I'm sure that most, if not all politicians could relate to Ol' Blue Eyes lyrics.
Two cock ups this week which prove an earlier point I made about an apparent lack of middle ground in Scottish politics, at least in public.
First of all, we had Ian Davidson (who he?) making a remark about giving someone a "doing" if discussions were leaked. Cue an almighty strop from the SNP and some feminist group that appeared from nowhere (Charlie's McAngels?) demanding that the offender be cast into the Seventh Level of Hell. The Fundamentalist Wing of the Alex Salmond Appreciation Society went further, demanding that Labour be disbanded and the BBC Licence Fee be withheld until they reported the Truth. The feminist group feel that women are under-represented in Westminster. They obviously haven't paid much attention to David Cameron's front bench.
Davidson apologised, but the SNP are sitting in the corner and sulking as we speak.
Then the First Minister himself cocked up, by wrongly saying that an academic, Dr Matt Qvortrup (however you pronounce that surname) apparently said that his research showed that the SNP were the Saviours of Scotland and everything they did was the best. Turns out that was total bollocks and what Alex quoted was made up on a post-it note stuck onto Alex's laptop.
His opponents were creaming themselves with such a self-inflicted error made over the SNP's pride and joy - the Referendum itself. The Unionist Underground (hint, think of Subway) made a rare foray over the parapet at Holyrood and for once pointed the political guns in the right direction.
The First Minister apologised but the Unionist Underground continues to snipe at a target that has long gone.
Both politicians made an error. Both apologised over what now appears to be relatively minor errors (if Davidson's was as bad as some commentators are making out, why was the incident not reported to the police?). But the supporters/opponents continue to stoke the fires of unreasonable debate. If this is what things are like at present, can you imagine how bad things will really get as we approach the Referendum?
Most people don't really care about either of these events. There was a brief discussion and attention has shifted elsewhere.
But never mind, there will be another one along in a minute.......
Well said - both episodes are largely a good example of 'much ado about not very much'.
ReplyDeleteBut if you are who I think you are, doesn't this slightly contradict what you said about 'doing-gate' elsewhere? ;0)
Erm, true! But then the original comment was made immediately after the incident. Since then, it appears the whole thing has been blown out of proportion.
ReplyDelete