Whataboutery.
There’s a lot of it about these days.
In the premier league of protagonists are those who indulge in footie fitabootery, particularly supporters with a west coast bias towards either of the big two Glasgow sides for whom it seems – if social media is any barometer – what happens on the park is pretty much a sideshow.
The big game fallout invariably revolves, for several back page days on end, not around spectacular sporting talent but rather the flashpoint incidents which fuel claim and counterclaim.
In turn providing the oxygen for usually incendiary, frequently libellous and always pretty depressing posts on the likes of Twitter and Facebook.
The same sort of ‘he said, she said, they did, we did’ game has also always been pretty standard fare within politics, even if the trite pronouncement that there’s no place in local democracy for such shenanigans is trotted out with the predictability of rain clouds arriving on the first day of a Scottish summer.
We’re set for another round of it this week when a move to throw non-administration Angus councillors off an important budget planning group is kicked around the Town and County Hall debating chamber.
Barring a shock, it’ll be more on the board in the points-scoring exercise which Angus local politics seems to be returning to.
Not surprisingly, parking charges have been held up as the political football which has burst the notion a Team Angus still exists.
Depending on the pitch you favour, the ruling group are either fully entitled to drop their political rivals to the bench because they spat the dummy in an attempt to distance themselves from the controversial decision which has now dogged the council for months – and looks like it’ll continue to do so for many more.
Or they are unfairly moving the goalposts because the size of their squad provides the strength in numbers to make up the rules as they go along.
There’s also the consideration of some who want to play a part in proceedings but are being pretty much left on the sidelines because they’re not wearing the proper coloured strip.
Meanwhile, watching on are the many residents of Angus who’d like to see our elected representatives keep their eye on the ball rather than trying to be the wizards of whitabootery.
