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The House Of Liars 162

Posted on May 26, 2015 by

The former Liberal Democrat MP (and also the party’s former Scottish leader, and until just a few weeks ago its UK deputy leader) Sir Malcolm Bruce gave an extraordinary interview to Radio 4’s Today programme this morning about Alistair Carmichael.

malcolmbruce

The whole thing can be heard here, but the short passage below stood out even in the context of a breathless, furious, scattergun performance that sounded like a man on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

(Today, BBC Radio 4, 26 May 2015)
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We’re sure readers will be greatly comforted by the fact that it’s okay for the Secretary of State for Scotland to tell a “brazen lie”, on the grounds that everyone else in the Houses Of Parliament is a liar too, and by the notion that a government minister who’s caught lying to the nation in order to undermine the democratically-elected leader of Scotland is an offence for which the culprit can simply decide their own punishment.

Twisting in the wind 332

Posted on May 25, 2015 by

We thought you should hear this extraordinary interview with Alistair Carmicheal from BBC Radio Orkney this morning.

(Around Orkney, BBC Radio Orkney, 25 May 2015)
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The former Scottish Secretary’s excuse for lying on air is a feeble, Hothersall-esque semantic dodge, and his excuse for not resigning is that his years of service as a constituency MP ought to outweigh the fact that a UK government minister abused his office and lied to the public in order to undermine the democratically-elected leader of Scotland and cling on to his own job.

Having now heard the case for the defence, readers can reach their own verdicts.

Maximum toe-curl 153

Posted on May 05, 2015 by

An awkward time for poor Kezia Dugdale on the radio this morning.

(Good Morning Scotland, BBC Radio Scotland, 5 May 2015)
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lieolith

We’ll just leave that there to help you out, Kez.

The pessimist 146

Posted on April 29, 2015 by

It’s come awfully late, but we’ve finally got an answer to a question people have been asking Jim Murphy since last December.

In an interview with the BBC’s Gary Robertson this morning, the Scottish Labour regional manager told listeners that should he win the East Renfrewshire seat in next month’s election, he’d stay in the job for the full five-year term, but would also stand for election as a Holyrood MSP in 2016.

(Good Morning Scotland, BBC Radio Scotland, 29 April 2015)
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And that raises more questions than it answers.

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We didn’t imagine this, then 136

Posted on April 28, 2015 by

Waking up bleary-eyed this morning at 6.45am, we reached over to switch on Good Morning Scotland, just in time for the news headlines round-up. This is what we heard:

(Good Morning Scotland, BBC Radio Scotland, 28 April 2015)
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We honestly thought in our semi-awake state we might have dreamed it.

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The Armageddon Risk 206

Posted on April 15, 2015 by

The BBC’s Robert Peston on yesterday’s Today programme. (About 2h 37m in.)

(Today, BBC Radio 4, 14 April 2015)
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Thank heavens that nice Mr Miliband’s going to stand up for austerity, eh?

The truth dodgers 116

Posted on April 07, 2015 by

As our veteran readers will know, Duncan Hothersall is a prominent Scottish Labour activist, occasional BBC and STV pundit, prospective Labour parliamentary candidate and editor of LabourHame, the party’s favoured blog in Scotland.

Earlier today we got an email from someone who wanted us to ask him a question.

jessied

Here’s how the conversation went.

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Saying what everyone’s thinking 299

Posted on April 01, 2015 by

This is an extract from this morning’s Today programme on Radio 4 (starts about 2h 5m in), in which James Naughtie expresses an unusually frank and forthright opinion on Jim Murphy’s claim about the biggest party forming the government.

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We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.

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The weight of evidence 157

Posted on March 31, 2015 by

Like some sort of out-of-control, unstoppable lying machine, Scottish Labour keep telling the electorate that the party with the most seats in a hung parliament is the one that forms the government, and that the only way to prevent the Conservatives from returning to power is for Labour to be the biggest party.

asimplefact

They’ve been saying it for weeks. They say it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, almost as if it’s all they’ve got.

The trouble is that an awful lot of people seem to disagree with them.

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Ducking and diving 154

Posted on March 31, 2015 by

Credit is due to those of the Scottish media who have taken up this site’s challenge to ask Labour the key question of the 2015 election debate in Scotland – “Are Labour prepared to form a government if they’re not the largest party in a hung parliament?”

(Because if the answer is yes then Labour’s entire Scottish election strategy – “Vote SNP get Tories!” – crumbles to dust, and if it’s no then Labour is saying that it’d be prepared to abandon not just Scotland but the whole UK to another five years of Conservative government purely out of spite against the SNP.)

Three of the party’s elected representatives have now been asked the question on air – James Kelly MSP by John Mackay of Scotland Tonight a week ago, branch office leader Jim Murphy by BBC Scotland’s Gary Robertson yesterday, and the shadow Scottish Secretary Margaret Curran last night (below), again by STV’s John Mackay.

As you can see, Scotland’s voters still await an answer. But on this page we’ll keep track of all the swerves, evasions and dodges until we get one, if we ever do.

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One more for the list 201

Posted on March 30, 2015 by

We’re going to compile all of these onto a single page soon, because as you can see, Scottish Labour just can’t seem to stop telling this lie.

slablie

Today’s expert saying “Does it, aye?” (and the latest in a long and distinguished line) is Peter Riddell from the Institute For Government, speaking on Radio 4’s “World At One” this afternoon (from 35m).

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Edging closer to the truth 143

Posted on March 30, 2015 by

Listeners to today’s “Good Morning Scotland” were treated (from 2h 7m at that link) to a consummate masterclass in the art of evasion from Labour’s Scottish branch-office manager Jim Murphy. The bulk of a 13-minute segment was devoted to Murphy’s claim that a Labour vote in this May’s general election would bring about an end to foodbanks in Scotland, although the pledge steadily degraded as interviewer Gary Robertson pressed fruitlessly for detail.

(Murphy refused to say if or when any money generated by a Labour UK government would be given to the Scottish Government, wouldn’t be drawn on when the need for foodbanks would be eradicated, shot down a straw man on benefit sanctions and eventually conceded that in fact there would always be foodbanks, by way of a brief diversion to “I do a lot of work for charity but I don’t like to talk about it”.)

garyrob

Towards the end, though, Robertson asked Murphy the question Scottish Labour really don’t want to answer, and this time he almost landed a knockout blow.

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    • Jay on The People You Most Suspected: “Znovak! Nail on head or hail on ned?Nov 14, 21:49
    • Jay on The People You Most Suspected: “Let’s see whether there is a substantive response from Geri. best not make assumptions about my eyes. the question of…Nov 14, 21:46
    • James on The People You Most Suspected: “That right, aye?Nov 14, 21:43
    • Zander Tait on The People You Most Suspected: “Greetings my dear Cokey McCokeHeid. What is it like to be despised by every other poster here? How much are…Nov 14, 21:33
    • Jay on The People You Most Suspected: “Which is your priority: independence or union?Nov 14, 21:33
    • Jay on The People You Most Suspected: “That is cryptic.Nov 14, 21:31
    • Jay on The People You Most Suspected: “TimewasterNov 14, 21:23
    • Alf Baird on The People You Most Suspected: “It does what a colonial administration does, i.e. keeps the colonial racket going.Nov 14, 21:16
    • Hatey McHateface on The People You Most Suspected: “Seriously, Jay, I applaud the wide-eyed innocence infusing your post. I can only conclude you must be new here :)…Nov 14, 21:05
    • znovak on The People You Most Suspected: “Yay, Geri joins the fray and she’s in great form. Be warned, this is strong stuff. “R didn’t go in…Nov 14, 20:59
    • Jay on The People You Most Suspected: “Some but not all of this agreed. Geri. Do some call it ‘disaster capitalism’ where Blackrock and co. move in…Nov 14, 20:25
    • Hatey McHateface on The People You Most Suspected: “Ha. I had you pegged as the seedy sort who likes to look up ticks.Nov 14, 20:22
    • Hatey McHateface on The People You Most Suspected: ““ordinary people on both sides of the Atlantic remain fucked ( and possibly immolated ny thermonuclear war and/or climate disaster.”…Nov 14, 20:16
    • Hatey McHateface on The People You Most Suspected: ““Its a dark dark time for indy” Sure, Ros, and potty-mouthed ignoramuses like you, permanently fixated on the student politics…Nov 14, 19:59
    • James on The People You Most Suspected: “How’s your upticks looking? lol Prick.Nov 14, 19:58
    • Hatey McHateface on The People You Most Suspected: ““the SNP couldn’t build a ferry” Maybe naw. I bet though, if they painted the port of registration on the…Nov 14, 19:50
    • Hatey McHateface on The People You Most Suspected: “The “British establishment” is not closing down Grangemouth. It’s closing because of the SNP/Green government’s accelerated rush towards net zero…Nov 14, 19:46
    • Hatey McHateface on The People You Most Suspected: “Awwww. Fa’s this “scotland” ye keep banging oan aboot? Ah cannae find it oan ony map. Did ye jist mak…Nov 14, 19:43
    • willie on The People You Most Suspected: “Funny old world but the British establishment is not closing down our gas and oil extraction from the North Sea.…Nov 14, 19:15
    • Robert Hughes on The People You Most Suspected: “Excellent post , GP . You’ll have noticed how the ” Progressives ” are now getting EVERYTHING wrong . In…Nov 14, 19:10
    • Republicofscotland on The People You Most Suspected: “Piss-off you Chinthe tosser.Nov 14, 18:50
    • Republicofscotland on The People You Most Suspected: “And who could blame the voters – the left has sold the people out in many countries – at one…Nov 14, 18:49
    • Hatey McHateface on The People You Most Suspected: “Wow, my respect for Robin McAlpine just tanked. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now, accepting that…Nov 14, 18:45
    • Republicofscotland on The People You Most Suspected: “The SNP don’t actually give a toss – though to fool the masses they use prepped speeches and sound bites…Nov 14, 18:42
    • wull on The People You Most Suspected: “Couldn’t the Scottish Government find a way to take the refinery over? Even by a compulsory purchase order. Not to…Nov 14, 18:35
    • Republicofscotland on The People You Most Suspected: “Thank F*ck the disastrous National Care Service will fail to pass in the Holyrood chamber even the Fifth Columnist parties…Nov 14, 18:34
    • Hatey McHateface on The People You Most Suspected: “Admit it Ros, you’re just narked he doesn’t support your side, so you never get offered a lift.Nov 14, 18:30
    • Mark Beggan on The People You Most Suspected: “He’s right about one thing the Left has done the Mea Culpa and the Right is on the rise everywhere…Nov 14, 18:29
    • Republicofscotland on The People You Most Suspected: “Meanwhile one of the Mayor of Scotland’s SNP sidekicks “Health Minister” Neil Gray has apologised for his jaunts in ministerial…Nov 14, 18:21
    • Republicofscotland on The People You Most Suspected: “So Grangemouth Refinery will close on May next year – Scotland – a country rich in oil and gas and…Nov 14, 18:12
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