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jamesieboy
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Who are the real establishment in Scotland?There are many people in Scotland who maintain that the establishment has always been Protestant/Rangers supporting/freemasonic individuals who have discriminated against those from an Irish Catholic heritage.
The media in particular has been full of contributions by individuals who have clearly had their own agenda. That is - that catholics are still discriminated against, that there is an anti-catholic agenda and they wallow in victim status. I could mention the loathsome James McMillan who, despite his obvious musical talent and the fame and fortune he has achieved, never miss an opportunity to knock 'protestant Scotland' as being narrow-minded and full of bigots. He is backed up by pseudo intellectuals like Professor Patrick Reilly in the Herald and, at a more gutter level, George Galloway. Yet are these presbyterians not the same people who were at the forefront of the enlightenment?
My view is somewhat different. Consider the facts. Scotland since the war has been dominated by one political party. The west of the country in and around Glasgow has been its base for many a long year. And that party has been overwhelmingly Catholic. Every second saturday you can find the posher seats and the boxes at Celtic Park full of the political establishment. Name names. Well lets start at the top, John Reid, formerly the second most powerful man in the country. John McFall, Chairman of the all-powerful Treasury Select Committee would join him. To be followed by a whole plethora of Labour MP's, MSP's, Cooncillors and jobsbodies.
Of course as free individuals living in a free country they can support who they like but, given the fact that only the Catholic faith can have its own state-supported schools, a luxury you find in few places in the world, it seems that the big lie they continue to propagate is beginning to be exposed.
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Dave Coull
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Re: Who are the real establishment in Scotland? | jamesieboy wrote: | | There are many people in Scotland who maintain that the establishment has always been Protestant/Rangers supporting/freemasonic individuals who have discriminated against those from an Irish Catholic heritage. |
Discrimination against those of an Irish Catholic background is a historic fact. But there do appear to have been some instances more recently where that historic discrimination has not just been stopped but reversed. | jamesieboy wrote: | | The media in particular has been full of contributions by individuals who have clearly had their own agenda. That is - that catholics are still discriminated against, that there is an anti-catholic agenda and they wallow in victim status. I could mention the loathsome James McMillan who, despite his obvious musical talent and the fame and fortune he has achieved, never miss an opportunity to knock 'protestant Scotland' as being narrow-minded and full of bigots. |
McMillan is himself an extremist bigot, just a bigot of a different shade from those he denounces. | jamesieboy wrote: | | He is backed up by pseudo intellectuals like Professor Patrick Reilly in the Herald and, at a more gutter level, George Galloway. Yet are these presbyterians not the same people who were at the forefront of the enlightenment? My view is somewhat different. Consider the facts. Scotland since the war has been dominated by one political party. The west of the country in and around Glasgow has been its base for many a long year. And that party has been overwhelmingly Catholic. Every second saturday you can find the posher seats and the boxes at Celtic Park full of the political establishment. Name names. Well lets start at the top, John Reid, formerly the second most powerful man in the country. John McFall, Chairman of the all-powerful Treasury Select Committee would join him. To be followed by a whole plethora of Labour MP's, MSP's, Cooncillors and jobsbodies. Of course as free individuals living in a free country they can support who they like but, given the fact that only the Catholic faith can have its own state-supported schools, a luxury you find in few places in the world, it seems that the big lie they continue to propagate is beginning to be exposed. |
Well, Jamesieboy, it seems we disagree about Palestine, but may have a certain amount of agreement nearer to home.
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Aventinian
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Jamesieboy: are you, by any sliver of a chance, from Glasgow?
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Alasdair
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| Aventinian wrote: | | Jamesieboy: are you, by any sliver of a chance, from Glasgow? |
I'll see your weegie and raise you a ger 
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agentmancuso
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Re: Who are the real establishment in Scotland? | jamesieboy wrote: | | There are many people in Scotland who maintain that the establishment has always been Protestant/Rangers supporting/freemasonic individuals who have discriminated against those from an Irish Catholic heritage. |
Sure, but they're clearly either a) thick or b) bigoted or c) both. And no-one pays them any attention, except for people who are either a) thick, b) bigoted, or c) both, but in the other direction.
So what's new. 
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jamesieboy
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Who are the real establishment in Scotland?I thought I would have been assailed from all angles for this contribution, however the postings in reply have all been positive and considered so far.
I work in Glasgow but live in a small town nearby not a million miles away from the River Clyde.
The amount of nepotism and jobs for the boys that take place here would shock and anger you. The worst offenders are the councils where little mafias have ruled the roost for many years. Even as SNP and Independent representation has increased in the last 18 months or so, the problem has been - you can't get rid of the barstewards.
I have found, in my long experience of community affairs, that these aforementioned individuals have often been promoted above their abilities and the public service has suffered as a result.
There is a strong school of opinion in these parts that this sort of thing is less common in other parts of our great country. Elgin, Forfar, Dumfries, Annan, Dingwall, Fraserburgh... these sort of places just seem better run and cleaner and the communities and the people in them.
Is it just me and my contemporaries or do others feel the same?
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