Mahatma Macaskill
............Has Eck lost the plot? Or Was Mahatma also worked from the back by the British foreign office?
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Bill Speirs
Trade Unionist, Internationalist, and Buddie, 1952-2009
1820 Rising - for a Free Scotland
"I have appeared as a pioneer in the van of freedom's battles"
3 comments:
"Bomber compassion 'like Gandhi'"
I fear the BBC have once again failed to report accurately on the SNP. Shameful headline form an increasingly snearing Glen Campbell & Co.
As blooppers go this might not have been in the "unpardonable folly" catergory, but along with Alex's "Yes We Can" eve of Glenrothes by-election stunt it is to me just another worrying bit of hubris by wee eck.
And please do not blame the BBC or the rest of the media for hyping this up - if you are First Minister of Scotland and envoke Ghandi in defence of your Justice Minister who has just freed Scotland's worst ever mass murder in the face of huge domestic and international condemnation and do not expect it to be headlined by the media - and not just in Scotland - then I would further question Alex's judgement. Of course he must have know this would get headlines - but sadly shoring up beleagured Kenny in the eyes of the party faithful appears to have been more of a consideration than how it might play wider afield.
The biggest consideration: Think how the already upset and bemused relatives of the Lokerbie victims will feel at Scotland's First mionister's direct comparisson of Magrahi's release with Ghandi, and please consider that Alex's words were both insensitive and unnecessary.
But beyound the issue itself, I would question his judgement once more when the heat is on - as in was in the the run up to the 1999 Scottish parliament elections and in Glenrothes only last year. Is this the Glasgow North one?
And can his advisers and allies not reign him in? Surely others must have seen a draft of his speach? Did no one raise alarm bells, suggest there might be better ways of defending the Magrahi decision than this?
When I heard it it made me cringe, and I am overeall a supporter, and well aware how difficult a decision the Megrahi one was. Eck's remarks - and in his leader's address to a national conference - must have infuriated beyond imagination those who were genuinely angry at the decison and moreover have been music to the ears of unionist opponents- whos behaviour over the whole release issue has been opportunitic to say the least.
And as I have said, beyond the issue itself, a bad error of judgement, making me worry more generally. In a referndum campaign, which would see pressure beyond precedent, where would be the internal checks be to prevent such crass hubris reappearing? In inverness, the punters in the hall lapped it up, and I suspect all ill get on the net from nat bloggers is the usual mince about me being a unionist stooge for rasing it here.
Id at least hope Eck is getting his collar felt on this one privately, and appropriate controls are made to minimise the chances of repetition.
I have no time for either of them, but neither Brown nor Cameron would not have made such a mistake in a keynote speech - internal control alone would not thet them
I thought Kevin Pringle was the spin doctor extraordinaire?
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