The figure below is my own, but it’s also remarkably typical:
Click the pic to get yours.
(It actually feels like a lot more than that – quite possibly because I have, in fact, not for one minute of my entire life been represented by a government at Westminster – or anywhere else, come to that – that I voted for, unless you count the token presence of the Lib Dems in the 2010-15 coalition. Which I don’t, because they immediately betrayed every policy and principle for which I’d voted for them in the first place.)
For Scotland, democracy in the UK simply doesn’t work.
One of the favourite sneering Unionist memes of the independence referendum was the mocking dismissal of claims by some Yes supporters that there might be “secret oil fields” in a location off the west of Shetland known as Clair Ridge.
So amused were the Unionists by this notion that they were still sniggering about it regularly years after the referendum, right up to earlier this month.
Curiously, they’ve gone a little quieter in recent days.
As the Prime Minister prepares to meet the First Minister and doggedly give her “now is not the time” mantra another few dozen run-throughs for the cameras, we thought that you might enjoy a little trip down Memory Lane.
Normally the amateur blogger, unqualified would-be economist and unsuccessful dog-food salesman that BBC Scotland and the Daily Record employ on a regular basis to openly troll Yes voters restricts himself, when attacking this site, to crude abuse or smear and innuendo like the below, tweeted on Holocaust Memorial Day last year:
There’s a new hot buzz-phrase in the Yoonstream: “GERS deniers”.
It’s actually been around for quite a few months – coincidentally since this site started exposing the true nature of the figures – but has become a constant mantra recently, in particular since the intervention of an actual proper expert who doesn’t sell cat litter for a living, Professor Richard Murphy.
Ever since he set tongues and tails wagging by writing a series of hard-hitting articles for his widely-renowned Tax Research UK blog last week, rubbishing the quality of the data, Unionists have been in an increasingly shrill flap about it.
Today the Scottish Parliament spent several hours heatedly debating a motion to call for a second Section 30 order to enable a new independence referendum (several more will follow tomorrow before the vote). We watched all of it so you didn’t have to, and are delighted to present you with a few clips that probably won’t make the news.
On such a momentous topic, this was the intervention that Scottish Labour list MSP Monica Lennon felt was the most pressing issue to raise, for example:
We’re very touched, obviously, and will add it to our file of other mentions in the chamber and elsewhere. But there were probably more important things to discuss.
It seems counter-intuitive – given Rupert Murdoch’s often-overstated (despite endless and fevered speculation, the Scottish Sun didn’t back a Yes vote) but still seemingly real support for Scottish independence – that Sky News should be seen as the most hostile of the nation’s broadcasters to the Yes movement.
robertkknight on The Turning Point: “Oh deary me… What’s the chances you realise that nobody on here, with possibly a single notable exception, actually gives…” Sep 29, 10:39
PRJ on The Turning Point: “The arrest of Murrell should have seen a clear out of the hierarchy of the SNP, they were all complicit…” Sep 29, 09:27
willie on The Turning Point: “The reorganisation of local government is not pointless Peter. The cull of the 32 Scottish Councils into 5 is a…” Sep 29, 08:53
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “What’s the chances you and the rest of the tribe don’t recall how you’ve voted, in election after election, eh,…” Sep 29, 08:40
Hatey McHateface on Cowering From Destiny: “Zat you hating there, James? Ye can hae a speshul dispensation tae tak yer maw doon intae the tunnel wi…” Sep 29, 08:34
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “Aye, Bob. “We wus roabbed” Ye’ve learned the wirds aff by hert. If only ye’d haud some spark of ability,…” Sep 29, 08:30
factchecker on The Turning Point: “I understand your frustration. But that is why we have a Scottish parliament stuffed with (largely) incompetent SNP apparatchiks who…” Sep 29, 08:27
robertkknight on The Turning Point: “Just as well I had spent a penny a mere two minutes before reading this, else I may have had…” Sep 29, 08:21
Angus on The Turning Point: ““But she stalled and stalled until she ran out of time and the chance was gone.” Isn’t that exactly what…” Sep 29, 05:12
Peter McAvoy on The Turning Point: “Some may say that the SNP no longer support Scottish Independence,they could be easily convinced by many recent actions some…” Sep 29, 02:57
robertkknight on The Turning Point: “Time to play “Idiot Bingo” on October 1st… I’ll be placing an X in the box next to all 7…” Sep 29, 00:39
robertkknight on The Turning Point: ““Nationalists easily forget that the Scottish people stopped independence at the ballot. Not MI5.” Utter bollocks as usual… 53% of…” Sep 28, 23:50
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “Leftist political parties are inevitably of the destructive kind, following the Soviet model of “burn everything down and rebuild in…” Sep 28, 23:34
Ebok on The Turning Point: “Cuphook says: ‘The surge in the Green vote was due to Polanski’ Spartan 117 says: ‘The surge in Green voting…” Sep 28, 23:20
James on Cowering From Destiny: “And don’t forget; “Pricks” like you too, wee man.” Sep 28, 22:34
Hatey McHateface on Cowering From Destiny: ““I try not to hate anyone” Dinna hold yersel back, James. Nobody you hate will ever give a damn.” Sep 28, 21:50
Hatey McHateface on Cowering From Destiny: “All antisemites should dig themselves a tunnel, descend into it, and never come up again. If we’re talking kids, they…” Sep 28, 21:41
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Turning Point: “Rev Stuart Campbell writes @ 5:54 pm: “Swinney has closed down all routes for the membership to do anything except…” Sep 28, 20:15
Cuphook on The Turning Point: “They’re not at odds with each other. They describe different attributes. A party in favour of workers’ rights and free…” Sep 28, 20:10
Confused on Cowering From Destiny: “Anyone who gives a shit about U is suspect – if you care enough then fuck off over there and…” Sep 28, 19:47
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “Not bollocks, largely the truth. Especially the last two points.” Sep 28, 19:32
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “The terms “left wing” and “conservative” are at odds with each other and quite frankly the absolute last thing we…” Sep 28, 19:29
Aidan on Cowering From Destiny: “lol – what has R done; – invaded its neighbours in an aggressive territorial expansion campaign. The latest one, which…” Sep 28, 19:24
Rev. Stuart Campbell on The Turning Point: “Swinney has closed down all routes for the membership to do anything except leave.” Sep 28, 17:54
Cuphook on The Turning Point: “The surge in the Green vote was due to Polanski in England. Look where the Green vote did well and…” Sep 28, 17:34
willie on The Turning Point: “It is utterly no surprise that so many of independence supporters distrust the SNP and will not vote for them.…” Sep 28, 17:20
