While we get on with some tinkering behind the scenes in the absence of any Scottish political news – we have an exciting new comment system and the Contact form finally works again! – readers may wish to enjoy the full marathon three-and-a-quarter hours of last month’s fun indyref anniversary event at the Glasgow Science Centre.
In many ways, the fabricated, hysterical furore of Humza Yousaf Vs Elon Musk is the ultimate in summer-silly-season politics stories.
Absurdly plainly, the former First Minister ISN’T going to take any legal action against the billionaire owner of Twitter. He only likes bullying small nurseries, and even then he doesn’t follow through. He didn’t even sue us for calling him racist a few months ago, so there’s zero chance he’s going to square up to the world’s richest man.
We’ve been off for a little break in the country, and as far as we can tell we’ve missed absolutely nothing in the moribund world of Scottish politics. We did, however, arrive back just in time for something mildly interesting, or at least revealing.
It’s the latest episode of a new podcast by veteran Scottish political journalist and broadcaster Bernard Ponsonby and jobbing opinion columnist Alex Massie, inventively titled The Ponsonby And Massie Podcast.
The first 35 minutes or so weren’t very noteworthy, other than the curious omission – when predicting the makeup of the next Scottish Government – of the idea of a Labour-SNP coalition, which to this site remains by far the most practical and logical outcome of the 2026 Holyrood election.
It’s both a comprehensive refresher of events surrounding the Scottish Government’s conspiracy to convict Alex Salmond on false charges, and a sharp reminder of why Scotland is, in truth, not yet a country in a fit administrative state for independence.
But one part in particular ought to be the headline news tonight.
We watched Question Time last night for the first time in about nine years, and this comment from SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn raised an eyebrow.
Because we couldn’t remember ANY times that Flynn had publicly expressed any problems with the Scottish Greens during their governing alliance.
Graf Midgehunter on The Unbargain Bin: ““Dynamic Motivations Training” Guidelines for Success by John Swinney Times book editor: “An utterly amazing chronic of wit and readability,…” Nov 23, 14:18
Dan on The Unbargain Bin: “The Chronicles of Roddick. Swindler’s List – An explanation on the D’Hondt voting system and scams to gain advantage. Distraction…” Nov 23, 13:58
peter on The Unbargain Bin: “The Crucible, by Nicola Sturgeon featuring A,B,C,D,E,F,G and H .” Nov 23, 13:55
TURABDIN on The Unbargain Bin: “HOLY SHIT! :THE JOY OF COOL a memoir by Jay Swinney” Nov 23, 13:47
sarah on The Unbargain Bin: “Spilt my tea due to the Murrell title!” Nov 23, 13:33
Michael Laing on The Unbargain Bin: “What an absurd comment. Chris Cairns’ cartoons are frequently extremely sharp and clever and can express in a single image…” Nov 23, 13:33
Garavelli Princip on The Unbargain Bin: “Suitably cryptic and pungent” Nov 23, 13:30
sarah on The Unbargain Bin: “I’m not forgetting any of them, Dan, and muse daily over what can be done to free us from their…” Nov 23, 13:27
Astonished on The Unbargain Bin: “Excellent, as always, Chris. Stu, could ye no hide his passport ? My suggestions – “My Life as a Klingon”…” Nov 23, 13:17
Mia on The Unbargain Bin: ““The man in the back seat” By Neil Gray” Nov 23, 13:15
robertkknight on The Unbargain Bin: “Welcome back Mr Cairns. 🙂” Nov 23, 13:15
Jon Drummond on The Unbargain Bin: ““The Grifters Almanac” by John Nicholson, Pete Wishart, Alyn Smith, Stephen Flynn, Kirsty Blackman, S.A Somerville et al” Nov 23, 13:12
Morgatron on The Unbargain Bin: “Kezia Dugdales aptly named book 1001 things I do to make my hair look like a helmet.” Nov 23, 13:08
Jon Drummond on The Unbargain Bin: ““The benefits of grease” by Mhairi Black.” Nov 23, 13:08
Morgatron on The Unbargain Bin: “Belter Chris . Had a real chuckle at their books.” Nov 23, 13:06
Jon Drummond on The Unbargain Bin: “Ooft! Harsh but true. 🙂” Nov 23, 13:05
Jon Drummond on The Unbargain Bin: “Bet you’re a laugh at a party. It’s called satire. And that’s what Chris does every Saturday. it’s his job.…” Nov 23, 13:04
Jon Drummond on The Unbargain Bin: ““The Enjoyment of being Gormless and Vacuous” by Shona Robison.” Nov 23, 12:58
Breeks on The Unbargain Bin: ““…writing a memoir.” Sturgeon? A memoir? At least it will be brief…” Nov 23, 12:52
TURABDIN on The Unbargain Bin: “Jay Rayner has quit the Guardian/Observer with accusations of antisemitism. Pity no one of consequence writes for The National.” Nov 23, 12:48
Hatey McHateface on Telling the truth by mistake: “The site host supports Scottish Indy. Many of the posters do too. Some of the posters hijack this forum to…” Nov 23, 12:46
znovak on The Unbargain Bin: “Bankruptcy Basics for Politicians by John Swinney Sense, sensibility and GRC by Mridul Wadhwa” Nov 23, 12:43
Mia on The Unbargain Bin: ““My imaginary Y chromosome and I: a journey from space” By K. Blackman” Nov 23, 12:36
Mac on The Unbargain Bin: “The Life and Times of Peter Murrell By Nicolas Bagman” Nov 23, 12:35
Hatey McHateface on Telling the truth by mistake: “I’ve got a hole in mine, but I only noticed when it started snowing. Defo wasn’t there last winter. And…” Nov 23, 12:29