There’s a remarkable piece in today’s Times about Stefan Cross, the lawyer working for the women in the Glasgow City Council equal-pay dispute. (For example it’s over 1500 words long but the word “Labour” doesn’t appear a single time, despite the party having controlled the council for the entire 20 years or so the dispute covers.)
The most interesting passage, though, is this one.
Because the story reveals that the GMB, an ultra-loyalist Labour and Unionist trade union, did absolutely everything in its power to obstruct and hamper the women’s claims until the spring of 2017, at which point the union experienced a Damascene conversion and threw their weight fully behind the women and against the council.
And we do mean rank. It’s been quite a week already for super-hapless Labour MP Hugh Gaffney, but he excelled himself today when joining in with Scottish Labour’s campaign to resist building a new hospital in Gartcosh (which is the recommendation of an independent NHS panel), rather than on the site of the current one in Monklands.
(And yes, that is the same one Labour wanted to shut down in 2007.)
Because it wasn’t terribly long ago that he took a rather different view.
In many ways the Glasgow equal-pay dispute feels like the impotent final fury of the dinosaurs after the dust cloud of a prehistoric asteroid impact blacked out the sun and condemned them all to death.
What we’re seeing now is a futile howl of rage against irrelevance by the shady cabal of Labour politicians and senior trade union officials who used to treat the city as their personal fiefdom, as they sink into inglorious extinction.
We highly recommend clicking that link to read the whole series of tweets from Labour member and solicitor Ian Smart, who readers won’t need reminding is no sort of friend of the SNP or inclined to their defence. Because the story goes much deeper than the common-or-garden hypocrisy we saw yesterday.
We don’t know whether Sky News’ senior Scotland correspondent James Matthews recognised double-jobbing Labour MP and councillor Hugh Gaffney on today’s strike march in Glasgow or not. (We suspect he did, but as Gaffney’s only been an MP for a year and a half we can’t be sure.)
What’s certain is that he gave him plenty of time, opportunity and cues to disclose who he was, and Gaffney didn’t take any of them, leading to this extraordinary clip.
The indyref sometimes caused feelings to run rather high, and people on both sides made themselves very unpopular with those on the other side. But four years of water has flowed under the bridge since then, and not everyone is still in the same trenches.
Some high-profile names have switched to from No to Yes (often but not exclusively as a result of Brexit), and the reception afforded to floor-crossers like Murray Foote, Eric Joyce, Jackie Kemp, Mike Dailly, Tom Morton and Simon Pia hasn’t always been an entirely warm one, with some unable to keep a lid on their old grudges.
And in a similar vein, some of the remarks in recent days on the reported switch to Yes of Billy Connolly – a few from people I thought better of – are deeply offensive and potentially deeply damaging.
Well well, look who suddenly believes in second referendums.
It’s fascinating to note how you can completely reverse Kezia Dugdale’s position on the subject simply by substituting the word “Scotland” for the words “the UK” in that second tweet, and imagine she was talking about the independence march in heavily-Remain-voting Edinburgh earlier this month instead of the (proportionately smaller) one in London yesterday.
Tory MP Kirstene “dumber than a box of” Hair is best known for being the member of the UK Parliament who didn’t vote in the Brexit referendum because it was too difficult.
The Scottish Daily Mail today has a big headline relaying the seemingly-unambiguous bad news that unemployment in Scotland has apparently risen by 11,000.
But cheer up, folks, because better times are ahead.
agentx on The Nobodies: “Headline: “Craig Murray unveils Scottish independence plan – that could trigger war” ———————————– Read the full fantasy proposals here: https://archive.ph/okGN0#selection-1235.0-1235.72” Jul 31, 15:18
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “All very true, Northy, but on an Indy supporting site like this one, you omit (I’m certain accidentally 🙂 )…” Jul 31, 15:12
Confused on The Nobodies: “spain invaded by 49 BILLION potential workers to boost the ECONMYUNTHENETZERO (ursula never done lyin was down there, taking line…” Jul 31, 15:01
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: ““Black Skin, White Masks”, eh, Alf? If only we could fathom what that might be about, we could deduce how…” Jul 31, 14:59
Alf Baird on The Nobodies: “A highly informative paper, Fearghas. I especially noted the following, although there is much more in the paper to explain…” Jul 31, 14:40
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “MSM now reporting 60,000 migrants. The usual population of Ceuta is approximately 84,000. This is the second mass invasion. The…” Jul 31, 14:38
Northcode on The Nobodies: “Ceuta is land-joined to North Africa and is not a part of mainland Spain. Most of the 49,000 migrants walked…” Jul 31, 14:28
Captain Caveman on The Nobodies: “Well, I don’t think the Italians are best pleased with Spain’s hopelessly lefty government right now. Not at all. Not…” Jul 31, 13:59
Minceheid on The Nobodies: “Captain Caveman says: 31 July, 2026 at 12:52 pm I love the way the BBC described these 49,000 as “500…” Jul 31, 13:32
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “@Captain Caveman says: 31 July, 2026 at 12:52 pm ‘I love the way the BBC described these 49,000 as “500…” Jul 31, 13:31
Young Lochinvar on The Nobodies: “HMcH In yer haste tae respond you missed the opportunity to quip about the face that launched a thousand boats…” Jul 31, 13:19
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Nobodies: “A 2016 (English-subtitled) interview with Fearghal Mac Bhloscaidh. 1916 Centenary analysis. 1916-2016 COTHROM CÉAD BLIAIN: Fearghal Mac Bhloscaidh (Gaeilge: NvTv)…” Jul 31, 13:03
Captain Caveman on The Nobodies: “I love the way the BBC described these 49,000 as “500 swimmers”.” Jul 31, 12:52
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Nobodies: “The following is the latest blog article from Fearghal Mac Bhloscaidh, Senior Lecturer in History at St. Mary’s University, Belfast.…” Jul 31, 12:47
Minceheid on The Nobodies: “Hatey McHateface says: 31 July, 2026 at 11:11 am Interesting to see that the calls for suspension of EU freedom…” Jul 31, 12:15
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “49,000! That’s a lot of renewable energy consultants, dentists and optometrists. Interesting to see that the calls for suspension of…” Jul 31, 11:11
agentx on The Nobodies: ““The Spanish interior ministry has just said that more than 49,000 people are believed to have swum or walked into…” Jul 31, 10:34
agentx on The Nobodies: “AI response: “On the Wings Over Scotland blog, the absence of a “reply” button on certain comments is caused by…” Jul 31, 10:31
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “@ Young Lochinvar says: 30 July, 2026 at 11:05 pm “I see the casting of a black actress … is…” Jul 31, 10:14
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “The “Spanish Gibraltar”, Ceuta, is appealing for help from the mother country after an estimated 2 to 3 thousand Moroccans…” Jul 31, 08:26
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James Che on The Nobodies: “Remind me who rules the waves of England, if not the empire of GB. And who is set to dismember…” Jul 31, 07:32
James Che on The Nobodies: “Wales & Ireland need to wake up. But the police and army overall need realise that they are helping the…” Jul 31, 06:56
James Che on The Nobodies: “England aided by politicians, judges, police etc has sunk,” Jul 31, 06:30
James Cheyne on The Nobodies: “Scotland does not have time to carry on pretending England rules the waves.” Jul 31, 06:10
James Che on The Nobodies: “Watching GB news regarding the invasion of Britain through England of fighting age men arriving in large boats under dark,…” Jul 31, 05:56
DaveL on The Nobodies: “You just can’t shut up can you? You just spew any old rubbish that comes to mind. Who’d be Hatey?…” Jul 31, 03:11
Young Lochinvar on The Nobodies: “HMcH @ 10.54 I’m afraid I’ll just have to take your word for that. Voice of experience an’ that.. PS…” Jul 30, 23:21
