Craig Mather Shows He Can Talk As Much Rubbish For #Rangers As Messrs Green and Whyte!

The CEO of Rangers, Craig Mather, released the following statement yesterday. I thought it was worthy of some comment which might enlighten him.

It is good to see that the recent history of Rangers CEOs talking complete and utter nonsense in an effort to ingratiate themselves with the fans continues. It provides a continuing source of material for me to write about!

Mr Mather has a hard act to follow in that both Mr Whyte and Mr Green were not averse to bunkum and poppycock, but, perhaps with the help of Communications Director James Traynor, Mr Mather has leapt straight into the stratospheric heights of baloney attained by his predecessors.

Daily Mail Wrongly Castigates “Human Rights” and “Travellers” in Article re Stolen Caravan

The good old Daily Mail never ceases to disappoint. Each day it shows that it is in fact a very clever spoof newspaper, seeking to poke fun at the prejudices of some of its readers. After all, the alternative, namely that the editorial line of the Mail is genuine and that it means what it says is too horrible to contemplate.

As well as the BBC being a target for Mail disapproval, readers might perceive that the paper also does not like those perceived to be “non-British”. I would never accuse the Mail of racism, so please do not take that implication from what I say. However I can see how a misguided soul could take that impression from some of its articles.

On Monday the Mail published a piece which is now under the headline:-

“Police won’t hand stolen caravan back to couple to protect human rights of the travellers living in it”.

The headline originally referred to “gypsies” and not travellers. At some point over the last day or so that has been changed. Sense prevailing perhaps?

Daily Mail Human Rights Nonsense Part 2 – This Time from Chris Grayling

I wrote last about the nonsense from the Daily Mail’s columnist Max Hastings about the verdict of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in connection with the application by three convicted murderers challenging the practice in England and Wales of imposing life sentences where there was no prospect of release. The so-called “whole life tariff” was determined by the Court to be in breach of the murderers’ human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (“the Convention”).

This prompted various outpourings of rubbish from newspapers and politicians. Much of the comment was undoubtedly ill-informed, rather than being deliberately twisted to suit political purposes. Ignorance of the issues is slightly more excusable than deliberate misrepresentation of the decision.

The piece I quote in full below is (a) an example of a politician in the media talking nonsense and (b) almost certainly a deliberate misrepresentation. I say “almost certainly” as the writer in question, unlike every one of his predecessors for the last 300 years, has not got a legal training and therefore, being charitable, one must keep in mind the chance that he simply does not understand the verdict.

Daily Mail Prints Nonsense re European Court of Human Rights – Part 1 – Max Hastings

The Daily Mail is not my favourite newspaper, even though there are many people who do like it. It has a “Little Englander” attitude which grates on the nerves and has a clear list of “villains” who it regularly castigates as representative of the evils which bedevil the United Kingdom/England today.

In the words of Dermot O’Leary, “in no particular order”, they include:-

• Tony Blair;
• The BBC;
• Foreigners;
• Politicians who are not Conservatives;
• “Europe”;
• The BBC;
• Benefit claimants scroungers;
• Female celebrities who look fat (or who, to a more rational mind, look human);
• Lindsey Lohan;
• Trades Unions;
• Banks;
• Companies which do not pay taxes;
• Supporters of Scottish independence;
• Cherie Blair;
• Irish Nationalist politicians;
• Muslims; (Whilst clearly the Mail cannot hate or fear every follower of Islam, they only seem to get mentioned in the paper in the context of terrorism and destruction of the “British way of life”).
• Judges;
• The BBC. (The Mail really does not like the BBC).

It was therefore not a surprise to see the Mail’s reaction to the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in relation to the application by three prisoners sentenced to “whole life” tariffs for murder.

Vince Cable Looks For Good Press By “Interfering” In Criminal Investigation re RBS and Ignoring Devolution

Vince Cable is the Business Secretary at Westminster. He is a Lib Dem. He has been an MP for a long time, so, one would assume, actually knows something about the constitution.

Mr Cable is a silly man.

However he seems to have decided, in one fell swoop, to forget about the separation of powers and about the independence of the prosecution system. He also seems a bit clueless regarding devolution

The BBC reports today :-

Business Secretary Vince Cable has written to the Scottish legal authorities urging a rapid decision on whether to prosecute former directors of Royal Bank of Scotland.

Mr Cable said the matter had been referred to them in January last year.

He said he was very keen for a decision to be reached as quickly as possible to maintain public confidence.