Today’s Daily Record has a “shock” poll revealing what this site told you a week and a half ago – namely that just under half of Scots want a second referendum on Brexit. (Our Panelbase poll said 46%, the Record’s YouGov one says 48%.)
Amusingly, the paper describes this minority as “overwhelming support” for another vote, and runs an editorial leader demanding that Labour and the SNP unite to back such a proposal.
And, y’know, we may as well make the obvious point.
It’s always nice to see Michelle Mone in the news again, especially when the Tory peer crowbars an attempted intervention into Scottish politics into everything she does.
And since there’s not much else going on, it seemed like a good excuse to have a wee delve into what she’s been up to lately.
In the wake of this morning’s news that the Herald and Sunday Herald are to merge, we thought it’d be nice to remember the times – not SO long ago – when the paper used to do some proper journalism and there was some modest semblance of balance and professional integrity in the Scottish media.
In the continuing absence of any interesting current Scottish politics, we thought you might enjoy this Sunday Mail piece from exactly 11 years ago yesterday, confidently asserting that a quick chat would disabuse Scots of any notion of leaving the UK.
Several of today’s Scottish newspapers report on a marginal increase in the number of homeless people in Scotland, and in particular – for some reason – those who’ve slept rough for at least one night in the three months before declaring themselves homeless.
Things become a little clearer when you see that the reported stats are courtesy of “research by Scottish Labour”, who’ve scoured the document to cherry-pick the worst-sounding numbers in order to blame “Tory and SNP austerity”, etc etc.
That weirdly specific stat for rough sleepers has risen by 10% over two years, although this year’s increase was only 1% and overall homelessness is only up by less than1% over the same two-year period.
But all credit to Labour – it’s only taken them two months to come up with that number (which is the second line of Table 2 in the statistics). Because the figures were actually released – and reported – in the middle of June.
Scottish politics is still resolutely on holiday, but in response to an enquiry from Prof. Sir John Curtice today we noticed that we still hadn’t published a few snippets of data from our most recent Panelbase poll. So in the absence of anything else to talk about, we might as well have a wee look.
Our poll showed a strikingly large gulf in support for the EU between independence supporters and Unionists. Were there to be a second EU referendum tomorrow, Yes voters would choose remain by an enormous 36-point margin, and by well over two to one, whereas No voters were a much tighter eight points apart, with only barely over half plumping for Remain.
But even that overstates Unionists’ fondness for the European Union.
Scotland On Sunday has a very odd front-page splash today.
In a truly remarkable feat of sheer journalistic incompetence, the paper’s Tom Peterkin manages to cover three pages discussing the idea of an independent Scotland renting the Faslane naval base to the UK without once even mentioning the two very recent opinion polls conducted on that exact subject, on both sides of what would in those circumstances be the international border.
Right, let’s wrap this up and hope some actual politics happens soon. By now readers will presumably be aware of our successful fight against the BBC’s shutting down of our YouTube channel last week. The channel is now fully back in service, including all 13 of the clips the BBC complained about.
But the job’s by no means all done. Technically the restoration is only temporary while the BBC conducts a “review” of its attitude towards copyright of news clips, and Peter “Moridura” Curran’s large YouTube archive remains terminated (although we’re not sure to what extent he’s pursuing its return).
And quite a few questions are still hanging unanswered in the air.
For those of you who didn’t catch the media review section of today’s John Beattie show on Radio Scotland, where the Wings/YouTube copyright case was discussed at length, here’s a compilation of the relevant sections. It’s quite the listen.
(John Beattie, BBC Radio Scotland, 2 August 2018) .
Willie on Search And Replace: “How much public m9ney was secretly used to support anti independence dark arts organisations to undermine the independence campaign. And…” Jul 6, 10:19
Marie on Search And Replace: “Yeah right. That’ll be why over 90 per cent of all indigenous Native American people alive today live South of…” Jul 6, 10:17
Oneliner on Search And Replace: “Sure, we can vote them out. Removal of London’s Civil Service, with all the attendant subversive paraphernalia, is not so…” Jul 6, 09:51
Lorncal on Search And Replace: “HMcH: I tend to agree. I have not read or heard anything that would indicate deliberate and prior intent to…” Jul 6, 09:30
Hatey McHateface on Search And Replace: “According to Cesaire (I think – somebody will correct me if needed), the moon IS made of green cheese.” Jul 6, 09:28
Hatey McHateface on Search And Replace: “Wow, TURABDIN. You’ve reached the age of “maturity” without ever learning that the Irish, Germans, Italians and Scots also reached…” Jul 6, 09:26
Lorncal on Search And Replace: “james: then tell us which law pertains to ‘ring-fenced’ party donations being used elsewhere?” Jul 6, 09:19
Lorncal on Search And Replace: “AdamH: so, Greens donated to another party for a referendum? Why? Why would anyone do that? If a referendum were…” Jul 6, 09:16
Hatey McHateface on Search And Replace: ““With this level of nonsense I hardly go online any more apart from a few sites like this one” That’s…” Jul 6, 08:57
Hatey McHateface on Search And Replace: “So we Scots can’t conclude the SNP are corrupt incompetents and vote them out while we are still in the…” Jul 6, 08:54
Hatey McHateface on Search And Replace: “A couple of thoughts about AI. We all see free AI-generated results when we use the internet, yet we are…” Jul 6, 08:48
TURABDIN on Search And Replace: “i think the ENGLISH & AMERICANS are just «lucky» history, events have been notably kind to them how do they…” Jul 6, 08:47
sarah on Search And Replace: “George, we will never improve our system UNTIL we leave the Union. From there it is a clean slate whereas…” Jul 6, 08:38
Spartan 117 on Search And Replace: “We think alike, Dan. Truth bombs in every paragraph, especially regarding AI.” Jul 6, 08:28
Hatey McHateface on Search And Replace: “Surely anybody holding serious, cast-iron doubts about the system and anything presented in court has a moral duty to attend…” Jul 6, 08:20
DaveL on Search And Replace: “You’ve answered your question in the last sentence of your post. Having no confidence in the system you cannot be…” Jul 6, 07:58
Hatey McHateface on Search And Replace: “Actually, Lorncal, I regard the fact that I appear to have more bank accounts than the SNP as sufficient evidence…” Jul 6, 07:48
Slim Jim on Search And Replace: “Maybe they just don’t want to investigate this crime and are determined not to because then it all gets a…” Jul 6, 07:45
Captain Caveman on Search And Replace: “Get in! 🙂 Reaching the QF was the “minimum acceptable” for me, so anything else is a bonus. Harland looking…” Jul 6, 07:04
agentx on Search And Replace: “What a game! Fabulous win 🙂” Jul 6, 04:13
james on Search And Replace: “Lorncal-Should those monies then be placed into an interest-bearing principal or can it be used for other purposes? Should the…” Jul 6, 03:43
DavidT on Search And Replace: “If the first version is embezzlement, is the second not fraud?” Jul 6, 02:33
crazycat on Search And Replace: “Yes, exactly. The website for the 2017 fund-raiser had the URL ref.scot, not snp.org, though that appeared on receipts for…” Jul 6, 00:41
crazycat on Search And Replace: “John Logue explains that in another part of his interview: And so when the police carry out a complex investigation…” Jul 6, 00:37
George Ferguson on Search And Replace: “I no longer believe in an Independent Scotland and Ross Greer has just told you why. We live in a…” Jul 5, 23:55
Angus on Search And Replace: “The fobbing off by the utterly politically corrupt Police Scotland and the Crown Office will continue for ever. How much…” Jul 5, 23:17
Stuart Swanston on Search And Replace: “The NEC of the SNP is the legal body of the Party. Members of the National Executive Council of the…” Jul 5, 22:47
Bilbo on Search And Replace: “Dan, you’ve hit the nail on the head with your last paragraph. Case in point the hysteria about the recent…” Jul 5, 22:42
robertkknight on Search And Replace: “Likely spoil my ballot again. I don’t vote for unionist parties, including the SNP.” Jul 5, 22:20
