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The war of the worlds 162

Posted on August 09, 2013 by

This is the last of the political data from our Panelbase survey of Scottish opinion. The full data tables should now be available to the media from the pollster.

(But a quick word to all the Scottish journalists who we know read this site – had a single one of you had the courtesy, wit or basic journalistic initiative to actually contact us and ask us for the tables directly, we’d gladly have given them to you 24 hours before your competitors. Just a wee tip there.)

amisinvaders

We know our chums at “Better Together” have been looking forward to this one for days, so we won’t keep them waiting any longer.

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Quoted for truth #26 90

Posted on August 08, 2013 by

David Aaronovitch, The Times, 8 August 2013:

“Next year is the centenary of the start of the Great War and some nationalists in Scotland think Mr Cameron is pulling a Salmond. Coming as it does in August between Bannockburn and the referendum vote, they believe the commemoration has been planned as an artificial booster to Britishness. ‘There’s no conceivable justification or precedent in British history’, complained a Reverend Stuart Campbell, ‘for celebrating the start of a war.’

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Not living in Yorkshire it doesn’t apply 45

Posted on August 07, 2013 by

If you hate listening to audio or watching video (as opposed to reading the printed word) as much as we do, or if you’re just at work and can’t, here’s a complete transcript – courtesy of one of our splendid readers – of this morning’s BBC Breakfast appearance from UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom.

loonybloom

Once again, the very last line of the transcript is the killer.

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All bound for Bongo-Bongo Land 116

Posted on August 07, 2013 by

You might want to wrap some bandaging around your jaw before listening to this BBC News interview with UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom this morning, to keep it off the floor.

godfreybloom

It gets more and more mindboggling as it goes on. But it’s not the chilling thing.

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Vote No, close Holyrood 78

Posted on August 05, 2013 by

You might find this an interesting read.

dalyell

(No, we have no idea why his face is so shiny.)

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Won’t somebody think of the children? 53

Posted on August 04, 2013 by

One of the benefits, if that’s the right word, of the Daily Record’s shambolic new iPad app is that the 30-day trial period means we got to see a print copy of the Sunday Mail today for the first time in years. It was largely like a parochial edition of Heat magazine (“FAT LASS DATES THIN BLOKE” got a spread), but buried 40-odd pages in was a “special report” that doesn’t seem to have made it onto the paper’s website.

mailthumb

The Mail accompanies the report with an editorial entitled “We must not abandon our Geordie pals”, which is very carefully worded in order to give the impression that a Yes vote would be to do just that, without actually saying so. But the actual content of the report is curiously at odds with the headlines.

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The “foreigner” vote 57

Posted on August 03, 2013 by

Last year’s argument over the referendum franchise saw the Scottish Government’s view win the day – that the matter should be decided according to a civic definition of nationality, rather than along the ethnic lines proposed by some in the No camp.

multiscots

But what of the people of non-Scottish ethnic origin who’ve been thus enfranchised and entrusted with the future of the nation they’ve chosen to make their home?

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Quieter little voices 33

Posted on August 03, 2013 by

It’s been an interesting week for the Scottish media. First the Sun’s website vanished behind the clouds of a paywall, and today the Daily Record unveiled a new version of its tablet app which no longer gives readers the weekday paper for free.

recordipad

(Both papers, naturally, presented these new restrictions as enhancements.)

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The squirrel parade 40

Posted on August 01, 2013 by

Some of the more cynical independence supporters among our readership may today be asking themselves “What is it that Labour are trying to bury today with all this ludicrously farcical ‘Labour For Independence’ business?” 

skwirl

Allow us to suggest a few possibilities.

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Is this a trick question? 81

Posted on July 31, 2013 by

For some reason which escapes our understanding, the operator of the misleadingly-named “Scottish Labour” Twitter account chose to tweet this message this afternoon.

trickq

We know the answer, but we’re jiggered if we get the point.

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The pride of Britain 149

Posted on July 31, 2013 by

It’s very rare, viewers, that we get so angry in the course of writing a post that we have to stop.

But when we ran a picture last night of Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander MP, opening a foodbank with a cretinous smile on his face as if being a member of the government of a modern industrial nation in need of foodbanks was something to be happy about, a reader suggested making a gallery of similar images.

fb-aberdeen-johannlamont-lab

This is as many as we could bear.

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Two cousins 36

Posted on July 31, 2013 by

The internet’s been enjoying itself since last night knocking up satirical versions of The Sun’s wraparound cover today. For no immediately apparent reason (except perhaps that it’s a slow time for news) the paper has suddenly decided to give a “State Of The Union”-type address explicitly setting out its beliefs on a variety of subjects.

suncovers1

We thought that it might pass a few idle moments to compare the UK and Scottish editions, and see how closely those beliefs matched up on either side of the border.

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    • Aidan on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Now that he’s on pre-mod (I expect) he’ll go off and haunt some other forum.Jul 23, 23:15
    • robertkknight on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “His King’s Colours didn’t go down too well either, with the Scots deciding upon their own design, which was contrary…Jul 23, 23:12
    • Alf Baird on Ain’t it funny how things change?: ““I’m every bit as much a Sovereign Scot as you.” In a colonial society there are plenty of assimilated natives…Jul 23, 22:41
    • Angus on Ain’t it funny how things change?: ““Ain’t it funny how things change?” Ain’t it also funny how things never change? Labour has been promising to abolish…Jul 23, 22:35
    • Captain Caveman on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Heh, oh really… Well, I’d “knock it on the head” and quit whilst you’re (self evidently) behind, Confused. 🙂Jul 23, 22:23
    • Confused on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “EFTA came up, in the context of GDP/capita – the small, rich countries club – but you realise evil never…Jul 23, 22:23
    • Xaracen on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “A, B, C, and E don’t mean anything to you, Aidan, and they don’t have to. They did mean something…Jul 23, 22:10
    • Confused on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “you’re a bit of a pedant, and prone to miss the point (like some others round here, the reading age…Jul 23, 22:05
    • Confused on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “sure www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5FbYBiJiuA caveman, you’re the kind of turnip a bash on the head might knock some sense intoJul 23, 22:01
    • Confused on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Main – the mobile gas van is on route number 6 000 000 as any fule knoJul 23, 21:59
    • sam on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Auld enemy. Different language,they didnae ken. Deid Mum. Divine Right was right up their parliamentary noses. On the plus side…Jul 23, 21:28
    • diabloandco on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “I see Queen Camilla is thoroughly enjoying the opening ceremony!!Jul 23, 21:21
    • Aidan on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “A, B and C don’t mean anything but E is interesting, what proportion of Scots had the vote in 1707…Jul 23, 21:18
    • Cynicus on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Alf Baird says: 22 July, 2026 at 4:31 pm There is a long history of elite Scots selling out their…Jul 23, 21:00
    • Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: ““The people paid far less in taxes” Sure Xaracen. And not only did we get free cradle to grave benefits…Jul 23, 20:55
    • Alf Baird on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Divide an rule is aye the colonizer’s tool. The colonized are made ‘bystanders’ in their own land; they are ‘out…Jul 23, 20:53
    • Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Assuming rounded populations of England at 50 million and Scotland at 5 million. The political will to address the issue…Jul 23, 20:47
    • 100%Yes on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “What John Swinney has just signed Scotland over to Manchester and he’d doesn’t even know what powers the Scottish parliament…Jul 23, 20:45
    • Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Oddly enough, that greater trust in Scottish governments peaked under Nicola Sturgeon during the Covid Years. Nowadays, the ex party…Jul 23, 20:35
    • 100%Yes on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Wings predicted on here and by people posting on here as well. But the SNP commitment to the union has…Jul 23, 20:29
    • Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: ““proselytising religions” Naw. A proselytising religion is one where its adherents chap your door, earnestly attempt to tell you the…Jul 23, 20:24
    • Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Havers, Mark. Check out the front lines (and the combat casualty lists) from the war in the east. You’ll find…Jul 23, 20:09
    • Mark Beggan on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Why not. No one else wants the job. What about asking Jack McConnell to step in.Jul 23, 20:06
    • sam on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-social-attitudes-survey-2025-core-module/pages/5/ Factchecker. Link above. Of interest to me, the steep decline in trust of the Scottish government since 2015. Signs…Jul 23, 19:55
    • Xaracen on Ain’t it funny how things change?: ““What made Scotland “much better” before 1707, Xaracen?” A, it was independent, B, it wasn’t a colony of England, C,…Jul 23, 19:29
    • Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Sorry, Alf, but I’m every bit as much a Sovereign Scot as you. What have I already told you about…Jul 23, 19:15
    • factchecker on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “sam, my comment on the uncontextualised use of survey data relates to the original post. Not the survey itself. Hence…Jul 23, 18:18
    • factchecker on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Dan, regarding the much-quoted “Union of Equals” that I know is such a popular trope, I am unaware of any…Jul 23, 18:12
    • sam on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Don’t forget the colonisation of Ireland by the Scots and English. James granted confiscated land from Irish Catholics to Protestant…Jul 23, 18:06
    • Young Lochinvar on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “FC Apology accepted. Always laugh when those who know their wordsmithery isn’t cutting it feel the need to conclude with…Jul 23, 17:49
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