As thousands of Hibs (and, as we are oh so unsurprisingly discovering with every passing hour, fans of other clubs) rampaged across the Hampden pitch, manhandling, assaulting and spitting on Rangers players and staff, ripping up recently laid turf, inciting a riot and tearing apart goal frames, they did so safe in the knowledge that around almost exactly twelve months earlier similar scenes had taken place.
That day, Motherwell fans saw fit assault a player during the game then invade the pitch, all whilst the Police and security staff that day did as little as possible to de-escelate the volatile situation. No meaningful punishments were meted out, so the green light was clearly given.That day, the restraint of our support was admirable. Little did we realise that we were merely viewing a precedent being set or, if one is to be more accurate, a challenge being issued to supporters of all other clubs to "better" this display of moronic, foul, animalistic behaviour. On Saturday, we witnessed the Hibernian fans accept that challenge and lower the bar farther still.
Given that we live in age of instant spin, immediate message control and constant media monitoring,the notion that the First Minister was unaware of the extent and nature of what was occurring on the pitch is as insidiously fallacious as it is ridiculously absurd. sturgeon's advisors would have known almost immediately that the situation on the pitch at Hampden was dangerously out of control and she would have been briefed about events as they were happening. That she then chose to tweet he congratulations to Hibs is, at best, wilfully provocative and at worst deliberately inflammatory.
However, the more salient way to read her tweet is that was a de facto open blessing to all those taking part in what was occurring. In that one tweet, the mask of decency slipped and the veneer of respectability was stripped away to reveal a vile, venal, bitter woman whose hatred of Unionism is so entrenched that she opted to condone thuggery, vandalism and wanton lawlessness rather than do her civic duty. This is a woman whose moral compass is so much as a wee bit askew but rather is wholly non-existent. Make no mistake, this was a resounding thumbs up to the lickspittles of hatred from their frothing mistress.
As the scale of violence and hatred damnably swiftly became obvious to all watching, miscellaneous second class buffoons and third rate figure began deleting earlier tweets in an attempt to join in the scramble to the moral high ground, one that they were now being forced to share with those whom they despise - the Rangers support. Whilst this gaudy assortment of hasbeens and wannabes at least had the common sense and good grace to do so, there was no such movement from the First Minister. Indeed, there was nothing other than the clichèd thunderous silence.
It would be over 36 hours before a formal response would be forthcoming from the highest office in the land. Until it was received, we were left with the frankly accurate impression that whilst the Hibs support had tried mob handedly to drag Scottish football and society back to the dark days of the 1980's, we had a nation's leader whose answer to this was simply, Lolz.
That in itself is utterly stunning. This is a political leader for whom the words media whore are entirely apposite. At every opportunity selfies will be taken, hands will shook and children will be read to. This is a political leader who has come to understand media manipulation in the digital age better than any other in the land - regardless of your political leanings, there can be no denying that Sturgeon is as media savvy as political leader out there. Yet she sat back on Saturday, did nothing on Sunday as the aftermath continued to churn and swell and did precisely nothing. Why? Well, we are back to the meal high ground once more and it sticks in the craw of the haters to share it with us.
When the response finally was delivered, it was a pathetic, mealy mouthed, unconscionably brief three sentence statement from a spokeswoman which contained 47 words (not one of which was Hibernian, laughably). The Gettysburg Address it ain't. In a time when the first twenty four hours of a news cycle are considered to be the most important as that is when you can shape the narrative and promulgate the message that you wish to be understood by your target audience, it seems blatantly obvious that the First Minister's silence was not only a lot but the message itself. From that, one cannot help but draw the inference she has little or no belief those 47 stingy, gutless words which took almost two days to deliver.
For Sturgeon, the simple but inescapable fact that she has been forced alongside us on the moral high ground is evidently a fierce moral quandary, a philosophical Occam's Razor and a nightmare from Hell. She has to try and square the fact that the victims of these despicable, cowardly crimes are not only her most hated enemies (proud Unionists) but also, falling lay, her constituents.
This is a calamitous, perfect storm for a politician who is used to being deified by a lap dog press and whose method of leadership is the cult of (bland) personality. The First Minister has failed not only her constituents but also her office. She has publicly revealed herself to be incredibly small minded, intellectually bereft and morally bankrupt. That's quite an impressive feat for a single tweet.