Politician Claims Hero-grams Poured in Following Tackle on Pundit

The repercussions of a tackle on BBC Scotland football pundit, Chick Young, two years ago, continue to reverberate.

MSP John Park is appearing in a debate this evening, hosted by Real Radio and The Scottish Sun, at the Festival of Politics, in Edinburgh. And it has given the Sun the chance to revisit a MSP versus media charity football match, in October two years ago, which had to be abandoned before the final whistle, following a tackle by Park on Young.

The tackle meant Young having to be carried off, reportedly branding Park a thug.

Park is quoted in the paper, saying: “I have to be honest, I got quite a lot of emails from all over Scotland and hardly any of them were critical.

“There were quite a lot of hero-grams from people who had wanted to injure Chick for years.

“My inbox was full and I maybe had one critical but the rest were asking things like, 'Could you move to our constituency so we can vote for you?'.”

He is further quoted, saying: “I haven't had the opportunity to bury the hatchet.

“I tried to apologise at the time but understandably, he wasn't up for that.”