We all knew this already, of course. Last year we commissioned a poll from Panelbase which found an enormous 41-point gap between Yes and No voters on immigration. But it was still nice to have it both confirmed and laid out so clearly by Sir John Curtice on Good Morning Scotland earlier today.
(About 1h 55m in. We’re having some trouble recording sound on our new PC at the moment, we’ll get you a proper audio link as soon as we’ve figured it out.)
It’s worth keeping to hand the next time some witless Scottish Labour goon tries to tell you that independence is bad because it’s “separatist” and that voting for the Union is the international-solidarity option. Because that’s a flat-out lie.
We now have the verdicts on Brexit from three of the UK’s four nations. The Scottish Parliament, speaking for the Scottish nation, voted overwhelmingly this afternoon to reject both Theresa May’s draft agreement and leaving the EU without a deal.
We’re on about Day 79 of NoScottishPoliticsNewsGate (today’s big “EXCLUSIVE!” in the Herald is something we told you about last Friday, and was also an “exclusive” in yesterday’s Scottish Sun), so we found ourselves getting diverted by something else in the papers this morning.
The Scottish Daily Mail had a piece on the cost of train journeys from Scotland, and living in Bath you don’t need to tell us how scandalously expensive British railways are compared to almost any other country in the Northern Hemisphere.
But the Mail is the Mail, and it couldn’t help distorting even an open-goal of a story like that until it had almost no relation to reality. And it’s a very useful illustration, should anybody need yet another one, of how this country’s newspapers vastly mislead their readers without actually technically lying.
At a time of unprecedented political chaos and uncertainty, just about the only thing you can still count on is that for any given situation, senior Labour figures will issue proclamations both firmly in favour of it and stoutly opposed to it, usually the same day.
So the stories below, which are respectively from today’s Scotsman and today’s Times, won’t come as much of a shock to anyone.
But against the odds, we think we’ve made some sense of it.
The front page lead of today’s Scottish Daily Mail:
As alert readers of this site will know, the Mail has a particular fondness for presenting statistics bereft of any context so that people have no idea how big or small they really are. So is 1,600 passengers a week receiving compensation for delays a lot or a little? Let’s find out.
All political discourse is plagued with genuine imbeciles, of course. But what’s far more depressing is when educated and normally perceptive people merely act like imbeciles for money, such as the case of Alex Massie in the Sunday Times today.
Because for the last two years, commentators who ought to know better have insisted in presenting Scotland’s choice as between Brexit or Brexit plus independence, and solemnly concluding that the uncertainties and risks of the latter being piled on top of those of the former prove that independence is no solution.
And we don’t care to have our intelligence insulted in that way.
James on Looking up at the stars: “Wish someone would offer £20 for you to fuck off.” Mar 14, 15:31
sarah on Looking up at the stars: “Rugby score looking better: Ireland 19 – 12 Scotland at 53 minutes.” Mar 14, 15:28
James on Looking up at the stars: “He wisne frae Edinburgh ya fucking unionist clown.” Mar 14, 15:28
twathater on Looking up at the stars: “As usual poor wee hatey nae pals has to have a go at elderly Scots people who have paid their…” Mar 14, 15:05
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: ““every accusation is a confession” Erm. Nah. Don’t tell him.” Mar 14, 14:28
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “The original Roman calendar was based on the lunar cycle. The Ides was the first full moon of the month.…” Mar 14, 14:25
Confused on Looking up at the stars: “The london regime is an illegitimate terrorist junta by any decent standards of normal human behaviour, operating as an organised…” Mar 14, 14:07
Sven on Looking up at the stars: “How applicable to Scotland if one subscribes to colonial theory, and apposite also on the eve of the Ides of…” Mar 14, 13:37
Northcode on Looking up at the stars: “The Ides of March arrive tomorrow… I wonder if anyone has told Trump what that means. Et tu, Hegseth?” Mar 14, 13:17
Dan on Looking up at the stars: “Wings killed itself because it continued to allow obvious disruptors to piss pretty much everyone off btl to the point…” Mar 14, 11:54
Northcode on Looking up at the stars: ““…if the metric is posting repetitive unhinged drivel then your team wins…” You are funny, AI Dan… for an artificial…” Mar 14, 11:11
Northcode on Looking up at the stars: “Would you look at that! Naw e’en haufway thru the day and us liberty lovin Scots seekin oor liberty frae…” Mar 14, 10:59
Aidan on Looking up at the stars: “Oh no doubt Northcode, if the metric is posting repetitive unhinged drivel then your team wins the gold! Obviously it’s…” Mar 14, 10:57
diabloandco on Looking up at the stars: “Thanks Turabdin – that’s a brilliant quote.” Mar 14, 09:39
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: ““it’s becoming a bore” Ach, Northy, you’ve brought a fleeting smile to my slow, weekend breakfast. Alert readers can clearly…” Mar 14, 08:54
Northcode on Looking up at the stars: “Maistly a surfeit o humour-free, tantersome, bauch and cat wittit colonist remerks in here yesterdey… which be hou maistlins nane…” Mar 14, 08:27
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “85,000 failed asylum seekers at £10,000 each is still less than £1 billion pounds. Small change for our UK government.…” Mar 14, 07:48
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Great posts, YL. There’s something about 2 AM that just seems to bring out your best. Re your claims. Do…” Mar 14, 07:34
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: ““it has centuries of experience” 47 years of totalitarian theocracy. The Persians are the only ones who can justly claim…” Mar 14, 05:42
twathater on Looking up at the stars: “I commented recently that I had contacted ALL my MP’s and MSP’s of ALL parties to complain about Shabana Mahmood’s…” Mar 14, 03:39
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “HMcH Oaths? Let’s have a wee look at yours eh? 1. The Cub Scouts: Rule number 3: (That you swear…” Mar 14, 01:57
Cynicus on Looking up at the stars: “Iain More says: 12 March, 2026 at 10:24 pm “So the SNP SG continues to drag its heels over releasing…” Mar 14, 01:33
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “On the subject of pets, Geri, hows the dugs? At weekends, do you usually permit them more freedom? Let them…” Mar 13, 22:37
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “House Jock implies someone who still lives here who suffers an identity crisis. Pet Jock is about right, the token…” Mar 13, 20:41
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Monarchy is the default for humanity, TURABDIN. It’s wired into our DNA, almost certainly because over the long term, it…” Mar 13, 20:31
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Sure, Alf, these arguments go round and round with such depressing regularity that we can now all predict where they…” Mar 13, 20:30
Scot Finlayson on Looking up at the stars: “Lord Byron penned the song, Dark Lochnagar,about his youth in the highlands, Ah ! there my young footsteps in infancy…” Mar 13, 20:30
Alf Baird on Looking up at the stars: ““as if their Scottish Sovereignty is superior to the Scottish Sovereignty of other Scots” You appear to misunderstand the colonial…” Mar 13, 20:00
TURABDIN on Looking up at the stars: “«The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike…” Mar 13, 19:43
