Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Salmond Alleges Dirty Tricks Campaign Against MacNeil

Alex Salmond has spoken out about the dirty tricks campaign being waged against his SNP colleague Angus MacNeil HERE and HERE. He alleges that MacNeil is being followed, has had strange phone calls to his house and that he has had to have his Westminster office swept for bugs. I cannot possibly think which rival political party would have anything to gain from seeing MacNeil's nose rubbed in it, can you? Bastards.

26 comments:

The Dirty Rat said...

Let's not forget that it was this sort of arrogant behaviour (dirty tricks,bugging B&E etc.) that felled Nixon and his cohorts.

Anonymous said...

It's all for the good of the country...

Anyone else think Blair is increasingly coming to resemble Francis Urqhuart at the end of The Final Cut? Without the endearing qualities...

Wrinkled Weasel said...

I am glad you are pursuing this story with the tenacity of a tenacious terrier.

There is indeed the distinct smell of Bastardy and it cometh from the Labour Party.

Bastards!!

Anonymous said...

I suggest a fresh election slogan for them,

New Labour: A New Low.

Anonymous said...

A very interesting comment on the Scotsman article you link to Iain and I think it displays what most Scots think of this issue and how Labour are going down the cludgie in the Western Isles and elsewhere in Scotland. A certain John MacLeod, says:

'I should add that I am a Free Church of Scotland communicant, in a very conservative island village, and presently an aspirant for its ministry.

I have heard no one, in this village or beyond or in the streets of Stornoway, discuss this sad but ineffably irrelevant episode in any other terms than those of sorrow, compassion and acknowledgement of generak human frailty.

In any event, Angus MacNeil is not the SNP candidate on 3rd May.

Alasdair Allan is, and I assure you flatly he is winning this election in the Western Isles. Local Labour activists already know this - their candidate's name is conspicuously absent from posters on local lamp-posts; their own canvass returns but confirm those of Nationalists - and at least one, of notorious character, has been touting this story round doorsteps for weeks.

As has already been darkly joked, Angus MacNeil is the first MP successfully to trigger a police investigation into a serving Prime Minister and the first to somehow manage to be embroiled in a "sex scandal" while entirely forgetting actually to have any sex.'

Anonymous said...

The BBC reported the protest response from the girls involved and their criticism of the newspaper. Strangely, the local Stornoway radio station Isles has not mentioned that the girls are challenging the paper report or that one of them has never gone to Shetland. Is this silence just a coincidence or what?

Anonymous said...

Of Course! The only explanation is that Alex Salmond is completely right.

Salmond's party has nothing to gain from moving the story away from MacNeil's 'antics' with teenage girls and implying that he is some kind of victim.

Old BE said...

Anyone else think Blair is increasingly coming to resemble Francis Urqhuart

The series certainly is food-for-thought! Urqhuart was supposed to be a Tory but I doubt any Tory PM has behaved as badly as the Labour Party are these days.

gadfly said...

This kind of tactics appear to be 'standard procedure' nowadays.
It's also been happening to us for a long time.
Last month we had to call the Police.

Tartan Hero said...

Ed... does that mean Cherie will fire the bullet so to speak?

Anonymous said...

"Salmond Alleges Dirty Tricks Campaign Against MacNeil "

SNP always throw muds around hoping it sticks. No news here

Anonymous said...

Talking of dirty tricks, why should Des Browne get the blame for the hostage mess when anyone in Westminster will tell you that Des takes his orders from Gordon Brown.

Anonymous said...

So, an SNP politician has a quick 'romp' in a Scottish hotel room, but doesn't actually do anything.

A Labour politician in a Scottish hotel room just sets fire to the curtains.

Come on! Bring back the Conservatives, then you can have the good old days of pin-striped old-Etonians being strung up by the nipples and getting rogered good and proper.

On a serious note, though, is Angus McNeil losing his hair? He could be tottering down the Oaten path any minute.

On an even more serious note, I know everyone wants to see Labour get booted in the polls, but I'm right in thinking that Alex Salmond is a feckless idiot, aren't I?

Anonymous said...

hamish [12.16 PM] What is a cludgie, please? Am I right in assuming it is something deeply unpleasant?

Anonymous said...

Machiavelli

yes, either that or like Clinton trashing the White House just before he leaves.........

Allegedly

Anonymous said...

Cludgie

Anonymous said...

The John MacLeod from Lewis is - of course - the "Soham girls deserved it for being out on a Sunday" John MacLeod, late of the Herald.

With friends like that ....

Anonymous said...

Cops have looked into Salmond claims about bugs and followers-on with no success: http://www.hebrides.150m.com/page114.html

Anonymous said...

Anyone else notice that the very supportive "Hebrides News" www.hebrides.biz, is registered at the same postcode as the SNP office (HS1 2DU). By coincidence Angus MacNeil's case worker is a former BBC journalist.

Anonymous said...

anonymous - Anyone else notice that the very supportive "Hebrides News" www.hebrides.biz, is registered at the same postcode as the SNP office (HS1 2DU)

No it isn't, it's registered at postcode HS1 2YZ.

Word has it there's a kebab shop just round the corner from Tony Blair's house...

Anonymous said...

Anthony: Thanks. It has moved today to the local sorting office (PO Box 100 perchance?) after media enquiries. There is no other building with that post code or in that vicinity.

Anonymous said...

HS1 2DU is also at the Bridge Community Centre which proudly displayed a big Labour banner and the stage for a convenient photo opportunity for Alasdair Morrison on the run up for the election.

Chris Paul said...

You load of tossers. Like Tories wouldn't be onto this like rats up a drainpipe if it were a Labour or Lib Dem MP who turned up doing "other stuff I don't want anyone to know about" with two teenagers just two weeks before his wife gave birth, and 10 weeks after being elected by a teeny 6,000 voters in the Western Isles.

The man was working as a PRIMARY SCHOOL teacher at the time.

Gailic lesson HERE.

Are you trying to protect Angus Iain because he may defect to Tories? SNP and Tories are plotting to link in a set adrift Scotland? Because you really are trying to fan the flames while protesting the other way? (Clever) Or a story is about to break (and not one from 1982) of Tory infidelities with youngsters? Which is it?

You really cannot pretend there is not some news value in the story from your friends at the Mail.

Chris Paul said...

This line that "nothing happened" is wrong. All that didn't happen is "full sex". Shades of Clinton/Lewinsky. The vicar's daughter admits that she did "other stuff" with MacNeil that she doesn't want anyone to know about. Hence talking to the papers. Their music is lovely btw.

Anonymous said...

yeah although i quite like macneil and think hes done a good job with cash for peerages a politician who gets caught in this position will always get this response. this has been a pretty big story in the scottish press esp in the sun record etc. also john macleod though he is an undeniably brilliant journalist of good right wing leanings is a SNP man so comments taken in that context. this will definitely be an issue locally as the western isles are very socially conservatve - there were protests when a ferry route was opened on a sunday remember. and also at the general election macneil benefited hugely from the fact the labour candidate was outed as gay and faced a homophobic barage from the christian party candidate. still quite like macneil though n feel a bit sorry for him.

Anonymous said...

"Outed as gay." What a load of smearing tosh. Ask Reverend Hargreaves. He said no such thing. This seriously libellous nonsense must be removed now.