Shameful ignorance of Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill
Despite repeated sectarian chants from Rangers supporters, including one supposedly banned by the SFA, the out of touch minister claimed that the fans ‘contributed to a memorable occasion’ and referred to ‘their positive example inside the ground’.
Speaking to the BBC MacAskill claimed: “This was the showpiece final everyone wanted to see, and it was a great advert for Scottish football.
“Both teams were passionate, committed and it was end to end stuff from kick off to the final whistle.
“The players, management and fans contributed to a memorable occasion, and I urge that their positive example inside the ground is replicated outside it over the course of the evening and beyond.”
The MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh can’t claim ignorance to the chants clearly heard on television and radio throughout the match.
In 1999 he missed Scotland’s 1-0 victory over England at Wembley whilst being held in police custody under suspicion of being drunk and disorderly on the day on the match.
Previously he had once referred to the England football team as “the great Satan” during a party conference speech.
Following Celtic 1-0 Scottish Cup win over Rangers earlier this month the SNP decided to call a summit involving both clubs, the police and football authorities.
After the summit the Justice Minister said: “It was encouraging to see so many positive proposals coming out of the summit but it is vital that we turn words into action.
“That is what this group is all about and this was an extremely productive first meeting. All parties involved have now set out a plan of action to drive forward work to develop these proposals and the Group will report back with recommendations before the start of the new season.”
Celtic director and former Labour MP Brian Wilson rightly viewed the ‘summit’ as an opportunity to make political capital.
He said: “A summit in response to a football match makes great headlines, big headlines, big dramas when there’s an election coming up in a few weeks. I don’t know what the motives precisely were, but I do not believe that it is addressing sectarianism or the ills of Scottish society to hold that sort of event.
“I think that the way Alex Salmond should be judged is: what’s he actually done about sectarianism over the past four years? Has he maintained the initiatives that were there when he came in? I’m not sure that he has.”
Sunday’s events went largely unchallenged but the sports editor of The Times, Tony Evans, found the chanting from the Rangers support a sickening throwback to the darker ages of Scottish football.
On Monday he wrote: “Yesterday they were dipping farther into the past, but the soundtrack of 2011 has even more sinister undercurrents.The “Famine Song” harks back to the Irish potato blight of 1845, which led to mass emigration and the death of one million people.
“Sung to the tune of the Beach Boys’ Sloop John B, it asks of the Roman Catholic population of western Scotland: “The famine is over, why don’t you go home?” This is how things move on in the Old Firm fixture.”
The voters of Edinburgh East and Musselburgh will have the opportunity to question their MSP on the memorable occasion he enjoyed at Hampden before going to the polls on May 5.
Walter Smith warns referee over very dangerous decision
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