SNP condemns ‘vile anti-Catholic bigotry’ after Rangers celebrations in Glasgow

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “I’m limited as to what I can say this morning because there’s an ongoing police investigation but the conduct … was absolutely reprehensible,” the SNP minister told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme on Monday. “Some of them went on to behave in a loutish and thuggish fashion in George Square – devastating property, circulating and expressing vile anti-Catholic bigotry in the centre of the city of Glasgow.” Around 15,000 Rangers fans defied Covid warnings against large gatherings and massed in George Square to celebrate their team lifting their first Scottish Premiership trophy since 2011. “Many of the officers who are quite long in the tooth have probably quite rightly described it as some of the worst violence that they’ve experienced in over 20 years of police service.” Commentators in Scotland were highly critical of the policing effort in March, when Rangers’ title victory was confirmed and similar scenes played out in George Square. “The notion that the very limited resources of the police service would go into a crowd of that size to enforce the dispersal, without any consideration of the inevitable consequences of such action, I think shows just how narrow the thinking of those that are critical of the police in those circumstances are.” Rangers fans celebrate in George Square on Saturday Police Scotland’s assistant chief Constable Gary Richie also said: “If we’re going to actually take preventative action, it’s going to actually cause a huge amount of disruption to the city, because we will need to close off roads and access points.