How much inter-party hatred must there exist for this to happen. Alex Salmond, the First Minister of the Scottish Parliament, asked that the Assembly express condolences and then suspend the days business as a mark of respect for the deaths of the 16 workers and crew of the helicopter which crashed into the North Sea yesterday. Lord George Foulkes, Labour peer and backbench MSP for the Lothians responded accusing Salmond of acting like a “quasi-head of State” hinting it was an attempt at suppressing the work of an Assembly whose role is to "hold the government to account" as today should have been First Minister's Questions (their PMQs). Foulkes argues Salmond is "trying to use this for political purposes".So clearly there is little trust between the parties, particularly among Labour MSPs for Salmond it would appear. However, it all seems rather bizarre, something of an indictment of the Assembly and its members, and rather devalues the work of the Assembly. I am unsure exactly what is behind all of this, do share the details if you know, but is this really the right issue to use as a party political point by either side?
1 comment:
All a bit too reminiscent of Brown/Cameron on Baby P for my liking! Surely these sort of tit-for-tat scurmishes contribute nothing to democracy!
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