Much of the commentariat and media has been in a froth for the last 24 hours about the supposed failure of the nation’s pollsters to predict the Conservative victory. This, for example, was Labour’s highly-paid election guru David Axelrod:
But the truth is that the polls – just like the heavily-maligned exit poll which turned out to be bang on the money – got nothing wrong. The people interpreting them did.
If you’re trying to give someone an example of a terrible group of people from history, I think the Nazis are pretty good for that purpose. They fulfil the criterion excellently, what with all the invading and occupying and repression and genocidal murder and everything, and there’s very little ambiguity or any shades of grey about their evil.
Now, alert readers may have spotted that while the headline of this article is a genuine quote from the paragraph above, and could be technically correctly described as my words by someone with malicious and dishonest intent (something which does in fact happen regularly), it gives a highly misleading impression of what was really said.
The bald-eagle-looking chap toting the cerise tie in this clip of this morning’s Victoria Derbyshire show on the BBC News channel is Lord (Andrew) Adonis, a former Labour government minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
He also wrote the book “Five Days In May” about the latter’s unsuccessful attempt to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in 2010, despite having won almost 50 fewer seats than the Conservatives in that election. So he understands the process.
Lord Adonis does, in fairness, make a brief and half-hearted attempt at punting Jim Murphy’s “1924” line, but in the end he’s forced to concede (nudged along by Peter Riddell of the Institute for Government) that in fact the second-placed party forming the government is perfectly possible.
After literally months of telling voters endlessly that the only way to stop the Tories forming the next government was for Labour to be the biggest party, Jim Murphy was finally pressed properly last night on the question by the First Minister on STV (from around 1h 40m). Here’s what happened:
That seems to be a pretty clear and unequivocal statement – Labour will vote against any Queen’s Speech from the Tories. We already know that the SNP have pledged categorically that they’d do the same.
What that means is that if the SNP and Labour between them – in ANY combination – have more than 323 MPs, the speech will be defeated and the Tories can’t form the government, whether they’re the biggest single party or not.
At that point, Ed Miliband will be invited to attempt to form one, which the SNP will vote for, and which on the numbers above will mean that Miliband becomes the next Prime Minister. Labour, though not the largest party, will form the government.
That’s from Jim Murphy’s own mouth. The lie is dead. Anyone still got any questions?
NOTE: This article was published earlier today on the CommonSpace website. Since that time, according to its webhosts, the site has come “under attack” and can no longer be accessed. We reproduce the article here at CommonSpace’s request.
A Yes campaigner reported as “defecting” to the Labour party by the Daily Record in a much-hyped front page splash has said he in fact remains a member of the SNP, a supporter of independence and favourable to a Labour-SNP deal at Westminster.
Hyping the story up, the tabloid title branded Shoaib an “SNP boss”, although it is unclear why. Shoaib is a former Labour councillor and organiser of Scots Asians for Independence. He joined the SNP in 2007.
However, Shoaib has told CommonSpace that while he does want to see a Labour government ahead of the Tories – he would like to see Labour and the SNP work together in a “loose” arrangement following May’s vote. “Basically, I’ve not joined Labour and I’m still officially a member of the SNP,” said Shoaib.
Like some sort of out-of-control, unstoppable lying machine, Scottish Labour keep telling the electorate that the party with the most seats in a hung parliament is the one that forms the government, and that the only way to prevent the Conservatives from returning to power is for Labour to be the biggest party.
Because we took a short break over the weekend, we sadly missed Labour’s solemn commemorations of the 1979 confidence vote, and as a result we don’t know whether anyone actually did don a black armband or lay a wreath to remember the miners that Labour didn’t support when they went on strike a few years later.
We’ve just had a fascinating email from Scottish Labour forwarded to us, from a concerned reader who’d written to them to ask if Labour would really refuse to form a government if they weren’t the largest party. The answer might not be the one anyone who’s seen the party’s election literature (below) would be expecting.
The last few days have not been proud ones for the Scottish media. Following the Daily Record’s humiliation at the hands of the independent press standards body over the Smith Commission, we don’t see this letter from the chair of the Scottish Prison Officers Association in today’s Scotsman (and the article in question doesn’t appear to have been corrected), so it looks like we’re going to have to print it here.
Sven on A Stitch In Timing: “Young Lochinvar @ 21.48. “Hot Patootie – Bless My Soul”. And, surely many of us recall how being thawed out…” Feb 8, 07:07
Cynicus on A Stitch In Timing: “Young Lochinvar says: 7 February, 2026 at 10:58 pm ‘Or.. To quote English Henry VII (Tudor) marrying off his daughter…” Feb 8, 01:02
James on A Stitch In Timing: ““…have campaigned for Indy all my adult life.” LOLZ. That right, aye?” Feb 8, 00:03
James on A Stitch In Timing: “Oh dear. Poor “fact checker”…he doesn’t even know that it’s rugby union at Murrayfield next week, not rugby league. What…” Feb 8, 00:00
David Holden on A Stitch In Timing: “Sorry Alf still not sure what your point is and if you are implying I am a non native and\or…” Feb 7, 23:35
Young Lochinvar on A Stitch In Timing: “Or.. To quote English Henry VII (Tudor) marrying off his daughter to a reluctant King James IV of Scotland; “The…” Feb 7, 22:58
sam on A Stitch In Timing: “https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203788332/internal-colonialism-michael-hechter “…Hechter examines the unexpected persistence of ethnicity in the politics of industrial societies by focusing on the British Isles.…” Feb 7, 22:10
Lorna Campbell on A Stitch In Timing: “James: the very fact that he was filmed lifting the sledgehammer and bringing it down on the back of the…” Feb 7, 21:52
Young Lochinvar on A Stitch In Timing: “Woo hoo! Someone (Keir) has hit the defrost button and the Broontosaurus has been thawed out to save the (Labour)…” Feb 7, 21:48
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “@James Cheyne Why don’t you re-post on some site read by our fighting friends in the east? I’m confident they…” Feb 7, 21:38
Young Lochinvar on A Stitch In Timing: ““Fact”checker @ 7.43 Even for you it’s surprising you came out with this paper thin surrebutter! You’re the one (allegedly)…” Feb 7, 21:22
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “Awww. I wanted an opportunity to enthuse about the health and fitness benefits of goose stepping. Stamina building too, and…” Feb 7, 21:21
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “Language theory, and common sense, tells us that colonial and post colonial are different things. A science and engineering background…” Feb 7, 21:03
DaveL on A Stitch In Timing: “Ask the Rev, his machine chose to protect you from having to answer to it.” Feb 7, 20:56
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “What would a Yank like Hechter know of the Celtic Periphery? To many of the bulk of Scots residing in…” Feb 7, 20:54
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “Were they about goose stepping by any chance? Relax. You’ve already covered that to the best of your ability.” Feb 7, 20:42
Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: ““not sure what your point is” Postcolonial theory tells us that the more culturally assimilated native bourgeoisie, being “the most…” Feb 7, 20:41
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “@Alf I never made the team either. You have my sympathy. Like you, I still remember how much it hurt.…” Feb 7, 20:37
factchecker on A Stitch In Timing: “David, You are obviously not aware of the threat of cultural colonisation that we live under. Indeed, it may already…” Feb 7, 20:00
Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: ““Of course it is only a half government” Its not even that. Whatever ‘it’ may be called, it is ‘managed’…” Feb 7, 19:58
factchecker on A Stitch In Timing: “The ProfessorHechter is quoted as saying “Within the Celtic Periphery this also meant that the English held: ‘a disproportionate share…” Feb 7, 19:43
David Holden on A Stitch In Timing: “@ Alf Baird 6.31 pm . I remember it well Alf also supporters of a certain football club that were…” Feb 7, 19:21
Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: “Interesting, but lets not confuse colonialism with the class struggle. This from Professor Michael Hechter’s study of ‘The UK Internal…” Feb 7, 18:41
Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: “You maybe don’t remember ‘Rugby Legends for No’, reflecting the more privileged culturally assimilated native groups greater propensity to oppose…” Feb 7, 18:31
James on A Stitch In Timing: “See above, everyone. Another unionist Fanny.” Feb 7, 17:59
DaveL on A Stitch In Timing: “Hey Rev, I’m wondering why two lengthy replies concerning fascism to Hatey’s post at 7.41pm on the 6th have been…” Feb 7, 17:44
David Holden on A Stitch In Timing: “Not sure where your rant is coming from but it is so far off the mark I am beginning to…” Feb 7, 17:38
Confused on A Stitch In Timing: “rugby is cringe. murrayfield, all those blazer cunts, all those private schoolboys banging heads, supported by new town stockbrokers giving…” Feb 7, 16:51
