We must admit, we don’t quite get what the Daily Record is trying to achieve.
Having already told its dwindling band of readers that voting for both the SNP and Labour is the only way to stop Reform in today’s Hamilton by-election, for the last two days it’s deployed some random loony in a hard hat and the vegan former Rangers captain Graeme Souness to the same ostensible end.
Souness, famously a supporter of Margaret Thatcher and the Conservatives, tells Record readers today that they must vote Labour in order to prevent Thatcher’s right-wing heirs from winning the seat – even though Labour are dead, plucked, stuffed and cooked geese in the eyes of the bookmakers and voting for them only increases the chances of both Reform AND the SNP.
And this is what they say elsewhere, when they think nobody in Scotland is looking:
One day someone’s going to tell them about the internet, and our life’s going to get a lot more difficult. Until that day, though, let’s just enjoy the laughs.
If you’ve been reading Scottish social media or the Scottish press for the last year and a half or so, the following graph is going to come as a bit of a shock to you.
We’ve just taken delivery of some REALLY interesting polling results, readers, but it’s going to take a while to fully analyse and write them up, so in the meantime let’s look at some slightly less interesting ones which came from the same poll – the Norstat one commissioned by the Sunday Times and published today, which we hitched a lift on.
The headline figures show an eight-point Yes lead, which is nice, although it’s also entirely abstract since the SNP has no current policy for translating independence support into actual independence (or even another referendum about it).
All the same, it seemed a good time to assess the wider picture.
If you’re a fan of lazy, superficial political analysis from the mentally unwell, you might have read this week about John Swinney’s great strategic triumph of having “coaxed” an “endorsement” out of the Daily Record for Thursday’s by-election in Hamilton.
And if so, you might be forgiven for thinking that that analysis looks pretty stupid now.
(Holiday Boy is still jetting his way around the globe, and indeed will be for the next few weeks, so in the absence of cartoons what else can we do but look at comics?)
But what, if anything, do those front pages tell us?
Alert readers will be familiar with this site’s ongoing quest for an explanation as to why controversy-plagued charity LGBT Youth Scotland continues to operate in dozens of Scottish primary and even nursery schools, pushing gender ideology onto children as young as four despite only having a remit to support 13-25-year-olds.
Last month we were, to coin a phrase, stonewalled by Scotland’s charity regulator, the OSCR, but we filed a review request and today we received – a couple of weeks past the deadline – a response.
The entire Scottish media and professional-politician community is currently in a self-righteous froth about a campaign ad being run by Reform for the Hamilton by-election targeting Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
Obviously none of the acres of press coverage trusts voters to see the ad and decide for themselves, because that simply isn’t how journalism works nowadays. You’re told that a bad thing happened – whether it be a campaign ad, a comedian’s joke or the supposed terrible abuse sent to a celebrity – and how outraged various pundits or other celebrities are about it, with the clear implication that you should feel the same, but you almost never get shown or told what was actually said.
So to start with, as a basic journalistic principle, here’s the ad itself in its entirety.
Now let’s look at what you’re being ordered to think about it.
Don Paterson is a celebrated Scottish poet, writer and musician. The essay below comes from a new anthology of Scottish writers called Irish Pages: Scotland, and is reproduced with his permission.
Remember The Vow? Most of us have tried to forget it. This was Westminster’s Hail Mary as polling day approached in the 2014 referendum; a vote that Yessers – people tend to forget this part too – initially had no real expectation of winning, until an inspirationally positive campaign saw the polls draw neck-and-neck.
Then lo! There it was, splashed across the Daily Record: a fancy-font promise from Westminster party leaders that if Scotland voted to stay within the UK, we would enjoy new devolved powers. There was some other waffle about defence and opportunities and having an equal share in the UK’s prosperity. But the message was clear enough. We would be listened to.
The Scottish Tory MSP reacted furiously to a story in The National which said Scotland had been absorbed into England by the 1707 Act Of Union, rather than becoming a “partner” in anything, and had ceased to exist as a state in international law.
Which was a weird response, because that’s been the official stated position of both the UK government and the Conservative Party for at least the last 12 years.
Willie on When the law breaks the law: “I prefer the nomenclature of Randy Andy and Handy Mandy. But as the media now moves on to Handy, rhe…” Feb 24, 09:05
diabloandco on When the law breaks the law: “Don’t do Facebook , could someone put up Sara’s response?” Feb 24, 09:04
Young Lochinvar on When the law breaks the law: “Jay Depends on your age. Younger, and you probably are (correctly) worried about saying the “wrong thing” that in the…” Feb 24, 01:43
Saffron Robe on When the law breaks the law: “As I’ve said before, it’s unwise to ascribe your own failings to others – in this case, racism disguised as…” Feb 24, 00:39
Jay on When the law breaks the law: “Young Lochinvar: Having only recently become a ‘Wings’ reader (occasionally making comments), there seems to be a substantial degree of…” Feb 24, 00:26
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on When the law breaks the law: “« Scots is descended from Northumbrian, while Standard English emerged from the East Midland dialect of Mercia. Although markedly different,…” Feb 23, 23:35
Cynicus on When the law breaks the law: “Mandy in the Jile! But Randy Andy & Dandy Mandy not (yet?) sharing a cell. https://tinyurl.com/54mwctac” Feb 23, 23:30
Confused on When the law breaks the law: “john davidsons outburst at the baftas that so annoyed people – that illustrated perfectly the whole point of the film…” Feb 23, 23:09
Andrew scott on When the law breaks the law: “Anyone see the watermelon party’s PPB? nothing of course of their obsession with trans rights” Feb 23, 22:41
Northcode on When the law breaks the law: “Part of our debate would perhaps be concerned with a definition of ‘colonisation’ A modern definition of colonialism: ” [colonialism]…” Feb 23, 22:00
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on When the law breaks the law: “AUTISTIC DETRANSITIONER AWARDED $2m AFTER HER BREASTS WERE REMOVED AT 16 An autistic woman who underwent a double mastectomy at…” Feb 23, 20:27
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on When the law breaks the law: “PUBERTY BLOCKER TRIAL HALTED OVER SAFETY CONCERNS Work on NHS England’s planned puberty blocker trial has been paused after the…” Feb 23, 20:00
Garavelli Princip on When the law breaks the law: “Well Young Lochinvar, I know Hatey well. He was my boss: Head of Lavatorial Services. Where do you think he…” Feb 23, 18:30
Willie on When the law breaks the law: “Obviously in not mounting an appeal Durham and Darlington dont have the unlimited resources like the Fife NHS have. Incredible…” Feb 23, 17:56
Willie on When the law breaks the law: “Touted with the great hurrah the reality is that the MV Isle of Islay was delivered one year and three…” Feb 23, 17:41
Young Lochinvar on When the law breaks the law: “I wonder if host Alan Cummings would have been so fulsomely inclusive and supportive if the tick in question hard…” Feb 23, 17:19
sarah on When the law breaks the law: “Sara’s response has been posted onto Liberation Scotland’s facebook. She shows JK up for what he has become.” Feb 23, 17:04
Young Lochinvar on When the law breaks the law: “HMcH @2.30 Hay fit, straw fit.. Based on that I very much doubt it. Oi Vey! How does that sit…” Feb 23, 17:01
100%Yes on When the law breaks the law: “James Kelly, is best ignored and forgotten about, he’s a thorn in the Indy movement side. You could write pages…” Feb 23, 16:36
sarah on When the law breaks the law: “@ 100%Yes: I hope you succeed in bringing Alba under the Alliance to Liberate Scotland umbrella. I’ve been dropping the…” Feb 23, 15:07
Cynicus on When the law breaks the law: ““ From the ashes of Culloden and the tragedy of the Highland Clearances to the cliffs of Quebec…” ======== It…” Feb 23, 15:05
Hatey McHateface on When the law breaks the law: “Anybody know if they swore an oath of allegiance to the British Sovereign and his successors? And if they did,…” Feb 23, 14:30
100%Yes on When the law breaks the law: “Both me and my wife have just rejoined the Alba Party to support any new leaders and to stick two…” Feb 23, 14:26
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on When the law breaks the law: “GROUSE BEATER: ‘ALBA PARTY NEWS’ « […] Four senior ALBA members have offered to take over the party to ensure…” Feb 23, 14:03
sam on When the law breaks the law: “Frae BBC “A health trust spent more than £600,000 on an employment tribunal which found it harassed a group of…” Feb 23, 13:56
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on When the law breaks the law: “HOW SCOTTISH REGIMENTS FORGED BRITAIN’S EMPIRE Intro text on YouTube site – « When you picture the British Empire, you…” Feb 23, 13:50
Hatey McHateface on When the law breaks the law: “Scotland all over the MSM today, as the waves of synthetic outrage swell into a tsunami sweeping all of yesterday’s…” Feb 23, 13:45
Hatey McHateface on When the law breaks the law: “I’ve viewed it 110 times. Northy 615. Who’s the ither twa?” Feb 23, 13:29
Hatey McHateface on When the law breaks the law: “Haha, “humble Scot”. Maybes you forget your claims to be a millennia-old, interstellar-travelling, Pict. But the denizens of Area 51…” Feb 23, 13:22
