‘Och look, these things happen’
Amid scandal over vile tweets, with Godley even forced to quit panto, Sturgeon is savaged for this extraordinary ‘flippant’ reaction:
NICOLA Sturgeon has been accused of flippantly dismissing outrage over a comedian’s offensive tweets about black people.
Janey Godley, who was paid £12,000 to front a Scottish Government coronavirus advertisement, was forced to apologise this week for a series of comments.
The ‘stop the spike’ advert was ditched following a backlash against the independencesupporting comic.
It emerged last night that Miss Godley has also withdrawn from her role in a Beauty and the Beast pantomime at Aberdeen’s His Majesty’s Theatre ‘by mutual agreement’.
The news was quickly followed by fresh allegations over offensive remarks Miss Godley has allegedly made on her own podcast.
But when confronted about her government’s failure to do ‘due diligence’ on Miss Godley before handing her the lucrative advert role, SNP leader Miss Sturgeon said yesterday ‘these things happen’.
She also said Miss Godley had been ‘dignified’ in the way she had responded to the row. It was only when pressed further that she said the comments had been ‘completely beyond the pale’.
Asked on BBC Good Morning Scotland whether she was ‘furious’ that her government didn’t ‘do due diligence’ despite the comedian’s comments being publicly available, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘Och look, these things happen. And, you know, the important thing is that action is taken.’
She added: ‘Janey has apologised, I think she’s been pretty straightforward and dignified in her apology.’
Presenter Martin Geissler pressed her further on why she had not been more critical of the comedian. He said: ‘With your hand on your heart, First Minister, can you say you’d be as forgiving with somebody who was an opponent of yours rather than a vocal supporter?’
Miss Sturgeon responded: ‘Well, look, that might be a legitimate line of questioning if we had decided not to drop the advert.’
She said ‘the climate that we live in, the culture we live in these days, is pretty unforgiving’, adding she is ‘a great believer that when people make mistakes, and I apply this to myself as well, it’s really important to hold your hands up to it and apologise where that is required’.
Miss Sturgeon continued: ‘But perhaps we should all recognise that none of us are infallible. Now the tweets that were brought to my attention yesterday were completely unacceptable, completely beyond the pale.’
Asked if Miss Godley will be used in a government campaign again, she said: ‘There’s no plans for that at the moment, no.’ Miss Godley made a number of comments about black people, including referring to former X Factor judge Kelly Rowland as ‘the black horse from USA’.
She also tweeted in 2010 about pop star Justin Bieber, who had just produced an album featuring several black musicians. She wrote: ‘They need to stop leaving the wee boy with big black fat rappers at parties... who is looking after that child?’
Scottish Conservative MSP Russell Findlay said it was ‘jawdropping’ to hear a First Minister of Scotland dismiss the offensive tweets so casually.
He said: ‘You would expect Nicola Sturgeon to be appalled by this kind of language but when asked about it, her flippant response was “these things happen”.
‘There is a dark side to nationalism that means people, apparently including the First Minister judging by this appearance, will make excuses for wrongdoing.’
Earlier this year, Miss Godley was chosen by Zero Waste Scotland to front its litter campaign.
Yesterday, the environment quango confirmed that it was ‘in the process of removing this content’.
On her Aberdeen pantomime role, a joint statement by Crossroads Pantomimes and Aberdeen Performing Arts said: ‘Today Janey Godley, by mutual agreement... has withdrawn from Beauty and the Beast at HMT Aberdeen this Christmas.’
Miss Godley issued an apology, stating: ‘I have to stand up and own my offensive, hurtful language and apologise, they have terrible, horrific undertones and I deserve all the criticism that comes my way.
‘If I can’t own the shame of these words I would be disingenuous to everyone who supported me. I am so sorry to everyone I hurt.’
‘Big black fat rappers at parties’