The Scottish Tory MSP reacted furiously to a story in The National which said Scotland had been absorbed into England by the 1707 Act Of Union, rather than becoming a “partner” in anything, and had ceased to exist as a state in international law.
Which was a weird response, because that’s been the official stated position of both the UK government and the Conservative Party for at least the last 12 years.
Despite everything, we almost allowed ourselves just the very tiniest little micro-flicker of optimism when we read Tommy Sheppard’s latest in The National.
Because that much is certainly true, and it’s uncommonly candid to have anyone in the SNP admit it. So what’s the answer?
(Kelly’s article is here. Link to Grok’s answer here. The ChatGPT analysis that triggered the article can be read in this tweet thread. A verifiable analysis by Grok of the debate, based on a neutral question, can be read here.)
The legal imprint at the bottom means that that’s official SNP election communication. One assumes it’s intended for leaflets to be put through actual voters’ letterboxes.
Hi! I noticed, with very considerable amusement, your complaint last night that I hadn’t made a “substantive reply” to the [EDIT] EIGHT posts (totalling nearly 11,000 words) of semi-coherent ranting about me that you’ve made on your site in the last eight days.
(I’ll be absolutely honest, I’ve only skimmed the last few.)
We both know the reason that’s so tear-streamingly comical, of course.
In so far as it’s worth talking about Scottish constitutional politics at all these days, it’s worth taking a moment to analyse the bloodless, anodyne nothingness spouted by the First Minister on The Sunday Show at the weekend.
That clip is less than three minutes long, but it’s so soul-crushingly boring and full of content-free drone and waffle that it’s almost impossible to sit all the way through it, so we’re going to translate and summarise it for you.
Warning: despite the quite zingy title this is actually going to be a very dry stats post, readers. It is, on the other hand, based on a man having something disturbingly close to a complete psychotic mental breakdown, so there’s always that for a bit of colour.
Because the paragraph above, and in particular the highlighted part, is without a doubt the most dishonest, diametrically false and wildly extreme lie about Scottish politics that we’ve ever seen anyone tell in the 13.5 years of Wings Over Scotland’s existence.
And as a rule we don’t bother addressing them because they’re so demented you could spend 5,000 words pulling apart all the individual strands of lunacy every time, and lunatics thrive on attention, but this one does merit a very brief comment.
Because “Vote Labour, get indy” wasn’t our plan. It was John Swinney’s.
As readers may already be aware, my main hobby to distract myself from my day job in the profoundly depressing world of politics is to delve into retro videogaming via my Retropie. It’s an endlessly rewarding fount of discovery and entertainment for many reasons, but sometimes the two spheres collide in extremely unexpected ways.
So let’s talk about GORF.
Midway’s 1981 arcade hit was a pioneering and innovative game. It was the first game to be comprised of multiple highly distinct sub-games, boldly including direct lifts of other people’s coin-ops in the form of Space Invaders and Galaxian. And while it wasn’t the first arcade game to feature synthesised speech – it was beaten to that punch by the likes of Berzerk and Wizard Of Wor the previous year – it was famous for the extensive and iconic vocabulary with which it taunted and goaded the player.
It got numerous conversions of variable quality to various home systems, whether as contemporary licences or later homebrew ports, and that’s where we come in.
Even by the embarrassing standards of The National, the gulf between this morning’s blaring front-page splash and the weak, watery weasel words in the actual article is a chasm so wide and so yawning (in every sense of that word) that it would put the epic planetary scar of Mars’ Valles Marineris to shame.
Coupled with a feebly underwhelming Programme For Government (in which the main policy was the re-abolition of peak rail fares just months after the SNP insisted such a move was unaffordable, with no clue as to where the money had suddenly been found) and a pitiful list of candidates for next year’s Holyrood election featuring the likes of Sally “all aboard the gravy bus!” Donald, Kaukab “DECAPITATE TERFS” Stewart, Kirsten “DECAPITATE TERFS” Oswald, Alison “DECAPITATE TERFS” Thewliss and Alyn “throw anyone who doesn’t want to DECAPITATE TERFS out of the SNP” Smith, the story was an abject vision of a bleak future for independence.
Nae Need! on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “I couldn’t agree more, Sarah. Of course its a false construct. It’s an absolutely, almost fantastical, ridiculous situation. But having…” Apr 1, 20:08
Nae Need! on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Holyrood is helping no one, Alan. I think I’ve reached my tolerance limits. my patience limits . . . get…” Apr 1, 20:00
Young Lochinvar on Clocks And Calendars: “4 subs; of which 2 are write offs, 1 is undergoing major surgery while 1 (the very very rusty one)…” Apr 1, 19:55
robertkknight on Clocks And Calendars: “As “basket cases” go I recon the UK has the EU beat, and well beat. As for the the Scottish…” Apr 1, 19:48
Northcode on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: ““People must remember that Holyrood is a Colonial Administration… Scotland must gather 57 pro independence candidates, either party or standing…” Apr 1, 19:43
Nae Need! on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Geri, I understand all that, but it’s no gonna happen 😉 Not in our life times.” Apr 1, 19:35
Geri on Clocks And Calendars: “Cave dweller, I see yer drooling in anticipation.. It’s delicious to watch.” Apr 1, 19:25
Geri on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Nae need It is a simple fix but no one is willing to do it so far. Alex had a…” Apr 1, 19:11
Northcode on Clocks And Calendars: ““…the choice to vote Liberate is by definition illusory…” But the choice isn’t illusory; Scots are free to choose whichever…” Apr 1, 19:06
Nae Need! on Clocks And Calendars: “Geri, wtaf? You’ll be delighted to know, that having given up entirely on the realistic prospect of Scotland becoming a…” Apr 1, 19:00
Nae Need! on Clocks And Calendars: “Alf, I agonised over the EU ref. Cause of the fishing industry. Coming from a small fishing town in Scotland,…” Apr 1, 18:54
Nae Need! on Clocks And Calendars: “Fknell, that’s hilarious :-)) I’d go with the FES.” Apr 1, 18:48
Captain Caveman on Clocks And Calendars: “…. So no details on TEH ASSASINS of “independence supporters” then. Imagine my surprise pal.” Apr 1, 18:39
Alf Baird on Clocks And Calendars: ““vision of Scotland as a maritime nation” This should be uppermost in our minds, as maritime trade is fundamental to…” Apr 1, 18:38
Geri on Clocks And Calendars: “You worry about yer own mental wellbeing. What on earth would possess a Yoon to continually visit a Scottish independence…” Apr 1, 18:30
Alf Baird on Clocks And Calendars: “The UN approach is just as much for the benefit of Scots like you, Aidan, to help you and other…” Apr 1, 18:29
Aidan on Clocks And Calendars: “That’s good news Alf – so what are the UN currently doing with this information? When can we expect a…” Apr 1, 18:11
Nae Need! on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Sarah, thank you for replying to me. But you may not feel thankful for my response 😉 I’m gonna have…” Apr 1, 18:05
viscount ennui on Clocks And Calendars: “Much respect Alf Baird in terms of his aspirational vision of Scotland as a maritime nation. Not sure that the…” Apr 1, 18:01
Aidan on Clocks And Calendars: “I’m just feeding back to you the inevitable implication of your own statements, if you can’t stand by them then…” Apr 1, 18:01
Alf Baird on Clocks And Calendars: ““Scotland is an oppressed country with its people subjugated” Yes indeed, but thankfully this information has now been transmitted to…” Apr 1, 17:40
Jamie on Sicknote Slippers: “Aidan – To be clear, the SNP are not only irrelevant to independence, they are corrupted beyond repair due to…” Apr 1, 17:37
Northcode on Clocks And Calendars: ““…Liberate are just another English construct totally captured and serving the interests of the coloniser…” I cant’ decide whether you…” Apr 1, 17:26
Alf Baird on Clocks And Calendars: ““the SNP is undeniably dead” Yes, more or less, as the dominant national party elite co-opted by colonialism suffer from…” Apr 1, 17:24
Alf Baird on Clocks And Calendars: ““the new thinking has yet to be imagined” Not quite, some of us Scots and other oppressed peoples are already…” Apr 1, 17:19
viscount ennui on Clocks And Calendars: “I attempted to join the Flat Earth Society and the SNP today. Much easier getting into the SNP although both…” Apr 1, 17:18
TURABDIN on Clocks And Calendars: “It took the events of Easter 1916 to kickstart Irish politics which had fallen into the same doldrums as in…” Apr 1, 16:40
Aidan on Clocks And Calendars: “So just to be clear – Liberate are just another English construct totally captured and serving the interests of the…” Apr 1, 16:28
TURABDIN on Clocks And Calendars: “an extract from THE ATLANTIC magazine. «Americans were not unerring stewards of world affairs. They could be selfish, self-righteous, paranoid,…” Apr 1, 16:22
Northcode on Clocks And Calendars: “It appears you cannot tell the difference between real choice and the illusion of choice. Your ‘proper English’ processing algorithms…” Apr 1, 16:07
