Much has been made this week of the Scottish Government’s decision to award a water services contract for council buildings, schools, prisons and some other public facilities to an English company (Anglian Water) over the bid by Business Stream, a wholly-owned subsidiary of publicly-owned Scottish Water.
Opponents of the SNP have claimed that the awarding of this contract means that the Scottish Government has somehow privatised the provision of water in Scotland.
Readers may not be completely astonished to learn it’s not true.
In the spirit of straight talking, honest politics, I’m going to put my cards on the table right now: I’m a Corbyn voter. As a classic hand-wringing, middle-class, North London leftie, the mad fact of Jeremy Corbyn’s candidacy compelled me to register as a Labour supporter; empowered me to bet £3 on the foolish notion that Something More might somehow, suddenly, be achievable.
In no small part, I was inspired to do this by what happened in Scotland this year. I’m sure many of us were: finally, a viable political force south of Berwick was willing to show two fingers to austerity.
And if anyone called us out, if they told us we were crazy and that nobody would vote for such a “loony”, “radical”, “hard-left” candidate? Well, then we had a perfect example just north of the border to throw back at them. The SNP had hoovered up 50% of the vote on an anti-austerity ticket, and after all, aren’t we one nation? One people fighting for a common cause, et cetera? Couldn’t we put labels aside and work together?
This is shadow Chancellor John McDonnell speaking to the Labour Party conference in Brighton just a few minutes ago (immediately prior to rather presumptuously inviting the Scottish electorate to “come home to Labour”):
We don’t recall those things happening. We feel sure that if they had, they would have been mentioned in the papers. Can any readers help us out?
The editor of the New Statesman just tweeted this image, trailing an interview with Jim Murphy, who alert readers may recall led Scottish Labour for a few months this year before its apocalyptic disaster of a general election campaign which saw it lose 40 of the 41 Scottish seats it won in 2010:
Oh, wait – maybe he’s trying to claim the credit for it.
So we weren’t expecting this. The Telegraph have sent us a reply after we complained to IPSO about this. It’s worth a read, so we thought we’d let you see it.
There’s a remarkable story on the BBC News website today about the latest findings of the British Election Study, last seen destroying the myth that fear of the SNP damaged Labour in England. The piece focuses on the discovery that being seen as “too left-wing” does NOT, in fact, cost Labour votes, despite the hysterical warnings of supposedly leftist pundits.
But there’s a more startling fact buried right at the end.
Aidan on Anatomy Of A Grift: “I doubt it, they’ll probably make you drink “James’” bath water.” Aug 15, 15:12
Northcode on Believers In The Ruins: “Here’s another observation following on from my last comment that folk might find interesting… or not. A resonance-chamber collapse is…” Aug 15, 12:12
Captain Caveman on Anatomy Of A Grift: “@Northy Well, if the “chamber has collapsed” as you put it, maybe look to your own personal culpability in that,…” Aug 15, 12:10
Confused on Believers In The Ruins: “question on all our lips : did black einstein FAKE his own death? – he faked everything else … NB…” Aug 15, 11:56
Captain Caveman on Anatomy Of A Grift: ““That’s it, off to the gulag for you CC, reckon you’ll get 5 years hard labour” Ooh, well, I’m quaking…” Aug 15, 11:54
robertkknight on Believers In The Ruins: “Much wringing of hands shall follow. Any death by suicide is tragic – to feel that you’ve no option other…” Aug 15, 11:29
Northcode on Anatomy Of A Grift: “This comment trail is mildly interesting in terms of online space behavioural patterns. Here’s my analysis. Dan’s reply: the mature…” Aug 15, 11:13
Hatey McHateface on Believers In The Ruins: “Aye, Sam, hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists prop up Scotland’s economy every year as they flock to visit our…” Aug 15, 11:03
Hatey McHateface on Believers In The Ruins: “The new Floyd? £20 says that’s where this will go next.” Aug 15, 10:37
Hatey McHateface on Believers In The Ruins: “FOFA as the yoof say. Spend years and every available billion in foreign aid on raining down rockets on the…” Aug 15, 10:33
Aidan on Anatomy Of A Grift: “That’s it, off to the gulag for you CC, reckon you’ll get 5 years hard labour for: – sewing discord…” Aug 15, 10:27
Captain Caveman on Anatomy Of A Grift: “Dan’s still grizzling into his coffee, I see. Good grief, it’s so pathetic.” Aug 15, 09:28
TURABDIN on Believers In The Ruins: “TRAGIC….but a guy «leader of the free west», even more delusional, dangerously delusional, occupies the White House in a veil…” Aug 15, 09:12
Aidan on Anatomy Of A Grift: ““It gets absolutely nowhere because the same obvious disingenuous disruptors just jump in and shite all over it. That’s mostly…” Aug 15, 09:01
Dan on Anatomy Of A Grift: “As Aidan states, the genderwoowoo is one of the most important issues in Scottish politics. I’ve never denied that and…” Aug 15, 08:33
Grace Green on Believers In The Ruins: “You have not read the whole report. The mother reported that on awaking she found the baby purple, and she…” Aug 15, 07:44
Young Lochinvar on Believers In The Ruins: “HMcH @ 2.11 Sorry, but that is as disingenuous an argument as it was when first put about by Unionists.…” Aug 15, 00:59
Oneliner on Believers In The Ruins: “At least 1 of the 56,675 was schooled in covert surveillance.” Aug 14, 23:26
aLurker on Believers In The Ruins: “@sam “Royal Commission on Scottish Affairs 1952-1954 Report.” https://openlibrary.org/books/OL21768224M/Royal_Commission_on_Scottish_Affairs_1952-1954_Report.” Aug 14, 21:56
Chas on Believers In The Ruins: “I will ask again Alf, who would you replace the dozen or so hapless SNP minosters with following Independence. Some…” Aug 14, 21:36
Confused on Believers In The Ruins: “every nite is bonfire night in the g4z4 strip; why oh why did those people build their houses within the…” Aug 14, 21:03
Confused on Believers In The Ruins: “main will one day have to admit to the undeniable logic of every ANGLO subhuman removed en-masse from the blessed…” Aug 14, 21:02
agentx on Believers In The Ruins: ““The former University of Cambridge professor at the centre of a plagiarism row has been found dead. Jason Arday was…” Aug 14, 20:57
sam on Believers In The Ruins: “It’s a reply to your post- “Aidan says: 14 August, 2026 at 11:09 am This was considered by the UN…” Aug 14, 20:53
sam on Believers In The Ruins: “Turabdin, Below you see the reply from Wee Johnny Main. It is a good example of coat trailing, which is…” Aug 14, 20:41
Southernbystander on Believers In The Ruins: “Totally inventing a scenario and then a reaction to it by the person you want to attack, then castigating him…” Aug 14, 20:32
sam on Believers In The Ruins: “I’m very pleased to find my posts annoy you even though that is not my intention, not least because I…” Aug 14, 20:27
sam on Believers In The Ruins: “Wee johnny Main, Your posts are also repetitively boring, always banging on about immigrants. Scotland has always had immigrants. “Using…” Aug 14, 20:23
