Jan 2017: Use of Gathered Data – Analysis of Petition Outcome
I compiled an analysis using information available to the public and produced a predictive 2017 election outcome.
Electorate totals were included and a percentage signatory total was established for each constituency. From that I used the mean figure of 3.75% to forward project the outcome of an Independence referendum.
The figures suggested that from an electorate of 4,021,203 the outcome of another referendum would result in a: 48.00% “Yes” vote in favour of independence with 52.00% preferring to remain with the Union.
This was important information which if used wisely would allow effective forward planning electioneering strategy.
As expected Edinburgh, Aberdeen, East Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire recorded higher than average figures favouring remaining with the Union.
Jan 2017 General Election Calton Jock forecast
The General Election in Scotland will not be a re-run of the 2015 General Election and the landslide victory achieved by the SNP cannot realistically be achieved.
My analysis suggests 25 seats might be lost to the Tory Party.
Significant SNP financial resources and additional teams of activists will need to be deployed in force in the under-noted constituencies otherwise they may be lost.
This group of seats are marginals – risk decreases as the % number drops:
71749: Edinburgh West, Michelle Thomson MP : 4388-6.12% Lost
69982: East Renfrewshire, Kirsten Oswald MP: 4241-6.06% Lost
66966: East Dunbartonshire, John Nicolson MP: 3977-5.94% Lost
73445: West Abdn, Stuart Blair Donaldson MP: 3961-5.40% Lost
80978: Edinburgh North & Leith, Deidre Brock MP: 4280-5.29% Held
66208: Paisley & Renfrew, Gavin Newlands MP: 3158-4.77% Held
68875: Argyll & Bute, Brendan O’Hara MP: 3277-4.75% Held
62003: North East Fife, Stephen Gethins MP: 2937-4.74% Held
67236: Stirling, Steven Paterson MP: 3175-4.72% Lost
77379: Ochil & Perth, Tasmina-A-Sheikh MP: 3645-4.71% Lost
79393: Gordon, Rt. Hon Alex Salmond MP: 3711-4.68% Lost
68056: Aberdeen South, Callum McCaig MP: 3618-4.65% Lost
79481: East Lothian, George Kerevan MP: 3676-4.63% Lost
72178: Edinburgh S-West, Joanna Cherry QC: 3283-4.55% ) Held
72447: Perth & N-Perthshire, Pete Wishart MP: 3033-4.19% Held
71685: Moray, Rt. Hon Angus Robertson MP: 2995-4.18% Lost
78037: Lanark & Hamilton-E, Angela Crawley MP: 3272-4.19% Held
74179: Berwick, Roxburgh, Selkirk: Calum Kerr MP: 3026-4.08% Lost
86955: Linlithgow, East Falkirk, Martyn Day MP:3570-4.11% Held
68609: Banff & Buchan, Dr Eilidh Whiteford MP: 2772-4.04% Lost
73445: W. Abdn, Stuart-B-Donaldson MP: 3961-5.40% Lost
71685: Moray, Rt. Hon Angus Robertson MP: 2995-4.18% Lost
68056: Aberdeen South, Callum McCaig MP: 3618-4.65% Lost
The 2017 General Election and the resurgence of the Tory Party in Scotland
The 2017 General Election in Scotland first exposed Scottish voters to “data mining”. A new form of politics imported from the USA, providing tools and profiling information allowing Tory candidates to communicate personally with their prospective constituents.
The benefits were astounding. The Tories gained a stunning result, increasing their MP’s from 1 to 13 in total.
Pollsters were flabbergasted at the turnaround in the voting since the SNP appeared to be invulnerable.
But Tory candidates had been well briefed about the individual targets within their constituencies. The new voting strategy used predictive data models which identified, engaged and persuaded swing voters to turnout.
This was achieved through the use of internet, phone and personal surveys combined with many other data sets, created by teams of contracted data scientists, psychologists and political consultants allowing the campaign to map the Scottish electorate based on ideology, demographics, religious beliefs, strongly held opinions on key issues e.g. Independence, the Orange Lodge, Celtic, Rangers, The SNP and or political personalities.
The information gathered provided Tory campaign strategists with a predictive analysis based on thousands of data points on just about every voter in Scotland.
From that teams of political consultants and psychologists, hired by the Party directed the campaign and candidates on what and how to say it to selected groups of voters.
Other voter targeting, included use of Facebook adverts, one to one scripted phone calls and provision of the content of messages for door-to-door canvassers ensuring consistent communication with voters on any issue.
What won the day for the Tory party in 2017 was that they utilised “data mining” to gain a comprehensive understanding of the Scottish electorate and then used every communication aid available facilitating discussions with voters about matters important to them as individuals.
Throughout the campaign the Tory tactic was to constantly broadcast the “no new referendum” message in the “no” constituencies stressing the major difference between the Tory and any other candidates firmly imprinting this in the electorate’s minds.
In contrast the SNP campaign lacked inspiration. It was poorly directed (Murrell deliberately starved “at risk” constituencies of financial and other resources) and failed to get the SNP voters out.
Information is power and the incompetent SNP strategist, Peter Murrell, was outwitted by the Tory Party.
Had he been the chief strategist of any political party other than the SNP he would have been given his marching orders.
Incredulously the First Minister, (his wife) awarded him a massive pay rise and an extended contract.
The LGBTQ group proposed that the SNP’s eight regional lists for the Scottish parliamentary election should include either a *BAME or a disabled candidate in the top place,.
Four regions would be allocated a BAME person and the other four a disabled person.
The proposal carried the commitment that disabled status would be by self-identification with no confirmatory checking being carried out.
Members in attendance believed it would be illegal to adopt the proposal under the equalities law.
The matter was deferred and referred to the Party’s legal counsel, Jonathan Mitchell QC who warned that the policy was legally dubious and open to challenge in the courts and any case brought by a person disadvantaged by the rule would probably succeed, and cost the SNP maany thousands of pounds in legal expenses.
But the LGBTQ group insisted the proposal should be decided upon by the NEC.
The Chairperson, Kirsten Oswald decided to put the matter to the vote.
The vote was tied and it was expected that in compliance with accepted practice the Chair would cast her vote for retention of the status quo.
She didn’t and passed the motion placing the Party at great risk of legal and costly claims of discrimination.
Forget the Soviet Union, Cuba, and North Korea. The new utopian master plan is about to unfold in Scotland.
This year, we will celebrate the 34th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Thanks in no small part to Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union went away peacefully, almost without military incidents. A new era of freedom and prosperity reached new lands across the world.
Many of us thought that we would never see totalitarianism again. But the more time we put between ourselves and the country that President Ronald Reagan referred to as the “evil empire,” the weaker the memories of tyranny become.
Perhaps this is why, in Scotland, a new government initiative can pledge to completely rewrite society—with government master planning—travel restrictions on private citizens, workforce dictates, and an end to free enterprise.
Much like the communists of the early 20th century, the Scottish government aspires to completely transform society—whether people like it or not. However, unlike the communists who led hundreds of millions of people into a Marxist economic utopia, this time the people will be led by green bureaucrats.
Scotland is going to become a perfectly environmentally friendly society. The greenocracy envisions a brave new world so virtuous that nobody can refute it.
At the same time, once you examine the plan a little bit below the shiny, green surface, it comes across as entirely unachievable—at least under a democracy that respects individual and economic freedom. This, however, should not surprise anyone: un-achievability is an essential component of every utopia, the path to which requires the citizenry to give up their freedom.
If this new greenocracy gets what it wants, Scotland will aspire to become a recyclable North Korea. Since that is as unrealistic as creating the worker’s paradise was under Kim-Il Sung, the Scottish masterplan will require its citizenry to submit to three generations of benevolent expert rule. The Scotsmen will be asked to participate in a new, full-scale socioeconomic, utopian experiment, led by the enlightened few whose privilege it is to understand what the end product will be.
According to their ideological masterplan, these greenocrats claim that it will take some 20 years before the full brilliance of their efforts will be apparent to everyone. Until then, buckle up (but not in your private car—it will be phased out), bow your head, and join the long march.
There are, of course, many differences between Scotland’s green virtue crusaders and the red virtue crusaders of yore. For one, the former do not seem ready to resort to the kind of violent tactics that the latter used in order to impose their benevolence on their fellow citizens. The greenocrats have chosen another path: a master plan that carefully mixes politically correct terminology with seemingly analytical verbiage.
Part 1 of the https://www.transformingplanning.scot/national-planning-framework opens with a shower of virtuous verbal emoticons. The world, they say, “is facing unprecedented challenges under a global climate emergency.” Within the opening paragraph, they throw in “climate change” and “nature crisis,” as well as “cost crisis” and “longstanding inequality.” Interspersed among these psychological trigger terms are calls to action: the Scottish people “will need to respond” and “work together” to bring about the utopia where all problems are solved.
The substantive difference between the Scottish green crusaders on the one hand, and communists or Nazis on the other, is the focal point of the negative emotions. Where communists appeal to hatred against the ‘bourgeoisie’ and Nazis stirred up rage against the Jews, the aspiring Scottish totalitarians stir up fear. They want people to be so afraid of economic inequality and a climate collapse that they will never, ever question what the greenocrats will require of them.
By rallying people based on fear, they hope to insulate their master plan against mentions of the hundreds of experts who have dismissed the so-called climate emergency. They hope that nobody will have the courage to explain that there is no data to support the climate catastrophe hyperbole. This is not surprising: the purpose of an ideological master plan, regardless of what ideology produces it, is to steer clear of scholarship, analysis, and rational inquiry. The purpose is to turn off the functions of reason in people’s minds.
All the greenocrats want is a big enough emotional investment from the populace so that they will obey and follow their leader, regardless of what recyclable environment he leads them into.
We will plan our future places in a way that improves local living, so that we live in communities that are inclusive, empowered, resilient, safe and provides opportunities for learning. Quality homes will be better served by local facilities and services by applying the principles of local living to development proposals. The concept of 20 minute neighbourhoods will help support this, particularly in more urban areas.
This paragraph is a blueprint of what awaits the Scottish people if this master plan is implemented. The concept of 20-minute neighborhoods is far more frightening than it seems to be in this innocuous piece of text. A couple of commentators, such as Hot Air and Big Issue, have written informatively about it, but its ideological significance, and its full totalitarian meaning, has yet to be explored.
The neighborhood concept is a planning tool for the total reconfiguration of the way Scotsmen live their daily lives. Its purpose is to guide government, presumably at all levels, through a process that physically changes the layout of cities, towns, and even rural areas around Scotland. Although it is not spelled out in the National Planning Framework, it is made pretty clear between the lines that the geographical, or, to use the plan’s word, “spatial,” re-planning of Scotland’s economy and social life, must be done by the use of government force.
If people have a say in the process, specifically, there is a risk that they reject the plan. If they do, we are led to believe, then the Earth’s climate will collapse. Since Scotland is responsible for saving the world, it is unwise—is it not?—to let the people have too much to say about the master plan.
As I explain in Democracy or Socialism: The Fateful Question for America in 2024 (see in particular pp. 11-16), Russian revolutionary leader V.I. Lenin thought it was so important to reconfigure Russian society in the image of his ideology that the very criticism of his communist master plan was made a crime.
How far along the path to a ban on ‘opposition’ will the Scottish greenocrats go, in order to put their plan to work?
To see just how totalitarian this plan is, let us take a closer look at their 20-minute neighborhood concept. To take a random example, suppose you live in the Stenhouse neighborhood of Edinburgh. The border of your new neighborhood is a 20-minute radius, measured by an average ride by bicycle, from your home:
Sustainable transportation, including electric buses and “high quality walking”;
Shopping;
Health care and social services;
Childcare and schools, including “lifelong learning opportunities”; and
Employment.
This list is not exhaustive, but already here we have items that raise prominent questions about how the master planners intend to create their new, ideologically correct neighborhoods.
At the top of their list of challenges is the employment part. How are they going to guarantee everyone a job within 20 minutes of their homes?
Personally, I am particularly concerned about all the younglings who graduate from university with a gender studies degree. Will the master planners be able to guarantee them jobs within their field of expertise within the 20-minute circle?
There is another option. The greenocrats can adjust the labor force to the employment needs identified by the master plan. That would be a model much like the one described by the late American economist Emily Clark Brown in her informative article “The Soviet Labor Market” (ILR Review, January 1957).
The workforce is not the only part of the neighborhood economy that needs planning. Since people are promised shopping and health care within the 20-minute range, the new utopia must also secure everyone’s access to groceries, dentists, clothes (including shoes for “high-quality walking”), bicycle repair, barbers, therapists, home electronics, flowers, eyewear, brain surgery, and home improvement items.
The master plan calls for everyone to have “lifelong learning opportunities” within their neighborhood. That is good news: students will no longer have to move far away from their parents to attend university. But wait—it seems a bit overly ambitious to secure everyone’s preferred university degree within 20 minutes of their home. What about those who do not live close to the fine academic institutions in Glasgow, Stirling, or St. Andrews?
By now, it is clear that Scotland’s National Planning Framework will match the central-planning ambitions of their Soviet brethren. They cannot leave it to private entrepreneurs to open grocery stores, or fashion boutiques for that matter, with the desired density across both urban and rural Scotland. Inevitably, some entrepreneur is going to say that the market for his particular products is too small in East Kilbride or Stornoway.
At that point, the greenocrats will have no other option but to take over.
When they do, they will have their hands full. Here is more of what they want in every 20-minute neighborhood:
Public bathrooms;
“Playgrounds and informal play opportunities, parks, green streets and spaces, community gardens, opportunities for food growth and allotments, sport and recreation facilities”; and
So-called affordable housing.
In other words, everyone will have a vegetable garden of their own within 20 minutes of a home they can afford. If their neighborhood does not offer enough homes that anyone can afford, the government planners will use whatever power they need to make sure that those homes are there.
All this, they promise, while securing anyone’s access to “playgrounds … parks, green streets and spaces, community gardens … and recreation facilities.”
Perhaps the greenocrats are planning to seize private homes with more than one bedroom and turn them into multi-resident homes? Then they could allot living quarters based on what they deem a person needs, presumably along the lines of how this is done elsewhere.
But are we not being a bit too tough on the Scottish greenocrats? Maybe their 20-minute neighborhoods are not limited by a bicycle ride, but by mass transit. A bus moves at 12-14 miles per hour, so let’s say that in a car-free Scotland, those buses can reach an average speed of up to 15 mph on their routes.
Suddenly, the 20-minute neighborhood expands:
Who would not be able to find a job of their dreams, affordable housing, or a good law school to attend, within the red circle? Of course, things change a little bit if you happen to live in other parts of Edinburgh, like Danderhall or Leith, but if the greenocrat master plan says you can still get everything within a 20-minute bus ride, then what can you do but trust them?
There is one more thing with this plan: It wants Scotland to become a “circular economy.” How do the master planners intend to recycle the batteries from all the EV buses they are going to need?
A very optimistic outlook suggests that it will take until 2050 before we can even recycle 22-52% of the metals in EV batteries. The Scottish greenocrats want their 20-minute utopia up and running by 2045; even if they wait five years, they still have to throw away most of the metals in worn-out bus EV batteries.
Will they have toxic-metal scrap yards within 20 minutes of every bus garage?
Sven R. Larson is a political economist and author. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from Roskilde University, Denmark. Originally from Sweden, he lives in America where for the past 16 years he has worked in politics and public policy. He has written several books, including Democracy or Socialism: The Fateful Question for America in 2024.
There are many who believe the campaign for a new leader of the SNP is fixed in favour of one of the three candidates. This is a misnomer spread by SNP activists whose only interest is the pursuit of impossible goals such as independence.
We are WOKE. We think as one. We started recruiting normal people in the USA and nations sympathetic to our cause in time evolving into an political entity so far left of centre the boundaries had to be extended to accomodate us.
We first indoctrinated Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP’s new leader, in 2015, at the time she visited our chairperson, (Hillary Clinton) and with her support and direction we seized control of the Party from its weakly organised members.
All political and Party organisation matters are referred to our supreme leader for authorization and to facilitate this she ensures all who remain loyal are provided with secure, high pensionable employment regardless of ability. We think as one.
We tolerate no dissent and set the, hounds of hell, (the Scottish judiciary) on anyone foolish enough to incur our wrath. We are one.
Our leader recently decided to gain experience with like minded people elsewhere and has decided on a replacement, her close friend Humza (the humper) Yousaf. Since we all think as one there is no need to know anything about our Humza the Humper since he is the anointed one. But for a warning for anyone, in the media, or elsewhere might be considering asking questions about his policies. Be reminded we think as one. Be warned.
These questions are verboten:
1 Do you think homosexuality is forbidden by Islam?
2 Do you think Muslims should be allowed to change their religion?
3 Can Muslim men become women?
4 Would you prefer Scotland was a Muslim country?
5 Is it wrong for people to drink alcohol & eat pork?
6 Should women everywhere be free not to wear scarves or veils?
7 Do you regret the existence of the state of Israel?
8 Do you regret that Islam did not spread to Europe?
9 Would you prefer it if Islam were the only religion.
10 Are women equal to men in Islam?
Did your cousin Osama Saeed, urged for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in 2005?
Did you, in 2013 when the SNP government’s minster for external affairs and international development, provide a £400,000 government grant to Islamic Relief, one of the largest Islamic charities in the world. A charity set up by prominent names from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and decried by European and Islamic governments for its links to Hamas and other terrorist groups?
Did you, in 2008, together with your cousin Osama Saeed, arrange meetings between senior SNP politicians and three extremist Islamists, Mohammed Sawalha, (a fugitive Hamas commander) Anas Altikriti, (a prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood) and Ismail Patel, (a hardliner supporter of Hamas who called for the killing of adulterers and punishment for “free mixing of men and women.”
14. Is it true that your very close and loyal colleague and senior NEC member, Emma Harper, met with yourself the day before she illegally accessed the SNP membership database and extracted information allowing her to send many thousands of unsolicited emails to those members who might be persuaded to support your bid for the leadership of the SNP?
15. Are Muslim clerics and officials illegally preventing the use of mosques by LBGTQ, trans and/or transvestite Islamists?
16. Homosexuality is outlawed by the Islamist faith. How does this fit with the actions of SNP Islamist politicians who voted for the introduction of the GRC self certification bill.
A £40 million plus public salary purse overrides all other commitments. Full list of WOKE, We are one supporters (late February 2023):
Thirteen MP’s (All WOKE)
Mahri Black, MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South: Deputy leader at Westminster. LGBTG? No friend of any of the female candidates.
Ian Blackford, MP for Ross, Skye and Lockaber: Hopeful of senior post in the SNP government Likely to lose his Westminster seat.
Amy Callaghan, MP for East Dunbartonshire:
Stuart Hosey, MP for Dundee East: Dundee is home territory for Yousaf.
Chris Law, MP for Dundee West: Dundee is home territory for Yousaf.
Stuart MacDonald, MP for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East:
Anne McLaughlin MP for North-East Glasgow: Justice spokeswoman.
Anum Kaiser, MP for Airdrie and Shotts: A protegee and close friend of Yousaf.
Tommy Sheppard, MP for Edinburgh East:
Chris Stephens, MP for Glasgow South West: Close friend of Yousaf.
Alison Thewlis, MP for Central Glasgow: Westminster home affairs spokeswoman
Owen Thompson, MP for Midlothian: Chief Whip at Westminster under Blackford. Likely to lose his Westminster seat. His support is aimed at securing an MSP nomination.
Pete Wishart, MP for Perth and North Perthshire: Strongly supports the GRC bill hence his backing of Yousaf.
Hannah Bardwell, MP for Livingston East: Openly gay. Courts controversy with regular interventions in the Commons in support of LGBTQ matters.
Twenty-four MSPs (All WOKE)
Karen Adam, MSP at Banffshire and Buchan Coast:
Alasdair Allan, MSP for Nah-Eileanan an Iar:
Graeme Day, MSP for Angus South: Close friend of Yousaf.
James Dornan, MSP for Glasgow Cathcart:
Joe Fitzpatrick, MSP for Dundee City West: Dundee home territory for Yousaf.
Jenny Gilruth, MSP for Mid Fife and Glenrothes: Yousaf fails she’s out to pasture.
Neil Gray, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts: Very close friend and campaign organiser. Tipped for promotion if Yousaf wins the leadership position.
Emma Harper, MSP for Southern Scotland:
Jimmy Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld & Kilsyth:
Shona Robson, MSP for East Dundee: Scottish Social Justice Minister. Imposed a three line whip on SNP MSP’s forced the controversial Gender Reform Recognition Bill through Parliament.
Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West: Minister for Net Zero, Energy and Transport. Yousaf fails he’s out to pasture.
Mahri Macallan, MSP for Clydesdale: Environment Secretary. Hotly touted for a promotion if Yousaf wins the leadership position.
Paul McLennan, MSP for East Lothian:
Mary McNair, MSP at Clydebank and Milngavie:
Jenny Minto, MSP for Argyle and Bute:
Emma Roddick, MSP of the Highlands and Islands:
Shirley Ann Somerville, MSP for Dunfermline: Education Minister. Yousaf fails she’s out to pasture
Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central:
Maree Todd, MSP at Caithness, Sutherland and Ross: Public Health Minster. Reports to Yousaf. Out to pasture if he fails.
Elena Whitham, MSP for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley:
Collette Stevenson, MSP for East Kilbride:
Ben McPherson, Edinburgh Northern & Leith: Local government minister urged the SNP to ask for more powers for Holyrood instead of focusing on independence.
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill became law on 23 April 2021.
Scotland’s Justice Minister, Humza Yousaf, said: “Free speech in itself is not an unfettered right and must be balanced, with a need to protect vulnerable communities from discrimination.”
The SNP government said it made hate crime law in Scotland “fit for the 21st century”. But lawyers in Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and in Europe strongly believed the bill to be a draconian expansion of state power fostering as it does the removal of any need for a perpetrator to have shown an intention to “hate” in order to be indicted for a “hate crime” with the only exception being a “reasonable excuse” which is difficult to argue in a court of law.
Even more alarming is it undermines the distinction between public and private settings, meaning statements made in private conversations are vulnerable to being judged to be criminal.
The changes provide unprecedented power, to the police and courts to determine the criteria of a hate crime and threaten to criminalise speech which is now considered part of public debate and includes two significant modifications to the provisions of the Public Order Act of 1986:
a. Expanding the number of protected characteristics to include age and “variations in sexual characteristics”. b. Changing the test of a crime against these groups from “where there is an intention to stir up hatred” to “where it is likely that hatred would be stirred up.”
Comment:
The use of laws to reform behaviour is a defining factor of Scottish political culture, highlighted by the unprecedented invasion of its citizens private space and the on-going interference of the SNP in social engineering witnessed by the intervention of the First Minister in the “culture wars” now besetting the nation.
The new bill does not satisfy the recommendations of the review that preceded it.
It is incompatible with Article 10 of the European Convention which protects freedom of speech from unjustified restrictions and provides to the state and individuals the facility to weaponize the law to settle personal grievances. eg “a casual acquaintance cracking a joke, at a private function which you find offensive generates the opportunity for you to prosecute”. Unlikely but only one source is needed to verify a hate crime.
The possibility would be there for you to prosecute.” This may seem an unlikely outcome, but only one source is required to verify a hate crime – the supposedly offended victim.
All criminal complaints must be investigated, adding an as yet unquantified new case load for the police based only on the hurt feelings of easily offended individuals.
And the complaints extend into the household, a change without precedent.
And it provides no indication of how discrimination based on ethnicity or sexuality is to be interpreted, leaving the police and judiciary to decide based on their own impressions.
Those could be subject to social and political pressure. Indeed, feminists comments on social media, in which they say that “people who menstruate” are “women”, would easily fall under the terms of the proposed bill, on account that they must have have caused offence to some.
But there is a fall-back position to be used in the event of ambiguity which is the “International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”, ratified by the UK in 1976 and given further clarification by the UN Special Rapporteur in 2001 recommending that any law prohibiting “hate speech” must ensure that “no one is penalised for true statements” and that “no one should be subject to prior censorship.”
Impact on Scottish society following the introduction of the hate crime bill
Reports of hate crimes against trans people in Scotland tripled between 2014-2022, (53-185) and SNP, LBGTQ politicians warned that a “cynical campaign” against their community was the cause.
But the police did not support their allegations preferring to attribute the rise to an increased confidence in the reporting of instances of hate crime.
White young male perpetrators, represented around (98%) of all trans-related reported crime.
Race-related hate crime reports are still the most prevalent. The majority of victims were female (56%) while (43%) were male.
The majority of hate crimes were reported to Police Scotland by the victim (92%), and were perpetrated by young men under the age of 26.
(Thanks to Brent Haywood’s who wrote about his concerns and Scotland’s new hate crime bill).
Holodomor genocide Remembrance Day 2018 Holyrood Humza Yousaf self declared champion of the fight against racism did not speak to the subject
The parliamentary debate was important—in highlighting a tragic event letting the world know the cruelty and viciousness of Stalin and his regime.
Europe’s recent history over the past 100 years or so is littered with war, conflict and death.
The first world war resulted in about 16 million deaths.
During the second world war, some 60 million people were killed worldwide.
However, those conflicts are well known. The Holodomor is almost unknown outside Ukraine, and it is time for that to change.
The Holodomor is based on two Ukrainian words: holod, meaning hunger, starvation or famine; and moryty, meaning to induce suffering to kill.
From 1932 to 1933, the Holodomor famine took the lives of between 7 million and 10 million innocent people, many of them children.
After the first world war and the fall of the Bolshevik regime, there was a downfall in the Russian empire, which resulted in the abolition of censorship and the establishment of an independent Ukrainian state, and allowed an astonishing renaissance of literary and cultural activity.
Many new writers and poets expressed their views on politics, and soon the people of Ukraine were working towards the elimination of illiteracy.
They were becoming a smart nation, which did not sit well with Joseph Stalin.
In the summer of 1932, Stalin saw the resurgence of the Ukrainian people as a threat. In a letter to one of his main associates, he wrote:
“If we do not start rectifying the situation in Ukraine now, we may lose Ukraine”.
There is a clear record of Stalin’s Government’s deliberate aims to inflict suffering on the people of Ukraine.
He systematically planned their starvation and death to hold on to their land.
That began in summer of 1932, when Stalin wrote a law that is now commonly known as the law of five ears of grain.
Ukraine was the most important agricultural part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Despite making up only 2 per cent of the USSR’s total area, it harvested 23 million tonnes of grain, which was 28 per cent of the gross grain harvest of the whole USSR.
It was the bread basket for Stalin’s regime, and he used that to his advantage and subjected the nation to grain quotas, confiscating supplies down to the very last seed.
All farm land became the property of the Soviet Union.
Food in farmers’ homes was taken, and if they were caught taking food from the land that they had owned, they would face fines, imprisonment and even execution.
As they starved, it became harder to harvest what the Government requested and the punishments worsened.
From the implementation of the first grain quota, they became Soviet prisoners and slaves.
That suffering and starvation of the Ukrainian people was controlled through enforced isolation put in place to prevent starving peasants from going in search of food.
A resolution passed by Stalin and the Soviet regime in January 1933 stated:
“A massive exodus of peasants ‘in search of bread’ has started … without a doubt organised by the enemies of the Soviet Government. [Therefore, regional executive party bodies in Soviet Ukraine are ordered] … to prevent a massive exodus of peasants … [peasants from Soviet Ukraine who have crossed the borders to the north] shall be arrested… and deported back to their places of residence.”
It is recorded that the Soviet regime forcibly sent more than 186,000 people back to their homes to face certain starvation.
We know that the regime systematically sent people back to their villages knowing that there was no food and that those people would die a horrible lingering death.
As a result of the Holodomor, 20 to 25 per cent of the population of Ukraine were exterminated.
That enforced starvation reached its peak in the winter of 1932 and the spring of 1933, when 25,000 people died every day. Maria Kachur, a survivor of the Holodomor, said:
“My mother buried the children herself. When my brother was dying in February 1933, he pleaded for food; my other brother died in March and my sister died in May 1933.”
That harrowing account shows what many families had to endure: the horror of parents burying their own children.
The Holodomor had an extremely high mortality rate for children.
In September 1933, approximately two thirds of Ukrainian pupils were missing from schools.
Many desperate parents would risk being caught by the Soviet secret police and would take their children through the Ukrainian borders, abandoning them in urban areas in the hope that they would find more food there.
However, many died on the streets.
One of the difficulties with the Holodomor is that the death toll has never been known for sure, with many families having buried their own and there being mass graves in many villages.
The head of the secret police of Ukraine wrote a letter in June 1933, stating that
“the mortality rate has been so high that numerous village councils have stopped recording deaths”.
After all those deaths, Stalin used the depleted and barren land to resettle thousands of families from Russia.
By the end of 1933, more than 117,000 people were resettled in the Ukraine.
Alain Besanc¸on, a well-known French historian, stated:
“It was the well-organized executions that made the terror by starvation in Ukraine a genocide.”
That sums up that the orchestrated and systematic killing of the Ukrainian people by the Stalin-led Soviet regime was genocide, and we must recognise those whose lives were destroyed by the Holodomor.
As with other massacres down through the years, we must not forget; we must remember them.
Her position as leader confirmed Nicola addressed an audience in an auditorium packed to the gunnels with many thousands of members all fully committed to the cause of independence and expecting a rallying call to renew the fight for freedom from their leader. But they were to be disappointed.
She used her acceptance speech as First Minister to reassure her Unionist opponents her administration would be more than just a vehicle for constitutional campaigning. It would provide good government for all Scots always fully operating within the rules put in place by Westminster
She dwelled longest on her achievement of becoming the first woman to lead a Scottish Government. Her election showed “the sky’s the limit” for women and girls across the country, she told the audience before then saying:
“But it is what I do as First Minister that will matter more – much more – than the example I set by simply holding the office.”
Then, Looking up towards her niece Harriet, eight, in the gallery, she added:
“She doesn’t yet know about the gender pay gap or under-representation or the barriers, like high childcare costs, that make it so hard for so many women to work and pursue careers. My fervent hope is that she never will; that by the time she is a young woman, she will have no need to know about any of these issues because they will have been consigned to history. If, during my tenure as First Minister, I can play a part in making that so, for my niece and for every other little girl in this country, I will be very happy indeed.”
She had set her priorities for the future. The fight for independence was to be continued but within the limits of responsible governance. But her primary mission was to advance the cause of women.
What followed was a media frenzy in which Nicola was feted by women’s rights organisations worldwide including invitations to visit the USA and address female leaders and human rights activists the UN. She would become the new “Angela Merkel” and inspire women to a better future in politics and business.
Julie Hepburn (member) who was defeated by Keith Brown in her bid for the post of Deputy Leader of the Party said that the SNP’s NEC needed to be more effective, transparent and accountable and the attention given to the campaigns of the candidates encouraged debate between Party members who called for a rethink on how the Party was run.
The main thrust from the regions being complaints that the running of the party was overly structured around Nicola Sturgeon, her husband, the SNP chief executive Peter Murrell and the NEC.
The SNP Eastwood branch at conference, suggested that “improvements were needed” to give members as many opportunities as possible to formulate policy and question elected representatives.
It advanced the argument by tabling the amendment “Conference calls on the NEC to bring forward constitutional amendments to restore the National Council as a forum for policy-making and scrutiny.”.
The response from Keith Brown, the newly appointed Depute Party Leader, appeared to be positive when he later convened and chaired a Party Governance Review Group.
Membership of which included Doug Daniel, Julie Hepburn and Jamie Szymkowiak, Dr Eilidh Whiteford, Kaukab Stewart, and Shona Morrison.
Numerous calls for the final report to be published were ignored but a statement was finally issued saying: “there wasn’t “significant demand to reintroduce a National Council.” End of matter. No change.
This prompted numerous negative comments from readers of the National. Reader- User ID: 1036134 wrote:
I think the biggest message for SNP members from this whole NEC debacle is that the party are taking our loyalty and membership fees for granted.
I’m not a post referendum member, I’ve been kicking about since just after Tony Blair took us into an illegal war.
Everything I left the Labour Party for, I am now recognising in the SNP. Nepotism – how many couples, including the ultimate power couple at the very top, are in positions of power within the party/government.
We have selection processes for candidates for elections, but most of us know that actually, we have little say.
The party parachute in their preferred candidate and put all their resources behind them and now they have gone even further by inventing new rules to stop people from standing if they don’t want to resign their MP position and out all their support team out of a job.
The irony being that less than a year ago, Daddy Smith did just that, holding onto his MEP position and being parachuted in to Stirling for the GE.
This is what happened to the Labour Party.
True political activists, the very people who live, work and socialise in the areas and communities they would represent and now no longer sexy enough, so don’t get encouraged to put themselves forward, and if they do, they rarely pass vetting so the SNP handpicked candidate goes forward unopposed.
Serial candidate the unelected Julie Hepburn will most surely have her eye on a seat too, and I’m sure her SNP minister husband Jamie will be using his leverage to make sure that happens.
This is happening in front of our eyes, and they just don’t care.
Exactly what happened with New Labour.
They have never recovered and can’t get the talent into their party because the people who would have joined Labour, joined the SNP instead and are filling up the list and constituency places where real SNP people should be.
Comment:Ruthlessly exercising a policy of narrowly focused nepotism across all aspects of its organisation and management the SNP leadership and the NEC, have in post, in paid employment MP’s, MSP’s, Councillors, special advisors and admin staff in excess of 1,500 persons. Many of these individuals have voting rights in the Party and enjoy the largesse without which they would be out of politics in a jiffy due to their incompetence.
A contract was signed by North Ayrshire Council (NAC) for a PPP/PFI deal to build 4 schools. The council is now paying £1million a month to service the debt, and will be until about 2038.
At the time and leading up to its signature there were concerns amongst councillors about lack of transparency and procedures. A police investigation was launched in 2006 and “found no criminality”.
But the investigative skills of reporter Campbell Martin exposed clear evidence casting doubt as the probity of the bidding procedure (one of the two competitors was clearly a shell company created to give impression of multi-bidding. So there was no competition. The police missed the obvious!!! Did they really investigate as they claimed they had?
Campbell Martin’s exposure rattled cages in the council and wider afield and in February 2018, the Council, despite an amount of obfuscation and delaying tactics by senior Council officers asked the police to investigate the allegations again.
Feedback from the police revealed nothing new. Reporter Campbell Martin submitted a number of Freedom of Information requests to the police which went unanswered. And despite a formal intervention from the Data protection ombudsman to release full details of their investigations not a lot was released
But the ever dogged Campbell Martin kept on digging and finally revealed a “can of worms” so rotten even Sturgeon would not take the bait.
A bitter pill for the taxpayer to swallow was the action of a senior civil servant member of the government’s PFI team responsible for the imposition of the then Coalition government’s PFI policies
She convened a meeting with North Ayrshire Council councillors and stonewalled it shutting down any questioning revealing little information of any consequence. The civil servant was Leslie Evans!!!
Humza Yousaf was born on 7 April 1985 in Glasgow, Scotland. He enjoyed a trouble free lifestyle being privately educated at Hutchesons’ Grammar School, a fee paying independent school in Glasgow then going on to study Politics at the University of Glasgow, graduating with an MA in 2007.
He left university to work as a parliamentary assistant for a number of MSPs and has been financed from the public purse ever since. He has no experience of work outside the public sector.
In 2008, he took part in the International Visitor Leadership Program, a professional exchange sponsored by the US secret service and run by the US State Department.
In May 2011 he entered the Scottish Parliament as an additional member for the Glasgow region and was appointed Parliamentary Liaison Officer to the office of the First Minister.
On 5 September 2012, he was appointed Minister for External Affairs and International Development.
When Nicola Sturgeon became First Minister in November 2014, she appointed him Minister for Europe and International Development.
Transport Minister
On 18 May 2016, he was promoted Minister for Transport and the Islands and was at the centre of controversay and public criticism over the poor performance of ScotRail, with its trains facing severe delays, cancellations and overcrowding.
Sturgeon was called upon to sack him over his shambolic handling of transport after the prolific Twitter-using Transport Minister admitted he knew nothing about his brief as he tried to defend his failings.
He was quizzed by MSP’s at Holyrood over his administration’s handling of the beleaguered network amid stalled projects and declining services after it emerged the bill for rail upgrades had rocketed by £379 million.
The intervention became necessary when a report from quango Transport Scotland revealed the cost of five schemes had risen to £1.5 billion from £1.1 billion.
The transport workers union Aslef called for Mr Yousaf to be sacked amid a growing crisis on the railway network.
Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said: “The Scottish government response to the rail crisis has been pathetic. “Transport Minister Humza Yousaf has stood by while Abellio Scotrail takes Scotland’s passengers and taxpayers for a ride.
Cabinet Secretary for Justice..
On 26 June 2018, Sturgeon rewarded failure and promoted him to the Scottish Cabinet to serve as Cabinet Secretary for Justice (without holding a mandatory Law degree).
His first flagship policy was his controversial Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill, which he promised would streamline existing legislation as well as add additional protections to persecuted minorities while maintaining rights to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.
The bill was heavily criticised by the Catholic Church, the National Secular Society as well as writers, and in September 2020 he was forced to radically amend it removing prosecution for cases of unintendedly stirring up hate, which could theoretically include libraries stocking contentious books.
In October 2020, he went back on his word saying that the exception to the Public Order Act 1986 allowing people to use otherwise illegal language in their own homes should be abolished.
SNP veteran Jim Sillars described the bill as “one of the most pernicious and dangerous pieces of legislation ever produced by any government in modern times in any part of the United Kingdom”.
On the 10th June 2020, Humza Yousaf, MSP and Justice Secretary of the Scottish Parliament, held a speech in which he complained about racism in Scotland and that the majority of people in positions of power in the education, healthcare and justice sectors being white, although he failed to mention that 98% of the people in Scotland are white and this will be a contributing factor. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUCFDzzZLKI)
His social media shenanigans on Twitter got him into several scrapes when he was Justice Secretary.
He rushed to slam Rangers football players on Twitter for being filmed supposedly making sectarian chants – a video which was subsequently shown to be a fake, for which Yousaf refused to apologise.
The rush to judgement which was all the more troubling in light of his responsibility for the Scottish prosecution service.
The malicious prosecution of Rangers Football Club Directors was the illegal prosecution of innocent men in Scotland by the Crown Office and the Procurator Fiscal Service, with taxpayers being hit with a £51million and rising compensation bill with every penny being taken from front-line services.
A senior police officer who abused his power resigned, and a sheriff who abused his power is also resigning. Sturgeon and Yousaf the Cabinet Secretary for Justice remain silent on a scandal that contaminates Scottish justice.
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
The SNP was returned to government in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election and he was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care.
He disappointed the public with his response to the Covid pandemic with a botched attempt to grab a headline when he announced that ten children up to the age of nine had been admitted to Scottish hospitals in the previous week “because of Covid”.
Professor Steve Turner, Scotland officer for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, contradicted him and said that children’s wards were “not seeing a rise in cases with Covid” and added that the children in question had been hospitalised for other reasons.
Yousaf apologised for causing “any undue alarm”.
In July, the World Health Organisation concluded that six out of Europe’s ten virus hotspots were in Scotland.
Tayside topped the list with 1,002 cases per 100,000 head of population.
The Scottish Government was accused of being ‘missing in action’ after it emerged that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister John Swinney and Yousaf himself were all away on holiday at the time.
Yousaf said he had promised to take his stepdaughter to Harry Potter World, tweeting that: “Most important job I have is being a good father, step-father & husband to my wife and kids”.
In September 2021, the average waiting time for an ambulance in Scotland soared to six hours and his response was to urge the public to “think twice” before calling the emergency services.
Opposition politicians and the public criticised his offhand remark as “reckless messaging that could put lives at risk” and instead urged people to ignore him and call an ambulance if they thought they needed one.
Following reports of elderly Scots dying whilst waiting for an ambulance to arrive, he asked the Ministry of Defence for help and soldiers from the British Army were deployed to drive ambulances.
Audit Scotland concluded that 500 people died in Scotland in 2021 due to delayed access to emergency treatment.
Covid & PPE scandals
Haraldur Agustsson the CEO of Globus (Shetland) is a member of the notorious Tory dining club “The Leaders Group”. His company donated £400,000 to the Conservative Party since 2016, won a £93.8 million contract for the supply of FFP3 respirators.
The value of the contract being equivalent to the total revenue of the company over the past two years.
In 2019, the company turned over £50 million, following a £45.8 million turnover in 2018.
The UK Government awarded the deal without going to competitive tender, taking advantage of an EU loophole that allows governments to procure supplies rapidly during an emergency. None of the contracts cited in this article went to competitive tender.
Globus (Shetland) also arranged its subsiduary Alpha Solway’s partnership with the Scottish Government which began in 2020 when, albeit with no previous experience in making masks for healthcare use, the company received an order worth £53 million for 232 million surgical masks and 2 million visors to meet demand for Scotland’s health and social care sectors.
Globus saw spectacular growth in 2020 and 2021, such that the company’s valuation was put at more than £1 billion and its Alpha Solway subsidiary experienced an explosive revenue rise for the 12 months ending in May 2021 of over 420%, with pre-tax profits soaring by nearly 540 per cent, an increase from 2019 of over £23.5 million!
How did the Scottish experiment with transparent masks progress?
From a financial point of view, there is a equally disappointing and depressingly predictable picture.
In a press release in 2021 it was claimed that only 10 per cent of the masks had been distributed, leaving a further 2,070,000 in storage cupboards somewhere or destroyed.
An ending similar to that which Yousaf presided over earlier in the Covid crisis when half a million masks past their expiry date had to be withdrawn from NHS Scotland’s stockpile?
This represented, conservatively, a possible waste of public funds to the tune of £4.5Million, money that might have been spent on employing 130 nurses for a year.
And there is no hard evidence that a single life has been saved by the use of these masks; in fact, the very lack of PR by politicians or health executives since their unveiling suggests strongly that there have been no patient – or staff – benefits whatsoever.
Steerpike of “The Spectator” wrote:
“No man has blundered more regularly than Humza Yousaf. In the decade since his election to Holyrood he has established himself as the Forrest Gump of Scottish politics, popping up at a department every time it is bedevilled by controversy, misfortune or error. The botched launch of his much-vaunted Covid app is just the latest in a series of scandals which have stalked him through his years in public life.
Sturgeon’s resignation
Following the announcement of Nicola Sturgeon’s intention to resign as leader of the SNP and First Minister of Scotland, a leadership election was triggered and on 18 February 2023, he declared his candidacy to succeed Sturgeon.
At his campaign launch, He firmly backed the Gender Bill and gay marriage including the pursuit through the courts of the SNPs controversial gender legislation, despite it being a sticking issue for many faith groups including Islam.
The Self-ID policy would allow someone who is trans to hide their biological sex, a significant challenge for those who follow faiths that require distance between men and women.
It is feared that single-sex sports classes, swimming sessions and other services will no longer be an option for women who are not allowed to have physical contact or be alone with men regardless of gender identity.
During the committee stage of the Bill, the concerns of Orthodox Jews, Muslims and Sikhs were heard in relation to healthcare and single-sex spaces, where again, these individuals would require health services to provide a biologically female professional, or there is a risk of the community would not seek healthcare.
The Indian Council of Scotland claimed the Indian community will not feel safe if Humza Yousaf became First Minister. The move was backed up by the Muslim Council of the UK. A spokesman said:
“We as a community do not feel safe with Yousaf as the First Minister in Scotland. The Indian community – is a community of all faiths that includes Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, and Judaism. Our community is law-abiding, hard-working, and proud of our country. Yousaf attacked a nursery publicly and has now walked away without apology. Surely, his integrity must be called into question? He stoked up racial tensions in the Indian Hindu community, and this is not acceptable. Yousaf has been incompetent in every role that he served in from Justice to Transport and now Health. If he was the First Minister, it would be an economic disaster for Scotland. How can we have such a person as First Minister”?
Yousaf also previously avoided a key vote on gay marriage claiming that he could not avoid discussing the case of a Scot on death row in Pakistan but it was revealed that he requested a meeting with the Consul on the day of the vote, thereby creating a clash only two days after being told to be in parliament for the vote.
On Twitter when he was asked why he missed the vote, he responded saying:
“Meeting Pakistan Consul discussing Scot on death row accused under Blasphemy Law not one could/want avoid.” But Mr Ashgar was sentenced to death for blasphemy eight days after the meeting meaning his “death row” status was not known at the time the meeting was set up.
Personal life
Marriage One
Yousaf was married to Essex-born former SNP employee Gail Lythgoe from 2010 to 2016.
Lythgoe, a graduate teaching assistant at Glasgow University’s law school, was convener of the SNP’s student wing from 2010 to 2012 and sat on the SNP’s ruling national executive.
She was also a parliamentary assistant to SNP MSP Joan McAlpine, and worked at the Yes Scotland campaign in the 2014 referendum.
The split was not made public and only only emerged after Yousaf blamed it when he was fined £300 and had six penalty points added to his driving licence, after being caught by police driving a friend’s car without insurance.
Pleading guilty to the offence he said the incident was the result of stress brought about by his personal circumstances during his separation”.
Yousaf said the final split with his wife was amicable but since then she has left the SNP and actively urged people to vote for the Scottish Greens in the local election instead of the SNP. She wrote: Glasgow needs diversity not cult-like voting habits, vote green.”
Marriage two
In 2019, he married Nadia El-Nakla, a divorcee with one child and fathered a child with her.
He and his second wife had a case of discrimination upheld on technical grounds in the admission policy of a Dundee children’s nursery, who had refused to admit their child but it was found to be administrative issues rather than discrimination and they did not pursue the matter due to negative public feedback.
Nadia El-Nakla wife two
was previously married to Fariad Umar, an IT expert who in November 2015 suspected his wife of cheating on him and used computer software to examine her mobile phone history uncovering her affair with a fellow SNP member, local Councillor Craig Melville.
Of more concern to him, other than the affair was a string of vile racist texts the councillor had allegedly sent to his wife and he emailed some of them to the local SNP office and other politicians in December of that year, complaining about Melville’s alleged behaviour.
A response was not forthcoming from the SNP for over 2 years but finally following police intervention Melville appeared in Dundee Sherrif Court in January 2018, charged over the offensive messages.
In his evidence Faraid told the court he was so disgusted by the messages allegedly sent: “Initially, I was only thinking about the affair – but later I thought that someone in his elected position shouldn’t have these views so I sent them to MSPs and his bosses.
After what I had discovered, I thought he may not be giving the community the best. I thought it was serious so I left his bosses to investigate.”
Asked by prosecutor Joanne Smith what the party chiefs’ reaction was, he added: “No one has ever come back to me to say what was happening. I’m still waiting for an answer.”
Earlier, Fariad told the court he checked his wife’s text messages while she was sleeping because he thought she was having an affair.
He quickly became suspicious of an apparent conversation she had with her best friend Karen.
He said: “The language wasn’t what Karen would use so I checked the number with one I had for her on my phone and they were different.
When I called the Karen on my wife’s phone, a man answered.
I immediately hung up and confronted Nadia and she played down the relationship.
I then used the data recovery software to download all her deleted messages and discovered the racist texts I found concerning.
I didn’t like the messages at all because in some he was referring to God. I wasn’t happy with what I was reading.”
Fariad said he downloaded the texts onto a disc that was handed to police investigating a seperate allegation of an incident at the city’s mosque – a matter that was never brought to court.
Ms Smith asked him: “If it was suggested that you somehow manufactured or fabricated these messages, what would you say to that?”
He replied: “I’d say that’s a lie.”
Melville, 37, who resigned his post as a Dundee City councillor and aide to SNP MP Stewart Hosie over the allegations, is alleged to have sent the texts to Nadia on the two days after the 2015 Paris terror attacks.
The texts to Nadia El-Nakla – an aide to Health Minister Shona Robison – included one describing a Muslim youth worker in Dundee as a “horrible ct” and another saying “I just f***g hate your religion”.
One text allegedly read: “It’s not personal I just f*g hate your religion and I’ll do all in I’m life do defeat your filth.”
Another text said: “And in your favour we live in an uneducated left lift loopy left wing society who is more interested in claiming benefits and being ignorant to the threat of your horrible disease which is a make believe **** in the sky. “Horrible murdering Islamic *****.”
Another text said: “And Muslim politicians in the UK have a duty to speak out and educate. “That should be their number one priority, not staged photos taking refugees off boats and writing patronising messages of support.”
Earlier, the court heard Nadia admitting the affair with Melville.
She said she deliberately changed his name on her phone to Karen to avoid suspicion as they were calling and texting each other so much.
She said: “I would delete messages from Craig so my husband wouldn’t see them.
I had his name stored under the name of Karen because he messaged me all the time.
“My husband would be suspicious because we messaged constantly throughout the day.
“I showed the racist text messages to a friend on the Monday who was also a friend of Craig’s. I asked him, ‘I know people get drunk but is this a bit far or what?’
“I felt the messages were a wee bit harsh – but people say and do things when they’re drunk they don’t actually mean.”
The court also heard from Detective Constable Paul McIlravey who confirmed that no racist messages were actually recovered from Nadia’s phone and the only evidence provided to him was the CD given to him by Fariad.
Melville, of Marlee Road, Dundee, denied a charge under the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act, which is alleged to have been aggravated by religious prejudice.
Court documents allege that between November 13 and 15, 2015, at Marlee Road, Dundee, he behaved in a threatening and abusive manner towards El Nakla.
Prosecutors say he behaved in a way “likely to cause a reasonable person fear and alarm” by sending a series of messages that “contained threatening, abusive and derogatory remarks regarding Muslims”.
Guilty but appealing
Ex-SNP member Melville, 37, was found guilty of sending “reckless rather than threatening” racist texts to El-Nakla.
He was convicted of sending hateful messages to Nadia – who was also a political colleague – in which he blamed “horrible murdering Islamic *” for the Paris terrorist attacks in 2015.
After a three-day trial at Dundee Sheriff Court, Sheriff Scott Pattison found Melville guilty of the charge and fined him £1000.
However, the former politician is challenging his conviction at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.
Melville had denied sending a number of texts to Nadia that contained threatening, abusive and derogatory remarks regarding Muslims between November 13 and 15, 2015.
He also denied behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause fear or alarm, and that the offence was aggravated by religious prejudice.
During the case, Nadia told the court they had texted each other as news of the Paris attacks broke on November 13.
She said at that point Melville was calm but he became angry the following night and sent the texts.
One text read: “It’s not personal I just f hate your religion and I’ll do all in I’m life do defeat your filth. (sic)” Another said: “If I had a gun, I’d shoot a Muslim but I’m not brave enough.”
Asked by fiscal depute Joanne Smith how she felt about the texts, Nadia replied: “I was upset, I was confused and upset. He was very drunk and he wasn’t making any sense. The next day he called and apologised.”
She described their relationship as “friends” at the time the texts were sent. Nadia said her husband had taken her phone after discovering a text from Melville and had downloaded 14,000 pages of information, including many deleted texts.
Solicitor Douglas McConnell told the court after the verdict that Melville had since lost his job as environment convener on Dundee City Council. His political career was said to have also been destroyed and he was having to rebuild relationships with his family.
caltonjock 