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Euan McColm: Condemning aggression is not enough from leader who laid the foundations

BBC journalist James Cook received abuse from Scottish independence supporters outside a Conservative hustings in Perth
BBC journalist James Cook received abuse from Scottish independence supporters outside a Conservative hustings in Perth

That’s the peaceful and joyous stuff started again, then.

Eight years after former first minister Alex Salmond praised protestors who devoted their energies during the independence referendum campaign to hurling abuse at staff entering and leaving BBC Scotland’s Glasgow headquarters, the snarling mob is back. Let joy be unconfined.

As members of the Conservative Party gathered for a leadership hustings in Perth on Tuesday night, the dark side of the Scottish nationalist movement revealed itself.

It’s reported that party members were spat on by independence supporters, and that some women in attendance were abused as “wh**es”. Meanwhile, members of the media were denounced as “scum”, “traitors” and “liars”.

The BBC’s Scotland editor, James Cook, came under especially fierce attack from nationalists who, while calling him every name under the sun, demanded to know how long he had lived in Scotland. One of those barracking Cook was particularly exercised by – I kid you not – his failure to report on the 1689 Claim of Right.

Cook’s abusers were stupid enough to put online a film they’d made of the incident, as if it was some kind of “gotcha”, rather than evidence of their appalling behaviour.

Don’t we all deserve to avoid abuse?

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon couldn’t ignore the actions of her fellow nationalists, and she issued a statement in which she said hurling abuse at journalists was never acceptable. Cook, she added, was a journalist of “the highest quality, and a total pro”.

I share Sturgeon’s opinion of Cook, a first-class reporter and hugely likeable man. But what about those of us who aren’t of the highest quality or total pros? Don’t we deserve the same freedom to do our jobs without threats and abuse?

And what about those members of the public attending the event? Should they put up with people spitting at them?

Aggression is not ‘joyous’

Later, in a filmed interview, Sturgeon expanded on her statement, condemning abuse when it came from those who support independence and those who oppose it.

That’s all well and good, but this is, I’m afraid, a particular problem for the nationalists. During the 2014 campaign, it was Yes Scotland supporters who mobbed and intimidated leaders of the Better Together campaign, not the other way round.

And this continues. I have not witnessed scenes similar to Tuesday’s involving members of the Tory Party turning up at SNP events in order to spit at participants.

Protesters in Perth outside the Conservative Party hustings (Photo: Steve MacDougall/DC Thomson)

During the 2014 campaign, Sturgeon and her fellow nationalist party leader, Patrick Harvie of the Greens, said nothing to contradict Alex Salmond’s opinion that angry protests were “joyous”. Rather, they sought to foment anger with nonsense about the prospect of the NHS – the running of which is entirely devolved – being privatised if Scots voted No.

Nicola Sturgeon’s condemnation of Tuesday’s appalling scenes doesn’t absolve her of responsibility for helping create the culture of anger that led to them.


Euan McColm is a regular columnist for various Scottish newspapers

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