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The People’s Mess 305

Posted on July 18, 2018 by

Oh God. Would you look at the absolute state of this, readers?

Let’s make like everybody’s mental health and break that down.

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And then there were fewer 297

Posted on July 09, 2018 by

In the light of David Davis’ resignation last night and the continuing shambolic chaos that is UK politics, it seemed a pertinent time for these findings from our latest poll.

Readers probably won’t be too shocked that it’s Scotland Vs The Tories again.

The divided kingdom 455

Posted on July 04, 2018 by

So this is an interesting one. The UK government currently finds itself in an appalling mess over the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with Ireland, due to the inconvenient fact of a small part of Ireland being in the UK, and has no idea what to do about it.

The closest thing Westminster has to a plan – and it has to be said that it’s not VERY close to a plan – is the so-called “backstop”, which isn’t a backstop at all and merely kicks everything down the road a couple of years, and which the EU has already said is a non-starter.

The fallback on the backstop, as announced last December, is “regulatory alignment” on the island of Ireland, which would effectively mean Northern Ireland staying in the EU and a border coming into existence in the Irish Sea (or to be more geographically accurate, the North Channel).

This would be, um, bitterly opposed by the DUP, on whom Theresa May’s government notionally depends, but given the absolute trainwreck of Labour’s position on Brexit it’s not at all clear that the DUP’s opposition would be enough to scupper any vote, so it could happen anyway, opening a simply massive can of worms.

That’s about the shortest rendition of the situation we can manage. But of course, in reality it’s much more complicated than that.

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The worst country in the world 187

Posted on June 30, 2018 by

In our latest Panelbase poll, we asked the same independence question we asked in the last one, and got much the same answer. (Technically the indy vote went up by about a sixth of one percent, but that’s statistically meaningless.)

That’s a bit disappointing after the events of recent weeks, but also not very surprising – after all, the way the question is framed pretty much guarantees at least 38% of the population will choose the second option straight off the bat.

Much more interesting is the question we asked next.

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Heads up 63

Posted on June 23, 2018 by

Way back then 125

Posted on June 19, 2018 by

Ah, those were the days.

That’s a relief, at least.

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The people betrayed 171

Posted on June 12, 2018 by

The Sun (English edition only, the Scottish one goes for a domestic murrdurr story) has an inflammatory front page today, as Parliament debates the most important series of votes so far on Brexit, including one to overrule devolution.

It’s a rerun of a(n in)famous previous front-page illustration from the paper, which you can see below. But there’s something odd about it.

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Blazing and addled 156

Posted on June 09, 2018 by

The turncoat 42

Posted on June 02, 2018 by

Guess who’s coming to dinner? 250

Posted on May 22, 2018 by

Last week we revealed that English voters would happily see Scotland and Northern Ireland leave the UK if it was the price of securing Brexit. But one of the odder things was that those figures included a sizeable number of Remain voters, who don’t want Brexit to happen at all.

We were a little perplexed, so we did a follow-up question asking those people if they’d elaborate a bit and got some interesting replies. One person, for example, answered “The Scottish people are very arrogant and although they want to be separate from the rest of the UK they are happy to take money from England”. Charming.

But there was also another stream of opinion on the subject, and it was revealed in the responses to another question in the original poll.

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Theresa’s Big Plan 282

Posted on May 02, 2018 by

Sane people across the nation have watched in growing disbelief for the last two years as the UK government’s catastroshambles over Brexit has unfolded. In the latest jaw-dropping developments, David Davis has revealed that he’s only just now thinking of STARTING negotiating a trade deal with the EU – 22 months after the referendum and with absolutely no idea of how to solve the Irish Question on which it all depends.

Meanwhile, Faisal Islam of Sky News has made the pertinent point that the one “land-based” border between the UK and mainland Europe, the Channel Tunnel, has no infrastructure in place for serving as a checkpoint because it was fundamentally never designed or envisaged for a Europe without the UK, and the UK government has done absolutely nothing in the last two years to prepare for that changing.

And the more ludicrously chaotically and ineptly the whole farce plays out, the more it’s only possible to come to one rational conclusion about it: that the Prime Minister’s grand plan for enacting Brexit is to fail.

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Bloody rebels 535

Posted on March 31, 2018 by

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    • Skip_NC on The Blindness Of Hatred: “Alba has to work with the resources it has. Yes, it would be great to stand in all 73 constituencies…May 12, 02:15
    • Geri on The Blindness Of Hatred: ““You would happily see scotland as a 3rd world poverty stricken hellhole if you get to say up yours to…May 12, 01:21
    • Geri on The Blindness Of Hatred: “If I was in charge I’d make all who voted on this to volunteer a family member first. Same with…May 12, 00:39
    • BLMac on The Blindness Of Hatred: ““You would happily see scotland as a 3rd world poverty stricken hellhole if you get to say up yours to…May 12, 00:10
    • Geoff Bush on The Blindness Of Hatred: “look – its simple – James is now a member of the SNP – if he didn’t say stuff supportive…May 11, 23:02
    • Marie on The Blindness Of Hatred: “Oh absolutely. The nation state can’t possibly be burdened with the mentally ill as well as the physically ill. THAT…May 11, 22:21
    • Scot Finlayson on The Blindness Of Hatred: “Voting at Holyrood on the assisted killing bill on Tuesday, the bill is being forced through by LibDem MSP Liam…May 11, 22:04
    • Michael Laing on The Blindness Of Hatred: “@ David Holden: Yoon’s Cum seems pretty appropriate to me. Doing a LOL!May 11, 21:37
    • sarah on The Blindness Of Hatred: “It is very worrying that so many people don’t understand the Holyrood voting system. Even more worrying, that the SNP…May 11, 21:05
    • Scot Finlayson on The Blindness Of Hatred: “Lord Palmerston once said: “Only three people have ever really understood the D’Hondt method list vote system – the Prince…May 11, 20:59
    • Rev. Stuart Campbell on The Blindness Of Hatred: “Oh for fuck’s SAKE. Yes, they’ll get no seats if nobody votes for them. The point is that if you…May 11, 20:57
    • Craig on Some People Try To Fuck With You: “Get the Civil Restraint Order fired in now mate, never mind the lunacy of the guy, he is clearly a…May 11, 20:43
    • 100%Yes on The Blindness Of Hatred: “It would appear James Kelly is a frequent visitor here.May 11, 20:10
    • Aidan on The Blindness Of Hatred: “Yup Yoonscum this is getting silly nowMay 11, 20:03
    • diabloandco on The Blindness Of Hatred: “Tar would be pretty good.May 11, 19:56
    • David Holden on The Blindness Of Hatred: “As Yoon’s cum seems to be going for a period on the naughty step I wonder what cunning new name…May 11, 19:54
    • Rev. Stuart Campbell on The Blindness Of Hatred: “Okay, enough. You were warned.May 11, 19:35
    • Rev. Stuart Campbell on The Blindness Of Hatred: “A 10-to-1 numerical outnumbering might conceivably help.May 11, 19:35
    • Yoon Scum on The Blindness Of Hatred: “If us English are so pathetic, useless and snivelling cowardly pieces of subhuman shit How do we have our boot…May 11, 19:20
    • Yoon Scum on The Blindness Of Hatred: “Reasons to vote for the Scottish Greens 1 :- You hate Scotland and want to see the entire country destroyed…May 11, 19:18
    • Geri on The Blindness Of Hatred: “No. At a guess I’d think their number one priority would be if they’re facing conscription or not cause the…May 11, 18:56
    • Del G on The Blindness Of Hatred: “Alba are polling under 2% right now. Chance of winning list seats is approximately nil.May 11, 18:33
    • Del G on The Blindness Of Hatred: “Who do you suggest all those redux SNP voters choose instead? Better an XXX-good message rather than simply SNP-bad. I’d…May 11, 18:31
    • Yoon Scum on The Blindness Of Hatred: ““Alternatively, you could vote for Reform and ensure the eventual absorption of Scotland into a Greater England. Which, of course,…May 11, 18:25
    • Yoon Scum on The Blindness Of Hatred: “Will britnats be returned to england after indy?May 11, 18:16
    • Ian McCubbin on The Blindness Of Hatred: “So only conclusion for a chance if independence majority is both Alba on vote 2 the list.May 11, 17:59
    • Lorn on The Blindness Of Hatred: “Yoon: there are no soft NO voters. Well, there may be up till the moment they have to vote. Oh,…May 11, 17:36
    • Owen Mullions on The Blindness Of Hatred: “Cheap tat,bloody autocorrect.May 11, 17:25
    • Owen Mullions on The Blindness Of Hatred: “He’s devoted another lengthy blog to whining about Stu. The sooner Eurovision starts and he can lose himself in cheap…May 11, 17:25
    • diabloandco on The Blindness Of Hatred: “Rev, could you just deport him/her/it anyway – pretty please!May 11, 16:52
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