It’s both a comprehensive refresher of events surrounding the Scottish Government’s conspiracy to convict Alex Salmond on false charges, and a sharp reminder of why Scotland is, in truth, not yet a country in a fit administrative state for independence.
But one part in particular ought to be the headline news tonight.
Independence is dead as a political issue in Scotland for the next few years. This much should not be in any dispute. A Labour government with a crushing majority sits firmly in Westminster with absolutely no intentions of granting a second referendum, and the SNP has loudly and clearly abandoned any other strategy.
This fact is understandably painful and difficult to come to terms with for anyone who’s devoted the last 13 years (or more) to pursuing that cause and now isn’t quite sure what to do with theirself. But for those who still aren’t ready to face up to the unpleasant reality, there’s always the comforting world of fantasy.
Because there’s always money to be made from snake oil and pie in the sky.
The average rape sentence in Scotland is seven years, so to get six years plus three years’ supervision for the technically lesser crime of sexual assaults means they must have been pretty grim ones.
So we know that Cameron Downing is a very bad man. Which does rather invite the question of why he was so popular in the SNP.
The SNP have been pretty clear about the reason they think they got a battering in last week’s election: it was because people were voting to kick out the Tories.
Now, that’s obviously nonsense. There were almost no Tories in Scotland to start with – just 10% of voters had a Tory MP – and only one of the six actually lost his seat. (Which was entirely down to the ham-fisted interference of Douglas Ross rather than an SNP surge – the SNP’s vote share in the seat in question went DOWN.)
If you wanted to keep Tories out in Scotland all you had to do was keep voting for your current MP, most of whom were SNP, rather than risk splitting the anti-Tory vote by switching to Labour and risk letting the Tories squeeze through in the middle. (Which would have happened in many seats had the Tories’ own vote not collapsed.)
But if it was true that the SNP lost because the electorate thought the election was about getting rid of the Tories, whose fault was that?
To be honest, folks, we’re not quite sure what to do with ourselves at the moment.
Everyone and his wee dug is writing election-aftermath columns and offering the SNP advice of varying intelligence and solemnity about how to recover from the shattering blow they’ve just been dealt by Scottish voters.
But it’s a pointless exercise. They may as well be yelling down a manhole.
The Scottish Greens, in a feat of remarkable hubris and financial profligacy, stood 44 candidates in this week’s general election, knowing that most of them would lose their deposits, which they duly did.
But not quite all of them. And there the comedy arose.
Because while SNP boneheads on social media are raging idiotically at Alba, Wings and others for causing division and damaging the unity of the indy cause yada yada yada, a small handful of Green candidates made a real difference.
Mark Beggan on Seven Days Too Long: “Talking money. Where’s the 600K?” May 2, 02:46
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: ““Rational, wise, educated people might well believe it’s far too early to say.” They admitted it, ya plank. The orange…” May 2, 02:03
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: ““The last ugly, overweening monstrosity cost a billion” A Yoon government. A farce from start to finish. It wasn’t their…” May 2, 01:28
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “George I swore-in in sectarian divided Glasgow during the troubles era where the oath was accepted if mumbled. Nonetheless I…” May 2, 01:13
Confused on Seven Days Too Long: “One of the problems with trying to start a new party (there are many) is that politics in a “democracy”…” May 1, 23:31
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “HMcH Highest taxing WESTMINSTER government ever.. I put that in bold as I had to do a double take! It’s…” May 1, 23:20
George Ferguson on Seven Days Too Long: “@Young Lochinvar I will fight alongside you. You are a mucker or a brother. But you must have sworn allegiance…” May 1, 23:20
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “George Aye.. But.. Hardly compares with Westminster and Buckingham Palace ongoing costs really though eh..” May 1, 23:06
George Ferguson on Seven Days Too Long: “@Hatey McHateface The original Scottish Parliament building cost £414 million. Well over budget I grant you that. My estimate of…” May 1, 22:53
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: “@Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh Two posters referencing Hemingway in the same day. What are the chances, eh? I’m not issuing a direct…” May 1, 22:45
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: ““SCOTLAND does not need more WASPS on mobility scooters.” LOL! Sad but true. It wouldn’t be so bad if they…” May 1, 22:42
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: “How about Raynor? Is Raynor bleating about it? Or perhaps growling? There’s a part of me that desperately wants Prime…” May 1, 22:27
robertkknight on Seven Days Too Long: “I’ll no doubt find someone palatable on the Regional paper, but my constituency paper will be defaced by a black…” May 1, 22:23
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: “Once the designs are finalised, we Scots should submit a FOI request to find out how many of the public…” May 1, 22:18
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: ““Aren’t Christians supposed to be charitable & believe in rehabilitation” They defo don’t believe in the gas chambers for those…” May 1, 22:11
George Ferguson on Seven Days Too Long: “I looked at standing as an Indendepence Candidate I informed this blog after research it was implausible that any Candidate…” May 1, 22:07
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: “Reminds me of the joke about how the oldest profession could never work in certain parts of Scotland because the…” May 1, 22:04
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: “@Alf There’s some kind of eejit above pretending to be you.” May 1, 21:58
Iain More on Seven Days Too Long: “I am curious – Does the English NAZI Reform Party in Wales have a leader who also has 6 houses,…” May 1, 21:55
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “I dunno, redacting documents, hiding evidence, committing perjury & trying to jail an innocent man seems pretty criminal to me…” May 1, 21:54
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “I remember Du*dale promoting this openly on Twitter after indyref. Be paid to troll. Also the paid activists to ‘bus…” May 1, 21:36
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “Thanks for the links! I’ll catch up.” May 1, 21:22
George Ferguson on Seven Days Too Long: “@Geri 8:41pm I didn’t get the privilege of a reply button. I don’t want convicted criminals in charge of the…” May 1, 21:13
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: ““Remind us again. Just how many third-world immigrants does the current Scottish Government think we need to drag us kicking…” May 1, 21:12
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Seven Days Too Long: “Can’t quite remember where I got this: « DO YOU HAVE ANY OF THESE SKILLS? (Jan 2017) « 77 Brigade,…” May 1, 21:10
Dan on Seven Days Too Long: “If you despise “leftist” politics so much then why the desire to spoil your ballot paper, as there are still…” May 1, 20:48
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “Because yoons vote for them. True story. “They like their policies & they can still vote no in a ref”…” May 1, 20:47
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “Whatever happened to doing his time & moving on? Aren’t Christians supposed to be charitable & believe in rehabilitation, George?…” May 1, 20:41
George Ferguson on Seven Days Too Long: “@JCD Agreed Tommy Sheridan is a good speaker as long as the audience can’t answer back. A bunch of old…” May 1, 20:10
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: “I’m truly astonished that you know so little about Scotland and the Scots that you would believe 83% of Scots…” May 1, 20:09
