The Scots Nats are engaged in some internal fisty cuffs over whether Castro was a hero of independence or a homophobic “monster“. Comrade Angus MacNeil reckons he was

“a nationalist symbol of regional pride and defiance against the gringo superpower”

SNP MP George Kerevan agrees in bonkers fake newspaper the National:

“There are great lessons to be learned from Castro’s Cuba. He managed to link national identity and national independence with a progressive, socialist project”

But Kerevan has been slapped down by his SNP Westminster colleague Stewart McDonald:

“Nothing progressive about the imprisonment of gays, incarceration of those with HIV or locking up trade unionists and political opponents.”

Fellow SNP MP John Nicholson has also laid into Kerevan:

“Castro was a monster. No hero he”

One fought against imperialism by a western superpower, ruling a one party state with an army of vicious ideological followers, the other was Fidel Castro…

The attention-seeking Nat who asked Theresa May if she would “kill a hundred thousand innocent men, women and children” yesterday was George Kerevan. The SNP MP has today written a long piece in the National explaining why the nuclear deterrent has been a disaster “for decades”:

“For decades, maintaining the so-called independent deterrent has detracted from delivering a successful civilian industrial policy… Instead, let’s spend the £100bn Trident 2 will cost on revitalising industry for civilian and export purposes. And finally end the pretence that Britain’s nuclear deterrent is anything but Labour’s long-time vanity project.”

Of course, in 2005 the very same George Kerevan wrote in the Scotsman about his support for keeping Britain’s nukes:

“Nuclear proliferation is a fact of global life. Anyone who really thinks Britain giving up its nuclear stockpile will persuade the Iranians to play ball is hopelessly naive and probably lives in New Zealand (which no one is going to nuke anyway). For that reason, Britain should hang on to a minimum nuclear deterrent until there’s enough democracy around to feel safer.”

Former Scotsman editor Iain Martin recalls how “George was v hawkish post-9/11” and remembers him being “v pro nuclear deterrent” in leader conferences. Usually CND types like George grow up and ditch their unilateralism, not the other way round…

UPDATE: David Roach, the Tory candidate who stood against George Kerevan in the last general election says that he advocated that the UK should set an example to the world and unilaterally disarm.

“I used to repeatedly ask him in hustings how long he thought it would be before Russia, North Korea and Pakistan would follow that example. Suffice to say he never answered. Just kept dodging it and would say he had a Damascus moment while researching for a piece on America’s nuclear capability when he was a journalist at The Scotsman.”

Nothing to do with it being a pre-requisite for would be SNP candidates hoping for selection…

Who would have thought SNP MP George Kerevan’s crusade against expenses abuses would turn out to be complete pish? Kerevan was elected last year on a ticket to clean up Westminster and fight greedy MPs:

“I don’t think Westminster MPs are uniquely venal. Many work hard for their constituents. But I believe Westminster is too remote from the people. I think that the deliberate lack of a written constitution and the doctrine of the sovereignty of the Parliament create an insidious political culture at Westminster that leads some MPs to think they are superior to common mortals. I also think the gentleman’s club rules by which the Commons still operates, and which many male Labour backbenchers succumb to, engender an arrogance among MPs you don’t find at Holyrood. All this adds up to a world view in which MPs think they are not only justified in their financial dealings but deserve their patio heaters.”

Such is Kerevan’s moral integrity that he even pledged to only take the Scottish average wage of £27,000, and use the rest of his salary to fund the running of his office and local charities:

UK MP salary = £67K.I will take only Scot av wage £27K as MP. Rest to run office or local charities @EastLothianSNP @elcourier

— George Kerevan (@GeorgeKerevan) April 10, 2015

So what does he mean by “funding his office”? 

Kerevan this month began employing his wife Angela as a “Personal Assistant”, a post which usually fetches some £25,000 a year. His declarations make clear she is “employed and paid from parliamentary expenses”. A neat way of keeping that taxpayer cash in the family. What was that about “a world view in which MPs think they are justified in their financial dealings”?