Like many Rangers fans, I did not want Kenny Miller at Ibrox because he was not good enough, and less because he played for Celtic. The evidence can be seen here on this site. (click here)

However, I fully understand that there are also Rangers fans who didn’t want him at Ibrox because he played for Celtic. And even then, to some of them that would be forgivable if Celtic were his first club, or he was a foreigner. But he was a Scotsman and he knew what he was doing. Going to Celtic and giving it lots of scrunchy-faced badge-thumping, always seemed more to rile us than anything else.

In any case, Kenny Miller being booed by a minority of the crowd against Kaunus – and it was a minority where I was sitting – was to do with football allegiance and football rivalry. It had nothing to do with religion whatsoever, which is what bigotry primarily means in Scotland. As far as I know Kenny Miller is not a Catholic.

So, it is with puzzlement that I was informed the wise Andy Devlin in the Sun today penned this glorious piece of social insight:

“In the eyes of far too many the moment Kenny Miller hauled that Hooped jersey over his head he was damned. A no-good traitor guilty of treason. Yet for those whose vision is not blurred by bigotry…” [my italics]

Do you see what he did there? He equated bigotry with disliking Celtic. In his mind if you dislike someone because they played for Celtic then you are a bigot. This is where all language breaks down and words no longer mean what they mean. Do you see the power that gives Celtic? Even to criticise them, to openly dislike them is enough to be ostracised from society – to be a bigot.

But the irony is that real bigotry is ignored if it is against Rangers fans. Raith Rovers fans on Saturday sang quite clearly that Rangers fans, should “go home ya huns” and that we were all “dirty orange b*stards.” Even Andy Devlin would have to admit this was real bigotry, yet all those journalists who were at the game heard nothing.

So here in modern Scotland we have finally come to the conclusion that disliking a player because they played for Celtic is bigotry, but real bigotry against Rangers fans is tolerated precisely because it is against Rangers fans. They don’t count you see.

It shows that zero tolerance against sectarianism was always a sham. It was never about stamping out real sectarianism. It was always partisanship dressed  up as morality.

They don’t want to defeat sectarianism. They want victory.