The Longest Lie 130
Posted on
January 05, 2024 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
BBC Reporting Scotland last night:
Truly, this is the bullshit that just won’t die.
Archive for the ‘scottish politics’
The Abyss 352
Posted on
December 31, 2023 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
It’s rather apt that this happened on the last day of the calendar. Because it truly is the rock-bottom moment in the grotesquely sullied history of the Scottish National Party.
We’ve heard that line somewhere before, haven’t we?
Over the red line 297
Posted on
December 20, 2023 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
So, just a quick one, because we’ve got Christmas shopping to do:
Since continuing to fight for the GRR was famously a “red line” for the Scottish Greens in terms of the Bute House Agreeement, do we think that the Greens will now withdraw from the governing coalition, sacrifice their ministerial cars and salaries and influence, and return to the back benches for the next two and a half years until they can try to form an alliance with Labour?
[poll id=”66″]
News Of The World 85
Posted on
December 15, 2023 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Everything Changes But You 508
Posted on
December 10, 2023 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Less than six months passed between these two comments.
And the weird thing is that the strategy in both cases was/is the exact same. Huh.
The Devil And The Pastel Pink Sea 155
Posted on
December 08, 2023 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Well, imagine our surprise.
There was very little realistic prospect of any other outcome, particularly in light of the same judge – Lady Haldane – ruling last month that the definition of “woman” was not limited to biological reality.
In doing so she placed it beyond any credible dispute that the Scottish Government’s proposed Gender Recognition Reform Act did indeed impinge on equality law reserved to the UK government, because the rules on who constituted a legal man or woman would have been different in Scotland and England.
But what now for poor beleaguered Humza Yousaf?
Walking On Glass 204
Posted on
December 07, 2023 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The response of the Scottish media to yesterday’s momentous events in the Court Of Session has been illuminating in terms of who is and isn’t even attempting to do proper grown-up journalism, although as far as we can tell The Times is alone in having NO coverage of the hearing whatsoever.
The National’s “Politics” section has 54 stories on its main page, many of which are embarrassingly trivial, and mentioned that the hearing was taking place, but the actual outcome is in a completely different section, buried 30 stories down in the “News” category, 29 places below the return of David Jason to “Only Fools And Horses”.
The Herald has the barest skeleton of a report, while you have to turn to page 14 of the Daily Record for a similar piece that conveys the basic facts with nothing at all about the significance of the ruling, and STV News – embarrassingly – just runs an agency release despite having the estimable Colin Mackay and Bernard Ponsonby on its staff. (They also had nothing on air last night.) Maybe they were busy.
The Scottish Sun is by far the best of the print media on the subject. It first ran a extensive but very strangely-timed article that included reporting of actual events at the hearing but NOT the verdict, even though the court delivered its judgement mere moments after hearing the counsels’ submissions.
(The piece finishes “The appeal at the Court of Session is expected to last one day, with a written judgement taking weeks or months”.)
It followed up a couple of hours later with another substantial story including the reactions of the Scottish Government and the Scottish Information Commissioner (the opposing parties at the hearing). But the only actual analysis was done by the BBC.
Huddle Formation 185
Posted on
December 06, 2023 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
To the surprise of most of those watching, including ourselves, the Court Of Session delivered its judgement immediately at the end of today’s hearing, after only the most cursory of conflabs between the three august panel members.
The short version is that the Scottish Government lost, and must now comply with Wings reader Benjamin Harrop‘s FOI request regarding evidence that was supplied to independent adviser James Hamilton during his inquiry into the unlawful investigation of false allegations against Alex Salmond.
