We don’t know whether Sky News’ senior Scotland correspondent James Matthews recognised double-jobbing Labour MP and councillor Hugh Gaffney on today’s strike march in Glasgow or not. (We suspect he did, but as Gaffney’s only been an MP for a year and a half we can’t be sure.)
What’s certain is that he gave him plenty of time, opportunity and cues to disclose who he was, and Gaffney didn’t take any of them, leading to this extraordinary clip.
The indyref sometimes caused feelings to run rather high, and people on both sides made themselves very unpopular with those on the other side. But four years of water has flowed under the bridge since then, and not everyone is still in the same trenches.
Some high-profile names have switched to from No to Yes (often but not exclusively as a result of Brexit), and the reception afforded to floor-crossers like Murray Foote, Eric Joyce, Jackie Kemp, Mike Dailly, Tom Morton and Simon Pia hasn’t always been an entirely warm one, with some unable to keep a lid on their old grudges.
And in a similar vein, some of the remarks in recent days on the reported switch to Yes of Billy Connolly – a few from people I thought better of – are deeply offensive and potentially deeply damaging.
Well well, look who suddenly believes in second referendums.
It’s fascinating to note how you can completely reverse Kezia Dugdale’s position on the subject simply by substituting the word “Scotland” for the words “the UK” in that second tweet, and imagine she was talking about the independence march in heavily-Remain-voting Edinburgh earlier this month instead of the (proportionately smaller) one in London yesterday.
The BBC’s Scottish politics website today prominently carries this story:
Our famously alert readers may recall as far back as five-and-a-half months ago, which was the last time the Scottish media tried to whip up demented scare stories about baby boxes, which have been given to every new mother in Finland for approximately 70 years and caused absolutely no documented problems.
So what’s fresh about the story to justify this significant new coverage? Let’s see.
Tory MP Kirstene “dumber than a box of” Hair is best known for being the member of the UK Parliament who didn’t vote in the Brexit referendum because it was too difficult.
The Scottish Daily Mail today has a big headline relaying the seemingly-unambiguous bad news that unemployment in Scotland has apparently risen by 11,000.
But cheer up, folks, because better times are ahead.
We’re pretty sure it was “Listen to you about being ‘better together’, so that they ended up with a Tory government they didn’t vote for but which was imposed on them by the people in a much larger country, and which has a long track record of imposing brutal, callous welfare policies on the poor for largely ideological reasons, and which has entirely predictably continued to do so”.
We’re blacklisted by the press regulator IPSO, but fortunately when we raise issues with especially blatant inaccuracies in UK newspapers alert readers sometimes take up the cudgel and file complaints with them because we can’t.
When indoor-hat-wearing uberYoon nutter George Galloway appeared in some of the madder corners of the gutter press this week after appearing on RT to extravagantly belittle last weekend’s indy marchers, we didn’t bother talking about it because who cares what that irrelevant old zoomer thinks, right?
But when an alert reader drew our attention to this spectacular clip of Galloway’s pre-indyref and post-indyref views on the EU we couldn’t let it go, because it so perfectly encapsulates not just what a huge buffoon George Galloway is, but the jaw-dropping, bare-faced, crass hypocrisy of so much Unionist argument.
We’re only sad he’s neither a politician nor in Scotland, or he’d be a shoo-in.
Mark Beggan on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “” I never thought I’d see the day when it was hip and cool to be Right wing”. John Lydon” Mar 6, 22:25
Mark Beggan on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “Lets discuss International Law. Is it made up like gender ideology or is it just made up for cowards to…” Mar 6, 21:59
Geri on Scotland’s Most Frightened: ““President Trump is nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his administration,” Cheung maintained.” *Takes a look at…” Mar 6, 21:00
diabloandco on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “ooh ! Just the chap one would choose for an extremely important and delicate job eh? Bloody hell! Thanks Turabdin!” Mar 6, 18:47
Hatey McHateface on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “And I read it. Looks like nae ither cant did!” Mar 6, 17:06
Hatey McHateface on Scotland’s Most Frightened: ““washing, managing toilet needs” I wonder how many claimants post regularly on here.” Mar 6, 17:00
Hatey McHateface on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “Every time you post one of these I get a mental image of you being humiliated and knocked back at…” Mar 6, 16:58
Hatey McHateface on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “Deal with it, Cynicus, they’re not going to be herded, two by two, into the gas chambers a second time.…” Mar 6, 16:48
Hatey McHateface on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “Does President Trump believe he’s a thousand year old, space traveling Pict, Northy? Naw? Then he’s not as utterly insane…” Mar 6, 16:36
agentx on Scotland’s Most Frightened: ““ADP can be worth up to £10,000 a year tax-free and is designed to support people who need help with…” Mar 6, 15:58
TURABDIN on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “apologies….defective link. https://archive.is/CoRTW” Mar 6, 15:54
TURABDIN on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “FOR INFORMATION: https://web.archive.org/web/20241202043621/https://” Mar 6, 15:24
Young Lochinvar on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “Sally Donald to repay £20k benefits. Not so cocky now eh?” Mar 6, 14:51
Mark Beggan on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “Do you find it difficult to sleep at night? Waking in cold sweats? Do you find yourself typing frantically, tripping…” Mar 6, 14:22
Confused on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “people get overheated about “zinism!” (is bad mkay) like it was something; but this is a bit like obsessing over…” Mar 6, 13:54
Confused on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “I spy for China. At least I tried to. Told them loads – – faslane is full of nukes -…” Mar 6, 13:48
Cynicus on Scotland’s Most Frightened: ““Trump is the greatest president since George Washington.”-Mark Beggan ============ Washington, it is said, couldn’t tell a lie. The same…” Mar 6, 13:31
Mark Beggan on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “God Bless the President of the United States of America. Trump is the greatest president since George Washington. God Bless…” Mar 6, 12:44
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “The ‘INSIDE TRUMP’S HEAD’ commentaries with Joanna Coles and Michael Wolff are worth dropping in on: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa4wH_7fDjI” Mar 6, 12:15
Cynicus on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “Let us be clear about who is responsible for the conflagration in the Middle East: the pantomime horse USRAEL, certainly.…” Mar 6, 11:58
Alf Baird on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “Yes Northcode, ‘unity’ is imperative if an oppressed people are to succeed in the critical final phase of decolonization. Alba…” Mar 6, 11:55
sam on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “More bad than mad. Trump is said to have had mob connections in his early business days – Gambino and…” Mar 6, 11:38
TURABDIN on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “DONALD TRUMP is physically & mentally «unwell» it is the nurses tending him we ought to be concerned with. They…” Mar 6, 10:52
Northcode on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “I made a rhyme from Scots words: Ach, aw the dyte and daupit wha wander thru a place. Wir ne’er…” Mar 6, 10:46
Alf Baird on Scotland’s Most Frightened: ““So there is no such thing as Scots Law” Institutions in a colony serve only the Imperial Crown. Simply because…” Mar 6, 10:35
Northcode on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “If, as Chris Taylor tells us, Hell is the impossibility of reason… then we are all living in Hell right…” Mar 6, 10:00
Willie on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “You are right Northcote that the enemy is within us. It is in every one of us to a greater…” Mar 6, 09:25
Mark Beggan on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “According to AI the inbreeding in some muslim communities is as high as 60% which results in a severe weakening…” Mar 6, 08:22
Hatey McHateface on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “An interesting discussion on the codification of two-tier treatment under law by Starmer’s government: https://unherd.com/newsroom/labours-islamophobia-definition-deserves-to-die/ It seems that if you…” Mar 6, 07:54
