We all knew this already, of course. Last year we commissioned a poll from Panelbase which found an enormous 41-point gap between Yes and No voters on immigration. But it was still nice to have it both confirmed and laid out so clearly by Sir John Curtice on Good Morning Scotland earlier today.
(About 1h 55m in. We’re having some trouble recording sound on our new PC at the moment, we’ll get you a proper audio link as soon as we’ve figured it out.)
It’s worth keeping to hand the next time some witless Scottish Labour goon tries to tell you that independence is bad because it’s “separatist” and that voting for the Union is the international-solidarity option. Because that’s a flat-out lie.
We now have the verdicts on Brexit from three of the UK’s four nations. The Scottish Parliament, speaking for the Scottish nation, voted overwhelmingly this afternoon to reject both Theresa May’s draft agreement and leaving the EU without a deal.
At a time of unprecedented political chaos and uncertainty, just about the only thing you can still count on is that for any given situation, senior Labour figures will issue proclamations both firmly in favour of it and stoutly opposed to it, usually the same day.
So the stories below, which are respectively from today’s Scotsman and today’s Times, won’t come as much of a shock to anyone.
But against the odds, we think we’ve made some sense of it.
All political discourse is plagued with genuine imbeciles, of course. But what’s far more depressing is when educated and normally perceptive people merely act like imbeciles for money, such as the case of Alex Massie in the Sunday Times today.
Because for the last two years, commentators who ought to know better have insisted in presenting Scotland’s choice as between Brexit or Brexit plus independence, and solemnly concluding that the uncertainties and risks of the latter being piled on top of those of the former prove that independence is no solution.
And we don’t care to have our intelligence insulted in that way.
If we were to write an article every time Murdo Fraser said something moronic, we’d have to rename this site Wings Over Murdo Fraser, and drink an awful lot of Red Bull to be able to cover it all.
Stuff like this, for example, is almost too easy.
43% (actually 45.3% excluding Don’t Knows) is considerably more than Murdo Fraser has ever achieved in an election, either himself or as part of a party. His average over the seven elections he’s contested and lost since 1999 is just 30.1%, and until a blip in 2016 it had been falling lower and lower each time, as people have watched how he performed as an MSP and got less and less keen on the idea.
That’s still actually slightly more than the 28.6% his party secured in Scotland at the last election, though, in what was nevertheless generally regarded as an unusually impressive performance. Two years earlier they gathered just 14.9% of the votes cast.
Yet neither Fraser nor the Tories disappear for a generation every time Scotland tells them to go and get stuffed. Fraser keeps trousering an MSP’s fat salary despite two decades of unbroken and unequivocal personal rejection from the electorate, even as he demands that the independence movement gives up after losing ONE vote.
But in his defence, his leader’s not setting him much of an example.
Captain Caveman on The Pit Of Vipers: ““Of course in this dystopian dictatorships Geri sings the praises of none of those things would be possible, the ballot…” Apr 23, 07:31
Aidan on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Eventually his time will come, he has and is continuing to commit offences which go beyond the summary only offence…” Apr 23, 07:06
Aidan on The Pit Of Vipers: “Geri’s latest rant is that: – the No campaign was allowed to campaign – people were allowed to donate to…” Apr 23, 06:35
Angus on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Today’s Scotland, legacy of the biggest betrayer in Scottish history, has become the worst banana state in the world. Rotten…” Apr 23, 00:47
Geri on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Bilbo It was shown to be a nonsense by the tragic case of David Reimer decades ago. Accidentally castrated by…” Apr 23, 00:08
Captain Caveman on The Pit Of Vipers: “Ah, the cringeworthy late night meltdowns are in progress once again I see; another day, another dollar eh. Most amusing.…” Apr 22, 22:40
Bilbo on How To Get Away With Crimes: “With AI translation, people from non-English speaking countries can now access English western social media content and from the below…” Apr 22, 22:30
Bilbo on How To Get Away With Crimes: “There was a YouTube video that had come into my feed about Norah Vincent, a female journalist who had lived…” Apr 22, 22:22
Geri on The Pit Of Vipers: “You’ve proven no one wrong AI Dan. UK elections & referendums don’t have open franchises. They forbid it for the…” Apr 22, 22:02
Geri on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Jeez! All that harassment would’ve driven me round the bend! I guess that’s the intention tho. Sucked into their crazy…” Apr 22, 21:14
Confused on How To Get Away With Crimes: “you can’t do much with crazy; you need to give it a wide berth, which is hard on twitter, if…” Apr 22, 21:13
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “A lonely AI Dun holding the fort for the probity of all things concerning “THE UNION”.. 🙂” Apr 22, 21:08
Lorncal on How To Get Away With Crimes: “The chaos these barstewards have caused is beyond calculation. Two huge mistakes were made early on: 1) in thinking that…” Apr 22, 20:48
Effijy on How To Get Away With Crimes: “The Police have long become a complete and utter farce. In recent times they have been found to be institutionally…” Apr 22, 20:26
Aidan on The Pit Of Vipers: “@James the reason why you aren’t able to defend any of the absurd statements you make is because you are…” Apr 22, 20:08
sarah on How To Get Away With Crimes: “When did the police cease to be competent? And is it only the police or is it every public authority?…” Apr 22, 20:06
SilentMajority on How To Get Away With Crimes: “…that is very grim reading…you have my utmost sympathy for having to put up with this abuse… Why on earth…” Apr 22, 19:58
robertkknight on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Don’t seriously mentally ill people get sectioned any more? Asking for a friend…” Apr 22, 19:15
David on How To Get Away With Crimes: “That is absolutely shocking. No wonder the public no longer have faith in the police.” Apr 22, 19:15
James on The Pit Of Vipers: “UN/New Caledonia independence referendum; Eligible voters; only those who were already residents of New Caledonia by 1998 and their descendants.…” Apr 22, 18:54
Dan on The Pit Of Vipers: “@ Colin Alexander The legal advice you site may have been technically correct when it said no to Scotland remaining…” Apr 22, 18:52
James on The Pit Of Vipers: “Surprise surprise, the unionist lickspittle Adrian says everything was hunky dory. But he/she/it also says Scotland in the ‘union’ is…” Apr 22, 18:48
Alison on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Watson is so dangerous. One of his daft followers will act in his name & someone he has singled out…” Apr 22, 18:34
TURABDIN on The Pit Of Vipers: “INDEPENDENCE? See you all in hell first. https://archive.is/6xCXm” Apr 22, 18:01
Aidan on The Pit Of Vipers: “Please tell us about this UN standard to which you refer about “media interference” being prohibited, by which you mean…” Apr 22, 18:00
Aidan on The Pit Of Vipers: “Yes but it’s nonsense isn’t it, the “report” is predicated on some pretty unlikely claims, like nearly 2% of those…” Apr 22, 17:44
James on The Pit Of Vipers: “The whole thing was rigged, even the dogs in the street know it. The result and process fell foul of…” Apr 22, 17:12
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Pit Of Vipers: “‘DUNOON UNIT REPORT: THE POSTAL BALLOT AT THE SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM’ (2015): “We are now convinced that the Postal Ballot…” Apr 22, 16:04
Aidan on The Pit Of Vipers: “Okay – but I think the crux of your post is that votes were counted that should not have been…” Apr 22, 15:26
