Scotland’s new Education Secretary faces the prospect of three separate Parliamentary investigations into the activities of a former aide who ran a blog that smeared the SNP’s political opponents.
The Labour Party confirmed that Ronnie Nicholson, one of its councillors in Dumfries, had made three complaints regarding Michael Russell, who is a regional list MSP for the South of Scotland and was promoted yesterday by Alex Salmond as the replacement for Fiona Hyslop.
Mr Russell was previously the Minister for the Constitution, Culture and External Affairs and was the driving force behind the Scottish government’s White Paper on an independence referendum, published on Monday.
At the weekend it was revealed that Mark McLachlan, who ran Mr Russell’s parliamentary office in Dumfries, had been behind a blog entitled The Universality of Cheese which carried abusive and scurrilous attacks on the SNP’s political opponents.
Mr McLachlan could now face legal action by several politicians and the scandal followed the unmasking of another so-called ‘cyber-nat’ — an architect named Bruce Newlands — who used the blog name “Wardog” and quit his job at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen after he used the blog to describe Jim Murphy, the Scottish Secretary, as a c***. Mr Russell has distanced himself from Mr McLachlan, saying he knew nothing about his activities and branding them “despicable”.
Advertisement
Mr Nicholson said last night that Mr McLachlan’s blog had carried “vile, defamatory smears” against him and others. “This is a clear breach of the rules which specify that MSPs are accountable for the staff they employ and the work they do.
“This was an orchestrated smear campaign and the allegations were hurtful to my family. I have yet to hear a word of apology from Michael Russell or Alex Salmond.”
A second complaint has been laid by Councillor Nicholson under the section of the code covering the misuse of parliamentary facilities, while a third complaint claims Mr Russell failed to ensure that his staff followed the rules on conduct.
A spokesman for the First Minister said that Mr Russell had taken decisive action as soon as the matter of the blog had come to his attention. “Mr McLachlan was out of his employment within hours,” he said.