At the weekend this site noted that on the BBC’s Sunday Politics, presenter Andrew Neil claimed that the Scottish Government’s budget had not been reduced in real terms in “the last five or six years”, and that therefore Scotland has not faced cuts.
But as we pointed out, the Scottish Government budget HAS been cut, year-on-year, since the Tories took office. The independent Fiscal Affairs Scotland assessed the cumulative reduction at a hefty 10%, or a little over £3bn a year.
We weren’t going to take Professor Adam Tomkins’ hysterical “NATMAGEDDON!” article for this week’s Spectator seriously enough to pull it apart line by line.
But once we’d wiped the tears from our eyes we thought we’d better do our job.
Kezia Dugdale made a spectacle of herself again at First Minister’s Questions earlier today. Using time intended for holding the Scottish Government to account over its devolved responsibilities, Dugdale once more decided instead to ignore her duty to the people of Scotland and attack the FM over a matter which is entirely outwith the Scottish Government’s control, namely the past actions of a Westminster MP.
Pausing only to demand that Holyrood interfere in the running of the independent Law Society, Dugdale then abandoned her casual endangerment of a live police inquiry by focusing instead on the morality of the aforementioned MP’s business practices:
But Ms Dugdale’s own ethics left a few things to be desired.
The media and Unionist politicians (we really need to come up with a word to describe that single entity), when not concocting hysterical frothing diatribes against Michelle Thomson or complaining about the Scottish Government giving money to T In The Park – a position we must confess we find ourselves in some sympathy with – have recently been loudly protesting about last year’s “underspend” in the Holyrood budget.
There’s an extremely good article here by Dr Craig Dalzell of the Scottish Greens dealing with the broader issue of why such complaints are idiotic, so rather than go over the ground again we thought we’d look at another angle.
It appeared on any possible interpretation to be complete nonsense, but Ms Dugdale – who’s pledged to make education the issue at the heart of her leadership – has been somewhat reluctant to clarify the statement.
Several queries from her Lothian constituents have gone unanswered, but one Wings viewer did manage to get a single tweet of response.
We didn’t think that could be right, and dug up some figures suggesting that it was nonsense, but of course “the poorest kids” is a highly-flexible metric. Strictly speaking you could just mean the two poorest children in the country, and if one of those two can’t read there’s your 50%.
Luckily, we’ve now had some meat put on the bones of that claim.
Kezia Dugdale talking to Gordon Brewer on BBC Scotland today:
“I’m astonished that you’ve spent 10 minutes in this interview talking about independence and Trident when almost 50% of the poorest kids in the country can’t read […] I’m sure you’d be shocked to know that 50% of the poorest kids leave our schools unable to read.”
We suspect he would too. Because it’s total cobblers.
There’s a remarkable story on the BBC News website today about the latest findings of the British Election Study, last seen destroying the myth that fear of the SNP damaged Labour in England. The piece focuses on the discovery that being seen as “too left-wing” does NOT, in fact, cost Labour votes, despite the hysterical warnings of supposedly leftist pundits.
But there’s a more startling fact buried right at the end.
Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Talking of ‘delusion’, Hatey, the comment below from Ambassador Murray tends to reject yours and your colonial cohorts claim that…” Sep 19, 15:25
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Confused. If it is possible where do you envisage The Westminster parliament and government war being Scotlands if Westminster dates…” Sep 19, 15:09
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Havers, Alf, Confused wants the gas chamber for those who disagree with him. His kind don’t make good points. You’re…” Sep 19, 14:30
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “They’re saying war is coming whether they shill for it or not. Odd, really, I thought it was obvious near…” Sep 19, 14:24
Andy Ellis on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “It’s the usual MO of the hard of thinking contingent which has (sadly) come to dominate BTL discourse in here.…” Sep 19, 14:16
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Loving how the Argies, descendants of genocidal, colonising Europeans, are now setting their sights on their next colonialist conquest -…” Sep 19, 14:07
Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “We might also ‘twig’ that Imperial England has long since became a refuge and right of abode for millions of…” Sep 19, 13:25
Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Aye, hunners o dodgy one-sided ‘annexation’ and ‘we’ll hiv yer sovereignty, thank you’ treaties are the wey it wis done…” Sep 19, 13:02
Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Confused makes a good point. As Professor Edward Said wrote: “The imperial relationship is there in all cases. Irish people…” Sep 19, 12:45
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The BBC along with the rest of the British MSM are indeed shilling for war, as is the FSL in…” Sep 19, 12:26
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The parliament of England, the monarch of England the politicians, the Commissioners all held the two mistakes and errors. 1:…” Sep 19, 12:24
TURABDIN on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Stretching the neo colonial theme, kinda Woody Guthrie..ish These lands are our land, no longer your land From the icy…” Sep 19, 12:23
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Agentx, It was and is of no account what Scotlands old parliament did when adjourned in Scotland in 1707. To…” Sep 19, 12:03
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Many of the people you refer to as “Yoons” are independence supporters, myself included. (I was recently accused of being…” Sep 19, 11:58
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Agentx, The old Scottish parliament was already dissolved by the Monarch of England on the 28th April 1706 in England,…” Sep 19, 11:56
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “A bit early to be pished. Someone obviously left the COSHH cabinet unlocked last night. Snorted the Denso and necked…” Sep 19, 11:51
Confused on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “bbc shilling for war on the front page https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmn0jke547r5o delusions of a fool, pining for the past https://archive.ph/f0c0J getting involved…” Sep 19, 11:42
Confused on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Ben Gvir recently had a rant on X “It’s time for the State to publicly recognize that the Malvinas Islands…” Sep 19, 11:40
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “This makes the “Scotland Act itself reservations and restrictions on Scotland from the legislation and Statues of then Westminster parliament…” Sep 19, 11:39
agentx on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Timeline of the 1707 Union January 16, 1707:The Treaty of Union was formally ratified by the Parliament of Scotland. March…” Sep 19, 11:02
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Simply said for late comers, The ratification of Scotlands side of the 1707 treaty of union occurred after the parliament…” Sep 19, 11:02
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Both the bill of rights and the act of Settlement were passed by the parliament of England prior the Scottish…” Sep 19, 10:47
Andy Ellis on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Why would anyone trust a word Trump – or indeed any of his GOP successors say? Even if the Democrats…” Sep 19, 10:41
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Are Sweden and Germany Anglophone countries? How about Greece, Austria, Italy and Ceuta (Spain)? Your response is just more of…” Sep 19, 10:05
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The Westminster parliament records do not float an idea or theory that Scotland is Colonised , it proves it into…” Sep 19, 10:05
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Alf, Even you and the UN have to chronologically apply dates and time lines to arrive at the ” theses”…” Sep 19, 09:54
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “If you’re referring to the US-Denmark-Greenland deal, the reality would appear to be more nuanced. And it’s yet to be…” Sep 19, 09:44
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “No psychology, no theory, putting meat on the bone through the records of Westminster parliament, from the Horses mouth one…” Sep 19, 09:34
Andy Ellis on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Or, you know…in the real world, it’s not the yoons contributing to BTL discourse that are the issue it is…” Sep 19, 09:29
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “@Dunx According to the Declaration of Arbroath, the Picts were genocided by the Scots. That’s an awkward truth that can’t…” Sep 19, 09:26
