The shoogly peg 1,141
Posted on
October 07, 2017 by
Chris Cairns
Archive for the ‘uk politics’
Reader’s digest 478
Posted on
October 04, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The accidental truth 278
Posted on
October 02, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Amid the horror of events in Catalonia yesterday, the Prime Minister of the UK – quite unintentionally – said something during an interview on the Andrew Marr Show which was highly pertinent not only to the Catalan referendum but to British domestic politics too. We thought it needed saving for the record.
The government in waiting 188
Posted on
September 25, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Labour will start their autumn conference in Brighton properly today, but the comrades have already been at the seaside over the weekend. We thought we’d see how the UK’s official alternative to the Tories was getting along.
We’re sure it’s a well-oiled machine.
All the alarms and no surprises 288
Posted on
September 24, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
This weekend’s Scottish Mail On Sunday carries a column from UK Cabinet Office minister Damian Green which, if anyone was still in any doubt, rings just about every warning bell imaginable in terms of the Tories’ plan to use Brexit to cripple devolution both in principle and in practice.
It’s tucked away on page 27 and doesn’t appear on the Mail’s website, but you can read the whole thing by clicking the pic above. And below, we’ve pulled out the key sentences that should have the blood of devolution-loving No voters running cold.
The boom blockers 219
Posted on
September 13, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
A story from the Financial Times this week revealed the UK government’s latest act of sabotage against the Scottish renewable energy industry. It’s just one more in a long line stretching back to just after the independence referendum, when a string of “Better Together” promises were broken almost the minute the No vote was secured.
It was a particularly weak argument in the first place – if there’s a market in the rUK for Scottish energy, it’ll be there whether Scotland is independent or not. But it unravelled faster than most as soon as it had done its job.
Not getting better together 99
Posted on
September 11, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The Scottish Tories came under fire yesterday for a crass attempt by Scotland’s least-elected MSP (2,062-vote Annie Wells) to hijack World Suicide Prevention Day with a blog complaining that more people were being prescribed anti-depressants, which for many are an effective and life-saving solution.
Scottish Labour duly joined in by attacking mental health provision in Scotland despite it having significantly more NHS consultant psychiatrists per head than anywhere else in the UK. (One for every 10,000 people in Scotland, compared to 1 for every 12,500 in England and one for every 17,000 in Wales and Northern Ireland.)
But is there any explanation for why more people are suffering mental health issues?
So once again, Unionist politicians are bitterly castigating the Scottish Government for problems caused by UK government policy. It’s enough to drive you mad.
Under test conditions 293
Posted on
September 06, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
One of the handiest things for truth-seeking political commentators (admittedly a rare breed) is that the three component nations that make up Great Britain currently all have different parties in government, so it’s always possible to measure the rhetoric of the main parties against their actions in the bit they’re actually in charge of.
So when Scottish Labour, for example, try to grab the credit for the SNP ending the public sector pay freeze by claiming that they’re “following Labour’s lead”, it’s a simple matter to look to Wales – where Labour run the Assembly – and note that the pay freeze there is very much still in place, with the Labour executive, unlike the Scottish Government, refusing to find the money to end it from its own budget.
(The same is true for many other policies the Scottish Government has implemented to fight Tory austerity, like free university tuition and mitigating the bedroom tax.)
And the Tories are no less hypocritical.
What we stand to lose 209
Posted on
September 05, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
A Scot living in the EU, and an EU national living in Scotland, discuss the implications of the Brexit being forced on Scotland against its will by the UK government.
The clock is ticking.
Another surprising development 215
Posted on
August 31, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
True nature 122
Posted on
August 29, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
What Tories are, in two images from one week.
Never forget it until the day you die, readers.
British news in British numbers 575
Posted on
August 18, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Number of references to “UK”, “Britain” or “British” in this story about salmon: 17
Number of references to “Scotland” or “Scottish”: 1 (in a quote)
Percentage of “UK” salmon industry that’s actually in Scotland: 96.3%
