The video clip below is from Russia Today, which is in no way an impartial news outlet. However, it’s dangerous and unwise to reflexively dismiss any message purely because of the medium. Heck, even the Daily Mail tells the truth sometimes.
His views are expert and worth listening to. (The full interview is here.) Readers can, as ever, decide for themselves whether to believe him or David Cameron.
A convention of the world’s finest satirists pulling a 24-hour shift on Red Bull couldn’t come up with anything to beat Labour’s position on renewing the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system. Following an overwhelming vote at the Scottish Labour conference this afternoon, these are the current cut-out-and-keep standings:
Alert readers who follow our Twitter account, like all sensible people do, may have noticed we’ve had a few exchanges with the BBC presenter Andrew Neil since we published a couple of articles about his interview with the SNP’s Angus Robertson on The Sunday Politics last week.
The debate centred around a claim Neil put to Robertson:
“You go on and on, your party, about ‘austerity, austerity’ – how much has the Scottish Government budget been cut in the past five or six years? […] In real terms there’s been no cut.“
It seems fair to say the matter’s been in some dispute since then.
We’ve been having a bit of a ponder over the effective passing into law of English Votes for English Laws, which has been remarkably little mentioned in Scotland’s media today. The BBC website has nothing about it at all on its Scotland front page, forcing readers to dig down into the politics section for some coverage.
The Daily Record, as far as we can tell, doesn’t have a word about it – nothing in the print edition and nothing online, even though as we write this it’s gone 3pm the next day, around 21 hours after the vote was passed in the Commons. The Scottish Daily Mail relegates it to a small feature taking up barely a third of page 12, even though the move supposedly ends the Union.
The Scotsman gives it a tiny corner of the front page and half of page 6, and only the Herald treats it as a lead story, although even there it only gets a couple of columns, less space than that devoted to a picture of David Cameron and the Chinese president Li Xinping having a pint in a pub.
All of which is remarkable, because it’s arguably the most radical change made to the UK constitution since the creation of the devolved Parliaments 16 years ago, and perhaps more significant even than that.
At the weekend this site noted that on the BBC’s Sunday Politics, presenter Andrew Neil claimed that the Scottish Government’s budget had not been reduced in real terms in “the last five or six years”, and that therefore Scotland has not faced cuts.
But as we pointed out, the Scottish Government budget HAS been cut, year-on-year, since the Tories took office. The independent Fiscal Affairs Scotland assessed the cumulative reduction at a hefty 10%, or a little over £3bn a year.
We weren’t going to take Professor Adam Tomkins’ hysterical “NATMAGEDDON!” article for this week’s Spectator seriously enough to pull it apart line by line.
But once we’d wiped the tears from our eyes we thought we’d better do our job.
James on Vibecoding A Better World: “DaveL; Well, ye ken what they say; “once a Prick….”” Nov 10, 16:17
James on Vibecoding A Better World: “Way to go, Hatey! Site Prick Supreme! Last Monday, news broke about an underground torture chamber in a private house…” Nov 10, 16:16
DaveL on Vibecoding A Better World: “Walking a mile in your shoes we’d all be wearing SS uniforms and on our way to a party celebrating…” Nov 10, 15:27
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “Ah, c’moan noo, James. Everything you read on here is telling you more than you can know. Be honest with…” Nov 10, 13:44
James on Vibecoding A Better World: “Ah – the Yoon pile-on. Tells you everything you need to know. Keep going, Alf; you’ve got the twats rattled.” Nov 10, 13:27
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “On the subject of shoes, I’ve strived to live my life by the following words of wisdom: Never criticise someone…” Nov 10, 13:23
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “I guess, Alf, if you can replace the very real political and economic union between England and Scotland with a…” Nov 10, 13:17
Minceheid on Vibecoding A Better World: “Hatey McHateface says: 10 November, 2026 at 9:15 am In a just world, where karma rules, the building burners would…” Nov 10, 12:10
Alf Baird on Vibecoding A Better World: “Robin and others on the left are coming ever closer to realising that the key issue Scots face is not…” Nov 10, 11:32
Aidan on Vibecoding A Better World: “You are absolutely right Northcode – if you respond to a specific, evidenced-based argument quoting relevant facts and statistics with…” Nov 10, 11:31
Northcode on Vibecoding A Better World: “Here’s an argument framed almost entirely in quoted text. “Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not…” Nov 10, 10:51
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “McAlpine has been writing about the pointlessness of the SNP for some time now, so it’s not quite breaking news.…” Nov 10, 09:15
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “Every True Scot’s worst nightmare, MH. I mind like it was yesterday losing a fiver in 1986. May 27th it…” Nov 10, 08:23
Minceheid on Vibecoding A Better World: “Minds me of the time when a younger Minceheid discovered that the clappit-oot work jeans which he was wearing had…” Nov 10, 07:14
sarah on Vibecoding A Better World: “And Robin McAlpine has finally caught up with the Rev i.e. the SNP isn’t worth saving.” Nov 9, 21:43
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “The big, bad English barsturts may have thieved our wind, but somewhere in Bonny Scotia tonight, oor very ain world’s…” Nov 9, 19:14
James on Vibecoding A Better World: “Aye, Dan; it’s one sad bastart of a bot. Quite an achievement, though, to be on the wrang side of…” Nov 9, 18:59
Neil Waugh on Vibecoding A Better World: “Hey Rev Looks like you got a shout-out in the Herald today. Without getting a mention, of course. With her…” Nov 9, 16:03
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: ““understand that your population and its inevitable and longstanding ‘demographic manipulation’ and ‘perishing culture’ under colonial rule is a matter…” Nov 9, 14:00
Captain Caveman on Vibecoding A Better World: “Heh! Spot the luddite philistine eh – there’s me going on about “leather effect” watch straps and dials when OF…” Nov 9, 13:41
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “Liking it, CC. What about a moby app, monitoring your speech and texts in real time? Analysing for key indications…” Nov 9, 13:24
Alf Baird on Vibecoding A Better World: ““Many Scots just need to look at the strangers hanging around their High Streets” ….and the need to better understand…” Nov 9, 13:16
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: ““discrediting just about everyone on Wings” Some on here seem unable to distinguish between Wings and Wings BTL. I feel…” Nov 9, 13:12
Spartan 117 on Vibecoding A Better World: “A bizarre statement from Alf. Many of us don’t need to look to the media, state or “culture” for intellectual…” Nov 9, 13:04
Captain Caveman on Vibecoding A Better World: ““Jeezo, one day I’m the colonised, the next I’m the coloniser.” Maybe we could each wear a large “colonis-o-meter” dial…” Nov 9, 13:03
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “@ Aidan says: 9 November, 2026 at 11:05 am Excellent post. Many Scots just need to look at the strangers…” Nov 9, 12:51
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “““endless questions” posed by the colonizer” Jeezo, one day I’m the colonised, the next I’m the coloniser. Any chance of…” Nov 9, 12:41
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “Prick and twat, eh, Dan? Sounds like you’re one confused individual. Nae wonder ye hae tae mak all yer ain…” Nov 9, 12:35
Spartan 117 on Vibecoding A Better World: “It’s often said these days that the difference between a conspiracy theory and truth is about 6 months; from what…” Nov 9, 11:56
