There’s a really odd story that has come out of Scotland recently. It concerns the desire of a man with a personality disorder who sparked a terrorism scare, wanting to be considered as a Labour Party Parliamentary candidate.

According to a story in the Scottish Daily Record, former solider Alex Tiffin wants to stand for the Labour Party in the Westminster seat held by Scottish National Party member Ian Blackford. Tiffin, who in 2017 sent texts threatening to ‘kill the unbelievables’ and ‘Allah hu Akbar’ to a mosque that he attended following the London Bridge Islamic terror attack. The person who received the texts at the mosque quite rightly contacted the police and Tiffin was arrested. He was brought to court and admonished – the equivalent in other jurisdictions of a verbal warning – and said that the texts were the result of his mental illness. During his court appearance Tiffin’s lawyer said that Tiffin was ‘an idiot not a terrorist’ and police found no evidence of radicalisation when they examined Tiffin’s background.

Of course, I’m all for people who have suffered from mental illnesses being given a second chance at life, but for Labour to pick this guy as a candidate so soon after this incident in 2017, would be completely stupid. I don’t think that enough time has elapsed for him to be considered as cured of his illness or to believe that it is fully under control. If Labour do pick Tiffin, whose prior conduct would probably preclude him from owning a shotgun, then they will be picking someone who might crack under pressure of campaigning or, if elected, Parliamentary work. Unfortunately, the Labour Party has allowed so many other extremist nutcases on board in recent years that they may think that one more may not make that much difference. The fact that this man is even being considered as a candidate looks to me like the actions of a party that has completely lost it.