Hate and Lyall?

My fellow Holyrood hack Simon Johnson has had a run of stories at the Telegraph recently about Lyall Duff, an SNP council candidate for the Murdostoun ward in North Lanarkshire.

Duff Man: Lyall Duff

After using Facebook to call two Catholic midwives who sued the NHS  "money-grabbing old witches", Duff was suspended by the party last week. 
Now the Sunday Herald has unearthed a cache of internet posts made by Duff under the alias AuldNick.
Duff admits writing some of them, like the one where he's bragging about his collection of 80+ bayonets, but says he "can't remember" writing others, like where Lanarkshire is dubbed "God's toilet".
He also says the online accounts were used by his son and mechanics at his garage business.
Other posts by AuldNick feature immigrants, Muslims, Jews, and the Glasgow airport terror attack.
Funnily enough, a lot of the quirky spelling and subject matter seen on Duff's Facebook page also features in the AuldNick postings.
Here's a longer version of the story in today's Sunday Herald


EXCLUSIVE
Tom Gordon
Scottish Political Editor

AN SNP council candidate suspended last week over remarks about Catholic midwives is at the centre of a new row over offensive internet comments about immigrants and muslims.

Lyall Duff, who was suspended by the party for making "totally unacceptable" remarks on Facebook, yesterday said he "can’t remember" if he also posted a series of tasteless remarks on internet forums under the alias AuldNick.

Duff admitted using accounts with the name, but said these were also used by his son, also Lyall, and several mechanics working at his garage.

However Duff confirmed that in one forum he had talked about his "small collection" of more than 80 bayonets, including one designed by Hitler.

Duff was suspended by the SNP after describing two Catholic midwives who lost a legal case against the NHS after refusing to carry out abortions as "money grabbing old witches".

He also used his Facebook page to urge people to burn RBS bankers and called its former boss, Fred Goodiwn, an "orrible little c**t".

However he remains on the ballot for May’s election in North Lanarkshire as it is too late to remove him, and the SNP have not expelled him.

Critics claim Alex Salmond has failed to disown Duff completely as he could prove vital to the balance of power on the council if elected.

Labour said Duff had to give a full account of his postings, and claimed there were similarities in spelling and subject matter between ‘AuldNick’ and Duff on Facebook.

Duff was also indentified in a 2005 photograph on one forum as "Lyall (Auldnick)".

And when joining one forum in 2003, Auldnick gave his contact details as: "Lyall (AuldNick), Wishaw (Scotlands shit hole), Lanarkshire (God´s toilet)" and his email as lyall@mgm-services.co.uk.

Wishaw: Not AuldNick's kinda town

MGM Services is Duff’s car and motorbike repair business in Motherwell.

Asked yesterday if he wrote those remarks, Duff, who is standing for the Murdostoun ward near Wishaw, said: "I can’t remember."

Other online comments by AuldNick include the claim that "not one" Muslim would admit Osama Bin Laden had killed women and children, and the joke: "Whats sperm an immigrants got in common... thousands flood in but only one works".

AuldNick also called the Irish "a bunch of blaggin gits 50% pikey", said German women "sell sex for a tenner", and described Scots as "the one and only true master race".

The day two terrorists drove a burning jeep into Glasgow Airport, AuldNick wrote: "Round up the family and close friends and ship them to Gaza".

Of the terrorist who sustained fatal burns, AuldNick added: "We need to keep him alive BUT with minimum pain relief.., he chose his life so let the crispy fukir boil & bubble for the next 50 years.. We need to see the back of his friends & family, Pakistan sounds nice."

In other forums AuldNick called Baroness Thatcher a "slag" and on several occasions advised misleading the police to create "reasonable doubt" in order to evade speeding fines.
"Report your number plates stolen IE walk into any police station with them silly wee plastic screws and tell the nice policeman somebody knicked your plates (plate for motorcycles) get a pink slip = no more camera fines".

In April 2007, he complained about the Lanarkshire marching season: "You wanna try living up here, the local councils and the plod close main roads every frigging weekend during the summer so a few bigot/hate morons can have their orange/hibs ‘walks’ IE a few drunk fat blokes get to stagger down the middle of any road they fancy.

"This nonsense is called ‘the marching season’ and any bigot can shut any road and the suits N pink shirts pay ‘cos it ain’t their money, nowt to do with charity and everything to do with hate, how wrong is that?"

The day after the SNP won the 2007 Holyrood election, AuldNick started a discussion called Freedom which said ex-MSP Tommy Sheridan was "just a freeloader BUT he was the only mouth that stood up to the Thatcher slag during the poll tax wars".

Frank Roy, Labour MP for Motherwell & Wishaw, said: "These insults are unacceptable. Nobody talks Motherwell and Wishaw down like this.

"If this man isn’t out on his ear by the end of the day, it is clear the SNP are protecting him."

Duff told the Sunday Herald his Facebook comments had been "very stupid", but vehemently denied there had been any sectarian element to them, as had been reported by some newspapers: "I don’t have a problem with any race or religion".

An SNP spokesman said: "Mr Duff was suspended from membership of the Scottish National Party last Monday for making wholly unacceptable remarks, therefore it would be inappropriate to comment further until the disciplinary process reaches its conclusion."

ENDS