SCOTTISH Tory list MSP Murdo Fraser continues to bring joy unto the nation, that is if joy is defined as tittering up our collective sleeve at his idiotic self-importance.
The man whose most notable contribution to Scottish political life has been to inspire the hashtag #TheresBeenAMurdo due to his hot takes on social media, which are not quite as hot as he seems to believe they are, it is that lack of self-awareness which makes Murdo so unintentionally funny.
Murdo's hot takes bear the same relationship to hot freshness as a mouldy slice of stale pizza abandoned for months at the back of a dirty fridge in a shared students' flat does to a freshly cooked meal. And if you were to look very carefully that slice of mouldy pizza would be marked with a handwritten label saying “Murdo's”.
Murdo is now threatening legal action after one of his mouldy pizza hot takes on social media was logged as a hate incident by Police Scotland.
READ MORE: Humza Yousaf backs Police Scotland as Murdo Fraser threatens to sue
The tweet in question was a tired old trope about non-binary people, transgender individuals who identify as neither solely male nor female. The MSP had written on social media that "choosing to identify as 'non-binary' is as valid as choosing to identify as a cat."
The tweet, which Murdo evidently believed to be witty and humorous, may not have been considered a hate crime against transgender people by Police Scotland, but it was certainly a hate crime against comedy. I thought Murdo was supposed to be an MSP in 21st century Scotland, but he appears to spend much of his time on social media auditioning for a gig as a scriptwriter on a 1970s sitcom.
Following a complaint from an individual, Police Scotland looked into the matter - as they are obliged to do following a complaint - but decided that no further action would be taken as his remark did not meet the standards required to be considered a hate crime.
However, the complaint was logged as a 'hate incident', and provided a reference number to the complainant.
Murdo should consider himself lucky that the polis investigation didn't involve them camping outside his house in a murder tent, which would have been marked on social media with the hashtag #TheresBeenAMurdoTent.
A furious Murdo has now written a six page letter of complaint to Police Scotland, which is many more characters than even the hellscape of Elon Musk's Twitter allows, threatening legal action if his name is not removed from this record and alleging that Police Scotland have breached his human rights.
He argues that the police must act in line with the Human Rights Act, which relies heavily on the European Convention on Human Rights, you know, that European Convention on Human Rights which many powerful and influential people in Murdo's party want to remove the UK from.
Police Scotland said in a statement issued from their Murdo tent: "On Monday, November 20, 2023, officers received a report of an offensive tweet.
“Inquiries were carried out and no criminality was established. The incident was recorded as a non-crime hate incident. Hate incidents are not recorded against alleged perpetrators."
But that doesn't stop Murdo identifying as a victim.
Labour shirk away from commitments to WASPI women
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has written to Tory Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Tory Prime Minister in waiting Keir Starmer to demand that they give a “cast iron guarantee” that WASPI women will receive full compensation after they lost out due to changes to the age at which women are eligible to receive the state pension.
A recent report from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) published on Thursday recommended that the women who were affected should receive compensation. Both the Labour and Conservative parties are now trying to wriggle out of paying affected women compensation.
In July 2021 a preliminary report from the PHSO ruled that the DWP had failed to communicate the age changes to women with enough urgency, and found the DWP guilty of 'maladministration'.
Speaking on the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg show on Sunday, Anneliese Dodds (below), the chair of the Labour Party, would only say the women who lost out due to the pension changes deserved "respect." The Labour Party had pledged back in its 2019 manifesto to give financial compensation to the affected women, but are now U-turning on that commitment just as Keir Starmer has U-turned on so many other issues. Respect is just lovely, but it doesn't pay the bills.
As Stephen Flynn pointed out in his letter: "A survey of 8000 Waspi women carried out in Autumn 2023 found: 70% of Waspi women have reduced their weekly spending and have cut their food shops in the past six months. 55% of Waspi women say their economic position has got worse in the past six months. 49% of Waspi women have struggled to pay essential bills in the past six months. 25% of Waspi women have struggled to buy food in the past six months."
This is clearly a group which has suffered a significant negative impact due to the changes in the pension age, but the Labour and Conservative parties are now trying to wash their hands of the issue.
This is particularly embarrassing for the Labour Party in Scotland, which had previously made a big play of its support for Waspi women and their campaign for fair compensation.
Anas Sarwar has been noticeably quiet since this latest Starmer U-turn was announced, he's off looking for a pensioner whose NHS appointment was cancelled due to a delayed ferry so he can harrumph about it when FMQs comes back after the Easter break, by which time he is hoping that everyone will have forgotten just how pathetically ineffectual the Labour Party in Scotland really is when it comes to preventing Keir Starmer from adopting Conservative policies.
This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.
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