Despite the ascent of Salmond to power as the "new king of Scotland" (and I think we can all agree that he's better than the "last king of Scotland"), the cybernats remain full to bursting with bile and bad puns. I think everyone else has left the Scotsman and Herald discussion boards to them, now they're such polluted spaces.Scottish Unionist (formerly known as AM2 on those same discussion boards) has done sterling work keeping track of some of these loons (Gordon Girvan, Jay Kay etc). A few more just caught my eye in a piece about the Council Tax.
Vivas, first of all, subtly suggests there's something wrong with Gordon Brown. I don't think this is one of the SNP's key messages.
Persuasive, as this fellow is, he's not in the same league as Iainbroch, who I think must work in PR. The way they use "Liebour" gets funnier and funnier, and I think if I hear it one more time I'll join the SNP. Not.
The most striking of all, though, was from someone trading as "Vote for Scotlands Future, Vote for the SNP on". Yes, it just ends like that. And is devoid of the apostrophe. But these are minor linguistic misdemeanors compared to the true evils of this comment.
This disgrace to Scotland explicitly says he would like a Scot to be denied healthcare in England, and then to die, so we could have a bloody separation from England, presumably along the lines of the end of Yugoslavia. I thought initially that this person must be an agent provocateur, but he or, I suppose, she has a bit of a history, some mad, some not so.
I've been telling the SNP for a long while now they need to pull their cybernat forces back, because these comments are not exactly helping their cause. Perhaps I shouldn't have: it's better that people know what lurks on the fringes.
"I've been telling the SNP for a long while now they need to pull their cybernat forces back"
As much as you might wish it that the SNP are answerable for these numpties that plague the Scotsman and Herald boards they absolutely are not.
We are lucky enough to live in a free country and if people (whoever they are) want to troll websites and fill it with bile with some of the short time they have alive then that's up to them.
But I think linking it to the SNP is a bit much. Who knows, maybe it's Labour hacks painting the SNP in a bad light? I don't know if that's true, you don't know if it's true so it strikes me as a lamentable waste of time to give these people much more than a flicker of one's consideration....
Hi Jeff,
I'm not suggesting they get instructions from SNP HQ, nor that they're representative. I also know the party thinks they're unhelpful, but I'm still quite sure the bulk of them are real SNP supporters. Look back at the last "history" link to see plenty of plain pro-SNP comments by this person. I don't think it's a conspiracy to make the party look bad, just misguided individuals.
And I did discuss this with a senior SNP activist after one of the election debates in April 07, and he told me there had historically been a campaign to get activists commenting more, with an email list given articles to rebut. He rolled his eyes about the consequences, though, and noted that there probably wasn't any way of getting the toothpaste back into the tube.
As for ignoring them, yes, that might be better, but I suspect that if the boards were full of similarly baleful Labour supporters we'd never hear the end of it. I just hope a little exposure might shame them, you never know.
James
Your first link doesn't work and I'm curious. Also, are you considering taking up the mantle of "speAk You're BrAnes: ScOOTlanD" editor...? http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/
Whoops, fixed that link. It's the IoS's interview.
And no, I don't want to spend my life reviewing these depressing comments sites. I'd rather help Chris Morris get another round of Speak Your Brains together:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K9_mQ9sGBQ
D'oh. I never made the Morris-link...