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| Kevin met former footballer Jim Duffy, a panellist for the discussion |
"I attended an event held at the Dens last night in which the campaign promoted its excellent DVD 'Rivals not Enemies' which captures the experience and views of fans, footballers, young people and actress Elaine C. Smith on sectarianism in Scotland. This was followed by an excellent debate and discussion with football supporters and a wide range of other organisations and individuals concerned with community relations.
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| Kevin shows his support |
"Praise was expressed for the many aspects of the campaign, in particular its valuable work with young people. I was particularly interested to hear of their work with prisoners and urged them to consider working with Open Prisons that specialise in rehabilitation work such as Noranside. There was however a clear view that while sectarianism existed in Scotland it was not perceived as a major issue in the North East. Other issues also need to be dealt with including racism and religious discrimination.
"One concern is that reported crime figures do not clearly identify sectarian related crime, which may be masked by other categories of crime. There is also a need to work with the British Transport Police to deal with sectarianism incidents involving football supporters on trains. I have therefore written to Show Bigotry the Red Card and the British Transport Police urging them to work together on this issue, both to identify the incidence of sectarianism and to find new ways of working together to promote the message of 'Rivals not Enemies'."
'Show Bigotry the Red Card' campaign is run by the Scottish organisers of the long running 'Show Racism the Red Card' campaign and is aimed at tackling sectarianism in football.
