THE campaign for the Holyrood by-election in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, which is due to be held on Thursday next week, has its very own campaign song now, an adaptation of the Brave Sir Robin song from Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
Brave Davy Russell ran away. Bravely ran away, away! When scrutinty reared its ugly head, He bravely turned his tail and fled. Yes, brave Davy Russell turned about And gallantly he chickened out.
Brave Davy Russell has body swerved yet another campaign event, a hustings organised by campaign group No Cuts Lanarkshire. He was represented at the event by the Labour leader of South Lanarkshire Council, Joe Fagan, who insisted that Russell couldn't attend the hustings as he was at an "NHS event. Possibly he was away at the local hospital having an MRI brain scan to discern whether he's actually capable of stringing a coherent sentence together.
On learning that Russell was yet again a no-show, the Tory candidate Richard Nelson announced that he would not be taking part. Nelson has a side gig as a comedy hypnotist, perhaps he was just relieved to find an excuse not to participate when he realised that not even hypnotism was going to get those attending the event to believe that the Tories have anything meaningful to say about combating poverty.
Nelson said: “I don’t think it’s right that I debate the council leader. I would have rather debated with Davy Russell, with the actual candidate. So, I’m going to withdraw from here because I don’t think it’s fair that the leader of the council comes on his behalf."
Russell has consistently refused to participate in hustings, debates and media interviews since the campaign began. This has led many to wonder how Russell can speak up for the people of Hamilton, Larkhall, and Stonehouse when he doesn't even seem capable of speaking up for himself.
After councillor Fagan made his opening remarks on behalf of the absent Labour candidate, a woman in the audience asked him: "How can you stand and say your speech and say about how Davy Russell is going to lead for the constituency, going to stand in Holyrood and speak for the people of this constituency when he can’t turn up to radio interviews, when he can’t turn up to hustings, when he can’t speak without Anas Sarwar by his side?"
Fagan responded: "Well, right now, he is at an event on the NHS."
The woman retorted: "He's always at an event, Joe."
During an interview on BBC Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland show this morning, Labour's Scottish leader Anas Sarwar half-heartedly attempted to defend his perennially absent candidate and his party's woeful campaign in a by-election which a year ago would have been Labour's for the taking, but now it looks – not merely as a hold for the SNP – but as though Labour may struggle to hold on to second place.
Asked by host Gary Robertson why Russell appears to be avoiding all debates, hustings, and media interviews, including an invitation to appear on the very programme the Labour leader was currently on, Sarwar could only reply: "That's a matter for the campaign team and the campaign."
It's quite remarkable that Sarwar can't even take responsibility for his own party's Holyrood election campaign. It's his only job.
Sarwar then insisted that Russell had done media interviews and would be doing more in future, there's only a week of campaigning left, but he's hoping we haven't noticed. He's also hoping we haven't noticed his own litany of broken promises. Those must be media interviews that exist only in Sarwar's imagination, just like the way he's standing up to Keir Starmer.
During the interview, Sarwar even managed to get Russell's name wrong, calling him Davy Hamilton before quickly correcting himself. But it's unfair to criticise Sarwar too much for that, he probably hasn't seen much of Davy Hamilton, sorry, Davy Russell either.
UK trade envoy visits Israel
Just a week after Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that the UK was suspending trade talks with Israel in protest at Israel's withholding of food and medical aid to Gaza, the UK Government's trade envoy to Israel, Lord Ian Austin, was pictured in Haifa in northern Israel, where he said the British Government would continue to encourage "British businesses to export to Israel and Israeli businesses to invest in the UK".
Austin is due to remain in Israel until Friday in order to "maintain" the UK Government's relationship with Israeli businesses.
Now the British Palestinian Committee, an independent organisation of British Palestinians advocating for Palestinian rights, has written to Lammy arguing that the visit "appears to directly contradict" the UK Government's previous condemnation of Israel.
Dr Sara Husseini, the director of the organisation, said that the "limited steps" against Israel by the UK Government "are already being undermined".
In its letter to Lammy, the committee wrote: "One week ago, you announced the suspension of free trade agreement negotiations with Israel in light of its ongoing military assault on Gaza.
"Yesterday morning, the UK Trade Envoy to Israel, Lord Ian Austin, publicly stated on X that he was in Israel to 'promote trade with the UK' meeting with Israeli businesses and officials. The British Embassy in Tel Aviv further amplified this message by publishing a photo of Lord Austin at the Haifa Port.
"This visit appears to directly contradict your Government's recent announcement and suggests that business continues as usual, despite almost 600 days of Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza."
The committee has called on Lammy to clarify the nature and mandate of Austin's visit to Israel and "take appropriate steps to ensure that the government is not reneging on its own policy".
The UK Government had previously insisted that the visit was unrelated to the recently suspended new free trade deal and that Austin was not involved in trade negotiations.
