We think the lads at The Scotsman might have gotten a bit confused and/or carried away when it came to putting the clocks forward at the weekend. At 6am on Sunday morning they tweeted this:
But the link was a 404. We checked the print edition of Scotland On Sunday but there was nothing there either. Finally, though, the article has shown up in today’s paper and on the website, and to be honest with you, readers, we still think it must be some sort of mistake, because it’s two days early for April 1st.
The last faint hope of any remotely positive or at least interesting outcome of May’s election just left the building.
It wasn’t MUCH of a hope, and it’s absolutely no surprise in the wake of the comically shambolic, belief-defyingly inept farce that has been the birth of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s fringe-of-the fringe party, but all the same its extinguishing means the next two months will be even more of a waste of time than they looked like being.
Frankly, readers, we may as well not bother having an election at all.
Which is handy, because today is also the day of the Gorton and Denton by-election in Manchester (fun fact: a seat we’d very likely have lived in ourselves if not for Osama bin Laden, but that’s another story), and that throws up some interesting parallels.
So on the one hand there’s obviously very little point paying attention to the SNP’s regional list candidates for May’s Holyrood election, because as this website has comprehensively demonstrated over recent months, the chances of the SNP having any list MSPs elected are remote.
However, nothing is impossible, so let’s take a look at the B team, which also serves as a guide to the party’s upcoming talent taking its first steps towards the gravy bus.
The Sunday National’s front page today elicited a sigh of “So what?” from most.
We’ve already GOT a “pro-indy” majority at Holyrood and have done for the last 10 years, for all it’s been worth. But to be fair there was a paragraph in the article that at least raised a quizzical eyebrow.
This clip was broadcast on ITV News Wales this week.
It’s a staggeringly obvious mess for a whole raft of reasons – a number of completely spurious, illogical and unsupported claims are accepted as facts without any sort of challenge or balancing voice (which has been standard practice on ITV News for a while now across almost any contentious political topic) – but it led us to somewhere magnitudes of crazier still.
My first ever real experience of politics was playing Dictator.
Originally written by Don Priestley for the Sinclair ZX81 in 1982, it was a simple text-based game which subsequently came to other formats including the Commodore 64, BBC Micro, Elan Enterprise and the ZX Spectrum, which is where I encountered it.
This week The National published a poll it commissioned from Find Out Now for this May’s Scottish Parliament election, alongside a seat projection from Sir John Curtice. Here are the list-vote figures from the poll.
The seat projection calculated that the election would result in 59 SNP MSPs (six short of the number John Swinney says is the minimum needed to force a second indyref), 25 for Reform, 13 for the Greens, 12 each for Labour and the Tories and eight for the Lib Dems.
It didn’t specify how many of the seats were constituency ones and how many were list ones, so we dropped Sir John a line and asked him.
Bilbo on The Slowest Dawning: “It’s possible that a good part of the remaining 40% SNP members are young activists who only care about maintaining…” Aug 28, 23:45
Young Lochinvar on The Slowest Dawning: “EPX I suspect that will be when SNP leader in waiting Jenny (the) Gilruth/ Dugdale composite takes the reins; once…” Aug 28, 23:15
Ex President Xiden on The Slowest Dawning: “Swinney, the family undertaker about to bury the SNP.” Aug 28, 22:18
Captain Caveman on The Slowest Dawning: “Well, certainly, none of the things that I mentioned remotely apply to you, Fatso, so I guess the joke’s on…” Aug 28, 22:14
James on The Slowest Dawning: ““….anything resembling “being a Tory”, on the other hand, was deeply shunned – hard work, enterprise, trying to get on…” Aug 28, 22:00
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Slowest Dawning: “Posted this on previous thread. Perhaps worth reposting here. Rewards time spent giving it a listen. LAWYERING WITHOUT LAW (1…” Aug 28, 21:59
James Che on Spot The Problem: “The thing about recorded history, is you don’t get to pick and choose only the bits you like, It is…” Aug 28, 21:43
Captain Caveman on The Slowest Dawning: “” How did we ever allow ourselves to elect a dictatorship of wee dicks?” Simples. You embraced left wing “progressive”…” Aug 28, 21:17
GM on The Slowest Dawning: “Hopefully long gone by then Spartan. I see that contemptuous individual Von Der Leyen wants to make use of the…” Aug 28, 21:10
Red on The Slowest Dawning: “ChatGPT, has Alex Kerr (SNP Member of the Scottish Parliament) ever had a real job? === Prior to entering elected…” Aug 28, 20:34
Nicky T Naquetti on The Slowest Dawning: “Jesus Fucking H. Christ – that absolute STATE of that dysgenic little weasely hipster in front of that rainbow bus..…” Aug 28, 19:44
factchecker on The Slowest Dawning: ““And turned it was no by the tried and tested strategy of blavkmail, bribery with all any any assistance needed…” Aug 28, 19:24
Terry on The Slowest Dawning: “I have seen this on another Indy site. It’s excellent.” Aug 28, 19:19
Rev. Stuart Campbell on The Slowest Dawning: “That IS peculiar.” Aug 28, 18:59
Mark Beggan on The Slowest Dawning: “Brilliantly put Rev. It’s the Woke Jihad.” Aug 28, 18:42
Captain Caveman on Spot The Problem: “Well, I’m sure we’re all devastated, Fatso. (“LOL” – definitely at you pal).” Aug 28, 18:35
100%Yes on The Slowest Dawning: “Just in at The National, “SNP Westminster leader U-turns after opening door to indyref deal with Nigel Farage” I have…” Aug 28, 18:17
Karen on The Slowest Dawning: “What jumped out at me was “15. [Making the case] … over time, well ahead of any future referendum campaign”.…” Aug 28, 18:16
100%Yes on The Slowest Dawning: “The National doesn’t make good reading for people wanting Independence or the SNP membership. It states “SNP members’ fury as…” Aug 28, 18:14
James on The Slowest Dawning: “Or just don’t bother. Would suit most.” Aug 28, 18:13
100%Yes on The Slowest Dawning: “Certain people actually believe ATLS is the party you should now vote for, NAW they ain’t. They have been actively…” Aug 28, 18:09
James on Spot The Problem: “LOL. [at you, not with you].” Aug 28, 18:09
viscount ennui on The Slowest Dawning: “SNP supporters v Christians “So do you actually believe that an angel impregnated Mary to produce JC?” “Well, obviously no.…” Aug 28, 18:03
100%Yes on The Slowest Dawning: “The National doesn’t make good reading for people wanting Independence or the SNP membership. It states “SNP members’ fury as…” Aug 28, 18:00
Spartan 117 on The Slowest Dawning: “Worse than that, Honest John and his cronies want to offshore and outsource democracy to the undemocratic EU and turn…” Aug 28, 17:53
agentx on The Slowest Dawning: “I’ll wait for James Che’s in depth analysis and Alf’s quotes before passing judgement!” Aug 28, 17:46
