WITH his floppy blond hair and the face of a 14-year-old, Ross MacFarlane is a far right-wing Conservative twit – a twit who’s now looking for a new job after he was caught on camera making anti-Catholic remarks and trying, with some difficulty, to set fire to an EU flag doused with vodka.
MacFarlane was sacked today from his job as a Holyrood assistant to Scottish Tory leadership candidate Ruth Davidson.
Two nasty bits of work: Ross MacFarlane and Roger Helmer
Video footage obtained by the Sunday Herald reveals McFarlane – dressed in the robes of Glasgow University – and a small number of friends uttering obscene anti-Catholic taunts while trying to set the flag on fire.
The failure to destroy the flag then becomes a source of merriment for a member of the group off-camera. He can be heard saying:
There’s more chance of fucking seeing the the Pope confess to paedophilia.
The same person then says:
There’s more chance of Hugh Dallas [ex-football referee] telling us he’s a fucking tarrier.
“Tarrier” is a derogatory term for an Irish Catholic; the jibe prompts more laughter.
This silly little yob – who, together with Davidson – has condemned yobbish behaviour – Â describes himself on his recently-created Twitter feed as a:
Conservative activist, rangers support [sic] with a taste for cider.
Labour MSP Duncan McNeil said of the flag-burning:
These are shocking scenes … People in positions of responsibility need to take a strong lead against sectarianism. This exposes a nasty streak in the Tory party.
When told the Sunday Herald had video footage of him setting fire to an EU flag, McFarlane said:
Oh right… I don’t really have anything to say about that.
Asked if he thought it was wise behaviour, the phone line went dead.
Davidson said:
Mr McFarlane has worked for me on a part-time basis since May. This incident happened before he was in my employment and I had no knowledge of it. It is reprehensible behaviour and I have terminated his contract.
MacFarlane, by the way, keeps some very dodgy company indeed. Last November, as President of the Glasgow University Conservative Association (GUCA), he was pictured schmoozing with right-wing Tory MEP Roger Helmer – an anti-Catholic homophobe who was the guest of honour at a St Andrews Day dinner .
Helmer wants to pull out of the EU, downplays the threat of global warming, and once described the Catholic Church as “systematically paedophile”. This year he has likened homosexuality to a mental health problem, and called for the looters who capitalised on the recent riots in England to be shot.
In a letter to the Leicester Mercury on November 16, 2009, Helmer courted controversy by accusing the Church of England of having:
Abandoned religious faith entirely and taken up the religion of climate alarmism instead.
This was in response to a recent inter-faith event in Leicester concerning the challenge of climate change.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, religious affairs correspondent Damian Thompson stated that:
I’d vaguely heard of Helmer as a leading Eurosceptic. Clearly he’s also a bigot. His Catholic constituents are deeply offended by his vile comments, and rightly so.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
September 12th, 2011 at 8:18 am
This clown presents as odious a picture, physically and verbally, as we are likely to get. His views, of course, are hypocritical in that he is ready to run of at the mouth in the company of his repellent friends but tempers his comments for public consumption. That this disgusting fool was allowed to be appointed at all does not suggest any confidence in the Tory Party. You have to wonder how many other weevils are hidden in its rotting woodwork.
September 12th, 2011 at 8:44 am
Talking of Tories: Mad One Dorries is still ranting and raving – aided and abetted by her friends at the Daily Fail. Evidently that evil beast Evan Harris, emerging Dracula-like from his coffin, forced Nick Clegg, quite against his will, to “blackmail” David Cameron into opposing her amendment. “Six years’ hard work wiped out” – hahaha!!!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ation.html
September 12th, 2011 at 8:58 am
Also from the Wail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....hurch.html
And they also carry the stunning news that “the Conservatism of the Government is being ‘significantly diluted’ by the Liberal Democrats”. I’d never have guessed it!
September 12th, 2011 at 9:09 am
barriejohn
I love the headline in that first Hate Mail article you linked to:
“The PM publicly humiliated me in front of the entire nation, what did I do to deserve that?”
It’s hard to know where to begin! Mad Nad really is turning into one of those contemptible, victimised xtians who deserves every ounce of scorn and derision that is heaped upon her.
September 12th, 2011 at 9:32 am
AgentCormac: It must be very frustrating for her – oops!
September 12th, 2011 at 11:24 am
Why would David Cameron need to humiliate Dorries when she does the job so much better herself. She follows up, of course, with Cameron not really meaning it, his hand was forced by the all powerful Evan Harries (great news for me that Evan is now calling the shots), Cam really wanted to support her blah, blah,blah…….
What struck me about her piece in the Fail was the way it dripped venom, paranoia and self pity about the way she had been stymied. (Damn, almost wrote frustrated.) This is a sad and emotionally fragile woman who is reduced to telling us her daughter supported her. I think she needs to look inside herself about the state she is in and wonder quite what is motivating her. Is she a Roman Catholic? I don’t support their fell hand is behind this debacle?
September 12th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
Paranoid, Broga, and deluded:
Dorries, described as “a right-wing, working-class Conservative”, is a member of the socially conservative Cornerstone Group. A Christian, she has said in an interview for a Salvation Army newspaper: “I am not an MP for any reason other than because God wants me to be. There is nothing I did that got me here; it is what God did. There is nothing amazing or special about me, I am just a conduit for God to use.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadine_Dorries
She appears to see nothing wrong in telling blatant lies in her blog, and, like Tony Blair, to be prone to inventing historical events!
Some might well say “Go Nad”, but others would say “Gonad”.
September 12th, 2011 at 1:57 pm
Broga
It seems that Mad Nad has a rather colourful background – caught up in the expenses disclosures, left her husband (who suffers with MS) and then took up with a married family friend, was accused of offering drugs to other women when taking part in ‘Tower Block of Commons’, and so on and on and on.
I know you shouldn’t trust everything you find on Wiki, but it does make for some entertaining reading.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadine_Dorries
September 12th, 2011 at 3:00 pm
Helmer wants to pull out of the EU, downplays the threat of global warming, and once described the Catholic Church as “systematically paedophileâ€. This year he has likened homosexuality to a mental health problem, and called for the looters who capitalised on the recent riots in England to be shot.
Frankly, I agree with him.
The EU is undemocratic
Global warming undercuts the fight against pollution, which can be
proven.
The Catholic Church has a proven track record of sheltering paedophiles
Homosexuals do have more mental health problems
Looters should be shot.
September 12th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
While this Hemler fellow is obviously a bit off-kilter with his view that everything about climate change is some kind of new age religion conspiring to destroy Christianity, what he said about the Catholic Church isn’t a million miles from the truth. Same, too, with MacFarlane’s joke about the Pope. While an undercurrent of pure hate for Catholics is certainly there, it is unfortunate that in the Scottish context, criticism or contempt for the Catholic Church can very easily be brushed off as mindless bigotry based on a preference for a particular football team. It’s also pretty shameful that football is possibly the only reason people like MacFarlane actually have a problem with what the Catholic Church has done.
I think Scotland is going to have a very difficult time dealing with issues like religious schools and the influence of faith on matters regarding marriage, abortion, euthanasia, etc. if it cannot grow the fuck up and get over this stupid squabbling over sectarianism. The new anti-sectarianism laws being looked at by parliament are pretty much the only thing that has united Protestants, Catholics and atheists, because all of them are worried that we’ll end up with a stupid situation where people are put in jail for criticising a particular church. We already have people put in jail for singing, which is ludicrous enough, but the a sizable portion of the thugs that go to football matches just will not learn that crowing about murdering hundreds of people in someone’s face is not civlised behaviour.
September 12th, 2011 at 5:06 pm
D. Austin: This is not the letters page of Ceefax. We do, at most times, attempt to employ rational argument!
September 12th, 2011 at 5:07 pm
D. Austin, two quick points. Homosexuals are statistically more prone to mental illness, but that’s not what the quote said. The disgusting tory fuckpig implied that homosexuality is a mental illness in itself. I get the sneaking suspicion that you’re attempting to excuse such a moronic claim.
And looters should be shot? I somewhat doubt you were shouting for the heads of MPs as they syphoned off tens of thousands of pounds of public money, yet you’d happily see some pov getting their brains splattered all over the pavement for nicking a pair of reebok classics. You’re a fucking cretin.
September 12th, 2011 at 7:55 pm
This periodical, of all periodicals, should make a clear statement in support of irreverence to religion.
September 13th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
@barriejohn
You used the term “we”
Is “You’re a fucking cretin” rational argument? I think not.
using “we” associates you with that post
As for that post,it starts out in a attempt to make a reasonable argument, he soon desends into vulgarity.
“Free Thinkers”… well think again, the comments show thinking so narrow it could pass though a harp without striking a note.
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.â€
Winston Churchill
September 13th, 2011 at 6:40 pm
Yes, let’s indulge in a petty game of ego-stroking and pompous quoting rather than discuss the complex and dangerous implications of anti-sectarianism laws that seem to be required to keep grown men from killing each other over the colour of their shirts. Or did all the rational replies discussing the story and its context vanish and poor D. Austin was only shown one guy having a pop at him and, quite rationally, decided that all Free Thinkers here are exactly the same at all times?
September 13th, 2011 at 7:17 pm
No, “you’re a fucking cretin” was not the argument, that was the conclusion drawn, only confirmed by your need to to quote a racist war criminal in an attempt to validate your flimsy point.
September 13th, 2011 at 8:47 pm
D. Austin: That post was made AFTER I had posted my comment, so don’t make further baseless claims! In any case, “You’re a fucking cretin” was indeed a conclusion, and not an argument. I wouldn’t dignify your idiotic remarks with a reasoned response, personally.
September 20th, 2011 at 3:56 am
Oh my. The home of “reasoned argument” is reduced to labeling Sir Winston Churchill as a “racist war criminal”.