Opinion Matrix: The Derek Mackay scandal
AS STORM Ciara battered the UK over the weekend, the other storm that refused to go away was the one surrounding the disgraced former finance secretary, Derek Mackay. Commentators in the Sunday papers continued to pore over the scandal and its damaging aftermath.
The Mail on Sunday
Ruth Davidson wrote about her shock in the wake of the claims, first published in the Scottish Sun, that Scotland’s “well-liked” former finance secretary bombarded a 16-year-old schoolboy with 270 messages.
The former Scottish Tory leader admitted she and others “simply didn’t see it coming”.
In her column she recalled that in almost eight years of asking first Alex Salmond, then Nicola Sturgeon, about the most pressing issues of the week, she had only heard the Scottish Parliament chamber silenced on three or four previous occasions.
“When Conservative interim leader Jackson Carlaw stood on Thursday to read out the NSPCC definition of ‘grooming’ in relation to Derek Mackay’s pursuance of a 16-year-old boy, the chamber was gallows quiet,” she said in her column, adding that it was because Mr Mackay “was so well known and well liked across the various aisles”.
“I’ve seen a lot of criticism on social media aimed at anyone showing even a modicum of thought for the smoking ruins of Mr Mackay’s life, career and family. As if somehow acknowledging how much he has lost at his own hand diminishes the damage he caused to a schoolchild. It is to misunderstand the nature of shock, incomprehension and guilt doing the rounds.
“If you consider someone is one of the good guys, irrespective of party, and [this] comes out..., what does that say about you?”
She added: “There is nothing mitigating or redemptive in what happened. No excuses regarding Mr Mackay’s tough upbringing or the fact the boy was over 16.
“It is a tragedy. For the young man coming to terms with Mr Mackay’s [alleged] unwanted advances and grooming, for the partner and children of Mr Mackay, and for a man whose weakness, hubris and [allegedly] predatory behaviour has just burned his whole future to the ground. And unease for the rest of us who simply didn’t see it coming.”
The Sunday Times
Former SNP spindoctor Kevin Pringle observes that disgraced US president Richard Nixon’s psychiatrist “was outspoken about the need for political leaders to have good mental health”.
Which leads him to consider the reckless and “creepy” conduct of Scotland’s shamed former finance minister.
“I’ve known Mackay for years, and I have always found him to be a decent, friendly, hard-working person.
“I don’t believe him to be an inherently bad man, but he has undoubtedly done some very bad things.
“His creepy conduct on social
media is reprehensible.
“First and foremost, he has caused enormous pain and upset to those he targeted online and their families; they will need time and help to get through these distressing experiences with their own wellbeing mended. They are the only victims here...
“Nothing that I write should be regarded in any sense as excusing his conduct.
“But imperfect though our knowledge is, I think we have an obligation to attempt some form of understanding, as well as rightful condemnation.
“In ways that are much more profound than a person’s party politics, it can only be damaging to have significant decisions taken by a minister who secretly may be in a dark place mentally.
“I don’t think Mackay would have done what he did had he not been a senior government figure. Ministerial office feeds the ego, bringing with it status and the trappings of power – a position he clearly abused.”
Sunday Mail
John Niven asks “what kind of 42-year-old man relentlessly pursues a 16-year-old?”
“Had there just been the odd communication maybe Mackay could have passed it off as a ‘moment of madness’ – he was drunk, he was stupid, or whatever.
“But there were hundreds of messages, continuing even when his target showed little interest in responding.
“And to read the full exchange of messages is incredibly lowering.
“The desultory nature of the ‘chat’ as Mackay relentlessly tries to drum up some interest from what often sounds like a bored, puzzled teenager is excruciating to read.”