Yesterday we highlighted a quote from Labour MP Kate Hoey about how the party secretly expects their next leader, whoever it is, to be in opposition for the next 10 years, meaning the UK will have a Conservative-led government for at least 15 years. Kate Hoey is on the Labour fringes, but today one of the front-runners for the leadership job proved her right.
Michelle Mone, the titular head of a loss-making underwear company mostly owned by a shady Sri Lankan business group, who’s spent much of the last eight years trying to blackmail Scots by threatening to punish them with hundreds of job losses if they don’t vote the way she tells them to, has a 1400-word whine/house advert in the MoS today about how beastly cybernats have forced her to finally move to England.
Who wants to be the one to break it to her that they have Twitter in England too?
Many of you won’t have seen this quite extraordinary performance from the Guardian’s assistant editor Michael White on last night’s Scotland Tonight, and you really should.
“Just go on the radio, play it all with a dead bat, fob them off with some bland waffle and kill the story”, the Lib Dems will have said to Sir Malcolm Bruce this morning.
The general election 2015 has rounded the last bend and is heading down the final straight, with no clear winner in sight. Four days from now the UK electorate will go to the polls and deliver, if the numbers are to be believed, an unholy mess. Only one part of the country seems to know with clarity what it wants, and that’s “not Labour”.
The North British branch of the party has in truth been a political Easter egg for years – big and impressive-looking on the outside, but entirely hollow within – and this year it looks like the voters are finally going to shatter the shell and leave nothing but a small heap of fragments revealing just how little chocolate was ever there.
And the realisation has sent Labour completely out of its mind.
At today’s First Minister’s Questions, the Scottish Labour deputy leader Kezia Dugdale launched into an ill-advised attack over an SNP candidate who’d made some foolish (but not especially outrageous) comments on Twitter in 2012. Rather than simply issuing the standard generic condemnation of abusive remarks, Nicola Sturgeon did so but also drew Dugdale’s attention to the beam in her own eye.
Labour activist, blogger, lawyer and regular BBC pundit Ian Smart (he hasn’t been seen on STV since accusing them repeatedly, without any evidence, of letting the SNP pre-approve all interview questions some time ago) is well known to readers of this blog. Bizarrely, however, Dugdale feigned ignorance of his activity.
To help her, we’ve compiled some of Mr Smart’s greatest hits.
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “There is very little doubt Nicola Sturgeon is protected and future-proofed by State promise. The Rev Stuart Campbell’s patiently incisive…” Sep 15, 00:02
PhilM on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “That route falls off a bit cliff like Wile E. Coyote until you see the big ‘poof!’ as private prosecution…” Sep 14, 23:47
BLMac on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “It’s good to see this being pushed if only to see some revers Karma for Scotland’s latest addition to the…” Sep 14, 23:37
robertkknight on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Well done Rev, but given how events have unfolded over the past few years one can only conclude that Agent…” Sep 14, 22:26
Rev. Stuart Campbell on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “She knows they weren’t. He pleaded guilty. She said on the interview she knew some of them were bought with…” Sep 14, 22:05
sarah on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Liberation Scotland will be presenting a petition to the C-24 Decolonisation Committee of the UN next month!!! This is great…” Sep 14, 22:01
sarah on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “I don’t think we need fear that the current lot of MSP/MPs will be organising the separation. They haven’t the…” Sep 14, 21:31
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “LIBERATION SCOTLAND 2026 CROWDFUNDER ANNOUNCEMENT « Dear Liberation Scotland member / Independence supporter: Liberation Scotland’s mission is to restore the…” Sep 14, 21:13
Rocky on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “You would have to get rid of all the trough-munching, incompetent managerial classes, too. They keep it all going.” Sep 14, 21:02
Mark Beggan on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “‘Goebellsian “The National” agitprop circular. It’s readers are out of this world. I think some readers are wanting for the…” Sep 14, 20:52
McDuff on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Sorry Sarah but I disagree,the rev is right Scotland is not fit for independence at this present time. Yes the…” Sep 14, 20:50
agentx on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Ah – OK thanks – my apologies. But I am sure that Sturgeon would entirely agree with the reasons for…” Sep 14, 20:47
Spartan 117 on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Indeed Hatey. Bad me. Wings BTL gets all the more hysterical and surreal with every passing day.” Sep 14, 20:26
PhilM on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Incorrect. Check again. There was about a six-month gap before she was sworn in as FM.” Sep 14, 20:18
Hatey McHateface on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “There’s no way that can happen if it hasn’t been foretold by the post colonial boys.” Sep 14, 20:16
Hatey McHateface on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Hoho, Spartan, twathater has you bang to rights. You’ve been enabling and celebrating their corruption for far too long. High…” Sep 14, 19:46
Hatey McHateface on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “If they’re largely Muslim with a Christian minority, they give us advance warning of what Scotland will likely be in…” Sep 14, 19:39
Yorkie on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “I would imagine that Murrell had enough money of his own – from his salary etc. If she argues that…” Sep 14, 19:25
Spartan 117 on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Ahem. I was criticising the blatant hypocrisy, not supporting Reform. I also made the point that Nigel and his TechBros…” Sep 14, 19:13
M.E on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “> “is isn’t fit for anything.” Your grammar checker ain’t isn’t is fit for anything, Stu. Also the way you…” Sep 14, 18:56
Spartan 117 on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “I think the graphic to the right of this page titled “A Tall Tale” composing a pastiche of laughable front…” Sep 14, 18:47
bumsrush on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “I admit to just a cursory reading of the Proceeds of Crimes Acts but it does appear Stu has taken…” Sep 14, 18:44
Bonzo Dogg on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “In this case a Citizen’s arrest is not appropriate, not least because you have to establish that detention is necessary…” Sep 14, 18:43
twathater on Like Responsible Citizens Do: ““The only thing that will defeat this blatant corruption will be diligent investigative journalism and holding the corrupt to account.”…” Sep 14, 18:29
agentx on Like Responsible Citizens Do: ““Why the Rule Was Changed Historically, the common law presumed that a wife was under the total coercion and control…” Sep 14, 18:19
Chas on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Again I note that the missive is unsigned. Somebody is clearly watching their back or has been instructed!” Sep 14, 18:16
Dan on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Well done Stuart for doing this. Though tbh I am a bit miffed nobody else had done this already after…” Sep 14, 18:02