The figure below is my own, but it’s also remarkably typical:
Click the pic to get yours.
(It actually feels like a lot more than that – quite possibly because I have, in fact, not for one minute of my entire life been represented by a government at Westminster – or anywhere else, come to that – that I voted for, unless you count the token presence of the Lib Dems in the 2010-15 coalition. Which I don’t, because they immediately betrayed every policy and principle for which I’d voted for them in the first place.)
For Scotland, democracy in the UK simply doesn’t work.
There’s a new hot buzz-phrase in the Yoonstream: “GERS deniers”.
It’s actually been around for quite a few months – coincidentally since this site started exposing the true nature of the figures – but has become a constant mantra recently, in particular since the intervention of an actual proper expert who doesn’t sell cat litter for a living, Professor Richard Murphy.
Ever since he set tongues and tails wagging by writing a series of hard-hitting articles for his widely-renowned Tax Research UK blog last week, rubbishing the quality of the data, Unionists have been in an increasingly shrill flap about it.
We saw this exchange on Twitter this morning, involving left-wing Labour activist Eoin Clarke, a reader, and Scottish Labour list MSP Elaine Smith.
Smith professed to find it “unbelievable” and “scary” that the reader thought he’d had Tory governments for most of his lifetime. (We asked him how old he was and he said 34, which means he’s had Tory governments for 62% of his life, so that checks out.)
But it’s a standard Scottish Labour line that there’s no real difference between Scottish and English voters in terms of favouring left-wing politics, so we thought we’d just quickly check the arithmetic on that. The results are unlikely to shock you.
It’s important to note, firstly, that the version of Sadiq Khan’s speech to the Scottish Labour conference he tweeted on Saturday morning simply flat-out said that Scottish nationalists were the same as racists and sectarian bigots. Its meaning was as clear as crystal to the Daily Record, a newspaper which is hardly hostile to Khan’s party.
“No difference” is a stark and unambiguous phrase. The speech did not contain the hastily-added qualifiers about “in this respect” and “of course I’m not saying the SNP are racist” which suddenly appeared when he read it out onstage that afternoon.
The reliably-wise Stephen Bush of The New Statesman said something perceptive yesterday on the subject of an EU referendum, although it applies much more widely.
It’s a view we’ve held for many years, most often in relation to UK governments ruling with huge majorities won on pretty tiddly pluralities of the vote (often in the mid-30%s), where the bulk of the electorate has no defence against a party it didn’t vote for.
Despite an electoral system that makes such events far rarer, the phenomenon crops up a lot in Scotland too, and both sides are guilty, often on the same subject. Scottish employment figures, for example, alternate with almost metronomic regularity between being higher/lower than those in the rest of the UK, and whichever it is in any given month one side or the other will trumpet it as conclusive and permanent proof that Scotland’s governance is better/worse than that of London.
(Even though Holyrood in fact has almost no power over the economy, so deserves little of either the blame or credit, whichever applies that month.)
Below is part of a segment from Monday’s edition of Good Morning Scotland (from 2h 35m at the link beneath the clip), which featured an interview with Professor Allyson Pollock, an extremely experienced academic in the field of healthcare on both sides of the border who so far as we know has no dog in the Scottish constitutional fight.
Jamie on Binfire Of The Vanities: “Hatey, I was trying to talk to you but I realise now you are either German or English, and I…” May 5, 22:50
Hatey McHateface on Binfire Of The Vanities: “Here you go, James, have a fish. Three days since it was landed. Been in the sun quite a bit.…” May 5, 22:42
Hatey McHateface on Binfire Of The Vanities: “I kind of skimmed your steaming piles, Confused, but glad I stuck it out to the end. Great news about…” May 5, 22:36
Hatey McHateface on Binfire Of The Vanities: “You talking to me? Jeezo, and you were the one complaining about “flat earth level of trolling pish”! But seeing…” May 5, 22:19
Bibo on Binfire Of The Vanities: “@ 100%Yes Ali won’t be back. You can tell he is totally indoctrinated and lacking in critical thinking if he…” May 5, 22:05
James on Binfire Of The Vanities: “The pair of them are sharing a caravan in Margate…. One bedroom.” May 5, 22:05
Confused on Binfire Of The Vanities: “it’s rude to mock someone for their looks, even if unfortunate https://archive.ph/eF9Eo sometimes you wish the sons of satan, enemies…” May 5, 22:02
Cynicus on Binfire Of The Vanities: ““Surely there must be one SNP politician who actually wants Scotland to regain its independence and is willing to put…” May 5, 22:01
Confused on Binfire Of The Vanities: “www.youtube.com/watch?v=W10xuGFYmM8 that is funny, but this next is hilarious, metal-guru polishes his brassneck and puts it on display https://archive.ph/HDj4H -…” May 5, 21:59
Mark Beggan on Binfire Of The Vanities: “They aint gettin off that easy. They still have to pay their share of the slave reparations and give back…” May 5, 21:58
Confused on Binfire Of The Vanities: “while its established TONY BLAIR is a cunt, a spawn of satan, who drove the nail into the coffin of…” May 5, 21:56
Confused on Binfire Of The Vanities: “the trouble with -cunts- being the devils own, is they never seem to go away; a bit of decent weather,…” May 5, 21:55
Mark Beggan on Binfire Of The Vanities: “So it’s the Beast cage for Linden. Only took ten years for justice to be served.” May 5, 21:49
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Binfire Of The Vanities: “RÓISÍN MURPHY: ‘FRIENDSHIPS COLLAPSED OVER PUBERTY BLOCKER CRITICISM’ (Republic of Ireland) Singer Róisín Murphy has spoken out for the first…” May 5, 21:47
Sven on Binfire Of The Vanities: “Mark Beggan @ 21.11. Well, definitely not with me, Mark (for which small grace I’m sure you are duly grateful).…” May 5, 21:31
Aidan on Binfire Of The Vanities: “No James – I have spent the last few days up in Svalbard. Nice to jump off my final plane…” May 5, 21:22
Doug on Binfire Of The Vanities: “James Connolly joined the British army. Michael Collins [and other republicans] worked for the GPO in London. Sir Roger Casement,…” May 5, 21:20
Mark Beggan on Binfire Of The Vanities: “Socrates said; To do is to be. Plato said; To be is to do and. Frank Sinatra said; Do Be…” May 5, 21:11
Doug on Binfire Of The Vanities: “As long as Swinney remains leader of the SNP there will be no progress on independence. Vote [or don’t vote]…” May 5, 21:07
agentx on Binfire Of The Vanities: “I predict that SNP and Reform UK Ltd will not perform as well as the polls predict.” May 5, 20:48
Jamie on Binfire Of The Vanities: “If you have so much pity for the people of the flag on my profile, why don’t you go and…” May 5, 20:33
Hatey McHateface on Binfire Of The Vanities: ““each one is free and independent when he/she realises it” Let me start a wee list: 1) Destroy your UK…” May 5, 20:27
Hatey McHateface on Binfire Of The Vanities: ““at least put some effort into it” You’re flying the flag of a country whose leaders have pursued policies that…” May 5, 19:53
Sven on Binfire Of The Vanities: “Mark Beggan @ 19.18 “Indy is finished before the vote begins.” To be is to do, Mark. The practise is…” May 5, 19:47
100%Yes on Binfire Of The Vanities: “I see Ali hasn’t returned your call. I’ll answer for him, their not and never will the SNP & Greens…” May 5, 19:36
Northcode on Binfire Of The Vanities: ““assimilation aye fails when peoples remain, even ‘the dregs of a rusted culture’ (Fanon) enough to breath life anew.” I…” May 5, 19:21
Captain Caveman on Binfire Of The Vanities: “On the contrary YL. The Welsh are a lovely, friendly and most welcoming people (as indeed are the Scots, present…” May 5, 19:20
Mark Beggan on Binfire Of The Vanities: “Indy is finished before the vote begins. Gloating is for fools.” May 5, 19:18
Jamie on Binfire Of The Vanities: “Hatey, your trolling is really low effort and lame. I was trolling people and got bored of trolling online before…” May 5, 19:17
