by Rab Bruce’s Spider

Although it hasn’t really filtered through to the mainstream media to any great extent, the Twittersphere has been alive with arguments over the decision by Rev Stu of Wings Over Scotland to raise a legal action against Kezia Dugdale for claiming that one of his Tweeted comments aimed at Oliver & David Mundell was homophobic. Battle lines have been drawn, with many people stating their loyalty to Wings or opposing him and agreeing with an opinion piece published by Common Space. This has now reached the stage where some Yessers appear to be choosing between Wings or Common Space as the genuine voice of Yes.

this is all very silly. There is no doubt that Rev Stu can be blunt to the point of aggression on Twitter. He is outspoken and does not shy away from confrontation. Whether his comment was homophobic will now be for the Courts to decide, which is rather sad. There is no doubt it was in poor taste and rather unpleasant, and there are probably few people who would not have been annoyed to have been on the receiving end of such a comment.

Having said that, we should not forget that comedy can be cruel. Many comedians, notably Frankie Boyle, make a living from making comments which are far more distasteful than Rev Stu’s remark. To that extent, Kezia Dugdale’s reaction smacks of political opportunism rather than anything else. If you take offence at someone’s comments, you don’t need to keep listening to them. We should not ignore the fact that Wings Over Scotland represents a threat to the unionists, so they will seize upon any opportunity to discredit the site.

Equally, the whole thing could surely have been settled if Rev Stu had simply told Kezia directly that the comment was not intended to be homophobic and apologising if she took it that way. Offence is generally in the ear of the receiver, but a quick apology would surely have brought this sorry tale to a quick conclusion. Both parties do seem to have over-reacted.

But there is a wider issue at stake here. Yessers are taking sides in this squabble, and that helps nobody. Whatever you may think of Rev Stu, the Wings Over Scotland site provides a much-needed service for the Yes movement. Whether you agree with Rev Stu’s personal views on any particular subject does not detract from the fact that the Wings site does what it does better than any other website, and the Yes movement would be diminished if it were not for Wings.

As for Common Space, they publish a range of articles, not all of which are pro-Indie. This is as it should be, because Common Space is a news agency which provides an alternative to the mainstream media. It is as entitled to an opinion as any one of us.

We really should not be taking sides between these two. Both provide information in their own ways, and we need both. Just because one of them may, from time to time, say something with which you may disagree should not invalidate the wider service each provides. It certainly should not be a case of Yessers needing to side with one or the other. That, when you think about it, is precisely the sort of tribalism we are trying to get away from. If we genuinely have pretensions towards building an independent nation which is fairer and more inclusive, we need to have room for all sorts of voices within that nation. That does not mean we must all slavishly agree with every pronouncement from every nominally pro-Yes source. Indeed, it is essential that we listen to dissenting voices and opinions.

So please let’s stop these petty arguments. The Court case will take care of itself and should be nothing to do with the far wider and more important issue of campaigning for independence. The time for arguing amongst ourselves is once Scotland is a normal nation. When that happens, we will need a Parliament and a society which is able to argue and debate on all sorts of issues, and which is able to do so in a mature, respectful manner.