Ruth Davidson and Glasgow University Association members
The blonde chap kneeling in front with arms aloft is Ross McFarlane, her election agent and GUCA president. She later sacked him as her Holyrood assistant after mobile phone footage emerged of him drunkenly burning an EU flag in a street at 2am while a companion made sectarian remarks about referee Hugh Dallas and the Pope.
Meanwhile, the poker-faced chap on the right of the photo with the square lapel badge is Stewart Green, the GUCA webmaster. He apologised after posting a number of dodgy Tweets about race, including one comparing an Asian festival to cats being strangled.
And finally, the dark-haired guy with the blue shirt and blue tie immediately above McFarlane is Colin James Taylor, a former GUCA president, who now works for the Tory Press and Research Unit at Holyrood. He featured in a story in the Sunday Herald after Tweeting lyrics from a song glorifying the UVF. He has also apologised and been issued with a formal warning. All in all, quite a crew.
Ruth Davidson with partner Jen Wilson, from Wexford in Ireland
Don’t fall For the hype
Ruth Davidson has been very busy in the last few months supporting the agenda of a compliant Unionist press and the BBC broadcasting images and reports favourable to Unionist parties.
So no change in the well practised anti – devolution dogma of a media funded by the very people it seeks to deny unbiased information.
But Ruth and her unionist colleagues exercise no control over the ever increasing power of information exchange on the “Social Media” scene. And truth will out, in the long run.
This article seeks to highlight the duplicity of the Tory Party in Scotland under the leadership of Ruth Davidson. Believe me she is no “Mother Teresa”.
Her agenda is to present the Tory Party and herself as a modernised entity who wish only to do good things for Scotland. But the truth does not measure up to the rhetoric.
The Party is on its last legs in Scotland. Division and strife perpetuate meetings and policy direction and the in fighting will worsen.
In support of the foregoing, ponder the decision by the Glasgow University Conservative Association (Chair Ruth Davidson) to extend a “Guest of Honour” invitation to a St Andrews Night Dinner to Roger Helmer (MEP).
A review of Roger’s political views and pronouncements gives even a casual reader cause for concern but the ecstatic welcome he received at the dinner exposes the Tory Party and its leadership to rightful condemnation.
Roger Helmer (MEP) & Ross Macfarlane
28 November 2010: St Andrews Night Dinner – Glasgow University Conservative Association – Guest of Honour – Roger Helmer (MEP)
Roger was invited, as the “Guest of Honour” to address the diners on matters of political importance and to propose a toast to St Andrew.
Sixty or so diners tucked into traditional Saint Andrews fare, Scotch broth, haggis with neeps & tatties, cranachan and port.
The group included a couple of MSPs and a host of candidates for public office.
The Main Speaker was Roger, who enjoyed the reaction of an enthusiastic audience.
In his speech, a reference to Dan Hannan, (ultra right wing Tory MEP) was met with a burst of spontaneous applause.
When he commended the Daily Express “Get Britain Out of the EU” campaign, they cheered to the echo.
And his dismissal of climate change hysteria, brought raucous approval.
The success of the dinner proved that the Glasgow University Conservative Association, under the dynamic leadership of its Chair, Ruth Davidson and President Ross MacFarlane is no mere debating society or social club.
They are serious campaigners pounding the streets of Scotland on the Party’s behalf.
They are the future of the Conservative Party. And like so many Conservatives they’ve had enough of the EU, and they want out.
They’ve also lost patience with the global warming lobby. They don’t believe it, and they won’t pay for it.
They wonder just how long David Cameron can lead the Party deeper into the EU, and into the battle for “climate mitigation”, before he notices that the troops aren’t following behind. He risks becoming dangerously exposed.
Meanwhile outside the venue all was not so sweet and rosy
The freezing evening saw thirty or so protesters – predominantly from the Anti-Cuts Movement – gather outside the Glasgow University Union in an emergency demonstration against the annual “St.Andrews Dinner” hosted by Glasgow University Conservatives.
The protest was modest but clearly voiced their opinions against the hypocrisy of throwing a decadent dinner party in light of the fact that universities (and other institutions) across the UK are facing drastic cuts.
Students in Glasgow have seen lecturers losing their jobs courses disappearing and facilities unable to develop due to these cuts, all the name of government “austerity” promoted by a Conservative led coalition in Westminster.
The protestors wanted to know how money could be spared for events like this, but not for the preservation of education – especially on the campus of one of Glasgow’s most important education institutes.
Three police vans (later joined by at least three more) and a disproportionate amount of police officers, had been deployed, for what was clearly a legal and peaceful picket line.
It later transpired that the president of the GUU, had alerted the police – although he had apparently not warranted the size of the police presence that would arrive.
He was quick to state that he was not against the demonstration, but felt it was an “attack” on the GUU, which does not hold political alliance with any party.
The police however found it necessary to have a strong presence at the picket line, although protestors stated that they were mostly not a threatening or obtrusive force – only asking that the protestors refrained from swearing in their chants, because children may be present.
However, police conflict did occur when a member of the Glasgow University Conservatives found it hard to get past the protesters, and in the subsequent struggle, three protestors were deemed to have acted aggressively and were arrested. They were later released with ASBOs.
It was at this point that the tension rose, as police refused to answer exactly why protesters had been arrested at a legal protest – and a rumour swiftly swept round that it was under the “terrorist act.”
Questions were also raised concerning the provocative actions of some G.U Conservative members towards the protestors – but the police did not comment. The protest continued peacefully, with the protestors leaving in unison.
And after the dinner drunken Conservative students committed breaches of the peace
Young Conservative, President Ross MacFarlane, (still dressed in the robes of Glasgow University) and a small number of friends ended up in Hyndland in Glasgow’s west end, at 2am after the dinner.
Three people, including McFarlane and another individual draped in a Union Flag, conspired to burn the EU flag on the pavement. Struggling to set the cloth on fire, McFarlane says “F**k sake”, before adding: “Get a lighter.” An off-camera voice is heard to say: “Douse it.” At this point it becomes clear the group is planning to burn the flag using alcohol and a lighter.
McFarlane is then seen to pour liquid onto the flag, prompting an associate to say: “What a waste of vodka, by the way.” A frustrated McFarlane exclaimed: “Somebody get a lighter.” An unnamed individual is heard saying: “Some c**t has it.”
McFarlane repeats his demand: “Pass down the lighter.” The failure to destroy the flag then becomes a source of merriment for a member of the group off-camera. He can be heard saying: “There’s more chance of f**king seeing the Pope confess to paedophilia.”
The group laughs. The same person then says: “There’s more chance of Hugh Dallas [ex-football referee] telling us he’s a f**king tarrier.” “Tarrier” is a derogatory term for an Irish Catholic; the jibe prompts more laughter. McFarlane finally sets the flag on fire. The small group expresses its approval before one individual starts to sing God Save The Queen.
The fire peters out and McFarlane says: “Shit disnae burn lads.” accompanied by two others, lit the flag, sectarian abuse could clearly be heard, including the derogatory term “tarrier” and claims that the pope was a paedophile.
Macfarlane was later sacked as Davidson’s parliamentary assistant after footage was released by the press of him burning the flag. The film clearly shows Stewart Green, and another individual holding the cloth as McFarlane tried to set it on fire.
All in all quite a crew. https://glasgowguardian.co.uk/2011/12/12/former-glasgow-university-students-making-a-name-for-themselves-with-the-scottish-conservatives/
16 January 2011: Tory MEP makes ‘turn’ homosexuals remark
Tory MEP Roger Helmer on Twitter: Why is it OK for a surgeon to perform a sex-change operation, but not OK for a psychiatrist to try to “turn” a consenting homosexual?
Roger Helmer MEP has a long history of such nonsense. A couple of years ago Helmer said that the word homophobia was a “propaganda device”. He wrote on his blog:
“And while we’re mentioning semantic issues, let me point out that the neologism “homophobia” is not so much a word as a political agenda. In psychiatry, a phobia is defined as an irrational fear. I have yet to meet anyone who has an irrational fear of homosexuals, or of homosexuality. So to the extent that the word has any meaning at all, it describes something which simply does not exist.
“Homophobia” is merely a propaganda device designed to denigrate and stigmatise those holding conventional opinions, which have been held by most people through most of recorded history. It is frightening evidence of the way in which political correctness is threatening our freedom. http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/01/16/tory-mep-roger-helmer-makes-turn-homosexuals-remark/
12 August 2013: UKIP MEP In Child Sex Comments Storm
Roger Helmer, MEP for the East Midlands when asked his opinion caused a storm when he claimed that 15 year old girls can consent to sex with pop stars.
Helmer said “Suppose a 15-year-old girl is at a club with a pop star, and he says ‘how about it, dear’? and she says ‘yes please, I was hoping you’d ask’. In most people’s book, that constitutes consent. Legally, she cannot consent, but in real terms, she can.” Helmer also claimed that if an underage child asked for sex then they were contributing to the problem.
This isn’t the first time the former Tory MEP has caused controversy by making disgusting comments. On May 2011 Helmer wrote on his blog that there should be two categories of rape, “stranger rape” and “date rape” and that a woman who is date raped “surely shares a part of the responsibility”.
http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/ukip/ukip-mep-in-child-sex-comments-storm-2957
6 May 2014: Ukip’s seal-hating, gay-baiting, victim-blaming Newark candidate, Roger Helmer
He doesn’t think homophobia exists, blames rape victims, and seems to be sexually confused about Earl Grey tea.. Here are a best-of, or worst-of, his most incendiary remarks:
Disliking gay people is like disliking Earl Grey tea. He told the Sun that Brits should be able to dislike homosexuals, like they don’t like certain types of tea: [some people find homosexuality] distasteful if not viscerally repugnant… Different people may have different tastes. You may tell me that you don’t like Earl Grey tea. That may be a minority view but you are entitled not to like it if you don’t like it.
Helmer later told the Independent that people may prefer “heterosexuality or homosexuality”.
The Sun also picked up and printed remarks he quoted in a 2000 pamphlet “Being gay is abnormal and undesirable and not to be “celebrated”. Homosexuality is “not a lifestyle worthy of valid equal respect”.
Equal marriage is like incest. He raised the question: “If two men can be married, why not three men? Or two men and a woman?… Why not a commune? If two men have a right to marry, how can we deny the same right to two siblings? Are we to authorise incest?”
The distinction between “date” and “stranger” rape: In May 2011 Helmer imagined, probably stroking his trademark moustache during his musings, a date scenario to distinguish between ‘two types’ of rape:
The first is the classic “stranger-rape”, where a masked individual emerges from the bushes, hits his victim over the head with a blunt instrument, drags her into the undergrowth and rapes her, and the leaves her unconscious, careless whether she lives or dies.
The second is “date rape”. Imagine that a woman voluntarily goes to her boyfriend’s apartment, voluntarily goes into the bedroom, voluntarily undresses and gets into bed, perhaps anticipating sex, or naïvely expecting merely a cuddle. But at the last minute she gets cold feet and says “Stop!”. The young man, in the heat of the moment, is unable to restrain himself and carries on.
In both cases an offence has been committed, and the perpetrators deserve to be convicted and punished. But whereas in the first case, I’d again be quite happy to hang the guy, I think that most right-thinking people would expect a much lighter sentence in the second case. Rape is always wrong, but not always equally culpable.
My two scenarios also give the lie to one of the popular over-simplifications trotted out by the feminist tendency in these cases: “Rape is always about power and control and domination, never about sex”. In the first case, that may well be true. In the second case, it is clearly not true. While in the first case, the blame is squarely on the perpetrator and does not attach to the victim, in the second case the victim surely shares a part of the responsibility, if only for establishing reasonable expectations in her boyfriend’s mind.
5 November 2014: Climate deniers: Ukip in bed with corporate America
Three of Nigel Farage’s MEPs, including its energy spokesperson Roger Helmer, added their names to a letter signed by over 200 US state lawmakers and organised by the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec).
This is not a body most political parties in Britain would be keen to associate with. It is a powerful lobbying group sponsored by corporate interests and is a favourite of Tea Party types. It bankrolls climate change sceptics and promotes a ‘model’ climate change bill will suggests global warming is “possibly beneficial” to the planet. http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2014/11/05/climate-deniers-ukip-in-bed-with-corporate-america
Helmer labelled climate change the “Great Climate Myth”, and spent £9,000 on a poster campaign for climate change scepticism. His slogan was the inspiring: “Green climate change policies: Probably unnecessary, Certainly ineffectual, Ruinously expensive.” He responded to critics by saying “I am speaking for the majority of British voters”.
On his blog he wrote this about homophobia:
” Let me point out that the neologism “homophobia” is not so much a word as a political agenda. In psychiatry, a phobia is defined as an irrational fear. I have yet to meet anyone who has an irrational fear of homosexuals, or of homosexuality. So to the extent that the word has any meaning at all, it describes something which simply does not exist.
“Homophobia” is merely a propaganda device designed to denigrate and stigmatise those holding conventional opinions, which have been held by most people through most of recorded history.
It is frightening evidence of the way in which political correctness is threatening our freedom. It is creating “thought crimes”, where merely to hold a conventional opinion is seen, in itself, to be unacceptable and reprehensible. I’m sorry, but I don’t buy it.”
When he was a Conservative MEP (he defected to Ukip in March 2012), he tweeted an astonishing response to the London riots in August 2011:
“Memo to COBRA: Time to get tough. Bring in the Army. Shoot looters and arsonists on sight.”
Then a gentler response…
“Let’s try water cannon/plastic rounds first. But if the police lose control completely, tougher measures are called for.”
In 2006, Helmer commented that beating “dumb” seal cubs on the head was a “humane” way of killing them, and he told a 17-year-old animal rights campaigner to “save your concerns for people rather than them.” In a bizarre accusation, he also condemned seals as “guilty” of eating too much fish. He wrote to A-level student:
I think it’s mawkish, sentimental and unhelpful to adopt a Bambi attitude to animals. Your sympathy for dumb animals does you credit but save your concerns for people rather than them. And another good reason for a badger cull — it would bring down the exorbitant price of shaving brushes.
caltonjock 