Here’s Ed Miliband, giving a speech this morning to literally at least 20 Labour MPs, Labour MSPs, journalists and possibly a stray member of the public who accidentally walked through the wrong door in Clydebank, a place where Labour leaders used to address gatherings of thousands.
Unusually, Miliband took a few questions from the hacks, all of whom promptly wasted the opportunity by lobbing completely pointless softballs about coalitions and deals, all of which (a) have been asked a hundred times already, (b) were rendered moot by Alex Salmond on the Marr show yesterday, and (c) were only ever going to be batted away non-committally.
So here’s an actually worthwhile one they can ask instead next time.
We have to give Jim Murphy credit – on this week’s Sunday Politics he started off with the subtle, misleading but technically-accurate version of Labour’s line about the “biggest party forming the government”, which involves making the true but irrelevant observation that in the past it’s usually been the case. (Mainly because UK elections almost always give the biggest party a comfortable majority.)
But it only took a couple of minutes of questioning for the Scottish branch manager to lose his cool and resort to the comprehensively debunked flat-out lie again.
We thought you’d enjoy this clip from this morning’s Andrew Marr Show, readers. It came after a very sensible interview, in which Salmond had calmly and reasonably laid out the SNP’s view on events should there be a hung parliament this May with the former First Minister’s party holding the balance of power.
Tory minister Anna Soubry seems to be experiencing a degree of regret about having begged Scots to stay in the UK. The body language says as much as the words.
Sometimes the UK media is so soul-crushingly moronic, readers, that it’s hard to get out of bed in the morning. Nevertheless, we’re pretty sure we haven’t nodded off and woken up in 2017, so today’s papers must be even more idiotic than usual.
The Scottish Sun is around 80% the same newspaper as the English edition (with the bulk of the difference being accounted for by football coverage) so presumably the south-of-the-border version has a broadly similar view, right?
If we’re honest, readers, we almost never bother with BBC Scotland’s televised political coverage any more. We suspect the viewing figures for Scotland 2015 are down to fingers-and-toes territory now, and if last night’s edition – which we gritted our teeth and watched after noting the incredulous response on social media – is anything to go by, the state broadcaster is now using it to try out work-experience kids.
But we can cut fresh-faced new boy David Henderson (who suffered the indignity of being billed as Sarah Smith) a bit of slack for being outmanoeuvred by an experienced operator like Jim Murphy, who at one point in the show was actually interrogating the presenter rather than the other way round.
Kirsty Wark, regular anchor on the Corporation’s current-affairs flagship Newsnight, on the other hand, has no such excuses whatsoever.
A lot of people this week quoted a line supposedly from the former Labour cabinet minister Roy Jenkins, which runs “a statement is only interesting if a sane man could say the opposite”. We haven’t been able to verify if he ever really said that or not, but it doesn’t really matter, because it’s true either way.
James on Vibecoding A Better World: “You were looking in the mirror again while typing that last paragraph, weren’t you, petal?” Nov 10, 18:38
Aidan on Vibecoding A Better World: “Care to share a link from a reputable news source for this story? Ru**ian propaganda is typical for accusing their…” Nov 10, 17:03
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
