Perhaps the single most striking feature of everyday non-constitutional Scottish politics is Labour’s constantly-recurring habit of highlighting some supposedly unsatisfactory statistic about the Scottish Government’s performance, only for it to be revealed that it’s vastly better than the comparable figure for Wales, where Labour has been in power ever since the Assembly was created in 1999.
So let’s crank up the machine again and see what it says, shall we?
It really takes some going to stand out for especially terrible journalism in the Scottish press this week, given the vast acres of page-space that are still being devoted to truly abysmal, and borderline legally-actionable, barrel-scraping articles about the recent allegations made against Alex Salmond. So hats off to perhaps the only man who could possibly have achieved it.
The Scottish media has really had to scrape the barrel to give a negative spin to some NHS stats today. The Herald, Daily Mail, Daily Record and Scotsman all feature a story concerning an increase in ambulance waiting times, noting that the number of callouts taking more than ten minutes has doubled in four years.
What they’re a lot more reluctant to reveal is that the reason for that is a deliberate policy change which has meant ambulances have been saving more people’s lives.
We’re just going to reprint this piece every year, because only the numbers change.
Today saw the publication of the 2017-18 GERS stats, which are once again triggering a convulsive orgy of “BLACK HOLE!” articles across the media as every Unionist in the land falls over themselves to portray their own country as a useless scrounging subsidy junkie without actually using the exact words “too wee, too poor, too stupid”.
And once again, everywhere you look there’s a “Proud Scot” screaming about how the figures destroy a case for independence that those same people have spent most of the current decade stridently insisting never existed in the first place.
The BBC front page headline for this is actually just the alarming-sounding “Scottish prescription costs rise by 25%”, without even the qualifier about the timespan.
Most of Scottish Twitter has been enjoying itself greatly for the last few hours after England’s exit from the World Cup, but scattered in amongst the amusing memes has been a fair amount of angst about victors Croatia – a nation of 4 million people – being in the final when Scotland once again failed to qualify.
And while we’ll more than happily listen to any amount of criticism of the unbelievably incompetent, hapless clowns who’ve been in charge of the SFA/SPL/SPFL for the last several decades, that judgement is a bit harsh on the players and coaches and the nation as a whole. Because there really hasn’t been much in it.
Scotland’s qualification for World Cup 2018 hinged and ultimately faltered on a split second and a single badly-chosen pass in stoppage time.
Yesterday we reported on the Sunday Herald’s bizarre and blatant reversal of the plain facts about OBFA prosecutions in its front-page lead. But it wasn’t the only paper pulling that trick this weekend.
The Sunday Times ran a major piece on results from a poll it conducted at the same time as our most recent one, spinning the outcome as voters rejecting the SNP’s plan to boost the Scottish economy via more immigration.
But as so many stories in the press do, the article simply disintegrated before readers’ eyes almost immediately after the headline.
One of the uglier facets of opposition to the hugely-popular but now-repealed Offensive Behaviour (Football) Act was the 100% uniform stance against it in the Scottish press. Despite the Act being backed by a large majority of voters across every demographic and political divide, not one print or broadcast journalist ever stood up for the public.
The reason, of course, is that bigots (and lurid stories about them) are a large part of what keeps the Scottish media’s life support machine functioning, and so the media panders cynically to the extremist sections of the Celtic and “Rangers” support who still buy papers for the latest transfer gossip and soft-soap interviews with ex-players.
And so it is with a remarkably mad front-page lead in today’s Sunday Herald.
The paper reports that “over half” – 44 out of 86 – outstanding OBFA charges have been “converted” into other types of offences and are still being prosecuted by the independent Crown Office, claiming without explanation that this is “an embarrassing move for the SNP Government”.
Political pundits on both sides on the border often marvel at how the SNP appear able to defy the normal rules of electoral gravity, still holding a comfortable double-digit lead in the polls after more than 11 years in power. But there’s no great mystery to it, and the answer is simple, in several senses of that word.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow us to present to you Scottish Labour’s offering for who’d be in charge of all the Scottish Government’s money if the SNP weren’t in power – finance spokesman James Kelly MSP.
The Sunday Times puts some poll results in an interesting frame today:
And readers who’ve learned anything at all from this site over the last six years will be looking at that tweet and immediately wondering “what AREN’T we being told there?”
Although this site is blacklisted by the press regulator IPSO and therefore unable to file complaints about inaccurate and misleading newspaper articles, our alert readers sometimes pick up the baton from Wings articles and do the job themselves.
But the reader who took up that complaint has furnished us with a bit of interesting background to the story, and also news of a rather more alarming outcome.
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “That comment to Japan was cringe. He’s lost it. What an embarrassment he is. It’s right up there with telling…” Mar 19, 22:31
sarah on Looking up at the stars: “A Plea to Chris Cairns, Cartoonist of that Ilk Woe, woe, thrice times woe! Get out your pencils. Pin paper…” Mar 19, 22:18
Lorncal on Looking up at the stars: “I support independence, Dan. Always have, always will. I was making no “digging response”. I was very annoyed that you…” Mar 19, 22:10
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Areswipe, I hope Alf tells ye to GTF after all yer snide comments every other time. Have you never heard…” Mar 19, 22:09
Aidan on Looking up at the stars: “@Alf Baird – this is somewhere I’d welcome your opinion” Mar 19, 21:10
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: ““who will be left for the great deal maker to work with?” Do you think you may have put your…” Mar 19, 20:50
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “Aidan As I said, grown ups will find a way. There are plenty of ports, the madness has been loading…” Mar 19, 20:46
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “HMcH Childish silly names? What, like Hatey? Fair one, it is a childish name, but, I am not its creator.…” Mar 19, 20:33
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “HMcH Ah! Then so much for “saving neutral Belgium” and second time around Poland..” Mar 19, 20:28
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Well, YL, you’ve called all the people you dislike silly, childish names. So I guess you’re winning.” Mar 19, 20:22
David Holden on Looking up at the stars: “Several weeks into Donald’s big Persian excursion and still the tankers do not move unless you strike a deal with…” Mar 19, 20:21
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “HMcH Fair point though I suppose 1950s type technology may possibly be less susceptible being pre circuit board technology. Plus…” Mar 19, 20:18
Aidan on Looking up at the stars: “There are not “other ports” YL that have anything close to the capacity of the short straits, which is the…” Mar 19, 20:13
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “The fact that you would have Scotland maintain neutrality on the clear case of neocolonialist imperialism in eastern Europe, now…” Mar 19, 20:09
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “Beggars Strange. Hadn’t Baby Trump claimed the previous set of bombings (before this round) had bigly destroyed all I rans…” Mar 19, 20:03
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Doesn’t 100% of the UK’s illegals come through Kent? The decision to quarantine the place or not may be more…” Mar 19, 19:59
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “How are the electronics in “simple heat seekers” able to resist EMP? How are “simple heat seekers” able to differentiate…” Mar 19, 19:53
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “There are other ports. Grown ups should be able to deal with it, plus you’re statement is a great reminder…” Mar 19, 19:49
Alf Baird on Looking up at the stars: ““UK has been skint for years” Yes, England has always been skint after continually fighting wars, which is why they…” Mar 19, 19:46
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “Very entertaining Beggars. Had to laugh about Biden referring to the Straight of Hormuz as the Gay of Hormuz! 🙂” Mar 19, 19:41
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “Beggars Early 2000s design, less than 200 in service because of costs (minus of course the reported crashes). The Americans…” Mar 19, 19:35
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “Two weeks from weapons grade Uranium. The alternative is unimaginable.” Mar 19, 19:32
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Wow, sarah, if optimism like yours could be bottled for resale you’d be a squillionaire by now. Is it possible…” Mar 19, 19:32
Aidan on Looking up at the stars: ““Quarantine Kent” – do you know how much of the UK’s food comes through Kent?” Mar 19, 19:28
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Aw, Jamie, I thought you may have progressed beyond the stage of believing that because somebody disagrees with you, they…” Mar 19, 19:25
Sven on Looking up at the stars: “Many more “victories” like this and only the politicians with expenses will be able to eat and heat the homes…” Mar 19, 18:59
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “Quarantine Canterbury! Heck quarantine Kent, Easter holidays will see the students “explode” metaphorically back home around the country or abroad…” Mar 19, 18:49
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “The F22 Raptor doesn’t take off. It’s does the Tango with gravity.” Mar 19, 18:28
