According to Mandy Rhodes of Holyrood Magazine, this afternoon Johann Lamont issued a press release bizarrely calling on all supporters of “progressive” politics to unite against the SNP and UKIP. Now, that’s fairly mindboggling in itself in all sorts of ways, but we can’t help wondering whether she ran it past her deputy first.
Because that tweet raises a whole host of questions.
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Tags: arithmetic fail
Category
comment, disturbing, scottish politics, uk politics
Some considered thoughts on the evening’s events, then.
Yeah, nice work, Britain.
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Tags: Kinnock Factor
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analysis, comment, europe, scottish politics, uk politics
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.
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Tags: Kinnock Factor
Category
analysis, psephology, stats, uk politics
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”.
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comment, europe, uk politics, video
And let’s make Britain great again.
(Labour only needed to gain three seats from 60 for control of Walsall. They failed.)
Category
uk politics, video
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.
Category
stats, uk politics
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.
Tags: vote no get nothing
Category
scottish politics, uk politics, video
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.
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Tags: Hamish Scott
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comment, europe, scottish politics, uk politics
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.
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Tags: misinformationScott Minto
Category
analysis, history, scottish politics, uk politics
