Political madness

It's been a 'good' few days for political hyperbole and overreaction, one facet of politics which has certainly featured with some regularity on this blog.

Exhibit 1 is the weekend's 'ginger rodent' jibe at the Lib Dems' Danny Alexander, comparing the Chief Secretary to the Treasury to the red squirrel (pictured). Cue accusations of gingerism, racism or whatever. Worse still, the remark was made by uber-politically correct Labourite Harriet Harperson - as many of the un-politically correct amusingly refer to her - thus more than a hint of hypocrisy in the air.

But what a hoo-ha over next-to-nothing. The term 'ginger' seemed used in a descriptive rather than pejorative sense. And I thought red squirrels were supposed to be popular - what's not to like? But perhaps it's the word 'rodent' that's the problem - although most commentators seem to be emphasising the ginger aspect, perhaps because rodentism wouldn't seem so hypocritical for Ms Harperson - because 'rodent' seems redolent of horrible rats rather than fluffy squirrels.

Not very nice either way, but that's politics surely? However, if Ms Harperson's remarks were ill-judged, they were surely trumped by cute-as-a-red-squirrel Shirley-Anne Somerville*, who's an SNP MSP for, er, somewhere in Scotland. Says Squirrely-Anne: "Her silly remark isn't anti-Danny or anti-LibDem, it's anti-Scottish."

Which really requires no further comment, except to underline that the SNP disseminated Squirrely-Anne's comments via its official website.

But perhaps this is an overreaction to the overreaction to Alex Salmond's reference to a "schizophrenic" Iain Gray during last week's FMQs, with the First Minister forced to issue an apology (Exhibit 2). Again this doesn't seem the best use of words, but frankly if Holyrood's presiding officer thinks that's the aspect of FMQs and Holyrood generally worth taking issue with then perhaps a better sense of perspective is in order. And what about words commonly used in political discourse such as 'madness' - did anyone notice I'd used it in the headline?

Thankfully, on this occasion there's little (reported) evidence of politicians trying to make political capital out of Mr Salmond's reference. But much of the response to Harriet Harman's remark is, of course, born of partisan and contrived hyperbole rather than any real concern for anyone who might feel insulted - frankly, if they genuinely think that's worth highlighting via the media then clearly they lead pretty sheltered lives, bringing to mind my red rubber band relativism post.

Indeed, even Fanny Alexander (gosh, this namecalling's infectious, isn't it?) took the remark in good humour rather than seeing red (or ginger), so hereafter he'll be referred to as Danny on this blog.

*Anyone considering that this remark makes the author a sexist pig should recall that it's inappropriate to compare people to unattractive animals.