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.
Mark Beggan on The Massive Face Of Truth: ““Reform voters still support independence” Totally True Rev. Thank you.” Jun 8, 19:37
Ronald Bennett on The Massive Face Of Truth: “I was a ‘Yes’ voter for the first (and only) referendum but changed sides when we voted to leave the…” Jun 8, 19:37
Jay on The Massive Face Of Truth: “YL, your stalker (Mc Hateful) maybe does not realise that he is an anti-semite but avoids facing the truth when…” Jun 8, 18:34
Young Lochinvar on The Massive Face Of Truth: “Meant to say, watched The Longest Day and big Tam fooling about as Flanagan carrying a mk 3 Bren gun…” Jun 8, 18:09
Young Lochinvar on The Massive Face Of Truth: “HMcH Oh I raised a glass alright, relatives were there. June 6th is very well known and hasn’t been airbrushed…” Jun 8, 17:42
Hatey McHateface on The Massive Face Of Truth: “Got to say, YL, absolutely jaw dropping to me that you let June 6th go by without raising a glass.…” Jun 8, 17:19
Hatey McHateface on In pursuit of clarity: “Here’s a fourth behaviour for you, Northy. As you have in the past, on this site, claimed to be a…” Jun 8, 17:11
Hatey McHateface on The Massive Face Of Truth: “I’ve often considered that if Rev Stu were to address his formidable intellect to identifying the best way to generate…” Jun 8, 16:55
Mike on The Massive Face Of Truth: “Hi Stuart,did you get any call,message email etc in 2020 causing you suspicion to look at the accounts ?” Jun 8, 16:35
twathater on The Massive Face Of Truth: “Well done Mr Campbell there is only one thing I would disagree with on your interview, Sturgeon made it clear…” Jun 8, 15:44
twathater on The Massive Face Of Truth: “I have to say I wholeheartedly agree that ANY enquiry into the endemic corruption that exists within the snp, police…” Jun 8, 15:23
Young Lochinvar on The Massive Face Of Truth: “SB When I say written out I am referring to published general histories. These are notoriously Anglo-centric, frustratingly partisan. So…” Jun 8, 13:45
Aidan on In pursuit of clarity: “Alright Northcode – I get you’ve reach the point where the facts are clear, on the table, and you now…” Jun 8, 13:24
Southernbystander on The Massive Face Of Truth: “The Wiki entry is certainly much more substantial for Northallerton, it is true. If I am honest, I had heard…” Jun 8, 12:41
Northcode on In pursuit of clarity: “Now I see why Xaracen became so frustrated when dealing with you, AI Dan. I’ve hit the bullseye on three…” Jun 8, 12:14
Ian Smith on The Massive Face Of Truth: “Wasn’t the institutional pride generated after 150 – 200 years or so of colonialism? Is there a theory as to…” Jun 8, 11:37
Young Lochinvar on The Massive Face Of Truth: “SB True, but that’s not been written out of history.” Jun 8, 11:30
Southernbystander on The Massive Face Of Truth: “Shame about the replay at Northallerton a few weeks later 😉” Jun 8, 11:14
100%Yes on The Massive Face Of Truth: “I am sick and tired of people saying the SNP is the only vehicle to Independence, no their not there…” Jun 8, 10:57
100%Yes on The Massive Face Of Truth: “I’ve repeated this god knows how many times and it falls on death ears. We stayed in England and came…” Jun 8, 10:49
gm on The Massive Face Of Truth: “Iain Lawson’s blog site was along the same lines, excellent site. It is still online. Roddy MacLeod’s site and podcast,…” Jun 8, 09:49
Aidan on In pursuit of clarity: “There’s quite a lot of factual inaccuracies in that post Northcode, but first let’s deal with this issue of representations…” Jun 8, 08:20
John Cutesack on The Massive Face Of Truth: “I commented on these issues over the years and found that this was the only pro-indy site that was willing…” Jun 8, 07:08
Redcliffe62 on The Massive Face Of Truth: “Whilst it is safe to say other monies such as those involving Mone and Hancock and Gove are far bigger…” Jun 8, 02:35
Young Lochinvar on The Massive Face Of Truth: “HMcH Don’t really have any desire to get into a running spat again, but shouldn’t you consider that’s exactly where…” Jun 8, 00:25
Young Lochinvar on The Massive Face Of Truth: “Happy anniversary of the battle of Clitheroe, in Lancashire, 1138 tomorrow.. Another pumping dispensed and pretty quickly (and consistently thereafter)…” Jun 8, 00:15
robertkknight on The Massive Face Of Truth: “A “Corrupt Dictatorship” indeed! Was then…is now, and still has the backing of some very powerful individuals in what is…” Jun 7, 23:06
Tenruh on The Massive Face Of Truth: “I made a monthly payment into the referendum fundraiser from March 2017 until February 2021 and assume there would have…” Jun 7, 22:26
