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The vote of confidence 791

Posted on February 15, 2020 by

The prisoner 1,240

Posted on February 01, 2020 by

The Betrayer 522

Posted on January 31, 2020 by

So that’s it, then. That’s the grand plan.

We’re sorry, but we’d say the game’s a bogey, gang.

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A tale of two timestamps 379

Posted on January 28, 2020 by

Well, at least they gave it serious and respectful consideration first.

Be fair, that’s almost two whole hours before being told to sod off and eat our cereal. If that’s not one partner in a union showing the other respect, we don’t know what is.

No fire in the Reichstag 196

Posted on January 27, 2020 by

Less than 10 months ago:

Record scratch, jump cut to the present day:

Let’s just hear that again.

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Everything what goes with chips 256

Posted on January 25, 2020 by

Winning back Scotland 1,180

Posted on January 18, 2020 by

There Is No Plan A 301

Posted on January 14, 2020 by

So it’s finally official: Boris Says No. He’s formally done the thing that we’ve all known he was going to do ever since he became UK Prime Minister last July.

So what’s the stunning, game-changing counter-response we’ve got for him, having known for six months that this was what he’d say and had all that time to prepare for it? What’s the stroke of strategic genius that all those SNP loyalists insisted we had up our sleeve and just weren’t revealing until the key moment?

“We’re going to wait for however long it takes for the Westminster establishment to accept that another referendum is inevitable.”

Brilliant. What a plan. To the barricades, everyone.

Her Loyal Subject 539

Posted on January 11, 2020 by

The Toady And The Trap 291

Posted on January 09, 2020 by

Anyone who’s followed the UK political media over the last decade or so with specific reference to Scotland will know that in a very crowded field, the standout poster boy for arrogant, condescending metropolitan cluelessness is the Independent’s chief political commentator John Rentoul.

For reasons which escape us, Rentoul – who was born in India and as far as we know has spent not a single day of his life resident in Scotland – identifies as Scottish. And yet he doesn’t appear to even recognise the concept of Scotland as a political entity, and today he demonstrated that fact in a manner so stark and striking that it’s worth recording for posterity.

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From the archives #12 410

Posted on January 07, 2020 by

Over the last few days, for want of anything more interesting happening in Scottish politics, we’ve been reviewing some of the entertainingly fluid criteria by which Unionist politicians used to assert that Scotland could supposedly achieve independence. But we hadn’t seen this one before:

A view apparently “almost universally shared among English Tory backbenchers” back in the late 1980s was that independence could be won by the SNP securing a majority of Scottish MPs at not one but two successive UK general elections.

Given that that line has now been crossed in THREE Westminster elections in a row, we’re all agog to find where Boris Johnson will move the goalposts to in his keenly-awaited response to the Scottish Government’s second Section 30 request, which he’s due to deliver any minute now.

From the archives #11 95

Posted on January 06, 2020 by

We’ve never been able to actually confirm the oft-cited “quote” from Margaret Thatcher suggesting that the SNP winning a majority of Scottish seats at a UK election would constitute a mandate for independence, but here’s a verified more recent one from a then-serving Conservative PM.

“[John] Major has made it clear that a majority of SNP MPs after an election would serve as a mandate to begin negotiations for separation. There are no plans to hold a referendum”, said former Thatcher minister and party chairman Norman Tebbit a few months before the 1997 election.

It was a position the Tories held right up to 2010 – the last election at which the SNP didn’t win a majority of Scottish seats, at which point the goalposts magically shifted. Now, of course, the rule is that a majority of MPs doesn’t count, but you also can’t have a referendum.

Scotland is a prisoner without hope of parole. Time for a breakout.

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    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “For general info, here is a link to PROF ROBERT BLACK KC’s presentation about the UNION: Professor Robert Black KC…Jul 24, 19:33
    • Stuart on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Xaracen. 2:14 How wrong can one man be? Well in your case very. Your argument (feeble though it is) re…Jul 24, 18:43
    • Northcode on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “When their buttons and switches and knobs – and they have many – are pushed or flicked or twiddled… they…Jul 24, 18:40
    • twathater on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “@ Lorn you said “I believe implicitly, that those men who transgress the rules of normal, decent behaviour have a…Jul 24, 18:14
    • Dan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “@ Lorn at 4:15 pm It’s definitely okay to blame the Scots for the prevailing Union, and jist ignore things…Jul 24, 18:02
    • Aidan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “@Dan – I mean the cost per MwH quoted as £150, Hinckley Point see originally struck at c.£85. Yeah I…Jul 24, 17:59
    • twathater on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Oh there’s Bastard TAX MOAN back from his holidays in Is rahel, has he been updated on the plans to…Jul 24, 17:56
    • Dan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Chas spotting across the yooniverse…Jul 24, 17:33
    • Dan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Hmm… but when did pretty much anything built in the UK ever come in on proposed cost? HS2, a couple…Jul 24, 17:30
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Hats off to that! Respect.Jul 24, 17:09
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “It’s been a busy week for the Eton rifles. “What a catalyst you turned out to be. Crashed your van…Jul 24, 17:03
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “The favourite rant from the Parasite Class; ” It’s good for the economy!” Who’s economy?Jul 24, 16:55
    • Chas on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Rather than the readers ‘chipping in’ Andy, you could gift him some of yours!Jul 24, 16:35
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “LABOUR MP CALLS GENDER-CRITICS ‘SWIVEL-EYED FANATICS’ A Labour MP has revealed his contempt for those who believe in the reality…Jul 24, 16:32
    • Chas on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Alfie Boy can’t lose. Either we accept we are living in a colony. Or, if we don’t, it is proof…Jul 24, 16:22
    • Lorn on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “I think that it is less that we are colonized than that we have allowed ourselves to be treated as…Jul 24, 16:15
    • Chas on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “It’s competition time. Spot the Loony.Jul 24, 16:07
    • Lorn on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Young Lochinvar: no, decent men did not barge into female spaces in the past, and any who were indecent enough…Jul 24, 16:06
    • Stuart on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Name checking your own homework does not count Professor Baird. Your narrative (feeble though it is) is inaccurate and clutching…Jul 24, 16:06
    • Aidan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Who is “Scotland”, every single person in Scotland who has been polled on the subject, or a tiny bunch of…Jul 24, 14:49
    • James on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: ““Aidan”; “I think we’ve all just got to face up to that fact…” Who’s “we”?Jul 24, 14:32
    • James on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Good old “Aidan”, the true BritNat defender on every subject. Scotland doesn’t need (or want) nuclear, but hey, when did…Jul 24, 14:15
    • Xaracen on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “@Stuart; We are talking of a union of two sovereign kingdoms, neither of which in 1706 owed any obeisance to…Jul 24, 14:14
    • James on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Can you elucidate what these “fish” might be? England has been meddling in Scotland’s affairs for nigh on 1,000 years…Jul 24, 14:01
    • Rob on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “The simple fact is that Scottish politicians have shown over the last 10 years that they are simply so incompetent…Jul 24, 13:54
    • James on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Willie; Witness; your point is made.Jul 24, 13:48
    • Aidan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “It’s a case against nuclear power, I don’t know where she got the numbers from re costs, they seem around…Jul 24, 13:08
    • sarah on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Further to my comment at 11.18 a.m., coincidentally Gareth Wardell, Grouse Beater, has retweeted today the speech that he would…Jul 24, 12:59
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Put your colonial feet up on the colonial stool. Make some colonial tea and have some Corbyn and Sultana cake.Jul 24, 12:40
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: ““coordinated attacks” That’s right we all meet up at the Troll Bar on Union Street and after singing God save…Jul 24, 12:32
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