ON the election trail, Jeremy Corbyn was heckled in a moment that overwhelmed the entire first day of his campaign in Scotland. But he is far from the first public figure to be on the receiving end of heckling, a practice that has its origins in Scotland.
What happened again?
As the UK Labour leader campaigned in Glasgow, he was asked about his tartan scarf and replied that it was in support of children in care. But the heckler asked why he wasn’t wearing an “Islamic jihad scarf” and shouted, “Who’s going to be the first terrorist to be invited to the House of Commons when you are prime minister?”
What did Corbyn do?
Looking stunned, he was ushered away by aides to catcalls of “he’s running away”. It later emerged the heckler was a minister who had made several homophobic and racist remarks online.
It’s hardly the first time a politician has been heckled?
And it undoubtedly won’t be the last.
Remember Iain Gray?
The former leader of the Labour party in Scotland was memorably heckled in 2011 while arriving at Glasgow’s Central Station. Protestors ambushed him, shouting “Against cuts!” But it was the reaction of Gray’s aides that made it a bigger deal as they ushered him back outside, along the street and eventually into a Subway sandwich shop where he was trapped in the back, looking dazed as the heckling continued.
And Gordon Brown?
His 2010 election campaign became like an episode of The Thick of It when he was heckled by an OAP about immigration and Labour’s plans to tackle the deficit. He was later caught on mic in his car calling the Labour supporter a "bigoted woman". The moment threw his campaign into turmoil.
But it’s not just politicians in the frame?
Heckling was part of vaudeville and variety. More recently, in 2012, Billy Connolly cut short a performance in Blackpool after a heckler interrupted him during a joke. In 2016, Laurence Fox stopped performing in The Patriotic Traitor play in London to have a "sweary rant" at a theatre-goer who had heckled him, with the actor shouting: "I won't bother telling you the story because this **** in the front row has ruined it for everybody."
It’s a Scottish thing?
To "heckle" something was related to the textile trade and involved teasing or combing out hemp or flax fibres. In early 19th century Dundee, hecklers combing flax in factories developed a culture where one employee would read out the day's news to the rest of the workforce, with "hecklers" sparking debate by interrupting with their views. And so to heckle became to “tease out the truth” others may wish to hide.
One heckle made history?
Martin Luther King's “I Have a Dream” speech is said to have come about when supporter Mahalia Jackson urged him to “tell them about the dream, Martin!” He then stopped reading his prepared speech and improvised the remainder, including the now iconic “I have a dream” line.
MAUREEN SUGDEN
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