The flying visit 281
Posted on
July 25, 2020 by
Chris Cairns
On the other hand 90
Posted on
July 24, 2020 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Alert readers will probably have noticed that earlier today we featured a post by SNP MP Kenny MacAskill making the seemingly-unsurprising statement that the purpose of his party is to “bring about the end of the British state”.
So we thought he might have wanted to check with his colleague Stewart McDonald, the SNP’s defence spokeman and an obsessive Russophobe, when we saw a snide quote from him in a Belfast Telegraph story disparaging former leader Alex Salmond (who’d advocated the reunification of Ireland during a chat with ex-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern) for the heinous crime of “proposing the disruption of the United Kingdom”.
It later transpired that there’d been an error and the quote should have been (and now is) attributed to a Scottish Conservatives spokesman.
But we couldn’t help noticing the complete lack of shock with which the comment was received on social media in the several hours between its publication and correction, as if nobody thought it at all implausible that McDonald would have said such a thing. (And indeed, it’s barely different from what he HAS said about Salmond’s RT show.) There were plenty harsh criticisms of him, but we didn’t see a single tweet suggesting that a mistake might have been made.
Never more so than in 2020, sometimes fiction is more believable than truth.
View from the green benches 108
Posted on
July 24, 2020 by
Kenny MacAskill
The closure of the UK Parliament for the summer holidays this week marked the end of my first political “year” with the SNP Group at Westminster, albeit a truncated one under unusual circumstances. Having served in Holyrood much is similar and familiar, even if anachronistic in style and reeking of snobbery. Staff are remarkably helpful and individual members can be exceedingly pleasant.
But this isn’t our Parliament and we’re most certainly not amongst friends.
Nationalism rejection of the day 141
Posted on
July 23, 2020 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Maybe the flag could have been a bit bigger, but a solid 8/10 for the staunch rejection of all things nationalistic in this picture and tweet.
Jamie Halcro Johnston, incidentally, secured a whopping 4.1% of the Orkney vote for the Tories in the 2016 election, losing his deposit in the party’s lowest vote share ever (the nadir of a long slide from 23% in 2003), so we’re not absolutely sure he’s qualified to speak on behalf of the whole constituency, but we’ll let that one go this time in the light of such an absolutely stunning rejection of nationalism. Trebles all round.
Return To Arsehole Mountain 405
Posted on
July 22, 2020 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The Scottish media is in a total frenzy this morning over the long-delayed publication of the “Russia Report” into alleged interference by Vladimir Putin’s regime in UK politics.
The Herald, Scotsman, Mail, Express and the i all lead their front pages with the story today, and the Telegraph did it yesterday. So we thought you might like to see the entirety of the indyref coverage that’s actually in the 55-page report.
Sailing away 302
Posted on
July 21, 2020 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Farewell, civilised world.
But don’t worry, readers. The SNP have a cunning plan to secure independence by 2050, maybe, if they can find time in between letting rapists into women’s changing rooms, criminalising almost any sort of speech and stopping you getting cheap pizzas. No rush. There’s still a lot of MP wages and Short money to be claimed.
Soapbox: What price freedom? 436
Posted on
July 19, 2020 by
David Hooks
It’s literally carved on the walls of Parliament.
There are those who stay and there are those who leave. Since the 1700s the eyes of the ambitious Scot have looked towards London. Many have made the journey there and, as with Ireland, Scotland’s most precious export has been its people.
But for those of us who have remained in Scotland our eyes are still turned south.
Giving up on independence 411
Posted on
July 17, 2020 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
It’s hard to express quite what a revolting piece of rank hypocrisy this is.
Behold, ladies and gentlemen and other genders, some pious little twerp whose own comfy seat in the Scottish Parliament was secured entirely by what he calls “cheating”, saying that nobody but him and his mates are allowed to cheat now.
The land of mystery 282
Posted on
July 16, 2020 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The BBC website is playing it rather enigmatic this morning.
Does anyone know the name of the place it doesn’t want to say for some reason?
The bitter minds 359
Posted on
July 15, 2020 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
A concept has recently arisen in Scottish politics for which this site feels at least partly responsible, and which is making the strangest bedfellows of Unionist commentators and SNP ultra-loyalists. It’s summed up very concisely in today’s Times.
Let’s just unpick that extraordinary meltdown for a moment.
There is no opposition 310
Posted on
July 14, 2020 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Two opinion polls, just over one Parliamentary term apart:
MAY 2014
JULY 2020
That is not a politically healthy country, readers.
