Yes, yes, yes, I realise full well (He says in the style of Meg Ryan) that he was wrong to say it. But the notion that Atkinson, of all people, is a racist is abhorrent as the indecent haste with which the PC Police pursued him.
I'm giving my age away (again) but hell, I can remember Clyde Best blazing the coloured trail at West Ham in the late 60s/early 70s. And if I'm not mistaken a guy called Ade Cocker followed him at the same club. As far as I can recall, the introduction of this pair didn't meet with universal approval all over England's green and pleasant land. But that's where Ron Atkinson comes in. Because the question has to be; Following on from Best and Cocker, who did more for the lot of the coloured player in England than Ron Atkinson?
Who remembers that exciting West Bromwich team with Lawrie Cunningham, Cyril Regis, Brendan Batson and then Remi Moses strutting their stuff at The Hawthorns? Who remembers WBA wiping the floor with Man Utd in late 78 at OT? (5-3, I think, but that was with WBA taking their foot off the gas) Well I bloody do, and it needs to be reiterated; if Ron Atkinson is a racist then I'm Cardinal Winning's love child!
But who needs facts and in Atkinson's case, nearly 30 years of being pro active in helping the cause of 'Black Power' in English football when the PC shower can have their pound of flesh?
So where does that leave the rest of us when it comes to media insults? Well there was no way out for Atkinson. For 'insulting coloured people', Ron Atkinson has had to pay, not only with the job at ITV that caused the furore in the first place in the here and now. But he is also to remain unemployable for the rest of his life.
Is this a fair or a harsh judgment? Well IMHO it becomes an intolerable state of affairs when one of Ron Atkinson's accusers is our own Bill Leckie. Lest we forget, this is what Leckie had to say about Timmy winning the league back on Monday, 8th April, 2002. And I quote;
Party Line Was Fine by Celts
1 - "Even the t-shirts were childish, the nah-nah-nah of the Milk,
Lemonade, Chocolate slogan a wee sneaky two-fingers up at Rangers.
But hey. We can let them off with a cheap shot. And don't kid yourself
that if the flag had been going to Ibrox instead of Parkhead the other lot
wouldn't have came up with a wind-up just as puerile."
2 - "It all left me thinking about a song they'd belted out in the first
half, one of their timeless classics : Are You Watching Orange Scum?
What a ridiculous question. They'd rather have been watching their own
houses burn down"
So what we have here unbelievably, is Bill Leckie, who has referred to Rangers fans as; 'Orange Scum' preaching to the rest of us that Ron Atkinson deserves to be thrown on the dole for insulting a black footballer. Only in Scotland!
But the main question here has to be. Can you really blame Leckie for insulting Rangers fans and pissing on us when most of us appear not to care less at the constant insults or abuse aimed at us? For instance compare and contrast the way the coloured community's spokespeople have rallied around and against Ron Atkinson, and compare it to the way the average Billy-broad-shoulders doesn't appear to care less what cowards and reptiles like Leckie, Cosgrove, Cowan, Spiers and Co get way with week in year out?
The bottom line here is, Ron Atkinson has been booted out of football because he was deemed to have insulted a certain part of the populace. It doesn't matter in what context he said the 'word'. It doesn't matter that he may have been trying to make a joke. The bottom line is, you ain't supposed to insult people/a community in public. Only problem is, try telling that to some of the so-called enlightened dullards who support our club!
What a joke support we have become.
The Govanhill Gub.