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.
Five minutes and 51 seconds, to be precise, is how long David Mundell, Secretary of State for Scotland, spent frantically quacking out meaningless noise on this morning’s Sunday Politics Scotland in order to avoid answering a simple Yes/No question until the interview ran out of airtime.
We could quibble with presenter Gordon Brewer making the assertion that a Section 30 order would in fact be necessary for a second referendum (something which has never been established in law or conceded by the Scottish Government, with strong and genuine legal opinion on both sides of the argument), and with him letting Mundell get away with the blatant falsehood that an overwhelming majority of Scots don’t want another referendum – in fact, 50% want one within the next two years.
But sometimes you have to let some smaller things slide to avoid distraction and stay focused on your main point, and in our view this was one of those occasions.
This is Conservative MP Dominic Raab, a member of the Brexit Select Committee, speaking on the BBC News Channel’s “Hard Talk” programme at 00.45 this morning. Perhaps imagining that nobody would be watching at such an ungodly hour, it seems he felt able to be unusually candid.
We left the last bit on in order to demonstrate that he was still talking about Scotland as well as Ireland. (He went on to recite the usual boilerplate about all leaving together as the UK etc etc, you can watch the whole show for yourself on iPlayer.)
But let’s just get that key early exchange down in writing for the record.
Because when you really want people with their finger on the pulse of Scottish politics to analyse the implications of the Supreme Court decision on Brexit, where else would you go but to Channel 5’s The Wright Stuff, to hear from um, former rugby league star and haircut pioneer Martin Offiah?
We’ll be honest, there are some bits of this that make us wince, and unfortunately most of them come in the first two minutes where they’ll do the most damage in terms of getting a persuadeable voter to watch the rest of it. But it’s an important piece of work, containing stuff even we didn’t know about, and it should be seen.
The Prime Minister of the UK, whose party has one MP in Scotland, officially tells the Commons that she doesn’t believe people on benefits should be able to survive.
One of the videos below is a genuine “Better Together” campaign broadcast, pulled from TV at the last minute (despite costing £50,000 to make) and today revealed by Buzzfeed. The other is a spoof we made in June 2014.
Good luck figuring out which is the real one, folks.
James Che on The Modern Politician: “Wether lowland or highland Scots, you were dissolved from the treaty of union in 1707. By the parliament of England…” Feb 16, 12:58
Confused on The Modern Politician: “Chomsky – what now for him, does he disappear down the memory hole? Turns out america’s “#1 dissident” and critic…” Feb 16, 12:56
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: ““Scotland could walk away now” But we’ve got seas on three sides, and English cants on the fourth. So where…” Feb 16, 12:55
James Che on The Modern Politician: “One day the penny will drop, Hoping it will be soon , but I realise that Scotland has been deceived…” Feb 16, 12:41
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “There you go, Northy. A rare opportunity to praise Alf, for praising you, for praising Alf. Dinna get confused, noo!” Feb 16, 12:23
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: ““independence is necessary, to enable self-recovery of indigenous languages” I see, Alf. So your published hostility on here to state…” Feb 16, 12:16
James Che on The Modern Politician: “Scotland has not had a monarch of Scotland because Scotland was dissoled from the treaty in 1707. The monarch of…” Feb 16, 12:14
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Ye missed ane, Northy: 11. Repatriation (if Reform get their way) of all holders of alien, abusive, foreign, beliefs. As…” Feb 16, 12:08
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Aye, sam, nae doot whitsoeever that thinking aboot the stuff that happened in 1608 keeps maist daecent, richt-thinking Scots awak…” Feb 16, 12:02
sam on The Modern Politician: “From an interview with Iain MacKinnon https://www.inmotionmagazine.com/global/mackinnon-iain-intview1.html#Anchor-Part-11481 “(But,) there’s a key difference in between what happened in Scotland and what…” Feb 16, 11:39
Alf Baird on The Modern Politician: ““I found Doun-Hauden by Alf Baird, tho – a must read for all indigenous Scots who want to know how…” Feb 16, 11:32
sam on The Modern Politician: “Iain MacKinnon -historian. “There you have the complexity of the fact that there was internal colonizing, as well. Some of…” Feb 16, 11:28
James Che on The Modern Politician: “Scotland has not had a monarch of Scotland since the year 1707.” Feb 16, 11:21
James Che on The Modern Politician: “That is why in Hansard it is often said, ” wether there is a treaty or not” when they speak…” Feb 16, 11:20
James Che on The Modern Politician: “One day, the penny will drop, Scotland cannot legally do UDI from the 1707 treaty of union that Englands Great…” Feb 16, 11:14
James Che on The Modern Politician: “England parliament transferred into the parliament brand Great Britain removed it very foundation creation to be the parliament of Scotland…” Feb 16, 10:57
James Che on The Modern Politician: “Catch’d Scotland, Except they didn’t, I been trying to explain why for years, When you dissolve only one party in…” Feb 16, 10:43
Alf Baird on The Modern Politician: “Actually the native language spoken in Timor Leste is known as Tetum, and today both Tetum and Portuguese comprise the…” Feb 16, 10:42
Northcode on The Modern Politician: “A list of the top ten imports the Scots just can’t live without; ‘gifted’ to them by their friendly neighbour,…” Feb 16, 10:09
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Oh dear, Alf! Freudian slip or just a long overdue admitting that for all your huffing and puffing, the majority…” Feb 16, 08:41
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Ah, C’moan noo, Northy. Ye’re turnin it intae a hoat war jist by bletherin yer screeds o’ hoat air a’…” Feb 16, 08:33
Willie on The Modern Politician: “A cold war between Scotland and England is a very good way of putting it Northcode and that is so…” Feb 16, 07:57
Northcode on The Modern Politician: “Two hundred and fifty years… that’s roughly how long, in total, Scotland and England have spent warring with each other.…” Feb 16, 06:31
Alf Baird on The Modern Politician: ““Timor Leste is a Portuguese speaking democratic republic recognized by the UN, and Indonesia from which it split” Scotland is…” Feb 16, 00:03
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Modern Politician: “Thanks TURABDIN. In a footnote to the article by Poncarová to which you refer (link posted by me above at…” Feb 15, 22:50
Lorna Campbell on The Modern Politician: “H. McH: yes, I have often thought about that, too. Independence for so many former colonies ended up in conflict…” Feb 15, 21:23
Lorna Campbell on The Modern Politician: “H. McH: what you don’t get is that these men do not just want to be women facsimiles, they claim…” Feb 15, 20:54
Onlooker on The Modern Politician: “Fourth Scottish church to burn down in six months. As Harry Hilll would put it: “What are the chances of…” Feb 15, 20:47
willie on The Modern Politician: “All prosecution is in the name of the Crown. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes, or as they say in Glasgow, -…” Feb 15, 20:03
