#Glasgow2014

I never thought I would find myself writing about the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony at Celtic Park, but the spectacle last night was one of the most bizarre pieces of both “entertainment” and broadcasting I’ve ever seen.

The aerial shots of Celtic Park by an over excited BBC team, offered a stark reminder that Glasgow City Council have demolished thousands of people’s perfectly good homes over the last 20 years, bringing us to the point that they can enable a vision of a Celtic Village to become reality.

I was half expecting a commentary of “That’s where London Road School use to be, that’s where Janefield Street used to be, that’s where Rangers legend Ian Ferguson was brought up, and that’s where London Road and Springfield Road used to have tenements. They were fully renovated in the 80s, and mysteriously demolished less than a decade later”


Then I woke up, and realised that it was the BBC, so instead we got treated to a helicopter flyover with the BBC’s Chris McLaughlin, who proceeded to fly over all games venues except Ibrox, and tell watching millions that the East End of Glasgow was where millions of Irish famine refugees settled.

Chris, who spent the best part of his sports reporter role in front of Ibrox while reporting on “sectarianism”, somehow couldn’t find Ibrox, despite the helipad being approximately 10 seconds away from the south side home of Scotland’s most successful football team.

Then we had the spectacle of the baton arriving up the Clyde, to the BBC just 5 minutes from Ibrox, and mysteriously appearing at Celtic park at the other end of the city.

Make no mistake, Ibrox was never going to feature on this BBC broadcast

When the actual ceremony started, chins dropped across Scotland as we realised that BBC Scotland must surely have been involved in it too, as Z list BBC celeb Karen Dunbar proved that not only can she not act, she can’t sing either. Perhaps John Barrowman chose her to try and make him look better.

Of course, when the stick started to fly at the twee tartanfest from social media, it wasn’t the appalling Dunbar that took the brunt, but the openly unionist Barrowman. Perhaps that was just a coincidence. Just like someone forgot to put the Celtic FC lights off that kept appearing on the panoramic shots.

As Rod Stewart took to the stage, to be followed by Subo, I decided that perhaps miming isn’t so bad after all.
Rod should stick to Vegas. If they’ll have him.

With Primal Scream set to do the closing ceremony, perhaps the “big” acts all have to be Celtic supporters too.

So, with Rangers fans challenging Glasgow City council over a stunning set of questionable decisions and transactions, the organisers of the £600M games had the brass neck to ask viewers to donate to charity, from a football field being replaced at a cost of £1.8M after the games. You couldn’t make this up.

In any other country the locals would be rioting. In this country we meekly accept it and buy in to the hype. If James McAvoy isn’t ashamed to stand in Celtic Park asking us to put Children First, we should be embarrassed that no-one in this country will mention both the costs of the games, and the fact McAvoy is standing in a ground of a football club that covered up the sexual abuse of children for two decades

Then we have Alex Salmond grandstanding despite claiming the games were not to be politicised, claiming Glasgow will be Freedom City after September.
News for you Alex, we became free 324 years ago.

Straight after Salmond came Glasgow City Council’s favourite Linn Park dog walker Gordon Matheson, who did his best to sound like a Glaswegian Ned Dalek. Ed Milliband must have looked on and despaired at this performance, which included a veiled Irish Republican reference that “our day has come”.

We truly have the most vile politicians possible in Scotland.

So, with the low lights out of the way, it’s on to the highlights, with the Queen enjoying a rousing rendition of the national anthem, and the red Arrows billowing their trademark red, white and blue trails.

With the highlights out of the way, we find out today that numerous nationalists and republicans are incensed at the National Anthem getting an outing at Celtic Park, and that the Red Arrows ignored nationalist intervention to ditch the red smoke.

It is clear indeed that Scotland is at a crossroads. The vast majority of the good people of Scotland don’t deserve to have these people dictating everything in our lives.
Once the referendum is out of the way, and the Nationalists implode, it’s up to us, the majority, to ensure that this low place we find ourselves at is ground zero, and we start to change this country from the ground up.

Bill