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.
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.
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.
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).
This week The National published a poll it commissioned from Find Out Now for this May’s Scottish Parliament election, alongside a seat projection from Sir John Curtice. Here are the list-vote figures from the poll.
The seat projection calculated that the election would result in 59 SNP MSPs (six short of the number John Swinney says is the minimum needed to force a second indyref), 25 for Reform, 13 for the Greens, 12 each for Labour and the Tories and eight for the Lib Dems.
It didn’t specify how many of the seats were constituency ones and how many were list ones, so we dropped Sir John a line and asked him.
Yesterday we noted in passing that independence support now outstrips that of the SNP by more than 20 points, making the party into a gigantic liability as the vehicle for enabling Scots to leave the UK. Put simply, even when voters want independence (as most now do), they’re not willing to vote SNP to get it.
(Not, of course, that they WOULD get it if they voted SNP – the party still having no coherent or credible strategy to achieve it – but more than 40% of would-be Yes voters are no longer prepared to even try giving them the benefit of yet another mandate.)
And since what everyone loves most of all on New Year’s Day is a good old wade in some political stats, we thought we’d take a little more detail on that.
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “Were they about goose stepping by any chance? Relax. You’ve already covered that to the best of your ability.” Feb 7, 20:42
Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: ““not sure what your point is” Postcolonial theory tells us that the more culturally assimilated native bourgeoisie, being “the most…” Feb 7, 20:41
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “@Alf I never made the team either. You have my sympathy. Like you, I still remember how much it hurt.…” Feb 7, 20:37
factchecker on A Stitch In Timing: “David, You are obviously not aware of the threat of cultural colonisation that we live under. Indeed, it may already…” Feb 7, 20:00
Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: ““Of course it is only a half government” Its not even that. Whatever ‘it’ may be called, it is ‘managed’…” Feb 7, 19:58
factchecker on A Stitch In Timing: “The ProfessorHechter is quoted as saying “Within the Celtic Periphery this also meant that the English held: ‘a disproportionate share…” Feb 7, 19:43
David Holden on A Stitch In Timing: “@ Alf Baird 6.31 pm . I remember it well Alf also supporters of a certain football club that were…” Feb 7, 19:21
Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: “Interesting, but lets not confuse colonialism with the class struggle. This from Professor Michael Hechter’s study of ‘The UK Internal…” Feb 7, 18:41
Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: “You maybe don’t remember ‘Rugby Legends for No’, reflecting the more privileged culturally assimilated native groups greater propensity to oppose…” Feb 7, 18:31
James on A Stitch In Timing: “See above, everyone. Another unionist Fanny.” Feb 7, 17:59
DaveL on A Stitch In Timing: “Hey Rev, I’m wondering why two lengthy replies concerning fascism to Hatey’s post at 7.41pm on the 6th have been…” Feb 7, 17:44
David Holden on A Stitch In Timing: “Not sure where your rant is coming from but it is so far off the mark I am beginning to…” Feb 7, 17:38
Confused on A Stitch In Timing: “rugby is cringe. murrayfield, all those blazer cunts, all those private schoolboys banging heads, supported by new town stockbrokers giving…” Feb 7, 16:51
Andy Wiltshire on A Stitch In Timing: “The long arm of colonialism can even reach as far as Italy.” Feb 7, 16:24
James Cheyne on A Stitch In Timing: “North code, Depends on wether you are perverted cretin looking and aiming for State control over the people? never had…” Feb 7, 15:08
Charles Findlay on A Stitch In Timing: “Has anyone who reads this site ever wondered if Common Purpose might have something to do with the way things…” Feb 7, 15:06
TURABDIN on A Stitch In Timing: “It is the American obsession with English history that is truly perverse and queer. For a modern country of non…” Feb 7, 14:20
James Cheyne on The Marshalling Plan: “If one can’t do the job you were set up to do by the moneyed perverted pedo ring cretins then…” Feb 7, 14:01
Young Lochinvar on A Stitch In Timing: “Who is the producer(s)? Kenny Everett’s “Tinsel Man”?” Feb 7, 13:41
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “MSM reporting the six hammer wielding activists will be indicted for re-trial on February 18th. Gives them ample time to…” Feb 7, 13:37
Aidan on A Stitch In Timing: “Look everyone, another interesting and insightful comment from our finest intellect “James”” Feb 7, 13:29
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “Only a matter of time until Burns gets the treatment: https://unherd.com/2026/02/was-shakespeare-a-black-woman/” Feb 7, 13:25
Hatey McHateface on The Marshalling Plan: “Have you verified they’re not driving automatics?” Feb 7, 13:22
Hatey McHateface on The Marshalling Plan: ““If you’re going to do murder en masse” Never under-estimate the appeal to many ordinary people of any political policy…” Feb 7, 13:18
Northcode on The Marshalling Plan: ““Personally though the monyed people are actually scum and perverts…” I’m a multi-millionaire, James… I don’t think we can be…” Feb 7, 13:17
James Cheyne on The Marshalling Plan: “When you see it, you can not un-see it, When you live it, you can not deny it. This is…” Feb 7, 13:10
Sven on A Stitch In Timing: “Fearghas MacFionnlaigh @ 12.35. Absolutely beyond irony !” Feb 7, 13:09
Northcode on A Stitch In Timing: ““Mulvaney, a man who identifies as a woman, has been cast as Anne Boleyn… ” Holy Mary mother of Christ…” Feb 7, 13:07
James Cheyne on The Marshalling Plan: “The moneyed people think of themselves as Elite, Personally though the monyed people are actually scum and perverts, I think…” Feb 7, 13:02
