Those of you who read our post of earlier today probably didn’t feel there was anything ambiguous going on in it. When Ruth Davidson intervened in an election debate to protest that the chair, the BBC’s Louise White, was being unfair to Nicola Sturgeon, it was pretty obvious who she meant, and White’s response removed any doubt.
Which makes this eye-witness account of the event, spotted by an alert reader this afternoon, odd in several ways.
We were rather gobsmacked, readers, when we tuned into this morning’s BBC Radio Scotland phone-in at 9am. Ostensibly discussing the promotion of “Rangers” to the Premiership, presenter Louise White adopted the most astonishingly, openly partisan and aggressive approach we’ve ever heard from a host on the state broadcaster (which is no small feat), on the subject of whether the club was a new one or not.
Callers were harangued, interrupted and hustled on for daring to suggest the truth. It was a jaw-dropping display of disregard for not only impartiality but basic journalistic regard for the plain, uncontestable facts of the matter.
But don’t panic, football-haters. This post is about something else.
This is an intriguing and engrossing extended chat between Christopher Silver and Iain Macwhirter for what will hopefully become a regular series by the excellent Phantom Power Films, creators of Altered States and lots more:
It’s well worth whiling away a little bit of your afternoon on.
If there’s one thing the Scottish Conservatives love to do, it’s lecture the SNP about vetting its candidates. Here’s Ruth Davidson on Michelle Thomson, for example:
We haven’t seen this published anywhere else, so we may as well do it. We dropped a brief line to the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust a few days ago querying their award of a £50,000 grant to disgraced lying MP Alistair Carmichael, specifically in the context of the fact that their own website expressly excludes grants for “legal fees”.
Kezia Dugdale gave an interview to Good Morning Scotland earlier today that viewed from above would probably look rather like the runway at Baghdad Airport in 1991.
If we tried to pick out all the individual bomb craters in one post, readers’ eyes would glaze over long before the end. So we’re going to have to do it in bits.
Young Lochinvar on The Fast Track: “CC @ 6.22 Well hold on there Bald Eagle, have you been cut and pasting from AI again? That’s AI…” Jun 30, 23:14
sarah on Off-topic: “Good advice for my Peter, TC. He’s quite good at pretending things haven’t happened, after a lifetime of mainly disappointing…” Jun 30, 22:54
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “@Alurker: sorry, that should have been ghost swift moth. She’s bigger than the male, which is white.” Jun 30, 22:19
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “All your points are very good ones, sarah. It’s a pity our ex-manager hadn’t thought of them while planning for…” Jun 30, 22:16
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Fast Track: “Gaelic version again with formatting issue fixed (hopefully) – COIRE A’ BHREACAIN Sgrìobh Seòras Orwell 1984 air Eilean Diùra. Chunnaic…” Jun 30, 22:13
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “Yes, noticeably fewer insects and attendant birds here too, although I had a female ghost white moth dozing on my…” Jun 30, 22:08
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Fast Track: “COIRE A’ BHREACAIN Sgri?obh Seo?ras Orwell 1984 air Eilean Diu?ra. Chunnaic mi pi?os mu a dhe?idhinn air an tv o…” Jun 30, 21:50
Mike on The Fast Track: “Listened to the interview of Rev on Scotcast. The thing that jumps out at me is nobody in the police…” Jun 30, 20:41
Hatey McHateface on The Fast Track: “You’re gonna have to accept the truth sooner or later, Mark. The Scottish voters are under the control of MI5.…” Jun 30, 19:49
Hatey McHateface on The Fast Track: “Superb quote, CC! But wait. Is it possible Orwell had been colonised? To be serious for a mo. I always…” Jun 30, 19:35
sam on The Fast Track: “???? Feedback and complaints Anyone can provide a comment or make a complaint about our service or work. We have…” Jun 30, 19:32
Mark Beggan on The Fast Track: “The alternative to that theory is the Special Needs Party are an Organised Crime Organisation and that some of the…” Jun 30, 19:03
Dan on The Fast Track: “@ CC Aye, but that was 1945 and things have moved on in many ways since then with us now…” Jun 30, 18:54
Insider on The Fast Track: “Caveman @ 6.22 Well quoted! Relevant and correct! (unlike poor old Alf’s misquotes)” Jun 30, 18:40
twathater on The Fast Track: “Well done Rev you got a lot of points across, Geissler is just like the rest of the PRESSTITUTES because…” Jun 30, 18:25
Captain Caveman on The Fast Track: “Well, since you’ve added Orwell to your little list of authors endlessly misquoted and misappropriated, I thought you might enjoy…” Jun 30, 18:22
twathater on The Fast Track: “Some of the reasons I believe the SCUM snp thought they were UNTOUCHABLE and above PROSECUTION is because 1/ they…” Jun 30, 18:18
Alf Baird on The Fast Track: ““To get to the bottom of what’s really going on” Aye Hatey, postcolonial theory clearly helps a great deal to…” Jun 30, 17:01
Confused on The Fast Track: “Listened to it, was alright. Scotcast is generally, not the worst thing on the bbc, depends who is on; some…” Jun 30, 16:09
Bob W on The Fast Track: “Same. Requires registration and login.” Jun 30, 15:46
Bob W on The Fast Track: “Same, asks me to login or register.” Jun 30, 15:42
lothianlad on The Fast Track: “Murrell did indeed take one for the team. Whils focussing on the crimes he did comott , others were let…” Jun 30, 15:15
Jas on The Fast Track: “Perhaps the reason certain people in the SNP took to crime was because they figured no-one would take much notice…” Jun 30, 14:07
james on The Fast Track: “DavidT-Its not the crux of the matter. Your assumption that if the SNP spent the money raised soley for another…” Jun 30, 13:37
Hatey McHateface on The Fast Track: “Nothing about the size of the cave, if it has underfloor heating, how many heat pumps, and if the multi-vehicle…” Jun 30, 13:06
Alf Baird on The Fast Track: ““John Swinney … would tell you that he would live in a cave for independence” Aye Fearghas, here we have…” Jun 30, 11:05
David Henry on The Fast Track: “Missing money followed by a list of people all who lied about the missing money while others tried to shut…” Jun 30, 10:48
James Che on The Fast Track: “Hatey McHateface, You left one out at 8:11 am. Your Guff Treaty that is so old no one pays attention…” Jun 30, 09:55
James Che on The Fast Track: “Seeing as no one is scrutinising the SNP and Scotland finances in depth other than Stu, one wonders about the…” Jun 30, 09:48
James Che on The Fast Track: “Law in Scotland, All under one umbrella, [The Scotland Act] Just add water to dilute. Well done Stu, excellent jounalism.” Jun 30, 08:20
