I went to “Dunkirk” at the cinema today. If you want to know what it’s like, just watch this trailer 40 times in a row and save yourself the £12.
It’s a poor movie, disjointed and aimless and curiously lacking in tension or narrative given the real-life subject matter. (It’s remarkably short on dialogue, which is lucky because you can barely make out any of what little script or story there is from behind the endlessly howling one-note airhorn of the soundtrack. It’s a bit like someone filmed an IKEA assembly manual in live action during a Formula 1 race.)
But I couldn’t help thinking that part of the reason it was so unengaging was because it felt akin to watching a boxing match between two fighters you don’t like. If Mike Tyson took on Tyson Fury, would you cheer for the rapist or the anti-Semitic homophobe?
Apologies in advance about this, folks, but it’s driving us mad. We got into a Twitter argument with some Tory balloon last night and this morning, and to cut a long story short it got us looking at the 1951 UK general election result.
History records it as a Tory majority, securing just over half of the Parliamentary seats (321 of 625) and forming the government under Winston Churchill despite narrowly losing the popular vote to Labour (48% to 48.8%).
But if you examine the result in the House Of Commons Library the numbers don’t add up, and we can’t figure out why.
There’s no particular reason to post this today, other than that it’s only come to light this week and today happens to be the 20th anniversary of the article below.
While it’s often said (mainly by nationalist types) that the Scottish Parliament and its electoral system were specifically designed to prevent the SNP from coming to power and holding an independence referendum, there’s been very little in the way of explicit evidence to back that statement up.
The 27 April 1997 issue of the Scottish Sun, though, had it in spades.
So we thought we should save it from Twitter’s fleeting attention span for posterity.
An alert reader got in touch with us this evening to tell us that they’d been clearing out an old hard drive and found an interesting web page they’d saved from several years ago. They asked if we’d like to see it.
“Sure”, we said. “Let’s have a look.”
It turned out that they’d had an exchange several years ago with Kezia Dugdale on her old (now deleted) blog, where she tended to be a bit more candid than she is now, and were so startled by an answer she’d given them that they’d felt the need to keep it.
The figure below is my own, but it’s also remarkably typical:
Click the pic to get yours.
(It actually feels like a lot more than that – quite possibly because I have, in fact, not for one minute of my entire life been represented by a government at Westminster – or anywhere else, come to that – that I voted for, unless you count the token presence of the Lib Dems in the 2010-15 coalition. Which I don’t, because they immediately betrayed every policy and principle for which I’d voted for them in the first place.)
For Scotland, democracy in the UK simply doesn’t work.
As the Prime Minister prepares to meet the First Minister and doggedly give her “now is not the time” mantra another few dozen run-throughs for the cameras, we thought that you might enjoy a little trip down Memory Lane.
(As an alert reader wryly noted: “Well, that’s a first. A one party state raises a motion against its own policy and defeats itself.”)
And we thought you’d like to be reminded that the Scottish Parliament was expressly designed from the beginning so that it would always work like that.
They must be pretty chuffed with how it’s turned out.
Hatey McHateface on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “That’s the great thing about the internet, YL Sah! War correspondents can do it all from behind the closed curtains…” Aug 5, 20:10
George Ferguson on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “@Christine Yes and the said troika would reinstate the 16th Century fig leaf that so damaged the original work of…” Aug 5, 19:14
agent x on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “During the leadership debate it was only Forbes that said something sensible about independence. Something along the lines of -…” Aug 5, 19:13
Alf Baird on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “Yes James, if colonialism is allowed to continue the oppressed group culture and nation ‘will ultimately perish’ (Fanon). Ethnic oppression…” Aug 5, 19:06
agent x on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: ““When Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) leave office, they are entitled to a leaving payment to help them adjust…” Aug 5, 18:48
agent x on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “Is there anything more boring and irrelevant than watching interviews with other people’s children getting exam results. “Look at my…” Aug 5, 18:38
christine on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “Yes, I’ve heard it all before from this troika of victim feminists. I guess there’s nothing else going on for…” Aug 5, 18:37
Mark Beggan on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “They just can’t help themselves. Media spill on women politicians unable to balance work with motherhood. The dwarf is doing…” Aug 5, 17:57
twathater on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “Anyone who thinks Kate Forbes was an asset to Scotland and independence is a Daftie, Forbes was just another trougher…” Aug 5, 17:47
James Cheyne on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “If politicians spend their time trying to intergrat nations an blend Countries, How will they hit their diversity agenda, They…” Aug 5, 17:33
Dan on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “Muckle gusts here so I hud tae batten doon the hatches and even tether ma corn on the cob plants…” Aug 5, 17:17
Young Lochinvar on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “In reply to P3nisbreath McP3nisbreathface @ 7.11 Just in from our correspondent with Scottish forces: And he (Douglas) has bunt…” Aug 5, 16:34
Confused on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “The use of mythology to create a shared national identity is not some trivial matter; we have the example of…” Aug 5, 13:28
Confused on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “windy today, maybe windy tomorrow. very interesting https://archive.ph/4pM3p now imagine a community owned company setup to create energy in Lewis?…” Aug 5, 13:25
Marie on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “Thanks for info. Very interesting to learn the names of the various Lowland clans involved in the battle. A bit…” Aug 5, 13:14
Hatey McHateface on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “Are you sure about Khan Yunis? They might be deep underground in a tunnel, being “entertained” by some teenage lassie.…” Aug 5, 12:38
agent x on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “She’ll also get a substantial payout for leaving office – the first £30,000 is tax free.” Aug 5, 12:05
anniethenoo on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “Thanks Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh, will watch. I notice Darren McGarvey is putting his non-invite to Embra Book Fest down to being…” Aug 5, 11:13
James Cheyne on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “As long as we lack understanding of the larger picture and the introduction of deliberate senseless topics into our world…” Aug 5, 11:07
James Cheyne on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “To begin sorting out Scotland politically the requirement would be to have a Scottish government. Not a devolved government that…” Aug 5, 10:54
Achnababan on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “Anyone who thinks Kate Forbes resigned because she was scared of losing her seat is a daftie…she won more votes…” Aug 5, 10:47
James Cheyne on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “The pattern is the same world wide, confusion. Add a little gender problems, just stop oil, blm , extra people…” Aug 5, 10:46
James Cheyne on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “Jist all part of the Scottish blob, And who the blob chose for puppet politicians. England has recognised the same…” Aug 5, 10:29
TURABDIN on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “SILLY SEASON BREAKING NEWS….mega dangerous storm Floris hits land. During which some umbrellas blew inside out and a few trees…” Aug 5, 09:16
Renfrewdave on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “3 failed politicians who need something and someone to blame for their failures. Dugdale had all the charm and ability…” Aug 5, 07:29
Hatey McHateface on The Deafening Echo Of Nothing: “It’s a grand day, YL Sah! and a quiet news day too. Why don’t you jump in the car, drive…” Aug 5, 07:11
twathater on The Empty Hearse: “Naw James Bastard TAX MOAN gets the engerlish and dewish holidays all the time” Aug 5, 03:15
