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:
Lorncal on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Confused: that pilot would have been female with XX chromosomes – therefore, intersex or DSD. DSD people are still either…” Apr 23, 23:22
Lorncal on How To Get Away With Crimes: “John Money was not “tragically misguided”, Fearghas. He was a PDfile and made those two boys (the twin brothers, both…” Apr 23, 23:07
Hatey McHateface on The Pit Of Vipers: “I swore a solemn oath to respond to you only once in any 24-hour period. But I don’t mind breaking…” Apr 23, 23:02
Hatey McHateface on The Pit Of Vipers: ““stop the Dog Whistle politics” What other politics would most of them have left if they stopped that? “we have…” Apr 23, 22:52
Hatey McHateface on The Pit Of Vipers: “Cheers, YL. It’s good to be back. Thought I’d drop in to see how close we are to Indy. Damned…” Apr 23, 22:43
Confused on How To Get Away With Crimes: “this is all a deep rabbit hole one thing we distinguished in the past was – transvestite – someone who…” Apr 23, 22:35
George Ferguson on The Pit Of Vipers: “A pit of vipers is the strapline for this article. I just watched Question Time from Aberdeen, so an appropriate…” Apr 23, 22:33
Confused on How To Get Away With Crimes: “psychopathy runs at 100% incidence in rabbis, imams, spooks, freemasons and city/wallst bankers.” Apr 23, 22:32
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “HMcH Please re-post once you’ve sobered up and can make your point with clarity. Thanks in advance.” Apr 23, 22:29
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “HMcH Welcome back! Shouldn’t you “be sorting out” a failed business you neglected by spending 24/7 on here, or, did…” Apr 23, 21:52
Hatey McHateface on The Pit Of Vipers: “Big election in 2 weeks, Dan. You should be serious, mature, and focused on getting the voters out for your…” Apr 23, 21:28
Dan on How To Get Away With Crimes: “A new fiscal year just starts and GERS takes an early hit, whilst Scotland dodges a bullet by having the…” Apr 23, 21:27
Hatey McHateface on The Pit Of Vipers: ““if true Scots in here want to indulge in some easy sport by destroying unionist ‘arguments’” True Scots enjoy the…” Apr 23, 20:41
Aidan on The Pit Of Vipers: “What exactly has that got to do with me?” Apr 23, 20:36
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “AI Dun I see the latest polls (for what they are worth) have the Scotchland Conservative (and) Unionist (Members) in…” Apr 23, 20:11
SilentMajority on How to tell when Kezia Dugdale is lying: “I guess it continues then….starting a new job, with new ‘friends’….then alienates herself on Day One by voicing ‘respect’ of…” Apr 23, 19:45
Sheepshagger on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Self-pitying men can be like unexploded devices – when it dawns on him that nobody will ever rise to his…” Apr 23, 19:37
Hatey McHateface on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Or just vote for somebody who promises to “drain the swamp”. Boot out the ECHR. Take a chainsaw to the…” Apr 23, 19:20
Hatey McHateface on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Hmmm. Bananas don’t have cores. Plenty of people enjoy bananas so ripe they look half-rotten. But to be serious for…” Apr 23, 19:15
Hatey McHateface on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Fair play to you 100% Yes, but two weeks out, I doubt any of the usual suspects are even remotely…” Apr 23, 19:05
Hatey McHateface on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Great post about psychopathy from Confused. Very light on detail about the type of people who call for the establishment…” Apr 23, 18:53
Hatey McHateface on How To Get Away With Crimes: “That’s the mother of all long reads. I got to here: “modus operandi – personal abuse, threats to doxx people,…” Apr 23, 18:44
Alf Baird on The Pit Of Vipers: ““For England, not that much changes” Indeed, following the supposed ‘Union’ in 1707, “for England nothing changed”, whilst “for Scotland…” Apr 23, 18:22
James on The Pit Of Vipers: “Look, everyone; Adrian used the word “Brigadoon”.” Apr 23, 18:04
Northcode on The Pit Of Vipers: “Due to heightened colonialist activity in this place it’s that time again: Ther scarce be a wird pit doun here…” Apr 23, 17:53
Aidan on The Pit Of Vipers: “I agree it’s a hard sell to those who can’t accept their own deficiencies or come to terms with the…” Apr 23, 16:29
Breastplate on The Pit Of Vipers: “Aiden, You are correct that emotional attachment to a particular stance wins out over reason. Unfortunately, you seem to be…” Apr 23, 16:02
Alf Baird on The Pit Of Vipers: ““.. it’s very hard to reason someone out of a position they haven’t reasoned themselves..” Indeed, for the culturally assimilated…” Apr 23, 15:43
