We listened to an interesting chat on Good Morning Scotland earlier today (it’s right at the start, just after the news) featuring Gerry Hassan and the sharp New Statesman reporter Stephen Bush, which briefly discussed a curious political phenomenon of the 2000s where people said they liked certain policies until they were told they were Tory policies, at which point their opinions changed.
It put us rather in mind of a classic 2000AD comic strip called The Ballad Of Halo Jones, and in particular a short episode from it about a character called The Glyph, which seemed to us to sum up the current dilemma facing the Labour Party on both sides of the border – but especially in Scotland, as was rather strikingly illustrated by a revealing interview with Kezia Dugdale on Friday.
So we thought we’d share it with you, because sometimes pictures say a thousand words. Especially if there are several of them and they also have words on them.
With little in the way of news to chew on, the Scottish political blogosphere has begun to eat itself of late, with an exhausting number of articles on popular sites about how an SNP list vote is a wasted vote and anyone thinking of voting for the Nats in both constituency and region is a deluded cultist/simple-witted idiot (mostly written by candidates/supporters of other parties who are often not identified as such), and now some angry pieces from disgruntled SNP supporters making the opposite point.
All are based, from one perspective or another, on opinion polls and seat predictions based on those polls, some of which appear to be based on very shaky premises.
We’ve already broken down the mechanics of the Scottish electoral system at very considerable length, so readers will be relieved that we’re not going to get into that again. Instead, we thought we’d take a very specific region-by-region look at the scale of the task facing the fringe parties.
For ages now it’s been nagging at us that there wasn’t a quick and easy reference point for all the opinion polls we’ve commissioned, listing all the subjects covered by each poll and linking to both our own analyses of the figures and the raw data tables for people who wanted to go delving in amongst the stats themselves.
So now there is – it’s here. (And in future you can easily locate it under “Polls” in the menu bar running across the top of the front page.) We’re off for a bit of a lie down.
We thought we might leave this here so that Scottish journalists could print it out and stick it on their monitors as a memory aid. It’s something they keep unaccountably forgetting for some reason.
You never know, it might just cheer them up a bit.
Joan McAlpine, SNP MSP for the South of Scotland, extensively documented at the weekend the obstructiveness of Labour councillors in Dumfries and Galloway, who in an attempt to score some SNP BAD points were refusing to inform their constituents about the Scottish Government’s £1500-per-household flood relief grants to help people cope after recent storms.
The councillors eventually backed down and informed hard-pressed householders and businesses of the help available, but today the issue was debated on the floor of the Holyrood chamber, and when Labour once again tried to make the issue party political, the Deputy First Minister ran out of patience.
We had a lot of requests for the footage, so there it is.
Despite what you may have read in the newspapers at the weekend (and then in the Daily Record a day later), Scotland was today rocked by the news that the SNP’s manifesto for this May’s general election in fact DOES contain a commitment to a second independence referendum within the term of the coming Scottish Parliament.
Who says so? Why, it’s Oliver Mundell, son of the only Conservative MP in Scotland and the Scottish Tory candidate for the Holyrood seat of Dumfriesshire, in a leaflet hitting the doorsteps of constituents in the Borders today.
Hatey McHateface on The Long Walk To Freedom: ““The Scottish people can, if they so wish at any Scottish election, vote for a party or parties who wish…” Dec 9, 13:05
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “Amen to all that, Marie. We live in difficult times, which Globalist Milliband would probably make even worse. Glad you…” Dec 9, 13:03
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Long Walk To Freedom: “EL RETRATO EN LA ROCA by Pablo Neruda (extract). Miré y allí estaba mi amigo: de piedra era su rostro,…” Dec 9, 13:01
Hatey McHateface on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Too many weasel words, Alf. I’ve taken the liberty of modifying your sentence so that it would work in the…” Dec 9, 12:39
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Long Walk To Freedom: “The following are excerpts from the closing pages of the book ‘THE DREAM SHALL NEVER DIE: 100 Days that Changed…” Dec 9, 12:35
Alf Baird on The Long Walk To Freedom: “This remains a key question, James, as to why none of Scotland’s three elected majorities of supposedly ‘nationalist’ MPs since…” Dec 9, 11:27
James Cheyne on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Once the parliament of Great Britain came under dissolution in 1800/1801, The Westminster parliament of England cannot reinstate the treaty,…” Dec 9, 11:24
James Cheyne on The Long Walk To Freedom: “The information I posted can be found in House of Lords. Select Commitee, Parliament Business, Lord grey Vs government, This…” Dec 9, 11:07
Marie Clark on Off-topic: “Hi Tinto and Sarah, I look in to OT now and again to see if anyone is still around. Sad…” Dec 9, 09:41
Willie on The Long Walk To Freedom: “The Sandi Peggie result is a good one. Very much in line with public sentiments. Putting a biological man with…” Dec 9, 09:14
Hatey McHateface on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Good news for once? The branding for Great British Railways (GBR) has been revealed and the amount of blue in…” Dec 9, 08:18
Hatey McHateface on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Looks like she’s in line for compo. Do you think she’ll want to divi it up with the poor saps…” Dec 9, 08:10
Mark Beggan on The Long Walk To Freedom: “‘Hello, hello, hello. Is there anybody in there, just nod if you can hear me, is there anyone home. Relax,…” Dec 9, 02:10
Mark Beggan on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Well done Sandie Peggy. She’s got balls!! ?” Dec 9, 01:45
Peter McAvoy on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Would you prefer the abolition of jury trials. How many miscarriages of justice have taken place in England compared to…” Dec 9, 01:40
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: ““…..aided and abetted by the UK high heid yins”, a fact sadly never reflected in the MSM. Mrs Tinto has…” Dec 8, 22:33
sarah on Off-topic: “Well, you’re not wrong about world events, the most awful things going on, aided and abetted by the UK high…” Dec 8, 21:53
James Cheyne on The Long Walk To Freedom: “The final analyses of the dissolution of the parliament of Great Britain time and again so the parliament of England…” Dec 8, 21:31
James Cheyne on The Long Walk To Freedom: “The parliament of England after acting as the parliament of England to make treaties and contractual agreements legally cannot re-…” Dec 8, 21:07
James Cheyne on The Long Walk To Freedom: “So what did I omit in my ramblings and thoughts to you all while I swither over the treaty of…” Dec 8, 20:45
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “Hi, Sarah: oh, no, just girding my loins (ooh, matron!) for The Last Battle. I’ve only looked in two or…” Dec 8, 19:59
Aidan on The Long Walk To Freedom: “I’ve no idea to be honest Hatey, but as long as they are FIGHTING that is good enough for me.…” Dec 8, 19:58
Northcode on The Long Walk To Freedom: ““… you’ve taken that too far.” I fear you might be right… I feel dirty now. Not least because I…” Dec 8, 19:56
Hatey McHateface on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Hmmm, Northy, you’ve taken that too far. Cos I don’t want to believe you enjoyed having high pressure air blasted…” Dec 8, 19:34
Northcode on The Long Walk To Freedom: ““…an increasingly big and increasingly vocal minority…” Indeed, aye. I was having a bite of lunch a couple of years…” Dec 8, 19:31
sarah on Off-topic: “Hi, Tinto. Nice to hear from you. I trust that all is well with you and you are keeping your…” Dec 8, 19:29
Hatey McHateface on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Ah ken that ane. It’s ane of the Apocrypha. But dinna let oan tae Confused.” Dec 8, 19:26
Northcode on The Long Walk To Freedom: “I was played like a church organ once…I rather enjoyed the experience.” Dec 8, 19:10
Hatey McHateface on The Long Walk To Freedom: “@Aidan Has it occurred to you that the Liberate Scotland boys are almost certainly FIGHTING among themselves?” Dec 8, 19:09
Hatey McHateface on The Long Walk To Freedom: ““Labour had been in power in Scotland mostly for the previous 70 years and the destruction and carnage they presided…” Dec 8, 19:06
