According to recent reports, a furious Baroness Ruth Davidson contacted the BBC's Brian Taylor directly to tell him not to refer to her as Baroness Davidson after he called her Baroness Davidson in a report for BBC Scotland news. A spokesapologist for the Scottish Tories later said that the title Baroness gives the wrong image because it plays into a stereotype of out of touch and unaccountable Conservatives that the Tories are desperate to move away from. However they are not so desperate that they won't actually stop trying to be out of touch and unaccountable and rewarding one another with seats in the Lords where they can continue to influence our laws and our lives free from being answerable to the public. They just want us to stop talking about it.
So, just to be clear, Baroness Davidson doesn't want us to call her Baroness Davidson. That's Baroness Davidson. Whatever you do don't say Baroness Davidson. What is the world coming to, when you can't even take a peerage as a reward for defenestrating the guy who took over as leader of your branch office following a democratic vote of party members without people insisting on calling you Baroness Davidson and reminding everyone of your utter lack of respect for democracy and political accountability. Baroness Davidsons deserve more respect.
Normally I don't use the stupid wee titles that politicians get awarded by their pals as rewards for failure, but in the case of Baroness Davidson I'm prepared to make an exception. Baroness Davidson has worked hard for her title. It's a constant reminder of Baroness Davidson's lack of respect for democracy, or indeed her utter failure to grasp its basic principles.
It's not like Baroness Davidson hasn't earned it. After all Baroness Davidson did go very far out of her way to knife Jackson Carlaw in the back. She wasn't even distracted on the way to that secret meeting in Douglas Ross's house by a bilingual Gaelic roadsign. Did you know that Gaelic for Baroness Davidson is Bana-bharan Nic Dhaibhidh? Baroness Davidson should be told, in case Baroness Davidson sees it on a roadsign and Baroness Davidson's party wants to complain about Gaelic roadsigns confusing people about the fact that the not-the-leader of the Conservatives in Scotland is Baroness Davidson who has no respect for democracy.
I'm not a politician who's heading for immunity from democratic scrutiny after overturning the outcome of a democratic ballot for the leader of her own party, but all this criticism of Baroness Davidson for not wanting to use the title Baroness Davidson is really getting a bit petty. Baroness Davidson has every democratic right not to want the title of Baroness Davidson. However it needs to be said that if Baroness Davidson doesn't want us to refer to her as Baroness Davidson because she's afraid that if the voting public realise that she's a democracy denying Baroness Davidson they'll be less inclined to vote for Baroness Davidson, then surely Baroness Davidson shouldn't have accepted the title of Baroness Davidson in the first place. Because otherwise Baroness Davidson is a hypocrite who wants the advantages of being an unaccountable Baroness Davidson but none of the potential downsides that flow from voters actually getting to express an opinion about Baroness Davidson's party.
But then I'm not Baroness Davidson, just an ordinary punter who believes that politicians ought to be held accountable to the voting public, unlike Baroness Davidson. And also unlike Baroness Davidson, I've heard of the Streisand Effect whereby complaining about something that you don't want people to know only makes more people know about it. Or as it's now known in Scotland, the Baroness Davidson effect. Which is èifeachd Bhana-bharan Nic Dhaibhidh in Gaelic. You know, in case you see it on a roadsign.
Baroness Davidson was always a media construct. Her much vaunted political skills rested largely on the fact that she got a free ride from the media. Now Baroness Davidson is demanding that the BBC do her bidding, and continue to assist her. The BBC seems to have capitulated. Since Baroness Davidson made her petulant demand, the BBC has not referred to her as Baroness Davidson. That speaks volumes about the relationship between the BBC and Baroness Davidson.
This is a politician who plotted in secret to overturn a democratic decision of her own party members, who then accepted a seat in the House of Lords as a reward where she will forever escape being held to account by any voters or any election, and who has the unmitigated gall to insist that she's going to hold the Scottish people to account for a promise that she claims the SNP leadership made. At the next election Baroness Davidson will join with DRoss in stomping around Scotland, insisting that Scotland cannot be allowed to decide for itself when or if it wishes to revisit the question of independence, as she readies herself to go to the Lords, don an ermine robe, and enjoy a cushy career at the taxpayers' expense for the rest of her life without ever having to worry about what the voters think. But then she doesn't care much about Scottish public opinion just now, her elevation to the Lords merely formalises it.
So yeah, she needs to be reminded at every opportunity that Baroness Davidson is not a title of respect, it's a badge of disgrace and a sign of her utter contempt for democracy, for political accountability, and for the right of the voters to make politicians answerable for their actions.
If Baroness Davidson really doesn't want us to call her Baroness Davidson, that's Baroness Davidson's prerogative. We can just call her Shameless Opportunistic Hypocrite Davidson instead. Or Rape Clause Ruth to her friends. Or we can just ignore her wishes in the exact same way that she is determined to ignore the wishes of the people of Scotland, and call her Baroness Davidson anyway. If you don't want people to use a title because you're afraid that it makes you look as though you have contempt for democracy, then perhaps you shouldn't have contempt for democracy and shouldn't have accepted the title in the first place.
Baroness Hypocrite's hypocrisy will not derail Scotland's journey to independence, and then her pretty little title will be as irrelevant and meaningless as the barren mess of her political career. She won't be called Baroness Davidson in an independent Scotland where there is no House of Lords. So if Baroness Davidson doesn't want to be called Baroness Davidson, we can help her with that.
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