A Very Scottish Election; Deviants, Mad Paedos, Nonce Enablers, Granny Home Killers, Mentally Deranged, Race Card Players and a support cast, make Holyrood 2021 Election entertainment for all the family, the Freak Show Election just rolls on, but current novelty act is an Alba Party campaigner who is a murderer who killed best man with hammer, and drove a 16 inch knife through his eye, how is a murderer out of place in this line up, surely the press could reel in a big fish instead of a political minnow?

Dear All 

Alex Salmond once said during First Minister's Questions when asked a question about future meetings with Tony Blair, "he doesn't write, he doesn't call". At the time, it was a rather witty comeback to what is a 'stock'  question. The gib was aimed at Tony Blair and the Labour Party back in 2007 which was a watershed moment in Scottish politics. It was watershed not just because of the defeat of the Labour Party that year led by Jack McConnell, but also because it ushered in 14 years of Labour intransigence. No effort was made to reset, restore and rebuild the party, hence the party went through leaders like water from a tap who couldn't be bothered to fix it, after all, they had their list seat. In the four years to the 2011 election, the Labour Party had ceased to be an opposition, this cement the SNP in power. In truth, in the 14 years and various leaders that the party had, there was no appetite to fix Scottish Labour which was rather strange. I could go on about polling etc but that would detract from the main point in mentioning the party, Scottish Labour has bad leaders. 

Just recently, I watched the Scottish Labour Party advert, it says vote Labour for a "national recovery plan and a better opposition". You can see the mixed message, you cannot have a "national recovery plan" without being the government of Scotland. And if all you aspire to be is to be a "better opposition", then you cannot put any plan into operation. People who support the Union aren't interested in a 'better opposition', they want a new government, they want the SNP out. Also, this 'better opposition', this begs the question, who assesses if you are in fact are? Is this self assessment or self id? 

The reason, I used the quote, "he doesn't write, he doesn't call" isn't because it is a good comeback, I am sure if I had time other interesting quotes would have surfaced, I wanted to take you back in time. The reason why is faux outrage as practiced by political parties, because, it ties into a story today about a murderer campaigning for Alex Salmond's party. Back in the day, Jack McConnell passed Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane, she works out of Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, however, she is also Glasgow Uni and does charity, that is how I know her. One day, we bumped into each other in passing, and struck a conversation on law, it was good to chat to someone with her knowledge. Anyway, I asked her who passed her as a judge, she said she was appointed by Jack McConnell, the then Labour leader, I suppose it was irony that the same judge that Jack McConnell appointed was also the same judge who tried Jack McConnell's sister for stealing the sum of £9,000. 

In the digital age, the past is never forgotten, and there are several sites to visit, wiki does a good line in UK political scandals. Even in the upcoming Hartlepool by-election there is a sex offender standing, Christopher Killick, who is on the ballot for the May 6 vote. He was sentenced for voyeurism last year for filming a naked woman in a hotel room while she was asleep. If you want to know how serious Christopher Killick is about standing for election, he has since moved to Hartlepool where he is seeking to stand for MP. You could say that 'standards' have declined, but that would be inaccurate, standards have worsen considerably over decades. On the surface you could be supporting someone who appears respectable, below the surface, they could be an out and out deviant, a pervert or a serious criminal. 

One of the most interesting and in some ways depressing stories was the tale of Eric Joyce, and his fall from grace. Eric Joyce was a UK politician who was tipped back in the day as a possible defence minister in the Blair Government. After a fight in a bar at Westminster while drunk, his career nosedived. After this incident, there was an episode of his car crashing, and his refusal to take a breath test. He was banned rightly from driving, lost his licence for a year and was fined £400, unfortunately these episodes didn't shock Joyce into turning his life around. His final fall from grace was pretty much the lowest of the low, Eric Joyce had a 51-second film on a device that showed "the sexual abuse of very young children". This was a category A film, the most serious there is, accessed by Joyce between August 2013 and November 2018. It featured what appeared to be seven different children, aged between 12 months and seven years. During his trial, the prosecution presented evidence that he had searched "for material for five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10-year-old girls". Every now and again, I find stories, sometimes political and non political of someone who had it all, and messed it all up in the most toxic fashion. When you look at people who end up as politicians in the main parties, they come from similar backgrounds, professional backgrounds. In writing this, I did a bit of research, and came across this site.  

https://www.ibbclaims.co.uk/site/services/child-abuse-and-trafficking/convicted-offenders/  

The crimes are unforgivable, but what also caught my eye is the column where it listed their profession. Teachers, Doctors, Social workers, Priests, Coaches, Actors, Pop singers and Scout leaders, all having committed serious offences. This is the type of professions which are seen to be potential politicians of today. So, when I read that a murderer who stabbed his best man in the eye and battered him with a claw hammer has been unveiled as a campaigner for Alex Salmond’s Alba party. I have to ask why now, and if there is a point to the story other than faux outrage? Although, I mention it in passing, I was stabbed once, 42 stitches in 3 wounds, chest, lower arm and upper arm. If the knife which stabbed me in the chest hadn't bounced off a rib, you would be reading this post. One thing about blood when stabbed, it comes out very fast and it spreads into a large pool every quickly. I have to say, it makes you feel very cold due to rapid blood loss. Being stabbed is bad, but the aftermath of the mental flashbacks take some time to get over. On a physical level, your body appears to sag if that makes any sense, and the tiredness is something else, both mental and physical. But enough of little old me, let's take about John Tough. Tough had admitted killing his best man after claiming he indecently assaulted his then wife, but denied intending to murder him. A jury found him guilty at the age of 23.  

23 is old enough to know better, the killing of the victim was rather brutal, he drowned in his own blood. Tough was jailed for 11 years after he attacked his victim with a claw hammer, a bottle and household items. The one which will probably shock you was the 16-inch knife which was buried through an eye socket. I suppose the question is, should John Tough who served his sentence be continuously punished for the rest of his life. And I suppose what gives political parties or anyone else the right to make this an issue at the election. Tough previously he wanted to become a church minister after he was released. In newspaper comments from 2004, Tough said he was remorseful. I suppose people will question and doubt whether he is remorseful, but I think back to Jimmy Boyle. Jimmy Boyle was a notorious Glasgow gangster who was a murderer. His story was made into a movie, a sense of freedom, and he became an artist, he also according to wiki was named as a financial donor to the Labour Party in 1998. There is an interesting French documentary on youtube worth a glance at it.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqCBUhqpVVc  

Of course, John Tough isn't Jimmy Boyle, but Boyle did turn his life around, so is it possible that Tough can equally transform his life? According to Paul Hutcheson, formerly of the Herald and now plying his trade at the Daily Record, is also a deluded conspiracy theorist who believes people will be put in concentration camps for not taking the Covid vaccine and claims the 2014 referendum was rigged. The second part first, the 2014 referednum wasn't rigged by the UK Government, in fact, you could say it was weighted in favour of the SNP, their question, their timetable and decisions on who voted in the franchise. As to people being put in concentration camps for not taking the Covid vaccine, this is hardly likely because of various factors. Anyway, Tough has joined SNP defector and Alba candidate Caroline McAllister on her campaign team. She is a list candidate in West Scotland, and as usual, she is posting PR campaign photos on Facebook about her growing “team”. One of the photos included Tough, at his house in Vale of Leven, Dunbartonshire complete with Alba banners visible on the fence. I suppose the question is, should he be kicked off the team? Well, that is a matter for Alba, in politics, anyone who is flagged as a problem is usually disposed off pretty quickly. The main parties have done this already, Craig Ross for the Scottish Conservatives and Hollie Cameron for Scottish Labour spring to mind. 

In this election, all sort of people will be campaigning, an Alba source however said no one by the name of Tough was listed as a party member. On the McAllister campaign photo, Tough remarked: 

“They were out leafleting and I’d asked for some enlarged boards for my house, so they dropped them off, and because I quickly put them up...they asked whether they could have a photograph.” 

He said of the murder:  

“It was a long, long time ago. I served my time. I never appealed. I never once said it wasn’t me.” 

Finally, to return to me, as you know I like to add in personal experiences because I think it makes the blog more interesting. Earlier on this year, I found that I was the victim of a smear campaign. A person using a fake name contacted someone that I was helping out to make false claims against me. The person who called themselves Paul Brady (fake name) claimed that I was in effect a racist, and that I had passed on data to the Scottish Defence League, basically names and address of people involved in politics. This was part of a dirty tricks campaign, I hadn't gone public that I was campaigning on the blog or on social media. To be honest, until I finished doing what I was doing, and had a result, there wasn't really much to say because phone canvassing is so short that you don't really have time to engage in a meaningful conversation as part of what you are doing is data collection. At the same time, I was being accused not just of being a racist but also of breaking the law breaching people's data, another story appeared, that of Anas Sarwar who accepted money from a Asian millionaire paedophile. 

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/millionaire-sex-offender-gave-4000-23374250 

The person who accused me of being a racist and breaking the law, sent their email at 23.43 pm on Saturday 23rd January 2021, the Daily Record story of Sarwar and the Asian paedophile was posted at 04.30 am on the 24th January. I guess that must be what some people would call coincidence. Although Paul Hutcheson, Daily Record provided an interesting titbit on Tough, he was just a tool to smear the Alba Party. In the grand scheme of things Tough just some guy wandering about, if he has reformed like Boyle, why shouldn't he campaign? One thing I learned from being smeared somewhere in the Scottish election campaign there is a scumbag who is probably quite active who defamed me. Although, they covered their tracks using a fake name and a vpn, they made a big mistake lying and citing I know the Scottish Defence League. The reason is, because when you look around at the people who play the race card in Scottish politics, you don't exactly have a mountain of evidence to occupy you, one scrap of paper is enough for possible suspects. And since I never went public, the list on the scrap of paper gets even shorter.

Yours sincerely 

George Laird                                                                                                                                The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University