A creeping feeling 100
Posted on
May 17, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
No.11: Kathi, from Bernburg, Germany.
Archive for the ‘video’
A stranger inside 187
Posted on
May 11, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Below is a clip from last night’s Reporting Scotland. It features regular election loser Christine Jardine, an ex-BBC journalist who the Lib Dems have tried unsuccessfully for years to crowbar into Parliamentary seats all over Scotland (like Aberdeenshire East in 2016, Gordon in 2015, the European Parliament in 2014, Aberdeen Donside in 2013 and Inverness and Nairn in 2011).
She’s currently contesting Edinburgh West, which the party has some credible hopes of winning, having held the seat for almost 20 years prior to 2015. And it seems that her former employer has decided to try to give her a helping hand.
And, y’know, they’re really not allowed to do that.
Chinese arithmetic 120
Posted on
May 05, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
With all 32 councils now having declared, the Scottish local elections are over and the SNP have won again, taking 431 seats. Last time round in 2012 they took 425.
You might think you know the difference between 431 and 425. But you don’t.
You can actually try changing it 239
Posted on
May 05, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
This post is mostly here to give people somewhere to chat about the council election results as they come in. But this song, with a hat-tip to alert reader SparkleMonkey, is dedicated specifically and personally to the now-former Scottish Labour councillor (and one-time leader of Aberdeen City Council) Willie Young, who was ejected by the electorate earlier today.
Today is going to be a day of realignment in Scottish politics, in which the Tories will formally become the main opposition to the SNP. (Having already pipped Labour to second at Holyrood and having as many Westminster MPs as them.) Expect modest SNP gains and big Tory ones, both mainly from Labour, who have already lost overall control of Glasgow, their last stronghold.
Everything’s different after today, folks. Scotland’s choice will never have been more stark: extreme Tories in the UK for years and years to come, or self-governance. Let the chips fall where the people choose.
Song for the Scottish Conservatives 390
Posted on
May 04, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
On the occasion of the local elections.
Vote ’til you boak, readers. Seriously.
A moment of candour 124
Posted on
April 20, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We don’t often wholeheartedly agree with anything “Rape Clause Ruth” Davidson says at First Minister’s Questions, but we can’t fault this observation from earlier today.
The sense of welcome 259
Posted on
March 25, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
No.10: Jackie Kemp, journalist.
Kezia Dugdale Fact Check, Part 679 384
Posted on
March 22, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Sky News earlier this morning:
Our ears always prick up when Kezia says she’s counted something herself.
The highlights reel 160
Posted on
March 21, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
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.
Asking the wrong questions 479
Posted on
March 19, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
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.
To keep links with the world 84
Posted on
March 19, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
No 9: Mark, until recently from London.
Come and join us 215
Posted on
March 18, 2017 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Our favourite bit is at 27m 52s.
