Deleterious Views

Public figures in the modern era know that they face two challenges with which their predecessors never had to contend: any previous ill-judged comment is likely to have been electronically stored; and the record can never be expunged.

This was the fate of Gillian Martin, the SNP’s newly appointed junior minister for universities, who once ran a jaunty blog full of politically incorrect views which, as a college lecturer, she probably thought were amusing. Her references to race and transgender issues were clearly designed to stir controversy, and she even predicted that she might get the sack for airing them. In a college environment they seem to have attracted little attention. When, however, she embarked on a political career, she seems to have realised that…