Nigel Biggar and the Holocaust Denier: a cautionary thread 👇

1/
Nigel Biggar is Regius Professor of Moral and Political Theology at @ChCh_Oxford. He has a reputation as an academic with controversial views on the history of the British Empire, and has spoken out regularly and publicly about that controversy. 2/
Biggar is also a staunch unionist, and as well as writing regularly about the union over the years he serves on the Advisory Council for These Islands, a pro-union organisation. https://standpointmag.co.uk/author/nigel_biggar/ 3/
Yesterday, Biggar retweeted a fundraising appeal made by A Force For Good, a unionist organisation seeking (perhaps ominously) to ‘take back Scotland’s streets from the Nationalists’. 4/
It’s fair to infer that this retweet was an endorsement - why retweet a fundraising appeal otherwise? But who exactly was Biggar endorsing? Well... 5/
A Force For Good is an extreme organisation run by Alistair MacConnachie, a former UKIP candidate expelled from that party for denying the reality of the Holocaust. 6/
In 2018, McConnachie said he ‘stood by’ the Holocaust denial he’d expressed some years previously. There’s no evidence to suggest he has since recanted. 7/
In 2018, McConnachie said he ‘stood by’ the Holocaust denial he’d expressed some years previously. There’s no evidence to suggest he has since recanted. 7/
In 2018, McConnachie said he ‘stood by’ the Holocaust denial he’d expressed some years previously. There’s no evidence to suggest he has since recanted. 7/
What is an Oxford Professor of Theology doing publicising a fundraiser for a far right organisation led by a Holocaust denier? Well, this is the cautionary bit. 8/
It is possible that Biggar is unaware of the unsavoury nature of McConnachie’s organisation. But, as the saying goes, if you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. And contemporary unionism is a bit of a midden. 9/
People in England are perhaps unaware that cuddly left-liberal, pooling-and-sharing unionism is a defunct intellectual and political current in Scotland. Indyref and Brexit have seen to that. Now, the unionist running is made by a bunch of much dodgier people. 10/
I wonder what Biggar’s fellows on the These Islands Advisory Council think of his endorsement of a far right Holocaust denier. It’s not really a good look, is it? End/
I wonder what Biggar’s fellows on the These Islands Advisory Council think of his endorsement of a far right Holocaust denier. It’s not really a good look, is it? End/
I wonder what Biggar’s fellows on the These Islands Advisory Council think of his endorsement of a far right Holocaust denier. It’s not really a good look, is it? End/
I wonder what Biggar’s fellows on the These Islands Advisory Council think of his endorsement of a far right Holocaust denier. It’s not really a good look, is it? End/
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