Hold the Front Page!

I had to laugh the other day when I read headlines in the newspapers - that the SNP government had used its majority in the Scottish Parliament to 'bulldoze through' - new legislation on tackling sectarianism in football.

How come this kind of exaggerated language is being used in this Scottish Parliament - where the SNP has an overall majority - yet it wasn't employed in the last three Scottish Parliaments - where no one had an overall majority?

I find that baffling - I have to say.

So when the Labour party and Lib Dems used their combined weight - when in coalition between 1999-2003 and again between 2003-2007 - then majority voting was OK.

But apparently the criteria used by some in politics has now changed - using a majority vote to get things done is supposed to be 'bullying and undemocratic'.

What a load of old tosh.

And it's made worse when you realise that none of the opposition parties put forward any practical amendments to improve the legislation - to define issues more clearly - to extend or limit key provisions of the new bill.

Is five years in jail for the worst offenders - a completely new provision under the planned legislation - too much or too little?

To my mind Labour, the Lib Dems and the Tories - need to say where they stand on such issues.

Not to hide behind a stance of saying that sectarianism is a problem for the whole of Scottish society - and is not just confined to football.

Everyone knows that already - just like they know that Scotland has a terrible relationship with alcohol - the point is what are the politicians going to do about these issues?

Instead of simply turning them into political footballs - if you pardon the pun.

Holyrood is intended to be a Scottish Parliament which promotes consensus - but  after months of talking which politicians are good at - there comes a time for taking decisions.

And for good or ill that's all that's happened - it's not a denial of democracy or bullying - it's just majority voting by the party (or parties) that's has the most votes. 

How do the Labour run councils in Glasgow, North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire make big decisions?

In exactly the same way - of course - yet Labour is not complaining.

Now these big Labour councils have all behaved very badly over equal pay - and they are being challenged in the courts by Action 4 Equality Scotland.

But whatever they are doing they are not behaving undemocratically - so spare us the hyperbole and silly headlines.