Tam, Whose Line Is It Anyway?

I was reviewing the website of Tam Smith the SNP PPC for Linlithgow and East earlier, and saw on his website that Tam had commented on the Lib Dem debate on Saturday. His blog article starts:

Commenting on the Liberal Democrats’ special conference held to debate the party’s position on a referendum on independence, the SNP called on all parties to back the right of the Scottish people to have their say on Scotland’s future, with Linlithgow & East Falkirk SNP Candidate Tam Smith saying:

"All parties must endorse the right of the people of Scotland to have their say on Scotland’s constitutional future.

"The Liberal Democrats are deeply divided on the issue and all over the place – it’s impossible to tell what their position will be from one day to the next, never mind one year to the next. The only constant thing about the Lib Dems is that they keep shifting their stance. They should hold to liberal and democratic principles and back the Referendum Bill when it comes forward in 2010."

This is just the first two paragraphs of five in quotation marks which read very familiarly to this blog writer. The reason being I'd quoted and commented on them here, when they had been said in press release and attributed to Dr. Alistair Allan MSP. Also over recent days Tam has written on diesel prices aiding recovery mixing a local paragraph straight into a quote from Angus McNeil MP. Speaking about axing the attendance allowance he morphs into John Mason MP. His comments on the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey he actually taken from the mouth of neighbouring MSP Angela Constance. On the Royal Mail strikes and Peter Mandelson having to answer questions it is the turn of Mike Weir MP to share the exact same thought as Tam.

As you can see he is claiming to say verbatim what these elected members of either parliament are quoted as saying through the SNP's own website. All this fisking in only on the first two pages of the six currently with news content on his site, I suspect if I go back further I'd find more of the same.

As someone who has been putting across the my own Liberal Democrat view in this area since this blog started up in 2005 I too have quoted party spokespersons and their words. However, unlike Tam I will credit those words to the person/s who actually said them not claiming them as my own, I will also express my own views on matters of policy. Strange then that even the words 'spoken' at the launch of his website all point to the one SNP Press Release*.

With no offence to Tam I know he is smarter than just being put up as a monkey with an SNP rosette on. However, whoever is attributing words to him which are attributed to other SNP representatives elsewhere is actually mocking the intelligence of the electorate of Linlithgow and East Falkirk. Tam has commented on my blog, an option not available on his website in any public domain, saying:

"Try out my website and keep up to date with my and the SNP activity. Let me know what you think.Are we right or what."

Well I have, and now you all know. I will be keeping an eye on it to let you know just who Rory Bremner Tam Smith impersonates next.

*This is subscription site but search for any of the key phrase and whoops they all point here.