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Smith report burning 'offensive'

Written By blogger on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 | 9:35 PM

A video showing SNP councillors burning a copy of the Smith Commission report on more powers for Scotland has been branded "offensive" and "disgusting".

The stunt, filmed outside Renfrewshire Council's headquarters, was posted on YouTube but later removed.

Opposition parties have criticised those involved and called for the first minister to "react swiftly".

The SNP said these kind of acts have "absolutely no part to play in moving the debate forward".

The video featured councillors Brian Lawson, Will Mylet and Mags MacLaren.

As they set fire to a document above a bin, Mr Mylet said: "The Smith Commission report - this is exactly what we think about it.

"No real powers for Scotland yet again from Westminster. We've been lied to again."

As he dropped it into the bin he added: "There you go Gordon Brown - cheers."

Mr Lawson then said: "Happy St Andrew's Day."

'Inappropriate stunts'

A spokeswoman for the SNP said those involved "realise their error and removed the video once this was raised with them."

She added: "The SNP has been clear we will always welcome new powers for Scotland.

"While we believe the Smith Commission proposals fall far short of the powers Scotland needs to thrive, it is important that we continue to make the case for more powers in a constructive way - as we always have done in the past."

Liberal Democrat leader Mr Rennie said: "The SNP has rightly invested much distancing themselves from extreme nationalists especially those who burn books. I would therefore expect Nicola Sturgeon to react swiftly to this silly and offensive nonsense.

"What these SNP councillors fail to understand is that they are condemning a report that their own party endorsed. They are clearly still progressing through the five stages of grief after the referendum.

"This is a test for Nicola Sturgeon's leadership. Will she tolerate this or send a strong signal to her members that there must be no more inappropriate stunts like this?"

Scottish Labour's interim leader, Anas Sarwar, said: "This is disgusting and disrespectful behaviour from three SNP councillors.

"Scots will rightly be disturbed that public representatives feel they can go around burning documents, even ones which their party signed up to."

The day after Scotland voted "No" in the independence referendum, the coalition government at Westminster appointed Lord Smith to look at greater devolution to Scotland.

His commission, which was made up of 10 party representatives, published its recommendations last week.


Smith report burning 'offensive'

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