The Scottish National party has deleted an election campaign video on TikTok after it featured a sexually explicit song by the American rapper Big Boss Vette.
The track, Pretty Girls Walk, carries an explicit lyrics warning on streaming platforms and starts with an expletive-laden first verse.
The SNP video featured the party’s leader, John Swinney, and promoted policies including calling for a full ceasefire in Gaza, its free baby boxes for new parents and free bus travel for young people.
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The breakaway nationalist Alba party, set up by the SNP’s former leader and the former first minister Alex Salmond, complained that the song in the deleted video also featured the N-word.
Tony Osy, Alba’s candidate in Glasgow South West and a member of its African Scots for Alba caucus, said: “The stigma of that word embodies and invokes painful memories and inhumane ill will.
People react after former U.S. President Donald Trump was convicted in his criminal trial outside of Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, on May 30, 2024 (Photo: Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)
“Now it’s up to the American people to protect our democracy by holding Trump accountable at the ballot box and ensuring that a convicted fraudster never steps foot in the Oval Office again,” said one democracy defender.
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A New York jury on Thursday found former U.S. President Donald Trump guilty of all 34 felony charges related to the falsification of business records regarding hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 presidential election.
The verdict—which came on the second day of jury deliberations—marked the first time in U.S. history that a former president has been convicted of felony crimes. The presumptive 2024 Republican nominee faces 54 other federal and state felony charges across three more cases.
I never thought I’d see the day. Teflon Trump finally found guilty of crimes. https://t.co/Ur7nURwl83
“I never thought I’d see the day,” journalist Mehdi Hasan said on social media following the verdict’s announcement. “Teflon Trump finally found guilty of crimes.”
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington president Noah Bookbinder said after the verdict:
The conviction of a former leader is a sad day for the country, but today’s conviction is also a historic win for accountability, and affirms that Donald Trump indeed broke the law by falsifying records in order to hide information from the American people ahead of the 2016 election. After reviewing an enormous amount of overwhelming evidence, the jury unanimously concluded that Trump engaged in criminal activity that demands accountability, all the more so because it may be only the first piece of what appears to have been a presidential crime spree.
Speaking after his conviction, Trump said: “This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who is corrupt.”
“I’m a very innocent man,” added Trump, who is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, just days before the Republican convention. He could face up to four years behind bars.
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign issued a statement following Trump’s conviction:
In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law.
Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain. But today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.
Public Citizen executive vice president Lisa Gilbert said that “this is an historic moment for democracy.”
“A jury heard evidence that Donald Trump illegally interfered in the 2016 election and rendered a fair and appropriate verdict,” she continued. “New York’s prosecutors served justice by bringing this case. We applaud the jury for doing its job and standing up for the fundamental principle that no one is above the law, not even a former president.”
“Justice was served today, Gilbert added. “On to the next trial!”
Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, asserted that “this case was always about hiding key information from voters, and now a jury of the former president’s peers have confirmed that he lied to the public by falsifying business records in order to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.”
“This is a felony punishable with jail time or probation, and just like anyone else convicted of the same crime, we expect him to be sentenced accordingly,” Lerner added. “We thank the jury—whom Mr. Trump and his lawyers helped to select—for doing their civic duty, and trust that the public will accept their decision as well as their right to privacy. Respect for the rule of law is the foundation of our democracy, but so is public trust in the process.”
Sean Eldridge, founder and president of Stand Up America, said in a statement that “today’s verdict reaffirms that no one is above the law in the United States of America, including a former president.”
“Falsification of business records is a serious crime, and Trump is finally being held accountable like any other American would,” he continued. “This verdict is not just about ‘hush money payments.’ It’s about an illegal attempt to hide the truth from voters just days before the 2016 election, and it’s part of Trump’s clear pattern of doing anything—including breaking the law—in order to cling to power.”
“Despite this monumental verdict, one trial isn’t going to keep Trump out of the White House,” Eldridge added. “The jurors have done their duty, and now it’s up to the American people to protect our democracy by holding Trump accountable at the ballot box and ensuring that a convicted fraudster never steps foot in the Oval Office again.”
“We are very clear that these are our priorities – our NHS, housing, climate and nature, public services, and the quality of our water.”
The general election is now in full swing, with parties out on the streets and in the media to make their case to voters. Today, the Green Party of England and Wales formally launched their general election campaign in Bristol, where the party’s co-leader Carla Denyer is hoping to become its second ever MP.
Outgoing Green MP Caroline Lucas opened the launch by saying the Greens were carrying out their “most ambitious general election campaign ever”. She went on to say that by getting more Greens elected to parliament, a Labour government would be “pushed to be bolder and braver on everything from housing, to the NHS, to the accelerating climate crisis”.
Denyer and her fellow co-leader Adrian Ramsay spoke at the campaign launch to set out the party’s core campaign messages. Among them were a commitment to build affordable homes, take action on the cost of living crisis, reverse NHS privatisation and clean up rivers and seas.
As well as attacking the Tories’ record in office, the Greens also used their launch to heavily criticise the Labour Party’s policy offer in the election.
Denyer said: “People are disappointed by the way Starmer has backtracked on his promises on green investment, his weak offer on housing, and now we have Wes Streeting telling us that more privatisation of the NHS is a good thing. When the challenges we face are so huge, people tell us they’re disappointed by the lack of ambition from the Labour Party.”
She added: “Across the country, people now have the chance to vote for real hope and real change. Our politics is broken, our public services are on their knees and people are worse off now than when the Conservatives came to power 14 years ago.
“The case for change is obvious, but it has to be real change that offers real hope. Half measures and broken pledges will not do. The Conservatives are clearly on their way out of government, but Labour is failing to offer the real change needed.
Leaders’ debates are now a key feature of General Election campaigns in the UK. So far, only one UK-wide debate has been announced. Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will go head to head on ITV at 9pm on Tuesday, 4 June.
The day before, there will also be a debate between Scottish Party leaders on STV at 9pm. SNP leader John Swinney, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross and Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton will be taking part.
Notable in their absence from the Scottish debate are the Greens. While the Scottish Greens don’t currently have any seats in the House of Commons, they do have 7 MSPs – more than the Liberal Democrats – and they were until recently in government in Scotland.
The decision not to invite the Greens has led to outrage from key party activists and representatives.
