Hateful bigotry from Nairn's SNP Councillor on Highland Council

(Please see UPDATES at end)

Nairn has four Councillors on Highland Council and one of these is Councillor Liz MacDonald, who represents the SNP. The article below appeared in our local [weekly] newspaper yesterday:

Councillor MacDonald (SNP) stands by her "butcher's apron" remark to Labour man - article appearing in "Nairnshire Telegraph" 19th August 2014 (Unfortunately our local weekly newspaper in Nairn does not have an on-line presence.) - Hateful bigotry from Nairn SNP Councillor Liz MacDonald - Click here to see an enlargement. Click here to see an enlargement.

Whilst I find her "chip-on-shoulder" and plain nasty views deplorable, it is at least good that these have been exposed in our local newspaper. I think that all her comments deserve a good 'fisking', but I think this particular extract from the article above of one of her quoted remarks illustrates perfectly the kind of person she is:

"I was surprised that he had gone to the press about it because it was a tweet between us."

How naïve does someone have to be to make such a comment? Presumably if she had wished it to remain private she would not have tweeted publicly about it (but see below), but perhaps sent a 'direct message' instead, nor would she then have spoken about it to a reporter from "The Nairnshire". However, this particular remark says something more about Councillor Liz; this person, an elected Councillor, has a habit of blocking people from viewing her Twitter feed who have criticised anything she has tweeted in support of the SNP. For example, I am myself blocked from viewing her tweets because a couple of months ago I responded to a tweet from her suggesting, in response to one of my tweets, that I should get a copy of "Scotland's Future" to enable me to comment knowledgeably. This is a document put out by the Scottish Government (which currently is SNP led). I responded that I had indeed ordered this document soon after it was published and that I had subsequently read it cover to cover. I also commented that I found it merely a propaganda document (a 'manifesto' if you will) for the SNP and that it is vague on detail and provides no real factual information to allow people to make an educated and considered decision on how to vote in the forthcoming referendum. It is really just a very lengthy list of forecasts and wishful thinking. I realised some time later that Councillor Liz had blocked me as a result and I am aware that others locally have been blocked by her too, for having had the temerity to dissent from SNP 'dogma'. To be clear, I was never rude to her, but it is equally clear that she is unwilling to engage in meaningful debate and frankly doubt she merits holding public office with such a closed-minded attitude toward free debate. Our local newspaper "The Nairnshire" has performed a valuable public service by revealing the attitudes of our SNP Councillor when it comes to open debate.

Finally, it is unsurprising to me that the "The Nairnshire" article has gone unmentioned so far in another well-known Nairn blog; the writer is a supporter of the SNP cause and is usually very quick to comment on important articles appearing in our local 'rag'. Perhaps realising the devastating 'own goal' which the remarks and tweets made by Councillor Liz represent, he has preferred to draw a veil over it? She may regret that someone has decided to publicise her noisome tweets, but Twitter is part of social media and she will have to get used to it - or alternatively she might care to go into a sound-proofed room where she would be able to spew out her hateful rhetoric to her heart's content and not risk others becoming aware of her bigotry.

This article expands upon my tweet on this topic earlier today, here.

UPDATE (Wednesday 20AUG2014 16.45 BST) I have just noticed that our local councillor Liz MacDonald has unblocked me on Twitter; I can't say precisely when or why this has happened, but perhaps it is as a result of this blog article and my tweet earlier today. In any case I wanted to record this fact and that I am pleased about it.

2nd UPDATE (Tuesday 30DEC2014 21.18 GMT) As a result of visits to this article over the past couple of days and the last few weeks from some major media organisations (e.g. BBC and BSkyB amongst others), I decided to [try and] visit Ms MacDonald's twitter feed (@Liz_Nairn) this evening and discovered that I have once more been blocked from viewing it or following it; I have no idea how soon after I mentioned above that I had been 'unblocked' I was 'reblocked' as I don't follow her tweets and have not attempted to visit her Twitter feed since I last wrote here about it. Undoubtedly my article, entirely accurate and factual as it is of course, is acutely embarrassing to this person, but quite frankly it was/is no more than she deserved/deserves. I read a few days ago that it is now SNP policy to block 'dissenters' from their 'dogma' systematically and although I have no idea of the accuracy of the comment I read about this (in Facebook, as it so happens, in one of the pages I follow there) it does seem to have the ring of truth, for the SNP does seem to be a deeply 'paranoid' and closed-minded organisation.

Celebrating the big "10 years" of blogging

It was today, 10 years ago, that I began this blog. To be quite honest, I am pretty surprised I made it! The frequency of adding blog articles here has been much less than in earlier years - partly this has been a result of some difficult events in my personal life (for example I mentioned some of these in my article to mark the 9-year anniversary, a year ago), but has also been affected by the other blog I started 4 1/2 years ago to deal with matters "Spanish" as undoubtedly many of the articles I now write there would otherwise have appeared in this blog. In fact, this is the sixth year I have been in Spain over my blogging anniversary, as I now spend about three months here every Spring and a further month or two here in the Autumn as well. On other matters, I decided to put off any thought of moving home in the UK as I had indicated might happen a year ago - basically I like where I am already there (the north of Scotland) too much so I decided to put any idea of moving 'on hold' for the time being, but who knows what will happen next; I have a feeling this story has a little way more to run ..

It is probably true that this blog has become a little less strident and overtly 'political' over the past couple of years, because whilst I still feel strongly about many of the major issues I have always been interested in (politics, current affairs, 'gay' issues, etc) it is also true that there is now a government in power in the UK much more congenial to my general outlook on life; the current Coalition government certainly has its faults, but it is to my way of thinking a much more rationally run outfit that that run by our last two Labour Prime Ministers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown; both were political charlatans, but Brown in particular, both during his time as Chancellor of the Exchequer and his disastrous and mercifully relatively brief period as Prime Minister, presided over an unprecedented 'trashing' of the British economy, the consequences of which we will as a country be living with for many years and very probably for the remainder of my life. Another factor in my lessened 'stridency' here is that what is still the world's most powerful country, the US, is no longer run by George W Bush; the current President, Barack Obama, has proved pretty disappointing of course, but is immeasurably better than his predecessor; one must hope that if the American people do decide to change horses later this year they opt for the least-bad likely alternative, Mitt Romney, rather than the frankly alarming Rick Santorum!

As well as my other 'Spanish' blog, I have of course for some years made use of Twitter as I find it a very convenient way of giving voice to my thoughts on various issues which before it existed would probably have been fodder for blog articles here; I do use Facebook, too, but this tends to be mainly a repository of feeds from my Twitter account. However, I expect I'll be continuing to blog here for a good while yet whenever there are controversial topics of interest to me to talk about. To those who have been kind enough to visit my little blog over the years I can only repeat how grateful and honoured I am to have you here and I hope you will continue to join me here in the future, too.

Facebook account deleted

(Please see UPDATE at end)

I have just permanently deleted my Facebook account. It is very difficult to find out how to do this, but I have finally managed it. Apparently my data will be retained for two weeks, in case I change my mind, but I think this most unlikely. I am currently in process of removing all references to my former Facebook account in my other websites and blogs.

On one previous occasion I 'deactivated' my Facebook account, because at that time it seemed impossible to delete it, but was persuaded back for various reasons, but those reasons have disappeared. I continue to use Twitter, which I find a much more congenial and less obtrusive platform.

UPDATE (Tuesday 7FEB2012 08.02 GMT) I have resurrected my Facebook account, but will be restricting severely the way I use it from now on; I will not (at least for the present) be adding back the link to it here. Apart from a few specific uses (to exchange information with one or two people only), the only motivation for me to return is to retain the username and not allow it to be used by someone else in the future - I'm afraid I cannot write anything more positive.

Marking 9 years of blogging

Yesterday 3rd April 2011 marked the ninth anniversary of this blog; I can't on this occasion think of this as an occasion for 'celebration', to be very frank, but do want to 'mark' it. It has been a difficult year for me personally and this has been reflected in the [lack of] frequency of new articles posted to this blog:
April 2010 - 18 articles
May 2010 - 6 articles
June 2010 - 10 articles
July 2010 - 11 articles
August 2010 - 7 articles
September 2010 - 12 articles
October 2010 - 9 articles
November 2010 - 4 articles
December 2010 - 4 articles
January 2011 - 9 articles
February 2011 - 7 articles
March 2011 - 4 articles

In the earlier part of the year (March to early June 2010) I was spending my usual extended break in Spain, but in May I had visitors so blogged less. When I returned back to Scotland in mid-June I had many personal matters to deal with, probably the most important being the by then rapidly-declining health of my late mother, who passed away in October. For most of November and December I blogged very little in the aftermath of that emotional trauma, but am probably now beginning to get back on to a more even emotional keel. I have now been back in Spain for about a month and will be here until mid-June and am much enjoying it (except for the hay-fever that I seem to suffer from here, unlike any other place I have ever lived or visited - I can only assume some of the plants here are the cause), although I shall be travelling across to the UK in early May for a few days to continue my tentative planning for a move of my UK home from the north of Scotland to the south of England - I mentioned this in an article in January, just prior to a visit there in early February; my visit again next month is to see the 'target area' again in Spring and assuming that I decide to go ahead with this plan I will probably put the 'wheels in motion' when I return to Scotland in mid-June. So whilst the past year, 'year 9' for this blog, has been a somehwat difficult one the coming year may well see major personal changes for me, which I hope to write about here from time to time admixed with a blend of articles on economics, politics, current and social matters of the kind I have been writing about for the past nine years.

I hope those who take the trouble to visit this blog, or read some of my Tweets or Facebook thoughts find something of interest to enjoy, amuse or infuriate you and that you'll join me from time to time on my journey over the coming year.

"Moray Firth Live" - who they?

I've just been followed on Twitter by something called Moray Firth Live (their 'Twitter' link).

In their Twitter profile page they link to their website; click on the About link from there and you get this:

MorayFirthLive About Moray Firth Live is a local news aggregration service for the area around the coast of the Moray Firth from Thurso to Fraserburgh. We aggregate headlines and links to local news services. We also have our own journalists and photographers who want to hear from you. We can cover local events in words, audio and video, and update them accordingly. We are a community news vehicle and encourage local people to get in touch with their news, pictures or videos. Remember, we don’t know what’s going on unless somebody tells us, then we’ll spread the word.

A WhoIs search for the domain registry "morayfirthlive.com" reveals it to originate from an address in Forres, with the person behind it having his Twitter page here and the website link from there taking you here (a blog, at the time of writing, last updated on 9th March 2009); the about page from there gives this information:

Marc Hindley is a technical entrepreneur. He has worked between journalism and IT for the last 20 years, and now is lead developer with web design agency Canary Dwarf. He also runs Moray IT Services, which provides computer support for small businesses and is slowly moving into niche markets such as data security and VOIP. I his journalistic capacity, he supplies the leisure marine publishing industry with news and pictures through Moray Firth Press Agency and is planning to opena small media consultancy, Clava. He writes three monthly newsletters, WebSense, MediaTech and GreenIT, and two blogs at www.marchindley.co.uk and www.canarydwarf.co.uk/blog/. Combining his skills, he advises publishers on new technology, particularly wireless newsgathering and digital/print convergence.

So, now we get to it. Wouldn't it just have been simpler to say who is behind MorayFirthLive in its own 'about' page, rather than the opaque (and somewhat 'grandiose') nonsense that is there? If that had been done I wouldn't have had to waste valuable time doing a bit of 'forensic' web research. In any case, I shall be 'following' the Twitter page for Moray Firth Live at least for a while to see how it develops. I'm not sure what the real 'value added' will be, given that there are a number of bloggers along the Moray coast already doing this 'grass-roots' news gathering, but let's see how it goes.

Bill on Twitter

I've just joined Twitter a short time ago and have so far been testing and trying to learn. I've posted messages both on the web from my PC, also thru my mobile (cell) 'phone. It all seems to be working as 'described on the tin'. Next stage will be to customise my Twitter page a little and to try and customise a little how the embed appears in the blog (see right column of blog near the top for this).

To follow me on Twitter, go here.