Tweets from leader of our council are ‘a disgrace’

I was unsurprised to read the story in last week’s paper regarding John Ross’s Tweets.

Mr Ross, it must be remembered, is there to represent the whole of South Lanarkshire, regardless of political allegiance.

Yet, his Twitter page reveals a rather worrying fact: Mr Ross cares not a jot for South Lanarkshire or the people he represents.

It is quite baffling that a man in his position thinks some of the statements he has published, “liked” or retweeted are remotely acceptable.

Instead, he shows utter contempt for anyone in South Lanarkshire who does not adhere to his own views on Scottish independence.

In July he retweeted critical comments regarding a supposed tweet sent by Dominic Raab MP, referring to Scotland as a region of England.

Mr Ross referred to Mr Raab as an “arrogant prat”, but unfortunately, the story had been dubunked two hours earlier.

Mr Ross’s tweet remained on his feed – a spreading of fake news that would make Donald Trump proud.

On July 28 I noticed he liked a tweet that stated: “The day after Indy ALL Tories/Slab/libdems will be refused permission into Scots Parly.

“We will not allow political parties from England to have access any longer to our Parly.”

So there you have it, Mr Ross wishes the democratic process to be scrapped and have those of a different political opinion banned from having their voice. Sounds a lot like fascism to me. Mr Ross began September by retweeting a message that states “Very little Scottish history and culture is taught in Scottish schools .... ”. This is, frankly, more fake news. I would also suggests that if he feels this way that he takes it up with the party who has been in charge of Scottish education for the past 11 years. He probably knows them – the SNP. On September 2, Mr Ross likes a tweet that refers to “bile and hatred of the unionists”. Is that all unionists Mr Ross? Is that the 121,000 people you are supposed to represent who voted No in the referendum, or the roughly 60 per cent of voters who backed unionist candidates at the last council election?

So far, Mr Ross had restricted himself to retweeting and liking the views of others, but now we have the tweets mentioned in last week’s paper.

Leaving aside the paranoid ramblings in them, his call for “civil defiance” could easily suggest violence.

There we have the leader of a local authority, a member of the current establishment party in Scotland, suggesting that people should disobey the rule of law.

These sinister tweets are only the tip of the iceberg and do not even touch on some of the highly unpleasant individuals that Mr Ross engages with on a regular basis.

The man is not fit for purpose and if he had any decency he would step down.

Perhaps his party could remove him, although I strongly suspect the majority of SNP councillors agree with his views that the minority should break the law to get what they want, and opponents should be denied a democratic voice. Anne McLaughlin via email

These sinister tweets are tip of the iceberg