Scottish Ministers - Weaponising Social Media

I've complained twice to Nicola Sturgeon about Scottish Ministers breaching the ministerial code.

The first involved Humza Yousaf who was live tweeting partisan comments about fellow MSPs during the Holyrood Inquiry into the Alex Salmond affair.

The second involved Christina McKelvie who made a false statement on social media while the Scottish Government was involved in an official consultation exercise media - "TWAW - it's the law".

By any objective standard my complaints should have been upheld, but both were rejected on the bogus grounds that the Scottish Government is not responsible for what ministers say via their personal social media accounts.

Now this is nonsense, of course, because if a minister said, for example, that 'Stonewall are the equivalent of a glorified protection racket' - they would be sacked immediately because this would upset Nicola Sturgeon, as well as the SNP hierarchy.

The underlying problem is that the First Minister is both judge and jury when it comes to complaints about the ministerial code - there is no independent oversight so things get swept under the carpet. 

Details of the complaints I made in respect of  Humza Yousaf and Christina McKelvie to follow.

SNP - Weapon of Choice (July 20, 2022)


The SNP's 'weapon of choice' these days is social media because it allows the likes of Mike Russell to behave in the most outrageous fashion - without being called to account by his party leader.

The SNP line is that so long as whatever nonsense people get up to comes from their personal Twitter account - this has nothing to do with the party leadership.

Incredibly, the same goes for Scottish Ministers such as Christina McKelvie who made a completely bogus TWAW claim on social media (see link below) during a Scottish Government consultation exercise on the future of the Gender Recognition Act.

More to follow.


SNP Ministers - Abusing Social Media (July 16, 2022)


SNP Ministers have form when it comes to abusing social and Twitter is their 'weapon of choice'.

Here's Scotland's Equalities Minister, Christina McKelvie, abusing her position by making a false claim on Twitter during an official Scottish Government consultation exercise.

But Nicola Sturgeon said this behaviour was perfectly 'OK' with her because the bogus claim came from Christina's personal Twitter account.

What a load of old baloney.

Scottish Ministers, Sham Consultations and Social Media (July 04, 2022)


SNP ministers using personal Twitter accounts to campaign on social media is wrong in my view - even more so when they make false and misleading claims during an official Scottish Government consultation exercise. 

It's as if their minds are already made up and they're just going through the motions - in a pretence of democracy.

 

Sham Consultation By Scottish Ministers (March 04, 2022)

A sham consultation process from SNP ministers whose First Minister ‘picked a side’ a long time ago - for example by turning a blind eye to the ridiculous social media antics of Scotland's Equalities Minister (see post below).

 

Scottish Ministers - Misrepresenting the Law ()


On 15 February 2021 Scotland's Minister for Equalities, Christina McKelvie, made the following bold claim on her personal Twitter account:

"Sorry but TWAW is actually the law so no false equivalence at all."

But not only was this claim false and highly misleading - it came at a time when Scottish Ministers were consulting about possible reforms to the Gender Recognition Act.

So how could the Minister for Equalities possibly have been acting in good faith, if she was prepared to tweet such an ill-informed, fallacious view which was widely read and shared on social media?

To my mind this is powerful evidence of a Scottish Minister operating with a closed mind rather than an open one and of the Scottish Government acting in bad rather than good faith?

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