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The Auld Sang 98

Posted on February 04, 2022 by

We’ve observed that over the last few days a number of Unionists, led by tuba-honking dunderhead Blair McDougall (the man who turned a 30-point No lead into a 10-point one, who lost Labour 5000 votes when he stood in East Renfrewshire in 2017 on the basis of being the guy who saved the UK – trailing in an embarrassing 3rd in a seat where Jim Murphy had once won over 50% of the vote – and who is probably more responsible than any other individual for the utter destruction of Scottish Labour as a political force), have revived the ancient “Better Together” scare story about pensions in an independent Scotland.

So as a small public service, we republish below this article from November 2016 on the subject, which remains an accurate and up-to-date summation of the reality.

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Under Her Thumb 437

Posted on September 26, 2021 by

When the Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts died last month, the first of their songs that popped into my head, for no particular reason, was “Under My Thumb”, a mildly controversial 1966 album track the band never released as a single in the West.

Its most infamous place in history, though, is this.

Until Watts’ death I was only very broadly aware of the events at Altamont Speedway in 1969, a free festival at a racetrack near San Francisco at which four people died in scenes of malevolent chaos and which is widely regarded as the grim headstone of the hippy era.

But on seeing the extraordinary footage above for the first time on the day of Watts’ death – taken from “Gimme Shelter”, notionally the official movie of the show, although the first two-thirds of it are actually a mundane travelogue of the preceding tour dates – I did some proper reading up on it.

And as I did, a horribly familiar feeling started to unfold.

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The last ten seconds of life 664

Posted on August 21, 2021 by

Our cartoonist is still on holiday, but he’d never have beaten this for a joke anyway.

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Two leaders unalike 223

Posted on July 27, 2021 by

All recorded indyref polling on the standard question, from here and here.

The picture (click to enlarge) tells the story more eloquently than we could.

The Idiot 287

Posted on July 24, 2021 by

Although we’re retired we already wrote this, so we may as well put it up for the 99.9% of Scots who don’t read the comments on David Leask‘s columns in the Herald.

Scotland’s worst, most reliably wrong and most pathologically insecure self-identified “real journalist” rehashed one of his favourite hobby-horses yesterday, namely that it’s a “nationalist myth” that Scotland got poorer after discovering oil in the North Sea.

It’s a claim he’s been banging on about since at least 2014, without ever providing a scrap of evidence to support it (his standard modus operandi), and yesterday was no exception. So let’s show Little Dave how proper big-boy journalists do it.

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Fix up, look sharp 702

Posted on June 26, 2021 by

Holiday Boy is still “resting”, so here’s a laugh from nearly six years ago.

Hear the bang? See the spark? No, us either.

How it started and how it’s going 279

Posted on May 01, 2021 by

Our always-alert readers will probably have noticed that Nicola Sturgeon’s constant catchphrase this week has been how Yes supporters still need to “build the case for independence”, rather than actually do anything to achieve it.

But the thing is, she’s the leader of the SNP. Building the case for independence is literally her job, and she’s now been doing it for six and a half years. So how much progress have we made?

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A different kind of joke 88

Posted on May 01, 2021 by

Holiday Boy is on holiday. But remember in 2018 when Nicola Sturgeon was going to use next week’s election as a de facto referendum if the UK government hadn’t given her permission for one by now, readers?

It’s almost like you can’t ever believe a word she says.

The right to be heard 105

Posted on April 24, 2021 by

From 1964:

How the times change, eh?

Red flags and klaxons 319

Posted on April 05, 2021 by

Hindsight is 20/20, readers, but perhaps we ought to have paid a little more attention to the article below back in 2015.

Because as the old saying goes: when people tell you who they are, believe them.

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The Switch 418

Posted on March 23, 2021 by

We were reminded this week of the amount of stick we got when we wrote these words almost five years ago, right after the 2016 Holyrood election:

(The rest of our post-match analysis wasn’t too shabby either.)

But readers, we have to grudgingly admit: we’re only NEARLY always right.

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Not-So-New Dawn Fades 65

Posted on March 16, 2021 by

Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome you back once again to the only event in politics that’s more frequent than a Scottish Labour leadership election.

Seems to come round sooner every year, doesn’t it?

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    • Skip_NC on Just a couple more shots: “Twenty-four genders? The very idea is quite absurd. I believe the true figure is about 8 billion. Of course, most…May 20, 18:27
    • Mia on The Ace Attorney: ““The treaty was ratified by the Scottish Parliament when it passed The Union With England Act in 1707” That is…May 20, 18:16
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