Don’t add booze into our toxic football mix
SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell recently said lifting a 38-year ban on alcohol sales at matches was “definitely a conversation worth having”.
I hope he’s swallowing his words after a week of shame.
It started with a 70-year-old granny being hit in the face by a bottle lobbed at a Celtic C supporters bus by a so-called Hearts fan. Then the Hearts v Hibs derby descended into carnage: Hibs boss Neil Lennon was struck by a coin, two assistant referees were hit by missiles, a goalie was attacked and flares were set off.
Who knows if drink was involved? But who could possibly think pouring booze into this mix is the answer? Conversation over.
Ever since I first picked up a “dead” sparkler by the wrong end, and after watching in terror (on too many occasions), my dad trying to re-light the reluctant Catherine wheel he’d nailed to a clothes pole, it’s been clear this was a potentially fatal non- event.
Now, we learn police in Edinburgh have introduced no-go areas to prevent yobs mounting the same Bonfire Night chaos as last year. But what do we expect when any fool (who passes for over 18) can pick up a box of explosives from the local supermarket?
Call me a damp squib and wake me up when it’s over (though I’ll probably be awake because it’s impossible to sleep through the racket) but I cannot for the life of me understand why we’re still doing Guy Fawkes Night in any way, shape or form.
How odd that we live in a world ravaged by terrorism and riven by religious prejudices yet we still hold an annual fire-fest to remember ancient hatred and oppression.
Anyway, isn’t it in rather bad taste to hark back to a 413-year-old foiled attack on Parliament given that our parliamentarians really have come under attack in recent times?
But something else lit my touch-paper this time. It was a little film of a golden greyhound called Charlie, trembling uncontrollably, pleading eyes turned to its owner, clearly terrified. If you’ve ever seen a human have a proper, full- on panic attack, this was it in canine form.
Sadly, social media is awash with video footage of animal suffering, usually recorded