At a time of unprecedented political chaos and uncertainty, just about the only thing you can still count on is that for any given situation, senior Labour figures will issue proclamations both firmly in favour of it and stoutly opposed to it, usually the same day.
So the stories below, which are respectively from today’s Scotsman and today’s Times, won’t come as much of a shock to anyone.
But against the odds, we think we’ve made some sense of it.
All political discourse is plagued with genuine imbeciles, of course. But what’s far more depressing is when educated and normally perceptive people merely act like imbeciles for money, such as the case of Alex Massie in the Sunday Times today.
Because for the last two years, commentators who ought to know better have insisted in presenting Scotland’s choice as between Brexit or Brexit plus independence, and solemnly concluding that the uncertainties and risks of the latter being piled on top of those of the former prove that independence is no solution.
And we don’t care to have our intelligence insulted in that way.
We’re so far beyond mere “scraping the barrel” now.
Unhappy with polls based on asking the simple and clear question “Should Scotland be an independent country?”, and which have been stubbornly refusing to show any movement against independence, our dear old pals at Scotland In Union recently commissioned one of their own seeking to muddy the waters.
Their brainwave was to try to confuse respondents by tangling up the usual indyref responses (firmly and consistently set in people’s minds over the last seven years as “Yes” and “No”) with the responses associated with the EU referendum (“Remain” and “Leave”), in the hope that Scots – who of course are heavily in favour of Remain – would be fooled and/or brainwashed into saying something different.
And it very very slightly worked, right up to the point where it fell apart.
If we were to write an article every time Murdo Fraser said something moronic, we’d have to rename this site Wings Over Murdo Fraser, and drink an awful lot of Red Bull to be able to cover it all.
Stuff like this, for example, is almost too easy.
43% (actually 45.3% excluding Don’t Knows) is considerably more than Murdo Fraser has ever achieved in an election, either himself or as part of a party. His average over the seven elections he’s contested and lost since 1999 is just 30.1%, and until a blip in 2016 it had been falling lower and lower each time, as people have watched how he performed as an MSP and got less and less keen on the idea.
That’s still actually slightly more than the 28.6% his party secured in Scotland at the last election, though, in what was nevertheless generally regarded as an unusually impressive performance. Two years earlier they gathered just 14.9% of the votes cast.
Yet neither Fraser nor the Tories disappear for a generation every time Scotland tells them to go and get stuffed. Fraser keeps trousering an MSP’s fat salary despite two decades of unbroken and unequivocal personal rejection from the electorate, even as he demands that the independence movement gives up after losing ONE vote.
But in his defence, his leader’s not setting him much of an example.
Peter McAvoy on Believers In The Ruins: “When Independence is declared whether after a referendum or UDI who would recognise Scottish Independence and for what reason,and how…” Aug 14, 01:34
sarah on Believers In The Ruins: “@ BLMac “Scotland is lacking..a leader who the enemy fear…”. I’d be happy with any leader i.e. with enough personality,…” Aug 13, 22:24
BLMac on Believers In The Ruins: “Looking at the history of independence movements what Scotland is lacking is a right nasty bastard as leader, ie a…” Aug 13, 22:00
sarah on Believers In The Ruins: “O/T: Mark Hirst fundraiser today for £5000 to pursue his case against the Crown Office for malicious prosecution. The crowdfunder…” Aug 13, 21:33
Breeks on Believers In The Ruins: “The weakness of a UDI isn’t necessarily constitutional legitimacy, nor political justification, both of which I consider favourable towards Scotland’s…” Aug 13, 21:14
Dan on Anatomy Of A Grift: “Trouble is Stu that there aren’t that many people btl now… That’s because 8 years of an awful lot of…” Aug 13, 20:17
Aidan on Believers In The Ruins: “Aye thats it – there’s about 15-20 regular posters here, the plan is to bore than to death until what?…” Aug 13, 20:10
Chas on Believers In The Ruins: “Made me laugh Kenny. Alf has a plan-what is it? Bleating on about colonialism every fucking day is not a…” Aug 13, 19:40
Kenny on Believers In The Ruins: “I happen to be encouraged by Prof Alf Baird’s ‘shite’ – he has a plan, wtf do you have, Salmond’s…” Aug 13, 19:16
TURABDIN on The Other Kind Of Winning: “glad to find below the liners with a sense of proportion not to mention a sense of humour. have this…” Aug 13, 18:28
sam on The Other Kind Of Winning: “I may be wrang but I think Turabdin lives in Scotland. a wee bitty racial stereotyping going on with you.…” Aug 13, 17:49
100%Yes on Believers In The Ruins: “Yes, and it can only improve and it doesn’t need the backing of the SNP to support it.” Aug 13, 16:58
Chas on Believers In The Ruins: “I owe the learned professor an apology. He is clearly suffering from dementia as this is the only reason why…” Aug 13, 16:41
Hatey McHateface on Believers In The Ruins: “So that’s what we’re doing, Alf, we’re following the decolonisation template. Crivens! Care to provide a concrete example? Maybe a…” Aug 13, 16:40
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Perhaps you need to educate yourself, TURABDIN. You might discover that the Earth-Moon system is unique within our solar system,…” Aug 13, 16:13
Alf Baird on Believers In The Ruins: ““Written in the post colonial textbooks” Correct Hatey, Scots are, sure as Celts winning the league, following the ‘decolonization template’…” Aug 13, 16:12
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “An interesting idea, Chas, but in a country where the immigrants are doing an ever increasing share of the jobs,…” Aug 13, 15:47
Hatey McHateface on Believers In The Ruins: “Listen to Professor Baird. He’ll tell you that Fanon, Memmi, Cesaire, Elkins and the Jonesy boyo predicted all this was…” Aug 13, 15:37
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “All very well but where aboot’s this genocide at? Thing is, if there’s a real genocide ongoing, none of the…” Aug 13, 15:31
Captain Caveman on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Can you imagine the scale of brass neck required to approach a hard-pressed charity for a new sofa, when you’re…” Aug 13, 15:28
Alf Baird on Believers In The Ruins: ““I know the numbers who support UDI are low” One third is not that bad considering colonial rule inevitably results…” Aug 13, 15:10
Morgatron on Believers In The Ruins: “Being a Clyde supporter, I never got the whole ugly sister bitterness. But being an independance supporter my whole adult…” Aug 13, 15:03
100%Yes on Believers In The Ruins: “Scotland’s Fucked!!! The National in my opinion is having to twist the truth because it knows its failed as an…” Aug 13, 14:41
robertkknight on Believers In The Ruins: “Ugly sisters everywhere you look! Tommy: “Doesn’t it make you feel proud to be Scottish?” Renton: “It’s shite… etc.” Aug 13, 14:30
robertkknight on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Indeed… Full-time (38hr week) employment on the (voluntary) Living Wage gives a gross annual salary of £26,600 A gross annual…” Aug 13, 14:26
Rev. Stuart Campbell on Anatomy Of A Grift: “We’ve been covering this topic for eight years now, so it seems rather unlikely that there are many people here…” Aug 13, 14:24
duncanio on Believers In The Ruins: “The SNP and British Labour in Scotland are like two unipeds laying claim to a pair of ragged trousers.” Aug 13, 14:18
