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MP For Vendetta 205

Posted on December 07, 2014 by

We’ve noted on a number of occasions that the BBC is fond of using the late-night papers review show on the News channel as a sneaky little Nat-bashing section in which London-based broadsheet journalists (always, always Unionists) get to display the full depth of their arrogant cluelessness about Scottish politics.

Last night’s, however, was quite something even by the usual standards.

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The definition of redundancy 236

Posted on December 06, 2014 by

Ladies and gentlemen, it gives us great pleasure today to present to you the most unnecessary words ever printed in the history of Scottish political journalism.

“Even Nicola Sturgeon agrees that Scots should vote Labour to make sure David Cameron’s Conservatives do not win the 2015 General Election, Margaret Curran will say today.

The Shadow Scottish Secretary will make the claim in a speech to a Labour summit in Perth when she is also due to attack the SNP.”

On current polling, it won’t be long before Ms Curran emulates her script.

The future, coming soon 150

Posted on December 05, 2014 by

From a YouGov poll of young (18-24) voters today:

yg1824

Now that’s quite the thing.

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One more twist of the corkscrew 96

Posted on December 05, 2014 by

The Herald, 1 June 2014:

“[A] YouGov poll compiled by Better Together suggests most Scots want to share pensions and benefits across the UK. Labour released the findings ahead of the launch of its referendum campaign, due to take place at a rally in Glasgow on Tuesday.

Scottish leader Johann Lamont will be joined by former prime minister Gordon Brown at the event. 

Ms Lamont said: ‘According to this Better Together polling, most Scots understand that our pensions and benefits are better being backed across the United Kingdom, spread across 60 million people rather than six million.'”

We’ll let Johann’s rather shaky grasp of the UK and Scottish population sizes slide on this occasion – she taught English, not maths or geography. The important thing is that the No vote in the referendum assured that benefits would remain a central, shared and uniform facet of British life. Right?

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Not keeping up with the news 156

Posted on December 04, 2014 by

A real letter sent out by the shadow Secretary of State for Scotland this week.

magritblah

Someone do us a favour and explain to her in language she’ll understand that as the Scottish Parliament isn’t trusted by her Westminster pals to control its own resources, the price of oil doesn’t actually impact on “the SNP’s economic plan” in any way whatsoever, would you? We’re not very good with crayons.

A lucky escape 104

Posted on December 04, 2014 by

Phew, eh?

espensions

(April 2014 on the left, December 2014 on the right.)

The Indian giver 123

Posted on December 04, 2014 by

George Osborne’s autumn mini-Budget is the sort of thing that shouldn’t be read late at night. The programme of swingeing cuts to public services it outlined would chill the blood of anyone with an ounce of compassion in their souls.

grumpyosborne

Fortunately, this site concerns itself chiefly with Scottish politics, so we can leave the full horror to others, turn away in fear and focus on a couple of decisions that are particularly interesting in a constitutional context.

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Votes of confidence 297

Posted on December 03, 2014 by

Alert readers will already be aware that we’re not the biggest fans of prospective Scottish Labour deputy “leader” Kezia Dugdale. Even this site, however, doesn’t think the Lothian list MSP is so inept and slow-witted that she could single-handedly be held responsible for the party losing the next two general elections.

katyclarkletter

Some of her comrades, however, have less faith.

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The lie and the truth 72

Posted on December 03, 2014 by

The Daily Record, 27 November 2014:

budget2x

So, IS the Scottish Government budget going to “nearly double”?

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Souls in the system 109

Posted on December 03, 2014 by

We’ve been watching in some bafflement the continuation of this bizarre non-story from yesterday. (For which, incidentally, the P&J has published a correction today.)

wingssquad

As one in five Scottish children live in poverty and temperatures fall at the beginning of winter with many families facing the choice between heating their homes or buying food, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie apparently arrived at the conclusion that the most important thing he could be doing with his taxpayer-funded time was occupying the Scottish Parliament with a demand to know (for no immediately apparent reason) how often civil servants had accessed Wings Over Scotland in the six months leading up to the referendum.

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A less permanent permanence 69

Posted on December 03, 2014 by

“We are agreed that the Scottish Parliament is permanent”:

vowperm

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World speed-reading record broken again 205

Posted on December 02, 2014 by

We didn’t think we’d ever encounter a greater feat of rapid comprehension than Alistair Darling digesting and analysing the entire 670-page White Paper on independence in under two hours back in 2013, readers. But we’re delighted to reveal a new champion.

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