The Unionist media in Scotland (ie all of the media in Scotland) usually keeps up a pretty united front when it comes to the subjects of independence or the SNP. So it’s been fascinating in these last couple of weeks to see a genuine schism develop between them on the subject of the party’s leadership election.
(For the avoidance of doubt, we do not include Holyrood Magazine, whose splendid front cover image that is, in “the Unionist media”.)
Right back at the start of the contest we highlighted The Times’ full-on love-in for Kate Forbes, but most of the Scottish press has now made their preferences clear. And you’ll never guess who they really, really DON’T want to be the next First Minister.
Wings Over Scotland has been monitoring the BBC’s coverage of Scottish politics for over 11 years now, readers, and other than The Nick Robinson Incident we’re honestly struggling to remember seeing anything worse than this.
The Corporation’s “coverage” of Ash Regan’s campaign launch for the SNP leadership election ran for roughly seven minutes. And we suppose we should be grateful that it did at one point feature a brief, incidental cameo appearance from Ash Regan.
A major piece by the Corporation’s Scotland editor James Cook focused on interviews with two of the three contenders – excluding Ash Regan – on the basis that both had launched their official campaigns yesterday while Regan’s isn’t expected to be until later this week.
The SNP are a flailing shambles of incompetence, under a leader fast losing her iron grip on her own party as they watch her turning it into a laughing stock with growing horror. More and more disquiet reaches our ears from within her increasingly leaky and nervous Parliamentary groups. Who will be the first to tie their courage to a flagpole and make the move to mutiny? We can only wait and see.
Man, we wish we hadn’t used this headline up two days ago.
BBC Scotland’s Debate Night programme last night was rather peculiar. It took place in a mostly-empty studio, but clearly not due to COVID precautions because the people who were there were all jammed tightly together in the middle. (In fairness, given BBC Scotland’s audience ratings they may still have outnumbered television viewers.)
On an all-female panel it featured, “by popular demand”, someone presenter Stephen Jardine described as “one of our best-loved comedians”, a former electrician called Susie McCabe, who we’d never heard of in our lives. (She apparently presented the channel’s Hogmanay show, something no sane adult has watched since 1982.)
She made one particular contribution that set social media aflame.
The entire mainstream Scottish media has picked up this afternoon on our intriguing scoop from yesterday about Peter Murrell lending the SNP £108,000 last year.
(The official SNP line is that it was for “cash flow reasons after the 2021 election”, although that doesn’t explain why less than half the money has been paid back more than 18 months later. Surely the party’s had enough cash flowing back in since then?)
And it’s enlightening to see how Scotland’s “proper” journalists handle such things.
Or possibly the other way round, we’re not sure. All we know is that we’re always surging upwards and forwards but somehow never actually getting anywhere.
A week ago, readers, I had not the slightest interest in bringing Wings Over Scotland back full-time. I had my Twitter account again and was having fun and I was happy with that. It scratched the itch of being able to engage with politics (and people) without the depressing business of wading in it for work.
And then I witnessed the quite extraordinary sight of an elected member of Parliament, in the shape of the SNP’s pico-witted ambulant brain vacuum Karen Adam, publicly gloating about having managed to shut down the voice of someone critical of her party.
At the same time, an extremely minor blogger (the word “rival” would be to over-dignify them) re-opened hostilities in his campaign of self-declared “open warfare” against this site, with a rapid succession of posts (just a few of dozens) forming such a demented scattershot tirade that to patiently debunk all of it would have taken until Christmas.
And I’ll be honest, folks, it all pushed my buttons a wee bit. It really shouldn’t have, but it was properly outrageous and I’m occasionally human, so I thought “Sod it, if I’m going to have to put up with all this crap anyway I might as well make it worthwhile”.
Nae Need! on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “Indeed. LL working for Starmer? I didn’t know that. Makes sense. She’s a good fit.” Aug 13, 19:17
TURABDIN on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “should have read…BESIDES it is for Scotland to reclaim her sovereignty rather than for England to relinquish it, however unwillingly.” Aug 13, 19:15
Nae Need! on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “Interesting. I don’t think they are yet divorced, but I can guarantee you they WILL be, with plenty of time…” Aug 13, 19:12
agent x on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “Was there a reason to give a French translation as opposed to Mandarin Chinese, Swahili or evens Scots?” Aug 13, 19:08
Nae Need! on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “Indeed. And government disrupting society, in this way, can in some instances be called treason.” Aug 13, 19:08
Nae Need! on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “That’s it. From now on it shall be called ‘The Book of Lies’. No more apt a description yet exists.” Aug 13, 19:03
Nae Need! on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “Straight answers . . . you only get a straight answer from a narcissist when it’s a categorical denial of…” Aug 13, 18:53
Nae Need! on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “Is this not part of the problem? A systemic collapse of England will never happen whilst they can leech, a…” Aug 13, 18:29
Nae Need! on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “You and Duncanio, spot on. They won’t renege on it. She IS and WILL continue to BE well rewarded. Spesh…” Aug 13, 18:06
Hatey McHateface on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: ““UNIONISM is more than political, it is an exceptionalist worldview, more gut instinct than brain” That’s why your typical SNP…” Aug 13, 17:57
Hatey McHateface on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: ““Lionesses” is an offensive term, TURABDIN. You dare not call one of the woke luvvies an actress. She’s an actor…” Aug 13, 17:50
Dan on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “Can’t help but think Scotland would be in a much better place if Sturgeon had never got into politics, and…” Aug 13, 17:50
Hatey McHateface on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: ““Perhaps its all that inbreeding and incest” I’m astonished that despite the unstoppable outbreaks of lunacy we all hear about…” Aug 13, 17:34
Callum on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “So National Library of Scotland found “twelve (LGBT+) butchers for a jury, and a Jefferies (Sir Drummond Bone) for a…” Aug 13, 16:59
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “(French version of above post — Extract from Alasdair Gray’s LANARK (chapitre 22, Éditions Métailié, Paris, 2000): Un matin, Thaw…” Aug 13, 16:47
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “(From LANARK by Alasdair Gray, Chap 22) One morning Thaw and McAlpin went into the Cowcaddens, a poor district behind…” Aug 13, 16:43
TURABDIN on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “THE LIONESSES, some have noted how patriotic the women are in proclaiming there Englishness, compared to the men. Farage has…” Aug 13, 16:12
TURABDIN on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “UNIONISM is more than political, it is an exceptionalist worldview, more gut instinct than brain. That might explain how tenacious…” Aug 13, 16:07
Mark Beggan on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: ““Sturgeon collected enemies like other people might collect fridge magnets”.” Aug 13, 15:13
James Cheyne on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “You know what would be really crazy, If down sized and de funded your army, if you down sized and…” Aug 13, 15:09
Mark Beggan on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “Let me ask a question. What would happen in Scotland if the Royal Firm collapsed. What would be the result.…” Aug 13, 15:05
James Cheyne on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “And it seems that England has as many a dodgy justice systems with human rights being used, going over the…” Aug 13, 14:46
Mark Beggan on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “The only problem with this theory is size. Britain is to small and Scotland is too big a part of…” Aug 13, 14:46
Liz on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “Good point I could imagine flushing the toilet in panic But I could never imagine calling your husband in for…” Aug 13, 14:31
James Cheyne on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “TURABDIN, It is looking inevitable as England goes from woke to broke, and sanity goes to down the plug hole…” Aug 13, 14:25