Outgoing Labour leader Iain Gray yesterday accused Alex Salmond of an "ugly" authoritarian attempt to silence his critics and of failing to stop smear campaigns by his supporters.
Letting rip in his last conference speech as Labour leader, Gray listed a series of recent occasions on which he said Salmond had gone too far.
Visibly angry and at times thumping his lectern, he said: “Courts and judges who deliver justice which does not suit him are denounced in the crudest terms and their independence and their budgets threatened.
Economists and anti-sectarian campaigners who cross him are publicly denounced in parliament and their integrity questioned. Bodies like the CBI, when their message does not suit, are told they shouldn’t blunder into politics.
“The SNP won the election but nobody expected the Scottish inquisition.”
Gray also warned the three candidates applying to be the next Scottish leader to expect smears from SNP supporters online, the so-called “cybernats”.
“You will be attacked. You will be smeared. You will be lied about. And you will be threatened. The cybernats and the bedsit bloggers, they will call you traitor, quisling, lapdog, liar and worse. They will question your appearance, your integrity and your sexuality.
“They will drag your family and your faith into the lies and the vitriol. If you are a woman, it will be worse.
“This is the poison some have brought into our politics and it is vile. It is time we started talking openly about it and it is time the SNP did something about it.”
SNP MSP Sandra White said Gray’s speech was “bizarre”. She said: “In a week where the Labour leadership has failed to take any action over the bullying comments of an MP it considers fit to stand for deputy leader [a reference Labour MP Ian Davidson’s use of the phrase “a doing” to SNP MP Eilidh Whiteford last week], Iain Gray’s speech is simply empty rhetoric.”
HERALDSCOTLAND VIEW
Intelligent debate about Scotland’s constitutional future is not helped by cyber campaigners.
Anonymous online smears do nothing to advance informed discussion. Nationalists and unionists are understandably passionate about their views, but that is no excuse for personal insults and accusations.
This is why we, unashamedly, insist that all comments posted on heraldscotland stories comply with our rules:
Don't hide behind a pseudonym
Register using your real name and a valid email address (we'll keep your email secret).
Keep it clean
Religious bigotry, sexism, homophobia and racism won't be tolerated. Comments using vulgar and abusive language won't be posted.
Be nice
Robust debate is encouraged, but personal attacks on individuals and any personal squabbling isn't permitted. Material which we consider to be defamatory, inflammatory or offensive in any way is liable to be deleted.
Be relevant
Obviously your comment must relate to the article concerned, and to the inherent issue(s).
Intelligent debate means just that
We won’t post comments that in our view aren’t adding to the debate. In particular sloganeering generalisations lambasting somebody or some organisation or society in general won’t be posted.
No Spam
Don't post anything which is designed to promote your business or website or whatever. They won't go live. Instead we'll hand your email details to our advertising sales team.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article