Alex Salmond under pressure to sack SNP Candidate Lyall Duff over anti Catholic attack on midwifes, party suspend him but still a candidate on ballot!

Dear All

As another example, if it were needed of how the tide has turned against the SNP, Alex Salmond is under pressure to sack an SNP council candidate.

The reason is the SNP council candidate has described two Catholic midwives who took legal action for the right to boycott abortions as “money-grabbing old witches”.

Lyall Duff who is standing for the Nationalists in North Lanarkshire, in true cyber nat style suggested Mary Doogan and Concepta Wood should be fired and forced to become cleaners.

Is this another attack on the working class?

Is this an attack because they are Catholic?

Is this an attack because they are women?

Duff has urged NHS bosses to “show them what a mop and bucket look like.”

Who the f*ck does Duff think he is because someone objects to abortions because of their Catholic beliefs?

In a really spiteful and unbelievably nasty attack, he poured scorn on their claims to be “conscientious objectors”.

This cannot be anything else accept an attack on the Catholic religion.

Duff also took time out from the campaign trail and compared them to animal lovers working in an abattoir and questioned why they chose to join the health service in the first place.

People join the health service as Doctors and Nurses to save lives, but in a hospital those other people such as auxiliary staff, porters and security also play their part in providing an environment of care for those most in need.

In a series of expletive-ridden rants worthy of Tommy Ball and posted on the internet, Duff also said that RBS branch staff should be burned.

The Catholic Church last night said the comments displayed a deep-seated “bigotry” and warned the religion’s followers would abandon the SNP if he was retained as a candidate for the Murdostoun ward in May’s elections.

The SNP has been trying to woo Catholics for sometime as the party was previously seen to be very much anti Catholic.

Everyone remembers Billy Woolf and his objection to the Pope’s visit which was a significant event not just for Catholics but for the whole of Scotland.

At an SNP GRA meeting, a warning was sent out to people who blog and tweet to exercise caution because the SNP press team was snowed under fire fighting because of comments made by SNP candidates, some of whom will never be politicians but are just hacks.

The emergence of Duff’s comments is another blow for Alex Salmond’s hopes of the SNP taking control of North Lanarkshire Council from the Labour Party.

In the provinces things are a bit tribal so his comments will go down like a lead balloon.

But the SNP are stuck with him as a Nationalist candidate, they have made their bed now they will have to lie in it.

The furore of the SNP being an anti Catholic could also damage Mr Salmond's hopes of victory in Glasgow which has a large Catholic population.

As I said previously last month Senior SNP Activist Tommy Ball resigned as a party activist after stating on Twitter that six British soldiers who died in Afghanistan deserved no sympathy because they were a “bunch of child killers”.

Ball then went on in his blog to allege that the Pollok SNP branch considered me to be a ‘notorious racist’ and that I was not welcome.

It was a hateful post by Tommy Ball, a close personal friend and drinking buddy of the SNP Candidate Chris Stephens but it gave information which had been relayed by others previously.

The funny thing was I was the only person to stand up for an Asian Candidate who was being abused and smeared during candidate selection as all the current SNP Candidates in both the Pollok and Craigton Wards did nothing to stop it.

Tommy Ball in his blog would go on to accuse the SNP of bringing forward anti Catholic legislation.

Other political parties and organisations have condemned Mr. Duff and given what he said, who cannot believe they have a case.

Peter Kearney, spokesman for the Catholic Church, said:

“What is most disturbing with these comments are that they display a bigotry which indicate a deep seated intolerance of others. We assume, as regards the SNP, it is his political career that is over, for the Nationalists cannot afford to endanger their honeymoon relationship with the Catholic and pro-life communities.”

Mark Griffin, a Labour MSP for Central Scotland, said:

“It is probably the most disgusting abuse ever levelled by a mainstream candidate in Scotland. The SNP must expel this man from their party today and they should apologise for recommending him for public office. They must answer very serious questions about why he was allowed to stand in the first place.”

Frank Roy, the Labour MP for Motherwell and Wishaw, added:

“Staff working in the bank branches are not responsible for the mistakes of Fred Goodwin and should not be threatened with any kind of attack, let alone being burned down.”

An SNP spokesman said:

"Mr Duff has been suspended from membership of the SNP pending a full investigation into the comments attributed to him, which are wholly unacceptable."

Anti Catholic, no way back from that bunny.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University