THE Holyrood election in May was a mixed bag of results for many.
The SNP fell short of the overall majority they were no doubt privately hoping for, but remained the largest party and increased their vote share.
The Greens were possibly robbed of seats because of a “fascist front” impersonating them on the list ballot, but still returned their highest number of MSPs ever.
Scottish Labour had their worst ever Holyrood election result, but they… ok so not such a mixed bag for Labour.
For the Tories, they managed to equal the record high number of MSPs they won in 2016, but one of those MSPs is Stephen Kerr.
The former MP for Stirling was elected to the Scottish Parliament on the regional list and hasn’t wasted any time in making headlines, just not quite for the reasons he may have hoped.
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And now there’s another for his growing collection, as he was rebuffed in spectacular fashion in today’s Holyrood Members’ Business Debate on the threat a tariff-free trade deal with countries like Australia will pose to Scotland’s farmers and agriculture sector.
After asking the SNP’s Jim Fairlie to take an intervention, Kerr goes on a pre-prepared rant about “the problem that the SNP have”.
The Tory claims that they are “fundamentally a party that is opposed to free trade”.
This assertion sparks laughter from one corner of Holyrood, causing the Tory to begin waving his finger in the air.
“Tell me, tell me”, he goes on, “tell me, tell me one example of the SNP voting for a free trade deal with anybody in any parliament”.
Fairlie responds: “The EU.”
It seemingly takes a second for the chamber to realise the magnitude of the rebuttal Kerr has just been handed, but applause does slowly break out.
The Tory MSP waves his hands in the air and shouts, apparently indignant at the response, but Fairlie does not give way again, telling Kerr: "You had your moment."
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Never one to be silenced and obviously with a clear response in mind, Kerr then took to Twitter to reply to someone who had tweeted about the exchange.
(It must be noted that the account which tweeted about it did not tag Kerr, so he must have been searching through Twitter for mentions of his own name…)
Having dug up the tweet, Kerr wrote: “Wrong. The SNP were against the UK joining the EEC in 1975.”
Wrong. The SNP were against the UK joining the EEC in 1975. https://t.co/yTMbfjmnFH
— Stephen Kerr MSP (@StephenKerrMSP) June 8, 2021
The mental gymnastics involved in thinking the SNP don’t currently support the EU because they didn’t support the (different) European Economic Community half a century ago is impressive.
What’s more, if he thinks the SNP were wrong not to support the EEC in 1975, he is going to flip when he finds out about the Tories’ hard Brexit policy.
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