The fuss they made is particularly interesting when looking at the recent General Election results in the Kilmarnock & Loudoun and Glasgow East constituencies, where current MSPs Cathy Jamieson and Margaret Curran have been elected MPs. In light of this, I have just emailed both ladies to check that they intend to act as they wished others to act, and that they're not just a pair of reactionary, hypocritical fools. The email to Margaret read thus:
Hi Margaret
Congratulations on getting elected as the new MP for Glasgow East. I'm an SNP supporter myself so I was particularly saddened to see John Mason being ousted as he has been a very good MP, but I'm sure your election came about as a result of fighting a good campaign focussing on local issues reserved to Westminster, and not just a bunch of scare tactics about the Tories or issues that you can only affect in your position as MSP. Not that I'm suggesting this is what all Labour candidates did, but it was certainly how my new MP (Anas Sarwar) got elected. I would also like to congratulate you on managing to win with a bit of grace for once, rather than giving a mad rant like we've seen from you so many times before. This is how we would like our elected representatives to behave, so good on you for having a bit more class these days.
Anyway, the main point of this email is to say that, given the hard time you and your colleagues in Holyrood gave Alex Salmond about him being both an MP and an MSP when he first got re-elected to Holyrood, I would just like your assurance that you will shortly be announcing that you will be standing down from Holyrood at the next election. After all, you wouldn't want to be seen as a hypocrite, would you?
Yours sincerely
Douglas Daniel
The email to Cathy was similar, although obviously without the references to John Mason and the mad rants. I won't bother putting it up here as I essentially took it as the template for Margaret's email. Anyway, if I get a reply from either woman, I'll put it up here. If not, I'll get in touch with someone at the SNP and insist that they start badgering both women to either announce that they will be standing down in 2011, or to give a public apology on behalf of the Labour party for making such a fuss about Alex Salmond's perfectly legitimate position between 2007 and 2010.
Will we see the paper's making any comment on their situations? Of course we won't.
UPDATE
When I got up this morning, Cathy Jamieson had already replied, which I must admit I'm rather impressed by.
Thank you for your email. I made it clear when I was selected to run for Westminster, in advance of the General Election, that I would not stand for Holyrood in 2011 if I was elected to Westminster. In addition, I made clear that I would take only one salary for the period when I served in both Parliaments, and that I would not take the resettlement grant from Holyrood when transferring to Westminster. I think it would be ill advised in those circumstances for accusations of hypocrisy.
Regards
Cathy Jamieson
I must admit, I feel a wee bit silly now. Still, that's what I get for relying too much on Wikipedia (during the General Election, I found it was quite good at saying which MPs were standing down at this election, so I assumed this lack of info on her page meant she hadn't made an announcement yet). Subsequent emails from Cathy suggested she took it in good jest, so I'm actually sorry I was so cynical in her case, and I'm not just saying that because she mentioned that she's seen my blog...
Well done you, MPs need to know that we (the public) are keeping an eye on them, after all with all the Labour spin in Scotland which we've had to put up with for years, it's better to get the answer straight from the horses mouth!!
ReplyDeleteGood blog,cheers!
Surely Margaret Curran's position s quite different to that of Alex Salmond in that her Scottish Parliament constituency of Glasgow Baillieston is entirely contained within her Glasgow East UK Parliament constituency. As far as I can recall, Mr Salmond represented 2 very different constituencies?
ReplyDeleteMr Salmond had also said that his position was legitimised by the fact that the electorate very fully aware of his position when they elected him. Surely the same could be said for Margaret Curran?
Not so. Salmond's constituencies overlapped, but I don't see how it matters anyway - in both cases you have a constituency full of potential MSP matters and a constituency full of potential MP issues.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't my issue anyway. I have no problem with someone being both an MP and an MSP, it's the electorate's decision if they think they can perform both duties to their maximum ability. What I take issue with is the hypocrisy if Curran is indeed doing what Labour was criticising Salmond for doing. She still hasn't replied, which leads me to assume that she is indeed being a hypocrite.