The reaction of the Scottish media and political opposition to Audit Scotland’s annual report on the NHS today has been nothing if not predictable. But we thought you might like an instructive and enlightening look at the two very different types of approach they’ve taken to trying to mislead the Scottish people about it.
First up is the non-specific Scottish Labour apparatchik (as far as we’re aware he has no official role in the party since Jim Murphy quit – indeed we don’t know what he does for a living at all any more) Blair McDougall:
This is what we in the writing trade call a “flat-out lie”.
This month we’ve been noting a sudden avalanche of factually-questionable articles in the media attacking the SNP’s record in government. At the weekend and yesterday we also picked apart a highly misleading and disingenuous claim by Andrew Neil on the BBC’s Sunday Politics that there had been no cuts to the Scottish Government budget since the Conservatives came to power in 2010.
At the weekend this site noted that on the BBC’s Sunday Politics, presenter Andrew Neil claimed that the Scottish Government’s budget had not been reduced in real terms in “the last five or six years”, and that therefore Scotland has not faced cuts.
But as we pointed out, the Scottish Government budget HAS been cut, year-on-year, since the Tories took office. The independent Fiscal Affairs Scotland assessed the cumulative reduction at a hefty 10%, or a little over £3bn a year.
Okay, so we’ve tried everything. We’ve read all the papers, we’ve been through all the emails, and we’ve even gone out for a walk, which usually never fails to trigger some cataclysmic political upheaval or animal-sex scandal.
As spectacular and mindboggling as some of the coverage undeniably is – most notably Alex Massie’s barking-mad, lie-filled howlatribe “J.K. Rowling and her heroic attack on the wicked cybernats” (whose title, remarkably, does not appear to be ironic) in ultra-right-wing loonzine CapX – even we’re fed up of reading people going on about us, so to pass the time we’re going to do something else instead.
We weren’t going to take Professor Adam Tomkins’ hysterical “NATMAGEDDON!” article for this week’s Spectator seriously enough to pull it apart line by line.
But once we’d wiped the tears from our eyes we thought we’d better do our job.
aLurker on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Fortunately there is already a fully fleshed out strategy which deals with this issue of democratic acceptability as best as…” Aug 12, 22:33
Bilbo on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Burnham has said he is going to disperse these immigrants more into middle class areas from now on. They’ll be…” Aug 12, 21:17
Chas on The Party Of The Dead: “No response from the learned professor….again but Scotland’s greatest fisherman has. Of course, his prowess is due to him being…” Aug 12, 21:14
Rob on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Folk are seriously wanting Trump on their side to help? that smacks of real desperation.” Aug 12, 21:06
Red on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Have you seen Glasgow recently? Muslim and African colonists are filling up the Dear Green Place nicely. Every other town…” Aug 12, 20:45
Peter McAvoy on The Other Kind Of Winning: “I agree with the comment that the SNP no longer stand up for Scotland it’s institutions,industries or people (native white…” Aug 12, 20:45
agentx on The Other Kind Of Winning: ““Polling outfits use the same wide-open franchise as the 2014 referendum” ——————————– The 2014 referendum was a vote not a…” Aug 12, 20:42
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “My newsagent doesn’t stock it, so I’ll never know.” Aug 12, 20:23
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “In short, True Scots vote Yes. Only the votes of True Scots need be counted. This one’s already been done…” Aug 12, 20:20
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Jews and shirt lifters! Have you started earlier tonight, Confused, or are you still on yesterday’s bender? Still though, I…” Aug 12, 20:13
Andrew scott on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Remember folks the Trasional is just a comic without the pictures” Aug 12, 20:11
agentx on The Other Kind Of Winning: ““our indy would be “treaty revocation”. That is what it would be.” —————————————————————- Have you not read the thousands of…” Aug 12, 20:05
Northcode on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Polling outfits use the same wide-open franchise as the 2014 referendum did when selecting potential respondents – this means the…” Aug 12, 19:58
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Actually, when I wrote they might stop paying benefits and pensions that was intended to illustrate a reason why vast…” Aug 12, 19:55
James on The Party Of The Dead: “You’d be a scrounging immigrant in either place. Just like the rest of them. Reform shills obviously don’t do irony.” Aug 12, 19:35
James on The Party Of The Dead: “….and I’ll ask you again, sunshine; do you mean competent government like the duds in the English parliament at Westminster?…” Aug 12, 19:28
Alistair on The Other Kind Of Winning: “I don’t think it’s a bad thing. The Overton window won’t move unless you make people consider it.” Aug 12, 19:26
Confused on The Other Kind Of Winning: “UDI people should stop using the wrong damn words; UDI is not appropriate terminology – it associates with Rhodesia and…” Aug 12, 19:24
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “Quite hard to understand how our “colonised mediocre meritocracy (Memmi)” managed to lead the world in practical engineering, such as…” Aug 12, 19:01
Red on The Other Kind Of Winning: “<b But Swinney is no leader Aye, that’s the problem. Scotland doesn’t have any leaders. Swinney calls himself a leader,…” Aug 12, 19:00
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “It’s August. It’s the silly season. The schools are out. Most folk are on holiday. We’re already tiring of The…” Aug 12, 18:47
Frank Gillougley on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Dear Alf, I know yours is a lone voice at times here with your endless use of the C word,…” Aug 12, 18:46
Dan on The Other Kind Of Winning: “How does that required majority support criteria being met for a particular policy to be implemented play out in the…” Aug 12, 18:45
agentx on The Other Kind Of Winning: “The SNP have “Pandora’s Box” most commonly refers to the Greek myth of the first woman, Pandora, who opened a…” Aug 12, 18:35
factchecker on The Other Kind Of Winning: “That is your interpretation. It would be fair to say that it is not universally accepted. Whatever the real or…” Aug 12, 18:25
Alf Baird on The Other Kind Of Winning: ““If we respect the Claim of Right” … then we should know that the Treaty of Union was never implemented;…” Aug 12, 17:40
TURABDIN on The Other Kind Of Winning: “@ LORNCAL In American political mythology there are considered to be Four Boxes of Liberty; the soapbox ie argument, the…” Aug 12, 17:19
Rob on The Other Kind Of Winning: “I don’t know about you but a “Were a collective/ junta/ faction consisting of Scotland’s brightest, one would hope for…” Aug 12, 17:12
