Alert readers will of course be aware that one of this site’s most frequently-recurring themes is “phantom news”, whereby events or unpleasant opinions that newspapers or broadcasters really want to have happened are conveniently brought to life, either by some random nobody on the internet, or an unnamed “source” or “insider”.
So when Nicola Sturgeon did something today that nearly everyone in the Northern Hemisphere knew she was going to do sometime soon, but wasn’t expecting just yet, there wasn’t time to prepare actual real people with the required quotes.
In the modern media world, though, that isn’t a problem.
We saw this exchange on Twitter this morning, involving left-wing Labour activist Eoin Clarke, a reader, and Scottish Labour list MSP Elaine Smith.
Smith professed to find it “unbelievable” and “scary” that the reader thought he’d had Tory governments for most of his lifetime. (We asked him how old he was and he said 34, which means he’s had Tory governments for 62% of his life, so that checks out.)
But it’s a standard Scottish Labour line that there’s no real difference between Scottish and English voters in terms of favouring left-wing politics, so we thought we’d just quickly check the arithmetic on that. The results are unlikely to shock you.
Our attention was drawn today to hardcore shrieky Loyalist nutter collective Scotland In Union releasing “new research” on an independent Scotland’s finances, which in fact came out last year but which for unknown reasons they’re touting again now.
Commissioned by the loongroup from a London-based thinktank that we’d never heard of by the name of “Europe Economics”, it predictably produces a doom-and-gloom conclusion that independence would have cost over £10bn in the first year.
There are so many gaping chasms in the logic we could hardly stop laughing for long enough to type, but one in particular was worth wiping the tears from our eyes for.
We were very pleased to hear Gary Robertson challenge Kezia Dugdale on the curious matter of Scottish Labour’s membership and income figures on today’s Good Morning Scotland. Dugdale flapped and dodged and waffled for as long as she could before diverting the topic onto federalism, and eventually managed to wriggle away from the subject without any sort of proper answer (through no fault of Robertson’s).
It reveals that the party’s income from donations plunged from £600,000 in 2015 to £100,000 last year, which in the article is blamed on Jeremy Corbyn’s UK leadership (even though Dugdale opposed him in the leadership election).
But there were a few comments in the piece that we thought needed scrutiny.
Should we check out that link and find out whether the then-FM really DID “claim that the Scottish NHS would be privatised if Scots voted No”, readers? Let’s do!
This is Conservative MP Dominic Raab, a member of the Brexit Select Committee, speaking on the BBC News Channel’s “Hard Talk” programme at 00.45 this morning. Perhaps imagining that nobody would be watching at such an ungodly hour, it seems he felt able to be unusually candid.
We left the last bit on in order to demonstrate that he was still talking about Scotland as well as Ireland. (He went on to recite the usual boilerplate about all leaving together as the UK etc etc, you can watch the whole show for yourself on iPlayer.)
But let’s just get that key early exchange down in writing for the record.
The Sunday Herald ran an extraordinary article on page 2 yesterday, and by the time we’d finished being startled by what nonsense it was, it set us wondering about why.
Geri on The Tactics Of Suicide: “Oi Fandan That’ll be eight of yours too then trying desperately to look relevant with zero point but word salad…we…” Feb 28, 20:56
Geri on The Tactics Of Suicide: “*scans Franchise fannies mutterings for any deep & meaningful insight, rebuttal or even a quality counter argument* FAIL! FAIL! FAIL!…” Feb 28, 20:46
lorncal on Two Men Unalike: “Three strands at work here: 1. the big corporates (all male) which have invested billions in the ‘trans’ industry -…” Feb 28, 20:30
Mark Beggan on Two Men Unalike: “Pedophile Apologists. Friends of Groomers. Corrupt to the core. Makes the SNP look like a community project with missing raffle…” Feb 28, 20:22
Aidan on The Tactics Of Suicide: “That’s 8 posts from you Alf, all of which say basically the same thing. You might get beyond rhetoric to…” Feb 28, 20:16
Cynicus on Two Men Unalike: “Don’t expect Parliament to do anything about this in a hurry. It too is virtually captured. Almost 12 % of…” Feb 28, 20:05
Mark Beggan on Two Men Unalike: “They have cut off the head of the snake. The Iranian supreme leader is no longer.” Feb 28, 19:55
Alf Baird on The Tactics Of Suicide: “For the “hard of thinking” colonialists BTL – an ye aw ken wha ye are, an so dae we -…” Feb 28, 19:45
Sven on Two Men Unalike: “Lends a whole new meaning to the term, “Labour of love”, Mark B.” Feb 28, 19:03
Mark Beggan on Two Men Unalike: “God help those who help themselves. Korea next? Why not. Zap the bastards.” Feb 28, 18:36
Young Lochinvar on Two Men Unalike: “Strike Hebes, should have read camel jockeys.” Feb 28, 18:32
Mark Beggan on Two Men Unalike: “Pride in the workplace. Does that include Rent Boys.” Feb 28, 18:32
Young Lochinvar on Two Men Unalike: “Hi tech long range warfare unleashed yet again. God help the Americans if the Hebes and Mullahs get their hands…” Feb 28, 18:28
Northcode on The Tactics Of Suicide: “Correct, Geri. I don’t think most folk will need as many as three guesses… one will probably be enough.” Feb 28, 18:18
Aidan on The Tactics Of Suicide: “Of course no mildly educated person in reasonable control of their own faculties and with a balanced state of mind…” Feb 28, 18:04
Nae Need! on Two Men Unalike: “In my head, that’s pretty much how I visualise the word: Nonce sense.” Feb 28, 18:00
Nae Need! on Two Men Unalike: “Indeed. Anarcho-tyranny doing its thing.” Feb 28, 17:57
Nae Need! on Two Men Unalike: “My thoughts too.” Feb 28, 17:56
TURABDIN on Two Men Unalike: “The fantastic world according to Lewis Caroll is preferable to the sinister world according to D Trump. Where’s the rabbit…” Feb 28, 17:52
Bilbo on The Tactics Of Suicide: “It couldn’t happen to a nicer person lol but I’m cynical that all these recent allegations of misconduct is a…” Feb 28, 17:51
Bilbo on The Tactics Of Suicide: “Thanks Cynicus for your measured reply. I don’t get involved in anything to do with events in the ME especially…” Feb 28, 17:40
Nae Idea on Two Men Unalike: “These trans people are dangerous lunatics. For the tiny number of them they are, they have caused a HELLUVA lot…” Feb 28, 16:46
SilentMajority on Two Men Unalike: “I thoroughly agree. It was wonderful watching Peterson, who very politely, showed just how biased Newman is. Definitely recommended viewing!” Feb 28, 16:30
Andy Ellis on The Tactics Of Suicide: “Geri is about as connected to the truth as Trump and Uncle Vlad and their respective acolytes. She couldn’t rip…” Feb 28, 16:26
Sean Duffy on Two Men Unalike: “Further proof that it’s all noncense! [spelling intentional].” Feb 28, 16:05
twathater on The Tactics Of Suicide: “Oh NO crivvens help me bob , I am distraught Kay with an E the STAR Kaye Adams reportedly axed…” Feb 28, 15:54
twathater on The Tactics Of Suicide: “@ Geri that wee break you had away from the arseholes has did you good , you are on fire…” Feb 28, 15:47
Curtain-Twitcher General on Two Men Unalike: “The NHS are obviously getting bribed. Around 10-15 years ago, all the NHS seemed to talk about wss “acid reflux”.…” Feb 28, 15:41
robertkknight on Two Men Unalike: “We’re through the looking glass here people, what was “normal” is now subject to attack by social anarchists and trans-zealots.…” Feb 28, 15:20
