The Illogical Song 194
Posted on
October 24, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Kezia Dugdale talking about her dad in today’s Scotsman:
Just a couple of things.
Archive for the ‘comment’
Vile abuse and harmless banter 299
Posted on
October 22, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
In that order, we presume.
Two kinds of lies 203
Posted on
October 22, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The reaction of the Scottish media and political opposition to Audit Scotland’s annual report on the NHS today has been nothing if not predictable. But we thought you might like an instructive and enlightening look at the two very different types of approach they’ve taken to trying to mislead the Scottish people about it.
First up is the non-specific Scottish Labour apparatchik (as far as we’re aware he has no official role in the party since Jim Murphy quit – indeed we don’t know what he does for a living at all any more) Blair McDougall:
This is what we in the writing trade call a “flat-out lie”.
Tiny Correction Watch 144
Posted on
October 21, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The SNP MP for Dumfries and Galloway, Richard Arkless, made a post on Facebook last night in relation to this article in the Scottish Sunday Express three days ago.
You can read it below.
With permission 144
Posted on
October 16, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
How politics works 127
Posted on
October 16, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Timewaster wastes time 79
Posted on
October 15, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We wonder how many papers we’ll see this in tomorrow.
The professor of pish 171
Posted on
October 15, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We weren’t going to take Professor Adam Tomkins’ hysterical “NATMAGEDDON!” article for this week’s Spectator seriously enough to pull it apart line by line.
But once we’d wiped the tears from our eyes we thought we’d better do our job.
The master of disaster 193
Posted on
October 15, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The comedy “obnoxious Tory” stereotype/respected BBC pundit (delete as applicable) Adam Tomkins has a dramatic opinion piece in the Spectator this week, which also commands the magazine’s front cover.
It’s a handy one-stop compilation of some of the most comprehensively-debunked Unionist myths and lies of the past couple of years, livened up for readers with some standard-issue wild-eyed frothing lunacy shrieking about one-party states, “Orwellian” dictatorships, the evil Nats are coming for your children, blah blah etc.
If we were to pull up every absurdly laughable line we’d be here all day, and nobody reads 5000-word articles, so we’re going to restrict ourselves to a single example.
The talent puddle 212
Posted on
October 14, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Today’s Herald reveals that the new Labour leader of Glasgow City Council, Frank McAveety (who was last seen in the headlines leering at a 15-year-old girl visiting the Scottish Parliament), has hired Bob Wylie as a special adviser.
Wylie was communications director of the scandal-riddled Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), which readers may recall from last year’s banning of an advertising campaign for this site on the city’s Underground after receiving one complaint about it.
But he’s somewhat more famous for his part in an expenses junket which saw several of the quango’s senior management bill taxpayers for a 2008 “fact-finding” mission to Manchester whose timing just happened to coincide with the UEFA Cup final between Rangers and Zenit St Petersburg being played in the same city.
Wylie’s appointment follows the controversy which arose when Labour gave convicted drunken arsonist Mike Watson a job as education spokesman in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet. And the two hirings threw some light on a thought we’d been thinking since reading a Kevin McKenna column in last weekend’s Observer.
Joining the club 153
Posted on
October 13, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Was feeling a bit left out as the only person involved in the independence debate who hadn’t been accused of being in the pay of MI5. But no more!
Thank goodness for thirsty old Ian.
The last gasps 165
Posted on
October 12, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The media seems to have more or less spent its load about Michelle Thomson for now. Having spent most of last week clutching at ever-more-tenuous straws to keep the story alive, it finally petered out over the weekend with a particularly desperate stab at reporting the SNP to the Electoral Commission over claims it worked too closely with Business For Scotland during the referendum campaign.
Triggered by a demented Nat-hating pet-shop manager who may be familiar to social media users for his overpowering obsession with both BFS and this site, it’s based on recent allegations from the Sunday Herald that SNP chief executive (and Nicola Sturgeon’s husband) Peter Murrell had expressed some opinions to BFS over their management, which have now been frantically spun up into a claim that the SNP and BFS were “co-operating” in the campaign.
This could in theory be the Electoral Commission’s business because there were rules governing spending limits which applied if two or more registered participants worked together. Scottish Labour have described the allegations as “hugely serious”, which cynical readers may feel is as good an indicator as any that they’re total horse parts.
The Electoral Commission appears to agree, telling the Herald that it “did not believe the revelations warranted an investigation”, but is obliged to look into the complaint anyway. We may be able to save them some time.
