Ping! An email in Steerpike’s inbox lands, subject line: ‘SNP’s attack on refs.’ Is this, at last, a moment of nationalist self-reflection? Have the 45 per cent-ers finally clocked most Scots don’t want another plebiscite? Could some SNP drone finally have switched off the autopilot to question the wisdom of a neverendum? Sadly for Scotland, the answer to all these questions is: no. For it seems that James Dornan, the hard-of-thinking MSP who frequently features in Steerpike’s pages, is once again up to his usual tricks.
Dornan of course is the ‘racist buses’ conspiracy theorist who claimed in June that an Edinburgh transport company had stopped services on St Patrick’s Day because of ‘anti-Irish racism’ (one of many sensationalist claims for which he has no evidence.) Now he’s moved on from buses to training his guns on referees instead. During Celtic’s 2-1 win against Ross County on Wednesday, the fanatical Hoops fan was so incensed with a minor officiating decision that he took to Twitter to complain that ‘Scottish referees are utterly useless, and if they’re not useless then they can only be something much more sinister.’ Pillorying anyone who doesn’t slavishly support your interests? Would never happen at Holyrood…
Naturally Dornan’s response rapidly received the mockery it deserved. While football Twitter was quick to pile on to the amateur Alan Hansen to point out Celtic were given enough injury time to score a 97th minute winner, others asked what the SFA, UEFA, or FIFA would make of a government party member impugning the motives of referees on a public forum. Celtic are of course second in the Scottish Premier League and won, er, nine titles on the trot between 2011 and 2020. If there is a ‘sinister’ conspiracy, it’s certainly not a very successful one.
Still, Dornan’s views on football are well-known, with the Hate-Finder General enjoying multiple run-ins with Celtic’s rivals Rangers. Two years ago he was forced to apologise to Rangers fan group Club 1872 after complaining they ‘abuse him regularly’ on their website and that moderators fail to monitor their user content. In June this year he refused to apologise for claiming Rangers’ players had sung a sectarian tune – another untrue claim based on poorly-doctored footage.
And then last month he claimed that Gers fans had attacked his office – an allegation for which he still yet to provide any evidence. When Mr S pointed this out, Dornan declared him an ‘Eejit‘ – a badge of honour if ever there was one. All this from the same MSP who penned an article for the Times declaring: ‘Keep politics out of football and we’ll all be winners.’
Whether it’s on the pitch or off it, own goals seem to be Dornan’s speciality.
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