RUTH Davidson has been urged to suspend a would-be Tory councillor over offensive social media comments.
Dave Coleman, who hopes to be elected to Fife Council, is under fire over remarks he made on Facebook in 2010.
He made reference to “chavs” and “pikeys” shopping in Lidl and used derogatory language about disabled people.
Scottish Labour candidate Billy Pollock called for Mr Coleman to be suspended and his comments investigated.
He said: "Anyone who mocks people with disabilities is not fit to represent the electorate, it saddens me that any political party would select a candidate making these type of comments.
"Mr Coleman’s Tory party are a party that are driving people to the depths of despair with their savage cuts and yet he has the audacity to mock those suffering from mental health issues.
"Ruth Davidson must suspend Mr Coleman and launch a thorough investigation into these offensive comments."
In one Facebook post from April 2010, Mr Coleman wrote that he “doesn’t wear his helmet on the special bus, because it impedes my window licking abilities”.
In another from the same month, he wrote: “Chavs to the left of me, pikeys to the right… Here I am shopping in Lidls (sic) with you.”
Mr Coleman said he sincerely apologised to anyone upset by his language.
He said: “These were daft comments made as a joke eight years ago and I understand that this isn’t the kind of language expected of a councillor.”
But SNP candidate Neil Hanvey branded the remarks “totally unacceptable and not befitting of someone seeking public office”.
He said: "Dave Coleman should stand down from the contest at once – if not then Ruth Davidson must remove him."
Mr Coleman is standing in the Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay by-election, which will be held on September 6.
It was called after shadow Scottish secretary Lesley Laird stood down as a councillor.
A Scottish Conservative spokesman said: “Dave Coleman has apologised sincerely for any offence these comments have caused.
"They were made thoughtlessly eight years ago and he realises just how inappropriate they are.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel