A while ago, I blogged on here about the economic dangers of letting Iain Gray’s fiscal illiteracy loose on Scotland’s economy. That a man who doesn’t know how Norway structures its $510,000,000,000 oil fund thinks he is qualified to say Scotland shouldn’t do the same is odd. That a man who hasn’t a clue about how the financial sector is structured should seek to be first minister of a country which has a large financial sector is worrying. But, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Gray himself opened a speech at the Fabian society some years back by admitting he knew nothing about the economy (http://joanmcalpine.typepad.com/joan_mcalpine/2010/12/oh-dear-kevin-the-teenager-has-got-over-excited-again-iain-gray-according-to-an-interview-in-scotland-on-sundaythinks-he.html). Perhaps he’ll take a crash course should his cohorts emerge victorious in May.
But while overseeing economic development is an important part of the job of First Minister, there are other things for the top man (or woman) in Scotland to see to. One if these is diplomacy. Iain Gray has demonstrated as poor a grasp of diplomacy as he has of economics during his lamentable tenure as Labour’s leader in the Scottish Parliament. He has drawn criticism from Ireland and Norway for misrepresenting them in his attacks on the SNP. Gray can now add Montenegro to his list – perhaps he’s trying to complete a set. Prior to Holyrood’s Christmas break, Gray attacked Alex Salmond for holding up Montenegro as an example of how independence could be achieved. When Salmond noted how the nation of Montenegro went from a plebiscite to UN membership in forty days, Gray lowped to his feet and immediately started mouthing off about ethnic cleansing (which didn’t happen in Montenegro) and two World Wars also being involved… the wars of course, had nothing to do with Montenegro’s independence and I seem to recall hearing that most of the rest of the world suffered then as well, but no matter. Just Gray getting his facts wrong again, nothing to see here, folks.
But, of course, it does matter. It matters to the people of Montenegro when they see their history being misrepresented in public by someone who ought to know matter, and it matters to the people of Scotland that their relations with other nations are not soured by such ill thought out rhetoric. Mark McLachlan at the Universality of Cheese reproduces an email from a Montenegrin friend about how this matters to them, (http://the-universality-of-cheese.blogspot.com/2011/01/nezavisna-crna-gora-nezavisna-scotland.html). The Montenegrin ambassador in London has written to Gray, Ed Milliband and several Scottish newspapers, but of course the arrogant Labour leadership have not bothered to issue an apology.
From the Scotsman:
In it [the letter], the Montenegro Charge D'Affairs, Marijana Zivkovic, writes: "I cannot help but feel deep regret about the way you chose to depict it (Montenegro] in your public statement." The sharply-worded letter to Gray has been copied to Labour leader Ed Miliband. Last night, the SNP said that Gray should withdraw his comments immediately.
Montenegro achieved independence in 2006 after a referendum and is an official candidate for membership of the European Union. In the letter to Gray, Zivkovic says: "Your statement that Montenegro was involved in 'ethnic cleansing' including your references to 'a war crimes tribunal and a UN peacekeeping mission' is simply incorrect.'
She adds: "It was the only former Yugoslav republic where neither war nor devastation took place in the last decade of the 20th century."
Is this really the kind of representation for our country that we want at international level? Gray and Labour are an embarrassment to Scotland, and we cannot let them get their grubby, blundering hands on power to embarrass us even more.
