THERE seems to be a significant minority in Scotland who have quite simply had their brains rotted by social media. Over on the hell-site that’s Twitter this last week hatred of Nicola Sturgeon has reached a demented, and frankly embarrassingly absurd level. The expression ‘Sturgeon Destroyer of Scotland’ has been trending most days.
If it wasn’t so ugly and daft it would be comic. Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of fierce criticism to heap on our First Minister. Most weeks you’ll find me in the columns of the Herald pulling her government up for one miserable failure of another, from the idiocy of the ScotWind deal to the utter mess of our schools system. But ‘Destroyer of Scotland’? Come on. Get real. Get off Twitter. You’ve been radicalised, folks.
READ MORE: Neil Mackay: Brutal school assault symbolises SNP's failure over education
The hate brigade is an odd amalgam. It seems to be made up of people enraged at the SNP and Green gender reforms, rabid unionists, and the extreme nationalist fringe of the Yes movement. Each group has every right to be upset with the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon. It’s legitimate to question any law, and obviously many women are troubled by the gender reforms; unionism is a totally honourable position - though I don’t hold it myself; and nationalists are entitled to feel the SNP has played them over the path to independence.
But it’s how they express their upset that’s troubling. In fact, they don’t express upset, they express hate. There’s also something rather strange in watching extreme unionists and extreme nationalists blowing kisses to each as they launch vitriolic attacks on Sturgeon.
Sturgeon is at worst a rather ineffectual social democrat. She is not Beelzebub, or Genghis Khan. She has not lain waste to the Central Belt with lasers on the Moon. I don’t believe she’s started any wars, jailed opponents, suspended democracy or robbed a bank.
Read the full story from Neil Mackay in tonight's Unspun newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox. Unspun features the best political and social comment from the Herald's reporters and opinion writers, keeping you abreast of the latest news and issues.
To sign up to Unspun and our other Herald newsletters, click here.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel