Get on yer bike
Beijing style, and
remember the kitchen sink
Alison Prince
TT racing on Arran?
John Cameron
I remember reading with a sense of foreboding in 2008 that ‘the smartest guy ever to become president’ was about to transform America into a liberal utopia. Clearly history is not the left-wing media’s strong suite since Barack Obama is hardly in the same league as such intellectual giants as Jefferson, Adams, Wilson and Hoover.
As regards the statist paradise where wealth is spread evenly among those who labour and those who live off the fruits of such labour – that is still some way off.
The idea that government can bail-out, regulate, direct and stimulate a nation into prosperity has pretty much been tested to destruction and cost the US some $5 trillion.
Learning that government cannot create wealth and a private sector drowning in green taxes and red tape cannot kick-start recovery has also been costly on this side of the pond. The ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protesters and their imitators in London make the 1970s ‘Me Generation’ look altruistic and their sole contribution so far has been to take up space.
To give them their due, that is their métier and they have been occupying college space for years without acquiring the skills that might fit them to contribute to the economy.
Now returned to ‘occupy’ their old family bedrooms, they have come to present both nations with a list of demands starting with the cancellation of all student debt. In pursuit of pretendy degrees in pretendy subjects at pretendy universities and the acquiring of mind-altering substances, bills of £40,000 have been run up which they want us to pay.
Wall Street occupiers also demand a ‘living wage’ of $20 per hour, bestowed whether or not the recipient chooses to work – which, we are informed, is yet another human right. This is accompanied by a demand for open borders and all the usual railing against big oil, capitalists, global warming, genetically modified foods, nuclear power and Israel.
Having from infancy denied their mothers access to clean their rooms, the occupiers have naturally prevented New York workers from cleaning the encampment in Zuccotti Park. In their favour it must be admitted that they are making attempts at getting rid of their refuse by the age-old protestor method of throwing bags of garbage at the police.
Even my liberal American friends ask, ‘Where is Mayor Richard Daley when you need him?’ but 21st-century Democrats openly embrace this ‘I want handouts!’ coalition.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi warbled, ‘God bless them for their spontaneity. It’s young, focused and it will be effective’. I am not sure that’s exactly great news.
The hidden politics of
why Rangers sent the
BBC off the park
Alasdair McKillop
Rangers Football Club announced yesterday that it was withdrawing co-operation with the BBC due to what it perceived to be repeated instances of institutional bias against the club. The decision generated massive interest among fans posting on the popular ‘Followfollow’ message board, most of it supportive of the stance taken by the club. The robust statement announcing the withdrawal referred to ‘instances where the BBC’s reporting on the club’s affairs has been neither accurate or fair’.
Unfortunately the statement did not provide examples of such instances. It did, however, remind readers that the BBC has already fallen foul of the club this season by seriously misrepresenting Ally McCoist’s views on sectarianism and violence. Arguably this episode did not garner the wider attention it deserved. Someone at the BBC deliberately edited the footage of a press conference with the Rangers manager to make it appear that he thought these matters trivial, something worth laughing about.
McCoist has been consistently vocal in his denunciation of sectarianism and other bad behaviour associated with the supporters of the club. This was rather shameful and the club rightly severed ties with its near neighbour at Pacific Quay until an apology had been received. The BBC might have been wise to recognise that they were on thin ice with the club after this episode.
In addition, fans might point to Nicky Campbell speculating that John Wilson – the fan who was accused of attacking Neil Lennon at Tynecastle during a Celtic-Hearts game – could have been a Rangers supporter in disguise. They might also draw attention to a tweet by BBC producer Phil McGarvey that coincided with the break-up of the American music group REM and a Rangers defeat. The tweet read: ‘ooh, tough day for REM loving Rangers fans, Orange Crushed’. This drew the ire of elements of the Rangers support because ‘orange crushed’ has been used in a derogatory manner to refer to the victims of the Ibrox disaster.
These incidents, all of which occurred within the last six months, provide the background to this week’s action and help to explain why the move has garnered such widespread acclaim amongst a support that has long yearned for an administration that will forcefully stand up for them and the interests of the club itself.
Those fans applauding the move by the club might wish to pause and consider some of the timing and motivation issues it raises. First, it came the day after John Greig and John McClelland resigned as non-executive directors. Greig in particular was a revered figure among Rangers fans, a man who had been involved with the club for decades as a player, manager and in a number of administrative roles. More importantly, as media reports identified, he represented a link to a past made to appear all the more glorious by the mediocrity of the present and the uncertainty of the future.
A statement issued on behalf of the departing duo stated that since the takeover they had been ‘excluded from participating in corporate governance at the club’. Translated: Craig Whyte wasn’t talking to us. For the new owner – who is still to convince many Rangers fans of his suitability to run the club – this was a serious PR slip. Furthermore, the coolness from those currently running the club about the exit of Greig could be considered an undignified way to treat a man who has a record of dedicated service.
Many Rangers fans have been eager for more information about the man
at the helm of their club and the financial difficulties he is charged with addressing.
A report on Monday’s Newsnight Scotland looked at the resignation of the two directors. It came across as an extended and slightly amateurish – apparently those behind the programme couldn’t source a picture of former Rangers chairman Alastair Johnston – trailer for a BBC Scotland programme on Thursday night. The message, however, was clear: Rangers are in trouble and, if our graphics don’t convince you, then surely the emotion-manipulating soundtrack will. It is not inconceivable that it was the broadcasting of this report that prompted the Rangers statement on Tuesday.
Second, the news arrived on the same day that former director Donald McIntyre won his legal bid to have the Court of Session in Edinburgh freeze £300,000 of the club’s assets pending a breach of contract court case, mirroring a previous decision in the case of former chief executive Martin Bain. Leaving aside the issue of wealthy men suing the club they apparently support at a time when it is in financial distress, the decision would have further exacerbated fears about the ability of the club to fulfil future liabilities. If the intention in issuing the BBC statement was to obscure or deflect attention from this development then it was unsuccessful. It merely shared attention with the court decision on BBC Scotland television and radio news bulletins, while the Scotsman gave much greater weight to the implication of the McIntyre victory.
There is a third, perhaps more worrying, consideration that should be borne in mind when thinking about the timing and motivation for this move. The statement reserves its strongest language for a BBC Scotland programme to be broadcast on Thursday, describing it as ‘little more than a prejudiced muckraking exercise’. It was not clear from the statement whether Whyte and others at the club had already seen the programme, but clearly they believed that it would be less than flattering.
BBC Scotland’s business and economy editor, covering the issue on Reporting Scotland, seemed to confirm that Rangers had been sent an advance copy of the programme. A couple of things still need clarification. If this represented the first direct contact between those making the programme and the institution it was investigating, why was the club not offered the opportunity to appear on the programme to address the issues it raised? On the other hand, if the club was invited to contribute, why did it not do so?
Fans will now be predisposed to dismiss the contents of the investigation and this might have been the real intention behind withdrawing co-operation with the BBC. The tone of the statement released by the club suggests it will make grim viewing for those concerned about the future of Rangers. The question is whether it will be an accurate and sobering portrayal or one clouded by institutional bias.
Many Rangers fans have been eager for more information about the man at the helm of their club and the financial difficulties he is charged with addressing. It is ironic that they might be provided with these very things but from a source they distrust. It will certainly be compulsive viewing, though the week’s developments mean we probably won’t know how close we are to the truth about the situation at Rangers.
Alasdair McKillop is a PhD student in history at the University of Edinburgh
