Training plan for bigoted Tories
Two Tory councillors who made bigoted and racist comments online have still to undergo antisectarian training despite returning to the party.
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said the pair had a “genuine wish to change their behaviour” that saw them suspended by the party in May.
Stirling councillor Robert Davies posted racist tweets comparing black people to cannibals. Colleague Alastair Majury made derogatory remarks about Catholics and likened the SNP to Nazis.
Davidson said they were to undergo diversity training by anti-sectarian charity Nil By Mouth.
Exhibit A. A revolting individual with no place in public life refers to gay people as “perverts”.
He makes public his opposition to “poofs and dykes” being allowed to marry.
Exhibit B. An ignorant no-mark is caught out telling a political colleague: “The only people I do have problems with are negroes. And I don’t know why.”
Exhibit C. A bigoted councillor tweets: “Why is the Catholic Church against birth control? Because they’ll run out of children to molest.”
And finally Exhibit D. A fourth obnoxious councillor posts a photo of black people waiting next to a plane with the caption: “No, I am not your lunch. I am your flight attendant.”
So what’s the difference? In terms of foul, repellent bigotry, not a lot. All four have demonstrated themselves to be unfit for public office. But the councillors identified in the first two cases, were sacked and expelled from their party. From UKIP.
The latter two, Alastair Majury and Robert Davies, have kept their jobs and retained membership of the Scottish Tory Party.
On this issue Ruth Davidson has been taught a moral lesson by the party derided by her erstwhile colleague David Cameron, in one of his finer moments, as fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists.
She has been shown to be inferior as a political leader to Nigel Farage.
Davidson has defended her decision not to sack the pair because she believed they wanted to change their behaviours.
That is undermined by today’s revelation that there has been no meaningful response to an offer of diversity training for both individuals by the charity Nil By Mouth.
In her complete mishandling of this tawdry affair, Davidson has allowed a furtherance of the growing perception that her party’s public image is somewhat at odds with a darkness, if not at their heart, then certainly on their fringes.
This has now been exacerbated by one of the new intake of Tory MPs, Douglas Ross, outlining his own political vision.
Asked what he’d do if he was PM for the day, Ross told an interviewer that he’d “like to see tougher enforcement against gypsies and travellers”.
What Ross lacks in terms of brains, morals and common sense he makes up for with his impeccable timing.
It’s difficult to see how Davidson can provide any quick fix to the battering her party’s reputation has suffered over the last seven days.