I’m used to nasty hatchet jobs on me. Its been a particular feature of my experience in politics. Often they come from a position of ignorance from those who have never spoken with me & wish to distort something I’ve said by taking it wholly out of context
Today’s piece in the Herald is fairly . Typical. Perhaps Mr Smith didn’t read or understand my original column? heraldscotland.com/news/19000771.…
Fortunately the Irish Times did & here’s their piece. Typical of the consistently high quality of their journalism irishtimes.com/news/ireland/i…
The Irish Times understood that I was referring to the legal & constitutional method by which the Irish Free State was constituted. Why can’t Mr Smith understand that?
If we can’t have broader intellectual discussion of political ideas without this sort of ill informed backlash it’s not a good thing for Scottish public life nor debate nor indeed for #FreedomOfSpeech
There is much that is wrong with his column but my beef is he writes from a position of ignorance regarding my background. Irish citizen. Daughter of an Irish woman and of a historian. Brought up steeped in Irish and Scottish history.
So it is Mr Smith’s column which is based on ignorance and distortion not mine. I don’t expect an apology but I’m pleased to put my position on the record

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More from @joannaccherry

8 Jan
The route to #independence must be legal & constitutional. I support Plan A of replicating the Edinburgh Agreement but there are other legal & constitutional options & it’s right for @theSNP to consider these . thenational.scot/news/18995586.…
It is foolish & dangerous to rail against having a fallback plan, should it be required. Foolish, because it undermines the carefully achieved past gains such as the concession Salmond secured from Dewar in exchange for supporting the devolution referendum
Dangerous, because it re-inforces the power of our adversary and cements in the minds of the international community that the only way Scotland can leave the UK and become independent legally and constitutionally is by replicating the 2014 referendum.
Read 6 tweets
27 Dec 20
Some follow up thoughts on a great piece by Andrew Tickell: How Scots have learned to love independence in 2020 thenational.scot/news/18970919.…
Andrew says; “Now, the idea of independence in the lead and the Union in retreat is a banal fact of Scottish life.” As others have pointed out this has parallels with where we were with #devolution post the 1992 General election.
But then, Scotland had to wait for Westminster to catch up with us before we got devolution. 5 years passed before a party that supported devolution came to power at Westminster and held a referendum
Read 9 tweets
26 Dec 20
What Priti Patel says about the law enforcement & judicial co-op parts of the deal is simply wrong. It affords us considerably less protection than we had with #EU membership -
PM's Brexit deal makes UK safer, Priti Patel insists theguardian.com/politics/2020/…
Such data sharing as we retain will be slower as not in real time. Information exchanges between police forces will be significantly reduced. We are out of the European Arrest Warrant with a poor relation replacement
Plus it’s all conditional on the #EU Commission making a positive data adequacy ruling within 4 month window
Read 4 tweets
30 Nov 20
What a shame @thetimesscot didn’t seek comment from me on this news story particularly as it reads like another sly attempt to smear me. Please read this thread.
thetimes.co.uk/article/foreig…
Had @thetimesscot spoken to me I could have told them that yes frequently posts in the US do feature me usually when they are abusing me & threatening me for standing up for #WomensRights in my work on @HumanRightsCtte. Frequently I’m sent this violent image
Unfortunately this problem started close to home & continues led by a number of actors some of whom are @theSNP members & close to Mr Smith. Despite my complaints indeed pleas for help nothing has been done to address this issue
Read 8 tweets
29 Nov 20
Thread of my short #SNP20 speech - The British Government are pressing ahead with their constitutional priorities regardless of the current pandemic. Brexit has happened and our parliament is under attack.
Whilst our Scottish Government is rightly focused on Covid, we must act quickly to protect our democracy.
To those who say that a referendum can happen only once in a generation I say there is nowhere that is written in stone. Not in the Edinburgh Agreement. Not in the Smith Commission.
Read 11 tweets
30 Oct 20
Thread - We cannot have a situation in politics or public life whereby as soon as allegations, particularly  of criminality, are made against a man or woman, he or she is presumed guilty until proven innocent. 1/4 thetimes.co.uk/article/ross-t…
People who make complaints must be taken seriously and supported to do so, but we must have due process before those complained against are condemned. Otherwise no one will want to enter politics . 2/4
There are parallels here with the treatment of Alex Salmond and Michelle Thomson both of whom were defenestrated by their own political party and savaged in the media before being exonerated. 3/4
Read 4 tweets

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