Ben Pawlowski
A GOVERNMENT minister has blasted a balconing league table as ‘vile’ and called for its website to be taken down after it celebrated the UK as the ‘kings of the sport’ following the death of a Scottish student in Ibiza last week.
Emma Ramsay, 19, a law undergraduate from South Lanarkshire died last Tuesday after she fell from a hotel balcony while holidaying on the island.
News of the death was celebrated by the Federació Balear de Balconing (the Balearic Balconing Federation) as a ‘comeback’ for the UK in a tweet which included a league table for deaths and injuries as a result of balconing – the name given in Spain to the often-dangerous act of jumping into a swimming pool from a hotel balcony.
“Everyone trusted that the kings of this sport would once again be leaders”, the tweet said, adding that ‘the British never disappoint’ and that the latest death promised ‘a fast-paced final phase of the league’.
The tweet has been viewed by over 250,000 users on X, the social media website.
The league table awards each country two points for a death and one point for an injury. In the event of a tie, the average number of floors fallen from is calculated.
Currently, the UK are positioned in first place with seven points, Germany are in second with six points, and Spain are third with four points.
Christina McKelvie, the MSP (Member of Scottish Parliament) for Hamilton, Larkhall & Stonehouse and the minister for drugs and alcohol policy blasted the league table, saying: “This is utterly vile and my heart goes out to the loved ones of anyone who has been targeted by this organisation”.
The SNP politician, who represents the constituency in which teenager Ramsay lived, added: “It is reprehensible that anyone would seek to exploit and use tragic deaths in such a cruel manner. The sooner the organisation is shut down, the better, and social media organisations should take any action they can to remove such deplorable content from their sites”.
The Balearic Balconing Foundation has over 55,000 followers on X and describes itself as ‘darwinistically touristophobic’.
Ramsay, a university student at Strathclyde University, is reported to have died at 3am on August 20 after falling from a sixth-floor balcony at the Vibra District Hotel in San Antonio, Ibiza.
The former head girl, who attended St John Ogilvie High School in Hamilton, was described by family as ‘incredibly kind’ and ‘caring and considerate’.
Her mother, Barbara, led tributes, describing her as ‘my best friend in the whole world’.
Lorna Lawson, the headteacher at her former school, said she was ‘shocked and saddened at the heartbreaking news’.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are supporting the family of a British woman who has died in Spain and are in contact with local authorities’.
