Lockerbie 'a dump', says MSP in rant against town, tycoon and youths with 'ugly' clothes

WHEN Chris Harvie stood up to address the Scottish Parliament during a debate on improving tourism, his colleagues expected a reasoned report on his trip through the south of Scotland.

The last thing they expected him to do was brand the town of Lockerbie "a dump", deride the dress sense of the nation's youth as the worst in Europe, and then attack one of Scotland's leading businessmen for selling them the clothes in the first place.

But by the time the SNP MSP sat down, he had done just that, leaving fellow parliamentarians aghast and outraged.

Reporting on a recent journey through the south, Mr Harvie told the economy, energy and tourism committee: "On getting to Lockerbie, I discovered the place is a dump – Tescotown.

"It should really have a certain attraction of a rather sombre kind, as a place where something terrible happened.

"There are, after all, places on the Western Front and that sort of thing that have such an attraction for families who have lost people there.

"There are some attractive Victorian buildings, but roughly two-thirds of the shops in the main street are derelict, and there were lots of kids hanging around the place smoking, drinking and so on. It was not in the least attractive."

Mr Harvie, an MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife, also criticised the attitude of some youths he encountered travelling by bus from Galashiels, complaining that they put their "big muddy trainers" on the seats, and went on to attack young people for the "ugly" clothes they wear.

He told MSPs: "It must also be said that the most immense fortune that has been made in Scotland in the past few years – that of Tom Hunter (founder of Sports Division] – has arisen from selling people what must be the ugliest clothes worn by anyone on the entire continent.

"Bavarian kids rarely wear anything other than knickerbockers, or something like that, but here that is replaced by universal sports goods, barely concealing the fact that Scotland is perhaps the least healthy nation in western Europe."

The 63-year-old history professor, who lectured in Germany for 27 years, was equally unimpressed by a trip south of the Border. "In Carlisle itself, the street of Butchergate is a booze canyon," he said.

"At our hotel, the manager said that they have tried to stop them, but another four pubs have opened up in the last three years.

"It is just a booze alley – the conditions can be imagined."

Derek Brownlee, a Conservative MSP, described Mr Harvie's comments on Lockerbie last week as an "appalling insult" to the town where 270 people died when Pan Am flight 103 was brought down by a terrorist bomb in 1988.

And he countered Mr Harvie's comments by saying that MSPs should be trying to help towns, not run them down.

The South of Scotland MSP added: "These comments are an appalling insult to Lockerbie. It is astonishing that, during a debate on how to increase tourism, Christopher Harvie decided instead to launch a vitriolic attack on the town based on one passing visit."

And Michael Dickie, a Liberal Democrat councillor for Lockerbie, said Mr Harvie "should apologise in person to local people".

HAPPY TO VOICE STRONG VIEWS

CHRISTOPHER Harvie, 63, is no stranger to controversy.

A former Labour supporter, the SNP MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife has been more than willing to take critical positions on his own party's policies. Last year, he led a revolt over his party's opposition to the Edinburgh tram system, claiming it was "absolutely vital" for the central belt.

Born in Motherwell and educated at the Royal High school in Edinburgh at the same time as the late Robin Cook, then Edinburgh University, he has been a professor of history at Strathclyde University and Tübingen University in Germany.

He once co-wrote a pamphlet with Gordon Brown advocating devolution but claims he has "no political career in view" and, instead, insists he wants to reform Scotland's political system, which he has branded "atrophied" and "dysfunctional".

In addition to this, he holds a strong desire to see the defunct Waverley railway line resuscitated.

He has also said he believes the world's oil reserves are entering the final stages of decline.

Perhaps the last word is best left to him: Mr Harvie describes himself as "a civic nationalist and greenish republican, continually nagged by Christian socialism".