The Daily Mirror’s “Ampp3d” offshoot used to be a fantastic resource for statistical debunking, and sometimes still is. But ever since it’s been officially absorbed into the Mirror, it’s been increasingly deployed as a Labour spin tool.
Today it tries to juggle numbers to excuse Gordon Brown’s bargain-basement sale of the UK’s gold reserves in 1999 – a subject that was raised by an audience member on last night’s Question Time special and which we now know with certainty cost the country a whopping $19bn (or £12.5bn at current exchange rates).
We’ve added the emphasis on that last sentence. And it’s a fair enough point broadly speaking, although of course with the gold sell-off we’re looking back with the benefit of hindsight about what actually did happen, not trying to guess, so calling it “fantasy maths” is somewhat inaccurate, given that it’s exactly the opposite of a fantasy.
The trouble is that Ampp3d isn’t always so dismissive of predicting the future.
You’re probably going to see this misreported in the press quite a lot tomorrow. We thought we should get the whole thing up for the record, to avoid confusion.
We were as stunned as everyone else for a moment. On the Question Time special earlier tonight, Ed Miliband appeared to state that he’d rather not form a government (ie he’d let the Tories in) than do so with the support of the SNP. It sounded like he’d gone dramatically further than he’d ever gone before.
And then he realised what he’d done, and panicked.
It’s come awfully late, but we’ve finally got an answer to a question people have been asking Jim Murphy since last December.
In an interview with the BBC’s Gary Robertson this morning, the Scottish Labour regional manager told listeners that should he win the East Renfrewshire seat in next month’s election, he’d stay in the job for the full five-year term, but would also stand for election as a Holyrood MSP in 2016.
It’s from an exhibition at the Leiper Fine Art Gallery in West George Street in Glasgow (a firm friend of the Yes movement), featuring political artwork by Wings cartoonists Chris Cairns – creator of the pic above – and Greg Moodie, along with many others, of which you can buy originals to enhance your home.
It runs until 11 May, so you should probably pop along if you’re in the vicinity. We’re not saying we’ll definitely stab you if you don’t, but why take unnecessary risks?
There’s a tactical voting tool on the Telegraph website, which despite a somewhat loaded headline purports to even-handedly advise confused voters on the best course of action to take in their own constituency depending on whether they want to keep Ed Miliband or David Cameron OUT of 10 Downing Street.
We were a bit suspicious when we typed our Bath postcode in and asked to keep Cameron out, because it advised us to vote Labour even though it’s one of the safest Lib Dem seats in the country (with the Tories in 2nd) and Labour got just 3,251 votes in 2010, which is to say they’ve got absolutely no hope here.
And then we tried some Scottish seats, and things got a bit creepy.
We’re sure we’re not the only people for whom the hours are dragging and we wish the election would just hurry up and get here, but all the same we’re pretty sure that if there were 11 days left to save the UK on Sunday morning, then by Tuesday morning there should be fewer than 10 still to go.
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““However, i do agree the ethnolinguistic archeology stage is over… ” Thank fuck… I was a bit concerned that you…” Jan 25, 17:26
TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “….their true language….what a can of worms you open there, more than a can of worms a veritable chasm. However,…” Jan 25, 17:02
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: “The Scots language is not, by any reckoning, a dead language – nearly half of Scots living in Scotland still…” Jan 25, 16:28
Marie on Yelling at the tide: “James @1.10pm. Indeed James. McHatee has “form” when it comes to celebrating extra judicial killings.” Jan 25, 16:25
agentx on Yelling at the tide: “Not for me I have done it many times. (Maybe add a few spaces after your paste)” Jan 25, 16:02
Alf Baird on Yelling at the tide: ““the few who think like you?” As we know, “colonialism is based on psychology” (Memmi). At least half of Scots…” Jan 25, 15:44
TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “AI is neutral, it is sophisticated technology, but like the simple pencil it may be used to produce the sublime…” Jan 25, 14:30
Sven on Yelling at the tide: “Sorry “James”, please bear with an old duffer, I’m still not clear on if you feel being curious enough to…” Jan 25, 14:25
Aidan on Yelling at the tide: “@Alf – do you not feel that you are perpetuating the subjugation of Scotland by continuing to converse in the…” Jan 25, 14:23
TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “mair regairdand dhe quaestioun o langage restorans. https://lingodigest.com/when-a-language-wont-awaken-the-hard-truths-of-linguistic-revitalization/#google_vignette given the right tools, imagination, invention, the appropriate «can do»mindset and now…” Jan 25, 14:17
agentx on Yelling at the tide: “Sven says: 25 January, 2026 at 11:27 am Can’t really say it’s much of a surprise that in the US…” Jan 25, 14:17
James Cheyne on Yelling at the tide: “TURABDIN, AI as a assist tool in language is interesting, rather than attaining a higher intellectual grade than humans themselves…” Jan 25, 14:02
James Cheyne on Yelling at the tide: “Sven, That very question you asked of the messenger rather than of the message is exactly how modern psyops works,…” Jan 25, 13:34
Insider on Yelling at the tide: ““Get a grip, Alf. Why don’t you demand that the citizens of Venezuela, say, stop speaking Spanish? Brazil now. Shouldn’t…” Jan 25, 13:15
sam on Yelling at the tide: “And none of what you write in the first two lines happened.” Jan 25, 13:13
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““Who in Scotland really gives a shit about speaking Scots, apart from the few who think like you?” Oor name…” Jan 25, 12:27
Sven on Yelling at the tide: ““The mind that is curious enough to apply questions to serious events is seldom a useful tool.” I’m maybe misunderstanding…” Jan 25, 12:26
TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “Cherish the gifts of the past, but do not overlay those gifts with personal additions. Give the gifts room to…” Jan 25, 11:58
TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “As an enthusiast for the potential of so called Artificial Intelligence i link to the following article on an aspect…” Jan 25, 11:39
Sven on Yelling at the tide: “Can’t really say it’s much of a surprise that in the US if you aim a car or a handgun…” Jan 25, 11:27
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Get a grip, Alf. Why don’t you demand that the citizens of Venezuela, say, stop speaking Spanish? Brazil now. Shouldn’t…” Jan 25, 11:07
James Cheyne on Yelling at the tide: “Should we just accept all the turmoil and chaos happening simultaniosly around the world or should we question why? The…” Jan 25, 11:02
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “@Marie Calm down dear. It’s a white guy got killed. No boxes ticked. Nothing to see here. Even the previous…” Jan 25, 10:57
James Cheyne on Yelling at the tide: “And now we can add AI imaging into the mix for confusing the narrative and directional purpose of goal.” Jan 25, 10:51
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Sure, Willie. When you encounter an opinion you disagree with, then that’s abuse. I don’t mind so much that this…” Jan 25, 10:48
David Holden on Yelling at the tide: “I think You tube needs to work on its targeted ads as while watching a quite impressive often foul mouthed…” Jan 25, 10:46
James Cheyne on Yelling at the tide: “How many people are fallen prey to these multiple provided situations of psychological conditioning..” Jan 25, 10:45
James Cheyne on Yelling at the tide: “The question is who is funding all the disruptions, From just stop oil, Black lives matter, Antifa, Gender ideology Climate…” Jan 25, 10:39
