By G.A.Ponsonby
A Scottish Labour politician has used the deaths of 96 people in the Hillsborough disaster to launch an attack on Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond.
Labour MSP Michael McMahon published a photograph of Mr Salmond standing alongside media mogul Rupert Murdoch with a caption that read “Remember the 96 Mr Salmond”.
The ‘96’ is a reference to the 96 people who died in 1989 during an FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.
Mr Murdoch’s Sun newspaper notoriously blamed Liverpool fans for causing the deaths of the victims and claimed that some fans had pickpocketed the dead and dying.
McMahon posted the image and message ten days ago, on the same day that secret files were published indicating a police and establishment cover-up in relation to events on the day of the tragedy.
The South Yorkshire police force was accused by an independent report of blaming innocent fans for the disaster, and has now voluntarily referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission for investigation.
The use of the revelations by the Scottish Labour MSP in order to attack Mr Salmond comes despite his own party courting Rupert Murdoch for well over a decade following the Hillsborough events. It also follows UK leader Ed Miliband’s decision to actively promote the Sun newspaper after his own election as UK Labour leader.
The use of the Hillsborough deaths by the Labour MSP is not the first time he has sought to make political capital out of human tragedy. Newsnet Scotland can reveal that Michael McMahon has also sought to use the shooting of innocent schoolchildren in Norway in order to attack the Scottish government.
Last month the MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill posted a tweet claiming that Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill would not have jailed Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, despite Breivik having been convicted of killing 77 people.
In a tweet, McMahon claimed that Breivik would have been given only a “few hundred hours community service” by the SNP Minister.
In 2011, Breivik murdered a total of 77 people. Sixty nine people, mostly teenagers, were shot dead by the lone fanatic at an island summer camp after a bomb planted by Breivik had exploded in Oslo, killing eight others.
The tweets by McMahon will increase pressure on Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont, who has been accused of losing her grip on Scottish politicians after reports confirmed two senior officials were to leave their Scottish based posts as a result of party infighting.
Ms Lamont, who replaced former Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray after last year’s disastrous Scottish election campaign, was given authority over all Scottish Labour politicians, including MPs, MSPs and councillors.
There are now certain to be calls for Mr McMahon to be disciplined over his use of two murderous atrocities in order to attack the SNP.
Here is their stated raison d’etre–
While strange things continue to happen within the Labour party in Scotland, the leader of Scottish Labour, Johann Lamont continues to remain silent leading to speculation that she is simply unable to control her party.
I can’t help but feel something is going to happen big style in Scottish Labour very soon. That something is likely going to be a big, open split.
All true what you say and only last week after the Budget we had MacIntosh saying the same thing about the steel and jobs to China on TV and nobody picked him up on it.
And you can always find out who owns the domain name of the website with a 30 second google searchI’ve tried and can’t. Maybe you could and let us all know.
A website satirising the BBC would not satirically write up the news the BBC doesn’t. Because that wouldn’t satirise the BBC. It would satirise what the BBC isn’t. To satirise the BBC, you do what the BBC does. Satirically
And who the hell does he think he’s talking to? I don’t need a lesson in satire from him.