Scottish independence, Alex Salmond plays the ‘race card’, is this to try and help SNP Muslim MEP candidate Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, Nationalists are so morally and politically bankrupt they resort to fear and scaremongering with Asian community

Dear All

In the past, the SNP Muslim MEP candidate Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh expressed concern that the Conservative Party was 'racist'.

It isn't.

She was also annoyed by the fact that she felt abandoned when she campaigned in Govan as the Conservative Candidate and that she should have gotten more help and support.

Ms. Ahmed-Sheikh does acting, but clearly she isn't a heroine or has access to miracles, because in Govan that is what she would need to win for the Scottish Conservatives.

On the issue of campaigning, as a candidate you take what you get and make the most of it, perhaps if she didn't get enough help then people weren't willing to work for her. That isn't a problem for the people; that is her problem, in exactly the same way as any other candidate without resources.

Simply put tough luck, you suck it up.

On her way out the door she decided to play the race card, she joins the list of people whose political careers just expired as being a serious force and credible.

If Ms. Ahmed-Sheikh doesn't get elected next week her only shot at political office would lie on a high placing on the Holyrood list.

Publicly unelectable in a first past the post situation, the SNP is her last chance saloon.

I mean it isn't likely that she can go to the Tories again or even Labour.

Now, Scotland's 'jolly fat man' Alex Salmond has also joined Ms. Ahmed-Sheikh to play the race card, this time, he wants Scots to stand up to Ukip's "politics of intolerance".

Alex Salmond has turned the SNP into the worst grudge, grievance and malcontent party in Scotland, so he has a bit of cheek to talk about being a champion against the "politics of intolerance", that is his stock in trade.

Ukip is a threat to the cosy status quo in the UK, their star is on the rise because they have tapped into the working class vote as well as the Conservative vote. People are looking hard at them, they are sizing them up as to whether to give them their vote next week. The Lib Dem vote has collapsed, the Scottish Greens have no chance; the Conservatives are hoping to hold with their candidate Ian Duncan and Scottish Labour should get their two MEPs returned.

So, Salmond has pitched into Ukip for being Eurosceptic and in the face of further accusations of racism and sexism against them.

Salmond's decision to play the race card found a ready audience in SNP Asian members, who tout themselves as senior members of Glasgow's Asian community.

Does anyone see Alex Salmond going to Catholic or Protestant Churches in the same way he and his party attempt to use the Mosque to get votes?

Also isn't it insulting that Salmond has to round up Muslims as a group to tell them who they should vote for, aren't Muslim people capable of making an individual decision?

I think so.

"Our diversity is our great strength and there is no better example of that than the Scots Asian community which has thrived … and helped to shape our country for the better. The anti-immigrant message being peddled by Ukip is one that leaves people in Scotland feeling deeply uncomfortable. We pride ourselves on being a welcoming, tolerant country and Ukip's brand of nasty intolerance has no place here."

Is that why there is Muslim vote rigging in the Scottish National Party, it is because of our diversity?

Is doing nothing about vote rigging 'tolerance' or is it best to keep quiet to secure Asian donations for the SNP and also secure their votes for Scotland's unpopular Deputy First Minster Nicola Sturgeon in Glasgow Southside?

Is that what he means by 'tolerance'?

Salmond says, "Ukip's brand of nasty intolerance has no place here."

But SNP vote rigging is acceptable, just as long as it happens to working class SNP members?

The Scottish National Party isn't a party of fairness, equality and social justice, that is just a lie, but like any lie, once people know that is the situation, they will make their own mind up and walk away.

Is there anything wrong with having an Asian elected to a public office?

The answer is no.

Is there anything wrong with rigging the vote in order to get them selected?

Yes, there is, and it isn't diversity that is the strength of what Salmond's says, it is racism, the only difference is that it is approved racism.

Everyone should have an equal chance that is suppose to be the case, they either stand or fall on their merits. People can see past many things but they will not see past cheating.

That is why the Scottish National Party will ultimately lose the Scotih independence referendum because the leadership has warped judgment.

As to Ms. Ahmed-Sheikh has she already been selected to stand against Labour MP Anas Sarwar in 2015?

If she has, she will be a token paper candidate.

It is highly unlikely that the SNP will get 3 candidates unless the Lib Dem vote collapses, in 2009 the SNP got 100,000 more votes than Labour but still got only two seats.

The SNP lying regarding EU membership may prove their undoing but in politics anything can happen. As I said; in my opinion she doesn't deserve to be elected let alone selected to be an MEP.

Given the poor lacklustre European election campaign of all the political parties, her chances seem on the surface slim. The SNP at the European Parliament like at Westminster have been utterly pathetic, adding Ms. Ahmed-Sheikh won't change that situation.

If Alex Salmond thinks scaremongering over Ukip will drive voters to SNP, then he has singly failed to grasp the problems, he has no vision of a new Europe and I doubt Ms. Ahmed-Sheikh has either.

Playing the race card, is that all you have got left Salmond?

Yours sincerely

George laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University