The above story is feeble enough as it stands, even allowing for it being a desperately slow news week for Scottish politics. Maureen Watt is 66 years old and has asthma, and making a pensioner with breathing difficulties sprint a mile to get to a speech on time probably isn’t the most cost-effective way for the Parliament to save four and a half quid, once you’ve factored in the cost of the ambulance and everything.
Sometimes it’s hard for Yes supporters in Scotland not to be a bit jealous of Catalonia.
Despite their would-be nation being only a little bit bigger than Scotland, and despite being faced with very real physical and legal intimidation, the Catalan independence movement regularly manages to put hundreds of thousands of people on the streets.
Yes marches and rallies in Scotland, by comparison, often struggle to get attendances numbered in the hundreds, largely because squabbling factions refuse to get along with each other and by far the biggest entity in the Yes movement – the SNP – wants nothing to do with them.
Marches don’t win independence, of course. But what does?
We referenced this a few days ago because we definitely remembered it happening, but we’d been unable to actually locate the evidence, and at Wings Over Scotland that sort of thing bothers us. After a very considerable amount of effort we’ve now tracked it down, so we’re bunging it up here to preserve it for the record.
(At that point host Frank Skinner gave up and moved on.)
It’s from one month after the indyref, and the interesting thing is that Robinson is twice given the opportunity to respond to Skinner’s question about whether he thought that the pro-Yes supporters had any sort of fair point about his alleged bias, and both times – rather than, say, just dismissing it with a quick “Of course not” – he ducks it.
Readers can, as always, make their own judgements.
Amid the horror of events in Catalonia yesterday, the Prime Minister of the UK – quite unintentionally – said something during an interview on the Andrew Marr Show which was highly pertinent not only to the Catalan referendum but to British domestic politics too. We thought it needed saving for the record.
We stuck this short clip up on YouTube yesterday as a throwaway while watching the Labour conference in slack-jawed astonishment (a visitor from an alien planet would have concluded it was the gathering of a party that had just won a landslide victory, not lost its third general election in a row), but on reflection it deserves a proper post.
If you know anything at all about the story of how female Glasgow City Council employees have fought for equal pay, you’ll probably be as outraged as we are at Baxter’s bulletproof brass neck. But the video actually demonstrates what appears to be Scottish Labour’s master strategy for winning back Scotland.
Willie on Shield Of The Phantom: “Undernoted is a link to a Hersld article by Kevin McKenna on the persistent problem of public bodies in Scotland…” Feb 1, 06:42
Young Lochinvar on Shield Of The Phantom: “I had to think hmmm at the apparent “speed” with which good ol’ Uncle Sam’s Justice Department has released an…” Feb 1, 06:03
Young Lochinvar on Shield Of The Phantom: “Public enquiries! What a failure they have become. I see “Honest” John is claiming no political pressure was applied to…” Feb 1, 02:59
Cynicus on Shield Of The Phantom: “Alf, It’s great to see you posting in your field of authentic and significant expertise. The Scottish government,Transport Scotland, Calmac…” Feb 1, 02:44
Alf Baird on Shield Of The Phantom: “” Independence will avail us nothing if the law falls through deliberate flouting and skewing of its basic principles” Which…” Jan 31, 21:20
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “@Lorna Campbell “When delivering a verdict on a point of law, is it better for the judge to produce a…” Jan 31, 18:52
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “@Cynicus My eyesight isn’t what it was. Before I reply, answer me this: Is this a dagger I see her…” Jan 31, 18:34
Alf Baird on Shield Of The Phantom: “Yes David, and we can thank the Mull & Iona Ferry Committee for proving the inept nature of public sector…” Jan 31, 17:56
Lorna Campbell on Shield Of The Phantom: “In what way, H McH? Subjective versus objective is precisely what was asked. I had not ever thought you naive,…” Jan 31, 16:36
Lorna Campbell on Shield Of The Phantom: “Well done, Saffron Robe. Those are exactly the points I have been trying to make: it all depends on what…” Jan 31, 16:16
Cynicus on Shield Of The Phantom: “Hatey McHateface says: 31 January, 2026 at 8:25 am “One is, one isn’t” ========== A very good effort at my…” Jan 31, 15:57
Lorna Campbell on Shield Of The Phantom: “Evidence please, Iain? Nothing has come to light to suggest that Trump was involved in that way. It might, but…” Jan 31, 15:40
sarah on Shield Of The Phantom: “Rev, coincidentally Persephone Books [8 Edgar Buildings, Bath] highlights this week a book on this exact same topic. “In my…” Jan 31, 14:17
Anthem on Shield Of The Phantom: “OT, bit a uk company investing around £11bn in China for max profit, yet zero investment from China to the…” Jan 31, 13:53
Oneliner on Shield Of The Phantom: “Anyway, Hatey – how are the wife and kids?” Jan 31, 11:32
Sven on Shield Of The Phantom: “Cynicus @ 02.06/02.07 The classic answer being, I seem to recall, ” Only if this is an answer “.” Jan 31, 10:15
David Holden on Shield Of The Phantom: “Not as if ferry cock ups are anything new. Our soon to be retired ferry The Isle of Mull when…” Jan 31, 09:48
Alf Baird on Shield Of The Phantom: “Having followed more rapid and longer delivery voyages of profitable private operators over the years, this over-relaxed loss-making taxpayer-subsidised CalMac…” Jan 31, 09:31
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: ““becoming more and more obvious that Trump is a Child Rapist” It has long been obvious how the dark forces…” Jan 31, 08:46
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “@Cynicus In reply to your two posts: One is, one isn’t.” Jan 31, 08:25
Iain More on Shield Of The Phantom: “I am not going to hold my breath that Swinney will stop appeasing Trump even though it is becoming more…” Jan 31, 03:25
Cynicus on Shield Of The Phantom: “Indeed! You may have encountered this before: in the heyday of ‘ordinary- language philosophy’ at the University of Oxford, student…” Jan 31, 02:07
Cynicus on Shield Of The Phantom: “Indeed! You may have encountered this before: in the heyday of ‘ordinary- language philosophy’ at the University of Oxford, student…” Jan 31, 02:06
Willie on Shield Of The Phantom: “Thanks for the comments Sven. I wasn’t aware that David Toshack’s daughter now lives as a male. That may well…” Jan 30, 23:31
DaveL on Shield Of The Phantom: “…silence came the reply… Although he did manage to spew some nonsense in a later post of mine concerning his…” Jan 30, 22:44
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “Here you go, Bob. Ben Bulbin (Sligo) Ben Lugmore (Mayo) Ben Gorm (Mayo) Ben Baun (Galway) – part of the…” Jan 30, 19:21
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “Naw, Dave, that’s nae richt. I’d hae wrote Camel Shaggers. And ye forgoat ane. In an Independent Scotland, the untermenschen…” Jan 30, 19:00
