PROTESTERS linked to a Holocaust denier demonstrated outside an Edinburgh Fringe Festival venue where the First Minister was appearing.
Activists holding placards branded with A Force For Good protested outside The Stand where Nicola Sturgeon appeared at an “in conversation” event on Wednesday.
The pro-Union group A Force For Good was founded in 2012 by Alistair McConnachie – who was kicked out of Ukip for saying he did not believe gas chambers were used to kill Jews during the Holocaust.
He was an organiser for the party between 1999 and 2001 but was barred after making the comments in an email to fellow members.
#aForceForGood in #Edinburgh to tell #NicolaSturgeon she doesn't speak for #Scotland 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/JOFJ52I904
— A Force For Good 🏴🇬🇧 (@UKaForceForGood) August 24, 2022
He wrote: “I don't accept that gas chambers were used to execute Jews for the simple fact there is no direct physical evidence to show that such gas chambers ever existed...
“There are no photographs or films of execution gas chambers.... Alleged eyewitness accounts are revealed as false or highly exaggerated.”
Confronted on the comments by the Sunday Herald in 2018, he defended himself, saying: “I say what I say, and I stand by the things that I say. I’ve no time for regrets. Life’s too short.”
At the time, his comments were blasted by Ephraim Borowski, director of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, who said: “It is impossible to argue with someone who is unaware or in denial about the physical evidence all over Europe and the meticulous record-keeping of the Nazis themselves.”
McConnachie was also paid £2000 for four months of “social media services” during the independence referendum campaign by the Orange Order’s No campaign website “British Together”.
He was also behind the Independent Green Voice (IGV) party, which the Scottish Greens accused of stealing votes from them by mimicking their name and branding.
The party picked up more than 2000 votes in Glasgow – where the Greens were short of 1000 votes to elect another MSP – and 100 short of gaining another seat in the South of Scotland, where the IGV won 1690.
Protesters with the group held signs reading: “Sturgeon is Not Scotland”.
The group is against Scottish independence, a second referendum and devolving further powers to the Scottish Parliament.
It is registered under the name AFFG Productions Ltd and in 2021 filed accounts showed a turnover of £32,648.
McConnachie travels around Scotland to protest in favour of the Union and asked in 2018 why his support was so fervent, he replied: “I just like it.”
Sturgeon was interviewed by journalist Graham Speirs at Wednesday’s event and said there was a “real case” that civil unrest could result from the UK Government’s inaction on the cost-of-living crisis.
She added: “I think as a country we have got to try and come together to demand that those who do have the powers to grow the overall resource available, take those decisions.
“I think there is a real case for that kind of democratic civic mobilisation of opinion right now. It is really, really needed.”
