Daily Express hack Siobhan McFadyen had a quite extraordinary meltdown on Twitter last night and this morning after we highlighted an appalling article that she’d written for Saturday’s paper.
After angrily attacking other users for a few hours, by the end she’d declared a full-on DefCon One, sending out a desperate plea for hauners from entities as diverse as the Times, the New York Times, the Telegraph, the NUJ, the Washington Post, Guardian Scotland, BBC Radio 4, the Drudge Report, the CEO of Twitter and JK Rowling.
We’ve already highlighted the abominable state of the Daily Express this week, but an article in today’s edition is surely some sort of record-breaking low.
Hold onto your hats, folks, you won’t believe this one.
The tone of coverage deployed by the Daily Express (Scottish and English editions alike) with regard to the First Minister of Scotland in recent weeks has been both bizarre and disturbing. Yesterday the paper ran this “story”:
It’s a load of gibberish, obviously. But if the FM was preparing herself for a punch-up, you could hardly blame her given what’s apparently been going on.
Supporters of Scottish independence have known for years that the civic “nationalism” espoused by the Yes movement bears no relation to the so-called “blood and soil” varieties found in many other countries. Every racist or ethnic-nationalist organisation in Britain – the BNP, the EDL/SDL, the National Front and so on – was stridently No.
The BBC lunchtime weather forecast of 15 October 1987 is now fondly looked back on as a moment of shared national doh-what-are-we-like? comedy, in the same vein as a Morecambe and Wise Christmas show or something.
Eternally angry Conservative MSP Adam Tomkins has been even shoutier than usual this week, purple-faced with rage about the fact that the SNP has decided to spend some of its own money (not taxpayer cash) asking people for their opinions.
It’s a curious argument from a member of a party that’s been rejected in successive elections in Scotland in 1964, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1974 again, 1979, 1983, 1987, 1992, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2015 and 2016, but keeps turning up and barking orders anyway. You’d think the first 50 years might qualify as a hint.
Fear and lies work. Over many decades (and really for centuries) the Unionist parties and the media have succeeded in persuading a large percentage of Scots that they’re beggars, scroungers, vagrants and “subsidy junkies” dependent on the ever-generous charity of England to keep them from starvation.
And in terms of the facts, that hasn’t always been an easy sell.
More or less since the morning of 19 September 2014, the Unionist parties in Scotland have kept up an unceasing chorus of “You lost! Accept it!” directed at the entire Yes movement, but primarily the SNP (despite the SNP having never to date disputed the result or called for a re-run of the referendum).
Readers may not be entirely astonished to discover this morning that at least as far as Scottish Labour are concerned, that principle only applies to other people.
Because we’re pretty sure there’s already a name for when political parties set out an “alternative programme of government”.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz gave an interesting interview to Good Morning Scotland just after 8am today, in which he expressed a number of careful, measured and qualified views on a variety of subjects including currency.
But obviously Scottish people are much too stupid to understand stuff like that, so the BBC quickly dumbed it down for them.
The problem is that there’s a difference between simplifying and falsifying.
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “@Hatey 6:42pm Don’t get me started on Silliband/Mahatma Andy’s bungling on Pallet Line. Another fine mess completely irrelevant to our…” Sep 29, 21:02
Hatey McHateface on Cowering From Destiny: ““Independent Ireland has remained neutral for the last century thereby avoiding being dragged into Imperial England’s 80 or so colonial…” Sep 29, 20:35
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “Stick to making soup, Dan. There’s no reason for alert readers to question your claims that you know your soup.…” Sep 29, 20:23
Dan on The Turning Point: “Ach, as stated before, Scotland doesn’t need to be spending billions on defence when we jist need to deploy our…” Sep 29, 20:04
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “Not smart enough, too tarnished, and toxic. Yet she’s going on the lecture circuit and you’re not. I guess you’re…” Sep 29, 20:03
Bilbo on The Turning Point: “So the State asset is going on the lecturing circuit? Guess it’s the only thing left to her. She isn’t…” Sep 29, 19:31
Aidan on The Turning Point: “Oh I agree the Europeans should be taken much more of the cost of this (although they are for the…” Sep 29, 19:16
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “All those words, Bob, just to say you’re ignoring me. Have you ever sat down and counted all the times…” Sep 29, 18:51
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: ““marched us headlong into a conflict that was absolutely nothing to do with us and without regard to the consequences”…” Sep 29, 18:42
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “What’s conventional defense, CC? Whatever your answer is, if you know anything about the subject at all, it’ll be a…” Sep 29, 18:35
twathater on The Turning Point: “Here we go again give your vote to someone other than the snp who best represents your feelings, lend your…” Sep 29, 18:23
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “Sorry, I vociferously reject the idea that the defence of U is a “strategic objective” for *us*. It *might* be…” Sep 29, 18:15
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “““Tax cuts for the rich, benefit cuts for the poor” he cries” Except the rich aren’t getting tax cuts. And…” Sep 29, 18:13
Captain Caveman on The Turning Point: “@Aidan That’s not to say, however, that we shouldn’t be spending money on our OWN (conventional) defence (not someone else’s),…” Sep 29, 17:59
Hatey Mchateface on Cowering From Destiny: ““Ah dinnae hate you, son; I pity you” Crivens, James, yer maw will hae ye washing yer mooth oot wi…” Sep 29, 17:59
Captain Caveman on The Turning Point: “Don’t you think though, Aidan, if the things you say are true, isn’t it about time that “U”‘s immediate EU…” Sep 29, 17:56
Aidan on The Turning Point: “I will challenge you on this Spartan, the situation in U is extremely serious for all of us in Europe,…” Sep 29, 17:38
James on The Turning Point: “That last was aimed at Adrian, who is cheerleading reducing what is already the lowest -piss poor- state pension in…” Sep 29, 17:30
cirsium on The Turning Point: “Well said Willie 2014 ran them close, closer than we may know and it could not happen again. Given that…” Sep 29, 17:09
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “You both raise very sensible points. The fact is the UK are pissing galactic sums of money away on, quite…” Sep 29, 16:47
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Turning Point: “Key historical documentary. Video is remarkably still available here and there online. DÌOMHAIR (CONFIDENTIAL) BBC ALBA 2013. Gaelic with English…” Sep 29, 16:45
Captain Caveman on The Turning Point: “Indeed, Spartan. Very true.” Sep 29, 16:39
Aidan on The Turning Point: “Yes James – in the real world where actual people live, defending ourselves against the real possibility of a wider…” Sep 29, 16:35
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “Ignore it. It’s off its tits again on whatever intoxicating substances its managed to raid from the COSHH cabinet. You…” Sep 29, 16:22
James on The Turning Point: “The yapping Armchair General says “we cant afford it”… And yet….. and yet…’we’ can “afford” to waste £205 BILLION on…” Sep 29, 16:15
Captain Caveman on The Turning Point: “What is it with you, Confused? You act like a particularly thick, foul-mouthed, petulant teenager who’s just discovered a keyboard,…” Sep 29, 14:20
gm on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “There are many more anti as opposed to pro independence posts on this site. It makes you wonder about the…” Sep 29, 14:17
Confused on The Turning Point: “sir ranulph fiennes is currently living in my garage; some blondie slipped me a monkey to “look after her dad”…” Sep 29, 13:41
Aidan on Cowering From Destiny: “By “neutral” I assume you mean “undefended”, there will be no remaining neutral for Scotland if all out war breaks…” Sep 29, 13:36
