When I was a boy at Balbardie Primary School in Bathgate in the mid-70s, football was banned in the playground. Of course we were all fitba-daft laddies, so we sought ways around the prohibition. Occasionally someone would bring in a tennis ball, but those were difficult to control in school shoes and also apt to fly over the wall of the outdoor toilet block if somebody caught one sweetly on the volley.
So most playtimes somebody would produce a tin of Pepsi or Irn-Bru or Cresta, chug the contents, stand the empty container on its end and stomp sharply on it, producing something more akin to an ice-hockey puck that would serve for our kickabout.
But even after being skelped and scudded around a concrete playground into stone walls for 20 minutes, that can was still in better shape at the end of our game than the one the SNP have been kicking down the road since 2016.
Just over a year ago, Shona Robison – then the Cabinet Secretary For Social Justice, now the Deputy First Minister – told the Scottish Parliament this:
There now follow some quotes from the media regarding the case of Andrew Miller, aka Amy George, who yesterday admitted the kidnap and repeated sexual abuse of an 11-year-old girl at his home in Galashiels earlier this year.
This morning’s news is that the SNP have finally found a company desperate enough for business to take the gamble of associating itself with the party’s finances.
Oily SNP MP John Nicolson – a man who was pompous and condescending even as a teenager presenting Open To Question in the 1980s – this week posted an extended and theatrical Twitter rant at the fine Herald and National columnist Kevin McKenna.
As the SNP burns down around their ears, nothing stops the gravy bus. But even as they gallivant gaily around another “Tartan Week” junket in the USA, one might have thought the Constitution Minister would have shied away from this particular photo-op.
Alert readers may be familiar with the market research and polling company Progress Scotland. Readers of The National certainly will be, as the semi-newspaper has run over 120 stories about it, most of them around the company’s creation in early 2019.
The company was formed by Angus Robertson, at the time an unemployed former SNP MP after he lost his Moray seat in the 2017 election, and its stated goal was to persuade those not yet fully decided.
Willie on A Stitch In Timing: “Couldn’t help but reflect on the latest reports about our out beloved Labour party politico one Mr Peter Mandelson. Its…” Feb 6, 17:40
Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: ““try to rehabilitate Scotland before independence” I suspect that’s not generally how decolonization and ‘self-recovery of culture’ works, which is…” Feb 6, 17:18
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on A Stitch In Timing: “Re Sven. Point taken.” Feb 6, 17:06
Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: ““Not the Crown” ? Hardly. The root of the despicable colonial situation is that elites in Scotland aye tak thair…” Feb 6, 16:48
sarah on A Stitch In Timing: “Scottish court cases are hugely expensive, another obvious impediment to seeking “justice”. The case in the Scottish courts for a…” Feb 6, 16:37
Sven on A Stitch In Timing: “Fearghas Macfhionnlaigh. My own view on that would be that by misnaming a devolved administration as a Parliament a clear…” Feb 6, 15:24
Lorna Campbell on A Stitch In Timing: “With a heavy heart, I have to agree with you, Southernbystander, but not all Scots are anaesthetized by colonialism. Truth…” Feb 6, 15:24
Lorna Campbell on A Stitch In Timing: “I’m not privy, GM, as you might imagine, to what the powers-that-be are up to, but I think that the…” Feb 6, 15:12
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on A Stitch In Timing: “I would assume that Alex Salmond, and Winnie Ewing (‘The Scottish Parliament, which adjourned on March 25 1707, is hereby…” Feb 6, 14:50
barelybare on A Stitch In Timing: “Thanks for the explanation am firinn. I have a feeling only the initiated are going to truly understand what is…” Feb 6, 14:46
Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: “It is surely colonialism that makes a colonized people ‘dependent’. For “without colonialism there would be no colonized people” (Memmi).…” Feb 6, 14:25
Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: ““a devolved administration” That’s what the colonizer calls it. To the colonized it is always a colonial administration.” Feb 6, 13:47
TURABDIN on A Stitch In Timing: “@ALANM. AIDAN, HATEY All true, the political classes, not just in Scotland & England, seem stacked with those who couldn’t…” Feb 6, 13:28
Sven on A Stitch In Timing: “James Cheyne @ 12.59. Only initially renamed a ‘Parliament’ over a weekend owing to the vanity of Mr Salmond, “James”,…” Feb 6, 13:18
James Cheyne on A Stitch In Timing: “If the parliament in Scotland today was a real Scottish parliament it would not have reserved matters restrictions placed on…” Feb 6, 12:59
James Cheyne on A Stitch In Timing: “Define Scottish Government, from…Governance sent to Scotland from the Westminster of England- Ireland parliament since the dissolved parliament of Great…” Feb 6, 12:50
James Cheyne on A Stitch In Timing: “I wonder whom you do blame when Scotland made no 1707 treaty with the parliament of Great Britain nor with…” Feb 6, 12:43
James Cheyne on A Stitch In Timing: “The Westminster parliament ( Scotland ) act 1995 was passed by the Anglo- Irish united kingdom parliament. Which Scotland has…” Feb 6, 12:38
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: ““Section 170 dates from 1995 and has not been amended. It would now be within the powers of the Scottish…” Feb 6, 12:02
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “Excellent post, Southernbystander. Another side effect of the eternal “it wisnae us cos we’re bound hand and foot” attitude is…” Feb 6, 11:56
Cynicus on A Stitch In Timing: ““…the Scottish Government is in court trying to defend its policy of letting male murderers be housed in women’s prisons…” Feb 6, 11:55
gerry parker on A Stitch In Timing: “Thank you for reaching out – we do not intend to respond.” Feb 6, 11:49
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “@TURABDIN It may be quicker and easier to compile a list of those in public life with no links to…” Feb 6, 11:46
am firinn on A Stitch In Timing: “The 1995 Act was originally passed by our dear friends who are always looking out for our interests, at Westminster.…” Feb 6, 11:43
am firinn on A Stitch In Timing: “The reason is that s170 of the 1995 Act applies to summary proceedings, such as the case against Mr Hirst,…” Feb 6, 11:29
Aidan on A Stitch In Timing: “Yeah I mean Ross Greer is co-leader of a political party that was in government recently, the mind boggles. I’m…” Feb 6, 11:25
Southernbystander on A Stitch In Timing: “‘Dear Lord, will people stop trying to blame everything on England and take responsibility for what is happening in Scotland?…” Feb 6, 11:16
James Cheyne on A Stitch In Timing: “The laws changing Scotlands laws have evolved over the years and centuries into double triple layers of laws, from different…” Feb 6, 11:12
