Wings Over Scotland

Tonight’s Question Time for some reason featured a question about the SNP, which Labour, Lib Dem, Tory and UKIP representatives got to discuss at length with nobody from the SNP (or even from Scotland) there to respond. It was an enlightening insight into England’s attitude to the Scots as a whole, not just the SNP. Here’s how it went.

We recommend all of it, but UKIP’s Paul Nuttall is the star, from 3m 42s.

It is sometimes said, unkindly, that in parts of Scotland it would be possible to get a monkey elected as a Labour MP, so long as said monkey was wearing a red rosette.

Here, not entirely unrelatedly, is Brian Donohoe (Central Ayrshire), earlier today.

Um, just a couple of points.

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Willie Rennie, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, 12 January 2015:

“Mr Rennie said the [SNP] consistently changed its tune on what elections were about after the event and could use May’s poll to claim a mandate justifying a UK vote.”

Tavish Scott, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Tuesday 3 May 2011:

“If you want independence you can vote for it on Thursday.”

Still, at least he was wrong about Salmond fiddling the referendum result, eh?

We thought you might like a wee glimpse into the machinery.

In an alternative universe, Keir Hardie reacts to news of the election of Jim Murphy.

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Alex Salmond as the Terminator. Any way you slice it it’s a remarkable mental image from the mind of a clearly distraught James Kirkup of the Telegraph.

Apparently death wouldn’t stop him anyway. We’ve actually cut this clip before the point where the woman from the Economist calls the former First Minister a “zombie who just keeps on powering through to the end of the horror movie”. Of course, if you think of the Union as the horror movie, it’s not the worst analogy we’ve ever heard.

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We’ve noted on a number of occasions that the BBC is fond of using the late-night papers review show on the News channel as a sneaky little Nat-bashing section in which London-based broadsheet journalists (always, always Unionists) get to display the full depth of their arrogant cluelessness about Scottish politics.

Last night’s, however, was quite something even by the usual standards.

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In the wake of the story carried by many newspapers today about Scottish Labour changing its position on the devolution of taxation for (by our count) the 15th time, we thought it only fair that we should let each of the three candidates for the branch office managership explain it in their own words.

We’re certain that it’ll all be clear once they’re finished.

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Ed Miliband on the BBC 10 O’Clock News, 21 November 2014.

Here’s Neil Findlay MSP on this morning’s Andrew Marr Show:

Wait, what?

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On last night’s Scotland Tonight, prospective Scottish Labour deputy “leader” Katy Clark MP told the nation that “it could be Scotland that lets us down”.

It wasn’t a slip of the tongue. By “us” she meant the Labour Party, and she went on to elaborate, telling the old Labour story about how UK general elections are about an Old Firm-style showdown betweeen two parties and how it was in essence the duty of Scots to vote Labour to keep the Tories out at Westminster, seemingly unaware that just as with the Old Firm, most people despise both of them pretty much equally.

(And conveniently overlooking the fact that Scots voted overwhelmingly Labour in 2010 and got the Tories anyway, as Labour obstinately refused to consider a “rainbow coalition” because they hated the SNP too much. What Scots learned that year was that Labour would rather let Tories rule Scotland than be civil to left-wing nationalists.)

The comments followed just a couple of days after Holyrood Magazine editor Mandy Rhodes had penned an article about the Scottish branch’s current woes that had a very telling first paragraph.

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Jim Murphy has finally announced that he’ll stand for the leadership of the Scottish branch office of the UK Labour Party. Tonight he told the Daily Record that:

“I am not going to shout at or about the SNP, I am going to talk to and listen to Scotland.”

For any of you who might have forgotten, here’s some recent footage of how Jim listens to Scotland and avoids shouting about the SNP: