By Martin Kelly
A leading No campaigner is facing calls to apologise after posting a foul mouthed outburst against First Minister Alex Salmond.
Mike Dailly, who is a representative of the anti-independence Better Together campaign, tweeted “We have an arsehole as First Minister, let’s be honest …”
The message brought rebukes form senior politicians from the pro-independence Yes campaign.
Keith Brown, the Scottish Government Transport Minister replied: “…perhaps you could make your argument without the personal abuse?”
Scottish Greens co-convenor Patrick Harvie tweeted: “I’m *very* far from being a Salmond fan, but Mike, you can do better than this.”
Mr Dailly has written articles on behalf of the No campaign and has also represented the cross party organisation in debates on independence.
The outburst from Dailly, who is a solicitor with the Govan Law Centre, followed a bizarre series of tweets from the Better Together campaigner in which he claimed to be compiling a list of people who follow pro-Yes site Wings Over Scotland.
“Am working on publishing a list for the national media of who supports @RevStu on social media – here we go.” he said.
Dailly later insisted the list claim had been a joke and posted another puzzling message which said: “Cybernats – I beat you 😉 x”.
The attack on the First Minister by a leading No campaigner comes barely a week after Yes supporters were heavily criticised after apparently posting offensive messages aimed at a mother who was part of the Scottish Labour Shadow cabinet.
Newsnet Scotland asked Better Together to comment on Mr Dailly’s outburst, but we have yet to receive any reply.
[Newsnet Comment – Today Newsnet Scotland features in at least two Sunday newspapers. The stories relate to the latest Duggy Dug video which looks at a future Scotland after a No vote. The video is reproduced below.
Newsnet Scotland were not contacted by Scotland on Sunday to comment on the claims by Labour MP Margaret Curran. A request from the Scottish Mail on Sunday appeared in one of our gmail accounts early this morning – there was no attempt made at contacting us at our ‘contact’ email address.
Yesterday Newsnet Scotland responded to accusations levelled against us by Better Together by publishing an article which was our top story from early yesterday evening up until and beyond midnight. It highlighted the fact that the phrase which has so vexed Labour and the Better Together officials was actually coined by former Labour Deputy leader John Prescott. If journalists were interested in our response and the background of the ‘ermine in vermine’ phrase, then it was easy to find.
The claims from Labour, and indeed Better Together, are now par for the course as Unionists seek to demonise all who challenge their views. What we are witnessing now is an attempt to portray the Yes campaign and others who may challenge the No-campaign narrative, as somehow sexist, myisogynist and anti-female. It follows descriptions of Alex Salmond as a dictator and attempts by Alistair Darling to link the SNP to Nazism.
Last week Newsnet Scotland published an article which highlighted some appalling online comments from Scottish Labour politicians which never appeared in national newspapers. We can add to that Labour MP Ian Davidson’s claim that Scots commemorate Bannockburn only because English people were murdered or Anas Sarwar’s description of the Scottish Government as a dictatorship.]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYXhtAQ7IpM{/youtube}