Sunday, February 14, 2010

Labour Party supporting newspaper group makes no apology for going after Nicola Sturgeon for doing her job as MSP for Govan










Dear All

Remember Douglas Fraser down at the Glasgow Herald Group who started the ‘war of the rats’ against SNP Bloggers using the paper as a vehicle?

That rather set the tone of the May 2007 elections.

Things has been going downhill between the Herald Group and the SNP Bloggers ever since.

The Herald Group closed their old website and ‘invented’ a new one, where they censored all comment and dissent.

The internet is the new political battleground which parties have moved on to dominate and use a tool to get their message across.

The upshot of this new battleground is that no prisoners are taken on either side.

The Herald Group today has produced a piece called;

“No apology for holding government to account”.

Straightaway they have shown bias; SNP MSP Nicola Sturgeon was acting in her capacity as Constituency MSP for Govan.

Not as Deputy First Minister and not in her capacity as the Health Secretary.

Is this an accident?

No, it is a deliberate attempt to mislead, unless of course the Herald Group employs cretins who can’t tell the difference.

The person or persons writing this piece says;

“We can assure readers that there has been no political pressure on this paper to promote anti-Nationalist propaganda, nor indeed are we in the business of trying to help Labour win the general election”.

For the first part, no political pressure, I think SNP members would doubt that and of course, there is the Herald’s record of May 2007, article after article of anti SNP propaganda through-out the entire campaign and also in the run up to said campaign.

Anon Herald said;

“We would remind critics that the Sunday Herald supported the SNP in the 2007 Scottish parliamentary elections, and we still believe that it was the right choice for Scotland”.

Six days of anti SNP propaganda in the Herald followed by the Sunday Herald’s one day!

Please!!!!

Anon Herald continues;

“However, we reserve the right to criticise and examine this government, indeed any government, whenever and wherever we see fit. That’s what a free press is for: to scrutinise the government and hold its members to account”.

Free press?

That’s a laugh, the only reason the Herald Group is so far up Labour’s rear end is because of Labour dominance from Holyrood through to Councils to NGOs.

The entire structure of Scottish politics at all levels is riddled by Labour placemen and women.

This statement by them is a cracker;

“Nationalist MSPs in Holyrood last week showed a marked reluctance to support her action when invited to do so by the Labour leader, Iain Gray”.

Since when does a halfwit like Labour MSP Iain Gray have the right to call a vote among SNP MSPs in Holyrood?

The SNP MSPs didn’t give this cretin’s suggestion any credence and ignored him.

The Herald Group then listed the names of other MSPs which they have held to account;

David McLetchie

Wendy Alexander

Jim Devine

The difference between them and Nicola Sturgeon is that she didn’t fiddle the tax payer, accept illegal donations or is up on fraud charges, she wrote a letter for a constituent.

Nicola Sturgeon didn’t commit financial wrong doing in helping her constituent or receive personal financial benefit.

So; it is a bit rich lumping her in with those above and incredibly disingenuous!

Anon Herald concludes;

“The Scottish National Party is a newcomer to government, and is perhaps unused to the stress of public office. The hysterical postings on the internet, and wild accusations of bias do the Scottish National Party no good. It is a sign of maturity in a political party when it accepts press scrutiny as a fact of democratic life. By throwing its toys out of the pram, the SNP is showing that it still has some growing up to do”.

Tell that to Douglas Fraser and the Herald Group management who allowed him and other reporters to thrown their ‘toys out of the pram’ in May 2007 using their facilities.

If the Herald Group was my 'friend', I would buy them a dictionary so they could understand what the word means.

Maybe the SNP can do without their ‘one day a week supporter’!

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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