And that’s all very well, but not exactly stop-the-presses stuff – nobody reading this site is going to be terribly surprised at Scottish Labour being caught out in a lie. But the party’s house newspaper the Daily Record went for a subtly different angle on the story that did manage to provoke us to raise an eyebrow.
Alert readers will have noticed that for the last week or so we’ve been challenging some of the conventional wisdom about Labour’s election victories from 1997-2005. While the right wing of the party and commentariat regularly insists that Tony Blair was its most successful leader ever, we demonstrated that over the course of his leadership he lost Labour over two million votes, whereas Neil Kinnock’s reign had resulted in a GAIN of three million.
In short, New Labour’s victories were primarily the result of the Conservatives being in a catastrophic state during Blair’s rule, exhausted by almost 20 years of power and scandal and infighting about Europe. With William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard at the head of a shattered opposition, Labour could have won those elections with Piers Morgan or a Teletubby in charge.
What our research also found was that the most striking thing about the period since Blair became Labour leader in 1994 was a staggering and almost overnight increase in the number of British voters turned off politics altogether.
In 1992 just eight million people entitled to vote stayed at home. By 2001 that number had rocketed to EIGHTEEN million, a 125% increase in nine years, and in May it was still at almost 16 million.
Since Blair, eight million UK citizens who used to vote have simply walked away and washed their hands of the entire political process. That’s quite a legacy, but it’s also an opportunity, because it’s a lot of people waiting for a reason to vote for someone. (Most of them young and/or poor, two traditionally Labour-friendly demographics.)
Bizarrely, it’s an opportunity Labour and its allies seem utterly determined to shun.
Last night we ran a piece about a story in last week’s Daily Record in which a Scottish Labour official was given free rein to make an extended political attack on the SNP in the guise of a “business student” from the University of the West of Scotland, without his Labour identity being revealed, on the flimsy basis of a petition about college cuts with a few hundred signatures.
As it happens, another UWS student also has a petition doing the rounds at the moment. But it got treated rather differently by the Scottish press.
For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, the document at the heart of this insanity has been leaked, so you can now see it for yourself. We’ll have more on it later.
So first of all there’s this (click pic for full story):
…in which the figures appear to show that Iceland’s policy of imposing justice and imprisoning the greedy bankers who caused the world financial crash – rather than just shovelling money at them and letting them carry on robbing everyone – actually saw its economy recover at least as well as anywhere else’s.
Many of you won’t have seen this quite extraordinary performance from the Guardian’s assistant editor Michael White on last night’s Scotland Tonight, and you really should.
This morning we noted the weird double standards of the media when it comes to reporting politics-related violence (and/or the absence thereof) in Scotland. We weren’t expecting such a good illustration of it to come along within two hours.
Minceheid on A Long Hard Think: “Hatey McHateface says: 14 September, 2026 at 8:38 am Trump’s approval no longer what many (including myself) thought it was.…” Sep 14, 08:58
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “All very well, Northy, but let’s sort G@za first. Indy can wait. But to be serious for a mo. Excellent,…” Sep 14, 08:50
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “Trump’s approval no longer what many (including myself) thought it was. If they give him an atlas and a marker…” Sep 14, 08:38
Rev. Stuart Campbell on A Long Hard Think: “Done, and if there’s any more of it there’ll be a visit to the pre-mod queue.” Sep 14, 08:24
Alf Baird on A Long Hard Think: ““Great Britain was the greatest colonial power the world had ever seen. They sowed the seeds of their own destruction.”…” Sep 14, 08:08
Oneliner on A Long Hard Think: “He plays them on an (of)Fender Rhodes” Sep 14, 07:49
Captain Caveman on A Long Hard Think: ““When the right start claiming anything they see as left is ‘communist’ you know they have lost the plot and…” Sep 13, 22:55
Captain Caveman on A Long Hard Think: ““3 against 1 again” Ah, your counting skills just as woeful as your debating skills I see, Alf. Anyway, it’s…” Sep 13, 22:46
Southernbystander on A Long Hard Think: “When the right start claiming anything they see as left is ‘communist’ you know they have lost the plot and…” Sep 13, 22:18
Mark Beggan on A Long Hard Think: “What does Cesaire say about Muslim colonization or Communist or Dynasty takeovers. Is that a separate study? Be honest, you…” Sep 13, 21:43
Northcode on A Long Hard Think: “I thought it might be helpful to offer a clarification of what I meant in my earlier comment where I…” Sep 13, 21:25
Alf Baird on A Long Hard Think: “Cesaire wrote specifically about Hitler, and his “crime against the white man, and the fact that he applied to Europe…” Sep 13, 20:25
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “What was he angry about?” Sep 13, 20:15
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “Four, Alf, you’re forgetting Northy. As I’ve pointed out before, if we play the “thought experiment” of agreeing 100% with…” Sep 13, 20:12
M.E on A Long Hard Think: ““What? You got a problem with it? What do we look like, the Crime Police?”” Sep 13, 20:08
Alf Baird on A Long Hard Think: ““Yet, we and those who came before us, have consistently acquiesced in our own dependency.” Indeed so Lorncal, and which…” Sep 13, 20:04
Alf Baird on A Long Hard Think: “3 against 1 again, rinse and repeat. Reminds us of an EBC independence ‘debate’.” Sep 13, 19:49
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “Blocked the Darien initiative, eh? I can’t decide which is the most ludicrous aspect of that complaint. That you’re greeting…” Sep 13, 19:06
Mark Beggan on A Long Hard Think: “That seems a lot like The man they love to hate.” Sep 13, 18:59
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “They both released cover versions of “Jerusalem”, accompanying themselves on the melodeon.” Sep 13, 18:56
DaveL on A Long Hard Think: “I’ll add childlike insults to the list of whinges and whines we hear from you. You’ll be telling me next…” Sep 13, 18:54
Mark Beggan on A Long Hard Think: “Cecil Rhodes was a raging homosexual. How does that fit with the theory. Confused? You will be.” Sep 13, 18:50
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “So Memmi was Jewish? The usual suspects are going to have to airbrush him out of the post colonial boys’…” Sep 13, 18:49
Chas on A Long Hard Think: “DaveLooney Many thanks for your response. Who do you speak for? Could it be Fanny, Mummi or Ceaser. Or is…” Sep 13, 18:26
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “I speak English, TURABDIN, and I am better than the rest. Like most Scots, I’ve little time for the inferior…” Sep 13, 18:23
twathater on A Long Hard Think: “I notice now that the yoonionist parties have come to the realisation that their unwavering support for Is ra hel…” Sep 13, 18:21
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “Very happy to accept that you are, Confused. We’re in Scotland, world leader in accepting self-identification in all its forms.…” Sep 13, 18:15
DaveL on A Long Hard Think: “…they’re both on Hatey’s ‘Love/Hate’ scale but at opposite ends?” Sep 13, 17:51
DaveL on A Long Hard Think: “@ Chas You speak for no one but yourself and all we hear is whines whinges and moans. Get back…” Sep 13, 17:46
