An MSP's career is toppled by ill-chosen words about an attractive young woman. Was this really so bad?

Published on Saturday 19 June 2010 19:33

THE atmosphere in Committee Room One of the Scottish Parliament last Wednesday afternoon was sticky. With temperatures outside soaring, by Scottish standards at least, Frank McAveety, shadow minister for sports, petitions committee convener and all-round Holyrood good guy, was feeling the heat. Adjusting the papers in front of him during a break and clearly unaware that his microphone was still switched on, he opened his mouth and with a few badly chosen words, toppled his political career.

"There's a very attractive girl in the second row. Dark and dusky," he began, his eyes riveted to the spot in the second row where, presumably, the very attractive girl sat. "We'll maybe put a wee word out for her. She's very attractive, very nice, very slim. The heat's getting to me. She's got that Filipino look – the kind you'd see in a Gauguin painting. There's a wee bit of culture."

Across the country, the sound of teeth clenching in embarrassment could be heard. The media had a field day replaying McAveety's remarks, complete with subtitles for the hard of hearing, while female opposition MSPs such as the SNP's Sandra White were wheeled out to lambaste his comments as "at best sexist and sleazy – and at worst, sexist, sleazy and racist". Members of his own party were conspicuously quiet and within 24 hours McAveety had resigned as chair, tendered a groveling apology to Labour leader Iain Gray, and become the poster boy for unreconstructed Scottish lad culture.

Privately, there is said to be much dismay within the party ranks that McAveety, a well-liked senior member of the Scottish Labour Party, has fallen on his sword over a matter that many consider so trivial. Although some female members of the party are said to be displeased at his comments, most believe that it was far from a resigning matter – although the revelation later in the week that the young lady in question was an intern of 15, has, to a certain extent, muddied the waters.

McAveety does, it must be said, possess many of the characteristics that embody the traditional Scottish male. A passionate Celtic fan, he is 'fitba mad', and still plays regularly on a parliamentary team. He loves his music, and owns two iPods packed full of classic American guitar rock. His diet is of the pie, beans and chips variety – so famously exposed by 'piegate' when, as Culture Minister in 2004, he claimed to have been 'unavoidably detained' from answering questions in the chamber when he had, in fact, been scoffing his carb-laden lunch in the Parliamentary canteen. He knows who Paul Gauguin is, a fact that should be applauded even if geographically, his assessment was off by several thousand miles (Gauguin produced most of his paintings in Tahiti).

Gaffes aside, he is also a man of the people, a Glasgow boy made good with a word and a wink for everyone. The only box he doesn't tick is on alcohol – he's tee-total. "He's a bit of a lad from the west of Scotland who has an eye for the ladies," says Brian McNair, professor of communication at Strathclyde university.

"His comments are a bit crass, a bit naff, they represent an element of Scottish culture and he shouldn't have done it on a public platform, but I don't think they're a matter for resignation. I don't think for one moment he's a sexist sleazebag."

Simon Fanshawe, author of The Done Thing, A Guide To Modern Manners, doesn't see what all the fuss is about. "It's just somebody saying 'she's pretty'. He doesn't say it in a way that's not complimentary at all. It seems to me that's an entirely acceptable thing to do. It's perfectly well mannered. What seems to be happening in society now is that lust has suddenly become rude."

Rude or not, much of the buzz in Holyrood has been of the 'there but for the grace of God' variety, with many male MSPs quietly wiping their brows with relief that it wasn't them. And Scottish men elsewhere have been forced to ask themselves if their usual banter at work and play could land them in hot water as well.

So how far is it permissible to go in polite society in commenting on the attractiveness of a member of the opposite sex? Is it always verboten? And is finding someone attractive and saying so really sexist?

"THERE are few men who wouldn't think such things, even if they don't all speak it, and don't act upon it," says behavioural psychologist Jo Hemmings. "Men generally are programmed to respond physiologically – their male sexual antennae are permanently on high alert. There will be an outpouring of sympathy because other men will think 'my God, he just happened to be wired up'."

And while men may be more vocal about such pursuits, the fairer sex are not entirely blameless either – especially during the World Cup with so many attractive and athletic young men occupying the TV schedules. "Women do it as well," points out McNair. "It's banter about somebody they fancy, and really not that big a deal."

But the lascivious nature of McAveety's comments have nevertheless turned some off. "It could have been a lot worse," concedes writer and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch. "But the bit that was just a bit much was the 'very nice' comment, as if he was a fox licking his lips before he ate her.

"That just conjures up an unfortunate image, and once it's in your mind it's very hard to look at him again without seeing it. He was sitting there sounding like the wolf surveying little Red Riding Hood."

Political analyst Gerry Hassan attributes McAveety's comments to part of a wider malaise – with the great hulking Scottish male suffering from an identity problem, not to mention lacking a sensitivity chip.

"There's a problem in Scotland with toxic masculinity," he says. "In the west of Scotland particularly there is a whole host of male behaviours that damage all of us around drinking, crime, violence, aggression, and around the way men behave towards women, as well as other men."

While McAveety might balk at being blamed for the nation's crime statistics, it is certainly true that Scottish men are, perhaps, more repressed in certain areas than their European counterparts, with a strong lad culture that encourages drinking and socialising in all-male groups, rather than in the company of women.

"The average red blooded Scottish male seems unable to keep the personal and the professional in separate boxes," Riddoch says. "He will think that whatever thought goes through his brain is worthy of repetition, publication, being said aloud, taken seriously.

"He doesn't seem to see that there are two levels of behaving, and that professionalism demands that you're neutral and you're dealing with other people. It's this kind of 'take me as I am, love me warts and all' attitude which is so irritating about Scottish public life."

Perhaps then, it is not so much what McAveety said as where and to whom he said it, that has turned this tawdry affair into a major political stooshie.

"I actually think his misdemeanour was that he said something out loud that was inappropriate," says Hemmings. "That's what he did wrong. You can't punish him for thinking it, but he was foolish in his candour."

And in the light of the Mrs Duffy affair, when former prime minister Gordon Brown was caught referring to a lifelong Labour supporter as 'that bigoted woman' during the election campaign, a move that many suspect cost him the election, there is a view that McAveety's greatest gaffe has been plain old stupidity.

"There is a point where you do wonder if anybody is free to say anything privately to anybody else," says Riddoch. "But it's the context – after the Gordon Brown gaffe and the fact that it's Labour again, just seems to give it the context of holding one position politically, and another completely different position personally."

"Let's be honest, we say and think things in private that are different from things we would say in public," points out Fanshawe. "That doesn't mean to say the things we think in private are unacceptable – it's merely that they're expressed differently. Manners are all about context."

Meanwhile, half way around the world, Filipinos have taken to the internet to express their bemusement at the affair, many of them simply perplexed that a politician has lost his job because he described a woman as beautiful, others offended that describing someone as having 'that Filipino look' was being viewed in some places as a negative thing.

You can see their point. Were the situation reversed, and a Filipino politician had been caught making remarks about an attractive woman with 'that pale and pasty Scottish look', there would probably have been a parade down Princes Street.

Perhaps then, it is to Manila where the Scottish Labour party's latest casualty should consider retiring. "Mr McAveety, sir," wrote one enthusiastic Filipino blogger, "we can't wait for your state visit."

Do's and don'ts of modern political manners

DO... check whether or not your microphone is switched on. Then check it again. Then ask someone else to check it for you. Then check it again.

DO... resign as quickly as possible after making a gaffe. Every day you remain in your job when others are calling for your resignation is another year you'll be out of a ministerial post. (see: David Laws; Frank McAveety).

DO... Say you're sorry if you've been caught out. No one likes a politician who takes the 'it wisnae me' line, whereas everyone loves to see one grovel.

DO... Reference the Great Masters in casual conversation. There's nothing like "a wee bit of culture" to impress your fellow politicians.

DON'T... describe anyone as 'dusky', 'bigoted', 'attractive', 'unattractive', 'fat', 'thin', 'short', 'tall', or 'nice'. In fact never describe anyone as anything to anyone, ever.

DON'T... comment on a woman's appearance when you're chairing a committee. And if someone makes a comment to you about a woman's appearance, adopt the silent clerk approach, and simply smile benignly.

DON'T... order the pie and beans in the parliamentary canteen. This should probably adhered to whether or not you're due in parliament to answer ministerial questions.

DON'T... lie in order to save your skin. Whatever you were really up to, chances are there was a tabloid journalist or an opposition party member with a grudge there to see it.