How SNP ministers and Donald Trump share a troubling habit – Brian Wilson

It should be possible to hold a Scottish Government minister to account over any public claim – even if it is ‘only a tweet’, writes Brian Wilson.

SNP Cabinet Secretary Michael Russell

Scottish Government Ministers may deplore Donald Trump to whom they once queued in homage while in one significant respect remaining devotees of his playbook – they love to tweet.

In the wrong hands, tweeting can be as dangerous as texting. It is a convenient means of getting a lie half-way round the world, in the old adage, before truth has its breeches on.

Ministers in any government should either refrain from this means of communication or expect to be held accountable. A lie or a smear delivered in 240 characters is still a lie or a smear.

I offer two notable examples. First we had the Cabinet Secretary for Brexiting, Michael Russell, disputing in lofty tones the straightforward statement, quoting the Scottish Government’s own figures, that we get almost £2,000 a head more public spending than the UK as a whole.

In response, Russell tweeted: “Actually this isn’t true. Scotland pays out more than it gets back. Time to stop the fibs, Boris, and face reality – the reason you won’t let us choose our own future is because you are scared of what it would cost you.”

The Scotland Office Minister, Douglas Ross, challenged the veracity of this statement (which attracted 4,000 ‘likes’ from the faithful). Better still, he did so via an old-fashioned letter: “I believe your statement has significant potential to mislead the public. So will you release the precise source of your public claim, which contradicts the evidence of the Scottish Government’s own statisticians.”

‘Precise source’ still unclear

“Actually” is a very Russellian word, implying weight of intellectual superiority or conceited buffoonery, depending on your preference. Either way, his tweet was untrue, was demonstrated by every independent source to be untrue and has not been backed up by the “precise source” requested.

Why should Mr Russell bother? He certainly understands the “lies and breeches” reality. His work is done. And there is zero chance of being challenged by the Permanent Secretary who would once upon a time have told ministers they can’t do this sort of thing. After all, it was “only a tweet”.

Then how about Humza Yousaf, Cabinet Secretary for Justice and regular tweeter of partisan messages which sit uneasily with that role. On Thursday, he felt called upon to tweet on the resignation of Sajid Javid after refusing to get rid of his special advisers or ‘Spads’.

There can be differing views on the politics of that decision. Having lived through the Blair-Brown years and witnessed the merciless damage wrought by Treasury Spads’ undermining Number 10, I can see the point. Better to divorce early, even if it breaks the vows, than suffer years of unhappy marriage and anonymous briefing.

Whether or not one agrees with that, any rational person would surely regard it as a purely political decision. Not so Mr Yousaf. Extraordinarily, he felt called on to tweet: The Party riddled with Islamaphobia forces out the only Muslim in the Cabinet #QuelleSurprise #Reshuffle.

Emails deleted

Quelle surprise? Does anyone think it wise for Scotland’s Justice Minister to stir the pot by suggesting such motivation? Can Mr Yousaf produce a shred of evidence to back up the inescapable implication of his tweet – that Mr Javid’s religion played a part in his departure?

The department for which Yousaf has political responsibility regularly deals with cases in which race and religion rear their heads. If he is prepared, so casually, to cast aspersions and attribute motives, how can his judgment be trusted? Will the First Minster, Permanent Secretary or Lord Advocate bat an eyelid? Or was it “only a tweet”?

It now seems routine for internal Scottish Government emails to be deleted and exchanges on official business to be conducted without record. Do we now have a free-for-all in which ministers can say what they like, regardless of truth or innuendo, so long as it is via social media?

Ministers in any government should be accountable for their words, regardless of the medium through which they are expressed. The tweets of Messrs Russell and Yousaf would be good starting points for putting that doctrtine to the test in St Andrew’s House, 2020.