MY old mate Tom English has penned a very good piece in today's Scotsman, in which he deconstructs wonderfully the politicos' take on yesterday's Old Firm Summit in St Andrew's House.
Tom cuts to the chase with a what they said/what they meant piece. Mind you, my attitude to politics is the same as that put forward by the late Peter Cook on a BBC radio election night special: Don't vote - it only encourages them.
Of course the Old Firm has a few nutters among its massed following. Certainly we could argue from now till Judgement Day as to which half is better or worse, but, for all that, they are NOT to blame for all of Scottish society's ills.
That said, however, the clubs could do more to help themselves.
Just suppose Rangers said: "We are a Scottish football team - therefore, the only flags you will be allowed to wave will be Saltires or Lion Rampants, anything else, we will take them off you".
In response Celtic say: "While mindful of the club's Irish heritage, we are a Scottish club, we have been since 1888, so the only flags we will allow our fans to display are Saltires or Lion Rampants".
With modern technology, clubs can pinpoint where singing is originating; so they could immediately pinpoint the source of the party songs. One offence, warning, second offence, short suspension, third offence - banned.
This would in particular force the supporters clubs to self-police and drive out the nutters and would in particular silence the serial offenders in the clubs' away support.
But, the clubs' first stop has to be their own dressing rooms, insisting on a zero tolerance approach to players' self-discipline. I think maybe EHD is beyone help, that man has so many demons inside his head he would, for me, best be re-patriated to Senegal. But the other serial offenders, Brown and Lafferty - surely it's not beyond the clubs to sort them out.
Neil Lennon might, I fear be another EHD. Yes, he's in a pressure job, yes he winds-up people, and in return is wound-up by others, but surely his club can help him rise above things to reach the level of behaviour expected of a man in his position.
Then, when the clubs have mucked-out their own byres, the politicians can do their bit - by doing away with separate schools. This is the long-term strategy and I fear I will be long gone before it works. But, if our future generations were to realise that wee Liam is no different from wee Billy and they can sit side-by-side in the classrooms; as adults they might be able to sit side-by-side at the football, one supporting Celtic, the other Rangers.
I know, it might seem a pipe dream, but it could work.
I am not, by the way, in putting this suggestion forward attacking Catholic schools, in my last staff post with a newspaper, I spent a fair bit of time covering sport in the local schools and where I was working the most-impressive school in terms of the ambience within and the staff's encouragment of sporting prowess was one of the Catholic ones. I can think of a few "Protestant" schools which could benefit from the standards applied by the excellent staff in that Catholic school.
I simply feel religion is something which ought to begin at home and not be delegated to teachers, they have other, more important matters such as the passing-on of knowledge to worry about.
When I worked in England 30-odd years ago, I lived in what my Yorkshire neighbours dubbed: "First white street past Khyber Pass", my work place was situated in what the locals dubbed "Little Kashmir".
Every afternoon at just after three we would see all the kids walking home from school, and at four, they would be walking to the mosque for religious school. The English state didn't subsidise their religious education - so why should this happen on behalf of another religion, in Scotland?
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