This morning Elon Musk's attack on Volodymyr Zelensky was in the news. Here's the Independent:
Elon Musk has accused Volodymyr Zelensky of "feeding off the dead bodies of Ukrainian soldiers" as the Trump administration continues ferociously lashing out at the Ukrainian president.
The Tesla owner wrote on his X site, without evidence, that Zelensky is "despised by the people of Ukraine" in a post that refuted Kyiv’s claims that the president has a 57 per cent approval rating. Earlier this week Trump had claimed that the Ukraine leader had an approval rating of '4 per cent'.
"If Zelensky was actually loved by the people of Ukraine, he would hold an election. He knows he would lose in a landslide, despite having seized control of ALL Ukrainian media, so he canceled the election,” the tech billionaire wrote.
Anas Sarwar, the leader of Scottish Labour, was making his speech to his party conference today. Did he take the opportunity to condemn Musk's foul slur?
Not exactly. Over to the Daily Record:
Anas Sarwar has echoed Donald Trump and Elon Musk by announcing Scottish Labour's own plans for a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The Scottish Labour leader said that he would create the department because of "the SNP's wasteful incompetence". He pointed to the ferry scandal at the £1 billion new Barlinnie jail.
Unless things at Holyrood are much worse than I've heard, it's not true that the Scottish government has provided Barlinnie with its own ferry. I'll be charitable and put this error down to the Record rather than Sarwar.
Anyway, he went on:
That’s why we will have our own Department of Government Efficiency to stop the waste and deliver value for money for you, the taxpayer. And that value for money will extend to every part of government."
He continued: "I can tell you now that as First Minister, I will end this culture of waste, respect people’s hard-earned money and get value for every penny."
I get it that Labour wants to attack the SNP's record in government. But why, even before his remark about Zelensky, drag Musk into it? It's not as though he's popular with British voters.
Perhaps Sarwar has a secret crush on him? Perhaps a teenage spin doctor thought they were being clever by hooking the speech to something already in the news?
Or perhaps we're right to conclude that Labour no longer believes in much beyond getting into power.
I'm sorry, Jonathan, but as a resident of Scotland (who joined the Liberal Party way back in 1961) and as someone who has met and talked with Mr Sarwar, I'm afraid your article is a load of rollocks. It is not based on fact and merely echoes a tacky supposition invented by a tabloid newspaper. I'm disappointed because I usually enjoy your site.
ReplyDelete"A tacky supposition invented by a tabloid newspaper"? No, those quotations are in every newspaper report of the speech - and I looked for the full text on the Scottish Labour website (couldn't find it) before I quoted one of them. I stand by my argument that no democratic politician should be using the language of Elon Musk.
DeleteInvented by the SNP in their newspaper and copied by lazy newspapers. Smear by association. Not up to your usual standard.
ReplyDeleteOne of those smears that involves quoting the speaker's exact words.
DeleteSorry, not so, Jonathan. I've checked and Mr Sarwar did not mention either Trump or Musk. Those names were added by hostile SNP and Tory tabloids. David..
DeleteThe complaint in my post is that he used the term "Department of Government Efficiency", which everyone who heard it will associate with Elon Musk. A democratic politician in Britain should be distancing himself from Musk, not trying to gain attention or even kudos by using his language.
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