One of the great things about this site’s sky-high viewing figures is that on the rare occasions when we might be, for example, out having a walk in the park to get over the crushing disappointment of somehow losing yet another Scottish Cup semi-final, our ever-vigilant readers will remain alert.
We’re off to watch the Scottish Cup semi-final now, so to keep you all entertained for the next couple of hours here’s a little something we put together at the request of columnist and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch, and for anyone who was listening to Radio Scotland’s “Headlines” this morning.
Hopefully we won’t need it ourselves by 3.30pm. #COYR
Even Sparta’s mythical iron-bar currency – specifically designed, so legend had it, to shackle the economy by being too heavy to buy or trade anything – was marginally better, in Alistair Darling’s view, than anything an independent Scotland might be able to use for money, all of which will lead to inevitable doom.
Because Scotland, as all good unionists know, is the only country in world history for which there is no currency option that will work at all.
Have you seen the film of the coronation? I’m not talking about the grand televised extravaganza in Westminster Abbey with the young Queen Elizabeth done up like a wedding cake – I mean the Scottish coronation, in Edinburgh, three weeks after the glamorous London ceremony of 2 June 1953.
It’s not easy to locate. You’ll struggle to find a picture of it, or even a documented reference – a brief casual mention squeezed in right at the end of this article on the monarchical website is the best we could do.
Acting on the advice of her ministers, Elizabeth attended the ceremony dressed in an ordinary coat and hat. The honours of Scotland were presented to her, and she held them as if they were volatile explosive devices, standing stock-still until they were taken back again by be-gowned flunkies.
There would be no actual official crowning. It might give the natives ideas.
It seems that we’re letting the side down a bit here. If the same percentage of us were willing to vote Yes as the men, we’d be home and dry come September 18th, living in a nuclear-weapon-free democracy for the first time in our lives. But it seems like a lot of us are either not convinced or haven’t begun thinking about it yet.
I don’t believe it’s the former: anyone genuinely looking at the arguments, not to mention the behaviour of those on both sides of the debate, could hardly fail to be convinced that independence is a good thing. So I’m guessing it might be the latter.
We didn’t do a stats post at the start of April (still just under 4m pageviews a month, if you’re curious) but when someone tweeted these figures this morning we thought they were worth a wee toot, because they’re more than just nice news for us.
They’re from the independent web-traffic analysis site Alexa.com, and they detail the relative rankings for the seven biggest dedicated Scottish politics sites on the web.
The last batch of data from our Panelbase poll concerns social attitudes, away from directly party-political issues. We did a whole bunch of these last time, with a mixture of predictable and unexpected results, and Scots had a surprise or two for us again.
We’ve had these sitting around for a few days without getting round to posting them, but as we’re currently knee-deep in the last tranche of data from our Panelbase poll, it seemed as good a time as any to clear the decks.
First up in the ambiguously-named Posterotron is the “respectable” face of British nationalism, in the form of UKIP European-election candidate David Coburn.
Captain Caveman on Seven Days Too Long: “Ha! What’s that Scots expression? “Telt”” May 7, 10:56
Dan on Pick Your Poison: “Re-posting this info on voting options in specific areas. 1st vote: Constituencies. https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/elections/sp.c.2026-05-07/scottish-parliament-elections-constituencies/ 2nd vote: Regions. https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/elections/sp.r.2026-05-07/scottish-parliament-elections-regions/” May 7, 10:56
KOF on Binfire Of The Vanities: “With respect, this is Satan’s Little Season and you are a fool for listening to men. Belieive in Jesus and…” May 7, 10:56
Northcode on The value bet: ““Best of luck Craig!!” Seconded, and a good comment well said, Geri.” May 7, 10:52
Geri on The value bet: “Thanks Northcode! It lets others know too x” May 7, 10:51
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “TL/DR Off you pop now… Don’t come crying when the police become militarised to go with the police state they’ve…” May 7, 10:45
Geri on The value bet: “That’ll be because the British State rig elections. I found it hard to believe the results of the last one…” May 7, 10:40
Northcode on The value bet: “I was going to suggest that as an alternative to voting ATLS, if there isn’t an ATLS candidate standing in…” May 7, 10:34
Captain Caveman on Seven Days Too Long: “Oh man, you are hilarious. 😀 Some maniac waving a knife indiscriminately at innocent bystanders and police officers – having…” May 7, 10:31
Geri on The value bet: “AI Dan is English. He doesn’t have a vote here & it’s only the English that are R-phobs. They grew…” May 7, 10:29
Northcode on The value bet: “If there isn’t an ATLS candidate to vote for on the constituency list you can vote on the regional ballot…” May 7, 10:14
Geri on The value bet: “& the advice to those who don’t have one on the constituency list?” May 7, 10:02
Captain Caveman on The value bet: “My prediction is they’ll lose their deposit in every single constituency they contest, having garnered an absolutely derisory vote in…” May 7, 10:01
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “Lorna Have you seen the video footage? He was already tasered & on the ground. One guy, dressed in commando…” May 7, 09:59
Dan on The value bet: “Aye Alf, check out AIdan there, desperately jumping straight in and trying to denigrate and tarnish Craig. Ask oneself jist…” May 7, 09:52
Mark Beggan on Pick Your Poison: “Looking forward to the autopsy tomorrow. All said and done I will sleep well tonight. I’ve done my bit for…” May 7, 09:45
Northcode on The value bet: ““That is why I urge people to vote to put real radical firebrands into the Scottish parliament, like myself, Tommy…” May 7, 09:41
Northcode on The value bet: “I have to say, Chas, that your use of the ‘cunt’ word just doesn’t have the same rhetorical impact as…” May 7, 09:37
Alf Baird on The value bet: “Each Alliance to Liberate Scotland candidate is worth at least a dozen useless UK-vetted SNP colonial administrators.” May 7, 09:33
Aidan on The value bet: “You haven’t done any of those things. You haven’t provided any evidence in particular, other than rather generously telling us…” May 7, 09:24
Aidan on The value bet: “Craig Murray – a guy who’s never met a piece of “R” propaganda that he doesn’t like. He will cause…” May 7, 09:21
Dan on The value bet: “Hmm, not really such a tricky decision as to who to vote for after comparing the worth of content generated…” May 7, 09:06
100%Yes on Pick Your Poison: “Opinion polls with no opinion. I would love to know if their is going to be an exit poll?” May 7, 08:56
Bilbo on Pick Your Poison: “Wingers beware when going out voting today. There are a few parties on the regional list that have similar names…” May 7, 08:49
Chas on The value bet: “Vote for ATLS and demonstrate to all that you have wasted your vote and are a thick cunt……..just like Northclown.” May 7, 08:37
Captain Caveman on Seven Days Too Long: “Well well everyone, Geri seems uncharacteristically quiet on this one? At a wild guess, maybe it’s the realisation that on…” May 7, 08:19
Northcode on The value bet: “This is a party political broadcast on behalf of: The Alliance to Liberate Scotland Party (ATLS). First, it should be…” May 7, 08:14
James Che on The value bet: “Like I posted not so long ago, Even if you spell it out, supply the information, point the unionist in…” May 7, 07:19
Aidan on The value bet: “The excuses are starting early for the Alliance’s upcoming terrible performance, you’ll hear a lot about “media blackouts” “d-notices” and…” May 7, 06:09
Angus on Pick Your Poison: “Ultimately, who cares about the carpetbagging MSPs, every single one of them? Because Scots are sovereign, remember? Every carpetbagging MSP…” May 7, 05:01
