The devilish sacrifice of Altany Craik

Labour's control freakery has plumbed new depths in the Kingdom of Fife. judging by this report from the Guardian:

A veteran Scottish Labour councillor in Fife has quit the contest to be his party’s local candidate in next year’s general election after concerns were raised about his “sexy and satanic” novel writing.

Altany Craik told the Guardian that he had withdrawn from the selection process to represent Scottish Labour in the Glenrothes constituency “for family reasons”.

But sources close to Craik, who was first elected as a councillor in 2012 and is now the second most senior councillor in Fife’s Labour-led administration, suggested he had stepped aside because the party had raised issues about the content and themes of the occult horror books that he writes as a hobby.

His novels, which he publishes independently, include a series set in Scotland featuring a psychic priest named Father Andrew Steel who investigates occult-related crimes.

It now seems impossible, at least in the Labour Party, to have or to have had any sort of life outside politics if you want to be a parliamentary candidate. Unless an inner press officer has approved your every action in advance since you were 16, you are bound to have done something that will rule out your selection.

Meanwhile, by imagining a public that disapproves of horror fiction and then pandering to it, Labour helps to bring that very public into being. The reality is that horror fiction is very popular and Craik has already stood in Westminster and Holyrood elections without concerns being raised about his writing.

Incidentally, Altay Craik appears to be his real name, but if you were inventing of a pen name under which to publish horror fiction, you'd never come up with something that good.

The Guardian report ends with a quote from a spokesperson for Scottish Labour:

"Selection processes for Scottish Labour parliamentary candidates are properly administered in full accordance with procedures set by the Scottish executive committee."

So anodyne, so devoid of interest are those words that I expect whoever wrote them to be offered a safe seat by the end of the week with a view to their becoming a member of Labour's cabinet after the next election.