Boaking with dinosaurs

Ian "Dinosaur" Davidson

For those of us committed to Scotland, its people and its democratic institutions, there surely can be no spectacle more unedifying than the circus that is Scottish Questions at Westminster. An event which has increasingly come to be no more than an opportunity for MPs - especially British Labour MPs from constituencies in Scotland - to perform tricks for their English parliamentary colleagues and play up to what they imagine to be the petty prejudices of their real constituency - Middle England. It is an occasion when we tend to see paraded all the rancid, intellect-rotting resentment that "Scottish" Labour now has in place of an ethos and the obsessive, all-consuming hatred of the Scottish National Party which has become its sorry substitute for a political platform.

Scottish Questions is now seen by British Labour MPs posing as representatives of Scotland's people as a venue for joining with their Tory and LibDem coalition allies in belittling Scotland, talking down Scottish achievements, undermining Scottish business and denigrating the Scottish people and their aspirations - all in the name of preserving the union and with it the power and privilege they so brazenly abuse.

Another strong contender for most unedifying spectacle at Westminster is the Scottish Affairs Select Committee chaired by that exemplar of the blight which addles the British Labour Party's North Britain branch, Ian Graham Davidson MP. Combine the two and you are likely to get something truly toxic. And so it turned out on Wednesday (12 September) when, possibly with the benefit of a good lunch, Davidson prised his arse off the green leather to demonstrate yet again that he is arguably the most disreputable dullard in politics and certainly no friend to Scotland.

Addressing the pompously titled but ultimately pointless Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, David Mundell, Davidson took the chance to suck up to his Tory pals and asked,

Does the Minister agree that one of the great successes of the Olympic games was the role played by London’s Mayor? I wonder what will happen to him in the future. Does the Minister also agree that when we come to the games in Glasgow, it is essential that they are run by the city of Glasgow and that we do not have nationalist politicians trying to muscle in?

 Hansard 12 Sep 2012 : Column 272

Leaving aside the sycophantic toadying to Davidson's fellow buffoon, Boris Johnson, the ignorance and effrontery of his second question will immediately hit anyone with a knowledge of Scottish affairs like a slimy green gob of sputum spat straight in their face. Davidson is actually suggesting that democratically elected Councillors and Members of the Scottish Parliament be excluded from any form of involvement in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on the sole grounds that they are members of a party Davidson doesn't approve of.

To his credit, Mundell did not respond. An entirely forgiveable evasion, I'm sure you'll agree.

What is striking, apart from the blatantly insulting nature of this demand, is Davidson's arrogant, anti-democratic disregard for the fact that, as well as having an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament, the SNP has the largest number of Councillors in Scotland and holds more than a third of the seats on Glasgow City Council. Coupled with the fact that some 80% of public funding for Glasgow 2014 comes from what he would doubtless describe as the nationalist Scottish "Executive".

In Davidson's hate-befuddled mind, however, none of this counts for anything. He can see no further than the fact that the SNP - with the support of the electorate - broke British Labour's hegemony in Scotland, humiliated British Labour in two elections and continues to embarrass them by governing with a quiet competence which only serves to highlight the abysmal failures of past Labour administrations.

There is much talk in Scotland and beyond of creating a "better politics". Allow me to suggest that a prerequisite of any such improvement would by the consigning to ignominious history of bug-brained dinosaurs such as Ian Davidson. And the sooner the better.

NOTE: I am grateful to blogger, Tattie Scones, for bringing Davidson's latest gaffe to my attention. Understandably, I have no desire to watch Scottish Questions and can only just manage to bring myself to read the Hansard record - albeit with sick-bag to hand. And it goes without saying that none of the mainstream media will report this. Once again, the value of alternative media is demonstrated.