Here it is, chaps, don't be shy ... and there's an airport

Latest report from the Hollie Greig election campaign

'Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers have clearly got the mainstream parties on the run in Aberdeen South. The breakfast news on Tuesday announced that a factory in Aberdeen which employs blind people was to be re-opened. The lunchtime news reported the fact that the re-opening ceremony was performed by none other than Alex Salmond! 

The First Minister is not normally so publicity-shy. Why did he wish his visit to the city to be so low key in the midst of an election campaign? The very same day LibDem leader Nick Clegg announced that he was cancelling a pre-arranged visit to Aberdeen.'

Another sizeable SACL delegation turned up at the second hustings of the campaign organised by BBC Radio Scotland on Thursday.  We had 5 activists taking part in their first work for the party so special thanks to Alex, Daniel, John, Patrick and Wendy. Not surprisingly we were not permitted to take part in the debate but a very apologetic Sandy Bremner of the BBC took the time to explain his organisations guidelines and stressed that they were in no way biased against SACL. 

When we raised the Hollie Greig case, Sandy seemed quite well informed and mentioned that he had spoken to Mark Daly on the subject. We took the opportunity to ask Sandy to pass on our best wishes to Mark for a full recovery following his apparent nervous breakdown on Sunday night radio. 

The first batch of official election flyers had arrived earlier that day and these proved a great success as they were handed out to the audience as they arrived. When the SNP candidate arrived he was reminded of the role of Kenny MacAskill and other members of the Holyrood government in this awful case. The highlight however was when the sitting MP, Anne Begg, was presented with her own personal copy of the official SACL election limerick. 

After the doors were closed the SACL delegation headed to a nearby pub to hold a detailed policy discussion. After an hour or so we were shocked when an unruly element arrived in the premises. This was the LibDem candidate, John Sleigh, and his entourage, which numbered less than half of SACL’s numbers.  An SACL member noted that one of the Clegg groupies was a lawyer, although his crookedness or otherwise is not known to us. 

Engaging in conversation with the LibDems it transpired that the whole debate had lasted a mere forty five minutes. We managed to get Robert Green on the phone and asked John Sleigh if he would care to debate with our candidate. The LibDem hopeful stated that he was “off duty”. Perhaps he was worried that the mere act of talking on the phone to a dangerous subversive such as Green might cause him to be bundled off to the cells and tried in a closed court. 

When asked to comment on the Hollie Greig case, John Sleigh promised that he would do so after the election. Thank you John ! - although we do not feel able to give you a ringing endorsement, the consensus of the SACL group was that we would much rather have a pint with you than with Anne Begg. (Personally I would rather eat my own testicles than have a pint with Anne Begg.)