War Of Words

I read this report in The Herald the other day about two brothers - Ian and Alan Smart - who are engaged in something of a 'war of words' over Scottish independence.

Now its not always possible to reach a happy consensus over issues - sometimes you have to choose between directly competing alternatives and make up your mind which side you are on.

But on this occasion it's not exactly a matter of life or death - the dispute is just about politics.

Now I don't know Ian Smart personally - though I do know he's an experienced political operator and a former President of the Law Society of Scotland - in other words no fool or ingenue.

So why then did he write these ridiculous words about 'Poles and Pakis' - because I don't even understand what he's trying to say - what point he's trying to get across.

Is he saying that the SNP are rally just a reactionary, anti-English party - which will find some other useful scapegoat if Scotland votes Yes in the 2014 independence referendum?

Because if that's what he meant to say, then his words are offensive as well as foolish - and he should simply have found a way of withdrawing his comments without eating too much humble pie.

I do know Alan Smart, a talented and amiable chap in my opinion - who has responded to his brother's comments with a well directed Exocet missile or two of his own - which are probably well deserved in the circumstances. 

All I would say is that having made your point, find a way of putting this behind you and moving on - after all it's a referendum we're talking about not the American Civil War.  

Blogging brothers at odds over tweet

An extraordinarily public feud has broken out between two brothers over the potential consequences of independence.

It follows comments made by Labour blogger Ian Smart, a former President of the Law Society of Scotland, who became embroiled in a controversy after tweeting:

"Better 100 years of the Tories than the turn on the Poles and the Pakis that would follow independence failing to deliver."

The controversy was fuelled when former First Minister Lord McConnell joined the on-line fray defending Mr Smart, although he has stressed he would never condone racism.

But now Alan Smart, a former television producer and supporter of independence, has blogged: "My brother Ian Smart is not a racist. He is worse than that."

He writes: "When he asserts that there will be some sort of pogrom against the Polish and Pakistani communities in a post-independence Scotland, he is not doing this out of ignorance or prejudice, but out of political calculation.

"The calculation that if he asserts it loudly enough Scotland's ethnic communities and others can be scared into voting No. This is called playing the race card."

Likening it to Enoch Powell's "rivers of blood" speech in 1968, he states: "For a Labour blogger to do it in Scotland, where there is a commendable cross-party consensus against racial prejudice, and inject it into the debate on independence is despicable."

Ian Smart declined to comment on his brother's comments last night.