SHE was last week namechecked in a debate on BBC’s Question Time; was the other day the subject of a spoof video that led to its author, Labour MP Tom Harris, losing his post as his party’s internet adviser; was the opening line in Lesley Riddoch’s Sunday Post column at the weekend; and mentioned in dispatches in George Kerevan’s Scotsman column today.
Plus, she has written about ‘it’ herself, in her own Scotsman column.
And also today, she is the subject of a double-page spread in The Scottish Sun.
It’s all because she tweeted and made a remark in the chamber of the Scottish Parliament that some people took exception to.
Writes Matt Bendoris of Joan McAlpine, journalist-turned-SNP MSP: “Does this former award-winning journalist really believe if you don’t vote SNP or fancy independence you’re anti-Scottish? She scoffs: ‘No, of course not. If people don’t want a referendum or don’t like the SNP, that’s fine with me. All I was objecting to was other parties ganging up not to give us a voice.’”
Adds Bendoris: “Joan looks like a Nats poster girl, with her fiery red hair.”
McAlpine – a former deputy editor of The Herald and also a former editor of Sunday Times Scotland – began her journalism career writing for the NME.
And Bendoris goes on to say that McAlpine’s part in a STV programme last year choosing the best Scottish music tracks has led to “more flak from that… than her anti-Scottish stooshie, including from within her own party”.
