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RECORD "GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY" MAN NAMED
THERE was storm of interest when, in his valedictory column in the Daily Record, Jim Traynor revealed the reaction of two senior executives to the news that the First Tier Tax Tribunal had found in favour of Rangers.

According to what Traynor wrote, the reaction of one was to blurt out in bitter bile.... “It’s a f*****g Government conspiracy.”

While the other’s head simply slumped into his hands in an action which, as far as body language went, spoke of disbelief and despair.

Traynor’s revelations sparked a feeding frenzy of folk who wanted to know just who the senior news man inside the Daily Record was who was so bitter, so twisted and so hateful towards Rangers, so lacking in serious news judgement, that he truly believed dark forces were at work at Government level to clear Rangers.

Plus, who was the other senior executive whose reaction, in front of a host of witnesses, spoke volumes of his disbelieving despair at the verdict in favour of Rangers?

My interest was certainly sparked by that Traynor column, which went a long way in exposing the Daily Record for what it has become, a nest of Rangers hating vipers, tied in a commercial deal to Celtic. That column appeared just before Christmas.

However, it appears to me that a climate of fear exists within the Daily Record, for suddenly many friends who I have known for years and who I have spoken to regularly, broke off all communications. One of them even went pretty far down the line of actually attempting to avoid me at a match.

It is sad that so many decent, diligent, professional and honest journalists should be subjected to what are believed by some to be terror tactics inside the Daily Record and Sunday Mail bunker.

But then Jim Traynor repeated that Government conspiracy quote, also mentioning the head-in-hands moment, in a recent blog which appeared on the Official Rangers web site, though once again he refused to reveal the names of the Daily Record senior men whose words and actions betrayed their lack of journalistic professionalism.

Once again my interest was sparked. Renewed, if you like and I tried again to get more information. To no avail. Then something strange happened. An email dropped into my inbox from an anonymous Hotmail address. It contained just two names.

KEVIN MANSI!

ALAN RENNIE

What could this mean? Does it mean that Kevin Mansi, who is the Daily Record news editor, the man responsible for setting the daily news agenda, a reporter whose by line has appeared regularly over the years, making him a public figure, and who is now a powerful opinion forming senior executive, was the man who uttered the damning phrase.... “It’s a f******g Government conspiracy?”

And that Rennie, the editor of the Daily Record and the man who offered to meet and give a platform to the anonymous and now completely discredited bigot behind the Rangers Tax Case blog, was the man who slumped with his head in his hands?

My belief is that if it was put to Jim Traynor that Kevin Mansi was the foul mouthed culprit and Alan Rennie the man whose body language betrayed him, he would not dispute it, perhaps even resorting to the classic Francis Urquhart line that, you may think so, but he could not possibly comment.

Everyone already knows about editor Alan Rennie from when I first revealed how he rolled over to have his tummy tickled after one of his sports writers was banned from Parkhead by Peter Lawwell, just as Celtic were signing a commercial deal with the Daily Record.

But Kevin Mansi is a new name for most readers. He is, as I have made clear, a well known by line which has been appearing in newspapers for two decades or more. I have known him for over 20 years. We were colleagues on the Record and Sunday Mail when they were pillars of journalistic rectitude and excellence and he was but a lowly hack. We were colleagues again during my two years with the Scottish Daily Express.

One of the things I do know about Kevin Mansi is that he is a rabid Celtic supporter. He always gave me the impression of being the sort of Celtic fan who would have sympathy with the political beliefs of those in the Green Brigade. Of course that was only my impression and I may well have been wrong.

In recent years he became the protégé of another apparent Celtic mouthpiece, Tom Hamilton, who retired from the Record some time ago. Now Kevin Mansi has taken over from Tom Hamilton as the news editor, the head of news, the man who effectively calls the shots and sets the news agenda at the newspaper which is Celtic’s commercial partner, the Daily Record and who is on the same executive level as another rabid Celtic supporter whose name is well known to readers, Record sports editor Austin Barrett.

Of course, if Kevin Mansi claims he was not the senior Daily Record executive to utter the damning phrase, “It’s a f*****g Govermment conspiracy,” on the occasion of the First Tier Tax Tribunal’s verdict in favour of Rangers, then I will no doubt see him in the Court of Session.

Where any number of people will be required to take the oath and be grilled by a top QC on the events on the editorial floor of the Daily Record on the day the First Tier Tax Tribunal delivered its verdict in favour of Rangers.

What is more likely is that Mansi will try to man the barricades in his defence by admitting he did utter the damning phrase, but only in jest. Something which he will no doubt be confident his fellow Record executives will endorse. To which the only reasonable retort must surely be....

Aye, right!

Finally, let me be clear as to what any reaction of any Rangers supporter should be to this news. It should most certainly, most emphatically, not involve any communication of any sort with either Daily Record editor Alan Rennie or Daily Record news editor Kevin Mansi. That would only play straight into the hands of the Rangers haters. Of whom there are many. The way to cause the maximum damage to Alan Rennie and Kevin Mansi is to quite simply stop buying the Daily Record and the Sunday Mail.

That is, if there are any Rangers fans left who still give their money to two newspapers which are commercial partner’s of Peter Lawwell’s Celtic.

 

Aye but what are their middle names?

 

I could have guessed Mindy would be all over this

 

Do you ever stop thinking about me?

 

Sales in Bacofoil through the roof down Ibrox way these days.

 

The way to cause the maximum damage to Alan Rennie and Kevin Mansi is to quite simply stop buying the Daily Record and the Sunday Mail.

And buy the Sun instead

 

You're a mainstay on our board.

It's kinda hard to avoid you.