How The Snp Works For One Side. Use Your Vote Wisely.

[Nalla1959 111]

Imagine living in a nation so authoritarian you could be locked up simply for singing a song that the authorities disapproved of. Well, if youre one of spikeds many UK-based readers, you dont have to imagine it you already live there. Last week in Glasgow, a man was sentenced to four months in jail for the crime of singing a state-decreed offensive song. Yes, that thing us Brits love to be sniffy about when its done by the Saudis or Putin the cruel or unusual punishment of people just for saying something or singing something is now being done right here in the UK, in the twenty-first century.

The man in question is Scott Lamont, a 24-year-old fan of Rangers FC, which draws most of its support from Scotlands Protestant communities. It has an infamous rivalry with Glasgows other globally recognisable football team, Celtic FC, most of whose fans come from Scotlands Catholic, Irish-tinged communities. On 1 February, when Rangers were playing Celtic at Hampden Park, Lamont sang one of the fanbases favourite songs as he walked along a street to the game. The song was The Billy Boys, an old sectarian loyalist ditty first sung by Glasgows razor gangs in the early twentieth century and later adopted by Rangers fans as a way of riling their Celtic rivals. The song starts Hello, hello, we are the Billy Boys, and contains the line Were up to our knees in Fenian blood.

Simply for singing this lewd tune which for decades has formed part of the stadium-based, mostly harmless wind-ups between Rangers and Celtic fans, Lamont was jailed for four months. The sheriff who jailed him said he did so because a message has to be sent to those people who would choose to ruin football: This sort of behaviour will not be tolerated. So not only was Lamont deprived of his liberty for committing songcrimes he was also turned into a sacrificial national advert of what will become of anyone who mis-sings or utters something the authorities consider offensive. This was a showtrial, designed not merely to resolve a crime (some crime!) but to send a message to all Brits, especially that throng of uncouth Scottish football fans, about what it is acceptable to think, say and sing. And then the sheriff had the nerve to say Lamont let Glasgow down. It wasnt Lamont who temporarily turned Glasgow into a Taliban-style statelet banging people up for singing.

How can judges in Scotland behave so tyrannically? Because of the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act, a repugnant law passed by the Scottish National Party in 2012. This act gives the authorities carte blanche to punish severely any football fan who says something they dont like. It outlaws sectarian chanting, singing and behaviour at football games, and also on the way to games or in pubs in which games are being shown. It criminalises the expression [of] religious hatred, wiping out, in one foul swoop, the traditional songs and chants of Rangers and Celtic, who have long mocked each other with scurrilous words. To this end, Celtic fans have been arrested, some in dawn raids, for singing pro-IRA songs, Rangers fans have been had up for loyalist chanting, and SNP officials have warned that even singing Rule, Britannia! can potentially be a crime, depending on the circumstances. In what circumstances could singing a patriotic song beloved of the British Navy land you in court? When youre a lowlife football fan whos singing it, in that alleged hotbed of hatred and volatility that is a football stadium.

The focus on circumstances cuts to the rotten heart of this law. What it means is that football fans, especially Celtic and Rangers ones, can be punished for things others are still allowed to do. Because theyre presumed to be a lesser breed of human, not as rational as the rest of us, they can be prevented from singing silly or offensive songs and even from blessing themselves. Seriously. An SNP leader has warned that Celtic fans who bless themselves in an aggressive manner face arrest. This dread of the circumstances, which is really a dread of the mostly working-class men who make up the teeming crowds at Scotlands football games, was revealed in the words of the sheriff who imprisoned Lamont for songcrimes: he said Lamonts singing was inflammatory and could have led to horrendous violence. This reveals more about officials prejudiced mindset than it does about any real threat of football violence: they view fans as animals, basically, liable to be warped upon hearing certain words or orders, easily goaded to violence by the noises around them. This censorship, like so much censorship, is fuelled by an elitist fear of the blob and its unpredictability. But the only circumstances that matter are these: a football stadium is not real life. In that heated and, yes, fun moment of footballing rivalry, people shout and sing stuff they would never shout or sing in a Tescos on a Wednesday afternoon and they must be free to do so

The Lamont case shows how twisted the category of incitement has become. Theres nothing inciting about The Billy Boys. It doesnt instruct anyone to kill Fenians, far less offer advice on how to do so; it simply makes colourful reference to long-gone clashes between Protestant and Catholic gangs. These days, those who brand certain words or images as inciting really mean that they find them super-offensive. Well, tough. They are also passing explicit judgement on the audiences to the things they dont like. The idea that a Rangers song could incite horrendous violence, or that Page 3 inflames rape culture, or that a Dapper Laughs gig could cause sexual assaults, is really a way of saying that the people who consume this stuff have less control than those who dont; theyre mentally inferior to people who dont watch football games or read the Sun or chortle at laddish comics. As with all censorship, the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act creates a stark, elitist divide between those who cannot be trusted to speak or sing freely Them and those who are so in-the-know that they must be charged with controlling public discourse Us.

And so in Britain in 2015, on the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, with our leaders crowing about Britains great traditions of freedom, a man has been jailed for singing a song. Where is Amnesty, currently fighting to have a Saudi blogger released from jail but silent on Scott Lamont? Wheres Liberty? Index on Censorship? These self-styled warriors for free speech are happy to defend the rights of Russian punks or Belarusian playwrights but not Scottish football fans. Thats because, to them, a Rangers supporter a working bloke with a foul mouth is far more foreign, far more difficult to comprehend, than any overseas writer or Guardian-approved pussy punk band. They wont say it, but the rest of us should, regardless of whether we like the lyrics or not: Je Suis Billy Boy. Free Scott Lamont.

[BridgeIsBlue 66,595]

Just after reading this about 10 mins ago,cracking article.

http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/je-suis-billy-boy-free-speech-for-football-fans/16774#.VQcUe9KsXXX

[Blue Army Faction 28]

Great article and it is time people took a stand for free speech at home as well as in foreign lands. Je Suis Billy Boy.

[B1872 20,649]

Who should we vote for?!?!

[Nalla1959 111]

Who should we vote for?!?!

That's your choice not mine.

[tannerall 25,935]

Who should we vote for?!?!

Labour party in recognition of the part Glasgow City Council and John Reid have played in Scottish football.

[Blue Army Faction 28]

[B1872 20,649]

Is Labour not the Catholic vote?

[Bighouse 1,012]

Article by Brendan O'Neill?

In all seriousness the only thing that would truly overcome the ridiculous legislation would be both sets of fans putting aside their differences and working in conjunction with the likes of Amnesty International and other pressure groups to campaign against Salmonds fascist laws that treat football fans as sub humans and if needs be take a test case all the way to the Supreme Court

[Gaz52 11,837]

I don't like any party and wouldn't trust any politician as far as I could throw them

I don't vote as it's all corrupt bullshit and lies.

House Of Cards has opened my eyes!

[Nalla1959 111]

Is Labour not the Catholic vote?

Is SNParty not the Catholic vote?

[Big Al 55 9,241]

FFS have we not argued enough...but someone decides to bring politics into the Bears Den!

Should have waited until we were all pished.

[Helicopter Sundae 5,967]

I'm in England, I can sing Rule Britannia.

Get out of that shithole.

PS, I'm from Glasgow.

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

Oh love a good political debate in the bears den

I'll be voting SNP as labour have lost there way - the conservatives are pish and the lib dems? meh!

[Bothwellbear 1,392]

When voting in elections I generally look at each parties policies and see how they will benefit mu family and also the ethics as to whether they suit.

Football teams and songs are nowhere near as important as them.

[mitre_mouldmaster 21,509]

Oh love a good political debate in the bears den

I'll be voting SNP as labour have lost there way - the conservatives are pish and the lib dems? meh!

Lib Dems for me, even though they have been a pathetic shower of absolute shitebags since the last term.

[He's blue he's white 717]

Lib Dems for me, even though they have been a pathetic shower of absolute shitebags since the last term.

They've lost my support since selling their soul to the dark side

[Nalla1959 111]

So far we have established that the SNParty, labour and the lib dems are all Catholic parties. Now as Catholics in Scotland represent less than twenty percent of the population who do the Protestant majority vote for. Really is a weird country where the very few rule over the vast majority who do not appear to have a say in there own country, not to mention not having a party to vote for?

[cr3_bear 14,805]

Article by Brendan O'Neill?

In all seriousness the only thing that would truly overcome the ridiculous legislation would be both sets of fans putting aside their differences and working in conjunction with the likes of Amnesty International and other pressure groups to campaign against Salmonds fascist laws that treat football fans as sub humans and if needs be take a test case all the way to the Supreme Court

This is true , the constant tit for tat between us and them over being offeneded by this song or that phrase is playing exactly into the laws hands , it is actually going to take a scenario where if someone is arrested from one side , a forward movement would be a group of supporters from the opposite side saying this ruling is shite and we do not agree with it, however I can not see this happening . Because as much as I hate the bastards and do not agree with anything they sing or post on facebook/twitter , I still however do not agree that they should be locked up for singing these songs at a football game . I am one for if they sing their songs , we sing ours louder to drown the bastards out. Look at that guy last week , 24 years old and he has this rediculous charge on his criminal record which is going to follow him around for the rest of his life when he is trying to apply for jobs etc. his life will be ruined by this utterly stupid law and how many like him are there out there who have suffered the same fate all because a song or facebook post. All the while someone who bottled a ten year old is still walking the streets .

[Copland bear 7,966]

Nothing about what religion the sheriffs was, or his fathers ties with late fathers ties with the Catholic Church and the sex predator Cardinal Winning.

I don't remember him up on a charge for slagging off gay men even thou he was a closet one himself.

Thou we cant offend catholics but their top dog at the time can offend the gay community and nothing was said or done at the time about it. Why was this?

It's time labour or the snp grew a set and put that perverted pedophile racket in its bloody place once and for all.

And as for fenian meaning Catholic? When since, another made up fact by our press and society to pander to them .

[Tontospal 1,116]

Whilst we are free to debate politics and vote in May a fellow Rangers fan will be inside.

As a club and a support we should be ashamed that we have deserted a fellow fan in his hour of need.

Thousands sung the song at Hampden whilst hundreds of thousands have sung it for decades and all the lad is guilty of is being caught.

I am disappointed that the various fans groups have remained silent on this pathetic issue.

The article sums it up perfectly.

[BlueAvenger 10,204]

The SNP are fuckin clueless and will destroy Scotland/UK.

People should examine their "policies" before voting for that lot

[simplythebest 11,453]

Scottish Labour might have strong Celtic connections which isn't ideal but for pretty much the whole central belt there is a choice between them and the separatists of the SNP with their outrageous laws.

I know what choice I'm making

[B1872 20,649]

Is SNParty not the Catholic vote?

I was asking a genuine question. I only voted NO At the referendum and that's the only time u voted. I'm intrigued who bears are voting for.

[folkestoneger 8,084]

Oh love a good political debate in the bears den

I'll be voting SNP as labour have lost there way - the conservatives are pish and the lib dems? meh!

And to think I sympathised when I thought people hated you just for liking Ally but now I find you are a fukin communist as well