Today the Scottish Parliament spent several hours heatedly debating a motion to call for a second Section 30 order to enable a new independence referendum (several more will follow tomorrow before the vote). We watched all of it so you didn’t have to, and are delighted to present you with a few clips that probably won’t make the news.
On such a momentous topic, this was the intervention that Scottish Labour list MSP Monica Lennon felt was the most pressing issue to raise, for example:
We’re very touched, obviously, and will add it to our file of other mentions in the chamber and elsewhere. But there were probably more important things to discuss.
Here’s the Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, speaking to BBC News this morning and giving a striking illustration of the term “dancing on the head of a pin”.
Comically, his excuse for demanding another referendum on leaving the EU while opposing a second Scottish independence referendum is that his new EU vote would be a completely different question – he’d be asking voters if they wanted to accept the Brexit deal and exit from the EU (which one might reasonably summarise on the ballot paper as “Leave”), or to refuse to approve the deal and stay in the EU (or put another way, “Remain”).
Glad we cleared that up, then. But then it got weirder.
We joke, of course. The Spanish government has made this position abundantly plain several times over a number of years, and it still doesn’t stop idiot Yoons (and media pundits who should know better) from spouting it.
But this time, in the flesh, it’s really quite hard to spin a way out of.
It’s important to note, firstly, that the version of Sadiq Khan’s speech to the Scottish Labour conference he tweeted on Saturday morning simply flat-out said that Scottish nationalists were the same as racists and sectarian bigots. Its meaning was as clear as crystal to the Daily Record, a newspaper which is hardly hostile to Khan’s party.
“No difference” is a stark and unambiguous phrase. The speech did not contain the hastily-added qualifiers about “in this respect” and “of course I’m not saying the SNP are racist” which suddenly appeared when he read it out onstage that afternoon.
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Northcode on Governing For Beginners: “Sir John Glubb says this about the citizens at the heart of once great empires that are in their death…” Jan 12, 19:54
100%Yes on Governing For Beginners: “You can’t even make the SNP membership see sense on Independence never mind anything else. The SNP and its membership…” Jan 12, 19:48
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sarah on Governing For Beginners: “Thank you, Rev – another clear explanation and description of the current state of our existence. Direct democracy would improve…” Jan 12, 16:26
Alf Baird on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “MacDiarmid was certainly conscious of the reality of colonialism, identity and loss of nationality for Scots under English domination, as…” Jan 12, 16:24
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James Cheyne on Governing For Beginners: “Stu. Very astute analyses to the position the politicians have reached mentally. The other side of that coin, Is if…” Jan 12, 15:59
