Betting on air 137
Posted on
March 27, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Author Archive
Never the twain shall meet 46
Posted on
March 27, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
A keen-eyed viewer alerts us to the alarming fact that the Herald appears to have been letting Magnus Gardham write its leader column with his crayons again:
(Online version since fixed, print version preserved for posterity.)
Workfare for Holyrood 113
Posted on
March 27, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The media is in full-on spin mode today, reporting Ruth Davidson’s miraculous Damascene conversion to the principle of “more powers” for the Scottish Parliament, just 18 short months after her Churchill-esque declaration of devolutionary defiance to the effect that the petty tinkering of the Scotland Act was a “line in the sand”.
Most of the papers, of course, feign critical analysis by highlighting Davidson’s U-turn. But what we haven’t seen in a single one is any sort of actual examination of the content of Ms Davidson’s speech to a micro-audience of literally several people in what appeared to be the corridor of an Edinburgh hotel yesterday.
We suspect that’s because anyone who did would be very hard-pressed indeed to credibly describe the measures she proposes as representing “more powers” for anything. In fact, they’re the opposite.
What’s all this “we”, paleface? 358
Posted on
March 26, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Remember how Unionists endlessly cite World War 2 as the definitive example of great British “togetherness”? Turns out they might be over-egging that one a bit. From today’s Scottish Daily Express (print edition only):
Of course, that was a long time ago. Things are different now.
A gap in the market 92
Posted on
March 26, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
So. Wow. Where to start? Lead with the number, we suppose.
Did we say “Wow” yet?
Confused Unionist Of The Morning 244
Posted on
March 25, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
What you’re paying for 86
Posted on
March 25, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Running total (updated daily): £28,920 of £29,796 (97.1%).
Donations in last 24 hours: £886.
Air traffic control 78
Posted on
March 24, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We don’t know about you, viewers, but when we tune into a two-hour TV programme called “Scottish National Party Spring Conference 2013”, we sort of expect the large bulk of that show to be, well, the Scottish National Party Spring Conference 2013.
With the UK’s state broadcaster, though, that isn’t necessarily the case.
Don’t look back in anger 43
Posted on
March 24, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Apologies for the lack of posts today, readers – been working on a small practical project and getting into an argument with a No voter who might just be persuadable, among other things. But amid it all we stumbled across this on the BBC website.
It’s a 2011 interview with Noel Gallagher about the English riots. Gallagher was one of the cultural figureheads famously invited to Downing Street by Tony Blair during the short-lived “Cool Britannia” phase before the shine wore off the New Labour project.
“Running up to the last election I wasn’t going to vote, until my wife said ‘You’ve got to vote’, and I’ve got to say it’s the first time I’ve picked the most ludicrous thing on the list – some guy who was gonna dress as a pirate.
But the Labour Party have managed to prove themselves to be just as sleazy and horrible as we all know the Conservatives are. There’s nothing left to vote for any more.“
We empathise. But there’s still one part of Britain where that’s not true.
Late to the party 154
Posted on
March 23, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The BBC’s coverage of the SNP spring conference has finally started. You can watch it on BBC2 Scotland or on this live web stream, and discuss developments below.
The truth will out 28
Posted on
March 23, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We can only assume that Scottish Labour member and “Better Together” campaign director Blair McDougall somehow got lost in the blizzards sweeping the country and accidentally stumbled into the Scottish Conservatives conference this morning.
Warmly applauded, apparently. That’s nice.
The choices we make 27
Posted on
March 23, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We suspect that for the vast majority of our readers, it’ll be quite hard to get to grips with the fact that the Scottish Daily Mail intends this headline as a criticism.
In 18 months’ time, Scots will have the chance to decide whether they’d rather spend their money on pay rises for public-sector workers or on tax cuts for the rich and bribes for them to buy second homes and inflate another housing bubble with. We must admit to being quite surprised that there’s a debate about it.
