COWARDICE
Controversial SNP backbencher pilloried for flippant, outdated comments in private email and then quietly agreeing to gay pardons Bill
BY KATRINE BUSSEY Will the Italians apologise for the Roman occupation? JOHN MASON IN AN EMAIL TO CONSTITUENT
AN MSP has been accused of “cowardice” – for quietly backing a Bill to pardon gay men after telling a constituent that he didn’t agree with retrospective apologies.
Gaffe-prone SNP backbencher John Mason came under fire as legislation that will give automatic pardons to gay men convicted under historical discriminatory legislation was debated at Holyrood yesterday.
Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie launched a fierce attack on the Glasgow Shettleston MSP, blasting his “flippant tone” in an email on the matter.
Harvie, a Glasgow list MSP, told how he had been contacted by a constituent who had received an email from Mason about the Bill.
He said Mason wrote: “I’m not really sure I agree with retrospective pardons and apologies.
“I do not see that we can go round pardoning and apologising for everything that other people did that does not conform to modern customs.
“Will the Italians be apologising for the Roman occupation?”
Harvie said: “Where to begin with this? Is it the flippant tone, is it the complete absence of any attempt to show understanding of the arguments in favour of this Bill, or the reference to ancient history?
“This is not ancient history, this is living history. Many of the people whose lives were subject to untold harm by their own government are still living and they do not deserve to be dismissed in this way.”
Harvie said the email was sent days after Holyrood unanimously agreed the general principles of the Bill. He condemned Mason for his “cowardice in sitting here, quietly assenting to something he didn’t believe in, and then sending this email to someone he knew would share his views”.
Harvie also questioned how someone with such views could be selected to stand for Parliament.
Harvie said: “Political parties whose leaders oppose prejudice and discrimination on grounds of sexuality and gender identity should be condemned for continuing to select homophobic, biphobic or transphobic candidates for election at any level.”
In an intervention, Mason said “tolerance is an important virtue”. He told Harvie that in traditional faith communities there is a belief that “it is wrong for one person of the same sex to have a sexual relationship with someone else”.
He added: “That is a genuinely held belief by a range of people. Some people believe that it is only within marriage that people should have sexual relationships.”
Mason’s previous gaffes include saying that creationism should be taught in schools because it can’t be “disproved by science” and suggesting that the IRA could be considered freedom fighters.
He went on to vote with every other MSP in the chamber as they passed the Historical Sexual Offences (Pardons and Disregards) (Scotland) Bill by 119 votes to nil.
Private same-sex activity between two men aged over 21 was only decriminalised in Scotland in 1981, while the age of consent for gay men was only lowered to 16 in 2001.
The new law will pardon thousands of Scots who were convicted of having consensual sex with other men before it was decriminalised.