Taxi Driver Online

I put the article previous to this in the news section, but maybe this is better in the politics forum (assuming anyone on here is even remotely interested, apart from me ).

But, to that extent, my thread title offers a slightly different slant on it all as compared to the Courier's below.

But, to reiterate, this is the co-leader of our local trade association EFTA. Who is also co-proprietor of one of the taxi firms in St Andrews. Her co-proprietor/co-EFTA leader (and husband) is also standing as a candidate, but for an Edinburgh seat


John Swinney accuses Reform of ‘serial racism problem’ after Fife candidate’s Humza Yousaf comments

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/politic ... candidate/

Linda Holt called Mr Yousaf an "Islamist moron" and "not British".

https://wpcluster.dctdigital.com/wp-con ... 0x1152.jpg

First Minister John Swinney has accused Reform UK of having “a serial problem about racism” in the wake of a Fife candidate calling Humza Yousaf an “Islamist moron” and “not British”.

The Courier revealed Fife North East hopeful Linda Holt’s series of offensive social media posts after she was selected as a constituency candidate for Nigel Farage’s party on Thursday.

The former Conservative councillor also claimed the Scottish Government was “becoming a Hamas PR support act” while Glasgow-born Mr Yousaf, of Pakistani heritage and whose father-in-law is Palestinian, was Holyrood leader.

https://wpcluster.dctdigital.com/wp-con ... 40x564.jpg

On Friday, we asked the first minister about the posts by Ms Holt, who was censured by the Standards Commission in 2023.

They emerged just hours after Reform revealed its Stirling candidate Rachael Wright – at the centre of spreading false asylum accommodation rumours about Kilgraston School in Perthshire.

Mr Swinney, a Perthshire MSP, said: “I think it is a warning to members of the public to think very very carefully about voting for Reform because there are candidates with views I think most of the people that I’ve had the privilege to represent for the last 29 years would find absolutely unacceptable, racist views.

“There are also views being expressed which are designed to ferment division and hate in our society, and, I think we’re at a moment where we need to come together as a society and be welcoming and inclusive.”

‘Serial problem about racism’

Mr Swinney claims Reform are not interested in calling out their candidates over offensive posts.

“It suits them to portray these views because these are the views that many people in Reform hold,” he told The Courier.

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Mr Swinney said a speaker at the Reform party conference made what he considered to be “derogatory and inflammatory remarks” that were “wildly applauded”.

“Reform’s just got a serial problem about racism,” claimed Mr Swinney.

‘Oddballs and quasi-racists’

SNP MP Pete Wishart called the Reform party “an unsavoury bunch” as he joined Mr Swinney and neighbouring MSP Jim Fairlie to lodge election nomination papers in Perth on Friday afternoon.

“What an assortment of oddballs and quasi-racists,” said the politician.

“The details that have started to emerge about some of these candidates should really shock a number of people throughout these constituencies now that they’ve put themselves forward.”

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Reform’s Scottish leader Malcolm Offord attempted to brush off Ms Holt’s comments when they were uncovered by The Courier.

At his party’s candidate launch event on Thursday, he told us: “She [Ms Holt] has only just become a candidate, and she wasn’t a candidate when she made those comments.

“I don’t know the context in which she made it, I don’t know when she made those comments.

“I’m not commenting on individual comments on 73 candidates.”

Ms Holt has been contacted for comment.

She previously said she wanted to know the context and dates of the social media posts.

Meanwhile, Dundee Reform candidate Stuart Niven was suspended on Friday, less than 24 hours after he was picked to fight the Holyrood election.

He is being investigated by the party after it emerged he is barred from acting as a company director for seven years.

This is Linda Holt and James Glen when they stood for the Scottish Parliament last time round. With a much more prominent face in politics

But a bit of a flex to be standing with 'Gorgeous George' one minute, then five minutes later being accused of being on the right of politics, even of Reform UK. (Or five years later, even.)

So I somehow doubt they'd be agreeing with George on the likes of Gaza and Palestine



But the outfit they were standing for back then (Alliance for Unity) was largely about the Scotland/UK constitutional thing, and effectively anti-SNP in the main. Of course, it got nowhere and effectively ceased to exist.

Linda Holt and George Galloway together

Politicians calling out other politicians as racist is evidence that they have nothing else to offer in defence of their failed policies.

It is a typical tactic of the idiot left.

If someone has said something illegal or acted in an illegal manner, contact the police and let them deal with it.

However, the Scottish Police might be a little bit busy at the moment, dealing with fraud matters.

I wonder which party is/was involved in that?

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IDFIMH

Haven't bothered with the last few articles but they're coming in thick and fast.

Never thought I'd see Dan Wootton's name mentioned in a Courier piece...

And one big fact about him that's not mentioned here, but should be stated to contextualise it all.

And as well as putting the phone down on the Courier's reporter, she's also deactivated her Twitter account


Under-fire Fife Reform candidate reshares support of party leader after homophobic George Michael joke

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/politic ... obic-joke/

Scottish party chief Malcolm Offord has been under fire over remarks he made about pop icon George Michael.

An under-fire Fife Reform UK candidate has reshared a social media post supporting her Scottish party leader after it emerged he made a homophobic joke about George Michael.

MSP hopeful Linda Holt amplified a social media post from conservative commentator Dan Wootton, who said he liked Malcolm Offord more after reading the crude joke.

Ms Holt has already been the source of controversy after being picked to stand in North East Fife last Thursday.

The Courier revealed she branded former First Minister Humza Yousaf an “Islamist moron” and said he was “not British”.

She also claimed the Scottish Government was “becoming a Hamas PR support act” while he was the SNP leader in 2023.

Scottish Reform leader Mr Offord’s joke – made at a rugby club in 2018 – first emerged in the media on Tuesday night.

His remarks came just over a year after pop icon Mr Michael’s death on Christmas Day in 2016.

The Courier has since seen the joke, but we have chosen not to publish it.

Posting on social media site X, Mr Wootton wrote: “I like @Malcolm_Offord more after reading his so-called “homophobic” joke about George Michael which the Scottish elites say should get him cancelled & banished from public life.

“It was a joke.

“Years before he was Reform leader.

“Focus on drug deaths & rape gangs maybe, losers?”

Ms Holt reshared the post on her own X account.

‘I’m not talking to you’, says Reform UK candidate

The Courier contacted her and asked whether she agreed with Mr Wootton’s views.

“I’m not talking to you,” she said in response, before hanging up the phone.

Ms Holt was previously an East Neuk councillor until the 2022 local elections.

The taxi firm co-owner was also censured by the Standards Commission in 2023 for behaving “in an aggressive, disparaging and dismissive manner”.

‘Crude joke’

Mr Offord responded to the backlash over his remarks on social media.

The Reform leader said he made a “crude joke” after having a “bit to drink”.

“Instead of being funny, I made members of the audience uncomfortable and instantly regretted it,” he said.

Mr Offord made a donation to the UK’s first gay-inclusive rugby union club after his comments in a bid to make amends.

A spokesperson for the SNP said: “When people tell you who they are – believe them.

“Malcolm Offord let the mask slip and the Scottish public will judge him, and his Reform colleagues who defend his remarks, accordingly come May.”

And the context that the above missed out about Dan Wootton is that his sexuality is, er, the same as George Michael's


The hyper-left (Scottish) National newspaper has decided to publish the joke. Not exactly in good taste (pardon the pun), but if it had been a similarly bad taste joke made by someone on their 'side', pretty sure The National wouldn't even mention it, never mind publish it


This is the homophobic joke Reform UK Scotland leader Malcolm Offord told

https://www.thenational.scot/politics/2 ... ford-told/

REFORM UK’s Scotland leader Malcolm Offord made a vile homophobic joke that was so offensive he made a donation to an LGBT charity in order to make amends.

He told the joke at the London Scottish rugby club’s Burns Supper in 2018, as The Daily Record first reported . The joke was about George Michael – the former Wham singer who died on Christmas Day 2016 – and was in such appallingly poor taste that it offended the sensibilities of the attendees of the rugby club event. The Daily Record said the joke was not being published “in the interests of taste”.

We have taken the decision to publish the joke, which we have confirmed with Reform UK Scotland. The National believes it is in the public interest to set this out, despite the offensive nature of the remarks.

People need to know what the leader of Reform UK in Scotland said in order to make up their own minds about whether it is acceptable or not. This is especially true given Offord is facing calls to resign over the joke, despite it not being publicly known.

We pre-emptively apologise for any offence that reading this joke may cause. Be warned that the descriptions of it as “vile” , “homophobic”, and “awful” are appropriate. However, we believed that there was a duty to publicly set out the material.

Malcolm Offord’s joke

The following is not a word-for-word account of Offord’s joke. We have confirmed the gist of the joke with Reform UK and believe it is reflected accurately.

Fadi Fawaz, George Michael’s partner at the time of his death, takes the late singer’s ashes to a curry house after his death. Fawaz asks the chef to make a curry with the ashes. When asked why, Fawaz replies: “I want to feel him oozing out of my arse one last time.”

Ian Lewer, 41, from Surrey, was the person who first told the Record about the joke.

He said Offord’s speech was “a bizarre attempt to link the songs of the late George Michael to the works of Robert Burns, interspersed with clips of some of his famous hits accompanied by Offord’s questionable dancing”.

Of the joke, Lewer said: “At the time I thought it pretty awful and indeed that was the feeling in the room. Even for a rugby club it was a crude, bad taste and insulting spectacle.

“I’m not a prude, I’m up for banter. But there is banter and taking things to that level. I don’t know who in their right mind would say something like that.”

He added: “The fact he was clearly intoxicated added another awkward dimension to the experience.”

“I instantly regretted it and recognised that it was totally inappropriate and took responsibility for what I had said,” he said.

“This was a clumsy mistake that I immediately acknowledged and acted upon. I am not homophobic.

“I am someone who accepts accountability, owns my actions, and makes amends where needed. That is who I am.”

Meanwhile, Ms Holt's co-owner (and husband) is also under the cosh, but for more conventional political stuff.



Keep wondering if maybe some of the taxi stuff could come up?

Could suggest a few things, and I won't be voting for them. On the other hand, I won't be voting for anyone, so to that extent don't want to take sides

Effectively zero chance of getting elected in the seats they're standing in, but thought there might be a chance for them via the list system. Which is a form of proportional representation, roughly speaking, but which penalises the parties like Labour and the SNP who do well via the normal first-past-the post system, and favours the parties that don't win those seats.

But they're ranked 8 and 9 in the Mid Scotland and Fife list, which means it's effectively impossible for them to be elected that way - even assuming Reform got a couple of seats, they'd go to the first and second candidates in the list etc etc.

So looks like we're stuck with them on the ranks here

Except they're never on the ranks, at least after the first year or two

Anyway, a brief explanation of the d'Hondt electoral system at the bottom of the article here, just in case anyone wants to understand how it all works


Reform UK announce regional candidates for Scotland – see the full list

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/reform-uk-ann ... 15055.html

I see even Dan Wootton is tweeting about this

I wonder if he'll get his hero Tommy Robinson to comment?


Fife Reform hopeful who called Humza Yousaf an ‘Islamist moron’ quits after backlash

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/politic ... ts-reform/

Linda Holt says she was shown a lack of support by the party.

A Fife Reform candidate who called Humza Yousaf an “Islamist moron” and “not British” has quit the election race.

Linda Holt, who was contesting the North East Fife seat, was dropped down to eighth position on the party’s Mid Scotland and Fife regional list last night.

Ms Holt, a former Fife Conservative councillor, has proved a controversial figure since she was unveiled a week ago.

In a series of offensive social media posts she also claimed the Scottish Government was “becoming a Hamas PR support act” while Mr Yousaf was Holyrood leader, and referred to him as a “brown FM” [First Minister].

Ms Holt, who owns St Andrews Taxis with her partner James Glen, also called former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, “bitter, childless Sturgeon”.

Announcing the end of her campaign on Thursday morning, she said: “Due to a lack of support from the party, I am withdrawing my candidacy for Reform with immediate effect.

“I thank all those who have supported me, and I wish the remaining candidates well.”

Ms Holt is the second Fife Reform candidate to announce they are quitting the Holyrood election race today.

Roland Jackson has also stepped down, saying the party announced him as a candidate in error.

Party forced to defend candidate comments

Ms Holt has so far refused to comment on her social media posts, asking The Courier for context when approached.

On Sunday, Reform Scotland leader Malcolm Offord was forced to defend his candidate on the Sunday Show.

He admitted the party knew of her comments before selecting her as a candidate.

“We’re not going to suspend on previous tweets and personal opinion,” said Mr Offord.

When questioned on why Ms Holt made reference to Mr Yousaf’s skin colour, Reform UK’s Scottish leader appeared to blame the Dundee-based MSP for provoking the remarks.

“I think the timing of that was probably just immediately after the October 7 attack [on Israel] and I think he was using some provocative language,” said Mr Offord.

“I’m not really going to get into the rights and wrongs of it, these things happen online.”

Four Reform candidates drop out of race

Ms Holt – who was suspended as a councillor for two months in 2019 and censured by the Standards Commission in 2023 – becomes the fourth Reform candidate to leave the race in the week since the MSP hopeful’s were first unveiled.

Party leader Nigel Farage said in Kirkcaldy earlier this year that the vetting process for Holyrood would be better than “p*** poor” attempts previously.

Also dropping out the race is disgraced Dundee business man Stuart Niven who was suspended less than 24 hours after he was chosen to fight the Holyrood election.

Mr Niven is barred from acting as a company director for seven years after he shifted taxpayer-funded loans during the Covid pandemic into his personal account.

And Aberdeen Central candidate Jordan Brown U-turned on standing and has dropped out the race.

Reform UK has been contacted for comment.

That's the most specific reference yet to the taxi angle and the relationship between the two. So maybe there could be stuff about that to come, although maybe they'll lay off now Linda's stood down.

On the other hand, James is still standing in one of the Edinburgh seats, as far as I know

Welcome to the politics of the 21st century.

Let's not worry about the wars in the Middle East or Ukraine, or the crazy price of fuel, or the high level of interest rates, or the mass illegal and legal immigration, or even the potholes in the roads.

Or even a Housing Minister not paying enough stamp duty.

No, the politicians just want to talk about a joke that some might find offensive, or what someone tweeted a few years back.

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IDFIMH

Daftie Dan Wootton covered it in his show earlier tonight

It goes on for maybe 20 minutes, but maybe worth starting about here, where John Swinney's normal hyper-priggishness goes off the Richter scale, and Dan points out that he's a gay man.

https://youtu.be/IjXtpYbhXlE?t=480

A few minutes later it goes onto the Courier article and Linda Holt. So Dan Wootton reads out most of the Courier piece, which covers what he had said about liking the author of the joke even more because of it.

Funny thing, though, he doesn't mention the fact that the Courier doesn't state that he's gay. And 99.9% of Courier readers won't know that either, and assume that Dan is straight. Which to my mind is fundamental to how people would construe the fact that Dan Wootton promoted the joke, and how Linda Holt in turn promoted what Dan Wootton had said.

Or maybe it's just me...

Maybe he'll have Linda on a later show - that would be entertaining, and he says he's spoken to her...

I mean, he could ask her why she thinks there's a 'crisis in driver recruitment and retention' in Fife when I can't get on the taxi rank

I somehow doubt that would come up, though

(As regards the wider political stuff, crazy Dan's now promoting Rupert Lowe and Restore Britain, so I don't know if that could have something to do with Reform effectively hanging Linda Holt out to dry, after she promoted his tweet, and that was covered by the Courier. I wonder if Linda could end up with Restore Britain?

They genuinely think they're going to win the next general election

So might be tempting for Linda Holt. But too late for the Scottish Parliament elections this time round. And with the next Westminster elections still decided under first-past-the-post, effectively zero chance of a Restore Britain MP being elected from Scotland...)

James Glen has withdrawn his candidature now too

I wasn't sure about the list thing for the regional candidates, and had assumed they'd been agreed ages ago.

But it seems that they were just agreed and published this week, and after the candidates for the specific first-past-the-post seats had been announced. And the perception seems to be that James and Linda were allocated the last two list positions because of what's happened in the last few days, basically, which thus meant they had zero chance of being elected via the PR voting element to the Scottish Parliament elections.

So I suppose it could be said they jumped, but were effectively pushed by being placed last on the list...

Not much new here other than what James had tweeted.

But interesting that the Courier has gone for the taxi angle in both the headline and strapline.

Doubt it'll do their taxi business much good, since St Andrews is quite liberal, and all this won't make good headlines as regards the local hotels and restaurants, and the student population, academics etc.

But who knows - even if it alienates most local businesses, it will actually appeal to an element of them. All publicity is good publicity, as they say

(The photo is the one used when they were kicking up a stink about overcharging and all the incomers from Dundee etc...)


Fife taxi boss quits Reform race day after partner withdrew following backlash

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/politic ... ts-reform/

James Glen, who runs St Andrews Taxis along with partner Linda Holt, said he supported her decision to withdraw from the contest.

https://wpcluster.dctdigital.com/wp-con ... 40x564.jpg

A Fife taxi boss selected to stand for Reform UK has quit just one day after his partner withdrew from the Holyrood election following a backlash to her comments about Humza Yousaf.

James Glen, boss of St Andrews Taxis, said he backed Linda Holt’s decision to stand down in North East Fife as he followed suit.

Ms Holt faced a backlash last week after The Courier revealed she previously branded former First Minister Mr Yousaf an “Islamist moron” and “not British”.

The Reform hopeful announced on Thursday she would no longer stand to be an MSP “due to a lack of support from the party”.

“I thank all those who have supported me, and I wish the remaining candidates well,” she added.

It came after she was placed eight on the regional Mid Scotland and Fife list for Reform’s candidates, dramatically reducing her chances of success.

Mr Glen had been picked to contest a constituency in Edinburgh for Reform.

But he was also on the party’s Mid Scotland and Fife list, ranked ninth and last behind his partner Ms Holt.

Fifth Reform UK candidate to quit

“I have withdrawn my candidacy for Reform UK,” he wrote on X on Friday morning.

“I fully support Linda in her decision and the reasons behind it.

“I wish the candidates the very best.”

It makes Mr Glen the fifth Reform UK candidate to quit since the party’s MSP hopefuls were announced just over a week ago on March 19.

On Thursday, The Courier reported that Roland Jackson would no longer contest the Mid Fife and Glenrothes constituency.

The former army soldier claimed his candidacy announcement by Reform was an “error”.

“My name was published prematurely in error but I am unable to stand for family reasons,” he said.

Reform UK was contacted for comment.

Proof if ever it was needed that only greedy,stupid lieing and amoral unprincipled philanderers go into politics these days

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector