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The Wage Thief 187

Posted on December 09, 2024 by

6 November 2024 was a normal sitting day in the Scottish Parliament, so we shouldn’t be surprised that Nicola Sturgeon spent the previous evening in London, watching a special screening of a dreadful BBC Three sitcom about – of course – drag queens.

But remarkably, though she must have been puffy-eyed and weary, the 6th was one of the few days when she did actually manage to turn up at Holyrood to do her job.

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Take your partners 163

Posted on December 07, 2024 by

The New Britain 560

Posted on December 03, 2024 by

So things are getting pretty strange.

Polling in Scotland, the UK and Wales in the last few days has shown Great Britain taking a fairly heavy swerve to the right after just five months of Sir Keir Starmer’s government. Labour now lead Reform (who have five seats to Labour’s 411) by just three points in the UK and are even more remarkably now in THIRD place in Wales, a country where the party has won every single election for over 100 years.

Scotland, meanwhile, is heading for a hung Parliament in 2026 in which – as this site has been telling its readers for the last year and a half – the only possibility of a stable administration will be an SNP-Labour coalition.

We live, as they say, in interesting times.

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What Went On 467

Posted on November 28, 2024 by

The proceedings at the Supreme Court this week were a tough follow even if you could get the court’s abominably bad livestream to work. They’re all archived here now, but non-lawyers will probably glaze over quickly during the nine hours of intense legalese.

We’re not allowed to clip up any illustrative sections, on pain of possible contempt of court, so perhaps the best way to explain the key parts of what happened in a vaguely comprehensible way is by showing you some commentary from social media.

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A Personal Best For Kezia 255

Posted on November 25, 2024 by

Credit where it’s due:

17 months is the quickest she’s ever caught up with us.

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The Unbargain Bin 215

Posted on November 23, 2024 by

Telling the truth by mistake 73

Posted on November 22, 2024 by

The Scottish Government has finally, and reluctantly, published its submission for next week’s crucial Supreme Court hearing on the definition of the word “woman”.

Many expert observers have already noted that the document flatly contradicts the Scottish Government’s previous repeated and strenuous assertions that a Gender Recognition Certificate confers “no new rights” on trans people, and have published extremely detailed assessments which are frankly all but impenetrable to non-lawyers but basically conclude that the Scottish Government’s position is a mess.

Our favourite line, however, is this one.

So if you’re obliged to have a 50/50 sex balance in your boardroom, you can do it by hiring a man with a GRC saying he’s legally female, or by hiring a woman.

We believe that the young folk nowadays call that a “self-own”.

The Long Unravelling 398

Posted on November 18, 2024 by

You’ve got to admit, that’s a zinger.

Craig Whyte is a man who knows all about financial doom looming on the horizon of a once-powerful institution. But it doesn’t take an expert with lived experience to spot what’s coming down the line for the SNP.

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The Way Forward 212

Posted on November 17, 2024 by

As a lifelong political geek and former SNP and Alba Party member, I’ve spent years supporting Scotland’s independence movement. However, over the last few years, I’ve watched the campaign (as opposed to support for independence) wither away. Being a Scottish nationalist has become increasingly disheartening, like watching someone you love succumb to a slow, debilitating illness. In frustration, I switched off from my homeland and turned my focus to the drama of US politics.

Over the last three years I immersed myself in it, watching both left and right-wing outlets. I became so hooked and invested that I jumped on a plane to Washington DC for the 2024 election. I canvassed with DC Democrats in rural Pennsylvania (that’s me third from the left in the pic below), attended Kamala Harris’s concession rally, and went to Trump’s only watch party in DC.

My journey led me to believe that Scotland’s independence campaign could learn a great deal from Trump’s victory and the Democrats’ failure.

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The People You Most Suspected 364

Posted on November 12, 2024 by

We’ll give you three guesses as to the highly controversial and extravagantly taxpayer-funded organisation that has its rainbow fingerprints all over this story, readers.

But you’re going to have two to spare.

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The Mandalorian Candidate 141

Posted on November 04, 2024 by

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.

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Bespoilers Of Graves 266

Posted on November 03, 2024 by

From here, the top of the barrel is so far away that you can’t see so much as a pinprick of daylight through the most powerful pair of binoculars.

In a moving epitaph a few days ago, the widely-respected Professor James Mitchell of the University Of Glasgow noted of Alex Salmond that:

“He could be irascible and did not put up with fools […] He was impatient with lazy journalism […] and did not hide it. We can still see the consequences in some of the obituaries and commentary that reveal more about the writers than the subject”.

Mandy Rhodes of Holyrood magazine concurred, saying:

“In the clamour for commentators to vent their loathing, there have been too many sour column inches that have framed a man’s premature death around the egos of the journalists that have penned them.

Too great an appetite to rescue the words that were once filed and then spiked following a trial that didn’t give them the verdict they had prepared for. Too much haste to use his passing as the opportunity to seek revenge for a tongue-lashing or a put-down that they had never forgotten.”

And so, then, to Carlos Alba.

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    • Hatey McHateface on The Wage Thief: “I understand where you’re coming from. Thing is, if I waste an evening watching TV, whether it’s news, entertainment or…Dec 11, 06:52
    • Robert Matthews on The Wage Thief: “Skrewdriver : I Don’t Like You. 1-2-3-4, I don’t like you! Get out on the job in the morning Time…Dec 11, 02:41
    • Campbell Clansman on The Wage Thief: “Alf, you are aware, aren’t you, that the UN maintains a list of “colonies” (they call them NSGTs) and Scotland…Dec 11, 02:31
    • Robert Matthews on The Wage Thief: “Of “days that will never come”.Dec 11, 01:15
    • Robert Matthews on The Wage Thief: “Beach Boys – Sloop John B alternative version.Dec 11, 01:12
    • Mac on The Wage Thief: “2014-2024 www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AHCfZTRGiI&list=PLm90JTuh4xFuWAEmfd1Y2ogMKLvOVDGmJ&index=43&ab_channel=JohnnyCashVEVODec 10, 23:35
    • Mark Beggan on The Wage Thief: “I’m Glasgow we’d call her a back stabbing bastard.Dec 10, 23:04
    • gregor on The Wage Thief: “Dear anti-people/power, Who/what are you ? Don’t you wanna be part of our undisputed winning team ?? We’ll be thinking…Dec 10, 23:02
    • Mark Beggan on The Wage Thief: “They will go back to what they are. Nobodys.Dec 10, 22:49
    • Mac on The Wage Thief: “So am I the only one working their way through the We Are Not The Same playlist thingy? www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p4snj33BHg&list=PLm90JTuh4xFuWAEmfd1Y2ogMKLvOVDGmJ&index=32&ab_channel=ManicStreetPreachers-Topic Not…Dec 10, 22:47
    • gregor on The Wage Thief: “Bryn X Malone: Loser Love (feat. Mo-cee & IAM Q): “(I_am_Q) Lost love Lost love Fantasy (fantasy) Yea I guess…Dec 10, 22:18
    • James Gardner on The Wage Thief: “Memoirs of a Betrayer will be available in Charity shops one week after it’s general release…….Dec 10, 22:15
    • Mark Beggan on The Wage Thief: “The ‘Fuck You’ vote is on the menu.Dec 10, 22:15
    • James Gardner on The Wage Thief: “Lima Bravo…Dec 10, 22:07
    • Michael Laing on The Wage Thief: “Much as I despise the SNP for the absolute shambles they’ve made of everything, I do believe the blame for…Dec 10, 22:01
    • Mark Beggan on The Wage Thief: “If you thought the DFL, SNP and those other clowns are cretins then wait till you meet the Reform candidate…Dec 10, 21:57
    • PacMan on The Wage Thief: “I practice the same thing myself and it’s a tough one as this silence is allowing the likes of Reform…Dec 10, 21:56
    • Campbell Clansman on The Wage Thief: “All the polls since May 17, have shown Indy support at 38%, 41, 46, 37, 44, 34, 37, 45, 40,…Dec 10, 21:41
    • Mark Beggan on The Wage Thief: “Best thing is just don’t talk to them. It works for me.Dec 10, 21:32
    • Mac on The Wage Thief: “Oh yeah. And reading Wings twitter, it is one of that fucked up couple, that played an instrumental role in…Dec 10, 21:29
    • Marie on The Wage Thief: “Try Rhumble (without the h)Dec 10, 21:29
    • Mike D on The Wage Thief: “A vile woman whose party i was a member of and contributed to from 2018 till 2020, until my mum…Dec 10, 21:29
    • Campbell Clansman on The Wage Thief: “SNP not an Indy Party, according to you. The “true” Indy Party (Alba, ISP, whatever this week’s “movement” is labeled)…Dec 10, 21:27
    • gregor on The Wage Thief: “Empire Of The Sun: We Are The People: “We are the people that rule the world A force running in…Dec 10, 21:27
    • Mac on The Wage Thief: “For some reason people in Scotland find it hard to believe that they are surrounded by them same as the…Dec 10, 21:26
    • Captain Caveman on The Wage Thief: “Another day, another trolling and goading. You really are a useless waste of space pal. Cretin.Dec 10, 21:23
    • Campbell Clansman on The Wage Thief: “So you can’t explain how Indy has stalled, despite this overwhelming (sarc) support? Thought so.Dec 10, 21:22
    • Hatey McHateface on The Wage Thief: “That’s an opinion you are entitled to be most humble about. I read a lot about the Opium Wars. I’m…Dec 10, 21:21
    • Mike D on The Wage Thief: “Or a female stakeknifeDec 10, 21:13
    • Zander Tait on The Wage Thief: “Ha ha ha, RH. And let’s not forget the bolts protruding from his neck. It was, of course 54% Yes…Dec 10, 21:11
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