There’s been a running theme recently on Unionist social media.
It’s the claim that the No vote in 2014 was an anomaly – a rare victory of progressive, internationalist, inclusive politics over the anti-establishment, isolationist, separatist tone that won out in the EU referendum and now the election of Donald Trump.
Of course, the alternative view is rather simpler – that perhaps the forces that won the EU referendum and 2016 presidency also won the independence referendum.
We expect nothing but idiocy of Fraser. But Mr Torrance, who is a ubiquitous presence in the Scottish media, appears – by no means for the first time – not to have the facts at his fingertips. So let’s see if we can help him out.
Here’s Ruth Davidson at FMQs today, telling the chamber that “last week the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors said the real problem facing investment and jobs in Scotland was [Nicola Sturgeon’s] threat of a second referendum”.
Would you like to know how many actual people that was, readers?
The popular children’s author and litigious bully JK Rowling, whose personal wealth is measured in hundreds of millions of pounds, has been devoting her time to the tricky task of finding people being rude on Twitter again.
In an attempt to prove that the independence referendum (described by the Scottish Police Federation as “robust but overwhelmingly good-natured”) had been every bit as grotesque as the Brexit one which has seen an enormous rise in serious hate crimes in England and Wales – comprising thousands of incidents up to and including murder – Rowling had cherry-picked out a few unpleasant-sounding social-media comments and compiled them into a series of delightful collages.
One of the comments (visible in the top-right corner of Rowling’s composite image) came from the Twitter account of this site. And we thought it sounded a bit off, so we had a quick check to see if we’d really said something so mean.
An article by Nick Cohen in the Spectator last night fairly had social media ablaze with a heady brew of anger and mockery.
It’s the most extraordinary outpouring of deranged, spittle-flecked arsewash we’ve seen outside of a Daily Express comment thread in a very considerable time, and it merits attention solely because we think it might have broken a world record for the number of empirical falsehoods contained in an article in a respectable media outlet.
Get your clickers out, readers. You’re going to need a fast trigger finger.
To be honest, readers, we gave up on taking any notice of David Torrance‘s mundane attempts at trolling in the Herald some time ago. But some alert readers pointed us towards this week’s column, suggesting that it was a bald rewriting of history some way beyond their usual bland irritancy.
This was the passage they objected to:
It’s a patronising piece of “shut up and eat your cereal” condescension for sure. But to be fair to Torrance, it does also happen to be true. Wait, not true. The other thing.
Low-wattage Labour list MSP Neil Findlay (rejected by the electorate of Almond Valley by a thumping 8,393 votes in May) puffed himself up to maximum socialism this week and attacked the SNP’s rather more popular Paisley MP Mhairi Black over a Scottish Daily Express story about travel expenses.
It might have been an idea if he’d read the piece all the way to the end.
We’re sure that the media will pin Dugdale down over this weekend and we’ll get a detailed and convincing explanation of exactly what it is that she thinks changed about the fundamental nature of Jeremy Corbyn over that solitary month.
Ruth Davidson opened First Minister’s Questions yesterday with an attack on the Scottish Government over the performance of the NHS, citing a report that the service faced “pockets of meltdown” this winter.
But later in the session, alert backbench SNP MSP Clare Haughey claimed that the report being quoted by the Tory leader had only in fact examined THREE Scottish hospitals. So we thought we’d better check.
The press and social media today are frothing with excitement about a new Ipsos Mori poll for STV which shows (for the second poll in succession) Ruth Davidson scoring marginally higher approval ratings than Nicola Sturgeon.
But the problem is that that wasn’t what people were actually asked.
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Wheels Of Industry: “TRANS ACTIVISTS LAUNCH ‘HOW-TO’ INTIMIDATION GUIDE A group promoting violence against gender-critical campaigners has produced a guide to intimidation. Bash…” Jul 21, 23:38
Lorncal on The Wheels Of Industry: “Too many Scots, even those who profess themselves to be independence supporters, worry about other peoples to the detriment of…” Jul 21, 21:09
Colin Dawson on The Wheels Of Industry: ““Were they just waiting for all the momentum and impetus of Brexit, COVID, May, Truss and Starmer to die down…” Jul 21, 20:49
Alf Baird on The Wheels Of Industry: ““You can’t really imagine a spongebrain like Sturgeon, Swinney or Useless penning something of that calibre, can you?” Certainly no…” Jul 21, 20:46
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Wheels Of Industry: “PDF of Herman Dooyeweerd’s book: ‘ROOTS OF WESTERN CULTURE’ https://vcho.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Roots-of-Western-Culture-B-Vol-15.pdf” Jul 21, 20:38
Southernbystander on The Wheels Of Industry: “But you said they are accountable only to parliament. This is not true. If they break rules seriously enough then…” Jul 21, 20:15
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Wheels Of Industry: “« STOIC philosophy (influenced by semitic thought) had introduced into Greek thought the idea of the natural freedom and equality…” Jul 21, 19:57
Mark Beggan on The Wheels Of Industry: “And it never will. The Hope King? I thought Andy Burnham was the Oasis drummer.” Jul 21, 19:36
Hatey McHateface on The Wheels Of Industry: “Ach, Mark, you’re sore cos the hope hasn’t reached your postcode yet. Give it a day or two.” Jul 21, 18:10
TURABDIN on The Wheels Of Industry: “in the UK parliament is sovereign not the people. there is no concept of popular sovereignty within the Anglo-British (unwritten)…” Jul 21, 18:04
Mark Beggan on The Wheels Of Industry: “They can always be found around children. It’s clear now that Trans is a shield for abusing children. Fully supported…” Jul 21, 17:32
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Wheels Of Industry: “GIRLGUIDING STAFF STILL FEAR VOICING GENDER-CRITICAL VIEWS Girlguiding staff are still afraid to air gender critical views due to the…” Jul 21, 16:24
Mark Beggan on The Wheels Of Industry: ““A communist slop of low caliber, low IQ, feckless, unprincipled clowns.” The new Labour administration. Being a government take 2.…” Jul 21, 16:08
100%Yes on The Wheels Of Industry: “Is it plausible if asked by the police, I had a whole in my purse and the I lost the…” Jul 21, 15:51
robertkknight on The Wheels Of Industry: ““I don’t think it’s feasible or reasonable to disenfranchise the non-Scots in Scotland”. The British Government had no problem disenfranchising…” Jul 21, 15:09
factchecker on The Wheels Of Industry: ““As British MPs are not deputies, that is representatives of the people but accountable only to parliament and its notion…” Jul 21, 15:02
Vestas on The Wheels Of Industry: “I remember Gordon, he used to be quite active BTL here at one point in time (2014-16??). Maybe getting himself…” Jul 21, 14:40
Hatey McHateface on The Wheels Of Industry: “Professor Baird lacks a time machine so we have to deal with Scotland as it is today. I don’t think…” Jul 21, 14:31
Hatey McHateface on The Wheels Of Industry: “I maintain a balanced neutrality on that question by being very careful to not read anything written by Sturgeon, Swinney…” Jul 21, 13:57
robertkknight on The Wheels Of Industry: ““You should be able to rely on the support of near 50% of Scots”. Point of order… 52.7% of Scots…” Jul 21, 13:52
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: “Missing a trick there, Northy. Demand billions in compensation from the Scots for the genocide of the Picts.” Jul 21, 13:51
Hatey McHateface on The Wheels Of Industry: “Sorry, Alf. If you think the UN should prioritise “being out of the game” over being blown to bits in…” Jul 21, 13:46
Northcode on These Words Are My Own: “Southernbystander. You’re right, that the practical side matters more than the abstract principle. When I talk about “sovereignty of the…” Jul 21, 12:19
TURABDIN on The Wheels Of Industry: “BURNHAM became Brit PM by a system that is not directly accountable to the people, it was a internal westminster…” Jul 21, 12:15
Southernbystander on These Words Are My Own: “Yes this is all possible and the sentiment is sound, though as others have asked what does deriving sovereignty from…” Jul 21, 11:17
Oneliner on Progressing To Oblivion: “Angus Robertson was a member of the Defence Select Committee. Imagine how disturbing that must have been for his fellow…” Jul 21, 10:39
BLMac on The Wheels Of Industry: “Do any of these polls restrict their canvassing to the only people who should be allowed to have a say…” Jul 21, 10:29
Alf Baird on The Wheels Of Industry: “We know that denial is part of the colonial condition, so no surprise you twa canna, or rather winna see…” Jul 21, 10:11
100%Yes on The Wheels Of Industry: “Swinney Speaking to the Press Association at Bute House, said he wanted Burnham to devolve energy and economic powers to…” Jul 21, 09:58
