CELTIC AND THE LIVING WAGE By JohnBhoy

Brother Walfrid’s Resolution

Brother Walfrid created Celtic football club in 1888 as a funding conduit to lessen poverty in the east end of Glasgow: “A football club will be formed for the maintenance of dinner tables for the children and the unemployed.” Poverty, in whatever shape or form, was abhorrent to Brother Walfrid’s innate sense of decency. It is this core value that runs through our very veins and has been the beating heart of the Celtic diaspora, passed down from one generation to the next. We are a family because we care for each other and for those less fortunate than ourselves. For that, we are indebted to Brother Walfrid. At Celtic’s AGM, in this our celebratory 125th anniversary year, Celtic turned its back on Brother Walfrid when it rejected Resolution 11.

The demand set out in Resolution 11 was one that could have been penned by Brother Walfrid himself: that Celtic – and I do not separate club from company because we are one and the same, legally and morally – pay their low-paid workers an hourly rate that lifts them above the poverty threshold. Brother Walfrid’s Poverty Resolution, for that is what it was, fell on deaf ears and was defeated. Stunned silence does not convey the shock of that decision.

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CATHOLICS AND SECTARIAN CRIME: “HARDLY VICTIMS”? By JohnBhoy – Part 2

This post follows on from yesterday’s by JohnBhoy where he sought to debunk and refute Steerpike’s comments previously. You can read part 1 here.

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ANALYSIS: CLAIM 2 –

Catholics are “hardly victims”

Steerpike also claimed that Catholics are “hardly victims” of religious prejudice. His “stats” compared one religion against another in an ugly equation of blame. Etween Catholics and Protestants. Unfortunately to dispel his “stats” it is also necessary to compare and contrast the relative attacks of religious prejudice using the same two protagonists in his comparative relationship. However, there will be no blame attached to either Catholics or Protestants. Where there is religious prejudice against Catholics and Protestants then they are both victims.

Catholics formed 16% of the population in Scotland so one would expect that 16% of the sectarian crime would fall on (the same number of) Catholics. Using the 2011-2012 Scottish government figures on this type of crime we can see that there were 876 sectarian crimes. In line with statistical expectations, one would anticipate that Catholicism would suffer 16% of those crimes: 16% of 876 = 140. Yet Catholicism was targeted on 509 occasions, rather than the expected 140, 3.63 times more than expected. That represents 58% of the sectarian crime in 2011-2012.

CATHOLICS AND SECTARIAN CRIME: “HARDLY VICTIMS”? By JohnBhoy – Part 1

Steerpike, a fellow poster on Random Thoughts Re Scots Law, made a number of claims about Catholics and sectarianism. No one is accusing Steerpike of deliberately misinterpreting the data on sectarianism but what you are about to witness is the public demolition of Steerpike’s position, as it is dismantled piece by piece, until it lies in an incoherent heap and is confined to where it belongs: in the bin.

CLAIMS BY STEERPIKE

Steerpike makes two claims:

1. That “the stats don’t lie, 16% of the population carry out 40% of sectarian crime”; and
2. Catholics are “hardly victims”.

I will show both these statements to be false (he also makes a subsidiary claim that “it is Catholics who are more likely to victimize a Protestant than the other way round”, but this is dependent on his first claim being true).

It’s Free Speech Jim (Spence), But Not As We Know It – Rangers v BBC – Guest Post By JohnBhoy

An event has occurred that should prove a second watershed in the history of Rangers FC. The first turning point introduced the lexicon of business insolvency into the sporting arena, under the tombstone headed LIQUIDATION; the second pivotal moment is no less seismic. The orchestrated campaign by The Rangers and their fans to formally complain about Jim Spence of BBC Scotland Sportsound ought to have but one ending: the formal announcement by a pillar of the establishment – the BBC – on the status of Rangers FC.

Let us recap. Jim Spence had the temerity on BBC Scotland Sportsound to voice a view, not necessarily his own, that the current club plying its trade at Ibrox is not the same club pre and post liquidation. On the 4th September Jim uttered the immortal line: “John McClelland who was the chairman OF THE OLD CLUB, some people will tell you the club, well, THE CLUB THAT DIED, possibly coming back in terms of the new chairman…” This caused outrage amongst Rangers fans who, encouraged by Chris Graham, immediately complained to the BBC. The Rangers website issued a “Club Statement”, wherein they disclosed that they have instructed “Rangers’ lawyers to write to the BBC Trust” to ensure that “uses of the terms ‘new’ and ‘old'” are not used when referring to Rangers.

FOOTBALL IS WORTH DEFENDING PART II: IN DEFENCE OF #RANGERS By JohnBhoy

There are two sides to every story. The first side I detailed in my earlier guest post “Football Is Worth Defending”. This is the second side, in defence of Rangers. This post is not an analysis of Rangers i.e. it is not an attempt to critique what is good and bad about Rangers. Instead, like my previous post, it is one-sided but with one simple condition:  if I had to write down what is good about Rangers what would I say? Here it is.

What has Rangers contributed to the world of football? In reality, a great deal. To begin with, Rangers has given us players of sublime ability that could only have come from the Gods. Legends such as Bob McPhail, Jim Baxter, Willie Henderson, Davie Cooper, Ian Durrant, Ally McCoist, Paul Gascoigne and Andy Goram easily trip off the tongue; and then there is John Greig: their captain who played with his heart in one hand and his opponents testicles in the other.