Podcast comment about 'taking out English police with high powered rifle' condemned
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A PODCAST in which a nationalist supporter jokingly talks about "happily" taking out English police with a high-powered rifle has been condemned by local Tories and Moray MSP Richard Lochhead.
The Aye Right podcast features Jimmy Hutton, Stewart Lochhead, Norrie Stewart and Phil Attridge.
In the 50-minute podcast, which has now been removed, Mr Hutton claimed that violence between England and Scotland was almost inevitable.
He joked that English police would have to be sent to Scotland to put "us back in our box".
“They’d have to bus up Greater Manchester Police, Greater Manchester Police are basically, having seen them, they’re basically a paramilitary organisation.
"They’d have to bus them up here to put us back in our box. Frankly, the minute the busses started coming over the border, I’d happily sit there with a high-powered rifle and take them out.”
Moray Conservative chairman Marc Macrae said: "If the events of 2021 have shown anything it has shown that words in politics matter, and comments like that do lead to violence. Politics in Scotland, and more specifically Moray alone have been filled with horrible personal abuse and threats – mostly targeted in one direction at Conservative elected members or their supporters.
"Moray boasts a proud heritage of welcoming people from all over the country and indeed the world. The fact that many of our residents no longer feel welcome here is testament to the type of behaviour that is becoming almost second nature in Scotland. This should have been firmly stamped on by the Nationalists a long time ago, but I fear it has grown out of proportion.
“These people taking part in this podcast are basically saying that there is going to have to be a confrontation between Scotland and England, and through their own choice of words are not advocating diplomacy but their own opinion that in this case the sword is mightier than then pen.
Mr Lochhead has also condemned the podcast.
“To be absolutely clear I condemn hateful and abusive messages from all sides and anyone I come across on Facebook or Twitter who indulges in this gets immediately blocked or unfriended.
“This is sadly something that affects all political parties, and all elected representatives have a responsibility to speak out against such behaviour.
"I know the Moray Tories have had to suspend or expel some of their own party office bearers and activists for hateful or abusive behaviour on social media so they really shouldn’t try and take the moral high ground on this."
