Manipulative

Mark Reason’s opinion piece in yesterday’s Press was a very manipulative article, using emotive language, false comparisons and many insulting implications.

In paragraph 5 he implies that accountants and bankers don’t have ‘a moral compass’, as if their professions automatically disbar them from having ethics or morality - a patently ridiculous assertion.

In paragraphs 6 and 7 he states the motive for not changing the name of the team is ‘money’, casually dismissing the fact that doing this could breach existing legal contracts. Legal contracts are binding, often containing punitive clauses to discourage the parties involved from breaking them. No rugby franchise has the financial wherewithal to fight corporate giants like Adidas in court. What franchise wants to go bust?

Then we get the gem in paragraph 13 likening the name ‘Crusaders’ to the ’Gestapo’. There is a club called ’Saracens’ in the UK, which is the name for the enemy the actual Crusaders fought back in the Middle Ages at the instigation of the Christian Pope, in order to win back the ‘Holy Land’ . Does Mark object to the name ‘Saracens’ for a rugby team?

The Muslim community has wisely kept out of this debate, saying it didn’t want to be involved. So Mark has jumped on his hobbyhorse to take up arms on their behalf, even to quoting Muhammad and asking for the team to be called the ‘Shepherds’. Somehow I don’t think that name has the dynamism of the original; it is unlikely to appeal to Canterbury’s rugby-loving fraternity.

Ros Rossiter, Cheviot