Has Dr Eilidh Whiteford now taken her grievance a step too far? In today’s Scotland on Sunday, she likens the alleged bully-boy tactics of Labour MP and chairman of the Scottish Affairs Committee Ian Davidson to women who are subjected to domestic abuse and are said to be’ asking for it’. Methinks the lady doth protest a tad too much. As does the paper’s editorial. Now we hold no brief for Mr Davidson, who we suspect is a product of that old West of Scotland school where men are men and women belong in the scullery. It is intolerable to threaten anyone, male or female, with a ‘doing’. If he has gone further, and changed the record of what he actually said to Ms Whiteford, as she now alleges, so that it reads as less of a threat, more a gentle admonishment, that is also intolerable. (Incidentally, was no-one taking notes at this meeting? Is there no accurate record that can be made public?). However, Ms Whiteford put herself up for election to the business of politics, and she surely was not under any illusion that Parliament was full of knights in shining armour. If so, then she was due for the rude awakening she seems to have had. We appreciate the difficulty of finding the mot juste at precisely the moment one needs it, but one cannot imagine, for instance, the doughty Christine Grahame or Margo Macdonald allowing Mr Davidson to get away with it. A well-crafted on-the-spot put down sometimes works wonders. Politics is a tough world and most of those who enter it do so already having acquired the hide of a rhinoceros. There are other battles the SNP needs to have with Mr Davidson and his committee’s ‘separation’ review. Dr Whiteford needs to don her own armour and return to the fray… |
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