Polling in Scotland, the UK and Wales in the last few days has shown Great Britain taking a fairly heavy swerve to the right after just five months of Sir Keir Starmer’s government. Labour now lead Reform (who have five seats to Labour’s 411) by just three points in the UK and are even more remarkably now in THIRD place in Wales, a country where the party has won every single election for over 100 years.
Scotland, meanwhile, is heading for a hung Parliament in 2026 in which – as this site has been telling its readers for the last year and a half – the only possibility of a stable administration will be an SNP-Labour coalition.
The proceedings at the Supreme Court this week were a tough follow even if you could get the court’s abominably bad livestream to work. They’re all archived here now, but non-lawyers will probably glaze over quickly during the nine hours of intense legalese.
We’re not allowed to clip up any illustrative sections, on pain of possible contempt of court, so perhaps the best way to explain the key parts of what happened in a vaguely comprehensible way is by showing you some commentary from social media.
In many ways, the fabricated, hysterical furore of Humza Yousaf Vs Elon Musk is the ultimate in summer-silly-season politics stories.
Absurdly plainly, the former First Minister ISN’T going to take any legal action against the billionaire owner of Twitter. He only likes bullying small nurseries, and even then he doesn’t follow through. He didn’t even sue us for calling him racist a few months ago, so there’s zero chance he’s going to square up to the world’s richest man.
We’ve been off for a little break in the country, and as far as we can tell we’ve missed absolutely nothing in the moribund world of Scottish politics. We did, however, arrive back just in time for something mildly interesting, or at least revealing.
It’s the latest episode of a new podcast by veteran Scottish political journalist and broadcaster Bernard Ponsonby and jobbing opinion columnist Alex Massie, inventively titled The Ponsonby And Massie Podcast.
The first 35 minutes or so weren’t very noteworthy, other than the curious omission – when predicting the makeup of the next Scottish Government – of the idea of a Labour-SNP coalition, which to this site remains by far the most practical and logical outcome of the 2026 Holyrood election.
David Davis may be the last of his kind – a libertarian Tory from a council-scheme and grammar-school background, and also one of the few remaining big beasts occupying the political jungle of the back benches.
(He could in fact have been Tory leader, and would have been if David Cameron and George Osborne hadn’t teamed up to defeat him in 2005 after he won the first ballot.)
So on the rare occasions when he leads a Commons adjournment debate, as he did last Thursday evening, those with an educated eye for politics sit up and take notice.
The 2005 election was the last time the Daily Record and the Scottish Sun both endorsed the same party at a UK general election. So, y’know, something is going on.
Survation released their final projection for the election last night. It’s quite a boring image because they had to make it mostly grey to correctly illustrate the margin of Labour’s lead.
Those ranges are substantial, but even their BEST-case scenario for the Tories is below 100 seats. The WORST-case scenario for Labour – 447 seats – still gives them a majority of 244, which would smash the all-time record of 209 set by the Tories exactly 100 years ago. (The best case is a dizzying 384.)
Scotland is probably the hardest area of the UK to call. In most polls there are only a few points between Labour and the SNP, and depending on how the votes are spread and who’s best at getting their support out either could still win the most seats.
That won’t, of course, make the slightest difference to the governance of the UK for the next five years. Even 57 Scottish MPs out of 57, for any party, would be completely meaningless to a government with a majority of over 200.
But it’ll make a big difference to the independence movement. Because if the SNP manages to hold onto to a significant proportion of its seats, we can all wave goodbye to the slightest chance of progress for another decade on top of the one that’s been wasted since Alex Salmond resigned.
In the modern political world, you don’t get anywhere without a movement, and movements don’t get anywhere without a flag. So we’ve decided it’s time to take action and stand up for a very large group of people who are genuinely discriminated against and significantly disadvantaged in our society.
Here’s their symbol.
Today is July 1st, and we officially, on behalf of all our oppressed kinfolk, declare this to be People Who Aren’t Eligible For A Railcard Pride Month.
100%Yes on The cost of failure: “The National Says “Labour unwilling to support Scottish industry, John Swinney says”. Here is a prime example of what I…” Dec 5, 09:45
Mark Beggan on The cost of failure: “The porn ban is having a positive effect on society. My eyesight has improved immensely. James watches the porn movie…” Dec 5, 09:41
Hatey McHateface on The cost of failure: “The times they are a-changing, Cynicus. What you state is rapidly becoming irrelevant. Plenty of ordinary Scots are of the…” Dec 5, 07:50
Hatey McHateface on The cost of failure: “See fit ye’ve done noo, Mark? Ye’ve goat James hame frae the pub, an reaching for his sock. Hope the…” Dec 5, 07:37
twathater on Ginger beer and fruit and nuts: “@ JCD If you want independence for Scotland and there is a candidate from Liberate Scotland standing in your constituency…” Dec 5, 03:20
Cynicus on The cost of failure: “Hatey McHateface says: 4 December, 2025 at 8:26 pm “To be fair to El-Nakla, they don’t have high buildings where…” Dec 5, 01:32
Mark Beggan on The cost of failure: ““take the Northern Isles” no thanks. They’re fine where they are. “When not if..” In the name of the wee…” Dec 4, 22:59
Hatey McHateface on The cost of failure: ““Independence will never happen” Ah, c’moan noo, Mark. Never is a very long time. When, not if, independence happens, it…” Dec 4, 22:40
Mark Beggan on The cost of failure: “As the BBC always like to say ‘This is what we know so far .’ Independence will never happen. The…” Dec 4, 21:24
Hatey McHateface on The cost of failure: “To be fair to El-Nakla, they don’t have high buildings where he hails from. He wouldn’t have been aware of…” Dec 4, 20:26
Peter McAvoy on The cost of failure: “On reporting Scotland tonight the report showing John Swinney speaking he called Nigel Farage racist,has he forgotten Humza Youseff’s white,white…” Dec 4, 20:02
Hatey McHateface on The cost of failure: “It’s your craven fear of the “resident multi ID troll” reading here that stops you from writing the faintest outline…” Dec 4, 20:02
Mark Beggan on The cost of failure: “In Scotland even the government’s on Benefits.” Dec 4, 19:53
Mark Beggan on The cost of failure: “‘The public wants what the public gets’. Soar Giro!” Dec 4, 19:50
Hatey McHateface on The cost of failure: ““We must spend the next 6 months showing people the truth and showing them the way to get what we…” Dec 4, 19:49
agentx on The cost of failure: ““Holyrood demands answers over Humza Yousaf and Aamer Anwar friendship as lawyer nets ‘significant public funds’ through public inquiries The…” Dec 4, 19:47
Hatey McHateface on The cost of failure: ““it will take significant time for any initiative to grow and garner decent levels of support” Oh aye, Dan. If…” Dec 4, 19:41
agentx on The cost of failure: ““Humza Yousaf’s brother-in-law goes on trial over ‘extortion and dealing heroin and cocaine’ Ramsay El Nakla, 37, is on trial…” Dec 4, 19:40
Aidan on The cost of failure: “@Dan- why don’t you just state outright what you think rather than setting up these metaphors? I think you seem…” Dec 4, 19:35
Hatey McHateface on The cost of failure: “You’ll still have some popcorn from last time! Hark at me. “Some” popcorn. You’ll still have every last kernel of…” Dec 4, 19:29
sarah on The cost of failure: “@ 100%Yes at 4.46: very well said and spot on. It is the SNP “leadership” that has blocked our escape…” Dec 4, 19:26
Hatey McHateface on The cost of failure: “Money grubbing bastards! They already get well paid for working from 0900 to 1700, with an hour off for lunch.” Dec 4, 19:26
Dan on The cost of failure: “And recent blow in Aidan enters the chat. Of course, Liberate like other initiatives before hasn’t reached significant levels of…” Dec 4, 19:24
Hatey McHateface on The cost of failure: “Dan puts me right, again. Who knew that on Wings BTL, to describe somebody as a “gurning, wee, talent-free wifie”…” Dec 4, 19:22
Willie on The cost of failure: “Strangled by their own Ptard on every metric policy, delivery, evaporated membership, donations, legacies and now voters, the SNP from…” Dec 4, 19:18
David Holden on The cost of failure: “God I hope the yoons pay their keyboard warriors by the word as with any luck our resident multi ID…” Dec 4, 19:13
Anthem on The cost of failure: “Totally agree Sarah. The fun is about to begin.” Dec 4, 19:12
