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SNP hypocrisy over ‘Go Home’ jibe is laughable

By Andy Muirhead

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - APRIL 15: Celtic fans raise a flag prior to the Scottish Cup Semi Final match between Rangers and Celtic at Hampden Park on April 15, 2018 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - APRIL 15: Celtic fans raise a flag prior to the Scottish Cup Semi Final match between Rangers and Celtic at Hampden Park on April 15, 2018 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images) /
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On Tuesday, the Scottish National Party’s leader at Westminster Ian Blackford was abused by Tory backbencher Nicholas Soames MP as he stood to discuss the Brexit fiasco.

Soames, the grandson of Winston Churchill, told Blackford to ‘go back to the Isle of Skye’ – abuse that stunned the SNP politicians who showed their feelings quite clear towards the Tory denouncing his comments.

But while I stand with the SNP on this disgraceful show of abuse from a politician whose party is lurching the country towards chaos, I have to laugh at the SNP’s hypocrisy.

For well over a decade, Celtic fans have been targeted and abused by Rangers fans chanting ‘the famine is over why don’t you go home’ – in relation to Celtic’s close ties with Ireland and in reference to the Irish Potato famine.

Millions of Irish died due to the British Empire fuelling the famine by committing genocide and the forced emigration of millions more.

Yet the SNP which has been in power since 2007 has done little to combat the rise in sectarianism and bigotry – other than implementing the now defunct and discredited Offensive Behaviour in Football Act which targeted ordinary football fans using their right of freedom of expression and did little to curb the sectarian singing and anti-Catholic hatred that emanated primarily from the Rangers support.

In fact, the Act saw the Police target specific fan groups using kettling tactics that are used specifically for crowd control and heavy-handed policing with doors being kicked in as if it was a drugs raid, rather than to arrest someone for singing a song.

In 2009, saw a Rangers fan jailed for singing The Famine Song and despite appealing his conviction, Lord Carloway ruled that the song was racist and his conviction for breach of the peace, aggravated by religious and racial prejudice stood.

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND – OCTOBER 01: Neil Lennon manager of Celtic looks on prior to the UEFA Champions League Group H match between Celtic and FC Barcelona at Celtic Park Stadium on October 1, 2013 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND – OCTOBER 01: Neil Lennon manager of Celtic looks on prior to the UEFA Champions League Group H match between Celtic and FC Barcelona at Celtic Park Stadium on October 1, 2013 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images) /

Former Celtic and current Hibernian manager Neil Lennon has been the target of sectarian hate and violence ever since he signed for the Parkhead side in 2000. The Northern Irish Catholic has been subjected to physical assaults on Glasgow’s streets and has been attacked on the touchline by a Hearts fan who was disgracefully cleared of assaulting the then-Celtic manager after an Edinburgh Sheriff Court jury the case against him not proven – despite a wealth of footage [broadcast worldwide] showing the assault clearly.

Lennon was also the target of two Rangers fans who sent bullets and homemade bombs through the post to him and other prominent Celtic supporters.

This season Lennon once again was targeted with sectarian abuse by Rangers and Hearts fans again with the leading Scottish anti-sectarian and anti-racism charities failing to make a statement in support of him altogether.

An article on Commonspace, quoted a 2017 survey by Show Racism the Red Card Scotland which ‘reported 56% of respondents had experienced anti-Irish racism, while 60% had witnessed instances of anti-Irish racism’.

It also highlighted that around 93% said they had not reported the incidents to Police Scotland.

We live in a modern society, in 21st Century Scotland and yet there are elements who are living in the 17th century freely abusing and attacking people because of their faith and perceived faith based on the football club they support – all the while the SNP merely pay lip service when the cameras are shoved in their faces or when an election approaches.

Our game is stained with the sectarianism and bigotry that is on show every single week and with the SPFL and Scottish FA doing nothing to punish clubs – due to their own rules – the SNP themselves either remain silent or throw a few more quid to organisations that do little to comment on the majority of instances of bigotry, sectarianism and racism – picking and choosing who to support and when to issue statements over.

So while I am disgusted by the comments of Nicholas Soames MP – who is following in the racist footsteps of his grandfather – I for one can only laugh at the SNP’s outrage when they do little to curb the racism, sectarianism and bigotry that many face every single day in Scotland.

This weekend will see such hate-filled songs being belted out at McDiarmid Park as Rangers visit St.Johnstone and once again Scotland’s politicians will remain silent on the matter or worse still praise the fans for their behaviour despite tens of thousands belting out their bile.

Why should I take my son and daughter to football games in Scotland? Why should they be subjected to hate-filled sectarian and bigoted bile because of the team they support and over their religious beliefs?

Can the SNP answer me that once they have come off their pedestal pointing their fingers at Soames?

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