John mason

Maverick MSP lauds St Andrew as a nationalist icon

All too often, the massed rows behind Nicola Sturgeon at FMQs can resemble a scene from one of Stalin’s party congresses. Row after row of poker-faced nationalists dutifully banging their desks at the latest edict from on high, interjecting occasionally with the latest pre-approved attack line or standard softball question to the Dear Leader: an army of grey-suited cyber-men, without the heart. Yet the counter-argument to such a model of uninspired conformity can be found in the form of John Mason MSP, the maverick member for Glasgow Shettleston since 2011. Over the past decade, the nationalist nut has been more of a fixture in the national headlines than Rod Stewart or