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Didn’t you spill my pint? 248

Posted on September 01, 2017 by

Ruth Davidson finally emerged today from a summer of hiding from press stories about her racist and sectarian councillors and MSPs to give a bizarre, nervy and gabbling interview to Good Morning Scotland.

Highlights included calling Show Racism The Red Card an “anti-Semitic” organisation and proposing the building of eight entire new towns in Scotland (the funding source and potential locations for this colossal undertaking were not specified), all filled with social housing which would nevertheless be for sale under Right To Buy.

(Which if it could somehow magically be done would of course lead to the homes being quickly sold at heavy discounts, leaving councils insufficient money to fund their replacements and creating another massive housing bubble and crisis.)

But our very favourite bit was when (at 2h 17m) she said this:

“Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t say to a bloke in the pub who’s half-cut with a broken glass, six foot tall and five foot wide.”

To be honest, readers, if we encountered a 30-sq-foot drunk waving a broken glass around in a pub, we’d just be looking for the door as fast as possible. But clearly Ruth Davidson frequents different sorts of bars to us.

So just for a bit of light-hearted Friday fun, we thought we’d ask: what WOULD you say to that person in that situation?

Another surprising development 215

Posted on August 31, 2017 by

Last year:

That’ll definitely have been done, then, right?

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Waving goodbye 408

Posted on August 30, 2017 by

When all the media spin – and boy are there ever some examples around today – is said and done, one cold fact will remain: Kezia Dugdale inherited the main opposition party in Scotland, and bequeathed her unlucky successor a third-placed irrelevance.

Before Dugdale took over two years ago this month, Labour had NEVER finished third behind the SNP and the Tories in a Scottish election in its entire 100-year-plus history. By common consensus her predecessor had left the party at rock bottom, but Dugdale immediately got out her shovel and started digging furiously.

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Broken news 119

Posted on August 29, 2017 by

True nature 122

Posted on August 29, 2017 by

What Tories are, in two images from one week.

Never forget it until the day you die, readers.

What we’re reminded of 89

Posted on August 29, 2017 by

This is Kezia Dugdale in the Daily Record today:

But with the greatest respect to Scotland’s pioneering engineers, they’re not the thing we’re reminded of when we hear Scottish Labour talking about the new bridge. This is what we’re reminded of.

Storming the nation 424

Posted on August 27, 2017 by

The Sunday Times has a breathless account today of Jeremy Corbyn’s triumphant five-day tour of Scotland.

It sounds like quite the event.

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Underneath the Goodyear blimp 270

Posted on August 26, 2017 by

This site is still hampered by the consequences of TotallyUnbelievableMadnessGate, so until normal service is resumed here’s a quick recap of a few stories from the last few days you may have missed.

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The fine art of omission 584

Posted on August 21, 2017 by

We’ll only be making a very brief comment on the story in Tuesday’s Herald, for hopefully obvious reasons. The piece by Tom Gordon has been written for maximum innuendo to allow the wildest speculations on social media – which are of course duly taking place – but the alleged events relate entirely to some tweets from our Twitter account, none of which have been deleted and all of which are still publicly visible.

Nothing more sinister or serious than some tweets has occurred, or been alleged to have occurred. None of the tweets involved are in ANY way threatening, not even in a joking sense. That’s all we’ll be saying on the subject at this time.

The two types of oil 306

Posted on August 20, 2017 by

With this year’s GERS figures imminent, there are two stories about North Sea oil in today’s papers which are markedly different in both tone and honesty.

This, for example, is the front page of the Sunday Herald:

It’s basically a reprise of a Wings story from almost a year ago, noting that despite producing broadly similar amounts of oil to Scotland from the North Sea, Norway has generated tens of billions in pounds in government revenue from it – even during the price slump of recent years – while Scotland has actually LOST money.

The Sunday Times, though, has a rather different take.

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British news in British numbers 575

Posted on August 18, 2017 by

Number of references to “UK”, “Britain” or “British” in this story about salmon: 17

Number of references to “Scotland” or “Scottish”: 1 (in a quote)

Percentage of “UK” salmon industry that’s actually in Scotland: 96.3%

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The trouble with Corbyn 822

Posted on August 14, 2017 by

(By the always-excellent Phantom Power Films.)

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    • Chas on Looking up at the stars: “I am afraid you are wrong Sven however, as you do not post the same repetitive shite everyday (see Baird…Mar 16, 13:39
    • Lorncal on Looking up at the stars: “Listened to ‘Through a Scottish Prism’ yesterday. We are screwed – well and truly screwed. The Liberate Scotland Alliance swore…Mar 16, 13:36
    • Northcode on Looking up at the stars: “Aye, Fearghas. It has bugger aw tae dae with DNA. It’s oor superior Pictish culture, wit and intelligence that separates…Mar 16, 13:08
    • Aidan on Looking up at the stars: “That’s probably a bit of drivel and a bit of waffle NorthcodeMar 16, 12:15
    • Northcode on Looking up at the stars: “Those are English words you’re defining there and bear no relevance to the comment I posted entirely in Scots. I…Mar 16, 12:06
    • Aidan on Looking up at the stars: “Thank you Northcode, a few others to add: – Waffle: to talk or write a lot without giving any useful…Mar 16, 11:56
    • Northcode on Looking up at the stars: “Guid day aw ye lowelie fowk wandrin knotless aboot this place leukin fir tae escape the warld’s stupeedity. Sadly, ye’ll…Mar 16, 11:41
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    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Looking up at the stars: “« Pictish and Gaelic areas shows no sign of population replacement. There is no genetic marker that separates Picts from…Mar 16, 10:54
    • Alf Baird on Looking up at the stars: “We must be getting ivver closer tae oor naitional leeberation, Hatey, because postcolonial theory reminds us the first thing a…Mar 16, 10:36
    • Sven on Looking up at the stars: ““Scribbling’s”, well, it’s grammar Chas, however not as we know it.Mar 16, 10:24
    • Aidan on Looking up at the stars: “It has everything to do with you highlighting Egypt as apparently a country doing it right and saying that Scotland…Mar 16, 09:55
    • Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Stating that London filled with tea towel wearers yesterday, many with Arabic writing on? Stating that FGM is quite extensively…Mar 16, 09:29
    • Dan on Looking up at the stars: “@Aidan And yet you saw fit to add shite like air pollution, people getting killed in railway accidents, and quality…Mar 16, 09:25
    • Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “I bet you thought you had written “breathe”.Mar 16, 09:22
    • Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “@Geri Get yersel doon tae Currys. If you’ve been using ink for yer online posts, they may still be able…Mar 16, 09:18
    • Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Tell ye fit ah’ll dae, YL. Haund oan the Holy Bible, Ah’ll swear a solemn vow tae naiver post oan…Mar 16, 09:09
    • Aidan on Looking up at the stars: “The Al-Fayrous fish farm is actually just off the Suez Canal, but the wider point is that it’s very odd…Mar 16, 09:03
    • Chas on Looking up at the stars: “Eloquent, factual, knowledgeable and well researched are words that you would NEVER associate with any of your deranged scribbling’s. Very…Mar 16, 08:26
    • Dan on Looking up at the stars: “@Aidan The Al-Fayrous fish farm I linked to is on the coast of the Med, so must be some crazy…Mar 16, 08:23
    • Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “I find watching paint dry is more fulfilling.Mar 16, 07:59
    • Aidan on Looking up at the stars: “I’m a big fan of small community growing projects so more power to you as far as I’m concerned. Equally,…Mar 16, 07:10
    • James Barr Gardner on Looking up at the stars: “Too far……….Mar 16, 00:46
    • Geri on Looking up at the stars: “He doesn’t seem very wise. A wiser man would’ve said: Look mate, you clearly don’t like that forum, now fck…Mar 16, 00:35
    • Geri on Looking up at the stars: ““but you seem to jet about the place a fair bit” I think that’ll be a thing of the past…Mar 16, 00:25
    • Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “Ten past eleven and Hatey has been unco quiet.. Hmmm.. Oh heck, wait Sky Arts has Exodus (1960) on -…Mar 15, 23:19
    • Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “Stop!! Don’t do it Hatey! Getting out and socialising is said to help. Perhaps removing yourself from online forums like…Mar 15, 22:54
    • Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “So Chas, given adults have a choice, why not expect everyone else to scroll on past your posts? Open forum…Mar 15, 22:37
    • Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “Aaawww! Don’t take it so hard Hatey-proud boy, contrary to what you seem to believe, people aren’t just posting here…Mar 15, 22:24
    • Dan on Looking up at the stars: “@Aidan I don’t expect myself or everyone else to grow all our own food requirements in our gardens. But I…Mar 15, 19:52
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