A CULTURAL website secretly operated by the far-right British National Party has drawn unwitting advertising income from major Scottish public bodies.
Now Jack McConnell, the First Minister, has been asked to order his ministers to check all public bodies and quangos to ensure that all such links are severed.
Alasdair Morrison, the Western Isles MSP, said the BNP was an "odious organisation" and he had urged Mr McConnell to take action after learning VisitScotland and Scotland's People, the official genealogy website, were among the organisations whose adverts were unwittingly linked to the site.
Project Iona says it is dedicated to "the treasures of the islands of the north Atlantic". But while it talks of all the cultures of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland the site does not reveal that it is a creation of the BNP.
The fact the phrase "Islands of the North Atlantic" was coined during political talks between London and Dublin to avoid offence taken by the Irish at the phrase "British Isles" is a particular irony, given the BNP has now hijacked the concept.
The party's website referred to the projects as "a major undertaking intended to be the BNP's very own treasure house of some of the enormous cultural and traditional aspects of the islands".
The links between the Project Iona website and other advertising are generated by Google, with a proportion of revenue then passed in effect to the BNP.
Kenny Smith, Scottish secretary of the party, said of Project Iona: "I know it's on our site and what it stands for. It catalogues our heritage and culture and is a resource for everyone."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article