We stumbled across this old quote from a Daily Record interview with Ed Miliband earlier while we were doing something else, and we hadn’t heard it before. It’s from just after he was elected Labour leader, and it struck as us a little odd. See if you agree.
If you’ve just found yourself thinking “If you don’t have any plans to move Britain to the left, then WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU DOING AS THE LEADER OF THE LABOUR PARTY, YOU SIMPERING NEO-TORY HALFWIT? WHAT IN GOD’S NAME IS THE LABOUR PARTY FOR IF IT’S NOT TO MOVE BRITAIN TO THE BLOODY LEFT?” then don’t panic, gentle viewer – you’re not alone. God help us all.
There can surely have been no real doubt that the SFA was going to (at least) uphold the ban on Rangers registering any new players for a year. Having just published a 63-page dossier setting out in meticulous and crushing detail the severity of the club’s crimes, the Association would have set some sort of world record for “All-Time Largest Rod For Your Own Back” had they then backed down on the punishment.
What occurs to us, though, is that the upholding of the ban makes it considerably more likely that a Newco Rangers (which has to be the only plausible future – a CVA is purest delusional fantasy) will be admitted directly to the SPL.
The league’s nightmare scenario is New Rangers winning the title in 2012/13, because then they really will be seen to have gotten away with everything. If the club is forced to field a team of old journeymen and fresh-faced teens that gets a lot less likely, and the gutless SPL chairmen will probably feel that the Ibrox side will be sufficiently humbled by a few seasons of mid-table finishes that their own clubs might just avert a disastrous boycott from angry fans, while still clinging onto the Sky Sports deal.
We’re not sure they’d be right in that assumption, but we suspect it’s one they might make anyway, and that tonight’s events will strengthen their belief in it. Time will tell.
We mean Bing Hitler, of course. The First Minister recently gave a special interview to The Late Late Show in the US, which was broadcast last night, in which he warmly and repeatedly praises Mr Hitler – or if we’re being strictly accurate his alter-ego, the show’s Scottish presenter Craig Ferguson – at around the two-minute mark. (And in fairness, Labour actually haven’t found a way to be furious about it yet as far as we know, but as sure as night follows day they will soon. Probably the usual torn-faced bleating about the FM having the temerity to gallivant around on telly when he could be out personally filling in potholes in Pollokshields or something.)
Anyway, Wings over Scotland is proud to present the world-exclusive first UK airing, extracted from the complete show by our own fair hands:
It’s actually a pretty interesting and intelligent interview by chat-show standards (and especially considering the normally irreverent tone of TLLS), and was preceded by a nice piece about the Declaration Of Arbroath, which is discussed throughout. Sadly, though, we couldn’t possibly condone the flagrant breaching of copyright by giving you a link to download the (excellent) entire episode, or we’d be extradited and put in jail forever. Thanks for THAT ace bit of modern progressive lawmaking, Labour!
Sometimes – okay, quite often – I'm rather jealous of my good chums over on the world-conquering PC gaming site/shopping list Rock, Papers, Hot Gun. I enviously eye their devoted millions-strong audience, weighty peer credibility and enormous paycheques, and think "If only Podgamer could have lasted more than three and a half hours without everyone stabbing each other", and other such wistful regrets.
Then I remember that if I was on RPS I'd have had to devote part of my one precious and irreplaceable life to playing Diablo 3, and everything's alright again.
A few of my favourite lines from this morning's Eurogamer coverage:
"What all the Diablo 3 Error messages mean, and what to do about them"
"UK launch video, images, Iain Lee, people in wizard costumes"
"Though the downloader may show 100%, please allow some time for it to fully complete."
"The server is full. This is likely due to high login traffic. The only solution is to keep trying to log in."
"If you're still running into this issue, there may be an error in your foreign language appdata files. Some players have found a workaround, but please be aware the steps they provide are not something we can currently support."
"Error 3004, 3006, 3007, or 300008 – There are a number of possible causes for these errors."
The future of videogaming, there, viewers. No thanks.
We’ve noticed, and perhaps you have too, that things have been very quiet on the “positive case for the Union” front recently. (Partly, we suspect, because the constant hooting of nationalists over its continued absence was starting to become so loud and embarrassing that even the Unionist media couldn’t keep ignoring it.)
Ever since David Cameron visited Scotland in February and mumbled some vague platitudes about maybe getting more powers someday if we voted No in 2014, Unionists seem to have given up on even promising a “positive” case and have concentrated more doggedly than ever on the blood-curdling scare tactics that they’re much more familiar and comfortable with.
(Recent weeks have delivered a particularly fine crop, which can be concisely and accurately summed up by the sentence “Vote Yes and Scotland will be blown up by terrorists and bombed by England, then everyone left will die of cancer.”)
We’ve spotted a couple of stray mentions – neither of which, it probably goes without saying, go on to actually offer the positive case they cite – but nothing very significant:
That was until today, however. Our regular bout of hope-over-expectation Googling threw up a site called “Free Advice For Unionists”, in which someone by the name of Rob Marrs who lays claim to no fewer than THREE nationalities (Scottish, English and British) boldly attempted to go where no Unionist had gone before.
The sheer speed and barely-concealed enthusiasm with which Scottish Labour has reverted to its true neo-liberal type given even the slightest sniff of any kind of electoral success has been startling. Having gained a few dozen seats, almost all from the Lib Dems, in the council elections, the party has lurched back to the centre-right positions it occupied before the 2011 Holyrood parliamentary election, having abandoned several of them in the run-up to that vote in a desperate attempt to avert defeat.
We’ve already seen Johann Lamont doggedly refuse to oppose the renewal of Trident, and Glagow council leader Gordon Matheson prepare to backtrack on years of anti-sectarian progress by allowing the Orange Order to greatly increase its toxic presence on the city’s streets (a prime example of the Bain Principle at work, in the wake of the SNP’s controversial Offensive Behaviour At Football Act – if the SNP are taking steps to tackle sectarianism, Labour must take steps to encourage it, however insane that is or whatever their previous policy might have been).
And last week we saw a party whose 2011 manifesto opened with the dire warning “Now that the Tories are back” take every possible opportunity to jump into bed with the Tories in councils all over the country, giving the lie to the constantly-pushed official media narrative that the SNP and Labour are two near-identical centre-left social-democratic parties separated only by their disagreement over independence.
(Since the constitution is outwith the remit of councils, you might therefore imagine that Labour-SNP coalitions would be the norm all over the country, aimed at fighting savage Tory cuts together while Holyrood argues about the referendum, but Labour seems far more concerned with battling the nationalists rather than the right-wing Coalition and its increasingly discredited austerity programme.)
So perhaps nobody ought to be surprised that at the weekend Johann Lamont decided to test public opinion by suggesting that Scottish Labour – which is currently strangely at odds with the UK party on the subject – might once again abandon its opposition to university tuition fees.
The referendum on Scottish independence has raised more than a question on what the future constitution of the United Kingdom and Scotland will look like – it’s raised an issue of who should have the ability to decide. This is a far more fundamental point, and the core principle of democracy that we hold dear is dependent on the outcome.
In 2014 Scotland will decide to maintain the UK or to dissolve it. The possibilities that stem from the decision will shape our future, but a battle is currently raging between power and democracy for control of that choice.
Democracy depends fundamentally on the minority accepting the wishes of the majority, but first requires that it be established what it’s a majority of. Numerous commentators have raised the objection that since a vote for independence would affect the entire UK, then residents of England, Wales and Northern Ireland should also be entitled to vote. Others have raised the issue of whether Scots not currently resident in Scotland should be part of the franchise.
To find out who should properly decide the outcome of the referendum, we need to look at the agreements whose continued existence is at stake, ie the Treaty and Acts of Union themselves.
We don’t know if anyone still reads the BBC’s “Blether With Brian” column since the Corporation banned Scottish readers – uniquely in these islands – from posting comments on it, nor can we normally think of a reason why anyone would. It’s generally the blandest-possible summary of events people have already seen for themselves, with no effort to impart any sort of insight or analysis.
However, once in a while the understated approach yields a more profoundly powerful result than screeds of polemic, and we can think of no way to better illustrate the bizarreness of Johann Lamont’s chosen line of attack at yesterday’s First Minister’s Questions than to simply relate the events as they transpired, in the most neutral and factual manner, as the national broadcaster’s Scottish political editor does today.
Stranger still was Brian’s citation of Fat Les in support of his assertion, but other than to wistfully dwell for a moment on our long-held dream of Scottish fans repurposing the song in question with the words “Irn Bru” replacing the title, we’ll let that one pass.
Since we’ve already been nice to a journalist today, it seems only fair to also send out a little bit of love to the press corps’ less-celebrated and much-maligned brothers in arms – the photographers. (We don’t know why we’re being so pleasant to everyone all of a sudden. We think someone may have slipped something in our tea.)
Rangers FC has been in administration since Valentine’s Day. That’s three long months in which the story has featured in the news pretty much every single day, and it’s not a situation that lends itself particularly well to illustration. One picture of a Duff & Phelps press conference looks much like another, and once you’ve knocked out the traditional broken-club-crest it starts to get tricky to find a fresh visual angle.
The nation’s photo-journalists have risen heroically to the challenge, though, and we feel irresistibly compelled to take a moment out from our day to offer them a heartfelt and genuine salute, before whatever this stuff is wears off.
Alert readers may have noticed a certain undercurrent of cynicism about the Scottish political media in this blog on occasion. But now and again you have to put all sarcasm aside and take your hat off to a professional who bangs the nail straight in with one swing of the hammer. Today it’s Iain Macwhirter in the Herald, who thankfully seems to be returning to form after his Murdoch-inspired red mist of recent weeks.
“‘It’s the big question of separation,’ said the Stirling Labour group leader, Corrie McChord, when asked why he was unable to form a coalition with the SNP – a party which he accepted had almost identical social policies to Labour.
Now, I may be missing something here, but I wasn’t aware that Stirling Council was in danger of separating from the United Kingdom. Why the independence referendum should have had such a decisive bearing on who runs council refuse and leisure services in Stirling is not entirely clear. Perhaps Labour believe the Nats will put something in the water or plant separatist propaganda in the wheelie bins.
Whatever, it seems that Labour think they have more in common with the party that wants to privatise most council services than the party that wants to use them as a bulwark against the austerity plans of, er, the Conservative-led Coalition in Westminster.”
We couldn’t have put it better, or more concisely. As Labour chum up with the Tories across the country (Edinburgh looking like being the sole honourable exception), and the Glasgow party prepares (as widely rumoured by SNP supporters a couple of days beforehand) to set the Orange Order loose on the city’s streets in gratitude for their help, we can’t help but ask the hundreds of Labour activists whose efforts secured the party its better-than-expected result last week: “Is this what you worked so hard for?”
A&E departments all over Scotland were reportedly swamped by spinal-injury cases yesterday, resulting from the nation collectively falling off its seat in surprise as the Scottish Affairs Committee of Westminster MPs concluded that the SNP’s proposed referendum question (“Do you agree that Scotland should become an independent country?”) was biased. The committee, headed by delightful Labour MP Ian “I only meant I’d assault you physically, not sexually“ Davidson, decided after consulting a carefully-chosen panel of “experts” that a question posed by an SNP government might just be designed to increase support for independence.
We jest, obviously. In fact it’s not entirely unexpected that such a conclusion would be reached by an all-Unionist committee of Westminster MPs who would all lose their £200,000-a-year jobs in the event of a Yes vote and who are currently engaged in producing a document called “The Referendum on Separation for Scotland“. (No, we’re not kidding – it’s really called that, and therefore clearly an entirely neutral and impartial investigation.) But there’s an interesting angle to the committee’s findings that inexplicably doesn’t get a lot of media analysis.
Mark Beggan on Safety First: “What’s the penalty for pretending to have a bomb on an aeroplane these days? Boy! This lads ass is grass.” Jul 27, 22:53
Mark Beggan on Safety First: “‘colonially subjugated’ I find a glass of warm water with a teaspoonfull of cider vinegar does the trick.” Jul 27, 22:49
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Safety First: “Encouraging high-register article by KATHLEEN STOCK on UNHERD (25 July 2025) – ‘IS THIS THE END OF TRANSGENDERISM: We are…” Jul 27, 22:38
Mark Beggan on Safety First: “Under Thatcher they would have taken away the wheelchair.” Jul 27, 22:37
Southernbystander on Safety First: “@Dave L. International fees can be set by the university. International fees in an ordinary ni in England are about…” Jul 27, 22:31
Alf Baird on Safety First: “Yes James, a colonized people are ‘procured’ (Memmi), the wages of colonialism (‘Equivalent’) paid to native elites, many already assimilated…” Jul 27, 22:27
Hatey McHateface on Safety First: “@NN! You need to prove that you are not paid to come on here and make Scotland and Indy look…” Jul 27, 21:45
GM on Safety First: “Welcome. Anything to report since you have been away?” Jul 27, 21:35
Hatey McHateface on Safety First: “Yes NN!, I have considered the matter. For a start, my considerations lead me to believe it’s not a “fact”…” Jul 27, 21:26
MaryB on Safety First: “Sarah, Northcode etc I find that inde-car ie Gordon Ross, also known as Partick Driver, is the best place to…” Jul 27, 21:06
Captain Caveman on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “@Xaracen ‘… I’m disinclined to acquiesce to your request.’ Oh, I bet you are. Imagine my surprise.” Jul 27, 21:05
Nae Need! on Safety First: “Well, I enjoy Confused’s posts, sometimes simply cos they annoy YOU so much, but mostly cos they’re excellent. None of…” Jul 27, 20:56
Southernbystander on Safety First: “@Young Lochinvar. English students pay the same as they would in England yes. I suspect overseas students from China, India…” Jul 27, 20:49
Andy Ellis on Safety First: “Folk are of course free to support the referral to the UN using the process and procedure which is in…” Jul 27, 20:39
Xaracen on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “@Captain Caveman; I’m disinclined to acquiesce to your request.” Jul 27, 20:38
DaveL on Safety First: “So how much do they pay?” Jul 27, 20:38
Stuart on Safety First: “Mr Ellis, how dare you mention the obvious solution! Not when those pushing this farce at the UN can keep…” Jul 27, 20:26
Nae Need! on Safety First: “Laughing out loud here 🙂 There’s an awful lot to unpack, Confused, when it comes to a witty come back…” Jul 27, 20:23
Nae Need! on Safety First: “No, Agent X, it’s not a laugh, and we’re not treating it as a laugh either. Like wot Willie says,…” Jul 27, 20:14
Andrew scott on Safety First: “O/t FFS Engerlannd win the footiie” Jul 27, 20:04
Nae Need! on Safety First: “Asides from your entirely unnecessary jibes/aspersions on my character, of which there were too many lolz, Mr Hatey, I do…” Jul 27, 20:01
Nae Need! on Safety First: “Yes. Of concern to me to.” Jul 27, 19:49
Nae Need! on Safety First: “Hatey, Ever considered the fact that those outwith those two categories of behaviour might actually be fewer than you think?…” Jul 27, 19:46
Hatey McHateface on Safety First: “Ah, c’moan noo, Andy. 1000 to 1 says absolutely delusional. With a healthy side order of “give me Indy, but…” Jul 27, 19:42
Hatey McHateface on Safety First: “Commiserations on your hyperactive imagination. Perhaps your only recourse is to spend your conscious hours seeking rapid paralytic unconsciousness through…” Jul 27, 19:38
Northcode on Safety First: “I also meant to add a link to this report dated 28th May 2025 submitted to the UN by Justice…” Jul 27, 19:36
Nae Need! on Safety First: “Och, Willie, I’m loving your thinking. ” reflecting the deep meaningful thought that pervades our Scottish Government.” They’re astounding and…” Jul 27, 19:36
Andy Ellis on Safety First: “So as many of us already thought, this process is of doubtful utility and could take some undetermined amount of…” Jul 27, 19:31
Hatey McHateface on Safety First: “Tch, NC. Line the weans up bareback on a garron, eldest at the front, wee-ist at the back. Don’t even…” Jul 27, 19:19
Nae Need! on Safety First: “Interesting. I always imagined the fat distribution in pepperoni was more akin to a sliced penis, but hey, I’m not…” Jul 27, 19:17