We’re stuck indoors waiting for a repairman today, so we had a little read-around of some of the less popular Scottish politics blogs to pass the time, and noted this:
James Kelly of Scot Goes Pop, which we gather from its front page was seemingly one of the “Top 50 Left-Wing Blogs of 2011”, is noticeably insistent on making the argument that we’re “stalking” and “obsessed” with him.
The National carried a strange article yesterday, apropos of seemingly nothing, about a Brussels-based political thinktank supposedly linked to the right-wing Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban. The piece actually originated on superwoke “fact-checking” site The Ferret a couple of days earlier, and professed to expose how the thinktank was “stoking Scotland’s culture war”.
Alert readers will already have pricked up their ears at this point, because “culture war” is a radical-left dogwhistle term used to obscure, belittle and dismiss groups (largely though not exclusively comprising left-wing feminists) fighting for the safeguarding of children and the protection of women’s and LGB rights.
As more horrific experiences from survivors of rape torture gangs surface from across the UK, we must focus not on knee-jerk political posturing but on the root cause that led to the failure of these children by our society.
Political inaction has now opened the door to inevitable political mileage, nurtured from stoking vengeance in a rightly-angered public. Those only interested in creating cultural conflicts no more support justice for survivors than those who allowed this abomination to fester by looking away or worse, covering up the problem.
For any functioning society, inflicting unimaginable pain on children on an alarming scale seems unimaginable. Yet, the evidence has been in front of us for years – so why has immediate action to ensure the safeguarding of children – and vulnerable adults – not been a pressing priority?
To be honest, readers, the peculiar events of yesterday continued to nag at us all day as every news broadcaster in Scotland and beyond leapt eagerly on the ludicrous non-story from the Herald On Sunday’s front page. (It was even the #2 item on BBC Radio Wales, inexplicably).
For such an absolute nothingball of scurrilous sub-gossip to so dominate the entire news media was just too strange to ignore. We cannot remember the last time a low-grade freelancer managed to sell the same story to FOUR major Scottish newspapers – who normally, remember, only want exclusives for their big front-page splashes – let alone a crummy opinion columnist (not even an actual news reporter) who’s only been back in journalism for five minutes after a 15-year break as a failed PR guru.
(Once they’d all run the shoddy hatchet piece, TV and radio then had all the excuse they needed to blare it across the airwaves. “Oh, it’s not us inflating and amplifying this garbage, guv, we’re just reporting what the papers are saying.”)
So in our eternal quest for enlightenment and understanding we thought we’d see if we could find out a bit more about the little-known but recently-revived sleeper assassin with the ironic name: Carlos Alba.
Alex Salmond will be laid to rest in the green turf of Aberdeenshire today in a quiet and dignified private ceremony. (A public celebration of his life will take place next month.)
Most of Scotland’s press and commentariat beclowned itself shamefully after his death just as it did during his life, but below is a (regrettably short) collection of those who did otherwise and who deserve to be noted honourably beside the man himself.
Wherever you find giants, you also find parasites, bottom-feeders and carrion. When a mighty lion dies in the jungle, tiny creeping crawling maggots and insects and bacteria feast gleefully on its corpse for many days.
Which naturally brings us to the Scottish media.
The above paragraphs of cowardly innuendo and baseless speculative smearing were penned by Severin Carrell and Libby Brooks in the Guardian on Monday. (They’re not from the ironically-headed “Appreciation” that the same two hacks wrote for Sunday’s Observer, in which they audaciously claimed that Salmond’s success was down to Nicola Sturgeon).
They sneakily imply that Salmond was guilty not only of the sexual assaults of which he was cleared in court, but also of an unspecified number of unnamed others, and make assertions of “disturbing evidence about his personal conduct” without specifying what that evidence or conduct might have been.
We’ve just watched the BBC’s new documentary, and we’re confused.
You can see both episodes on iPlayer now, or on TV tonight and tomorrow, but there’s no mistaking what’s being advertised – a personal drama between the two biggest players in Scottish politics in the last 300 years.
In many ways, the fabricated, hysterical furore of Humza Yousaf Vs Elon Musk is the ultimate in summer-silly-season politics stories.
Absurdly plainly, the former First Minister ISN’T going to take any legal action against the billionaire owner of Twitter. He only likes bullying small nurseries, and even then he doesn’t follow through. He didn’t even sue us for calling him racist a few months ago, so there’s zero chance he’s going to square up to the world’s richest man.
Every now and again you’ll go to clean them up and find something that you’ve been meaning to write about in a quiet moment, and this certainly counts as a quiet moment in Scottish politics, so let’s do this one now.
Because the story above is from March, but we don’t think we’ve ever seen anyone anywhere talk about just how weird it is, or what it tells us about the 2024 SNP.
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “BBC GLOBAL: BREAKING… Donald Trump wanted to be a dictator for a day. Is Donald Trump morphing into something more…” Feb 15, 03:28
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Oh, God! Oh, Jesus Christ! Oh, my God! Christ! No, no, dear God!! Negatron has called on his uglier cousin:…” Feb 15, 02:48
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “BBC (15/02/25): Scientists warn there’s 1 in 50 chance of Asteroid striking Earth: https://tinyurl.com/yc73tyyn” Feb 15, 02:35
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Elon Musk @elonmusk: “Funding for racist baby training is canceled”: Christopher F. Rufo @realchrisrufo: “The Department of Education funded this…” Feb 15, 02:11
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “re. “Scotland needs a desk, a saltire, some of those executive order folders & pen -stat! I’ll sign them along…” Feb 15, 02:05
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Fake Robin McAlpine News: Bundling and the path to barbarism: “I am engaged in a correspondence – a reader who…” Feb 15, 01:56
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson: “BREAKING: President Trump signs Executive Order cutting ALL federal funding to schools that mandate the COVID vaccine.”:…” Feb 15, 01:23
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “STV News: US Vice President JD Vance attacks Scotland’s anti-abortion buffer zones: “He criticised Safe Access Zones in Scotland… “Now,…” Feb 15, 01:11
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Ned’s Atomic Dustbin: God Fodder: Nothing Like: “I don’t know what you’re thinking when you fail to see things are…” Feb 15, 00:42
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “WEF is starting The Great Reset initiative: …determining: “future state of global relations” “direction of national economies” “priorities of societies”…” Feb 15, 00:21
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “The Times (14/02/25): Keir Starmer: I have sympathy for Gen Z, but they can’t just opt out: “First, young people…” Feb 15, 00:15
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “re. “Folks talking to their own children about growing up isn’t abuse FFS.” These freaks are sick child predators and…” Feb 14, 23:47
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “BBC (14/02/25): Transgender references removed from Stonewall monument website: “The Trump administration has erased references to transgender people from New…” Feb 14, 23:37
Geri on For Mridul And Sandy: “I hope the good people of Glasgow give that ad a makeover. It’s false advertising. Folks talking to their own…” Feb 14, 23:26
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Absurd Smoque: Q: Cassiopeia: https://tinyurl.com/mwmzw2tn ELON MARS: Cassiopeia: https://tinyurl.com/55z4dmuu #We” Feb 14, 23:14
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “ELON MARS: Zero, My Crazy: https://tinyurl.com/mr27tzb8” Feb 14, 22:54
George Ferguson on For Mridul And Sandy: “Hopefully fingers crossed. Anyway I have been trying my wife’s black pointed stiletto shoes on. How do women manage to…” Feb 14, 22:54
G m on For Mridul And Sandy: “the Ellis Group is not a Team-Scotland player – Well put man.” Feb 14, 22:46
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Q: WELCOME TO SOUL,PRESENT: “Wow Welcome Thank you for joining me here In the place to be You’ll understand That…” Feb 14, 22:45
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Absurd Smoque: Q: Exploring Existence Itself: https://tinyurl.com/4wpvafkj Absurd Smoque: Q: Space and Time: https://tinyurl.com/43n6ckjs Zero One: Zero One: The Start:…” Feb 14, 22:36
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Darwin to Jesus @darwintojesus: “…We observe that the universe is expanding And so we can extrapolate backwards in time until…” Feb 14, 22:30
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “I’m not a xenophobe (I love all peoples’/humanity) – I’ve got England in my DNA e.g. my dad is English.…” Feb 14, 21:42
G m on For Mridul And Sandy: “We’re no though Ian. Our ‘elite’ have simply sold us out. They are just self-centred wanks, stealing their wages who…” Feb 14, 21:14
G m on For Mridul And Sandy: “Hope you get it sorted soon George.” Feb 14, 21:10
gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “It’s true, Mark – The whingers here are extremely reckless and dumb (stuck up their own bigoted a**e, 365 -…” Feb 14, 21:05
Ian Brotherhood on For Mridul And Sandy: “Off-topic for sure but submitted in a spirit of week-enderly bonhomie… There aren’t enough Milligans around these days. James Hogg…” Feb 14, 20:51
Mark Beggan on For Mridul And Sandy: “I’m upstaged on that one. Bravo.” Feb 14, 20:39
Ian Brotherhood on For Mridul And Sandy: “Whatever he wants you to.” Feb 14, 20:35