The silence was in tribute to my Son Ben mate.
Regarding the minute’s silent reflection before today’s match between Hamilton Accies and Rangers for my late Son Ben, I would like to clarify a few things. First of all I didn’t ask for it to take place, I was asked my thoughts on the matter by a third party who had been approached by another third party just after my Son’s funeral and after some thought I gave it my blessing (the proposed minute’s silence) at the time. Unfortunately though it was conveyed to me at the beginning of last week that Hamilton Accies and others had changed their mind and there were attempts to try to in effect bully me into accepting a minute’s applause instead. This had actually gone as far as to state that a minute’s applause would take place in today’s matchday programme. I stuck to my guns and told them it was a silence or nothing as I felt it was in bad taste to ask me to stand and applaud the passing of my 10 year Son. In my opinion it’s not about ‘celebrating someone’s life’, it is about appeasing people who can’t act in a decent and dignified manner for a minute of their lives. That’s been my view on this subject for years. Anyway, they eventually caved on that matter yesterday for reasons that will become clear below and the silence was immaculately observed today which I was very grateful for. I also told them I was unhappy that the matchday programme stated Ben loved ‘Hamilton and Glasgow Rangers’. Ben was a Rangers supporter and a supporter of the Scotland national team. Literally the only connection he had with Hamilton Accies is that he stayed in the local area. It might seem a trivial point to some but the true facts of my Son’s life are important to me. Despite me having documented evidence that I told them before today to either change the article (including the reference to the applause) or withdraw the distribution of the programme they went ahead and sold it unaltered anyway! A hospitality ticket that I had been offered weeks ago was withdrawn yesterday morning but offered immediately back to me again ‘so long as I drop my objections to the programme being distributed unaltered’. I told the people who made that blatant attempt to blackmail me to shove their hospitality ticket where the sun doesn’t shine, took the ticket for the away stand I purchased weeks ago back and attended the match with my mates from my Blantyre Supporter’s Bus instead. I am distraught about being treated in such a callous way by the individuals involved over this. They have caused a tremendous amount of personal distress to me over the matter. I will be taking it further as I consider this a libellous matter now. I need the stress of dealing with this like I need a hole in the head right now. All I want is peace to grieve for my Son but I’m not going to let this go.
