So there’s definitely going to be a second referendum, the No campaign is going to win it again and a shattered SNP will collapse as a result, sending Labour triumphantly back to Holyrood power. (Having now come out on top in not one but two internal elections, presumably Kezia Dugdale is now also a “proven winner”.)
It’s just that we feel like we’ve heard that before somewhere.
An update, then: as we write, our anti-poverty fundraiser (which set out to gather just £500 for a young woman in Kidderminster fined almost £330 for stealing a 75p pack of Mars bars out of desperate hunger after her benefits were sanctioned) stands at a phenomenal £14,395.
This spoon-faced howler was pointed out mirthfully by vile cybernats days ago, but we suspect that the person at Scottish Labour who knows how to work the internets only comes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It’s going to be a long road back.
Earlier today Gordon Brown gave a speech in London, on a subject and for reasons which are unclear. It was widely trailed in the press, however, as an intervention in the Labour leadership campaign, with the particular goal of stopping Jeremy Corbyn from winning. It was – naturally – broadcast live and in full by the BBC News channel.
Corbyn wasn’t mentioned by name so far as we noticed, but to tell the truth we drifted in and out of the rambling, 49-minute, 30-page monologue full of celebrity namedrops and unconnected anecdotes, hypnotised as we were by Brown’s relentless pacing up and down the room like a caged animal.
Nobody who isn’t getting paid should have to endure the entire grimness of it, so using the magic of technology we’ve compressed it all down to a mere fraction of its length (just 20%) for you, but without losing any of the tone, content or intellectual nuance.
We offer it to you as an elegy. It marks the day that Labour reanimated the walking corpse of the only person left in the party that it considers to have any gravitas – not to win an election, but to try to crush the first man in living memory to enthuse tens of thousands of new members to join a political party in the hope of restoring the values it was created to uphold.
It is the day the soul of the Labour Party finally died.
Keen followers of First Minister’s Questions will doubtless be excited to witness the weekly jousts, as the dynamic new regime of Kezia Dugdale sweeps out the tired old broom of Labour’s previous FMQs inquisitor, er, Kezia Dugdale.
Curiously, while the BBC was present and broadcasting live at the announcement of the new leader and deputy, neither’s acceptance speech was broadcast on TV, radio or online, which may well have surprised viewers and listeners who’ve become used to 50-minute prime-time Gordon Brown “intervention” specials.
In Dugdale’s case, our best guess is that the BBC didn’t want to have to fact-check it.
There’s another rather bizarre Kenny Farquharson column in today’s Times. Under the headline “Holyrood wasn’t built for a one-party state”, it asserts that “the Scottish Parliament is no longer fit for purpose” on the grounds that the opposition parties are useless, as if that were the fault of the electoral system rather than their leaders.
After that, though, it just gets flat-out insulting.
The papers these days are full of horrendous stories. For some reason this one just tripped a nerve, and we wanted to do something. Click here for details.
This debate between John “Mental Mad” McTernan and Owen Jones from the BBC News channel this morning doesn’t need a lot of commentary from us, to be honest.
It’s like watching someone try to reason with voicemail.
When presenter Matt Frei sympathetically puts to her that she left Scotland because she was being “given a very very hard time” by Yes/SNP supporters, Mone denies it, saying “I didn’t actually leave, that wasn’t the main reason to have left Scotland”.
So where could Frei have come by such a misapprehension?
Spartan 117 on Vibecoding A Better World: “It’s what happens when politics becomes an industry and a career in itself rather than a service. Qualifications are meaningless…” Nov 5, 10:39
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: ““so long as a people remain subject to territorial alienation there is no ‘democracy’” So true, Alf. I mind fine,…” Nov 5, 10:38
Alf Baird on Vibecoding A Better World: ““Our democracy has produced this rotten “inverse meritocracy” system, at least as far as the Left is concerned. It’s all…” Nov 5, 10:07
Captain Caveman on Vibecoding A Better World: “” I’d also question – loudly – why on earth a Liberian with a philosophy degree is trusted with dictating…” Nov 5, 09:30
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “I see nothing stopping “muesli eater” becoming a valid, protected identity in Scotland. But it does suffer from one shortcoming…” Nov 5, 08:55
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “CM says in his blog he wants to go to Ir@n so I guess there could be plenty of people,…” Nov 5, 08:39
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “Within five years or so, expect former oil & gas workers to be hunted down and, if still alive, charged…” Nov 5, 08:33
Aidan on Vibecoding A Better World: “Intriguing Alf – in what ways do you think that James is trying to “seek to develop” his nation? If…” Nov 5, 07:56
Minceheid on Vibecoding A Better World: “Haud oan a minute – if very special people can nowadays identify themselves as being catgender, does that imply that…” Nov 5, 07:28
sarah on Vibecoding A Better World: “100%Yes – I was thinking the donors could get their money back out of crowdjustice and then donate via another…” Nov 4, 21:51
Alf Baird on Vibecoding A Better World: “““Naw ye cannae”” is the constant refrain of the colonizer toward the colonized; the latter ‘seeks to develop’ his nation,…” Nov 4, 21:45
100%Yes on Vibecoding A Better World: “Usually when you give money that’s the end of it, I’ve never heard of something like this happening but then…” Nov 4, 17:03
Spartan 117 on Vibecoding A Better World: “https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqn734d24l0go I see the Fuckwits-on-Thames have published a bill to outlaw new oil and gas drilling. They really do want…” Nov 4, 16:45
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: ““could face up to five years in prison” Michty! Why seek to persuade somebody when you could kill them and…” Nov 4, 15:29
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Vibecoding A Better World: “TELLING SOMEONE ‘YOU ARE NOT A CAT’ COULD BE ILLEGAL UNDER GOVT’S CONVERSION PRACTICES BILL Attempting to convince a person…” Nov 4, 13:33
Aidan on Vibecoding A Better World: “I’m sure there is a message somewhere within that barely legible blether. Doubt it’s worth spending any time working out…” Nov 4, 13:29
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: ““Surely the donors should be notified and be able to claim their money?” Like the donors to the ring-fenced Referendum…” Nov 4, 12:53
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: ““Naw ye cannae” That’s what the academics call a truism when applied to you, James. “Naw ye cannae” describes you…” Nov 4, 12:41
sarah on Vibecoding A Better World: “O/T: Does anyone here know if a donor can retrieve their donation from a crowdfunder that has been closed by…” Nov 4, 12:31
James on Vibecoding A Better World: ““…Birds of a feather eh, you thick lefty twat….” Hark; behold the wisdom of the benefactor unionists, ocean going shits…” Nov 4, 12:28
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: ““better not feck with my muesli” Alert readers of Viz will recall that discussions of which foodstuffs can and can’t…” Nov 4, 12:12
Spartan 117 on Vibecoding A Better World: “Regardless of what’s happening over there, it remains a deeply divided nation with clowns to the left and jokers to…” Nov 4, 12:06
Minceheid on Vibecoding A Better World: “Hatey McHateface says: 4 November, 2026 at 10:10 am Tumbleweed this morning, as the fall from power and influence of…” Nov 4, 11:36
thrope on Vibecoding A Better World: “Dear Stu GIRFUY good luck defending fascism and fascists when your benefactor has met a woodchipper regards” Nov 4, 10:58
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “Tumbleweed this morning, as the fall from power and influence of Scotland’s greatest living half-Scot is enacted on live TV.…” Nov 4, 10:10
Captain Caveman on Vibecoding A Better World: “Heh, hark at you “Blockheaded Bracegirdle”, aligning yourself with “James”, a numbskull abusive troll whose entire contribution here is shouting…” Nov 3, 19:26
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “If you mean Mark Beggan, he’s sorely missed. They weren’t gibberish BTW. They were clever, witty and often very funny.…” Nov 3, 19:06
Bilbo on Vibecoding A Better World: “James, you should be grateful that there are only 3 of them now. Thankfully that halfwit who was flooding BTL…” Nov 3, 18:42
