We haven’t seen this published anywhere else, so we may as well do it. We dropped a brief line to the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust a few days ago querying their award of a £50,000 grant to disgraced lying MP Alistair Carmichael, specifically in the context of the fact that their own website expressly excludes grants for “legal fees”.
Kezia Dugdale gave an interview to Good Morning Scotland earlier today that viewed from above would probably look rather like the runway at Baghdad Airport in 1991.
If we tried to pick out all the individual bomb craters in one post, readers’ eyes would glaze over long before the end. So we’re going to have to do it in bits.
When we ran this story on Monday, some of the press got rather upset with us. Even though we’d linked to the full data tables published on the ComRes site, Scottish Daily Mail political editor Alan Roden, for example, huffily tweeted a link to a cropped table suggesting that the real sample size was higher.
STV’s Bernard Ponsonby asks Kezia Dugdale about the possibility of a future second referendum should the Scottish electorate express a clear democratic wish for one:
(Not taken out of context. To see the full clip, go to around 1h 43m here.)
Alert readers will have noticed that the Conservatives and most of the right-wing press have recently embarked on a hyperbolic campaign against the Scottish Government’s “named person” child-protection legislation. The latest assault is in today’s Daily Mail:
The shriekingly furious lead article thunders in outrage that “nearly two thirds of Scots have condemned the SNP’s state guardian scheme as an ‘unacceptable intrusion’ into family life”, which sounds like a pretty damning verdict.
It’s not until you look a little deeper that it all falls to pieces.
We had a little Twitter run-in last night with former Scottish Labour deputy leader and current unemployed halfwit Anas Sarwar, when he reported us to Police Scotland for making a joke about bank holiday mail deliveries, “people in England” and “especially” Scottish ones – which of course includes this site’s own editor, that being the gag.
We’d almost forgotten he existed. But the incident brought something back to mind.
To be fair to Mr Sarwar, he was at least partly right.
sam on The Curious Fringes: “It is a minority of Scots who speak Scots. Even so the 2011 Census tells us that 1.5 million Scots…” Dec 30, 20:10
TURABDIN on The Curious Fringes: “British politics is overwhelmingly English, has the party of Scotland even noticed? Taken the king’s shilling maybe?” Dec 30, 18:30
Northcode on The Curious Fringes: ““May 2026 bring us closer to our shared view, however different our paths.” Agreed… a noble sentiment and one fitting…” Dec 30, 17:41
Andy Ellis on The Curious Fringes: “@ Northcode Season’s greetings to you, to yours and even the other usual suspects. May 2026 bring us closer to…” Dec 30, 17:22
Chris Downie on The Curious Fringes: “I saw various posts on the old FB live feed today showing Swinney proclaiming in a recent interview that he…” Dec 30, 17:22
Rob on The Curious Fringes: “The fact that the SNP have been the government for some years because a majority voted for them does not…” Dec 30, 17:10
Northcode on The Curious Fringes: “I thank you for your kind sentiments, Mr Ellis. I look forward to the day, as do you, when we…” Dec 30, 17:06
100%Yes on The Curious Fringes: “The national, the writers who write for the RAG the two dave’s, Saorsa, Gordon Ross, Scot goes pop and others…” Dec 30, 16:40
Alf Baird on The Curious Fringes: ““So why are they against independence?” Postcolonial theory (Fanon) tells us that a dominant national party ‘lacks courage at the…” Dec 30, 16:24
100%Yes on The Curious Fringes: “Judas betrayed Jesus and was given money for doing it, Judas said I didn’t do it for the money, but…” Dec 30, 16:00
Andy Ellis on The Curious Fringes: “@ Northcode 3.31 pm That’s ye telt aff by Professor Baird nou, Ellis, ye linguicidal maniacque ye. The phrase “like…” Dec 30, 15:50
Andy Ellis on The Curious Fringes: “@ Northcode 1.03 & 1.43 pm Surely this is your area of expertise, Andy Inglis, is it not? Attempting to…” Dec 30, 15:48
Northcode on The Curious Fringes: “That’s ye telt aff by Professor Baird nou, Ellis, ye linguicidal maniacque ye. Witches kin mak folkes tae becom phrenticque…” Dec 30, 15:31
factchecker on The Curious Fringes: “It doesn’t seem logical that the SNP should support a continuation of the status quo. They have had full access…” Dec 30, 15:01
James Cheyne on The Curious Fringes: “It just needs a bit of analyses regards Scotlands actual position, Scotlands 1707 treaty is with the parliament of England,…” Dec 30, 14:58
Northcode on The Curious Fringes: ““The smart mind in Scotland says…” Aye, James, but the Scots have been fooled across many generations these past three…” Dec 30, 14:52
Alf Baird on The Curious Fringes: ““a language the majority don’t understand” Despite being prevented by our colonial educators from learning Scots, it remains that oor…” Dec 30, 14:49
James Cheyne on The Curious Fringes: “North Code, And you know what is Strange about the Colonised mind in Scotland. It accepts when the Great Britain…” Dec 30, 14:25
Northcode on The Curious Fringes: ““The mind of the coloniser. Thinking England’s borders end at the top of Scotland.” Aye, James. And some of them…” Dec 30, 14:10
Saffron Robe on The Curious Fringes: “James Cheyne says: “So you vote in Scotland to maintain the pretence and fool ourselves we have democracy, all the…” Dec 30, 13:59
James Cheyne on The Curious Fringes: “North Code, That is the problem, the Scots do not have a parliament, ” The Scotland act ” turned the…” Dec 30, 13:43
Northcode on The Curious Fringes: “Perhaps you’re right, Ellis, perhaps I should depart this place… I don’t feel particularly welcome here, even as an indigenous…” Dec 30, 13:43
Northcode on The Curious Fringes: “Your wit astounds me, Insider” Dec 30, 13:42
100%Yes on The Curious Fringes: “Its time to act before its to late.” Dec 30, 13:35
Alf Baird on The Curious Fringes: “““Holyrood is the conduit through which Westminster controls and manipulates Scotland…”” Itherwise kent as ‘indirect rule’, i.e. a second layer…” Dec 30, 13:15
Northcode on The Curious Fringes: ““…I’m not sure spamming BTL comments with a language the majority don’t understand…” Surely this is your area of expertise,…” Dec 30, 13:03
Insider on The Curious Fringes: “Northcode… So sorry to see you’ve apparently suffered a stroke. Hope you get well soon and best wishes for 2026…” Dec 30, 12:54
Andy Ellis on The Curious Fringes: “Actually it saddens me to hear people saying they’ll vote for Reform, even if only tactically or as a way…” Dec 30, 12:50
Andy Ellis on The Curious Fringes: “Or perhaps you could take it to your own thread, or off topic? Since a minority of people actually use…” Dec 30, 12:42
100%Yes on The Curious Fringes: “The factors to look at is Liberate Scotland has no polling statistics and that’s because they aren’t aloud any MSM…” Dec 30, 12:41
