Scotsman called 'sweaty sock' claims racial discrimination

A Scotsman who was called a "sweaty sock" and a caber tosser by English colleagues - and blamed for Gordon Brown's premiership - is suing his employer for racial discrimination. Mark Lynch, a slaughterman, claims he was called a range of insults including "Jock" and "Scottie" during the seven years he worked at the abattoir in Cornwall.

Mr Lynch, from Glasgow, said that local workers also made threats of violence against him and sabotaged his equipment. An employment tribunal in Exeter, Devon, was told that in June 2007 when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, one worker said: "That's the country ------ now that Scottish ----- is in charge."



Another allegedly made a crude remark after asking Mr Lynch if he had seen the scene in the film Braveheart in which an English nobleman takes a bride on her wedding night and forces himself on her. And Mr Lynch, who is in his late 40s, said there were other remarks made about the Scots only being good 'for tossing the caber and curling'.

He claimed that some made comments about Glasgow being the 'murder and Aids capital of Europe'. They are alleged to have said that in TV soaps like Eastenders, all the killers and wife beaters were Scottish. Mr Lynch, from Launceston, Cornwall, is claiming unfair dismissal and racial discrimination against Jaspers (Treburley) Ltd in Cornwall.