Dear All
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know I am not a fan of Tory MSP Bill Aitken.
Aitken has out done himself this time, even by ‘Nasty’ Scottish Tory standards when be blunted out by suggestion that the latest victim of rape in Glasgow may have been a prostitute.
Bill Aitken, shadow minister for community safety.
He should be sacked from that position with immediate effect.
Aitken has since apologised to the woman after making the comments in an interview with the Sunday Herald.
This is another example of why people of Scotland don’t vote Tory and never will.
The Scottish Tories are as former PPC Heather McLeod a party of ‘nasty vipers’.
In a former existence Aitken has been a District Court Judge, Justice of the Peace and is a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Glasgow.
I think there is scope for stripping him of the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Glasgow and as to his position as convenor of the Scottish Parliament’s justice committee which helps formulates rape laws.
Completely untenable!
Annabel Goldie has to take swift action if she doesn’t it will further expose her as the weak leader she has been painted to be.
Police officers, the public and women’s organisations have reacted with outrage to his stupid ill judged claims.
Sandy Brindley, national co-ordinator of Rape Crisis Scotland, said Aitken’s comments were “an extraordinary response to an awful crime” which created “a culture where women are scared to come forward and report a rape”.
She added:
“His attitude is completely out of step with what the law says and what we should be thinking as a society. For far too long there’s been the attitude if you are involved in prostitution you cannot be a victim of rape. Women who are raped need support, not a climate that’s asking blaming questions about what they were doing.”
Tories are always ‘out of step’.
Detectives from Strathclyde Police are still hunting for three men of Middle Eastern appearance who dragged the 38-year-old woman off Renfield Street in the city centre and raped her in a lane.
This is the fourth city-centre sex attack since Christmas and Police believe different gangs are responsible.
His Sunday Herald interview shows just how insensitive Aitken is, his rhetoric of law and order of the past stripped away to reveal what a nasty little man he is.
Here is his comments when asked on the series of so-called “lane rapes”.
Aitken said:
“I really think we need to know a bit more about these. They are not always as they seem to be, put it that way.”
He then disputed the location of the attack, and said:
“If this woman was dragged halfway through the town then it just couldn’t possibly happen. So has nobody asked her what she was doing in Renfrew Lane?
“Somebody should be asking her what she was doing in Renfrew Lane. Did she go there with somebody? ... Now, Renfrew Lane is known as a place where things happen, put it that way.”
Asked to clarify, he said:
“It’s an area where a lot of the hookers take their clients. Now that may not have happened in this case. But you know ... what was happening? There’s always a lot more to these city-centre rapes than meets the eye.”
Aitken also said a lot of rape allegations are falsely made by drunk women – but had no research to back this up:
He further added:
“The police say there’s a lot of drunken carry-ons that result in rape allegations which are subsequently dropped, put it that way. I think there might be fear, if they are worried that somebody talks …and the word gets back to the boyfriend.”
And we have allowed him to make laws at Holyrood.
Detectives in Glasgow were “incredulous”.
One senior source said:
“Is he saying she deserved it? It’s mind-boggling. How will that poor girl feel?”
Yesterday, Annabel Goldie, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, refused to condemn Aitken.
Maybe she needs to think again, her position as leader is rapidly becoming untenable after the Sanderson Report.
A party leader would have no hesitation in dealing out swift action.
Goldie said:
“Rape is an abhorrent crime for women, regardless of who the woman is.”
Asked whether she would condemn Aitken, she said:
“I’ve no further comment.”
Asked whether she “stands by” Aitken, she turned and walked away.
Why do people not vote Tory?
You have the answer in black and white; they simply don’t care about Scotland and its people.
Bill Aitken is a Glasgow list MSP who has never been voted into Holyrood by the will of the people.
Luckily for the people of Glasgow and Scotland he is standing down in May 2011.
Annabel Goldie deserves to lose the leadership of the Scottish Tories.
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know I am not a fan of Tory MSP Bill Aitken.
Aitken has out done himself this time, even by ‘Nasty’ Scottish Tory standards when be blunted out by suggestion that the latest victim of rape in Glasgow may have been a prostitute.
Bill Aitken, shadow minister for community safety.
He should be sacked from that position with immediate effect.
Aitken has since apologised to the woman after making the comments in an interview with the Sunday Herald.
This is another example of why people of Scotland don’t vote Tory and never will.
The Scottish Tories are as former PPC Heather McLeod a party of ‘nasty vipers’.
In a former existence Aitken has been a District Court Judge, Justice of the Peace and is a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Glasgow.
I think there is scope for stripping him of the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Glasgow and as to his position as convenor of the Scottish Parliament’s justice committee which helps formulates rape laws.
Completely untenable!
Annabel Goldie has to take swift action if she doesn’t it will further expose her as the weak leader she has been painted to be.
Police officers, the public and women’s organisations have reacted with outrage to his stupid ill judged claims.
Sandy Brindley, national co-ordinator of Rape Crisis Scotland, said Aitken’s comments were “an extraordinary response to an awful crime” which created “a culture where women are scared to come forward and report a rape”.
She added:
“His attitude is completely out of step with what the law says and what we should be thinking as a society. For far too long there’s been the attitude if you are involved in prostitution you cannot be a victim of rape. Women who are raped need support, not a climate that’s asking blaming questions about what they were doing.”
Tories are always ‘out of step’.
Detectives from Strathclyde Police are still hunting for three men of Middle Eastern appearance who dragged the 38-year-old woman off Renfield Street in the city centre and raped her in a lane.
This is the fourth city-centre sex attack since Christmas and Police believe different gangs are responsible.
His Sunday Herald interview shows just how insensitive Aitken is, his rhetoric of law and order of the past stripped away to reveal what a nasty little man he is.
Here is his comments when asked on the series of so-called “lane rapes”.
Aitken said:
“I really think we need to know a bit more about these. They are not always as they seem to be, put it that way.”
He then disputed the location of the attack, and said:
“If this woman was dragged halfway through the town then it just couldn’t possibly happen. So has nobody asked her what she was doing in Renfrew Lane?
“Somebody should be asking her what she was doing in Renfrew Lane. Did she go there with somebody? ... Now, Renfrew Lane is known as a place where things happen, put it that way.”
Asked to clarify, he said:
“It’s an area where a lot of the hookers take their clients. Now that may not have happened in this case. But you know ... what was happening? There’s always a lot more to these city-centre rapes than meets the eye.”
Aitken also said a lot of rape allegations are falsely made by drunk women – but had no research to back this up:
He further added:
“The police say there’s a lot of drunken carry-ons that result in rape allegations which are subsequently dropped, put it that way. I think there might be fear, if they are worried that somebody talks …and the word gets back to the boyfriend.”
And we have allowed him to make laws at Holyrood.
Detectives in Glasgow were “incredulous”.
One senior source said:
“Is he saying she deserved it? It’s mind-boggling. How will that poor girl feel?”
Yesterday, Annabel Goldie, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, refused to condemn Aitken.
Maybe she needs to think again, her position as leader is rapidly becoming untenable after the Sanderson Report.
A party leader would have no hesitation in dealing out swift action.
Goldie said:
“Rape is an abhorrent crime for women, regardless of who the woman is.”
Asked whether she would condemn Aitken, she said:
“I’ve no further comment.”
Asked whether she “stands by” Aitken, she turned and walked away.
Why do people not vote Tory?
You have the answer in black and white; they simply don’t care about Scotland and its people.
Bill Aitken is a Glasgow list MSP who has never been voted into Holyrood by the will of the people.
Luckily for the people of Glasgow and Scotland he is standing down in May 2011.
Annabel Goldie deserves to lose the leadership of the Scottish Tories.
What happened to principled opposition on behalf of the people Annabel?
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
1 comment:
Good post. I have written to Annabel Goldie and to the Herald asking for her to clarify her position and make a statement about Aitken's future. No response from her yet. There is a Facebook group calling for him to be removed from his position as Convenor of the Justice Committee.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bill-Aitken-Must-Go-Campaign-for-a-New-Scottish-Justice-Convener/194959127189544
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