Oh dear. As the Conservatives struggle to put the remarks of their biggest donor to bed, the governing party north of the border now has its own racism row to deal with.
This week’s pro-indy ‘Scotonomics’ festival is being co-hosted in Dundee by founder Kairin van Sweeden, a former SNP councillor accused of racism last year. The unenviable speaker line-up also includes two SNP politicians, wellbeing economy secretary Mairi McAllan MSP and energy minister Gillian Martin MSP, who have found themselves in a spot of bother after it emerged who the event host was.
The festival’s founder and former SNP councillor was forced to quit the party last year after she told the Sri Lankan-born Labour councillor Deena Tissera that she was unaware of the bedroom tax as a ‘new Scot’ and suggested that she might not know her British history. Talk about blood and soil nationalism…
‘The innuendo of her comments were that I had just come off the boat and as a new Scot – her words not mine – I am not as Scottish as others [despite] holding a United Kingdom passport,’ raged Tissera in a letter to the First Minister. At the time, Humza Yousaf slammed the comments as ‘unacceptable’, adding van Sweeden’s remarks spoke to ‘the unconscious bias and discrimination that people hold and we all have to challenge ourselves’. Van Sweeden left the SNP and has since referred herself for investigation.
On van Sweeden’s upcoming event this week, Tissera admitted she was ‘shocked’ ministers would agree to attend, while Scottish Tory Douglas Lumsden said ministers sharing a stage with the host would be ‘effectively condoning’ her comments. McAllan has now withdrawn from the Scotonomics festival, citing ‘diary pressures’ but Martin still plans to make an appearance — despite coming under significant pressure to pull out. So much for progressive politics…
Find van Sweeden’s original comments here:
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