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Frightened rabbits 205

Posted on April 29, 2014 by

ers1 Read the rest of this entry →

The headline ferret 120

Posted on April 29, 2014 by

Alert readers will be familiar with a phenomenon we often like to highlight in these pages – that of the dramatic newspaper headline which rapidly turns into something completely different by the time you read the text of the story.

fiscaus

There’s an especially fine example in today’s Telegraph.

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The dividing line 112

Posted on April 29, 2014 by

Alert readers will be aware that this site spends a not-insignificant amount of time pointing out how few and how trivial are the actual political differences between the three UK parties. Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats all basically offer slightly tweaked and rebadged versions of the same centre-right policies, in an unhealthy consensus set in concrete by the UK’s undemocratic electoral system.

channelferry

There does, however, remain one major issue on which there’s still clear blue water between the only two parties who might provide the next UK Prime Minister, and it’s one that’s a lot more important to the independence debate than is generally thought. Have you guessed what it is yet?

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In Bruges 320

Posted on April 28, 2014 by

If you were by any chance wondering what all the hysterical media coverage today of some innocuous comments by Alex Salmond about Vladimir Putin in GQ magazine was trying to distract attention from, it was this.

bruges2

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Looking out for Portsmouth 99

Posted on April 28, 2014 by

The transcript below is taken from a public meeting hosted by the Scottish Office at Murrayfield in Edinburgh last Thursday (24 April), featuring Alistair Carmichael.

soundwave2

You can listen for yourself by clicking the above image.

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Where the money’s coming from 97

Posted on April 28, 2014 by

Anyone involved in the independence debate for any length of time will probably already have lost count of how many times they’ve heard the plaintive we-cannae-dae-it wail of “But how will you pay for all of Alex Salmond’s milk and honey promises?”

iraq

So here’s a clue.

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You’ll never fool me again 191

Posted on April 27, 2014 by

ONECHRISTMAS-TITLE-copy

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Keep calm and what a carry-on 100

Posted on April 27, 2014 by

We absolutely love the fact that only one of the stories in the “Referendum News” section of the Herald website this morning is headlined in all capitals:

NOPANIC

It paints a rather lovely picture of everyone at the “Better Together” HQ running around shouting “THERE IS NO PANIC! EVERYONE HERE IS TOTALLY CALM!” at the tops of their voices to anyone in the general vicinity.

But there’s something less amusing about the very short piece.

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Roll up for the mystery tour 336

Posted on April 27, 2014 by

The Glasgow Subway famously only ever goes round in circles, but that’s certainly not something you can say for Labour-run Strathclyde Partnership for Transport’s excuses for banning our adverts from it last month.

subway3

Because those are flying about all over the place.

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This, that and the other 329

Posted on April 26, 2014 by

We don’t exactly have high expectations when it comes to the Daily Mail.

weirsmear

But a piece in today’s edition is despicable even for them.

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The race that’s never run 112

Posted on April 26, 2014 by

Yesterday, Ed Miliband came to Scotland to yet again trot out the Unionist mantra that an independent Scotland would result in a “race to the bottom” between it and the rUK over Corporation Tax (and to marvel that no interviewer ever pulls him up on the fact that Labour cut the tax twice the last time they were in power and promised to cut it further as soon as they could).

milibandmurphy

We thought it would be interesting to see if that might be true.

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When there’s no more to be said 112

Posted on April 26, 2014 by

We suppose we have to credit “Better Together” with SOME intelligence after all. It seems they’ve finally and belatedly learned that Tory ministers coming up and lecturing Scotland is a counter-productive business, so this week they sent Gordon Brown in to do Iain Duncan Smith’s dirty work for him, by issuing dire warnings about the cost of welfare in an independent Scotland using figures helpfully fed to him by IDS’s Department for Work and Pensions.

brownspeech5

But the UK government also released, with rather less fanfare, some other figures about pensions this week that didn’t reflect quite as well on the Labour former Chancellor and Prime Minister.

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    • PC Foster on A Stitch In Timing: “Scottish Executive- correctFeb 6, 20:03
    • agentx on A Stitch In Timing: “They chose to be “activatists” let them fund it themselves.Feb 6, 19:41
    • Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: ““we are reminded here that: “colonialism is based on psychology”” Is that because it’s Friday, Alf? Seems like only Wednesday…Feb 6, 19:41
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on A Stitch In Timing: “Or Scottish Executive?Feb 6, 19:34
    • Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: ““finding none of the activists guilty on any of the charges” Given they committed burglary, assault and grievous bodily harm…Feb 6, 19:27
    • agentx on A Stitch In Timing: “We all know that Swinney stayed with Mandelson on his whisky trip to USA in Sep 25. I have done…Feb 6, 19:17
    • Lorna Campbell on A Stitch In Timing: “Alf: I know it will take a lot more than that. The point I was trying to make is that…Feb 6, 18:19
    • PC Foster on A Stitch In Timing: “It was always known as the Scottish Parliament. However the machinery was called the Scottish Administration until Salmond renamed it…Feb 6, 18:04
    • Willie on A Stitch In Timing: “Couldn’t help but reflect on the latest reports about our out beloved Labour party politico one Mr Peter Mandelson. Its…Feb 6, 17:40
    • Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: ““try to rehabilitate Scotland before independence” I suspect that’s not generally how decolonization and ‘self-recovery of culture’ works, which is…Feb 6, 17:18
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on A Stitch In Timing: “Re Sven. Point taken.Feb 6, 17:06
    • Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: ““Not the Crown” ? Hardly. The root of the despicable colonial situation is that elites in Scotland aye tak thair…Feb 6, 16:48
    • sarah on A Stitch In Timing: “Scottish court cases are hugely expensive, another obvious impediment to seeking “justice”. The case in the Scottish courts for a…Feb 6, 16:37
    • Sven on A Stitch In Timing: “Fearghas Macfhionnlaigh. My own view on that would be that by misnaming a devolved administration as a Parliament a clear…Feb 6, 15:24
    • Lorna Campbell on A Stitch In Timing: “With a heavy heart, I have to agree with you, Southernbystander, but not all Scots are anaesthetized by colonialism. Truth…Feb 6, 15:24
    • Lorna Campbell on A Stitch In Timing: “I’m not privy, GM, as you might imagine, to what the powers-that-be are up to, but I think that the…Feb 6, 15:12
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on A Stitch In Timing: “I would assume that Alex Salmond, and Winnie Ewing (‘The Scottish Parliament, which adjourned on March 25 1707, is hereby…Feb 6, 14:50
    • barelybare on A Stitch In Timing: “Thanks for the explanation am firinn. I have a feeling only the initiated are going to truly understand what is…Feb 6, 14:46
    • Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: “It is surely colonialism that makes a colonized people ‘dependent’. For “without colonialism there would be no colonized people” (Memmi).…Feb 6, 14:25
    • Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: ““a devolved administration” That’s what the colonizer calls it. To the colonized it is always a colonial administration.Feb 6, 13:47
    • Marie Clark on A Stitch In Timing: “Well said LornaFeb 6, 13:43
    • TURABDIN on A Stitch In Timing: “@ALANM. AIDAN, HATEY All true, the political classes, not just in Scotland & England, seem stacked with those who couldn’t…Feb 6, 13:28
    • Sven on A Stitch In Timing: “James Cheyne @ 12.59. Only initially renamed a ‘Parliament’ over a weekend owing to the vanity of Mr Salmond, “James”,…Feb 6, 13:18
    • James Cheyne on A Stitch In Timing: “If the parliament in Scotland today was a real Scottish parliament it would not have reserved matters restrictions placed on…Feb 6, 12:59
    • James Cheyne on A Stitch In Timing: “Define Scottish Government, from…Governance sent to Scotland from the Westminster of England- Ireland parliament since the dissolved parliament of Great…Feb 6, 12:50
    • James Cheyne on A Stitch In Timing: “I wonder whom you do blame when Scotland made no 1707 treaty with the parliament of Great Britain nor with…Feb 6, 12:43
    • James Cheyne on A Stitch In Timing: “The Westminster parliament ( Scotland ) act 1995 was passed by the Anglo- Irish united kingdom parliament. Which Scotland has…Feb 6, 12:38
    • James on The Marshalling Plan: “Name fits.Feb 6, 12:35
    • Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: ““Section 170 dates from 1995 and has not been amended. It would now be within the powers of the Scottish…Feb 6, 12:02
    • Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “Excellent post, Southernbystander. Another side effect of the eternal “it wisnae us cos we’re bound hand and foot” attitude is…Feb 6, 11:56
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