Mackay hits out at joke jibe over Twitter comment
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A FORMER local Labour political candidate has rejected claims that he tweeted a joke about job losses in the county.
John Mackay said his views have been misrepresented by the local MSP on micro-blogging site Twitter and again by the Scottish National Party in a comment to the John O’Groat Journal last week.
Mr Mackay was involved in a 140 character-at-a-time exchange with local SNP MSP Rob Gibson last week over the possible closure of the Vulcan submarine nuclear reactor test site.
However, the exchange turned sour when Mr Mackay joked about the First Minister arriving at Nigg to promote renewable energy jobs in a helicopter.
Mr Gibson tweeted back that the Labour Party member should not joke about job prospects in the constituency.
Mr Mackay responded to @RobGibsonMSP by stating that he was not joking about jobs.
“I didn’t joke about jobs,” read the tweet. “I made light of the FM using a helicopter to promote renewable jobs. Get the irony? No? Ah well.”
A comment to the Groat from an SNP spokesman further compounded what Mr Mackay described as a clear misinterpretation by again referring to the alleged joke about job losses.
Mr Mackay, who contested the Far North constituency in both the recent Westminster and Holyrood elections, has slammed the SNP and said at no point did he say such a thing.
“I absolutely did not make fun of people losing their jobs, particularly when I have friends and family on that very site,” said Mr Mackay.
“I didn’t appreciate that the SNP accused me of joking about or making light of the situation at Vulcan – I think it is clear to see that I did not do and never have done – but they implied that I did.
“It’s a matter of public record ?because the tweets are still up there and people can go and read it for themselves.”
He added: “It was a ridiculous statement for me to be accused of.”
Mr Mackay said the incident had called into question his use of social networking but he vowed to continue to tweet to his 643 followers.
“I put loads of stuff about my life on Twitter – what football games I’m going to, what gigs I’ve been to and so on,” he said. “It’s all there for people to see the human side of people like me who are politicians or aspiring politicians.
“The last thing you want to happen when you put so much of yourself out on a social-networking site is then for somebody to misrepresent you and take something that is not true to a larger audience.”
On Wednesday, Mr Gibson’s campaign director, Alex Macleod, said: “We have made it very clear that the SNP’s first priority is to support the local Caithness economy. We take great issue with John Mackay’s tone in this exchange.
“We accept that in politics sometimes people disagree and on this occasion we agree to disagree with Mr Mackay.”
