It’s nice to see the British media (and perhaps, if we might be allowed to dream for a moment, the law) catching up with Michelle Mone.
It’s such a shame nobody did any proper investigative journalism into what a crooked, venal chancer she is before now – seven years ago or even four years ago, say – or the country might have been saved a few billion quid. Ah well, you live and learn, eh?
While this site remains mothballed, it’s nice to keep a steady trickle of traffic going just in case it ever needs to spring back to life, eg if someone actually interested in independence suddenly somehow becomes leader of the SNP again.
So we thought it might be fun to just briefly link to some old articles as and when they became topical once more, and as luck would have it tomorrow is such an occasion.
Because that’s when the SNP will launch the first of a series of new papers outlining the First Minister’s “vision” of independence by waffling on about how it would be a jolly good thing, in the unlikely event that she ever got off her extremely well-paid arse and achieved it.
15 years ago this week (today if you’re counting strictly by date, Thursday if you want to go with election days) the SNP came to power in Scotland for the first time ever. The media operating in Scotland is full of retrospectives and polls on the period, but as usual they’ve missed the real story, as a reader pointed out to us a few days ago.
So for old times’ sake, let’s do their job properly for them one more time.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mark Beggan on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Or as an alternative: Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict.” May 9, 18:19
Jay on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Re. Tommo, inverted commas for ‘elect’, is that a comment on the ‘closed list’ system?” May 9, 18:16
Geri on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Lorna, Aye. I was joking too. That it wouldn’t be a bad thing if he did rock up for the…” May 9, 17:57
TURABDIN on And Nothing Happened Forever: “spineless, slithering, slobbering beasts copulating together….but with what?” May 9, 17:34
Tommo on And Nothing Happened Forever: “‘So we really may as well not have bothered’ The same could be said of both the mainland devolved assemblies;…” May 9, 17:26
paul on And Nothing Happened Forever: “From Sri Lanka’s electoral commision: 03. What are the qualifications and disqualifications to be a candidate at a Parliamentary election…” May 9, 17:23
Breastplate on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Aidan, pu tin is used as a bogeyman to scare the bejeesus out of us western plebs. The horrific idea…” May 9, 17:08
Lorncal on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Och me, it was a joke, Geri. Yes, I agree that this is a very evident sign of decay on…” May 9, 17:07
Geri on And Nothing Happened Forever: “It has done a lot of good, TBF. Once SNP completed Alex Salmonds projects the decline & rot started. Sturgeon…” May 9, 17:07
Sven on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Turabdin @ 11.30. Somehow as I survey the Cowards’ Castle of self serving careerists at Holyrood the portion of W…” May 9, 16:55
What Rot on And Nothing Happened Forever: “We DID start somewhere. We’ll never get closer than to where Alex took us. The generation that fought with Alex…” May 9, 16:50
Bilbo on And Nothing Happened Forever: “The media focus on all these boats coming across the English channel but nothing is mentioned about the many, many…” May 9, 16:28
Lorncal on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Thank you for that, Sven. I was going to do a bit of research myself because I wasn’t sure. That…” May 9, 16:25
Rob on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Is the closure of the Scottish parliament really such a bad thing? I would vote for its removal these days…” May 9, 16:17
Bilbo on And Nothing Happened Forever: “I had caught a bit of Swinney on Sky news and it was vomit inducing. It’s hard not to get…” May 9, 16:14
Mark Beggan on And Nothing Happened Forever: ““Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky? He got an Ice pick that made his ears burn.”” May 9, 16:13
Bilbo on And Nothing Happened Forever: “With respect, you come into this forum with such nonsensical stuff about the SNP. It’s coming across as you are…” May 9, 16:07
Bilbo on And Nothing Happened Forever: “What Rot If you had actually read it, the AI response I had quoted was a summary of the specific…” May 9, 15:54
TURABDIN on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Life is not an easy matter… You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have…” May 9, 15:53
Geri on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Okeydoke, I see what you mean. You’re referring to the UK being a signatory. Interesting can of worms that. Could…” May 9, 15:52
Geri on And Nothing Happened Forever: “He isn’t a signatory. He withdrew over Crimea. Crimea was never a part of an independent U. U failed to…” May 9, 15:25
Mark Beggan on And Nothing Happened Forever: “‘And what costume shall the poor girl wear To all tomorrow’s parties? A hand-me-down dress from who knows where To…” May 9, 15:19
100%Yes on And Nothing Happened Forever: “I was just wondering if Mr Broon was in downing street to address Scotland and the constitutional question?” May 9, 15:10
Geri on And Nothing Happened Forever: “AI Dan doesn’t realise it’s all pantomime. Reform is just another distraction for another five years cause the British State…” May 9, 15:05
Aidan on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Obviously as a signatory to the ICC he’d be arrested upon arrival but sure . .” May 9, 14:51
Geri on And Nothing Happened Forever: “What Rot Aye, but it can be a quick digest/brief summary if you only pay attention to the official sources…” May 9, 14:39
What Rot on And Nothing Happened Forever: “We DID start somewhere. We’ll never get closer than to where Alex took us. The generation that fought with Alex…” May 9, 14:37
Minceheid on And Nothing Happened Forever: “robertkknight says: 9 May, 2026 at 1:38 pm Best toddle off back to Wee Ginger Fud. To be honest I’d…” May 9, 14:30
