Hanif suspension - gimme a break!

SNP councillor Jahangir Hanif has been suspended because he fired a Kalashnikov whilst on a family holiday in Pakistan before he was even a councillor.

Can someone break this down for me? It's not illegal there, in fact it's a part of many cultural celebrations. Not a part that's necessarily to be applauded, granted, but I'd rather elect a councillor who has spent some time walking in the shoes of other cultures than ones who would want to punish someone for doing so.

As it happens, I've done similarly. When I was in Yemen in 2002, we hired a Chinese imitation AK-47 and some ammo from a roadside stall and went into the mountains to shoot a can.

But I wasn't killing anyone, or any animal, and neither was Mr Hanif. Meanwhile the British state has ordered some of its subjects into battle to do just that. Maybe the SNP should suspend any politician who has served in the army or gone hunting in the past.

Perhaps it would have been ill-advised had the incident taken place whilst he was on official council or SNP business. But to me he's done nothing wrong at all. And for the SNP and, I assume, the other parties on Glasgow Council, to turn this into a statement against firearms strikes me as posturing completely disconnected from global realities.