Alert readers may recall an incident last year in which the Scottish media got itself very worked up about some independence supporters threatening to boycott holiday company Barrhead Travel after its owner sent a barking-mad letter to staff about how the company would go out of business if Scotland voted Yes.
So we’re sure that you won’t be able to move later today and tomorrow for newspaper articles about something similar, but significantly worse, that happened this weekend.
And that’s all very well, but not exactly stop-the-presses stuff – nobody reading this site is going to be terribly surprised at Scottish Labour being caught out in a lie. But the party’s house newspaper the Daily Record went for a subtly different angle on the story that did manage to provoke us to raise an eyebrow.
So we weren’t expecting this. The Telegraph have sent us a reply after we complained to IPSO about this. It’s worth a read, so we thought we’d let you see it.
Kezia Dugdale talking to Gordon Brewer on BBC Scotland today:
“I’m astonished that you’ve spent 10 minutes in this interview talking about independence and Trident when almost 50% of the poorest kids in the country can’t read […] I’m sure you’d be shocked to know that 50% of the poorest kids leave our schools unable to read.”
We suspect he would too. Because it’s total cobblers.
Alert readers of The National will have noticed an article by me in it today. It reads slightly weirdly, jumping from subject to subject, because it was originally done as an interview but they then decided to cut the questions out to get more text in.
That’s all absolutely fine – they okayed it with me first – but some readers may be interested in seeing the full original piece, which is about twice as long. If you are, you can read it below. If you’re not, um, do what you like. I’m not your mum.
All five of the opinion pollsters who regularly poll on Scottish politics (Panelbase, YouGov, TNS, Ipsos Mori and Survation) have now published surveys in the past two weeks asking the independence question. So it seems reasonable to expect there’ll be no more polls before the anniversary of the referendum on Friday.
Given the conventional wisdom that the economy, underpinned by that pesky volatile oil, was the main reason not enough Scots could be persuaded to take the leap into self-government, readers might expect that the dramatic collapse in the oil price since last year (when we checked today it was trading at just over $47 a barrel, less than half the $97 it was at the start of September 2014) would only have cemented voters’ feeling that they made the right decision.
There’s been a veritable flurry of polls commissioned to mark the impending one-year anniversary of the independence referendum. In the last 48 hours alone we’ve seen ones from Survation, YouGov and Panelbase, making a variety of interesting findings. As ever, though, the trick is in the interpretation.
Alf Baird on Shield Of The Phantom: “Yes David, and we can thank the Mull & Iona Ferry Committee for proving the inept nature of public sector…” Jan 31, 17:56
Lorna Campbell on Shield Of The Phantom: “In what way, H McH? Subjective versus objective is precisely what was asked. I had not ever thought you naive,…” Jan 31, 16:36
Lorna Campbell on Shield Of The Phantom: “Well done, Saffron Robe. Those are exactly the points I have been trying to make: it all depends on what…” Jan 31, 16:16
Cynicus on Shield Of The Phantom: “Hatey McHateface says: 31 January, 2026 at 8:25 am “One is, one isn’t” ========== A very good effort at my…” Jan 31, 15:57
Lorna Campbell on Shield Of The Phantom: “Evidence please, Iain? Nothing has come to light to suggest that Trump was involved in that way. It might, but…” Jan 31, 15:40
sarah on Shield Of The Phantom: “Rev, coincidentally Persephone Books [8 Edgar Buildings, Bath] highlights this week a book on this exact same topic. “In my…” Jan 31, 14:17
Anthem on Shield Of The Phantom: “OT, bit a uk company investing around £11bn in China for max profit, yet zero investment from China to the…” Jan 31, 13:53
Oneliner on Shield Of The Phantom: “Anyway, Hatey – how are the wife and kids?” Jan 31, 11:32
Sven on Shield Of The Phantom: “Cynicus @ 02.06/02.07 The classic answer being, I seem to recall, ” Only if this is an answer “.” Jan 31, 10:15
David Holden on Shield Of The Phantom: “Not as if ferry cock ups are anything new. Our soon to be retired ferry The Isle of Mull when…” Jan 31, 09:48
Alf Baird on Shield Of The Phantom: “Having followed more rapid and longer delivery voyages of profitable private operators over the years, this over-relaxed loss-making taxpayer-subsidised CalMac…” Jan 31, 09:31
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: ““becoming more and more obvious that Trump is a Child Rapist” It has long been obvious how the dark forces…” Jan 31, 08:46
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “@Cynicus In reply to your two posts: One is, one isn’t.” Jan 31, 08:25
Iain More on Shield Of The Phantom: “I am not going to hold my breath that Swinney will stop appeasing Trump even though it is becoming more…” Jan 31, 03:25
Cynicus on Shield Of The Phantom: “Indeed! You may have encountered this before: in the heyday of ‘ordinary- language philosophy’ at the University of Oxford, student…” Jan 31, 02:07
Cynicus on Shield Of The Phantom: “Indeed! You may have encountered this before: in the heyday of ‘ordinary- language philosophy’ at the University of Oxford, student…” Jan 31, 02:06
Willie on Shield Of The Phantom: “Thanks for the comments Sven. I wasn’t aware that David Toshack’s daughter now lives as a male. That may well…” Jan 30, 23:31
DaveL on Shield Of The Phantom: “…silence came the reply… Although he did manage to spew some nonsense in a later post of mine concerning his…” Jan 30, 22:44
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “Here you go, Bob. Ben Bulbin (Sligo) Ben Lugmore (Mayo) Ben Gorm (Mayo) Ben Baun (Galway) – part of the…” Jan 30, 19:21
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “Naw, Dave, that’s nae richt. I’d hae wrote Camel Shaggers. And ye forgoat ane. In an Independent Scotland, the untermenschen…” Jan 30, 19:00
robertkknight on Shield Of The Phantom: “The Picts, christened thus by the Romans who were apparently impressed by their tattoos, left plenty of evidence of their…” Jan 30, 18:35
DaveL on Shield Of The Phantom: “Choice! And that coming from the man who’s variously named vast populations as: Covid spreaders Orcs Camel jockeys Rag heads……” Jan 30, 18:14
DaveL on Shield Of The Phantom: “Wee Adolf! You never cease to amaze. You wrote ‘Chinese’, that’s probably a first and way off your standard referencing…” Jan 30, 18:03
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “Beautifully painted windows on her! She’s sailing under the flag of the UK, a fictional country. Hope the Ukies don’t…” Jan 30, 17:43
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “It’s an interesting idea, Lorna. But it comes up against the unimpeachable fact that no parliament can bind its successor.…” Jan 30, 17:36
agentx on Shield Of The Phantom: “For anyone interested the new ferry built in Turkey – Isle of Islay is currently sailing down the east coast…” Jan 30, 17:26
Lorna Campbell on Shield Of The Phantom: “100 to 200 women die at the hands of men each year in the UK – considerably more than ‘trans’…” Jan 30, 16:19
