Let’s talk about last night 189
Posted on
May 26, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Some considered thoughts on the evening’s events, then.
Yeah, nice work, Britain.
Archive for the ‘uk politics’
Bleeding obvious confirmed 173
Posted on
May 24, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
For quite some time now, and in particular since the turn of the year, this site’s been pointing out two things about polling for the 2015 UK general election.
One is that Labour’s lead has been in steady decline since 2012. The other is that the polls present a falsely optimistic picture for Ed Miliband’s party, as ultimately a significant proportion of UKIP support is likely to vote tactically, because only two people have a chance of becoming Prime Minister and only one of them is promising what UKIP supporters want above all else – a referendum on leaving the EU.
Pleasingly, on one level at least, today we were proved right.
People like us 89
Posted on
May 23, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Another UKIP voter. This one’s a bit more interesting.
Because the thing about UKIP is that – by their own admission – they don’t actually have any policies about anything other than cracking down on immigration and leaving the EU. Their official position is that the rest of their manifesto is blank paper, to be formulated on all other subjects at their summer conference.
Yet even in the complete absence of any other policies, voters are happy to tell TV cameras that the party “their political agenda suits my opinions”. What does that tell us? It tells us what the 2015 UK general election will be fought on, and it’s not Ed Miliband’s “cost of living crisis”.
Stay with us, Scotland 120
Posted on
May 23, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
And let’s make Britain great again.
(Labour only needed to gain three seats from 60 for control of Walsall. They failed.)
Well, this should be interesting 244
Posted on
May 22, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
An email we just got from the Office for National Statistics:
“Hello! The ONS is launching a compendium of statistics on 5 June which enables people to compare stats for Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland across subjects such as their economies and populations.”
We’re not entirely sure where they even got our address, but our curiosity’s piqued.
The Dishface Tapes 147
Posted on
May 15, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Watch (from 5m 50s) as David Cameron refuses to commit to having a bill for more powers for Holyrood in the first Queen’s Speech should he win the 2015 election.
Vote no, get nothing, and get it never.
The unionist case for independence 149
Posted on
May 15, 2014 by
Hamish Scott
The unionist case for Scots voting No in the independence referendum is encapsulated in the following quote from the website of “Better Together”, the official No campaign:
“Devolution offers us the best of both worlds: we have a strong Scottish Parliament taking important decisions about schools, hospitals and jobs AND we benefit from the strength, security and opportunities we can take advantage of being part of a bigger United Kingdom.”
The main problem with this argument is that there’s an alternative Union which would provide the Scottish Parliament with more powers to “take important decisions about” things and allow Scotland to “benefit from” and “take advantage of’” the “strength, security and opportunities” of being part of something far bigger than the UK itself.
The pounds in your pockets 108
Posted on
May 15, 2014 by
Scott Minto
Several of today’s papers run with the story that in giving evidence to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee in Westminster, George Osborne yesterday made the claim that Scots could run out of cash under independence, as Scottish banks would no longer be able to print their own pound notes guaranteed by the Bank of England.
Osborne’s argument is that Scottish notes are accepted as currency in the UK under the Banknote (Scotland) Act of 1845. However, this legislation would no longer apply after independence without a currency union, thereby making Scots notes worthless.
In what was an oddly nervous and evasive performance before the Committee – despite its extremely friendly questioning – it was one of the Chancellor’s stranger assertions.
The dangers of the kneejerk 162
Posted on
May 14, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We’re so used to reading doom-and-gloom predictions about the apocalyptic future that would await an independent Scotland, readers, that to our shame we occasionally fall foul of a trap we never stop warning you about – reading the headline of a story and not paying attention to the words below.
The one above is a case in point.
