The Unionist parties are taking such a kicking in the polls for next month’s Holyrood election that you could forgive them for not always knowing where they were.
The above tweet does indeed have the potential to be “astonishing”, given that (a) Ruth Davidson isn’t standing in Carnoustie, and (b) the 2011 result suggests that there are only around 700 Labour voters to find in the entire town behind the “1000s” of doors that 20 Tories have impressively managed to knock by teatime.
(Indeed, the area is so Labour-unfriendly that the Tories actually managed to come 2nd five years ago, getting over 50% more votes than the Labour candidate.)
But it’s not the only piece of geographical confusion afflicting the UK parties.
Alert readers may recall that a few months ago the Scottish press got itself in a right old lather about a temporary closure of the Forth Road Bridge. The SNP were attacked relentlessly in the media for what a subsequent inquiry in fact found to have been an “unforeseeable” fault on the bridge which posed no risk to life. But fair enough.
This week, 17 schools in the Edinburgh area were closed down over fears that they might be unsafe after the wall of one of them fell off in high winds, two years after another wall in an Edinburgh school collapsed and killed a 12-year-old girl.
All 17 had been built under a controversial PFI scheme signed in 2001, when the UK government, Scottish Parliament and Edinburgh City Council were all controlled by Labour, and which isn’t due to be finally paid off for another 20 years.
The Scottish press and opposition’s incandescent and somewhat vague fury at the Scottish Government working to bring billions of pounds in investment to Scotland has continued undiminished in this weekend’s newspapers. Scottish Labour in particular are getting themselves very worked up about today’s Sunday Times.
“Incredible”? Sounds exciting. Let’s find out more.
Those of you who read our post of earlier today probably didn’t feel there was anything ambiguous going on in it. When Ruth Davidson intervened in an election debate to protest that the chair, the BBC’s Louise White, was being unfair to Nicola Sturgeon, it was pretty obvious who she meant, and White’s response removed any doubt.
Which makes this eye-witness account of the event, spotted by an alert reader this afternoon, odd in several ways.
We were rather gobsmacked, readers, when we tuned into this morning’s BBC Radio Scotland phone-in at 9am. Ostensibly discussing the promotion of “Rangers” to the Premiership, presenter Louise White adopted the most astonishingly, openly partisan and aggressive approach we’ve ever heard from a host on the state broadcaster (which is no small feat), on the subject of whether the club was a new one or not.
Callers were harangued, interrupted and hustled on for daring to suggest the truth. It was a jaw-dropping display of disregard for not only impartiality but basic journalistic regard for the plain, uncontestable facts of the matter.
But don’t panic, football-haters. This post is about something else.
This is an intriguing and engrossing extended chat between Christopher Silver and Iain Macwhirter for what will hopefully become a regular series by the excellent Phantom Power Films, creators of Altered States and lots more:
It’s well worth whiling away a little bit of your afternoon on.
If there’s one thing the Scottish Conservatives love to do, it’s lecture the SNP about vetting its candidates. Here’s Ruth Davidson on Michelle Thomson, for example:
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Lorncal What are you suggesting is propaganda? It’s documented fact that the father of a disabled child asked the German…” Mar 19, 02:02
Lorncal on Looking up at the stars: “Geri: the Nazis certainly practised eugenics, on Jews, Slavs, the disabled, those with mental ill-health or illness, etc., but they…” Mar 18, 23:46
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “Assisted dying bill; Automatic do not resuscitate classifications have been in operation for ages.. Anyway, assisted dying; Go to Muirhouse…” Mar 18, 22:03
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “As Maggie said, international law is all we’ve got between us & the barbarians. Ironic really cause they ARE the…” Mar 18, 21:38
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Looking up at the stars: “MLA CRITICISES WOKE GOVERNMENT FORM An MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) has criticised the Northern Ireland Civil Service for…” Mar 18, 21:36
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “They have options. Those options don’t have to involve everyone else. If they want to check out then go for…” Mar 18, 21:25
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Last time I looked it wasn’t Poot offering euthanasia to avoid paying healthcare & pensions or sterilising his own population…” Mar 18, 20:57
Southernbystander on Looking up at the stars: “It is palpably untrue that supporting assisted dying is all about government population control – the statement is offensive and…” Mar 18, 20:57
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Surely half a bicycle is a cycle?” Mar 18, 20:02
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “When you write “us” Geri, is that you deploying your royal we again? That makes more sense than the alternative…” Mar 18, 20:00
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “With so many women in the workforce, there’s a lot of demand for anything that will help them slim down.” Mar 18, 19:48
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Mark WEF – where billionaires empty the contents of their head thinking no one is listening. They loathe the working…” Mar 18, 19:28
Northcode on Looking up at the stars: “I like it, Sam. Here’s one of Brian’s that sums up my attempts at humour in this place: “I saw…” Mar 18, 19:24
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “The UN is struggling to exist as it is running out of money and relevance. The Titanic of gravy boats…” Mar 18, 19:15
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “Are you pals with Starmer the wanker. That’s the same pish he talks.” Mar 18, 19:02
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “@Geri You take an assisted dying bill (defeated) and turn it into the toilet habits of the rich. The genocide…” Mar 18, 18:50
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “That’s last months flag. Do keep up.” Mar 18, 18:38
sam on Looking up at the stars: “A wry sense of humour indeed. “The gross and net result of it is that people who spent most of…” Mar 18, 18:35
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “They’re not left. The billionaires are shitting themselves there’ll not be enough resources left in the world for them cause…” Mar 18, 18:11
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “America, Oops! I mean it’s proxy Iraq invaded Iran in 1980. A war lasting 9 years or so. Everything from…” Mar 18, 17:51
100%Yes on Looking up at the stars: “Welcome on board James, sorry about Alba but some how I believe it was deliberate because Alba was making progress…” Mar 18, 17:48
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “That’s because the Elite Left think people like you are scum.” Mar 18, 17:33
Lorncal on Looking up at the stars: “In Switzerland, it is mandatory, at both local (regional) and national level for referendums to be held on all major…” Mar 18, 17:05
Lorncal on Looking up at the stars: “Mark: I recall listening to a programme about Iran after the Shah was deposed, when Khomeini (1979, I think) had…” Mar 18, 15:56
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: ““big tent party” I guess the tent is implied by the flag. Still though, in the original meaning of “big…” Mar 18, 15:35
Jamie on Looking up at the stars: “Good article Rev. Talking about elections, as someone who was briefly politically homeless after the death of Alba, after some…” Mar 18, 15:19
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Tis true about the drugs. It even dispenses itself through a driver if swallowing starts to become difficult & even…” Mar 18, 13:59
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “A braw n grand sunlit day Oan ma bike n faraway Er the Clyde an alang the Kelvin Up Maryhill…” Mar 18, 13:36
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “God told me your a pain in the celestial arse.” Mar 18, 13:28
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Good to know God doesn’t go in for that Scots speaking bollox. Get Alf on the phone and tell him.” Mar 18, 13:21
