NEW LibDem leader Tim Farron was dismissed as “ridiculous” yesterday after branding Scotland an authoritarian state.
Farron, who won his party’s two-horse leadership race with fewer than 20,000 votes last week, claimed to have expert knowledge on Scotland because he is from Cumbria, near the Border.
Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, he said: “I’m a Cumbrian. I’m very close to Scotland, we share an ITV region with Scotland and we get a very great sense of what is going on in Scotland.
“It is important that we south of the Border have an understanding of what nationalism is.
“First of all I think it is absolutely right to pay tribute to what has been a very exciting movement with the SNP and their success in the election.
“However, it is important to note what the Nationalists are doing in government. They have a single national politicised police force where police on the streets of the Highlands, and there aren’t many streets in the Highlands, are automatically now tooled up.
“We have an identity database system which is very similar to the one Tony Blair tried to introduce. In Edinburgh they are setting forward with plans to have facial recognition software on CCTV, so there’s a real sense of almost Orwellian Big Brother authoritarianism up there.”
Following his election, Farron gave his backing to former Scottish secretary Alistair Carmichael, insisting that Scotland’s sole remaining LibDem MP deserves a “second chance” following the Frenchgate scandal.
Drew Hendry, who defeated former LibDem Treasury minister Danny Alexander in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, laughed off the comments.
He said: “Tim Farron’s silly comments only serve to highlight to people in Scotland just how out of touch he is with the reality north of the Border – his claims bear no resemblance to the politically engaged, energised nation Scotland has become since the referendum.
“His repeated ridiculous remarks about Scotland are embarrassing to his own party – they are so wrong that they underline why his party was comprehensively rejected by the people of Scotland in May, while a poll this week put support for the SNP at 60 per cent on the constituency vote as people continue to put their trust in us.”
The Scottish Government dismissed the allegations of running a politicised police force and an authoritarian state.
A spokesperson said: “Police reform and the creation of Police Scotland was widely supported on a cross-party basis and is safeguarding policing in Scotland from Westminster budget cuts.
“Policing in Scotland is now more local and more accountable than ever before, with an unprecedented level of scrutiny since the move to a single service.
“Although less than two per cent of officers in Scotland are authorised to carry firearms, they play an important role in keeping communities in Scotland safe from serious threats.”
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