TAXPAYERS' cash is being spent on a "mushrooming" anti-sectarian industry despite only pockets of bigotry and prejudice remaining, Scotland's most prominent historian has claimed.
A week after the group tasked by the Scottish Government to explore the issue delivered its recommendations to ministers, Professor Sir Tom Devine said the problem was primarily attitudinal, passed from within families and that its causes had largely disappeared.
Criticising elements of the report Sir Tom said it offered little to the Government to form conclusions about 21st century sectarianism in Scotland.
He also said the report lacked a historic input to provide a perspective on the "momentous changes in Scottish society and then offer some explanation why they have taken place".
His comments, featured in today's Herald, comes as ministers face pressure to spell out their intentions over legislation or guidance around contentious parades.
Saturday's event by the Orange Order in Glasgow's George Square has brought the issue of marches back into stark focus, with some voices going as far as calling for bans.
The Government has said it would consider the issue when the academic report it had commissioned was complete. The study was finished in February. The expert group on sectarianism has also made several recommendations on the matter, including community engagement and more responsibility on parade organisers.
Describing the expert group's report as "not the watershed analysis of an old problem", Sir Tom said it "opted out" of a definition of the problem.
He added: "Regrettably, (ministers and MSPs) will receive little substantive support from the report to help guide them to reasonable conclusions.
"This report confirms previous studies that have demonstrated that the malign aspects of the old sectarianism, which did indeed affect the life chances of many people of Irish Catholic descent, have disappeared for the most part. "However, not surprisingly, deep-rooted attitudes that have come down through families for generations take much longer to wither and die, even when their immediate causes no longer exist.
"In general, and with the possible exception of some communities, it seems that only pockets of bigotry and prejudice are all that remain of Scotland's so called 'secret shame' in 2015."
With a petition calling for Orangefest to be scrapped and holding Glasgow City Council responsible for its go-ahead, the authority's political lead on parades, Phil Braat, said the Government now had to act.
He said: ""In eight years in power, the current government hasn't touched a single word of the legislation and Ministers' response to their own expert group on sectarianism, which sat in 2012, has yet to see the light of day.
"We are at the absolute limit of what it can achieve.
"In the meantime, the world has changed. Policing in Scotland is radically different; we have organisations who want to march that simply didn't exist ten years ago and we have increasing attempts to sidestep the law by holding so-called static protests or marching with no attempt to engage with authorities."
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "We are now keen to work with partners on the implementation of these (expert group's) recommendations in conjunction with the findings of the 'Community Impact of Public Processions' report and we will be looking to announce our way forward on this shortly."
She added the government respects the right of groups to hold marches and parades, but also recognises the need to balance that with the rights of communities in areas affected by the events to "go about their business."
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