Following various representations, including the comments below, I have reviewed the letter from Iain M Macdonald and have decided to remove it. I thank everyone concerned for their feedback.
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Dear Iain X
As an avid reader of your blog for many many years now,
I find this letter you have posted on your blog to be both deplorable and despicable ,
In the political game one should have at least some decency to be regarded as sane and decent,
This letter written by Iain Macdonald has stooped so low in his attack of Angus Brendan that beggars believe and this is exactly the reason why so many people have left the labor party,
I am astounded that you posted this letter on your blog, a letter which compares a publicly elected person Angus Brendan with a convicted sex offender Gary Glitter,
Iain X if you have some regard for people who have suffered from sexual abuse , then I suggest you take this post down immediately.
If you read my previous posts you will see that I am no supporter of the SNP and being opposed to political views does not give any person the right to stoop so low that you lose the moral high ground.
I will wait and see if this post is removed and if not I will stop reading your blog
Regards
Dave
I agree with Dave. Though I am no supporter of MacNeil, this letter should not have appeared.
Been awfully quiet on here for a few days. I wonder why?
I remember the day after the referendum result having a discussion with several of my Labour supporting friends and saying to them that unless the local Labour party up here radically changed their thinking and the way they conducted their politics, attitude and campaigning that the people of the Western Isles would turn even further from them.
Not only did they not, but they became even more bitter, twisted and vitriolic as the election neared.
When are the Labour party up here ever going to learn that the electorate have woken up? We’re not interested in personal attacks, bitterness and old style politics.The referendum campaign empowered voters to get engaged in politics for the first time in generations. It made politics seem relevant to US, the normal man and woman on the street.
Not only did the local Labour party not learn, but the Scottish party then elected Jim Murphy as leader. What was his style of campaigning and politics? you’ve guessed it . Bitter personal attacks, negative campaigning and treating the Scottish electorate like idiots. That along with a manifesto devoid of any hope of a glimmer of change from their old ways not only didn’t inspire people to vote for them it made many people who have voted for Labour all their life turn on them.
Unless the Labour party wake up and change their whole style of politics and give the people some substance and values then it could be generations before they ever get in again.
The letter above from Iain Macdonald sums up everything that is rotten in Labour these days. Blame the stupid electorate. Treat them like dummies. How dare the voting public turn their backs on an institution that they’ve supported all their lives and use their democratic right to vote someone else.
Locally the DJ Macsweens, the Matt Bruce’s and the Angus Mccormack’s need to learn that the local electorate and indeed the national electorate have changed, and changed for ever.
This is drivel and inane drivel at that. It reflects VERY badly on the writer. Between DJ Morrison and IMM something is far wrong with the correspondents to WI sites.
This vile and nasty letter had nothing to do with the Labour Party and I thank you for taking it down, it should however not have appeared at all.
http://www.incas.org.uk/
http://www.thesurvivorstrust.org/
http://www.victimsofcrime.org/media/reporting-on-child-sexual-abuse/effects-of-csa-on-the-victim
I would ask you to look at the pages above (INCAS especially I have worked with to help people on this Island who were victims) to get a feel for why comparing Angus Macneil to an abuser like Gary Glitter trivialises the trauma victims go through.
Mr Macdonald’s comments were a disgrace .
Whatever our political views there is “a line” and he crossed it.
CALLUM IAN
Right decision Mr X.
I was not seriously comparing Angus Macneil with Gary Glitter, in what was an entirely fictional analogy to illustrate the following legitimate observation in my letter : “ My serious point is that in the current climate of feverish nationalist hysteria ,the Western Isles parliamentary seat could have been won for the SNP by practically anyone who could string a few words together,no matter what reputational baggage accompanied them “ I stand by that observation.
Nor am I a supporter of the Labour Party. They just happen ,by numbers alone , to be the only realistically electable alternative to the Nationalists in the Western Isles.
On reflection, perhaps I could have chosen a less controversial example than Gary Glitter to illustrate my point. I humbly and sincerely apologise to any victims of sexual abuse who were disturbed in any way by that comparison. Sorry !
I don’t, however, apologise to anybody else. Least of all the named and anonymous commentators,who have succeeded only in putting a further nail in the coffin of free speech in Scotland.
I would also remind them that in a previous UK election, a certain Margaret Thatcher was widely compared in the media to Attila the Hun, a serial rapist, torturer and mass murderer. Could they perhaps explain why this comparison was acceptable , whereas mine was not ?
Was not Thatcher all those things (well not necessarily personally but by proxy) and more? Should have left comment up: said more about the contributor than anything else. Peace and love.
Well IMM I apologise to all the victims of Attila the Hun and indeed the victims of all Hun atrocities, however please spot the irony in that and if you can it may tell you the answer. If not, then time to put away ones quill old boy…
I have certainly spotted the irony in the fact that some commentators , who obviously believe themselves to be discerning intellectuals,were duped into accepting as literal my imaginary tongue-in-cheek description of the irrational human herd behaviour which is a very real feature of otherwise sensible people when nationalist emotions are running high.
It would also seem that Mr Paterson’s eagerness to prove a point by publicly apologising ,with or without irony, for the war crimes of the ancient Attila the Hun has proved only that he has lost an argument which was centred on the acceptability of fictional comparisons between real people
I M M why do you not shut up with your bile and vitriol. You have obviously upset so many people on every side of the political spectrum that nobody has any respect for anything that comes out of your mouth.
Respect, honour and understanding for our fellow human being is what should guide us in our dealings with those who inhabit this planet with us.
Your attempt at pseudo intellectual political commentary, falls well short of any accepted standard, and when you start making excuses for the emanating poison you lose any possibility of any sane person taking you seriously.
The ‘ Truaghan’s ‘comment has given those following this conversation about free expression the opportunity to articulate their choice of the only two alternative responses available to them.
The Truaghan’s alternative : ‘I am a superior kind of person with all the right answers, overflowing with “ respect , honesty and understanding “ towards my fellow men ( though that doesn’t prevent me from anonymously spouting vitriol at them ).Being superior, I am also entitled to take away your right to speak and be heard ,because what you said was disagreeable to me,’
The only other alternative :’ I don’t myself pretend to have all the right answers. Nevertheless, I was greatly aggravated by and strongly disapproved of what was said ,but I will defend your right to say it ‘
Please choose your preferred response.
Being intolerant of other’s right to free speech, The Truaghan also seemed to be insinuating that nothing I say should be believed or taken seriously. I’d like to test his theory by telling an unrelated little anecdote, and asking people whether they believe I’m telling the truth or not
Last week whilst walking along Reef Sands , I met the vacuum -cleaner billionaire Sir James Dyson and two companions who were jogging along the beach . Sir James’s beautiful steam yacht the ‘ Nahlin’ was anchored opposite the beach beside the island of Vacsay. Though probably not aware of it, the vacuum – cleaner magnate could not have chosen a more appropriate and complementary Hebridean anchorage than Vacsay, because that very island is owned by a millionaire carpet-manufacturer Indian Sikh.
True or false ?
The product of a troubled mind? At this stage I am moved towards pity because of the level of denial in this response.
I’m not going to bother communicating anymore with the anonymous Truaghan, who is behaving like a tape recording stuck on auto-repeat hidden inside an empty cupboard. I’ll just have to close the cupboard door,take my place alongside all the other troubled souls in the human race,and leave him there to contemplate his good fortune in possessing the perfect,trouble-free mind
A final word on the ‘ Letter ‘ : I do regret submitting this particular letter, but purely for my failure to foresee the amount of people who would interpret it literally ,rather than read it as an allegory on how easily a population can get swept up in an irrational wave of nationalism.
I apologised to the only section of our society who may have had genuine grounds for complaint. No apologies to anybody else.