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The Tartan Messiah 42

Posted on September 11, 2024 by

Well, Shauny‘s knocked it out of the park.

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After the swarm 72

Posted on September 11, 2024 by

On 15 October 2012, I signed the Edinburgh Agreement with David Cameron to secure the independence referendum of September 2014.

On the same day Peter Kellner of the polling company YouGov wrote one of his condescending commentaries from London dissing any hope for the Yes campaign.

“However, from Salmond’s point of view, it is about the only thing going for him. Indeed, were he to be given a truth drug, he might well curse the fact that the SNP won last year’s Scottish elections outright, and thus found himself in a position to keep his promise.

He would surely have been much happier remaining the leader of a minority government, unable to get his independence legislation through Holyrood. Then he could have railed against the Scottish satraps of the Britain-wide parties for silencing the voice of the Scottish people.

Instead, by winning an outright majority, he has shot his own fox. Rather than shed crocodile tears for his inability to call a referendum, he must now put the issue to the test.

As a shrewd and intelligent man – indeed, one of the shrewdest and most intelligent in British politics – he must know that his mission is impossible, that in two years time his country will vote to remain part of the United Kingdom, and that far from being achieved, independence will be deferred for at least a generation.

All YouGov’s evidence from the past four years is that independence is a minority passion north of the border. Even as the SNP was surging to victory last year, Scots told us by two-to-one that they wanted to remain within the UK.

The SNP won because most Scots thought it had governed their country well, because they liked Salmond, and because they thought the Scottish Labour Party was useless – not because they wanted to sever links with London.”

Kellner’s view was almost universal, and not just among the London pack of journos and politicians. Most, if not all, of the Scottish media agreed with him.

However, by September 2014 things looked very different.

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Honest John 90

Posted on September 07, 2024 by

The Last Legs 67

Posted on September 06, 2024 by

In the 1990s, Dr. Robert Smith, a surgeon at Falkirk Royal Infirmary, performed a pair of amputations on two men. Neither of the men involved had anything physically wrong with them, but both were suffering from apotemnophilia – a rare psychiatric condition involving the desire to have healthy limbs amputated.

Sufferers, counterintuitively, claim not to feel “whole” with four limbs and obsess over having their unwanted body parts chopped off. Smith argued the surgeries were life-saving, claiming the patients would commit suicide otherwise.

Apotemnophiles, like autogynephiles, insist that there is no erotic element, but it was later discovered that one of the men Smith operated on ran an amputee fetish website.

Upon investigation, the hospital deemed the procedures unethical. Smith was banned from mutilating healthy bodies (although he was found not to have breached any of the hospital’s rules at the time and not sanctioned), and the dubious experiment ended.

But let’s imagine for a moment an alternate reality.

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All The Rainbows In The Sky 125

Posted on September 02, 2024 by

There may, readers, be a connection between this:

and this:

But the key fact about the SNP is the same either way.

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The Scissor Sisters 56

Posted on August 31, 2024 by

The Solution 22

Posted on August 30, 2024 by

All one can hope is that this was an unfortunate slip of the tongue.

Otherwise, folks, you’ll just have to buck your ideas up.

Into the far away 183

Posted on August 27, 2024 by

Poor old Tommy Sheppard’s got a contract, so he has to keep talking. And this week he said something that, if anyone really thought the constitution was still a current live political issue, would have attracted a lot more attention than it did.

Because even the SNP are now saying another indyref is – at best – a decade away.

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Going For Broke 157

Posted on August 24, 2024 by

But Then Again Maybe Not 181

Posted on August 16, 2024 by

These paragraphs are all from the same story.

The Hate Crime Act has rather faded into obscurity after the furore surrounding its introduction, with the police apparently just trying to pretend it doesn’t exist by ignoring thousands and thousands of complaints, and the useless Scottish commentariat duly proclaiming as a result that it was all just a big fuss about nothing.

But as soon as everyone stopped looking at it, there it was.

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The Manipulation Of Perception 212

Posted on August 13, 2024 by

In many ways, the fabricated, hysterical furore of Humza Yousaf Vs Elon Musk is the ultimate in summer-silly-season politics stories.

Absurdly plainly, the former First Minister ISN’T going to take any legal action against the billionaire owner of Twitter. He only likes bullying small nurseries, and even then he doesn’t follow through. He didn’t even sue us for calling him racist a few months ago, so there’s zero chance he’s going to square up to the world’s richest man.

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Ten Years Asleep 173

Posted on August 11, 2024 by

Exactly a decade ago today, on 11 August 2014, the Wee Blue Book was released.

This was where things stood at that moment in time.

One month after the WBB, that 20-point gap was down, like-for-like, to two points.

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    • twathater on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “Northy you explain it very well Liebour and the Daily Redcoat’s NEW VOWSep 1, 03:15
    • Big Jock on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “The UK is a trap. They are openly admitting it. A normal government would go to the UN , as…Sep 1, 00:52
    • Young Lochinvar on The Shortest Day: “SB I don’t knock hot pot, or food from the slow cooker. Tasty, and be honest now; it’s not really…Sep 1, 00:44
    • Saffron Robe on The Shortest Day: “A forced marriage is, by its very nature, illegitimate, because it is entered into without the free consent of one…Sep 1, 00:30
    • Young Lochinvar on The Shortest Day: “HMcH Aye Hatey, it’s being so cheery that keeps ye going isn’t it? One baleful benediction after another tonight, and…Sep 1, 00:30
    • Mark Beggan on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “In short; Carrots!Aug 31, 23:51
    • Young Lochinvar on The Shortest Day: “Chas There’s no guarantees in this life. Even sitting on your hands scared and so holding with the status quo…Aug 31, 23:44
    • Aidan on The Shortest Day: “Yes, no it isn’t James. Alcohol duty is not levied on exports, so there isn’t a specific duty to accrue…Aug 31, 23:35
    • Northcode on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “The Record doesn’t even come close to making a valid point… or any point at all. This is the Record’s…Aug 31, 23:35
    • Young Lochinvar on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “100% Yup. Why not 70%, 80, 90 or any of the above over who knows how many years before we…Aug 31, 23:23
    • Hatey McHateface on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: ““After years of simply stalling on the pursuit of independence, the SNP now appears to be in full headlong retreat,…Aug 31, 23:07
    • Young Lochinvar on The Shortest Day: “LC Very good! However you forgot to mention the bribery, offers of position and rank and overall subterfuge with a…Aug 31, 22:58
    • Hatey McHateface on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “A disappointing but perhaps not unexpected reversion to type, Northy. The Record View makes a valid point, not that any…Aug 31, 22:49
    • duncanio on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “The Daily Record’s ‘suggestion’ is merely an effort to make British Labour relevant again in Scotland so that they can…Aug 31, 22:46
    • Spartan 117 on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “Well, quite. Lard Foolkes and his ilk would happily do away with elections permanently, makes things much easier for them…Aug 31, 22:41
    • Hatey McHateface on The Shortest Day: “Naw, Spartan. Exhibit W.Aug 31, 22:35
    • Hatey McHateface on The Shortest Day: “That’s the Spandau gonna be well and truly cocked now!Aug 31, 22:33
    • Spartan 117 on The Shortest Day: “QED, Exhibit A.Aug 31, 22:18
    • Northcode on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “By George Foulkes, Baron Foulkes of Cumnock’s – Born in Shropshire and educated privately at The Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School…Aug 31, 22:14
    • Mark Beggan on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “Anyone for a carrot! It’s feeding time at the zoo.Aug 31, 22:02
    • James on The Shortest Day: “So say the English Nationalists. Fuck off.Aug 31, 21:57
    • James on The Shortest Day: “Ah. “…Naw it isnae….” The usual. Dan kindly provided the relevant liknk. https://wingsoverscotland.com/true-faith/ Read it, and weep, Yoon.Aug 31, 21:54
    • Effijy on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “With all financial levers controlled by Westminster these 300 years and debt spiralling up to £3 Trillion and the first…Aug 31, 21:44
    • 100%Yes on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “The reality is the more and more people voice that Independence is their preferred option to the union. The more…Aug 31, 21:40
    • Alf Baird on The Shortest Day: ““Maybe you could start one of the ‘democratic legitimacy’ processes yourself!” 20,000 sovereign Scots already have: https://liberation.scot/Aug 31, 21:37
    • 100%Yes on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “This is all because the SNP membership has grown a back bone and got upset about not being being able…Aug 31, 21:29
    • Mike Fenwick on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “For info, my contribution in The National today. Tommy Sheppard writes in The National as to ” Why a de…Aug 31, 21:28
    • Cuphook on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “Not that we’re going to get one due to our current political emasculation, but we’d lose another referendum unless the…Aug 31, 21:26
    • 100%Yes on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “The simplest solution is for Westminster to transfer the Constitutional authority to Holyrood for good and allow the Scots to…Aug 31, 21:19
    • Spartan 117 on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “Interesting indeed.Aug 31, 21:14
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