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Who am I? 149

Posted on December 02, 2013 by

An alert reader sends in this letter received by their company in 2009:

“Hello,

[identifying paragraph removed]

I’ve now taken the plunge to set myself up as a freelancer and am looking for voiceover work in commercials, documentaries and corporate films as well as scripting and media training.

I’m [redacted] years old with a warm, rich voice which has both light and shade. A long history of factual programming means I can convey information with authority, combined with an openness and accessibility which encourages interest; the unexpected world of live broadcasting means I’ve learned to be equally adept at putting across humour. My accent is a neutral blend of central Scotland tones.

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One way of putting it 52

Posted on December 02, 2013 by

If we’re being honest, Irish Times, it’s not the phrase we’d have chosen:

charmoffensive

Quoted for truth #37 93

Posted on December 02, 2013 by

Professor James Mitchell of Edinburgh University, 2 December 2013:

“Under what circumstances would a UK Government (or Scottish for that matter) incline towards cooperation or conflict in its relations with its neighbour? The key is motivations.

Nobody should expect either Government to be motivated by good will. London will owe Scotland nothing and Edinburgh will owe London nothing.  Self-interest will dictate behaviour. Neither Government will act against its own self-interest but neither will act spitefully unless it wants to inflict harm on itself long-term.”

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Juxtaposed with EU 52

Posted on December 02, 2013 by

Two stories from the Express today.

euexpress1

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The most interesting election in history 179

Posted on December 01, 2013 by

Today’s Sunday Herald has a rather low-key piece (it’s just the 7th-placed story in their “Referendum News” section) on the ramifications for a Yes vote of the 2015 UK general election. It comes the day after several papers carried vitriolic attacks from Unionist politicians on the SNP’s Angus Robertson for suggesting that the UK government ought to consider delaying the vote for a year to enable independence negotiations to be completed.

ard

“This is yet another brazen stunt by the SNP to drive a wedge with Westminster”, raged the Scottish Conservatives’ Jackson Carlaw. “It is highly presumptuous of Angus Robertson, a man with clear delusions of grandeur, to be talking about postponing the next general election”, he continued, while Labour’s shadow Scottish Secretary Margaret Curran bleated about an extra year of Tories.

But it’s rationally almost impossible to make any other argument.

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The Captain’s Abyss 190

Posted on November 30, 2013 by

The realisation that the No camp’s reaction to the independence White Paper has been based on a massive, scarcely-believable misunderstanding/misrepresentation of reality has thrown a new light on all sorts of things from the past week.

bhole12

The most recent “BLACK HOLE!” story is a case in point.

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We made a mistake 69

Posted on November 30, 2013 by

This morning we’ve been double- and triple-checking our story from last night, because we were so sure we must have missed something. Even given the low esteem in which we hold the integrity of the hapless “Better Together” campaign, we felt that they surely couldn’t have made such an idiotic and fundamental error, and that instead we must have misinterpreted a word or a sentence somewhere along the way.

btfbsf

But no. We were wrong in that assumption. They really ARE that dim.

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The Red Face Gang 93

Posted on November 29, 2013 by

We saw this graphic on the “Better Together” website yesterday, but we dismissed it as uninteresting even by their playground-propaganda standards, amounting as it does to nothing more than some startlingly feeble carping along the lines of “These are their forecasts, but we’ve made different forecasts so theirs must be wrong!”

checkmaths

But an alert reader observed that it was MUCH stupider than that. Can you spot why?

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For use as required 69

Posted on November 29, 2013 by

With our compliments and best wishes.

djletter

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Free subbing service available 135

Posted on November 29, 2013 by

Alert commuters using Scotland’s railway stations may this week have received a “newspaper” from the official No campaign containing a splendid crossword and a recipe for raspberry brownies, amongst some political rubbish.

10lies

We haven’t tried it ourselves, but we hope the recipe was a bit less inaccurate than the political sections, or a lot of people might die of food poisoning.

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A tonic for the troops 125

Posted on November 29, 2013 by

As a living embodiment of the posh, braying public-school Tory-boy stereotype, Fraser Nelson of the Spectator used to reside in our “Zany Comedy Relief” links bar until we kicked him out for rarely lowering himself to write about Scotland.

fnelson

But his guest appearance in today’s Telegraph we enjoyed at least parts of.

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What Mariano Rajoy didn’t say 234

Posted on November 28, 2013 by

In “breaking news” during a dull ding-dong of a debate on Wednesday’s Newsnight Scotland, we were breathlessly told that Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had made an important intervention in the debate about whether Scotland should keep paying for railway lines between London and Birmingham, weapons of mass destruction and Ian Davidson’s expenses. (We paraphrase.)

rajoy

Stopping just short of a drum-roll or mariachi band (yes, those are Mexican, but are you telling us BBC Scotland would know the difference?), viewers were dramatically informed that in a major new development Mariano Rajoy had said… exactly what he’s been saying for most of the last two years. 

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    • Sean Duffy on Still Time To Save Her: “Your acute analytical mind will already have noticed that the letter is unsigned and doesn’t even bear any reference number…” Oct 9, 15:11
    • Ronnie on Still Time To Save Her: “What means this does?” Oct 9, 15:02
    • Hatey McHateface on Still Time To Save Her: “It’s OFFICIAL too. Says it at the top. In red caps. So now we all know.” Oct 9, 15:02
    • blackhack on Still Time To Save Her: “Just hold on there Stu, I’ll get you some paracetamol for that headache you have after banging your head on…” Oct 9, 14:46
    • Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: ““through the contribution our people make to the nations they migrate to; through the bonds they forge with the peoples…” Oct 9, 14:13
    • sam on There May Be Justice: “sarah, The former Irish President, Michael Higgins said, “Our diaspora is one of Ireland’s greatest resources: through the contribution our…” Oct 9, 11:43
    • Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: “Now that Davey Paulden’s been put back in his box, the odds of an early WM GE have shortened. Plenty…” Oct 9, 09:49
    • Aidan on There May Be Justice: ““Professor Baird has knowledge of Scottish political issues, academic qualifications and long experience of maritime business. His involvement in the…” Oct 9, 09:38
    • Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: “@ Alan Austin says: 9 October, 2026 at 8:30 am “Your response is actually factually incorrect” Hmmm. I believe the…” Oct 9, 09:05
    • Captain Caveman on There May Be Justice: “😀 Imagine thinking Alf Baird is the answer to Scotland’s manifold woes – and is a shoe-in for leading the…” Oct 9, 09:04
    • Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: ““GlobalScot has more than 1,000 members across 62 countries (in 2021) supporting Scottish businesses in international markets and attracting inward…” Oct 9, 08:48
    • Alan Austin on There May Be Justice: “Your response is actually factually incorrect. Large oil Companies invest based on RONCE which is return on net capital employed.…” Oct 9, 08:30
    • Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: “@ Minceheid says: 9 October, 2026 at 7:54 am Thanks for the idea. But I think you’re overlooking something. When…” Oct 9, 08:24
    • Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: “Aye, sarah, it’s amazing hoo mony of us ken real colonisers. Ah hae a couple of rellies in Nova Scotia.…” Oct 9, 08:15
    • Minceheid on There May Be Justice: “Hatey McHateface says: 8 October, 2026 at 7:07 pm I’m having beans on toast for ma denner and I hate…” Oct 9, 07:54
    • sarah on There May Be Justice: “@ sam at 8.18. GlobalScot sounds a great organisation. You are right – the Scottish diaspora will help. Every Canadian…” Oct 8, 22:29
    • sam on There May Be Justice: “The Scots diaspora is likely to be a big help to a newly independent Scotland just as the Irish diaspora…” Oct 8, 20:18
    • Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: ““everything that happens in a colony is due to colonialism” I’m starting to come around to your way of thinking,…” Oct 8, 19:07
    • Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: ““the North Sea no longer has any oil that is economic to produce” It’s a fact not widely understood that…” Oct 8, 18:54
    • Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: ““you vote the useless shower out. We simply can’t do that to Westminster, the more alert of you may have…” Oct 8, 18:39
    • factchecker on There May Be Justice: “Fair comment, I think, Rob I can only see one way – vote the SNP out. Abstaining/spoiling a ballot paper…” Oct 8, 18:24
    • Alf Baird on There May Be Justice: ““You grab independence so you have all the levers to make things better” Indeed so. A colonized people have no…” Oct 8, 18:12
    • am firinn on There May Be Justice: “Sarah is right. The idea that you have to set up a perfect administration before you thrown off the shackles…” Oct 8, 17:44
    • Rob on There May Be Justice: “You would trust the current mob in any way at all, I think they make even Westminster look good and…” Oct 8, 17:40
    • Alan Austin on There May Be Justice: “The mines closed because the coal was not economic against oil so the miners lost thier jobs due to economics.…” Oct 8, 17:17
    • Aidan on The Love Of Big Brother: “@“James” – if you want some peace and quiet why don’t you log off the library computer and go and…” Oct 8, 16:50
    • factchecker on There May Be Justice: “sarah says: 8 October, 2026 at 2:44 pm Stay in the false union until we find better local administration? What…” Oct 8, 16:33
    • Aidan on There May Be Justice: “If you listen to Sam, insider, one of them could be our very own Alf Baird!” Oct 8, 15:58
    • Onlooker on There May Be Justice: “Thank you.” Oct 8, 15:48
    • Insider on There May Be Justice: “o.k. sarah! Spill the beans! Who are these honest,trustworthy,capable,inspiring leaders who will magically appear if Scotland becomes independent ? Where…” Oct 8, 15:12
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