You’re going to need to before you watch today’s episode of The Jeremy Vine Show, featuring Paul Burrell (who used to be a royal butler about 20 years ago and somehow is now a political commentator), Nicola McLean (who used to get her surgically-altered breasts out for tabloid newspapers around the same time and then went on a reality show for halfwits with no actual talents), and Carole Malone, who we assume is some sort of live public-safety-information warning about the dangers of overdoing HRT.
Vine watches the unfolding horror with the expression of a man absolutely convinced he’s going to be murdered the next time he comes to Scotland. The most painful part is probably just after (Scottish) co-host and former weathergirl Storm Huntley (no, really) helpfully pipes up to suggest “shortbread, tartan… bagpipes” as Scotland’s economic foundations, at which point Jeremy turns in last-ditch desperation to the audience to save him from this slow-motion trainwreck and… well, you’ll see how that goes.
When the second indyref comes along, whenever the Yes campaign has a political broadcast slot on TV, we suggest just putting this on every time.
As Ofcom require any complaints about the BBC to be directed to the Corporation first, I’ve sent the BBC the letter below today (by physical mail, as the online complaint form is comically inadequate), which I expect to be a waste of time and energy. If I don’t receive a satisfactory response – and I’m sure that I won’t – I’ll take it up with Ofcom.
An alert Wings reader noted that they hadn’t been able to locate any coverage by the state broadcaster of the SNP’s annual conference this weekend either, even though they send live cameras to just about any other party’s gatherings even if they amount to three people in a phone box (hi, Scottish Lib Dems).
Alert readers will know by now that there’s nothing the Scottish media – and the Scottish Daily Mail in particular – likes more than printing scary-sounding figures with no context whatsoever by which people could judge how big or small they really are.
Nothing’s changed today (other than a rather sneaky inset shot of an old story about a different statistic which misleadingly makes today’s one look like a big increase), so rather than bang on we’ll just fill in the blanks: ScotRail runs around 760,000 trains a year, so this year’s cancellation figures amount to about 3.5% of all trains.
Which is to say, around one time in every 30 that you go to get a train it’ll have been cancelled and you’ll have to wait for the next one, which on the average commuter line will probably mean 15-20 minutes.
Which is still a pain in the hole, of course, but if it’s such a high number ask yourself why the Mail is so pathologically averse to simply telling you what percentage it is.
We’ll see you again with these figures in a few weeks, folks.
(This article was originally intended to go up on Wednesday, but it was somewhat overtaken by events before it was finished.)
This week has seen another of those strange coincidences by which a whole slew of Unionist pundits all randomly decide to start talking about the same subject. On this occasion it was the rape clause, and why it proved the SNP are bad.
Most of the on-the-spot media reporting of the judgement in our court case against Kezia Dugdale on Wednesday was pretty fair and straightforward news coverage. The majority of pieces accurately and prominently mentioned the fact that the sheriff had found that I wasn’t a homophobe and that Dugdale’s article in the Daily Record which had claimed that I was WAS both untrue and defamatory.
(Some readers objected to headlines claiming that Dugdale had been “victorious”, but the strict legal fact is that she had.)
But it didn’t take long for the press to recover its composure and revert to type.
A comment piece in today’s Herald is probably the peak so far.
We haven’t talked much on Wings about the court case currently in progress against former Scottish Labour branch manager Kezia Dugdale, for hopefully obvious reasons.
The case is currently “in avizandum” – legal jargon for “the sheriff is considering his decision” – and a result is hoped for around the end of this month, and while as far as we know there’s no actual rule against talking about it at this stage, if you’re one of the participants it’s probably not the greatest idea as a general principle.
But what CAN be discussed is a much wider issue which it touched on, as highlighted by Daily Record columnist Anna Burnside while talking about the case during last week’s BBC Radio Scotland media review on the John Beattie Show.
The debate had a fully balanced panel: Burnside, who thought I was an awful person, Stuart Cosgrove, who thought I was an awful person with a sometimes-good website, and Anne Marie Watson, who thought I was an awful person. But it was Burnside who really went in with the boot, as can be heard from 2m 27s on the clip below.
Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: ““Justice may be on the horizon” Sure, Xaracen, but when, eh? When you look at the shit the UN is…” Apr 8, 07:17
twathater on Mad caps: “A shoutout for Dave Llewellyn the Indy Ninja for his info on X https://x.com/TheIndyNinja1/status/1909240792356467126/photo/1” Apr 8, 02:24
Mark Beggan on Mad caps: “Welcome to the machine.” Apr 8, 01:56
Dan on Mad caps: “Aidan says: at 9:31 pm “You honestly think the Rev should ban people wanting to have serious conversations about Scottish…” Apr 8, 00:25
Jay on Mad caps: “Vivian O’B, what is this ‘purple pish’ carry-on from you? I have read numerous comments from you but now have…” Apr 7, 22:53
Aidan on Mad caps: “@Xaracen – you don’t personally rant and rave and that comment wasn’t aimed at you, whilst I don’t think your…” Apr 7, 22:01
Xaracen on Mad caps: “Aidan said: “Exactly Robert – it’s full of people who rant and rave like you do. Nobody wants to be…” Apr 7, 21:56
Aidan on Mad caps: “@Twathater (an interest way to project your self hatred but there we go) – I am delighted you aren’t responding…” Apr 7, 21:31
sarah on Mad caps: “Crowdfunder for Independence Live – it needs a lot more donors. So far it has £900 of the £6500 target.…” Apr 7, 21:04
Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: “Lots going on in plucky, wee Norway – the country that all sane and rational Scots hold up as the…” Apr 7, 20:37
Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: “So you’re claiming that US soldiers on RF soil will be summarily dispatched. The RF won’t make any political capital…” Apr 7, 19:53
PacMan on Mad caps: “The possibility might need to be considered that the higher percentage of support amongst younger voters in polls for independence…” Apr 7, 19:49
Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: ““after 300+years of neglect and abuse Scotland and Scots are worse off than they have ever been” Here you go…” Apr 7, 19:47
Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: “Calm down, Bob. This isn’t where you post your application for camp guard in the New Scottish Gulag you and…” Apr 7, 19:38
PacMan on Mad caps: “To be fair, most of us where taken in by this be-Kind, inclusive, civic nationalism nonsense. Look where it is…” Apr 7, 19:35
twathater on Mad caps: “@ Robert Hughes TBQH Robert I have more or less stopped responding tae these pricks , it is the same…” Apr 7, 17:48
Jay on Mad caps: “I wonder what Belarusian govt would say if a US military vehicle drove across the border from Lithuania? Viv. OB,…” Apr 7, 14:56
sarah on Mad caps: “Couch as in grass not as in putting ones feet up!” Apr 7, 12:42
Mark Beggan on Mad caps: “Scottish media in panic about Universities and their subsequent bankruptcy. Page after page, comment after comment. Children are trapped in…” Apr 7, 12:34
sarah on Mad caps: “The “age” question is interesting. Can you remember if younger people were very visible in the 2014 campaign? From memory…” Apr 7, 12:03
agent x on Mad caps: “Not much in the Scottish press about Swinney’s trip to New York!” Apr 7, 10:25
Vivian O’Blivion on Mad caps: “An excerpt from an article on the website of the Atlantic Council (see also Radio Free Europe); “Lithuanians paid tribute…” Apr 7, 10:21
Aidan on Mad caps: “Exactly Robert – it’s full of people who rant and rave like you do. Nobody wants to be associated with…” Apr 7, 08:56
Robert Hughes on Mad caps: “” it’s also that the campaign is too closely associated with anti-Englishness, sympathy for the Kremlin sometimes and increasingly wild…” Apr 7, 08:25
Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: “Don’t overlook the ingrained antisemitism which a close read of the clannish, self-congratulatory backslapping posts reveals. But yes, if they…” Apr 7, 07:14
Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: ““We voters would be in the driving seat – that would be wonderful” Would it though, sarah? In all of…” Apr 7, 07:05
Aidan on Mad caps: “@Ian – as someone who is around half the age of the average suggested above, it’s not just that many…” Apr 7, 07:03
Ian Brotherhood on Mad caps: “@Sarah (9.16) – Thanks for that and aye, totally agree, there’s nothing like meeting folk in the flesh. Sometimes they’re…” Apr 7, 00:09
diabloandco on Mad caps: “IanB, I do hope so , I am definitely in need of meeting up with the cheerful , positive folk…” Apr 6, 22:10
sarah on Mad caps: “MaryB, it is encouraging that you read para (a) the same way that I do i.e. that it empowers People’s…” Apr 6, 21:27