AT a time when the Conservative Prime Minister and his colleagues are lining up to denounce (their subjective interpretations of) hate speech and utilising incendiary rhetoric to restrict freedom of speech and assembly, it comes as little surprise that homegrown Tory buffoon Stephen Kerr should jump on the bandwagon to try and politicise a Scottish Government donation to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) in support of the people of Gaza who are suffering unimaginable human torment at present.
Mr Sunak, in his recent Downing Street address, sought to spread general alarm amongst the population of the UK by attacking civil liberties such as the right to protest in a vain attempt to raise his waning profile within the increasingly intolerant and crypto-fascist right wing of his party.
READ MORE: Tory MSP accuses Humza Yousaf of 'overreaction' in 'Islamophobia' row
He specifically mentioned the safety of MPs in his somewhat irresolute ramblings, but the blustering Stephen Kerr has obviously chosen to ignore this.
He has accused the First Minister, Mr Yousaf, of bending the rules to send a government donation to Gaza as his family were trapped there at that point in time. It should be noted that this donation was made to UNRWA several weeks before the UK announced a pause in support for this agency following accusations by the Israeli government.
Mr Kerr seems unrepentant that his scurrilous accusations could place the First Minister in genuine danger at a time when Islamophobic incidents, as well as antisemitic events, are sharply on the rise. You may recall that on the day Nigel Farage unveiled his infamous and overtly racist “breaking point” poster the tragic murder of MP Jo Cox at the hands of a far-right extremist took place. By attacking the First Minster Stephen Kerr is playing to the Islamophobic right wing of his party and is no better, morally or ethically than Farage, the repulsive sawdust Oswald Mosley.
READ MORE: 'So outrageous': Humza Yousaf responds to 'smear' over UN funding
At a time when thousands of innocent human beings are dying in Gaza as the IDF continue their genocidal crusade against the Palestinian people, it is depressingly predictable that a shallow and bombastic cipher like Kerr should try and raise his own profile to score cheap political points amidst a time of family adversity for Mr Yousaf and an unparalleled international tragedy.
He is a boor, a bigot of little or no empathy and a disgrace to Scottish politics. The man who only last year suggested that transgender people had learning disabilities has sunk to a new low, even within the ranks of Scottish Conservatism. He should apologise to the First Minister or simply resign from public life.
Owen Kelly
Stirling
SO Michael Gove, the serial liar and groveller within the Tory government, is to define what extremism is, so that the Tories can further restrict people’s civil liberties and the right to support the Palestinians currently being attacked by Israel, supplied by weapons from the USA and the UK.
Of course this Tory definition of extremism will not include those who have raided the public purse to the tune of billions of pounds for dodgy Covid contracts or even contracts to their father-in-law’s IT company, nor will it include those ignoring international human rights by shipping asylum seekers off to a dangerous third country at immense expense, and of course it won’t include those who flouted Covid lockdowns, holding drunken parties while others missed their last chance to see their dying relatives. All of that plus the political extremism of Brexit will be ignored as the Tories try to stop the public from having a voice that doesn’t agree with them.
READ MORE: Islamophobia in Conservative Party must be investigated, Humza Yousaf says
Instead, tens of thousands of people taking to the streets to condemn Israel’s brutality and war crimes – supported by the UK Tory government – will find themselves labelled as extremists. Well if supporting the right of Palestinians to live is being an extremist, I will happily call myself an extremist – rather that than being an apologist for genocide.
Cllr Kenny MacLaren
Paisley
EARLY in Netanyahu’s collective punishment of the people of Gaza I referred to the West’s lament for aid, while refusing to call for the killing to stop, as tantamount to a human grouse shoot. The West is simply keeping people alive long enough for IDF to use them as target practice.
There is something so deeply disgusting about whining for a bit of food to get through to terrified civilians trapped in a kill zone when you won’t help stop the killing.
After the “most moral army in the world” gunned down the desperate queuing for aid, and now that the slaughter has topped 31,000, mainly women and children, there is something so deeply disturbing and disgusting about the latest announcements of air drops and the accompanying pats on the back the EU, UK and US are giving themselves, I feel physically sick and can find NO WORDS can describe this.
Amanda Baker
Edinburgh
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