The Yes movement, like almost all movements, is plagued with a small but incredibly loud faction of intolerant, destructive extremists. Alert readers will have noticed that this site has again been the victim of them this week, but we’re not alone. They’ve also gone after two print publications – The National and iScot – over their “transgressions” against the beliefs of these self-appointed arbiters of what people are allowed to think.
What those two outlets and Wings have in common is achievement.
I went to “Dunkirk” at the cinema today. If you want to know what it’s like, just watch this trailer 40 times in a row and save yourself the £12.
It’s a poor movie, disjointed and aimless and curiously lacking in tension or narrative given the real-life subject matter. (It’s remarkably short on dialogue, which is lucky because you can barely make out any of what little script or story there is from behind the endlessly howling one-note airhorn of the soundtrack. It’s a bit like someone filmed an IKEA assembly manual in live action during a Formula 1 race.)
But I couldn’t help thinking that part of the reason it was so unengaging was because it felt akin to watching a boxing match between two fighters you don’t like. If Mike Tyson took on Tyson Fury, would you cheer for the rapist or the anti-Semitic homophobe?
Deep in the summer news desert, the papers today are struggling for material again. The Sunday Herald has a shock-horror front-page exposé about some photos from an Orange Lodge party that turn out to be from 2010 and 2013, while the Scottish Mail On Sunday reaches all the way back to 1940 to fill a couple of pages.
We were intrigued to hear Labour activist Duncan Hothersall tell radio listeners this morning that his party’s opposition to independence was rooted in “Labour values”, and most specifically by his assertion that “nationalism and socialism are opposites”.
So we thought we’d take a look back at our last Panelbase opinion poll, which we conducted in February, and see what the values of Unionists were.
We haven’t said much about the huge furore whipped up by the Guardian in recent days around spurious allegations of racism/online abuse by supporters of Scottish independence, made first by Sadiq Khan and then by a deranged “Better Together” activist who also thinks all vegans are racist (or something).
Partly that’s because we covered the initial speech by Khan and the fallout from it pretty extensively, and partly because we didn’t want to feed the Guardian’s clickbait.
However, when the activist who was allegedly “hounded off Twitter” in fear for her life – fear caused by supposed comments that nobody has actually seen – miraculously recovered her bravery less than a week later (coincidentally just in time for the launch of her book), we thought it was probably time someone started keeping some records.
The votes for “God Save The Queen” being driven by Tories, English-born residents and supporters of a particular football club probably won’t come as the biggest shock in the world to anyone.
(Alert viewers will of course have noticed that due to MI5 INTERFERENCE in the poll, there were actually two votes for Hoots Mon, which have been suspiciously rounded down to one. We are conducting an investigation, by which we mean brutal purge.)
Cynicus on Response Level Upgrade: “Alf Baird says: 17 June, 2026 at 10:10 pm ““Anglos” apparently colonising us and stealing everything” Well, who else has…” Jun 18, 01:25
Young Lochinvar on Response Level Upgrade: “LATEST! Slobodhan de whatever his name is; Croatian goalie confirmed in post match interview that; “Kane- ya, Ee eez, how…” Jun 17, 23:46
Young Lochinvar on Response Level Upgrade: “BREAKING! Engerlund beat Croatia after the ref spends half the match giving Harry Kane “go on have another go “old…” Jun 17, 23:24
Mark Beggan on Response Level Upgrade: “St James @ Just because your chums are in the big pokey and you are a bunch of terrible things.You…” Jun 17, 22:23
Alf Baird on Response Level Upgrade: “““Anglos” apparently colonising us and stealing everything” Well, who else has been colonising us Scots and robbing our resources these…” Jun 17, 22:10
James on Response Level Upgrade: “Apologies SP, list was one short, almost forgot; agentx Wouldn’t like to leave anyone out.” Jun 17, 21:44
Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: “I put a tenner on the Lesbians to score draw. Any thoughts on the Thespians? Worth a flutter?” Jun 17, 20:25
Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: “Wally Walrus wails! When I said we Scots used to be smarter, I excluded you to keep the average up.” Jun 17, 20:21
Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: “Are you sure you’re not in thrall to Bronze Age scribblings, Marie? You’re named after one of the people they…” Jun 17, 20:18
Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: “Wally Walrus witters! Thatcher, eh? Get them to crane you out your bedroom window and stretch you out on a…” Jun 17, 20:07
Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: “Ach, sam. Print your theories on sheets of A4 and take yourself off to Southport and other such ground zeroes.…” Jun 17, 19:57
James on Response Level Upgrade: “Site Prick; “the English have had to invest about ten times as much in the generation and distribution infrastructure as…” Jun 17, 19:53
Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: “Of course, in order to “steal” the leccy, the English have had to invest about ten times as much in…” Jun 17, 19:45
Young Lochinvar on Response Level Upgrade: “HMcH Well Hatey; Tell that to the pre existing incumbent resident Jebusites, Canaanites and Philistines! Not to mention Empires that…” Jun 17, 19:37
James on Response Level Upgrade: “I take it we have all seen the ‘UK’ ‘Google’ home page today? We don’t count. Vote Yoon. …..”come on,…” Jun 17, 19:30
Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: “How many millions of these people specifically came here in the sure and certain knowledge that our poverty is an…” Jun 17, 19:13
James on Response Level Upgrade: “Sam; Not so sure about ‘Unison’; they seem to be slavishly tied to the Yookay ‘Labour’ Party, and thus; pro…” Jun 17, 19:06
Mark Beggan on Response Level Upgrade: “Oh, say can you see, By the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hailed At the twilight’s last gleaming,…” Jun 17, 18:56
Jay on Response Level Upgrade: “Aidan, ‘white collar crime’ is, doubtless, widespread, furthermore, much depends on who defines what is a crime.” Jun 17, 18:52
sam on Response Level Upgrade: “Yes. Scotland has a different demography. England has more young people. More healthy, excluding deaths of despair. Something else again.…” Jun 17, 18:42
James on Response Level Upgrade: ““The game is over for the inbred cretins.” Bad news for you then, eh “old boy”? LOL” Jun 17, 18:33
Mark Beggan on Response Level Upgrade: “Rubble land is the fake of fakes. Low IQ people think otherwise. The game is over for the inbred cretins.” Jun 17, 18:16
sam on Response Level Upgrade: “I think he has been on the leadership program offered by the USA to future leaders. See Wings “All the…” Jun 17, 17:36
agentx on Response Level Upgrade: “In Scotland, approximately 26% (or roughly one in four) of all deaths are considered avoidable, which is higher than the…” Jun 17, 17:16
MaryB on Response Level Upgrade: “Stephen Gethins interviewed yesterday by The National. When asked about a national energy company, like Norway, Robin McAlpine’s suggestion, he…” Jun 17, 14:07
sam on Response Level Upgrade: “In 2022 in England and Wales nearly 22% of deaths were avoidable in people under the age of 75 and…” Jun 17, 13:55
sam on Response Level Upgrade: ““just a cow in a field”. Around 14 million people today in the UK live in poverty. A political choice…” Jun 17, 13:05
