Letters / Dog whistling
This is what Alistair Carmichael MP says in his letter to voters this week:
“Emma is not someone who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She worked her way up, studying at the Open University to get her degree the hard way (and later her masters) after having children, and while balancing raising a family. She knows what it is like to face challenges, work hard and succeed. That really matters when it comes to having the life experience, empathy and understanding to help people here in Shetland as – and I have no doubt that if she is elected she will be as hard working and diligent as our MSP as she has been throughout her life.”
I don’t know if Alistair has a dog but he certainly knows how to use a dog whistle.
Nobody, certainly not the SNP candidate, disputes that Emma Macdonald has faced and overcome difficulties in her life. All credit to her. However, there are two female candidates in this election.
The other is Hannah Mary Goodlad who, as Alistair knows, does not have children.
Alistair is a lawyer who chooses his words carefully. He appears to be suggesting that a childless woman lacks the necessary empathy, understanding and life experience to be an MSP. This is extraordinarily offensive, sexist and hurtful.
Presumably Emma checks the text of letters her minder sends out on her behalf. Why did she authorise this misogynist dog whistling?
Our MP has form in making misleading statements. During the 2015 election, as Secretary of State for Scotland in the Tory/Lib Dem coalition, he leaked a Scotland Office memo about the French ambassador’s alleged comment that Nicola Sturgeon had privately said she would “rather see David Cameron remain as PM”.
The ambassador, the French Consul General and Sturgeon all denied it.
Alistair at first said he knew nothing about the leaking of the memo but later admitted he had lied. This was during a very expensive Cabinet Office inquiry that found phone records proving his staff gave it to the Telegraph.
There are other dog whistles in his strange, desperate letter to electors. He mentions the “hard way” to higher education.
Hannah Mary got a first class degree in geology at the University of Glasgow and then a Masters, also in geology, at Imperial College, London. Like Emma’s Open University degrees, these were not handed out with the rations. It takes a lot of hard work to achieve success. There is no soft, easy way.
The crack about the “silver spoon” is rather nasty, too, although of course he may be alluding jocularly to a previous Shetland Lib Dem MSP who resigned in 2019, presumably because he had tired of being a backbench backbiter.
Jonathan Wills
Bressay
Alistair Carmichael MP responded as follows:
“I wrote a positive endorsement of what I see as Emma’s qualities as a candidate. For Mr Wills to read an attack into this says more about him than it does anyone else.”
