A LEADING nationalist has apologised after telling a Labour MSP who was labelled a Muslim extremist, “You reap what you sow”.
Dave Thompson, who was an MSP in the Highlands from 2007 to 2011, backed down after attacking Glasgow list MSP Anas Sarwar yesterday.
Commenting on the abuse others had suffered in the wake of Donald Trump winning the US presidency, Mr Sarwar tweeted: “In 24hrs I’ve been called left wing zionist, radical Muslim extremist, right wing elitist & hater of Scotland. Yep only an American problem..”
In reply, Mr Thompson, who was convener of the Christians for Independence group in the 2014 referendum, told him: “You reap what you sow - didn't you say ScotParl was not democratic but happily took list seat - principles?!”
Another Twitter user said to Mr Thompson: “Very Christian of you.”
Scottish Labour swiftly called on Mr Thompson to apologise.
A spokesman said: “This is a disgraceful comment, especially coming from a former SNP MSP and the convener of Christians for Independence. Rather than stand against abuse and intolerance, this nationalist politician seems to want to stoke it.
“He may no longer be in the Scottish Parliament, but Dave Thompson is a high-profile public figure and the SNP should distance the party from his comments at the earliest opportunity.”
Mr Thompson, 67, who previously chaired Holyrood's standards committee, became a Nationalist hero in 2007 after challenging the election result in the Highlands.
A mistake by the returning officer gave Labour too many list MSPs, and so made Labour the largest party overall in Scotland.
Mr Thompson’s challenge led to a recalculation giving the SNP two more seats and Labour one less, making the SNP the largest party and Alex Salmond First Minister.
The SNP said: “Dave has clarified his earlier comment, and apologised directly to Anas.”
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel