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A letter to the editor 234

Posted on December 02, 2014 by

…of the Press & Journal.

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The unwilling accomplices 149

Posted on December 01, 2014 by

As we’re talking about surveys, opinion polls and statistics today, it seemed worth mentioning another one that’s come to our attention. Conducted earlier in the year by YouGov but only released today, it’s a vast poll done on behalf of the Co-operative and canvassed over 180,000 people, most of them through the Co-op’s own website.

It’s relevant to us because the Co-operative also runs a political party, which has representatives at both Westminster (31 MPs) and Holyrood (4). They’re little-known because the Co-op never stands in its own right, but in conjunction with Labour, so to all intents and purposes it’s a branch of the Labour Party, funded by Co-op customers.

coopbank

And it turns out most of them don’t know that, and don’t like it when they find out.

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The ultimate irony 148

Posted on December 01, 2014 by

We’ve long known that Labour’s attachment to the Union was founded on the belief – though a statistically erroneous one – that it couldn’t form a secure UK government without the block of MPs (currently 40) that it sends to Westminster from Scotland.

obiwansalmond

But a fascinating article from YouGov president Peter Kellner on the YG website today suggests that the party’s desperate and eventually successful efforts to secure a No vote could turn out to be the most Pyrrhic victory of all time.

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The conclusion not arrived at 114

Posted on December 01, 2014 by

There’s a curious column in today’s Scottish Sun on the subject of the Smith Commission. We’re going to have to quote quite a large chunk of it to make our point.

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Let’s play Jocko Bingo! 161

Posted on November 30, 2014 by

This really happened today:

Bagpipes! Haggis! Tartan! Whisky! Pretty sure we just got trolled, folks.

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Socialism, 2014 78

Posted on November 30, 2014 by

Here’s Jim Murphy, a self-proclaimed “socialist” and the hot favourite to be the next “leader” of Scottish Labour, interviewed in today’s Mail On Sunday while doubtless still fresh from his regular early-morning run-through of The Red Flag:

murphymail

To the barricades, comrades!

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Objects in the mirror 88

Posted on November 30, 2014 by

…are closer than they appear, runs a (slightly depressing) inscription that must by law be engraved on the door mirror of cars in the USA.

objects1

Objects in the Telegraph, though, follow different rules. (Thanks, we’re here all week.)

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The truth may out 101

Posted on November 30, 2014 by

As the Unionist press and parties indulge in orgasmic paroxysms this week about how “The Vow” has allegedly been delivered and exceeded, it rings even stranger that absolutely nobody wants to claim the credit for authoring the historic document that saved the UK. Our investigations continue.

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How to lie without even trying 232

Posted on November 29, 2014 by

This is a headline from Thursday’s Guardian:

14bn

You all know how it works by now, right?

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Telegram for Mr Brown 134

Posted on November 29, 2014 by

It needs saying as much today as it did last month.

The Scottish Secretaries 309

Posted on November 28, 2014 by

The coverage of the Smith Commission findings in today’s press is woeful pretty much across the board, regardless of where each paper’s allegiances sit. Right-wing Tory papers fume about the poor suffering English (without ever quite pinning down how England would lose out from the proposals) and rage bitterly at what they bizarrely interpret as hypocrisy on the part of the SNP for signing off on the report but then criticising it as inadequate.

(If it helps, chaps, try picturing yourselves as creditors of a bankrupt business being offered a CVA settlement of 10p in each pound owed. It’s better than getting nothing at all and you’d accept the offer, but you’d still be pretty unhappy, right?)

bullkrieg

Meanwhile, the Daily Record continues its blitzkrieg bombardment of breathtakingly barefaced bullshot, attempting to simply overwhelm gullible readers by virtue of the sheer volume (in both senses of the word) of its spin and flat-out lies.

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Monkey disowns organ-grinder 185

Posted on November 27, 2014 by

We mentioned this story (about David Cameron pushing ahead with “English votes for English laws” legislation that would exclude Labour MPs from budget votes, despite the Smith Commission report categorically saying he wouldn’t) earlier today, but one particular line from it deserves a post of its own.

“In a briefing to journalists afterwards, [Alistair] Carmichael who described the commission proposals as ‘a modern blueprint for home rule’ insisted that the view did not reflect government policy.

He said: ‘This is the Prime Minister’s view, it is not government policy.’”

You heard it right, readers: a never-seen dimwit in a job so pointless he himself stood in the last election on a policy of abolishing it altogether really just said “Don’t listen to anything this idiot says about government policy, he’s only the Prime Minister.”

It’s been that sort of day, folks.

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