Especially your later stuff. You are the obvious natural successor to those other great leaders, Richard Nixon and George W. Bush – the perfect combination of dodgy and thick. You’ve got it all.
Since the first day of your tangeroid slithering into Barack’s old gaff, you’ve gone from strength to strength. I thought building a thousand mile wall to stop people escaping would be your greatest triumph. But putting kids in cages? Genius.
Most of Scottish Twitter has been enjoying itself greatly for the last few hours after England’s exit from the World Cup, but scattered in amongst the amusing memes has been a fair amount of angst about victors Croatia – a nation of 4 million people – being in the final when Scotland once again failed to qualify.
And while we’ll more than happily listen to any amount of criticism of the unbelievably incompetent, hapless clowns who’ve been in charge of the SFA/SPL/SPFL for the last several decades, that judgement is a bit harsh on the players and coaches and the nation as a whole. Because there really hasn’t been much in it.
Scotland’s qualification for World Cup 2018 hinged and ultimately faltered on a split second and a single badly-chosen pass in stoppage time.
One of the uglier facets of opposition to the hugely-popular but now-repealed Offensive Behaviour (Football) Act was the 100% uniform stance against it in the Scottish press. Despite the Act being backed by a large majority of voters across every demographic and political divide, not one print or broadcast journalist ever stood up for the public.
The reason, of course, is that bigots (and lurid stories about them) are a large part of what keeps the Scottish media’s life support machine functioning, and so the media panders cynically to the extremist sections of the Celtic and “Rangers” support who still buy papers for the latest transfer gossip and soft-soap interviews with ex-players.
And so it is with a remarkably mad front-page lead in today’s Sunday Herald.
The paper reports that “over half” – 44 out of 86 – outstanding OBFA charges have been “converted” into other types of offences and are still being prosecuted by the independent Crown Office, claiming without explanation that this is “an embarrassing move for the SNP Government”.
In our latest Panelbase poll, we asked the same independence question we asked in the last one, and got much the same answer. (Technically the indy vote went up by about a sixth of one percent, but that’s statistically meaningless.)
That’s a bit disappointing after the events of recent weeks, but also not very surprising – after all, the way the question is framed pretty much guarantees at least 38% of the population will choose the second option straight off the bat.
Much more interesting is the question we asked next.
This year’s Scottish Social Attitudes Survey has found, yet again, that Scottish people trust their government in Holyrood vastly more than they trust the one in Westminster. The figures transcend party loyalties, with far more people saying they trust the Scottish Government than vote for the SNP.
Trust in both governments was down by five points, which meant the Scottish Government had lost 7.6% of its trust (66 down to 61) while the UK government had lost 20% of its trust (25 down to 20).
Now let’s see how two newspapers owned by the same company reported the news.
And to be absolutely fair to the Scottish Lib Dem leader, he’s always been consistent in his beliefs, such as the view that elected members should be given a second chance when they’ve committed a minor misdemeanour, and NOT have to (for example) stand down and face re-election.
So as we’re busy today we’ll just refer you to some of the previous occasions we’ve covered it, because literally everything about it is exactly the same now as it was then.
James on A matter of class: “Who’s “we”? LOL. You think anyone reads the shite that you post? What you might think you “know” in your…” Dec 22, 15:57
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “North Code, Scotland does need to wake up, and pretty quick, If England claims only Scotland is bound by the…” Dec 22, 14:29
sam on A matter of class: “https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-923X.13214 “Exploring Sovereignty in Scotland” David McCrone Michael Keating “The largest proportion in the sample, 30 per cent are ‘Scottish…” Dec 22, 14:21
Captain Caveman on A matter of class: “I couldn’t care less whether the likes of you believes me or not – as I’ve already told you. Feel…” Dec 22, 14:09
Aidan on A matter of class: “The bigger picture Dan is that the only thing you seem to be in favour of is highest taxes on…” Dec 22, 14:09
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “@Alf Baird 8.24pm Like any peoples language the Scots language plays ‘a vital role in shaping and defining ethnic identity’,…” Dec 22, 14:07
James on A matter of class: “We’ve only got your word for that though, haven’t we sweetie? You’re a Reform shill so probably a born liar.” Dec 22, 13:53
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “Alf Baird. Even with the trickery, bribery and deceit it must be remembered that the Scottish participation was only set…” Dec 22, 13:48
Captain Caveman on A matter of class: ““A braw chortle at young unionist Aidan whining about the demise of industries in Scotland.” Aw, look at old Dan,…” Dec 22, 13:17
diabloandco on A matter of class: “Just caught up with Led by Donkeys projection on Windsor castle – nice work!! And Nicola Jennings cartoon in the…” Dec 22, 12:33
Northcode on A matter of class: ““Scotland does need to wake up…” She surely does, James. Her bedside alarm is now ringing, at least, and I…” Dec 22, 12:32
Northcode on A matter of class: “I’ve always thought of the word ‘inchoately’ as being a particularly unhelpful word; a word with no clear and singularly…” Dec 22, 12:17
Alf Baird on A matter of class: “Indeed so, James, and in addition, there is plenty of evidence of bribery and coercion involved at the time which…” Dec 22, 12:15
Alf Baird on A matter of class: ““Unreasoning nativists can scream inchoately” You mean like American Professor Michael Hechter in his detailed scientific analysis of the ‘UK…” Dec 22, 11:49
Northcode on A matter of class: “Yet another excellent and informative post, Alf. Personally, I’m sick of swallowing Westminster’s green and mouldy moon cheese. An observation:…” Dec 22, 11:45
Northcode on A matter of class: “Foul language restrained in writing is a sad and pathetic sight to behold. Foul language by its nature is wild…” Dec 22, 11:25
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “The Union remembers and fears the day coming in and shining a light over the treaty, It fears that Scotland…” Dec 22, 11:09
Alf Baird on A matter of class: “Yes, and the stink of “colonialism …drives the most peaceable populations to despair” (Cesaire) Aside from the obligatory racism and…” Dec 22, 11:09
The Flying Iron of Doom on A matter of class: “Hatey McHateface says: 20 December, 2025 at 3:30 pm Thanks for your reply, Stuart. As it happens, I lack a…” Dec 22, 11:06
Northcode on A matter of class: ““What fascinating dialogues we could have” Here’s some dialogue for you (really more a command): “DANCE!” Dance tae whitiver tune…” Dec 22, 11:01
Captain Caveman on A matter of class: “@Hatey “… As to their younger years, a casual look at their typical posts suggests they could never have done…” Dec 22, 11:00
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “England did not need a referendum to leave the treaty of union in 1800. But Scotland does need a referendum…” Dec 22, 10:58
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “I understand the unionist mind to try keep us voting for a construct that is not there, to keep us…” Dec 22, 10:37
Dan on A matter of class: “A braw chortle at young unionist Aidan whining about the demise of industries in Scotland. Sad to see such a…” Dec 22, 10:36
Northcode on A matter of class: “Guid mornyng aw… A howp ye aw hae a guid Monday day the day.” Dec 22, 10:13
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: “A fascinating article, Dan. As you say, much to mull over in it. If only Wings BTL provided a forum…” Dec 22, 09:53
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: “Mair car park mayhem in mos cow. Some cant must have cut up some other cant at a junction and…” Dec 22, 09:41
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: “@Aidan It’s overwhelmingly likely that none of the usual suspects pay any taxes, being well past the age when they…” Dec 22, 09:30
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: “Rather disappointing to hear that about Viz. I would have expected that more than half of every Viz issue could…” Dec 22, 08:59
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: “Check out the ablest prejudice from Beggan. To him, the differently abled really do not exist.” Dec 22, 08:47
