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Graeme Speirs. Articles wanted

Ayebrox

By Ayebrox
in Jimmy Bell's Kitroom

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Ayebrox

Ayebrox 0

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I'm looking for articles written by Graeme Speirs that people believe illustrate an anti-Rangers agenda. I would also like to find the Real Radio interview from last season (?) where Ewan Cameron has Speirs on the show. I'm particularly interested in hearing the last 10 minutes or so where Ewan questions Speirs on his writing with regards to Rangers.

I would very much appreciate it if anyone can provide any such articles. No real reason, just interested and would be a useful debating tool against those who believe he is a decent, unbiased journo ;)

I'm not looking to spark debate here, so please start another thread if you want to debate whether or not Speirs does have an agenda.

I'm just looking to see if posters can provide the articles, or links to the articles.

Cheers lads and ladies (tu) <beeer>

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BABearacus

BABearacus 4

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if Sir David, who even a supporter of him like me, can admit is way too passive with the media when they continue their onslaught against us, is so moved to issue statements in the press more or less naming him and saying not to buy more or less his paper, then you know he is full of sh!t

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minstral

minstral 5,375

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Below is an article written by Graham Speirs and first printed in the Herald in Nov 2004. At the time I remember Murray lackeys criticising MoN. 1 year later Uefa took action and the Scottish establishment have been looking to even things up ever since.

Glasgow Herald - November 27th 2004

Graham Speirs

Nobody needs to preach to me about the complexity of bigotry. Sometimes explicit, sometimes subliminal, sometimes clouded by humour, trying precisely to trace a bigot is a vulnerable and dangerous task. There are some strands of evidence, though, which can be presented without argument. Let us suppose, in the case of prejudice against Catholics, that someone regularly and with great relish refers to someone else as ''a Fenian bastard''. Or suppose, with equal fervour, they enjoy singing about someone ''dying a Fenian bastard'' or of being ''up to our knees in Fenian blood''. Or consider even the plain, less adorned chant of ''dirty Fenian bastard''. Now this is language, uttered without fear or inhibition, which can be taken as evidence of bigotry. This was Rangers chairman David Murray's major problem three days ago. Following comments made by the Celtic manager, Martin O'Neill, about bigotry at Ibrox last weekend, the irony was that it was Murray who was suddenly on the back foot. Murray was forced to come out and defend his club's supporters, yet he knew he had a difficulty. His problem was that, at Ibrox, hordes of Rangers supporters routinely shout and chant bigoted slogans. ''We should guard against broad generalisations [about] our fans,'' said Murray in response to O'Neill. But it was the subtext of this remark that was telling.

Murray knows, as everyone else knows, that the atmosphere of Ibrox on match days can be thick with bigotry. Around almost every corner of this sensitive subject, you have to apply checks and balances. Rangers should not be tarred exclusively with the sectarian problem, because Celtic suffer from it as well. In this specific context, though, we are dealing with Rangers and Ibrox, precisely because of what Martin O'Neill said earlier this week. Moreover, at Rangers, by general consent, the sectarianism is worse than it is at Celtic. The outcry over O'Neill's comments in Barcelona about the bigotry of many Rangers supporters has been extraordinary. Although he was goaded into making his remarks, what O'Neill said was the essence of truth and he deserves great credit for saying what he said. Last Tuesday evening, O'Neill claimed that there had been ''racial and sectarian abuse'' of his players at Ibrox when Rangers played Celtic last weekend, and that at times, it had reached ''an incredible crescendo''. Speaking from a media perspective, I hardly know a reporter or an observer with any experience of Ibrox who would deny what O'Neill said. Personally, I have been going to Ibrox, man and boy, for 30 years and would certainly concur with O'Neill. Some among us might not like the fact. Others may prefer to keep quiet about it or even erase it from our consciousness. Others might even be embarrassed about it. But I'd like to find a convincing man or woman anywhere who would be willing to stick up their hand and say: ''Bigotry at Ibrox? Not true.''

What was mystifying was the remarkable controversy following O'Neill's comments, as if he had said something plainly preposterous or delusional in nature. Every sentient person I have spoken to about O'Neill's remarks has congratulated the Celtic manager for saying what most observers in Scotland have been stating for 50 years. Yet there is still an impression somewhere out there that O'Neill was in the wrong. The fact is Rangers cannot crush their sectarian problem. Years ago, David Murray referred to the Rangers supporters as ''an embarrassment'' because of their bigoted chanting, yet try as Murray might, or try as Martin Bain, the club's director of football, might, they cannot erase the stain. These days at Ibrox on match days, the idiom of bigotry is as prevalent as ever. In these debates, you cannot just indulge in unsubstantiated or time-worn hunches. Instead, you must present cold evidence born of experience. So from myriad examples in my own experience, let me provide one concrete case from Ibrox and the Old Firm game last Saturday. As it so happened, I gave up my usual seat in the press box to a Sunday newspaper journalist, whose immediate need for working space was more pressing than my own. Hence, I made my way to a different seat at Ibrox, with greater proximity to the Rangers supporters. It was an experience that reminded me again of how widespread and malignant bigotry at Ibrox is. From too many mouths to count, people like O'Neill and Neil Lennon, the Celtic midfielder, both Catholics from Northern Ireland, were subjected to sustained sectarian abuse throughout the match. It is worth actually citing these slogans. They ranged from ''Fenian c***'' to ''Fenian scumbag'' to - in the case of Lennon - ''away and f*** yersel, Lennon, ya Fenian bawbag''. A Rangers supporter sitting close to me, and representing that great strand of decent Ibrox supporters who must be routinely embarrassed by all this, said to me jocularly at half-time: ''You'll note that we are among the discerning Rangers supporters up here.'' He was joking, but his sarcasm made the point. It was a rotten, ignorant, venom-filled atmosphere, which Martin O'Neill, three days later in Barcelona, would quite rightly describe as bigoted. Yes, it is a subtle business actually ''defining'' a bigot. Yes, a 90-minute bigot on a Saturday afternoon doesn't necessarily mean full-blown bigotry in the rest of an otherwise decent citizen's life. Yes, inhibited people often bow to peer-pressure and join in such chanting when they'd rather not. The very least you should be, though, is suspicious of such behaviour. In many cases there is simply no doubt about it. If the diagnosis of a real, genuine bigot proves too subtle to perform, then the only response can be the one I gave to the very likeable Donald Findlay, QC, when he denied being a bigot after resigning in disgrace as vice-chairman of Rangers. ''Donald, I don't know if you're a bigot or not,'' I told him. ''All I know is that you acted like one.''

For too many people in the raucous atmosphere of Ibrox, the shouting and singing amount to prejudice. From my point of view, if innocents are otherwise tarred by such allegations, then I simply have to keep apologising to decent supporters who feel the rough edge of a critic's pen.

Just don't deny the unavoidable truth that here in 2004, an alarming number of Rangers supporters, as David Murray well knows, are bigots. It is folly, not to say a cultural disservice to Scotland, to denounce O'Neill for what he said this week, and I say this as one who is only too aware of the futile and dramatic exaggeration of bigotry in our country. Five years ago, when the composer James MacMillan, in his famous outburst, claimed that such places as Scottish Television and BBC Scotland were ''jam-packed with bigots'', I regarded it as plainly absurd, a mis-use of language. But Martin O'Neill's comments this week carried a distinctive, more authentic tone. O'Neill knew what he was talking about and he hit the truth dead-on. O'Neill, I believe, is the first Old Firm manager in 30 years to offer such a bold and unequivocal condemnation of the sectarian problem. For that fact alone he deserves credit, though it begs an old question from some of us: why is it that the managers of Rangers and Celtic, who find themselves at the very centre of this blight, should be so routinely silent about it?

Alex McLeish, the Rangers manager, is, to use the vernacular, a top bloke. Anyone, like me, who comes across McLeish will vouch not only for his milk of human kindness, but also his charm, thoughtfulness and strong humanity. Yet what I would give for McLeish one day to say: ''You know what? I love football, I love Rangers and I love the passion of our supporters. But bigotry is something I detest to my very core, and I wish those Rangers supporters who indulge in it would stop embarrassing themselves, our club and me.''

Those of us who inhabit the football world have a favourite cliche about all this. We say of bigotry: ''It's not football's problem, it is society's problem.''

Well, yes, this is self-evidently true, and the medicine for it all surely lies in education. But football shouldn't be too dumb to speak up about the problem. Nor should we go mute when seeking to apportion blame in the endless, tip-toeing sensitivity about what attaches to Rangers and what to Celtic. Rangers, in particular, have a major problem with bigots, which I believe the club is trying to address. Martin O'Neill, meanwhile, deserves credit for having the courage to talk about it.

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Ayebrox

Ayebrox 0

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Ayebrox

There is a guy on Follow Follow who has already done this.....you could get the article via the site moderator. Makes eye opening reading

I used to be a regular poster on FollowFollow but was banned !

My post counts was in the thousands, I had never been given one warning or telling off of any kind.

But one day there was a thread about Barry Ferguson, and the moderator SM was getting heavily involved. SM was anti-Barry, the poster he was debating with was pro-Barry. SM was getting very frustrated with the guy, and resorted to abuse. The debate carried on for a while, and the guy was banned.

By this time I had joined into the debate to support Barry,and therefore the opinion of the other poster. When SM banned the other poster, I asked why. He said he didn't have to explain as he was a mod. I stated a second time that this was uncalled for, as the guy was debating in a very reasonable manner. Then I was banned. The message I received confirming the ban read, 'Banned. Reason: no reason.' :rolleyes:

I had never once been aggressive on the forum, I never once swore or was abusive against anyone. But I was pro-Barry and supported Murray (while acknowledging his faults/mistakes) This got to some of the high profile posters I think, and SM took the opportunity to ban me. Very unreasonable in my view.

Anyway, to cut a very long story short, I can't get onto FollowFollow as I am banned ! :( I could have signed back up since then using a different account, but to be honest, despite the fact that it's a well run site and has some good posters, too many of the high profile posters ruin it in my opinion by not being accepting enough of opinions that are different to theirs. I felt that too many of the majority were scared to speak out against the high profile minority.

Sometimes I would debate about Murray or Barry for example, and would get ridiculed and abused. I'd be debating on my own with a whole pack of posters having a go at me. And then someone would start an anonymous poll on the topic, and the majority would vote for the side I had been debating all that time ! And I'm left thinking, why didn't you speak your mind when I was getting a verbal kicking earlier !

There is some fantastic content on the site, but it's far to 'my way or the highway' for my liking. I now use another forum where some other posters, really decent non-trouble making guys, have left or been banned in similar circumstances. The saddest thing for me was not so much the fact I couldn't use the site anymore, but the treatment I received from fellow Bears.

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Ayebrox

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I dont usually collect Spiers's articles! But il have a look.

Cheers mate (tu) I've had a look, but can't find any.

Ewan Cameron was sent a whole load of articles by Rangers fans, before he had Speirs on his show. After reading them he obviously came to the conclusion that Speirs did have an agenda, it would be interesting to read which articles allowed him to arrive at this conclusion.

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Ayebrox

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I seem to hear a lot of stories about people getting banned from FF simply for not agreeing with the mods.

At the start, I thought I had just been very unlucky and had been banned due to SM, the moderator, being in a bad mood.

But since then I have heard many other similar stories. Put it this way, there is no doubt that a large section of our fans strongly support Murray and Ferguson.

So you would expect a sizeable number of FollowFollows higher post count posters to be Murray and/or Ferguson supporters. I bet you that's not the case though, my belief is that if you speak your mind on those matters on the forum, especially with regards to Murray, you won't last long.

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BlueIsTheColour

BlueIsTheColour 35

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Just read the article you kindly posted mate. Cheers for that.

I think that this particular article shows Spiers in the light that we all see him. His words were drowned in bitterness and resentment. He has tried to hide his agenda in alot of his articles but in this one he just couldn't contain himself. You can count with your fingers the number of times he even mentioned Celtic in the article and would need a calculator to count the amount of times he put Rangers and Bigot in the same sentence.

I particularly "like" the part whee he says "Yet what I would give for McLeish one day to say: ''You know what? I love football, I love Rangers and I love the passion of our supporters. But bigotry is something I detest to my very core, and I wish those Rangers supporters who indulge in it would stop embarrassing themselves, our club and me.''

I wonder what stance he would take in Eck had come out and said that he recieved the same sectarian abuse from Celtic fans. I am sure Spiers would write the same article about the bigots at Parkhead. :rolleyes:

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Frankie

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I posted it before - a splendid article from Jaaz on FF a while back.

PARANOIA? I DON?T THINK SO

To say my flabber was well and truly gasted on reading David Murray?s recent sideswipe at our detractors and defamers in the Scottish press would be an understatement. For a number of years now this fanzine and its brother production Number One along with those fine ladies and gentlemen of the Rangers Supporters Trust have decried Davie and his inept PR department for their apparent inaction. Ad nauseum we have called for our beloved football club to do something about the constant stream of poisonous venom spewed forth in our direction. No one in the Rangers family has escaped the wrath of the determined collection of Celtic-minded so-called journalists. Players, managers, directors and fans alike, we?ve all been on the receiving end.

It?s now widely accepted that Murray?s ire was directed towards The Herald and Chief Sportswriter Graham Spiers in particular, although I?d like to think that our enemies in the whole cross-section of the Scottish paparazzi have taken note. We?ve had enough. No more. Spray your venom in another direction, because if you don?t you can expect a metaphorical chap at your door.

Predictably our handwringers, sceptics and enemies have dismissed the chairman?s utterances as paranoia. I would proffer that this accusation is borne out of ignorance of FACTS. Allow me to list some of said facts in the following paragraphs in the hope that any Rangers fan out there that have their doubts about the merits of our claims with regards to Spiers and The Herald can be convinced.

First some background. The current Editor of this Newsquest publication is Mark Douglas-Home. Mr. Douglas-Home is the husband of former Falls Road Irish Nationalist Collette Douglas-Home, who currently writes for the Daily Mail. Deputy Editor is Joan McAlpine, estranged wife of 80?s Hue and Cry crooner and Celtic supporting bigot Pat Kane. (Mr. Kane once insisted a friend of mine who was working as an engineer at a well-known concert venue remove his Rangers shirt).

McAlpine recently took over from one Kevin McKenna who occupied the Deputy Editor?s position for a number of years. Former Celtic View Editor McKenna departed in the huff recently having been passed over for the Herald editors? job, and is now employed as Executive Editor at The Daily Mail. The Sunday Herald?s main rival Scotland on Sunday gave a running commentary on events at the time and described how McKenna just couldn?t keep his slabbering mouth shut and was telling anyone who?d listen in The Rogano restaurant that the job was ?in the bag?. It is alleged that his bosses at Newsquest were not impressed by his over-confidence and inability to button his lip and decided he should suffer the consequences.

Long-term readers of Follow Follow should know that McKenna has a history of running his mouth off after a few sherbets. This piece of human waste is a former Troops Out Movement member and Irish News journalist who told Grandmaster Suck in Vesuvio Restaurant that the Enniskillen atrocity was ?a legitimate act of war? and that Protestants were ?low-life's? and ?bred illegitimate children like rabbits?. Unfortunately for him, The Grandmaster was armed with a tape recorder. He was subsequently dismissed from his position by his Celtic View bosses after a Sun expose. You may wish to reflect on McKenna?s rise in stature in Scottish newspaper circles after his disgraceful comments and compare the same industries? dogged determination to demonise a certain former Rangers Vice Chairman who sang a song at private function.

Current Sports Editor is Donald Cowey, another former editor of the Celtic View (starting to get the picture?), who is in turn served by his Chief Sportswriter, the Corduroyed Crusader himself, the one and only Graham Spiers. Spiers is a friend and former flat mate of Matt McGlone, the Celtic fanzine editor whose publication included a cartoon family who went by the name of ?The Dirty Orange Bastards?. Strangely as he travels through life on his anti-sectarian mission Spiers has failed to mention this.

Spiers had started his one-man campaign of anti-Rangers bile long before he joined the Herald. One of my earliest memories was his blatant lie that Rangers fans sang (about German superstar Jurgen) ?Klinsmann?s a Klansman? at Ibrox. Complete and utter bollocks. He further claimed that Rangers fans sang songs about the tragic death of former Celtic player Tommy Coyne?s wife. Complete fabrication. Another contention of his was that former Ranger Ian Ferguson had ?all the charm of a child molester?. A pleasant analogy I?m sure you?d agree. I would wager that Spiers would not express his strikingly odd views during a face-to-face meeting with our former midfielder.

In July 1996 whilst with Scotland On Sunday he penned a deplorable attack on the late great Jock Wallace the day after he passed away, the inference being that Wallace was a bully and a bigot and responsible for sectarianism in Scottish football. Spiers twisted insinuations flew completely in the face of former Celtic captain Andy Lynch who said this on hearing of Wallace?s passing ?He would always take the time (prior to Old Firm encounters) in the nervy pre-match atmosphere, be it at Parkhead or Ibrox, to come and give me a warm handshake or hug and sincere best wishes??smart, kind and sensitive. He will be sadly missed.?

Lisbon Lion Tommy Gemmell echoed Lynch?s sentiments ?It doesn't matter what side of the fence you were on, I don't think you will find anyone in Scottish football who had a bad word to say about him. It was always a pleasure to be in his company and talk to him. His crack was different class.'' Almost correct Tommy. You WILL find someone who has a bad word to say about him. Graham Spiers.

Bad-mouthing deceased Rangers heroes has since become a theme for this creature. He has written disrespectful articles on late greats Bill Struth, Jim Baxter and Davie Cooper. Of course as with Wallace none of them were here to defend themselves. Spiers wrote the following on the eve last seasons? League Cup Final against Motherwell, a game dedicated to Coop?s memory:

?More remarkable, though, amid the media and marketing frenzy surrounding the game, is the way the memory of Cooper's career has become lodged halfway between legend and myth???..One problem with the Davie Cooper legend is that, as with many public personalities who die young and become subject to mythology, it doesn't wholly square with the facts of his career. For a so-called "genius", you would certainly have expected Cooper, who died at 39, to have won more than his 22 international caps.?

To write the above just hours prior to a game played in tribute to Davie where his family would be in attendance was nothing short of despicable.

On Struth: ?Bill Struth was either an idol or an idiot depending on your point of view?. There you are Mr. Murray, according to Speirs you may have unveiled a statue of an idiot at half-time during the Moenchengladbach game.

Now on to you and I, the Rangers support. Commenting on the Manchester United v. Rangers match last year he described us as ?A stinking bigoted cesspit of sub-humanity?. Let me remind you that there were NO arrests at the match. A Manchester United publication later described the game as having the best atmosphere of the season due to the visiting Bears. Some other lovely descriptions of you and I from Mr. Spiers:

6/11/03

?Rancid chanting?..total embarrassment??putrid stench?..savages?.poisonous singing?..desecration?..cavemen?...wholesale yobishness?..vile troglodytes?..stinking, bigoted, religious stuff??backward culture?..almost to a man?.

29/11/04

?David Murray is on the back foot?..at Rangers, by general consent, the sectarianism is worse than it is at Celtic??It was an experience that reminded me again of how widespread and malignant bigotry at Ibrox is??It is folly, not to say a cultural disservice to Scotland, to denounce O'Neill for what he said this week?..Rangers, in particular, have a major problem with bigots?.

?Compare and contrast their shameful behaviour with that of Celtic, who on the road to Seville last season, represented Scottish football immaculately? (I suppose they did, if you don?t include the stabbing in Seville, the riot in Blackburn, the Provo banners, the booing of Porto as they lifted the trophy, planes being diverted to Cardiff etc. etc. etc. But why let the FACTS get in the way of a dig at Rangers eh Graham?)

I think Spiers has made it very clear how he feels about US the supporters? ladies and gentleman, but what?s his views on our club?

8/10/02

"Like the Rangers orange strip, the song ('Follow, Follow') cannot be listed among the great criminal acts, it merely offends?

25/4/04

?Nor can I recall Rangers being disparaged in 1972 when they won the Cup-Winners' Cup; a tournament which, by definition, was painfully inferior to the European Cup, indeed a prize which many placed third in the list of Europe's club baubles behind the UEFA Cup.?

12/8/04

?Please can I be spared any whining from Rangers over this and other criticisms?? ?(Rangers) the most paranoid club in Scottish football?.

Fair to say he?s none to keen on our club either! But what does he say about our biggest rivals I hear you ask? Surely in the interest of neutrality and parity, Celtic are afforded the same malevolence?

23/8/02

?Celtic, though, as a football institution, quite rightly remains a symbol of Catholicism. The Celtic strip, as famed and proudly known around the world as it is, still cannot be divorced from one of its cultural parents, which is the Catholic faith.?

4/3/04

?Even high-brow Herald readers, hauling their noses away from such works as Jacob Bronowski and Alexander Solzhenitsyn, may have noticed the palaver that is being planned by Celtic supporters in time for Sunday's slaughter - erm, I mean match - against Rangers at Parkhead.?

25/3/04

?I repeat my main contention: that Larsson's contribution to Scottish life and culture, via the game of football, has been immense. In a sordid football age, his role-model status has also been impeccable.? (Deliberately breaking Gus MacPherson?s leg aside presumably).

1/4/04

?Following Sunday's win at Ibrox I met one Celtic player, a man I remain a great admirer of, and whispered to him: "I fear for some of the alcoholic carnage of you lot over the next few days, it's been a long wait." He smiled and looked at me with rivulets of anticipation dribbling from his chops.?

6/5/04, 22/1/04, 27/11/03, 4/4/02, 7/3/02,

?In one of my favourite magazines, The Alternative View?.. the shockingly good magazine, The Alternative View??It was with great joy that I received my copy the other day of The Alternative View, a genuinely enjoyable football magazine of a Celtic persuasion?..the excellent Alternative View, a new mag set up by my old malapropic mucker himself, Matt McGlone?.. After 36 years of unchallenged success, the Celtic View at last has a commercial rival?..If I tell readers that Matt McGlone is the brains behind this venture, you may well share my intrigue?.. a Che Guevara figure among the fans who helped ease Fergus McCann into place?.. I have seen the first edition of The Alternative View, and, I must say, it looks very good. (This is just some of a number of plugs he gave for his bigoted mate McGlone?s failed Celtic magazine in the pages of the Herald).

20/5/04

?Lennon's symphony is music to my ears - My sporting highlight of the past week must be the moment when I was called upon to break the news to Neil Lennon that James MacMillan, Scotland's most distinguished composer, had written a piece in his honour. It is always a minor joy catching up with Lennon.? (In fact Graham loves ?Lenny? so much he excused him his spitting on a Rangers scarf and mouthing ?orange bastards? to the Rangers support. A strange stance for an individual who has propelled himself to the forefront of McConnell?s anti-bigotry campaign wouldn?t you agree?)

?Celtic have a moral right to this league? (on the day before the 2003 title deciders).

?35,000 Celtic fans singing The Fields of Athenry made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up? (Seems Spiers likes the ?tottie famine, rebelling against the Crown? ditty. Compare and contrast with his viewpoint of Follow Follow above)

WARNING: Please have a basin handy prior to reading the next quote.

22/01/03

?I must admit, if I ever fulfil my ambition of having a very splendid private dinner with O'Neill, it will be the one question I'll certainly get round to asking: ''Why were you so horrible to us over that new contract saga?''

I?m sure you?ll agree it?s plain as the nose on your face who are Spiers favourite team down Glasgow way.

Last season I attended a Rangers v. Aberdeen match at Ibrox. Meeting up with my good friend North East Bear post match, he told me he?d been sitting directly behind Spiers. After 6 minutes the Aberdeen fans broke into their ?Nice One Simmy? routine, rejoicing in the injury inflicted on Ian Durrant by Neil Simpson, which effectively ruined the wee man?s career. North East Bear pointed this out to Spiers. He further pointed out bile coming from the Aberdeen section revelling in the death of 66 people in the Ibrox Disaster and the death of Davie Cooper at both half-time and full time. Spiers in his Monday morning match report PRAISED the Aberdeen fans for singing ?Nice one JIMMY? claiming they were showing support for their manager Mr. Calderwood! North East Bear wrote to the Herald editor pointing out Speirs perversion. Needless to say he received no reply. For the record, Darrell King of the Evening Times stated on Real Radio that anyone who claimed they couldn?t hear the word ?Simmie? (as opposed to Jimmy) was kidding themselves on. So there you have it. Spiers is prepared to tell LIES to antagonise Rangers fans. A fellow sports journalist and Newsquest employee confirmed that to be the case.

Whilst on the subject of wee Durranty, please note that Spiers once claimed in Scotland on Sunday that Simpson wasn?t the only one to raise his boot in the tackle, of course inferring that Durrant was also looking to inflict injury. Revisionism at it?s very best. Commenting years later on the incident, Spiers claimed ?Rangers fans carry this around with them in much the same way as Phil Boersma carried Durrant?. Real classy eh?

Back to more recent times and the Alex Rae incident during a Euro fixture last season. Spiers led the case for the prosecution (ably aided and abetted by Radio Clyde it has to be said), finding Rae guilty on all counts.

?For days, almost inconceivably, Rangers had denied that Rae had done anything wrong.?

?The response of Alex McLeish, the Rangers manager, to Rae's kick had bordered on the inane.?

"While just about every neutral regarded the challenge as despicable, McLeish referred to the criticism of Rae as ?hysterical? and had the temerity to claim that Rae's challenge on Dadu was "not premeditated".

"Rangers got caught up in gauche attempts to defend the indefensible"

"McLeish insults everyone's intelligence, not least his own, in presenting such a fatuous defence of his player."

"UEFA, like the rest of the country, have laughed at this preposterous interpretation by Rangers."

"Apparently, for those who know how to access these things, the berserk hotlines and websites of the club's supporters have almost depicted the rest of us as making up this outrage." (Notice the "for those who know how to access these things", the inference being that your average Bear is not intelligent enough to use a PC).

"There remains something risible and worryingly paranoid about Rangers believing that neutrals, the media, and UEFA have got together to have it in for the club."

"Rangers are left lacking respect."

Let?s make one thing clear. Dadu got up and walked away. No lasting damage was inflicted. He played for his club regularly for the rest of the season. James Wesolowski, the 17-year-old Leicester player who was brutally assaulted by Bobo Balde during a recent so-called ?friendly? will be lucky to recover and play the beautiful game again. I await Mr. Spiers condemnation of the Celtic thug. It should also be noted that Spiers didn?t bother with a vitriolic attack on his beloved Larsson when he deliberately snapped Gus MacPherson?s leg. Perhaps Celtic players shattering opponents limbs is of no consequence to the little creep.

Onto another point. Speirs gave a lecture on sectarianism at Turnbull Hall, Glasgow University, on behalf of the Newman Association on the17th March 2005. Said lecture was conveniently arranged for the same night as an important Rangers league match. I dare say Spiers wouldn?t want to run the risk that any of us ?poisonous stinking bigoted cavemen? would turn up and challenge his lies. An East End of Glasgow Roman Catholic schoolteacher stated the IRA song Boys of the Old Brigade was intellectually superior to any Rangers song and was a cultural representation of Celticness. Speirs refused to challenge the bigot. One dreads to think what kind of poison this crackpot is polluting his pupils? minds with.

One thing that?s intriguing me is just how Spiers is going to wriggle out of the statements he made about Gordon Strachan in the Herald last year when his name was being mentioned for the Scotland managers job:

?Bog standard mediocrity?..his esteem in British football management ranks among the great myths?..plodding work?..not the stuff of wonders?..binned by the south coast club (Southampton)?..his personality would prove highly ill-suited?..erratic unpredictable customer?..time-honoured restlessness and pique?..squalls between him and the media.?

One would assume that his chances of ?a very splendid private dinner? with the new Celtic manager are slim to none.

In summary. The Herald management team comprises the Celtic minded. Of that there is no doubt. The fact they were prepared to employ as Deputy Editor a bigoted Provo loving cockroach like McKenna tells us all we need to know. Their Chief Sportswriter Graham Spiers has a distinct unequivocal anti-Rangers agenda. He is prepared to mock Rangers players whose careers were left in pieces and compare others to the most sordid of criminals. He will happily besmirch and belittle departed Rangers heroes. He describes you and I in such malicious, vilifying terms as ?rancid, putrid, poisonous, troglodyte, stinking and bigoted?. He smears our beloved club, it?s achievements and it?s reputation. He acclaims his cherished Celtic and anyone connected to same with nauseating adulation and romanticised glorification, whilst steadfastly refusing to criticise the administers of shattered limbs or overt sectarianism. He carefully chooses when to decry bigotry and when to ignore it, ensuring he insults no one of a Celtic persuasion. And last but not least he?s prepared to lie. If it means casting aspersions on anyone or anything representing Rangers Football Club he shall fabricate untruths. That is the most alarming and dangerous thing about Spiers and it must be stopped.

So what do you do? If you still buy the paper (and not many do if circulation figures are anything to go by) then stop. Take Murray?s advice. Even better, write to the Newsquest and tell them you shall no longer purchase and why. If you advertise your services or business, want to sell your car or wish someone a happy birthday there are plenty of other publications in which to do so. Bottom line ? don?t let them have one single penny of your hard earned. It?s payback time. One thing that saddens me is that Spiers is still allowed to pollute the corridors of our stadium. Struth, Wallace, Baxter and the Coop must be turning in their graves. If you feel strongly enough about this situation write to the Chairman. If you should happen to bump into Spiers, be sure to let him know how you feel. He has certainly let you know how he feels about you and your club.

Tim Blott

Regional Managing Director,

Newsquest (Herald & Times),

Newsquest Media Group Ltd

58 Church Street

Weybridge

Surrey

KT13 8DP

Main Switchboard: 01932 821212

Fax: 01932 836164

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Frankie

Frankie 505

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Posted

Can I add that Spiers was challenged to match some of the choice quotes in the article above with similar articles where he had highlighted the problems with Celtic's repoirtre.

He could only mention one article - a match report from a Hibs v Celtic game last season.

The word he used to describe the Celtic fan's choice of songs - crass.

Yes, very balanced Graham. I know the guy very well and can assure anyone that there is no-one more anti-Rangers than this guy despite his claims of being a 'lapsed Rangers fan'.

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