We agree with Margaret Curran 235
Posted on
December 06, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
And that’s something we can’t say every day.
Archive for December, 2013
So blind that you cannot see 56
Posted on
December 06, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
That was always a pretty silly lyric. But anyway.
We had to switch the telly off after about 10 minutes of the news this morning. The piety was too much to take. So intead we’re just going to quote two things from the avalanche of comment that’s appeared this morning on the death of Nelson Mandela.
How money changed everything 200
Posted on
December 05, 2013 by
Alistair Davidson
We all know there’s something strange about Britain. Germany and China have their factories, France and Japan their nuclear power plants. America has Google and Apple and the world’s largest navy. But how is it that Britain, a country that closed its mines and shuttered almost its entire manufacturing industry, is still a major world economy?
The answer is Britain’s best-kept economic secret. It links Grangemouth, the obscene cost of housing in London, the Royal Mail sell-off, Channel Island tax havens and George Osborne’s disregard for the poor, and explains why an incomprehensible financial crisis triggered by bad American mortgages led to the closure of municipal libraries and swimming pools across the UK and a programme of permanent austerity.
And more to the point, it explains why only London, not Scotland or Wales or Yorkshire or Wearside, matters to the British political class today.
Quoted for comedy 83
Posted on
December 05, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The Herald, 5 December 2013:
Safe under the watchful eyebrows 82
Posted on
December 05, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Last night’s edition of Scotland Tonight saw a clearly nervous, rambling and seemingly well-refreshed ex-Labour spin doctor Simon Pia called upon to defend “Better Together” chairman Alistair Darling (“as good a frontman as I can imagine to save Britain”, said the Spectator’s Fraser Nelson in that extraordinary accent of his) from a series of attacks by his own side over his stewardship of the No campaign.
Pia played the usual cards that Labour types do when called upon to defend a man who is now distrusted by a majority of Labour voters. Darling was “substance not style”, a serious man with “cross-party appeal” (if you exclude Labour, the SNP and now seemingly a lot of Tories) who had “filleted” the White Paper (without reading it or understanding the one page he did look at) and saved the nation in 2008 “when we looked into the void”.
But not everyone shares Pia’s view of Darling’s integrity and competence.
How things change 98
Posted on
December 04, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Well done to the alert reader who spotted this 2006 Q&A with Jack Straw MP, former Foreign Secretary and then Leader of the House Of Commons, on the BBC website:
The sunshine underground 108
Posted on
December 04, 2013 by
Scott Minto
When it comes to oil and gas, Scots are used to being treated like backwoods yokels by Westminster, deemed incapable of looking after this valuable resource and lied to about its value. Oil and gas is a priceless treasure to the UK, and Westminster is terrified of losing control of it.
That’s because not only are the billions of pounds in oil and gas tax receipts valuable in and of themselves, but they also halve the balance of payments deficit, thereby protecting the value of the pound.
But how exactly does Scotland turn oil and gas into money?
Small lunatic fringe forms splinter group 99
Posted on
December 04, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
About 1,000 more and LFI will be bigger than Scottish Labour’s actual membership.
Clutching at straws 94
Posted on
December 04, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Surely that must be Project Fear at the bottom of the barrel now?
The lead story in today’s Herald, folks. If “story” isn’t putting it much too strongly.
Partial freedom 147
Posted on
December 03, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The talent pool 64
Posted on
December 03, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Well done to everyone who correctly guessed that our Mystery Guest last night was indeed Ruth Davidson. If you’d like to listen to Ruth’s 2009 demo reel for voiceover work which accompanied the letter, click the image below.
From that to the leader of a major Scottish political party in just two years. Hats off.
Who am I? 149
Posted on
December 02, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
An alert reader sends in this letter received by their company in 2009:
“Hello,
[identifying paragraph removed]
I’ve now taken the plunge to set myself up as a freelancer and am looking for voiceover work in commercials, documentaries and corporate films as well as scripting and media training.
I’m [redacted] years old with a warm, rich voice which has both light and shade. A long history of factual programming means I can convey information with authority, combined with an openness and accessibility which encourages interest; the unexpected world of live broadcasting means I’ve learned to be equally adept at putting across humour. My accent is a neutral blend of central Scotland tones.
