Some of you may remember Jim McGovern from my previous articles. He and I exchanged a number of less-than-courteous letters a few months ago.
This was as a result of his support for George Galloway's Early Day Motion 913, with McGovern being the only Scottish based M.P. to pledge his support to the motion.
http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/913
During the aforementioned exchange I asked Mr. McGovern to provide any evidence that Rangers had "side stepped" their tax liability, as such an allegation ran contrary to what we as shareholders had been informed in writing.
Needless to say Mr. McGovern failed to provide any evidence whatsoever which would justify the allegations set out in EDM 913, or warrant support for them.
Perhaps we should not be surprised by Mr. McGovern's support of this motion which are a slur on our club, he has a tendency to make allegations without reasonable foundation.
It's interesting that Joe Fitzpatrick M.S.P. uses the word "hypocritical" to describe Mr. McGovern. Depriving the British public of tax revenue is not something Mr. McGovern can himself claim a clean sheet on. You know what they say about people who live in glass houses.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/392012/MP-Jim-McGovern-s-24-rail-fare-row-costs-taxpayers-27k
But, Jim has raised his head above the parapet once again, much to the chagrin of a number of his constituents, and suggested the Foreign Office investigate claims by Celtic supporters regarding events in Amsterdam.
This has left a number of his constituents in his parliamentary constituency of Dundee West somewhat bemused, and understandably so. Many of them remember a December weekend last year which saw some of the worst football disturbances in Scottish football in recent times and which were described by Dundee F.C. Operations Manager Jim Thomson as follows :-
"I have never seen anything like the behaviour of the Celtic fans in the 20 years I have been running games at Dens Park. The situation was almost unmanageable and I have never seen so many people drunk. Our fans were abused, our stewards were abused and no doubt the police were abused. The turnstile operators were visibly shaken."
"The away fans had no respect for their surroundings — they were doing the toilet where they stood. I had Celtic fans come up to me to tell me they were 'embarrassed' by their fans' behaviour."
The people of Dundee are still waiting for a statement from Mr. McGovern condemning such behaviour.
It is refreshing to see Mr. McGovern embark on a journey demanding, clarity, accountability and transparency. Perhaps in a similar vein he could provide such clarity with regard to his annual staffing expenses which amount to a staggering £115,581.17 for a back bench M.P.
To put this into some kind of perspective his own party leader, Ed Miliband, and of course leader of the opposition has annual staffing costs of £93,747.42.