The backlash against Tom Harris must not eclipse the serious issues addressed by his gimmick, argues Rosie Stock.

Last Monday, Glasgow South Labour MP, Tom Harris, was forced to resign as media advisor by Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont after posting a parody of the 2004 film Downfall on YouTube, portraying Alex Salmond as Hitler. The video makes reference to Salmond’s reluctance to set a date for referendum on Scottish independence, implying he wanted it to be “top secret”, and then speculates on his reaction to hearing the news that his “official biographer” has said that “if you don’t vote SNP you hate Scotland”. The video was posted on Saturday January 14, following comments made by Joan McAlpine the previous Thursday, and swiftly resulted in Harris losing his post after a ‘chat’ with Lamont about his inappropriate behaviour.

The ironic twist that it was Labour’s newly appointed media advisor who made this internet error caused an SNP spokesperson to call the stunt “hugely embarrassing”. They may be right, but the question is; embarrassing for whom? Lamont may have come off looking a little foolish in her choice of media staff, especially as the video was posted on the MP’s official website, but he isn’t the only one. The YouTube video, named Joan’s Downfall is funny, just a little close to the bone, and has had 76,427 views in four days. That number is three times the entire population of South Glasgow, so it can’t just be Harris’ constituents who have been smiling at Salmond’s expense.

In the video Joan McAlpine’s comments are mentioned to Hitler as he talks about the need to “maintain the façade of a modern, inclusive, tolerant party”. While of course, equating the SNP to Nazi rule is completely unfair, a wide range of public figures have been parodied in a similar way and the aim is not to make a direct comparison, but to emphasise a point.

The video has been deemed ‘silly’ and ‘negative’, and it’s true that it is hardly helpful in creating a serious case for the survival of the union. Yet McAlpine’s rabble rousing behaviour, which has been called ‘political racism’, is no less negative, and is far more worrying in its serious nature. McAlpine has refused to issue an apology for her comments in Parliament on January 12, calling anyone that didn’t vote SNP “anti-Scottish”, and implying that her party have some sort of moral superiority when it comes to matters concerning Scotland. If Lamont’s choice of staff seems questionable, how about Alex Salmond’s? Joan McAlpine is an SNP MSP, responsible for representing the views of Scottish people in Parliament. Yet according to her, if they do not happen to support her party then they must also hate the country they live in and be pitted against those that are truly ‘Scottish’. This divisive rhetoric has added a nasty edge to the debate on independence, and while the SNP has distanced itself from her comments, it is a reminder of the deeply bitter feelings surrounding the issue.

Despite forming the first Scottish majority government, the SNP still commanded less than half the votes of the electorate last year, meaning that McAlpine’s “anti Scottish” comment actually applies to most Scots. When recent polls are showing that only 26 – 40% of Scots are currently in favour of independence, the SNP needs to be putting forward a coherent argument to voters, not alienating them with name-calling that can only divide, not unite, Scotland.

Harris has apologised, not for the video, but for the fact that in the serious context of Joan McAlpine’s comments, it was an “unhelpful distraction”. In fact, the news coverage of his video has most likely attracted much wider spread attention to her comments than would otherwise have been warranted by the Question Time discussion the same day. True, Question Time has a pretty large audience, but it would seem safe to bet the 72,000 YouTube viewers aren’t all included in these figures. What’s more, Joan’s Downfall initially received about three times as many likes as dislikes, hinting at popular sentiment in Harris’ favour, although comment has now been disabled.

Harris’ video spoof may not have been appropriate behaviour for an MP, and has cost him his job, but perhaps he was a shrewder media advisor than Lamont gave him credit for.