Alert readers will be aware that we’ve been running a series of posts pointing out the gap between opposition rhetoric about the Scottish Government’s supposed failure to grow the economy, and their (total lack of) practical suggestions about what it should actually be doing, given that by design the Scottish Parliament controls almost none of the country’s economic levers.
And we thought a story fed to the press by Labour this week about job creation since the Tories came to power in 2010 was going to be just another case in point, until we spotted something else about it.
Now, we can’t claim to be exactly astonished that the Tories have mostly focused on creating work in London and the South-East of England at the expense of the rest of the UK. That’s pretty much their thing. But Scottish Labour’s noted rentahonk Jackie Baillie was hopping mad, and not only at the Tories.
An alert reader got in touch with us this evening to tell us that they’d been clearing out an old hard drive and found an interesting web page they’d saved from several years ago. They asked if we’d like to see it.
“Sure”, we said. “Let’s have a look.”
It turned out that they’d had an exchange several years ago with Kezia Dugdale on her old (now deleted) blog, where she tended to be a bit more candid than she is now, and were so startled by an answer she’d given them that they’d felt the need to keep it.
We don’t often wholeheartedly agree with anything “Rape Clause Ruth” Davidson says at First Minister’s Questions, but we can’t fault this observation from earlier today.
One of the most famous tales of the celebrated British hangman Albert Pierrepoint is that concerning James Inglis, a murderer who in 1951 sprinted the short distance from the condemned cell to the noose, enabling the entire execution to be concluded just seven seconds after Pierrepoint had first laid hands on him.
It’s the holidays, so the papers are desperate to fill space and the political parties are all trying to help out by sending them helpful press releases which can be slotted directly onto pages, titled “PARTY X CONTINUES TO SUPPORT POLICY Z WHICH IT HAS ALWAYS SUPPORTED. ALSO, THE OTHER PARTIES ARE BAD”.
Scottish Labour’s contribution is a piece in most papers today reiterating their demand for the Scottish Government to hike the top rate of income tax – a policy on which Labour stood at the last Westminster and Holyrood elections and which was quite stupendously comprehensively rejected by voters, but which Labour inexplicably feel the SNP should implement anyway.
And that’s all very well and good, because Kezia Dugdale gets paid the best part of £80,000 a year by taxpayers and she’s got to say something all day to justify it. The trouble, as we’ve noted at great length on this site, is that so many of the things she says aren’t actually true.
We’ve never been quite sure why that’s supposed to be a great selling point for how fabulous the UK is – “Don’t leave us or we’ll starve you to death” – but in any event it was dealt something of a blow yesterday by McDougall’s own party.
The John Beattie Show on BBC Radio Scotland today hosted a 20-minute-long debate between Professor Richard Murphy and an amateur Unionist blogger who for the last several years has used the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) figures to prove that an independent Scotland would be economically unviable.
Below is a very short extract from it. (The full debate is here.)
We’re glad that’s finally settled. Though we have to admit, given that all parties to the discussion now absolutely concur on those facts, we’re a bit confused about what the amateur blogger’s been doing for the last five years.
Most of the Scottish media today reports the latest Lord Ashcroft poll, which found Nicola Sturgeon to be by a distance the most popular political leader in Scotland.
All three opened with almost identical paragraphs observing that the First Minister was the only UK politician to record a net positive approval rating in Scotland, putting her a thumping 32 points ahead of her nearest domestic rival.
The Scottish Daily Mail, though, had a slightly different take.
Conservative list MSP Murdo Fraser is Scottish politics’ undisputed king of rejects. He’s had a 16-year career in the Scottish Parliament without once winning any sort of election, trousering close to a million pounds of taxpayers’ money in the process, and there’s pretty much nothing anyone can do to get him out of it.
First of all he was firmly rejected by the electorate of East Lothian in 1997, picking up under 20% of the vote. Then when the Scottish Parliament came into being in 1999 he tried his luck at winning its North Tayside seat and was rejected again. He had a go at the Westminster version of the seat in 2001, and was rejected there too.
He hadn’t managed to come in the top three of the Tory regional list either, but when one of the list MSPs who HAD been elected resigned later that year after a bout of pneumonia, Fraser got to walk into his vacant seat unopposed, elected by no-one.
He tried to win North Tayside again in 2003 and 2007, and was rejected both times. (In the four attempts he made at the seat, his vote share decreased every time. The more people saw of him serving as an MSP, the less they liked him.)
By 2011 North Tayside had been abolished and replaced by Perthshire North, which Fraser contested in that year and in 2016, but was rejected twice more. In between he stood for leader of the Scottish Conservatives, but was rejected by Tory members.
After eight humiliating failures out of eight, though, today Murdo finally won one.
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “I’ve not been allowed near my local mosque since I tidied up all the shoes, bagged them up in pairs,…” Mar 17, 07:41
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: ““Whose bitter” Dunno, YL. But you saw it first. Fill yer boots. Bet some cant already gobbed in it though.” Mar 17, 07:31
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: ““you buy the house first before you start arranging the furniture” You’re thinking like a schemie who’s been 20 years…” Mar 17, 07:23
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Michty, Geri! Still only Tuesday and already you’re back to picking up the word on the streets. I see you’ve…” Mar 17, 07:16
twathater on Looking up at the stars: “MaryB After a Sunday Prism show I asked Alan Petrie in a comment if he would stop pushing immigration as…” Mar 17, 04:19
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “‘How do we get better more principled people in power’ I’ve thought on that many times. Like atttracts like. What…” Mar 17, 04:02
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “We should all learn from the destruction of the Death Cult and it’s Proxy’s. Be careful what you wish for…” Mar 17, 03:05
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “Beggars; People are generally aware of the latter, sadly not the former. I only point out historical facts for those…” Mar 17, 01:32
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Just think, shitey.. An Islamic NATO! I’d LMFAO if that is true cause I just know you’d not be able…” Mar 17, 01:28
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Wrong. As said many times during indyref, you buy the house first before you start arranging the furniture on policy.…” Mar 17, 01:11
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “HMcH Eh? No. You’re making a complete diddy of yersel yet again. England lost the 1st War of Independence as…” Mar 17, 01:03
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “HMcH Eh? No. You’re making a complete diddy of yersel yet again. England lost the 1st War of Independence as…” Mar 17, 00:59
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Shiteface, No. They’ll be watching the telly thinking FUCK! Would you jist look at all those eejits who are being…” Mar 17, 00:45
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “He said womens rights would be protected. Yes. He also said the TRA community is a discussion Scotland should have…” Mar 17, 00:09
Cynicus on Looking up at the stars: ““….No invasion that wiped out one group and replaced it. “-Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh, 16 March, 2026 at 10:54 am ======== Fearghas,…” Mar 16, 23:47
Geri on Looking up at the stars: ““100%YES: so how do you see it being sorted AFTER independence” Because we’ll have our own parliament. Not a Unionist…” Mar 16, 23:39
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Looking up at the stars: “Championing Scots is an entirely justified and laudable enterprise. There is world-class literature in it. All Scottish children should become…” Mar 16, 23:38
Lorncal on Looking up at the stars: “Dan: I don’t hate you for accusing me of being a Unionist when I was probably a nationalist when you…” Mar 16, 23:28
Lorncal on Looking up at the stars: “Geri: Alec Salmond said no such thing. He ensured that women’s rights were embedded in Alba policy. You, like several…” Mar 16, 23:03
Lorncal on Looking up at the stars: “100%YES: so how do you see it being sorted AFTER independence? Do tell. Because sorting it PRIOR to independence is…” Mar 16, 22:46
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Aye, Northy, if you start by ignoring the fact that the 2022 census found 5.44 million people in Scotland you…” Mar 16, 22:34
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Not saying any of the blokes in Your Party hate women. But many of them are enthusiastic followers of a…” Mar 16, 22:24
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: ““keep on making weapons on our soil” FFS, Dan, that ship sailed over 4 years ago. “makes you look obsessed…” Mar 16, 22:19
Northcode on Looking up at the stars: “This from the 2022 Scottish Census: 4.74 million Scots identified as white Scottish/British. 62.4% of that number identified as “Scottish…” Mar 16, 22:13
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “I was told that when you finish a packet of smoked salmon, the most environmentally sound course of action is…” Mar 16, 22:09
Lorncal on Looking up at the stars: “Oh, I think he’s given it a great deal of thought, Sarah. He just has a problem with women who…” Mar 16, 22:04
Dan on Looking up at the stars: “Best you keep voting for that Union Jack safety blanket then Lorna. Aye, there’s jist no point in returning to…” Mar 16, 21:54
