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.
This site can’t claim to know enough about Spanish and Catalan politics to have an opinion about whether independence for Catalonia is a good idea or not. All we can say is that democracy is a good idea, and the draconian and extreme attempts of the Spanish government to suppress the referendum – ludicrously under-reported in the UK media, particularly broadcast media – are a terrifying throwback to its fascist past. We very much hope they don’t succeed.
As readers who were once children will probably recall, papier-mache is a substance in which incredibly flimsy material – such as tissue paper or newspaper – is turned into something rather more hard and durable by dint of combining multiple layers of it with a simple flour-and-water solution.
What’s less well-known is that the process also happens IN newspapers.
For a case study, let’s look at this article in today’s Times.
The Scottish Daily Mail almost explodes with fury over new crime statistics today:
Which is weird. Because there’s less crime in Scotland than there’s ever been at any time in modern history. How do we know that? Because the Mail tells us so.
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “@CC The US has expended too much of its arsenal in the ME this year. It will take years to…” Sep 30, 11:47
Aidan on The Turning Point: “Noting that this was written 16-years ago of course. There is no way that rUK Government would be willing to…” Sep 30, 11:42
Aidan on The Turning Point: “Assuming that an IScotland could negotiate a share of the UK’s national debt on a per capita basis (not an…” Sep 30, 11:33
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “Sure, sam, if one side starts by making all kinds of convenient assumptions, then the final settlement can be massaged…” Sep 30, 11:29
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: ““The UK is rapidly collapsing” I agree. I’m wondering what the catalyst will be. The event that finally puts it…” Sep 30, 11:20
Captain Caveman on The Turning Point: “@Hatey If all those things you say about the rapidly changing tech of modern warfare are true – and personally…” Sep 30, 11:17
sam on The Turning Point: “Interesting post by Jim Cuthbert on how the negotiations on Scotland’s share of UK debt might be shaped post independence.…” Sep 30, 11:11
Captain Caveman on The Turning Point: “The only “way” out of it that I can see (if you could call it any sort of solution, probably…” Sep 30, 11:11
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “@Spartan An iScotland could default. Cold turkey. I’m not advocating it, but it’s an option. It would mean probably 20…” Sep 30, 10:58
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “Yep. Uncomfortable facts. The UK state finances are ruinous like most Western nations. It’s difficult to see any way out…” Sep 30, 10:18
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “Good post. ArAndeh very much set out his stall yesterday – Moar Communism is the way, as is outsourcing democracy…” Sep 30, 10:13
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: ““Nail hit firmly on the head Hatey” Ground Zero for fixing any problem is to be realistic about what the…” Sep 30, 10:10
willie on The Turning Point: “Sadly we have seen the plunder of a country’s resources before for the benefit of others. That is what empire…” Sep 30, 09:19
willie on The Turning Point: “¬”the infrastructure to capture all this “free” leccy is being mostly paid for by others – English bill payers, multinational…” Sep 30, 09:02
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “It’s truly extraordinary to see the differences between the reviews of Andeh’s stage performance yesterday. Some on the progressive left…” Sep 30, 08:56
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “Back in the day they probably did “used to obstruct and sabotage the Scottish Nationalist movement”. But they’ll have been…” Sep 30, 08:22
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: ““a reported one third of Scotlands electricity” If only that was true, Scotland would be on course to make some…” Sep 30, 08:10
Alf Baird on The Turning Point: “““Civil servants, MI5, Special Branch used to obstruct and sabotage the Scottish Nationalist movement.” Sounds exactly like what occurred in…” Sep 30, 07:50
Willie on The Turning Point: “So planning proposal.has now dropped to build the world’s largest data centre in Scotland. And its power usage will be…” Sep 30, 07:17
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “@Hatey 6:42pm Don’t get me started on Silliband/Mahatma Andy’s bungling on Pallet Line. Another fine mess completely irrelevant to our…” Sep 29, 21:02
Hatey McHateface on Cowering From Destiny: ““Independent Ireland has remained neutral for the last century thereby avoiding being dragged into Imperial England’s 80 or so colonial…” Sep 29, 20:35
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “Stick to making soup, Dan. There’s no reason for alert readers to question your claims that you know your soup.…” Sep 29, 20:23
Dan on The Turning Point: “Ach, as stated before, Scotland doesn’t need to be spending billions on defence when we jist need to deploy our…” Sep 29, 20:04
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “Not smart enough, too tarnished, and toxic. Yet she’s going on the lecture circuit and you’re not. I guess you’re…” Sep 29, 20:03
Bilbo on The Turning Point: “So the State asset is going on the lecturing circuit? Guess it’s the only thing left to her. She isn’t…” Sep 29, 19:31
Aidan on The Turning Point: “Oh I agree the Europeans should be taken much more of the cost of this (although they are for the…” Sep 29, 19:16
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “All those words, Bob, just to say you’re ignoring me. Have you ever sat down and counted all the times…” Sep 29, 18:51
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: ““marched us headlong into a conflict that was absolutely nothing to do with us and without regard to the consequences”…” Sep 29, 18:42
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “What’s conventional defense, CC? Whatever your answer is, if you know anything about the subject at all, it’ll be a…” Sep 29, 18:35
twathater on The Turning Point: “Here we go again give your vote to someone other than the snp who best represents your feelings, lend your…” Sep 29, 18:23
