A SELF-PROFESSED expert on nationalism and prolific contributor to the pro-Union media outlet The Majority has mysteriously vanished from the internet after The National asked for proof of his existence.
Angus Robinson, the alleged author of more than 30 articles for the Unionist outlet over just nine months, claimed on his profiles on The Majority’s website and on Twitter to be a lecturer at a UK university.
The profiles also claimed he was an expert in the effects of nationalism in Central Asia and that he aimed to combat the “same poison” in Scotland. He had ostensibly used this expertise to author 33 articles for The Majority, more than any other contributor to the website bar its founder, Mark Devlin.
However, an extensive search of academic databases for papers on similar topics by an Angus Robinson returned no results. No lecturer by that name appears on any of the websites of universities based in Edinburgh, where Robinson claimed to live.
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The website rateyourlecturer.co.uk also shows no results for an educator of that name anywhere in the UK, and there was no entry on LinkedIn for a lecturer with that name.
Less than 24 hours after The Majority was asked for evidence of Robinson’s claimed credentials, he vanished. The Twitter account was deleted, the journalist who tried to make contact blocked, and the author’s name on the 33 articles changed to simply “Angus”.
A photograph which had claimed to show Robinson was removed from his profile on The Majority, along with any mention of his claim to be a lecturer at a UK university.
However, that claim has not been taken off the end of his articles, which finish: “Angus Robinson is a lecturer at a UK university. Follow him on Twitter @AnguspfRobinso1”
That Twitter account has been deleted and another, @angus69237482, has appeared in its place. It uses the same name and profile picture, a shot of Khiva in Uzbekistan, as the newly updated profile on The Majority.
Any reference to being a lecturer has been removed, instead stating that he is an “Anthropologist. Labour/LibDem”.
The articles he has penned are all still visible on The Majority’s website.
Another suspect author on the site is one Andy Scott, whose profile’s URL names him Andy Webb.
Scott/Webb’s profile, in which he claims to be an “an expert on statistics”, came into existence on November 11, 2020 and was last active on November 14.
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In that time, he authored a single post on Covid-19. Entitled “A Deadly Virus?”, the post argues that calling the disease “terrible” or “killer” is “far from the truth”.
Scott/Webb further argues that the effects of Covid-19 do not justify lockdown.
The article ends with a copy and pasted statement in which he repeats his claims to be “an expert on statistics, particularly mortality statistics”.
As with Robinson, The Majority has to date failed to provide any evidence Andy Scott/Webb is a real expert and The National has been unable to find any proof of his existence.
Other contributors to the Unionist outlet include Jamie Blackett (above), the leader of the All for Unity party which also counted George Galloway and Devlin’s partner Mary among its candidates for the Holyrood elections earlier this year.
During the election campaign, the Devlins made headlines with a mobile billboard urging Nicola Sturgeon to resign as First Minister – which misspelled her name.
The pair have also founded other news outlets, including the Japan-based magazine Metropolis and Newslines.org. Mark Devlin said in 2018 that a key goal of the former was to fight fake news and provide readers with an unbiased understanding of current events.
The Majority did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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