If we were to write an article every time Murdo Fraser said something moronic, we’d have to rename this site Wings Over Murdo Fraser, and drink an awful lot of Red Bull to be able to cover it all.
Stuff like this, for example, is almost too easy.
43% (actually 45.3% excluding Don’t Knows) is considerably more than Murdo Fraser has ever achieved in an election, either himself or as part of a party. His average over the seven elections he’s contested and lost since 1999 is just 30.1%, and until a blip in 2016 it had been falling lower and lower each time, as people have watched how he performed as an MSP and got less and less keen on the idea.
That’s still actually slightly more than the 28.6% his party secured in Scotland at the last election, though, in what was nevertheless generally regarded as an unusually impressive performance. Two years earlier they gathered just 14.9% of the votes cast.
Yet neither Fraser nor the Tories disappear for a generation every time Scotland tells them to go and get stuffed. Fraser keeps trousering an MSP’s fat salary despite two decades of unbroken and unequivocal personal rejection from the electorate, even as he demands that the independence movement gives up after losing ONE vote.
But in his defence, his leader’s not setting him much of an example.
Ever aware of its need to deliver informed enlightenment to the populace, the state broadcaster has recently put up a “BBC Brexit Jargon Buster” page on its website. We’re not sure it was meant to be quite this candid.
This piece ran in the Telegraph – a newspaper with no Scottish edition and almost no Scottish sales – on Friday. Click to enlarge.
Our favourite line is:
“Think of what the UK would be like without the vast wealth generated by the 44bn barrels of oil pumped from British territory over the last 40 years.”
(Curiously, this is a rather different line to the one Critchlow took during the indyref, when he was the Telegraph’s full-time business news editor penning a string of articles about how bankrupt an independent Scotland would be despite possessing an asset that’s now apparently big enough to prop up an economy 12 times Scotland’s size.)
It’s worth keeping in mind whenever Unionists tell us (a) how volatile and worthless and used-up oil is, (b) how much Scotland depends on the kind benevolence of the UK to survive, and (c) why we can’t have another referendum until years after Brexit.
Willie on Cowering From Destiny: “An utterly apt critique quote by Yanis Varoufakis – ” Andy Burnham’s new government is a case in point. Having…” Sep 27, 06:33
Minceheid on Cowering From Destiny: “Mark, here’s an archived copy of that article: archive.is/I7Uhr” Sep 27, 04:31
James Barr Gardner on Cowering From Destiny: “1995 a wee bit before afore maist folk ?????” Sep 27, 02:36
Mark Beggan on Cowering From Destiny: “You have to pay to read it. Why don’t you just give us a summary.” Sep 26, 20:28
Hatey McHateface on Cowering From Destiny: “An interesting article on what’s wrong with the left: https://unherd.com/2026/09/the-centre-lefts-slow-suicide/” Sep 26, 19:31
Hatey McHateface on Cowering From Destiny: ““Saint Nicola now fled to London” Jeezo, Willie, but you need to get out more. It’s an hour or so…” Sep 26, 19:11
Mark Beggan on Cowering From Destiny: ““The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money” Margaret Thatcher.” Sep 26, 18:35
TURABDIN on Cowering From Destiny: “Mea culpa….the wrong Kennedy it would appear. It does however rest on the definition of socialism. «socialism is a noble…” Sep 26, 18:04
Mark Beggan on Cowering From Destiny: ““When they tore down the Berlin wall, what people went in which direction? Socialism is for morons.” Senator J Kennedy…” Sep 26, 16:49
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Cowering From Destiny: “Sorry. Forgot to add direct link to above-mentioned book: Ainmean Beanntan na h-Alba/ Scottish Hill Names: Meanings and Origins’ by…” Sep 26, 16:21
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Cowering From Destiny: “A couple of new books of Gaelic, Edinburgh, and Hillwalking interest: ‘A’ Ghàidhlig ann an Dùn Èideann tro na Linntean…” Sep 26, 16:01
James on Cowering From Destiny: “I often hear the question ‘was Surgeon a plant from the beginning, did they get something on her; or both’?…” Sep 26, 15:14
TURABDIN on Cowering From Destiny: “@Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh Tapadh leat!, i’ve experienced more nastiness in my life than most. It has made me, i conjecture, wise…” Sep 26, 14:25
Captain Caveman on Cowering From Destiny: “”i [sic] am not unwise as to ways of the world.” Well, I’ll be the judge of that, son. In…” Sep 26, 14:12
sam on Cowering From Destiny: “The funding model in Scottish universities is broke. Financially and structurally. The business model that relied on income from foreign…” Sep 26, 14:12
TURABDIN on Cowering From Destiny: “KENNEDY, the consummate coldwar fantasist who almost started a WW over Cuba and initiated the wars in Viet Nam, Laos…” Sep 26, 14:10
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Cowering From Destiny: “Hang on in there TURABDIN. Your experientially informed contributions are appreciated.” Sep 26, 14:10
Peter McAvoy on Cowering From Destiny: “Yet again the SNP government has failed Scotland BBC Scotland news website stated that Alexander Dennis did not meet the…” Sep 26, 14:09
Mark Beggan on Cowering From Destiny: “‘Socialism is the reason I believe in free speech. How else can you tell who the idiots are’ Senator J…” Sep 26, 13:49
TURABDIN on Cowering From Destiny: “@CAPTAIN CAVEMAN & HATEY. I come from a ethno cultural entity which lost its sovereignty some time ago. I know…” Sep 26, 13:47
Lorncal on Cowering From Destiny: “H McH: I respect your views, and everyone else’s, enough to actually read them. When have I ever said that…” Sep 26, 13:35
Willie on Cowering From Destiny: “The comment about convening a referendum on the wee pretend parliament very much reflects union fear about Scottish independence. We…” Sep 26, 13:04
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Cowering From Destiny: “Re Edinburgh University – a very engagingly readable autobiographical essay by Kevin MacNeill – ‘A Subject That Taught Me I…” Sep 26, 12:34
BH on Cowering From Destiny: “Look at Sweden’s death rate say 1950 to present. Pin a pandemic on it. Try next door with its rising…” Sep 26, 12:20
Northcode on Cowering From Destiny: “It’s worth remembering that Scottish universities have been international for decades. They actively recruit staff and students from all over…” Sep 26, 10:48
Hatey McHateface on Cowering From Destiny: ““these so-called ‘elite’ universities are no longer Scottish in any meaningful sense” As that was my exact point, I don’t…” Sep 26, 10:19
Alf Baird on Cowering From Destiny: “““this once Scottish university” You are the ‘haver’ Hatey, Willie is right. With some 90% of its academic staff and…” Sep 26, 09:42
TURABDIN on Cowering From Destiny: “Ramsay Mac Donald in Socialism: critical and constructive, published in 1921, wrote: «The Anglification of Scotland has been proceeding apace…” Sep 26, 09:34
Northcode on Cowering From Destiny: ““… Indy isn’t gonna come from them sitting on their arses, holding out their hands, and saying “Gonna gie us…” Sep 26, 09:02
Hatey McHateface on Cowering From Destiny: ““this once Scottish university” Havers, Willie. Even back in my day, Edinburgh was one of the two English unis in…” Sep 26, 09:00
