Friday, 19th August 2011
Scots MEP’s surprise over “deliberately misleading” interpretation of renewables remarks
Scots Conservative Euro MP Struan Stevenson has expressed surprise over the content of a motion lodged at the Scottish Parliament that appears to deliberately misinterpret his remarks at a recent public meeting in support of Communities Against Turbines (Scotland) in Ballantrae, Ayrshire.
Speaking following the circulation of a Scottish Parliamentary motion by Sandra White, SNP MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Struan Stevenson MEP said:
“I was hugely surprised that the content of this speech has been leapt upon in this deliberately misleading way. It was clear to anyone who attended the meeting and heard my speech on ‘The Renewable Rape of Scotland’ that I was referring to the rampant desecration of the Scottish landscape by wind turbines.
“Perhaps if Ms White had listened to the speech she would have heard me clearly explain that I chose the word ‘rape’ based on its definition in the Chamber’s Dictionary as meaning violation, despoiling or abuse of a country.
“Clearly nobody at the meeting was in any doubt over the meaning or intent of my remarks. The only people who should feel insulted by them are those responsible for despoiling our unique landscape and environment with vast, unsightly and inefficient wind farms.
Mr Stevenson added:
“Perhaps in future Ms White could engage with this serious debate more constructively, rather than trying to bog it down with absurd and irrelevant political correctness. The future of our landscape deserves nothing less.”
ENDS
Notes:
1. Struan Stevenson is a Scottish Conservative MEP for Scotland. He is President of the Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development Intergroup in the European Parliament.
2. A link to the full text of Struan Stevenson’s speech from 9 August can be found here:
http://www.struanstevenson.com/media/speech/the_renewable_rape_of_scotland/
3. The text of the motion by Sandra White (Glasgow Kelvin) (Scottish National Party): “That the Parliament expresses deep concern at what it considers to be Struan Stevenson’s MEP's outrageously insensitive comments in Ballantrae on 9 August 2011 at a meeting in support of Communities Against Turbines (Scotland) which he titled as “the Renewable Rape of Scotland”; considers this use of language to be unacceptable and deeply insulting to all who have been sexually assaulted, and calls on all decent minded people to disassociate themselves from what it views as his disgraceful remarks.”
4. For more information, please contact Peter Smyth on 0131 554 1146 or 07766 166 637 or email peter@indigopr.com
