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The Modern Politician 296

Posted on February 10, 2026 by

A play in three acts:

And you thought ours were spineless.

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A Dumber Nation 85

Posted on February 09, 2026 by

In politics, readers, evil and stupidity aren’t the same thing.

But nor are they exclusive.

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Echoes of history 68

Posted on February 08, 2026 by

The Sunday National’s front page today elicited a sigh of “So what?” from most.

We’ve already GOT a “pro-indy” majority at Holyrood and have done for the last 10 years, for all it’s been worth. But to be fair there was a paragraph in the article that at least raised a quizzical eyebrow.

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A Stitch In Timing 160

Posted on February 05, 2026 by

Readers will probably be aware that literally as you read this, the Scottish Government is in court trying to defend its policy of letting male murderers be housed in women’s prisons by arguing that the Equality Act 2010 (as ruled on by the Supreme Court in the For Women Scotland case) is incompatible with the Human Rights Act 1998, implementing the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (commonly referred to as the ECHR).

But this article isn’t about that case.

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The Marshalling Plan 230

Posted on February 02, 2026 by

Another month has passed, so we suppose it must be time for the third of our polling-analysis pieces for the Scottish Parliament election in May.

(Last time round we assessed the grotesque rank idiocy of voting SNP on the list if you want a pro-indy majority, and the time before that we considered the possible impact of Jeremy Corbyn’s Your Party on seat numbers, which now looks rather less potentially semi-interesting than it did last summer.)

So what can we look at this time?

Well, what if Unionists were slightly less stupid and tribal than SNP voters?

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Shield Of The Phantom 337

Posted on January 26, 2026 by

Well, we gave it a go.

It seems that it’s fine to farm important judgments out to mysterious shadowy figures who just make important chunks of them up out of thin air, and then issue them in your own name. Back in your boxes, plebs.

Yelling at the tide 310

Posted on January 21, 2026 by

We figured someone had to at least try.

So in the light of this, we’ve sent a letter.

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The Secondhand Amendment 137

Posted on January 19, 2026 by

We’re really not sure this makes things any better with regard to the incredible tale that’s unfolded around the judgment in Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife.

In fact, on any interpretation we can think of, quite the reverse.

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Learning Insanity 154

Posted on January 14, 2026 by

This clip was broadcast on ITV News Wales this week.

It’s a staggeringly obvious mess for a whole raft of reasons – a number of completely spurious, illogical and unsupported claims are accepted as facts without any sort of challenge or balancing voice (which has been standard practice on ITV News for a while now across almost any contentious political topic) – but it led us to somewhere magnitudes of crazier still.

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Governing For Beginners 108

Posted on January 12, 2026 by

My first ever real experience of politics was playing Dictator.

Originally written by Don Priestley for the Sinclair ZX81 in 1982, it was a simple text-based game which subsequently came to other formats including the Commodore 64, BBC Micro, Elan Enterprise and the ZX Spectrum, which is where I encountered it.

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Grandpa John’s Nightmare 257

Posted on January 07, 2026 by

It’s almost – almost – worth voting SNP in May because of this:

Because it would be at least momentarily absolutely hilarious watching Swinney try to explain why his “100% guaranteed” second indyref didn’t happen if the SNP actually did get a majority on 30% of the vote (which is narrowly feasible on current polling).

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Failure To Learn 101

Posted on January 05, 2026 by

Scotland take on Haiti on Sunday 14 June (in the wee small hours of the morning), so this is nice, isn’t it?

At least, it would be if incompetent idiots weren’t in charge.

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    • willie on The Modern Politician: “All prosecution is in the name of the Crown. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes, or as they say in Glasgow, -…Feb 15, 20:03
    • Saffron Robe on The Modern Politician: “That’s very much the heart of the matter, Colin. As a conscientious Scot, I could not in good faith serve…Feb 15, 19:06
    • Xaracen on The Modern Politician: “The relevant prerequisites for that assessment haven’t been met yet, sam. Scotland needs to be recognised as a territory by…Feb 15, 19:06
    • Peter McAvoy on The Modern Politician: “I shared the views of many who opposed Thatcher at the time. Something seldom mentioned at the same time the…Feb 15, 18:27
    • sam on The Modern Politician: “Betraying the namr. More outsider than insider. Heir, when it comes to royalty, is who is in line to succeed…Feb 15, 18:21
    • Sven on The Modern Politician: “Heir; A person entitled to the property or rank of another on their death. A person who inherits or continues…Feb 15, 18:15
    • TURABDIN on The Modern Politician: “@ANDY ELLIS, Timor Leste is a Portuguese speaking democratic republic recognized by the UN, and Indonesia from which it split,…Feb 15, 17:45
    • Insider on The Modern Politician: “Sven.. Try looking up what the word “heir” means ! FFS !Feb 15, 17:44
    • agentx on The Modern Politician: “Line of Succession: Despite losing his titles, Andrew remains eighth in the line of succession to the British throne. The…Feb 15, 16:34
    • Sven on The Modern Politician: “Insider @ 15.53. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor does indeed remain 8th in line as heir to the Monarchy of King Charles 111.Feb 15, 16:25
    • Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “@Andy You left Tibet off that list, not to mention around 20 colonies the Orcs have their claws into, plus…Feb 15, 15:57
    • Insider on The Modern Politician: “Colin Alexander says: “That’s King Charles, King of England and head of the UK state. Also, his heirs continue to…Feb 15, 15:53
    • Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “You think, SR? 319 years of “history stuff” can be unwritten by proving that something underhand went down in 1707?…Feb 15, 15:42
    • Lorna Campbell on The Modern Politician: “Dan: I said it was dire because it was. I do not fgotget that it was many people’s living. Of…Feb 15, 15:31
    • Colin Alexander on The Modern Politician: “James Cheyne “All political parties in Scotland are registered in England.” Is it only me that sees a problem with…Feb 15, 15:27
    • Andy Ellis on The Modern Politician: “The right of any people to self determination is guaranteed by the UN. There is however no general agreement of…Feb 15, 15:23
    • Saffron Robe on The Modern Politician: “Excellent comment, James. I really appreciate your insights. All power to your elbow! Don’t let the naysayers discourage you, it…Feb 15, 14:27
    • TURABDIN on The Modern Politician: “@Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh THANKS for the most engaging link to the Poncarová article on Erskine. The lady is a Czech, i…Feb 15, 14:02
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    • TURABDIN on The Modern Politician: “AT THE MOMENT it is all down to the algorithm «training». At the moment that is certainly far from being…Feb 15, 13:47
    • Northcode on The Modern Politician: “I say, old chap, Mogger’s unnatural and deeply condescending accent is straight out of the empire’s metropolitan centre, don’t ya…Feb 15, 13:25
    • Xaracen on The Modern Politician: “@Andy Ellis; The way you stated “Scotland becomes de facto an independent state the moment a majority of votes is…Feb 15, 13:20
    • Young Lochinvar on The Modern Politician: “Confused A great many national anthems are shitty and dirges, heck God save the King is defo top ten chart…Feb 15, 12:59
    • Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “BBC reporting that Upton has walked from NHS Fife. Perhaps a case of New Year – New Grifts.Feb 15, 12:56
    • Andy Ellis on The Modern Politician: “@Xaracen & @Aiden There is no cast iron guarantee that the either the British nationalist state OR the international community…Feb 15, 12:45
    • Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “I think it’s the Covid Spreaders who like to say that a journey of one thousand miles starts with the…Feb 15, 12:37
    • Cynicus on The Modern Politician: “Thanks TURABDIN for the excellent FT link on US Strategy for AI. “Its pillars focus on supercharging domestic AI development…Feb 15, 12:23
    • Alf Baird on The Modern Politician: ““Englands Great Britain hoax” Aye, an Imperial hoax drawing in the ‘crazed’ colonized. According to the great Rees-Mogg himsel, where…Feb 15, 12:08
    • Northcode on The Modern Politician: “Guid day tae aw ma fallae scribbledouners here in this place this fine Sunday day, aye. May Christ oor saviour…Feb 15, 11:58
    • TURABDIN on The Modern Politician: “I DOUBT FEW WOULD NOW ARGUE against the case for calling the US politician Donald Trump a species of «fascist»and…Feb 15, 11:18
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