Almost a year ago we ran a short piece mocking a Scotsman headline which claimed that “THOUSANDS” of people had signed a Tory anti-referendum petition, when the actual number was a strictly-accurate-but-pathetic TWO thousand.
We didn’t think that could ever be beaten for technically-true hyperbolic exaggeration, but we’d reckoned without the bold boundary-pushing ingenuity of the Daily Express.
Hundreds of thousands? How many hundreds, exactly?
Today seems a good day to bring up the latest snippet of data from our poll.
Less than a third of Scots of all parties and persuasions think BBC Scotland provides “balanced” political coverage. Even among Unionists, twice as many feel it’s biased in their favour as the frankly unhinged group who think it’s pro-independence.
Remarkably, more Tory voters think the Beeb is biased in favour of independence than think it leans towards the Union, which is quite some feat of self-delusion. Among Labour and Lib Dem voters it’s three-to-one the other way, and more than 17-to-1 among SNP supporters.
Meanwhile, 5% of respondents claimed to have “never heard of” the state broadcaster, which just goes to prove what Panelbase regularly tell us about how you can get 5% to 10% of people to vote for ANY answer you put in a poll, up to and including “Would you like us to come round right now and shoot you in the face?”
The Scottish media has today leapt all over the front-page lead story from yesterday’s Sunday Times, in which “top economist” Douglas McWilliams of right-wing thinktank the Centre for Economics and Business Research made an apocalyptic prediction of a huge deficit turning an independent Scotland into “a Third World country”.
The Express’ customarily restrained coverage is pretty typical.
We wondered if Mr McWilliams used to have a more optimistic view.
There’s a truly abominable piece of hatemongering in today’s Times. A grotesequely dishonest Nat-bashing smear job based on stupendously misrepresented fragments of quotes, it’s penned by Patrick Harkness, someone who the paper identifies as “a past co-chairman of the RSE [Royal Society of Edinburgh] Young Academy of Scotland”.
For some reason it’s chosen to leave a few lines off his CV.
Alert readers will of course be aware that a recurring theme on this site is looking for the alleged abusive behaviour by supporters of independence which gets regularly reported in outraged terms by newspapers but is mysteriously almost never supported by any actual evidence of the supposed abuse.
In every case the papers and/or alleged recipients of all these dreadful separatist haranguings screamed “VILE ABUSE!”, swooning at the horror of it all, then suddenly turned deaf and dumb when asked to provide any examples.
So we were quite surprised yesterday when a previous complainant – brutal stickering victim and lonely Scottish Labour MP Ian Murray – actually came up with the proof.
Five minutes and 51 seconds, to be precise, is how long David Mundell, Secretary of State for Scotland, spent frantically quacking out meaningless noise on this morning’s Sunday Politics Scotland in order to avoid answering a simple Yes/No question until the interview ran out of airtime.
We could quibble with presenter Gordon Brewer making the assertion that a Section 30 order would in fact be necessary for a second referendum (something which has never been established in law or conceded by the Scottish Government, with strong and genuine legal opinion on both sides of the argument), and with him letting Mundell get away with the blatant falsehood that an overwhelming majority of Scots don’t want another referendum – in fact, 50% want one within the next two years.
But sometimes you have to let some smaller things slide to avoid distraction and stay focused on your main point, and in our view this was one of those occasions.
Should we check out that link and find out whether the then-FM really DID “claim that the Scottish NHS would be privatised if Scots voted No”, readers? Let’s do!
Readers familiar with our standing advice to newspaper customers that the headline is nearly always a lie might like to consider today’s Press & Journal.
The word “pyre” comes from the Greek word “pyra”, meaning “fire”. Surprisingly, it’s NOT the same root as “Pyrrhic”, as in “Pyrrhic victory”, meaning one that’s achieved by metaphorically burning your own city down. (Which in fact is named after the Greek general Pyrrhus of Epirus.)
The Sunday Herald ran an extraordinary article on page 2 yesterday, and by the time we’d finished being startled by what nonsense it was, it set us wondering about why.
Captain Caveman on The Other Kind Of Winning: ““Cultures that mix are all the better for it.” Not necessarily, Chief.” Aug 13, 10:16
TURABDIN on The Other Kind Of Winning: “As a species of refugee, i do not live in the land of my birth, i do not share all…” Aug 13, 10:12
Chas on The Other Kind Of Winning: “I can see a time, in the not too distant future, when the ‘one person,one vote’ is seriously challenged. Why…” Aug 13, 10:03
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Middle class people probably don’t vote Labour. Working class people possibly do. It took Burnham to join these dots and…” Aug 13, 09:01
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “One leader would be exactly enough. Let’s not make the mistake of thinking that the more leaders we have, the…” Aug 13, 08:49
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Grangemouth would likely re-open if the North Sea was to be re-opened and the known resources still there were to…” Aug 13, 08:40
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “That would work. This bit needs looked at: “Once the people vote for those proposals the people are already conditioned…” Aug 13, 08:01
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Remind us again how UDI worked out for Rhodesia. There’s something wrong with my atlas. I can’t find the place.” Aug 13, 07:54
Aidan on The Party Of The Dead: “You are the shit in this analogy right?” Aug 13, 06:29
Alan Scott on The Other Kind Of Winning: “(And not insignificantly, if a civil war broke out they’d be the ones with all the guns.) But you’d have…” Aug 13, 01:22
James on The Party Of The Dead: “I never said the onus was on the English parliament, chum. But you’re just a charlatan, here to disrupt like…” Aug 12, 23:25
Young Lochinvar on The Other Kind Of Winning: “C An interesting take however for one, I object to servicemen etc being regaled as “dregs and psychos”.. Very 18th…” Aug 12, 23:18
aLurker on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Indeed it would be better if people condider how what they call things affect how people think about it and…” Aug 12, 22:39
aLurker on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Fortunately there is already a fully fleshed out strategy which deals with this issue of democratic acceptability as best as…” Aug 12, 22:33
Bilbo on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Burnham has said he is going to disperse these immigrants more into middle class areas from now on. They’ll be…” Aug 12, 21:17
Chas on The Party Of The Dead: “No response from the learned professor….again but Scotland’s greatest fisherman has. Of course, his prowess is due to him being…” Aug 12, 21:14
Rob on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Folk are seriously wanting Trump on their side to help? that smacks of real desperation.” Aug 12, 21:06
Red on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Have you seen Glasgow recently? Muslim and African colonists are filling up the Dear Green Place nicely. Every other town…” Aug 12, 20:45
Peter McAvoy on The Other Kind Of Winning: “I agree with the comment that the SNP no longer stand up for Scotland it’s institutions,industries or people (native white…” Aug 12, 20:45
agentx on The Other Kind Of Winning: ““Polling outfits use the same wide-open franchise as the 2014 referendum” ——————————– The 2014 referendum was a vote not a…” Aug 12, 20:42
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “My newsagent doesn’t stock it, so I’ll never know.” Aug 12, 20:23
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “In short, True Scots vote Yes. Only the votes of True Scots need be counted. This one’s already been done…” Aug 12, 20:20
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Jews and shirt lifters! Have you started earlier tonight, Confused, or are you still on yesterday’s bender? Still though, I…” Aug 12, 20:13
Andrew scott on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Remember folks the Trasional is just a comic without the pictures” Aug 12, 20:11
agentx on The Other Kind Of Winning: ““our indy would be “treaty revocation”. That is what it would be.” —————————————————————- Have you not read the thousands of…” Aug 12, 20:05
Northcode on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Polling outfits use the same wide-open franchise as the 2014 referendum did when selecting potential respondents – this means the…” Aug 12, 19:58
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Actually, when I wrote they might stop paying benefits and pensions that was intended to illustrate a reason why vast…” Aug 12, 19:55
James on The Party Of The Dead: “You’d be a scrounging immigrant in either place. Just like the rest of them. Reform shills obviously don’t do irony.” Aug 12, 19:35
