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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
National
Xander Elliards

Scottish politicians unfollow Unionist group after 'bomb Holyrood' post

SCOTTISH Secretary Ian Murray is one of several politicians to have removed a fringe pro-Union group from his feed on Twitter/X after a series of racist posts – as well as a call to bomb Holyrood.

The Majority, an ultra-Unionist group which campaigns for the abolition of the Scottish Parliament, was also followed by political leaders such as the LibDems’ Alex Cole-Hamilton and Scottish Labour depute leader Jackie Baillie before questions were asked about the posts by The National.

The Scottish Tories’ leader Russell Findlay continues to follow the group – along with a swathe of his MSPs – and the party did not respond to this paper’s approach.

On June 14, days after Israel had bombed Iran in a major escalation of conflict in the Middle East, The Majority posted: “Dear Israel, while you're at it, can you hit this target? 55.9523° N, 3.1749° W. Thanks!”

The co-ordinates in question are those of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood.

Elsewhere, The Majority posted on July 30: “Out of around 100 people we walked past in Argyle Street in Glasgow last night, only two were white. Everyone else was Middle Eastern, Indian or black. What is going on?”

It added: “Walk down a city centre street, take a bus, go to a park: there are masses of black, Indian and Middle Eastern immigrants. Is it any surprise that people think that it's out of control?”

In March, the account had written: “Immigrants from other cultures shouldn't be wearing their national dress as daily wear in the UK. You don't see Japanese immigrants to the UK wearing kimonos every day. If you want to integrate here, wear proper clothes. If you don't, go back home and wear them there.”

The Majority then added: "Special occasions: fine. Going to get the milk: not fine."

In April, the account called Humza Yousaf a "Muslim propagandist", and during his time as first minister shared a video of him praying in Bute House saying: "This really feels like a Muslim takeover of our civic institutions."

The Majority is run by Mark Devlin and his partner Mary, who despite the anti-migrant rhetoric lived as immigrants in Japan for 18 years, and then in the US for eight.

After the posts were raised with the Scotland Office, Murray took action to unfollow the account. Scottish Labour’s depute leader Baillie did the same.

The Scottish LibDems said that Cole-Hamilton had not been using Twitter/X due to its affiliations with Musk, but his account has since also unfollowed The Majority.

"These are obviously appalling posts. We have absolutely zero interest in hateful accounts,” a spokesperson for the party said.

Attempts to contact The Majority through the contact form on its website were unsuccessful. They did not respond to a private message on social media.

An example of one of the many Vietnamese-language self-help articles on The Majority's website (Image: Web) The most recent article on the group's website was 11 months ago, with most of the posts on its homepage being Vietnamese-language self-help articles apparently written to appeal to search engines.

In 2021, a self-professed “expert" and "university lecturer" who had written extensively for The Majority mysteriously disappeared from the internet when The National asked for proof of his existence.

The group had made headlines after crowdfunding a series of anti-Nicola Sturgeon stunts ahead of the 2021 Holyrood elections.

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