minded.

That Thomson was taken in by such a move without verifying its validity is yet more evidence of an apparently credible journalist being lazy, gullible, and far from the thorough journalist he would have us believe

Of course, with his credibility in tatters this morning, Thomson is still claiming that he has further evidence of threats which he will take to the police

Can he be believed though? Has he thoroughly checked his evidence, and its source? Do his claims have enough credibility to secure a successful prosecution?

I’m not a betting man but wouldn’t recommend putting your money on it.

Thomson is losing credibility faster than Neil Lennon can run at a referee, and people are already wondering about the credibility of his reports from far flung war torn countries.

If he can be so amateur and prone to error in Glasgow, how can he be trusted to be precise and accurate anywhere else?

If I was Thomson’s boss, the Paisley born Jim Gray of ITN, I would be worrying about the integrity of any report broadcast by Thomson.

Lucky I’m not Jim Gray then, eh Alex?

Bill

WP Archives April 12: Football Club Trading Companies

Posted on April 4, 2012 by williampoole

In the interests of balance in the current climate, I believe the trading arrangements of football clubs is topical.

With Best and Final bids due in to Rangers Administrators’ Duff & Phelps, there is a lot of scaremongering with regards to the possible liquidation of the club by prospective owners.

Like others I find the very prospect very scary indeed.

Indeed, when stories broke that the intention of Chicago’s Club 9 Sports were going to liquidate the club, I was the one of the first to contact Club 9 CEO Jon Pritchett to express my concern at the prospect.

Letting the RST know I’d done so may have been a mistake, as soon Mr Pritchett was avalanched by a number of similar queries, and some abuse from followers of the RST Twitter page.

When Club 9 released a statement last night that they were not bidding for the club, but were part of a consortium, I was again first to ask a question or Mr Pritchett, namely did it then mean that they alone were pulling out or were the rest of the consortium still in.

While the rest of Twitterland (including some “credible” journalists who will remain unnamed) was agreed in the opinion that their statement simply meant they were not bidding alone, and that’s all their statement meant, I believed otherwise.

When my tweet went out, it was picked up on by the Trust, and some time later they tweeted the same question, almost word for word. They also followed it up with an email.

Pritchett soon clarified the position via Twitter, and stated that the consortium as a whole would not be bidding, and effectively confirmed my suspicion. He also sent a reply email to the secretary of the Trust around the same time.

What is interesting though, is that Club 9’s original statement carried a plausible solution to the newco scenario which they stated would preserve the great history of the club

http://www.club9sports.com/uploads/Statement_from_CLUB_9_SPORTS.pdf

Now, I’m no liquidation expert, but there seems to be some merit in there, if the examples used were managed through this process in the same way.

Indeed, a post on Gersnet points to the trading arrangements of Celtic Football Club, and how the trading arrangements of the business and the football club have radically changed (and not just in 1994).

http://www.gersnetonline.co.uk/vb/showthread.php?39968-So-which-Celtic-company-do-we-play-against

“Following last week’s posts about Pacific Shelf 595 Ltd, I have done a little more investigation and have come up with the following:

There are 3 main companies in this discussion:

1. Celtic plc – this company was formed in 1897 and was previously known as “The Celtic Football And Athletic Company Limited”. Its name changed in 1994 to Celtic plc. It was the football club until a restructuring on 15/2/02 when “aspects of (its) trade” were transferred to Celtic F.C Limited . It continues to own the players (ie pays the transfer fees), Celtic Park and the 1/12 share in the SPL.

However its accounts also states that “Celtic F.C. Limited has the main activity of which is the operation of a professional football club.” It admits that the football club IS Celtic F.C Limited.

2. Celtic F.C. Limited – this company was formed in 2001 and was previously HMS (402) Ltd. as mentioned above, it is a professional football club. It receives all the gate money, employs and pays all the wages of the players and other staff. It receives the TV income. It is the company that competes in Europe.

It is also insolvent to the tune of £23 million.

3. The Celtic Football And Athletic Company Limited – This was set up in 1994 and was previously Pacific Shelf 595 Ltd. It is not the football club despite its name. Not much goes through it. It had £80K of turnover in 2010. It was probably set up just to preserve and maintain the old name.

The conclusion is that the football club is Celtic F.C Ltd, a company that was formed in 2001. It won the league in 2002, 2004 and 2006-8, although it seems that the 2002 win was done by 2 separate companies. However the Celtic fans don’t have any problem in acknowledging that season’s league win.

I don’t understand how a company that is not the football club can own players but I don’t know the exact regulations and presumably they are not breaking any rules. Perhaps Whyte was looking at a similar arrangement for Rangers and having Rangers Group owning the players, but the club continues to pay their wages? That’s a scary thought.

The bottom line is that the company that plays Celtic’s games was formed in 2001 and has won the league 5 times. “If you know your history” and all that…. “

Thanks to Frankie at Gersnet for allowing me to quote “Bluedell”.

Now this was posted in February, but it’s very topical now given the multiple scenarios we believe are on the table for Rangers.

The simple question, given Celtic’s trading arrangements, and the fact they are allowed to keep their history, is why can’t Rangers change their trading arrangements in a similar fashion?

Now that’s not a question put like that because it’s my desire, it’s simply to ask the question, in the face of an avalanche of reports from allegedly credible media outlets that Rangers cannot go through the Newco route without losing our history.

It seems to me that it suits Rangers enemies to push this from two angles;

1) Should any buyer choose this route, then severe pressure will be put on the authorities for all of our history to be wiped in one fell swoop

2) The fear factor of this happening will allow the club’s history to remain, but leave Rangers as a shadow of it’s former self until a CVA is cleared, which may take the best part of a decade, by which time Celtic could have moved far closer to our 54 titles.

It really is an anxious time for all bears, but I can only hope and pray that any Newco route will cite the above example of trading arrangements of our closest neighbours for an example of how our club could be structured.

Bill

100 "Fans"

The Sun report this week that “Rangers fans” had bought 100 tickets for the upcoming Dundee Utd versus Rangers match may well be true, but it should emphasise even more that Rangers fans should NOT be buying tickets for this match and should not put one penny more in to Dundee United.

While it may be accurate to state there will be 100 supporters in the away section in the aforementioned match, how can anyone be sure that the supporters are Rangers fans?

If we work on the assumption that those that have purchased said tickets are Rangers supporters, they have not only acted against the wishes of the vast majority of Rangers supporters, but also against the wishes of the club.

They have also just been used by Dundee United in a propaganda war against Rangers. How else would the Sun have concluded that 100 Rangers supporters have bought tickets?

So, just in case it isn’t sinking in how much this club detests Rangers, the ticket sales information mysteriously found its way to the Scottish Sun. How did it get there?

Would it be beyond the realms of possibility that Dundee United,  in an attempt to undermine Rangers’ boycott and to cause friction within the Rangers support leaked it?

They may have failed spectacularly to achieve the former, but they have most certainly succeeded in achieving the latter.

I don’t doubt that some of that 100 will indeed be Rangers fans, but their “loyal” actions have compromised Rangers’ bargaining position, and allowed an enemy of Rangers FC to indulge in some (albeit desperate) one-upmanship that they should never have been allowed to do.

There is no good reason why any Rangers supporter should consider buying tickets for this match.

An unbroken attendance record?

Is it really worth giving power to our enemies, and to go against the wishes of  the vast majority of the support and against the club, for some bragging rights?

Who are you going to brag to?

Most Rangers fans I know would be distinctly unimpressed by such a boast.

Let’s get things clear

The boycott was decided for a reason, and not on hearsay but cold hard fact. Dundee United were central to Rangers being shafted by the SPL last season, and not just when our application to transfer our SPL licence was refused, but also when the rules were changed on Administration and Insolvency events AFTER Rangers entered Administration.

If there was any chance that Rangers would come out of Administration, the risk that they would go back in to Administration was too much for even the hapless Duff and Phelps to consider, with such consequences.

http://sport.stv.tv/football/clubs/rangers/103942-spl-clubs-approve-new-financial-fair-play-rules-after-meeting-at-hampden/

It’s called shifting the goalposts.

Don’t forget, that while it’s easy for Rangers’ detractors to lambast Charles Green for making a stand and stating once and for all that Rangers and our support will no longer prop up those who tried to kill our club during it’s darkest days, and accuse him of over reacting, Green was the one who sat on the other side of the table during weeks of negotiations.

He is also well aware that the SPL knew last October of Rangers financial situation but stood by and did nothing as Rangers slid towards Administration.

He is also aware that the SPL are determined to punish Rangers, with a pre determined punishment of stripping Rangers of SPL titles.

He knows that Dundee United, along with Aberdeen, Celtic and Hibs are central to this ongoing agenda, with a hearing on the SPL’s flawed “investigation” of Rangers due to be heard just a week after the cup tie

Not one Rangers fan should be financing any of these clubs.

If you do so, you are sending out a clear message that Rangers fans are mugs and the club and support should continue to be shafted, as we will just accept whatever anyone chooses to do and continue to line pockets of Rangers’ enemies all over Scotland.

Rangers statement this morning is a subtle message to the support to put the club first, not your own personal attendance record

http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/3155-cup-tie-statement

“The Club would like to remind supporters of the decision not to accept tickets for Tannadice and believe our fans, even those who take pride in following the Club to every match, understand our position.”

I’ve heard these supporters likened to as “scabs”.

That may be offensive, but, in many cases scabs shafted their workmates and compromised their bargaining position in order to put food on the table for their children, as unpalatable as their actions were to their colleagues

Our fans have no such excuse.

So, if you are one of the hundred, this would be the time to privately admit your mistake, bin the ticket, take the financial hit, and ensure that in future your actions are not selfish, but taken in consideration of Rangers the club, and the wider Rangers support

The club needs the support to back it, in order that the club, the team and the support are no longer shafted at every turn. A handful of matches should not be too much of a sacrifice to make to allow the club to strengthen.

This should be the position of ALL Rangers fans with regards to the hate filled four, until they apologise for their actions and are removed from the decision making processes of Scottish Football.

Bill.

2013 – A Year to Focus and Prioritise

As we are now in 2013 it is a good time to look at the year ahead.

2012 was an Annus horribilis for all Rangers fans, and I’m most certainly in the group that is not willing to forgive and forget those who tried to kill our club, but that most certainly does not mean that we can ignore the here and now, and the immediate future.

While I would not recommend anyone to read the ramblings of Channel 4’s Alex Thomson, nor those of Phil 4 Names, their most recent output should act as a jolt to the system for bears who believe that all is rosy, and that the club’s enemies have retreated never to return.

Also, Protestants in both Scotland and Ulster should beware that there are those whose sole purpose is to erode their culture, smear it and wipe it from the rich heritage of our fine nations, and replace it with their own, swept along by propaganda, hatred and revisionism

What we as a collective have to understand is that no matter how often certain hacks and bloggers are shown up to be liars and bigots, they will continue to come back for more, and will not stop until we are as relentless as they are, and until we have completely smashed their network.

That is no mean feat and may take many years, and will take more than just a few well worded statements from Charles Green, or leaks from James Traynor once in position

Graham Spiers, despite being humiliated on live television by Rangers blogger Chris Graham, is still penning his slanted views on Rangers.

Phil Gillivan too, despite being branded sectarian by the Scottish Sun, has stepped up his hatred not just of Rangers, but of active unionists in Ulster and beyond, and is now pushing for RC Exclusivity with regards to the proposed Famine Memorial in Glasgow.

Alex Thomson has laid out in detail what the Scottish Football authorities and HMRC will be attempting to do to Rangers in 2013

Despite the temptation to focus attentions on journos like Thomson and Spiers, their egos are presenting their agenda as if they are setting it, when they are only reflecting the wishes of their acolytes and reaching out to their perceived fan base.

We Rangers fans should be focusing firstly on what these specific agendas are, and secondly how we can fight the agendas. Clearly, we have to do it together, cleverly, and in numbers

What we also need to do is not be distracted from these agendas, towards issues close to the heart of Rangers fans, but not necessarily short term issues that require to be addressed urgently.

So what are these agendas against Rangers, and the wider Protestant communities that we should be aware of?

-The Stripping of titles, and further sanctions by the SFA and SPL – Despite Rangers winning the FTTT

-Sanctions on Rangers from HMRC – It appears now that some sections of the Anti Rangers activist network are now willing to move on from the “Rangers are dead” mantra, and not only accept that Rangers are still the same club, but they wish the new holding corporate identity to pay for the alleged sins of the previous regime(s).  As expected these people are cherry picking sections of the FTTT judgement rather than the ruling itself

-The continued mistreatment of Rangers supporters both at Ibrox and around Scotland by Scotland’s national police force

-The agenda to ensure Glasgow’s proposed Famine memorial is exclusively an Irish Roman Catholic shrine, and not an inclusive memorial. Given that the most commonly used term in council circles is “inclusion”, that should be the objective of all those with a passing interest. Anything other than an inclusive and historically accurate memorial would be based on sectarian values and an insult to all non RCs who perished in the Famine

Of course there are other agendas, and some being pushed by the same people, for instance, the elimination of Orange marches, which will need to be addressed, but for me the issues above are more immediate, and cannot be deferred in favour of anything else.

So, with all due respect, I’ll “pass” on requests to bring back “The Billy Boys”, or anything else that is not immediate, or relevant.

We as a support have a dreadful record in recent years in falling well short of both being pro active, and of being unified, and some of the nonsense that has taken place in the last month or two between sets of Rangers supporters, and by Rangers minded bloggers who cannot handle criticism has been nothing short of disgraceful, when the real enemy is still out there plotting against our club.

This has to stop, before all of the agendas being pursued by our enemies are concluded to their benefit and to our expense.

These fights cannot be won alone by Charles Green. We Rangers supporters need to do our bit.

We need to be relentless and ensure that 2013 is truly the year that Rangers emerge ready to build on the great work done so far by Green, and now the team as it sits top of division three.

We cannot allow any of the great work done by the club to be compromised in the coming months. When we have succeeded in doing so, and there is no reason why we shouldn’t, we should then turn our attention to the issues of the past, and ensure that BDO are driven to punish all who conspired against Rangers in the years leading up to Administration.

Supporting Rangers by buying tickets and merchandise (or investing) is no longer enough.

Hopefully one day it will be, but for now it should only be viewed as one aspect of supporting the club.

Bill.