We long ago gave up expecting any sort of principled consistency from the Scottish Tories. Whether it was Ruth “line in the sand, no more powers” Davidson magically morphing into a champion of extended devolution, or suddenly reversing her position on free prescriptions, the party is now almost as fluid on policy as Scottish Labour.
The underlings, of course, dutifully follow their leader’s example. Readers familiar with Adam Tomkins’ remarkably rapid journey from fiery pro-independence republican to an ultra-Unionist ultra-Conservative monarchist will, we suspect, barely have batted an eyelid this morning as he unblinkingly performed a full 180-degree turn on the concept of universal basic income.
The first version is entirely accurate. Readers can decide for themselves why someone at the BBC felt it needed to be changed from neutral terms to pejorative ones.
The above story is feeble enough as it stands, even allowing for it being a desperately slow news week for Scottish politics. Maureen Watt is 66 years old and has asthma, and making a pensioner with breathing difficulties sprint a mile to get to a speech on time probably isn’t the most cost-effective way for the Parliament to save four and a half quid, once you’ve factored in the cost of the ambulance and everything.
Sometimes it’s hard for Yes supporters in Scotland not to be a bit jealous of Catalonia.
Despite their would-be nation being only a little bit bigger than Scotland, and despite being faced with very real physical and legal intimidation, the Catalan independence movement regularly manages to put hundreds of thousands of people on the streets.
Yes marches and rallies in Scotland, by comparison, often struggle to get attendances numbered in the hundreds, largely because squabbling factions refuse to get along with each other and by far the biggest entity in the Yes movement – the SNP – wants nothing to do with them.
Marches don’t win independence, of course. But what does?
We referenced this a few days ago because we definitely remembered it happening, but we’d been unable to actually locate the evidence, and at Wings Over Scotland that sort of thing bothers us. After a very considerable amount of effort we’ve now tracked it down, so we’re bunging it up here to preserve it for the record.
(At that point host Frank Skinner gave up and moved on.)
It’s from one month after the indyref, and the interesting thing is that Robinson is twice given the opportunity to respond to Skinner’s question about whether he thought that the pro-Yes supporters had any sort of fair point about his alleged bias, and both times – rather than, say, just dismissing it with a quick “Of course not” – he ducks it.
Readers can, as always, make their own judgements.
Amid the horror of events in Catalonia yesterday, the Prime Minister of the UK – quite unintentionally – said something during an interview on the Andrew Marr Show which was highly pertinent not only to the Catalan referendum but to British domestic politics too. We thought it needed saving for the record.
Hatey McHateface on The Plague: “There can no longer be any doubt that in the U.K., ordinary law abiding people are now at the mercy…” Aug 4, 19:50
robertkknight on The Plague: “Somewhere in Avon and Somerset a village is missing its idiot. Clue…they were last seen wearing a Police uniform.” Aug 4, 19:40
Carol Neil on The Plague: “Jfc ,how much more !” Aug 4, 19:32
Aidan on The Plague: “The amazing thing here is that they’ve obviously read your blog posts and yet none of that appeared to ring…” Aug 4, 19:25
Wulls on The Plague: “I thought he was in the process of being tagged as a vexatious litigant ???” Aug 4, 19:14
Hatey McHateface on The Plague: “Sorry to be an irritant in Wokeland, Ian, but Connolly didn’t call for anybody to be burned alive. Why don’t…” Aug 4, 19:04
James on The Nobodies: “Ooh…concerted effort from the 3 Tenors/ sorry wankers. But the sad fact for these ****s is that Scotland still hates…” Aug 4, 18:59
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “Those who are interested in S. Salyers’ constitutional campaign might find this interesting: www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5jXpFrZgIU” Aug 4, 18:47
Nicky T Naquetti on The Plague: “In pre-Communist China, the Imperial eunuchs were a protected clique, and to pour scorn upon them was treated like an…” Aug 4, 18:37
sarah on The Plague: “@ John Cleary – good on you for trying.” Aug 4, 18:34
duncanio on The Plague: “Can’t you make a complaint to the Police regarding their malicious harassment of yourself?” Aug 4, 18:28
John Cleary on The Plague: “That doesn’t work anymore Sarah. I tried that yesterday, sent material to 160 Members. All individually addressed, no spam. Yesterday…” Aug 4, 18:14
Vestas on The Plague: “@RevStu Have you considered a private prosecution? I have no doubt whatsoever that he can be tracked down for the…” Aug 4, 18:01
Ross on The Plague: “I’d be installing a doorbell camera ASAP. Eufy make ones that don’t need a subscription.” Aug 4, 17:13
Effijy on The Plague: “The police in the U.K. are making the Keystone Cops look like professional crime fighters. This idiot is wasting very…” Aug 4, 16:53
Ronnie on The Plague: “To quote Charlie Brown “Good Grief”” Aug 4, 16:52
Ian Morrison on The Plague: “Just incredible. I read the other week about how many of the ludicrous actions of the plods recently are down…” Aug 4, 16:36
Karen on The Plague: “Jeezo, what you go through for us all! Thank you. But what jumped out at me was that Ian Livingstone…” Aug 4, 16:33
sarah on The Plague: “Rev, first of all, I am so sorry for the hell you have been put through. Most of it unnecessary…” Aug 4, 16:28
Frank Gillougley on The Plague: “Here’s my tuppence worth. This has got MI5 all over it. The quality polis, just as the judicial bollocks, are…” Aug 4, 16:23
Adam Hibbert on The Plague: “Is there any kind of restraining order available to you, as a target of his harassment? If that requires a…” Aug 4, 16:23
Ex President Xiden on The Plague: “The banging on your door at 2:15 am sounds like a breach of the peace to me.” Aug 4, 16:21
Bob Johnston on The Plague: “You are a brave man. I am not, but any funding calls you make in the future will not be…” Aug 4, 16:19
Patsy Millar on The Plague: “Just sending love and hugs. You need both for what you have been put through.” Aug 4, 16:14
Kate L on The Plague: “This is unbelievable Rev. I’m so glad the excellent Free Speech Union were able to assist you against this new…” Aug 4, 15:57
Mike on The Plague: “Jeez, is there no end to the uselessness of the constabulary. There must be some redress for these baseless accusations…” Aug 4, 15:53
Aidan on Or Something: “The leadership of Liberate is a ragtag bunch of retirees and some cranks, as you might expect. They’ve paid a…” Aug 4, 14:20
Jay on Or Something: “Does the SNP have astructure of financial authority such as would indicate who spent monies on what goods and or…” Aug 4, 13:35
Young Lochinvar on Or Something: “HMcH @7.53 & 10.44 Ah! First the mouse squeaks Then the coney roars! Save us from these “terrors”!! 🙂” Aug 4, 13:22
BLMac on Or Something: “Judging by the responses a reasonable person might come to the assumption that cronies of the embezzlers are embedded in…” Aug 4, 13:21
