“Scotland’s shame”, “a stain on football”, “a national disgrace”: sectarianism has been called all these things and more. But what no one seems any clearer about is what should be done to tackle it.
Rangers fans unfurled banners at their home game with Kilmarnock last week which declared: “SNP – weak on criminals, tough on fans.”
Just a couple of days before, Celtic fans had paraded similar banners at Celtic Park bearing the slogans: “Our songs are not illegal. We will not be criminalised. We will not be silenced.”
The fans of Rangers and Celtic who are objecting so vigorously to the proposed new laws believe they are being punished disproportionately to the fans of other clubs. They also believe they are being criminalised and victimised through no fault of their own.
The letter sent by the Bishop of Paisley, the Right Reverend Philip Tartaglia, to Alex Salmond today – warning that the SNP could lose the support of Catholics as a result of the proposed new laws – is just the latest escalation in a war of words which has been raging since the election.
Senior politicians in both the Liberal Democrat and Labour parties have admitted publicly that they are virtually powerless inside the parliament chamber.
They no longer have the votes to overturn a Scottish government decision – and, without a revising chamber to amend or reject legislation, the SNP administration can do virtually what it likes.
Instead, the opposition parties know that they need to mobilise opposition outside the parliament if they are to put a dent into SNP plans.
They know that if they get so-called "civic Scotland" involved, this might force SNP ministers to change tack, if only because they will not want to go against perceived public opinion in Scotland.
The Old Firm fans who are objecting to the anti-sectarianism legislation are hardly the traditional embodiment of civic Scotland, but they are as important – if not more important – than any group of academics or judges or business leaders.
This is because Mr Salmond likes to see himself as an ordinary football fan, as does justice secretary Kenny MacAskill and several others senior figures in the administration.
They don’t want to be vilified and caricatured in the stands at Celtic Park or Ibrox – but that is what is happening and that is why the current furore over the sectarianism legislation is causing such concern in government.
They know that football fans are not usually political, and only get involved on rare occasions when it really matters. In fact, one of the last times Scottish football fans were overtly political was when sections of the Hampden crowd jeered Margaret Thatcher when she handed over the Scottish Cup to Celtic captain Roy Aitken in 1988.
So what on earth is going on? Sectarianism burst into public consciousness earlier this year with the letter bombs sent to prominent Celtic supporters, with the attack on Celtic manager Neil Lennon at Tynecastle and with the touch-line bust-up between rival Old Firm managers.
With such an obvious problem in the media spotlight, Mr Salmond decided that something had be done. But – and this is where things started to go wrong – the solution sought was quick, hard and ill-thought-out.
It appeared as if it didn’t really matter what was done, just that something was done and was seen to be done. As a result, the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Bill was born.
There was confusion at the outset. Rangers fans sometimes sing God Save The Queen. Would singing the National Anthem become a crime? No one seemed to know.
What about other songs? Songs which have deep roots in the respective cultures of Roman Catholic and Protestant Scotland. Would they become criminalised, too? Ministers wavered. It would all depend on the context, they said.
But there was another, more fundamental, question hanging over this legislation, a question that has come storming back now: was it really needed?
Various experts have argued – with some authority - that we already have all the legal equipment we need to confront sectarianism, but it isn’t used properly and with sufficient rigour.
Then there are the football authorities. There is a very strong argument for forcing them to act, just as the Turkish authorities did last month when they banned all men from a game: with great success.
There does seem a straightforward and easy to answer to all this. Hit the clubs where it really hurts.
If the fans of any club sing offensive songs then the club should be punished in league terms - docked a point every time it happens – or the club should be hit in the pocket and made to play the next game behind closed doors.
There is a growing belief among football supporters, among middle-ranking police officers, among opposition MSPs and within the clubs themselves that the solution to the sectarian problem lies with the football authorities: as long as they are strong enough to face up to it.
Odd as it may seem, football fans are a generally self-policing lot. If the club they love is going to lose points or if they are going to have to miss the next home match because of idiocy from one section of the support, they will turn on the wrongdoers and make sure they stop.
Mr Salmond showed his willingness to listen back in June when he delayed the anti-sectarianism bill admitting there were problems with it. His ministers would listen, he argued, and the bill would come back in a better shape.
But the concerns now being expressed by the clubs, the churches and the fans are that not enough has changed.
This is a bill that the SNP administration could carry through the parliament without anything blocking its path. But, if ministers do so, they will lose a section of the country that they want to keep, and they will pass a piece of legislation which may well be flawed and might be unnecessary.
Despite the lack of an effective opposition at Holyrood, the SNP government faces a test on this issue, a test which it needs to pass if it is to make real strides in tackling sectarianism.
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