Now, readers, it’s not much of a secret that anyone who’s still supporting the SNP in the hopes that they’ll deliver Scottish independence is – and let’s put this as gently and kindly as possible – a bit thick.
From a membership high of 125,000 in the run-up to the 2021 Holyrood election, fully 60% have now wised up and left, and the 40% still left paying annual subscriptions to a party that’s stolen their money TWICE and spent it on pepper pots are pretty much by definition the dumbest of dum-dums.
But it looks like even they’re just about beginning to get it now.
Five more years and they might have just about woken up.
Great news, everyone – Scottish Labour has finally worked out how to talk to the people of Scotland. This video featuring the party’s MP Melanie Ward just appeared on the Scotland Office’s LinkedIn page, and it explains the complexities of the interlinked Scottish and UK economies in terms that the UK government hopes all of you awful thick Jocko plebs might be able to understand. Enjoy.
And tomorrow morning, do remember to eat your cereal, won’t you?
Not done with celebrating defeat in an imaginary UDI yesterday, The National has gone with another big polling-based front cover today, and the party’s woke young stormtrooper drones are beside themselves with malignant glee.
The National runs headlines like this quite often.
The sort-of newspaper doesn’t actually have a sports section – it just publishes The Herald’s – but if it did you have to wonder what it would look like.
You’ve had a few pretty gruelling pieces to get through in the last week or so, readers, so here’s something a little more light-hearted.
It’s from an episode of Broadcasting Scotland on 27 November 2020, a month after we confirmed our big story about the SNP accounts and the missing fundraiser money. In it, snug-toed SNP MP Pete Wishart opines that there really is nothing to worry about, and we should all just put our trust in the party.
We’ll leave you to judge whose opinion stood the test of time.
The image below is a graph illustrating how many seats each party won in last week’s supposedly “proportional” Scottish Parliament election, compared to how many they would have won if the electoral system had been actually proportional.
The SNP and Greens are now over-represented by 37% and 50% respectively, while the Unionist parties are all under-represented compared to their vote share by (left to right) 26%, 19%, 20% and 23%.
The Additional Member System has failed very badly at its job, from either perspective. “Pro-indy” parties have 73 seats (57%) rather than the 52 seats that their 40.8% vote share should have earned, while Unionist parties have 56 seats (or 43%) when they should have 69 for their 56% of the vote.
(The other 4% of the vote was scattered among 24 other parties or independents, with 1.8% going to identifiably pro-independence candidates, increasing the total “pro-indy” vote to 42.6%, fully 10 points short of current polling for independence itself.)
It is, therefore, a little bit of a stretch – to put it mildly – to present the refusal of the UK government to grant a second independence referendum on the basis of the results as an outrage against “democracy”. Indeed, if any outrage against democracy has taken place, it happened last Thursday.
Specifically, of the Single Most Toe-Curlingly, Face-Palmingly Cretinous Thing Said In The 2026 Holyrood Election Campaign, And Possibly Any Election Ever, Prize.
We mean, wow. We could easily write a 1000-word article purely on the top 10 things that are fatuously, obviously idiotic about those three short sentences, and so could you. So imagine how embarrassed the poor Daily Record must be today.
Because the truth is that we should all be quietly sending BBC Scotland bouquets in appreciation for doing the independence movement a favour for once.
Alf Baird on Faces In Sand: ““as part of that study did ask any shipping or freight operators whether they’d be interested in shipping their goods…” Oct 28, 22:06
Spartan 117 on Faces In Sand: “You’ll get no argument from me Dan regarding any of your points raised. The closure of Grangemouth was an utterly…” Oct 28, 21:56
Dave on Vibecoding A Better World: “I’m glad to see you back and posting, Stu. I was a bit concerned by the silence and thought that…” Oct 28, 21:36
Aidan on Faces In Sand: “It’s not a question of NO aircraft flying. If; – independence significantly reduces demand on the rUK – Scotland routes;…” Oct 28, 19:51
Dan on Faces In Sand: “Ach, who knew in a self-governing Scotland so many folk would lose their jobs because we wouldn’t have any aircraft…” Oct 28, 19:12
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “Northy, I concluded long ago that loopholes are designed into laws on purpose. Why else does it take years to…” Oct 28, 19:01
Aunty Flo on Vibecoding A Better World: “Great idea, Grant! Don’t forget the baby wipes. (Though not exactly sure what they are supposed to be for)….” Oct 28, 17:59
SystemUser1 on Vibecoding A Better World: “My own experience with that software showed a severe glitch under high load. I found that the interface becomes completely…” Oct 28, 17:57
Northcode on Vibecoding A Better World: “AI isn’t just good at coding because coding is “simple” for AI engines — it’s good at coding because coding…” Oct 28, 17:42
Frank Gillougley on Vibecoding A Better World: “Just relieved that the private conversation BTL is now over! However, I am a fully paid up member of the…” Oct 28, 17:18
Mervyn Flange on Vibecoding A Better World: “It’s not just in the area of Scottish politics that you have made a great contribution. Many readers may be…” Oct 28, 17:01
Aidan on Faces In Sand: “@Alf – as part of that study did ask any shipping or freight operators whether they’d be interested in shipping…” Oct 28, 16:54
Grant on Vibecoding A Better World: “Genuinely curious, do you actually think AI is gonna be the end of us all imminently? Shall I order a…” Oct 28, 16:52
Craig on Vibecoding A Better World: “I did think about using AI to create a new political party that has an AI generated manifesto designed to…” Oct 28, 16:50
Alf Baird on Faces In Sand: “Lorncal: Scotland’s unelected elites never had the constitutional authority to sell the nation in the first place, even under extreme…” Oct 28, 16:21
sarah on Vibecoding A Better World: “Nice to see that you’ve had some fun for a change, Rev.” Oct 28, 15:41
Stephen Welsh on Vibecoding A Better World: “Fantastic!, you need to give Grok Bot a play too, not as smart as Claude (at the moment) but really…” Oct 28, 15:24
Chas on Faces In Sand: “Baird-Do you trawl through the comments section on Wings solely to say the same crap time after time AND ESPECIALLY…” Oct 28, 15:21
Lorncal on Faces In Sand: “Alf: even where they have signed a treaty and where they have acquiesced in their own subsumption for over 300…” Oct 28, 15:04
sam on Faces In Sand: “Northcode, Just in case you missed it ( I have been elsewhere) I asked today upthread what you think would…” Oct 28, 15:01
sam on Faces In Sand: “Northcode, What constitutes a mandate?” Oct 28, 14:56
Alf Baird on Faces In Sand: ““I consider it rather self evident that if a regional hub was needed anywhere near here, then Oslo and/or Dublin…” Oct 28, 14:54
Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “@Spartan CEng? Respect and kudos 🙂” Oct 28, 14:37
Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “Put even more simply, Alf, you become a regional hub by being in a suitable location for lots of places…” Oct 28, 14:29
Spartan 117 on Faces In Sand: “@Aidan – sadly its the response I’ve come to expect from political types on comment sections on various websites in…” Oct 28, 14:23
Alf Baird on Faces In Sand: “International law relating to territorial alienation informs us that annexation is unlawful; hence an annexed people/nation retain the right to…” Oct 28, 14:19
Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “All very well for you, eh Dan? You’ll be confident that post-Indy, there will be no impact on home soup…” Oct 28, 14:16
Alf Baird on Faces In Sand: ““Overall I would say a net negative for aviation in Scotland” That is not the experience of numerous former colonial…” Oct 28, 13:58