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Last on the bandwagon 151

Posted on February 09, 2015 by

It gets clearer with every passing day that Scottish Labour’s chief election strategy is to assume that Scottish voters are goldfish. There’s no other explanation for a piece in yesterday’s Courier on the SNP’s Jamie Hepburn’s call for the implementation of a 2009 report into which sporting events should be protected from pay-TV broadcasters.

The article concluded with some comments from Labour.

“It was reported last month that Labour will include a commitment in its general election manifesto to ensure major sporting such as the Open Championship are shown on terrestrial TV.

Scottish leader Jim Murphy told the Scotland and Sunday events like the Open and international football “shouldn’t be a minority sport for only those who can afford satellite television subscriptions”.

A party spokesman said today: “We’re happy to send the SNP Government links to all the announcements Jim Murphy and Kez Dugdale have made so that it is easier for them to adopt our policies.”

Which is, y’know, bold.

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Category comment, football, scottish politics, sport

A slow politics day 65

Posted on February 01, 2015 by

Blah blah Jim Murphy blah blah idiot something.

tennis

The way this match is going, we’ll see you sometime in April.

Category sport, world

Jamaican for the occasion 125

Posted on August 07, 2014 by

Private Eye editor Ian Hislop hasn’t made much of a secret of his opposition to Scottish independence. The satirical and investigative magazine, which is normally so razor-sharp on all the failings and hypocrisies of politicians and the media, has been remarkably silent on the subject of the referendum for the past few years, which one might have thought would have given it enough material to go weekly.

So in that context of that self-imposed censorship, the BBC’s coverage of last month’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow must have been really quite something.

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Category comment, culture, media, scottish politics, sport

Bernie, the Bolt 206

Posted on August 02, 2014 by

usain1

Tags:
Category scottish politics, sport

The non-political Games 421

Posted on July 25, 2014 by

For at least a year now long-suffering newspaper readers have had to endure dire warnings from Unionist politicians about the dastardly Nats turning the Commonwealth Games into some sort of evil referendum propaganda campaign. (It was, of course, absolutely fine to continually invoke the “Olympic spirit” in 2012 and beyond as a reason Scots should vote to stay in the UK. That’s totally different.)

cwmail

Today’s UK edition of the Daily Mail (on the left above, and somewhat different to the Scottish edition on the right) carries a story that appears in several papers about the opening ceremony, in which it transpires that the Red Arrows were forbidden by the Ministry of Defence from creating only blue-and-white vapour trails over Celtic Park.

But even after just one day, it’s far from the only example of the No campaign’s politicisation of the Friendly Games.

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Category comment, culture, scottish politics, sport, uk politics

Commonwealth Games begin 355

Posted on July 23, 2014 by

Scotland enjoys the opening ceremony.

orange

Category culture, sport, wtf

Gold-medal hypocrisy 88

Posted on January 09, 2014 by

Lord McConnell got the velvet-lined kid-gloves treatment from Scotland Tonight last night over his calls for the pro- and anti-independence campaigns to have a two-week ceasefire during the Commonwealth Games. Mysteriously, the programme didn’t feel it was at all relevant to draw comparisons to how the No camp behaved during the last major sporting event that took place in the UK.

teamgb

No, definitely no politicking going on there.

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Category comment, scottish politics, sport, world

Applying topspin 145

Posted on November 18, 2013 by

There’s a fascinating piece in today’s Daily Record about Andy Murray, and we’re not talking about the gormless expression Andrew Marr pulls in the accompanying photo.

murraymarr2

It’s fascinating because it’s a gold-medal example of the art of reporting exclusively true facts while simultaneously saying flatly untrue things about them.

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Category analysis, comment, media, scottish politics, sport

A try and a conversion 134

Posted on October 02, 2013 by

This was ex-Scotland rugby star Gavin Hastings in June:

“Former Scotland captain Gavin Hastings says it ‘beggars belief’ some Scots believe they would be better off being separate from the UK.

Speaking to The Scots Magazine he went on to warn about the dangers of complacency in the forthcoming referendum, as polls indicate the ‘No’ vote is currently ahead.

‘The danger comes with people being complacent that independence will never succeed… and people not voting or taking it for granted that we will remain part of the United Kingdom.

If we were independent would we not be doing everything in our power to find the benefits of joining up with England, Wales and Northern Ireland? Why, if we have that, would we be looking to divide it?'”

Heavens. Possibly the only man ever to sound angrier than Alistair Darling at the idea of the Scots having the sheer temerity to want to run their own affairs.

So who’s this daring have-a-go optimist in today’s Herald, then?

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Category comment, scottish politics, sport

Unionist of the week 54

Posted on August 25, 2013 by

We haven’t had one of these for a while, but it’s a peach. Phil Welsh is an official of the Unison trade union in Dundee, though we notice he’s recently removed that fact from his Twitter bio. We’ve had to block him now for associating with our hate-crazed psycho stalker, but earlier this week we were having a chat about the bedroom tax and Labour’s evictions policy when this happened.

philwelshthumb1

See below for the rest of the conversation.

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Category sport

The last Home International 142

Posted on August 12, 2013 by

There’s one last bit of data from our poll that we haven’t revealed the results of yet. That’s because, unlike the rest of the survey, this one absolutely WAS a leading question. We asked it partly to satirise the ridiculously slanted nature of those used in some “Better Together” polls, such as this one, but also to make a more serious point.

hutchison

If you’re looking forward to Wednesday’s game at Wembley, this one’s for you.

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Category comment, football, scottish politics, sport

Fairway and balanced 88

Posted on July 18, 2013 by

Credit where it’s due to the Scotsman today, which has been impeccably even-handed in its coverage of the furore around the issue of men-only membership at the Muirfield golf club, current host to the sport’s flagship event, the Open.

salmondgolf

Here’s this morning’s edition discussing Alex Salmond’s stance, for example:

“The way he has performed this summer, I can’t be the only person relieved that Alex Salmond has decided against going to the Open at Muirfield.

Or is his bungled boycott of arguably the most treasured sporting event in Scotland’s calendar actually his clumsiest attempt yet to muscle his way into the spotlight?”

And showing scrupulous fairness, they’ve also reported on David Cameron’s view.

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Tags:
Category media, sport

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