Iain Gray: Cybernat attacks serve to damage our country

WHEN I made my final speech as Labour leader at our special conference last week, I rather thought that the “newsline” would be my attack on the poison of the online “cybernats”, rather than some positive and forward looking observations I made about Scotland’s future. I was right, but the different reactions were quite instructive.

My love of irony meant that I was rather hoping the cybernats would rush to denounce me in the most vitriolic terms, and I was not disappointed. What was disappointing was a lazy comment in one newspaper which suggested that the political parties are all the same in this. They are not. There are no Labour, Tory or Lib Dem supporting equivalents of the SNP supporters who toss words like “traitor” or “quisling” (i.e. Nazi collaborator) around.

For those that doubt the connections between the SNP and some of the cybernats, how about “Strathearnrose” who on 5 October tweeted: “At SNP mtg 2 encourage more social media uptake” then signed off “#evenmorecybernats”. Strathearnrose is of course Roseanna Cunningham, the minister currently taking through new legislation against offensive behaviour on the internet. There is that delicious irony again.

Another newspaper commented that “a lack of civility is a small price to pay for freedom of speech”. This is wrong on two counts. I was not complaining about a lack of civility, but something much worse and more sinister. The online response to Scottish Labour’s conference did not just consist of SNP supporters being rude to me. There was also considerable comment regarding Jim Murphy’s Catholicism, accusations of criminality against others and at least one post suggesting that a particular journalist should be shot, and helpfully providing his work address.

More commonly, though, the cybernats threaten newspapers and broadcasters who fall short of the required sycophancy towards the SNP with censorship. The usual line is “just wait for independence and we will close you down”.

Perhaps it is the SNP’s tolerance of this culture which led a member of staff in the office of Joan McAlpine MSP, the First Minister’s parliamentary aide, who is also the head of the SNP’s youth wing, to casually smear Ian Davidson MP in a circular e-mail this week, accusing him of having “a history of bullying and intimidation against women”. That is untrue and almost certainly defamatory.

All this is happening in the shadow of a Scottish Government and a First Minister prepared to denounce judges personally and threaten the independence of our courts, use the parliament chamber to attack the integrity of academics and voluntary sector workers who disagree with him, go to court to thwart the release of documents under freedom of information legislation during an election campaign, and have a spin doctor draft a “confession” letter for a professor who had crossed him.

Just as the cybernats go beyond the bounds of what is acceptable online, these statements and actions go beyond what is acceptable in parliament and government.

The biggest mistake was the editorial comment which thought I was complaining about my treatment at the hands of the cybernats. In fact, I spoke out because I am no longer worried about any of this undermining me, or damaging Labour’s election prospects. I am increasingly worried about it undermining the decency of the country I love, damaging the freedoms its citizens enjoy, and poisoning the vital debate we now face on the future of that country. I think all right thinking Scots, of whatever political persuasion, should be worried, too.

• Iain Gray MSP stands down as leader of Labour at Holyrood on 17 December.