The secretary of the playground 259
Posted on
February 25, 2019 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
In today’s Times:
Yeah, you read it right. He really said it out loud.
Archive for the ‘scottish politics’
Counting With James Kelly MSP 776
Posted on
February 19, 2019 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Alex Cole-Hamilton’s reign was the shortest on record.
The master of detail 70
Posted on
February 19, 2019 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Unionists have been in a purple frenzy of rage in the last couple of weeks that the First Minister has dared to leave the country not once but twice in order to try to improve relations and trade links with Scotland’s business partners. Lib Dem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton – a man who still thinks the Queensferry Crossing isn’t finished a year and a half after traffic started using it – tried a different tack.
And that’s a zinger of a point unless oh dear what’s this?
The Harvesters 199
Posted on
February 17, 2019 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We saw a tweet from some Tory MP or MSP this morning urging voters to sign some fake “petition” or other bashing the SNP, and it rang a bell in our minds, so we popped over to the Conservative Party website where we found this:
Despite referring to “a new poll today”, there’s no date to be found anywhere on the page, and that turns out to be because it’s been there for quite a while.
Counting With Scottish Labour 102
Posted on
February 16, 2019 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
A little snippet in today’s Times caught our eye earlier.
As alert readers may recall from our numerous investigations into the enduring enigma that is Scottish Labour’s membership figures, at the end of 2014 the branch office was claiming to have either 14,000 or 20,000 members.
And even in a world where 38% is “almost half” and five is half of seven, there’s still no way you can get 21,000 to be “almost double” either 14,000 or 20,000.
Were Labour lying in 2014, or are they lying now, or (and this is our guess) were they lying both times and their real membership is nothing like any of those unverified, unscrutinised, plucked-from-the-air numbers?
We’ll probably never know, and it’ll almost certainly never matter.
Counting With Jamie Greene 448
Posted on
February 14, 2019 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
In this site’s view, the proposed new employee-parking levy which the 2019 budget will enable local authorities to implement if they choose to – but which is in no sense being imposed on anyone by the SNP, who don’t have a majority on a single Scottish council – is a pretty rotten idea, which will do nothing to combat climate change or congestion and will punish ordinary workers purely to make Greens feel important, but that’s neither here nor there. Councils can answer to voters if they use it.
What we’re a lot more worried about is the rampant Zimbabwe-style hyper-inflation that’s apparently running wild across Scotland, at least if you listen to Olympic-grade imbecile Jamie Greene MSP.
That was at 10.18 yesterday morning. But by halfway through lunchtime the situation had become far more serious.
Counting With The Scottish Media #2 386
Posted on
February 13, 2019 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
An uncertain future 185
Posted on
February 12, 2019 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Another slow news day, so here’s one from the archives:
Don’t worry, we’re not going to make you try to read it that size.
The outstanding balance 591
Posted on
February 10, 2019 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We had an interesting exchange with Scottish Labour MP Paul Sweeney this week on the deathless lie that is the “fiscal transfer” – the £10bn or so that Unionists rather startlingly insist the rest of the UK generously donates to Scotland every year out of the goodness of its heart, just for the pleasure of our company.
As you can see, the debate was of a high intellectual standard.
Counting With The Scottish Media 111
Posted on
February 08, 2019 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Auntie’s Favourite 188
Posted on
February 08, 2019 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Last night we observed the considerable statistical difficulty involved in getting to speak on the BBC’s flagship political debate show Question Time not just once, or even twice, but THREE times, and the remarkable ease with which shouty sectarian UKIP and Loyalist bigot Billy Mitchell has achieved it.
But readers, we’re afraid we must acknowledge a rare factual inaccuracy on Wings Over Scotland. Because he’s actually been on it at least FOUR times.
And the odds against that happening by chance are really quite something.
