MSPs mark Women's Day while the abuse is ignored

Columnist

Friday 9 March 2012

Things are becoming peculiar.

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SKETCH Ian Bell

Labour just chose to mark International Women's Day with an attack on a woman. In a bout of equal-opportunity abuse, Johann Lamont declared that analogies employed by the SNP's Joan McAlpine were "offensive to women", and almost as bad for women as Alex Salmond's policies.

In a separate but related development, Willie Rennie of the LibDems suggested – though he would never employ the saucy phrase – that the First Minister is in bed with Rupert Murdoch. Alex and Rupe have elected to "cosy up", instead, and scratch backs, to their mutual satisfaction.Things have become as tangled as a River City plot-line. And just about as interesting. Let us, in the interests of media studies, deconstruct.Ms McAlpine once worked for this newspaper; the tense covers the facts. She has, however, begun to contribute to a tabloid regarded by Scottish Labour as its sweetheart. We may have – if I've got this right – a love triangle on our hands, and a party worried that its favourite record has begun to jump. There is also the notion, as sexist as they come, of "the women's vote", and the idea that one half of the species might be less keen on Salmond and independence than menfolk. Then there is the idea that Ms McAlpine is a scalp – for such is the language – for the taking.Did she actually compare the relationship between Scotland and England to an abusive marriage? No. Did she compare it to a marriage in which mister tells missus to stop worrying her head over the domestic economy? She did.Ms Lamont was trying to say that the SNP has no monopoly on virtue. An actually profound point over the masking effect of the employment rate where women and part-time work are concerned got lost.Po-faced Salmond played it straight. Apart from a little slip involving the "towering heights of the economy" – "commanding" would do – he adopted his not-stooping pose. He then failed to answer a single question concerning Rupert Murdoch. Mr Rennie alleged that the tycoon is supporting "the break-up of Britain" as revenge for the Leveson Inquiry. That sounds banal. On the other hand, the First Minister of Scotland has yet to say he will have no truck with a media organisation engaged in wholesale law-breaking.And, though no-one mentioned it, in the abuse of women.

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MSPs mark Women's Day while the abuse is ignored

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