We don’t normally ask you to watch videos as long as this, readers. (Although at 4m 22s it’s still not War And Peace.) As a rule the key part of any TV discussion can be boiled down to a few seconds, but this one needs to be taken in at a bit more length.
It happened on last night’s Question Time from Dundee, and was already 10 minutes into a discussion about whether there might be a second independence referendum and what might trigger it, in particular the prospect of Scotland voting to remain in the EU in June but the rest of the UK voting to leave, dragging Scotland out forcibly.
At that point, host David Dimbleby made an inexplicable intervention, abandoning his position as supposedly neutral moderator to pluck a “fact” out of thin air with which to attack the SNP’s John Swinney. Here’s what unfolded.
This week Scottish Labour have been attacking the SNP’s rather timid plans for the reform of Council Tax, which is an entirely fair and legitimate opposition pursuit.
But as is their wont, Kezia Dugdale’s branch office just can’t help overplaying their hand and doing it in a highly dishonest way.
An alert reader just found this. It’s quite something.
We especially liked this bit:
“The growing practice of the socialist government is to take decisions vitally affecting Scotland in Whitehall… this is a process which we have every intention of setting in direct reverse.”
The dogged determination of Scottish Labour to insult the Scottish electorate is a source of constant slack-jawed astonishment to us. Over the years we’ve lost count of the number of times the party’s politicians have effectively said “People are just too stupid to vote for us”, in the apparent belief that abuse is the way to win back support.
But it’s not always so overt. The subtler ways in which the party treats voters like morons include the assumption that people’s memories only go back to yesterday’s newspapers, and there can surely be no more stark illustration than its recent adoption of the attack line that the SNP are standing “shoulder to shoulder with the Tories”.
The title of this article is a phrase that people use when publishing a transcript of someone’s intended speech, to signify that this is what they INTENDED to say, but that the reader should verify it with the actual speech to check whether they did, because sometimes there are last-minute changes or the person simply forgets bits.
It’s been a fair few months since we last documented the Daily Record’s increasingly panicky attempts to save its own hide over its infamous eve-of-referendum “Vow”.
In its growing desperation, the paper bizarrely turns today to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, demanding that SHE should be the one to fulfil a promise that the Record made specifically in order to thwart Sturgeon’s lifelong goal of independence.
The Labour Party has today published Margaret Beckett’s report into why it lost the 2015 general election. We were rather struck by this line:
Let’s just go over that one again to be sure: Labour believed that an SNP victory in Scotland would make it “impossible” for the Tories to form the government.
Which is weird, because that’s not quite what we remember them saying.
TURABDIN on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Another Mackintosh building the philistine mob are embarrassed by. Student accom? I can hear the shrill tones of the fire…” Aug 19, 12:19
Mark Beggan on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: ““Scotland” That’s that third world Juniper republic or ‘the bent tomato’. Just below Angola for civic corruption and just above…” Aug 19, 11:17
Captain Caveman on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “@Hatey Perhaps you could help me out, as I too must be suffering from “a pitiful excuse of an education”.…” Aug 19, 11:17
Alf Baird on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: ““What if independence is the only way to bring about justice?” That would seem a reasonable assumption since a colonized…” Aug 19, 10:30
Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “On 29th August, the people of Iceland vote on whether accession talks with the EU should be re-opened. The previous…” Aug 19, 08:49
Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “A smarter poster would have placed that comment elsewhere, twathater. 🙂 But never mind that. Perhaps you could help me…” Aug 19, 07:37
Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “That’s enough about the drought and the water companies.” Aug 19, 07:30
Mark Beggan on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Schadenfreude. Watching the Academia of Woke ville frantically swim about in their own excrement has got to be up there…” Aug 19, 06:38
twathater on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “So Jay you said “Too many of the comments made on ‘Wings’ appear as those of an in-fighting rabble who,…” Aug 19, 03:54
Peter McAvoy on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “The Herald today mentions that more student accommodation is to be built on the site of the former Herald premises…” Aug 19, 01:58
Alex towns on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Swinney gave it in private but means diddly. He was open about not having a committee membership etc so wasn’t…” Aug 19, 00:25
Alex towns on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “What utter pish. A indie Scotland would have the same career driven assholes in the same positions making sure they…” Aug 19, 00:24
Ian Smith on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “If police were made aware that the SNP had pilfered the cash, are they duty bound to sit on their…” Aug 18, 23:13
Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Aidan, I don’t think that’s what was said. I think the lady simply agreed with James. I think I understand…” Aug 18, 23:08
Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Marie says: 18 August, 2026 at 2:54 pm “Monarchy – a relic. Time to get rid.” You were doing so…” Aug 18, 22:51
Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Even if every poster on here agrees with Alf tomorrow that Scotland is a colony, Alf still fails to provide…” Aug 18, 22:43
Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “If another fit of boredom strikes you, Northy, why don’t you re-write the lawyer’s letter in a superior form? Not…” Aug 18, 22:35
Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Fucks sake, Jay Main. It’s a well-known quote, widely repeated. Why don’t you educate yersel? And yes, if a nation…” Aug 18, 22:29
Strathglass on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “replying to Northcode (A) OK. not really important in the scheme of things. (B)Ditto. (C) So Police Scotland are saying…” Aug 18, 21:39
Aidan on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “@Alf – if it is the high-quality work you say it is, then why is it published in a student-run…” Aug 18, 21:24
Aidan on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: ““A distinction is appropriate, here, because Alf has been accused of obsessive references to various writers who deal with Colonialism”…” Aug 18, 21:20
Alf Baird on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “An extensive summary of the ‘Doun-Hauden’ book’s findings and theoretical framework developed to explain Scotland’s colonial condition, inclusive of extensive…” Aug 18, 21:14
Spartan 117 on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “I don’t always agree with Alf however he does make compelling points and makes his points without any disrespect or…” Aug 18, 20:48
Saffron Robe on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “I’m not sure I agree with your conclusion, Stuart. What if independence is the only way to bring about justice?…” Aug 18, 20:28
James Che on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “The devolved Scottish governance is English by nature and law under legislation and Statues from the Westminster parliament in which…” Aug 18, 20:15
Northcode on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Police Scotland’s reply… tone, structure, and meaning. This letter is calm, procedural, factual, standard, professional, and non?reactive. It’s exactly what…” Aug 18, 19:19
Jay on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Anthem and Alanm, your assessment is correct. Thatcher and her associates intended to corrupt potentially democratic politics with a massive…” Aug 18, 18:16
Northcode on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “You’re wrong, Jay. Alf only references those pioneers of postcolonial theory to punt his book, “Doun-Hauden: The Socio-Political Determinants of…” Aug 18, 17:56
Jay on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Confused as to the utility of your comment (referring to J. Arday) for remedy of the ills with which Rev…” Aug 18, 17:24
