The 2010s end in a matter of hours, and everyone and their genderfluid dog is writing retrospectives of the 10 years just past. This site, which came into existence in the second year of the decade, has very little interest in following suit – we’ve always been about the future.
But a cursory glance over the shoulder does reveal one immediately striking fact that’s worthy of passing note.
We got blocked by LBC’s James O’Brien today for very gently and politely challenging him over this tweet:
And while this site most assuredly carries no torch for Jeremy Corbyn, it’s a reframing of reality that merits a bit of investigation for what it tells us about the UK media.
It sucks being right all the time. But at least now, as we asked for, the lie is over. So that’s a good thing. We suppose we should celebrate, but we don’t feel much like it.
Yesterday we posted an article noting that hardline trans-rights extremists, among whose number we must regretfully count the Scottish Government, were engaged in a determined and alarmingly successful attempt to abolish the scientific basis for reality.
We did not expect such a striking illustration of that assertion to arrive this soon.
It really is quite the remarkable feat of timing that concerted mass reporting by SNP activists managed to get the Wings Twitter account (and several others) closed down this week of all weeks, isn’t it?
They’re also trying to get my personal account banned, and reporting scores of others, in an open attempt to purge any sort of dissenting opinions from public dialogue at exactly the same time as opening a “consultation” whose outcome has already been predetermined, and which in another remarkable coincidence is due to close just a few days into the four weeks scheduled for the Alex Salmond trial.
As some alert readers have already noticed, our Twitter account has been suspended again, three and a bit years after the last time. The ban is supposedly permanent. To save a lot of repeated explaining in emails and direct messages, a brief record of the pertinent events follows.
Last night a bomb went off in British politics. It utterly destroyed the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties, and may have fatally weakened the foundations of the UK itself – Northern Ireland now has a majority of nationalist MPs for the first time in its history, and over 80% of Scottish seats went to the SNP.
As this site had been warning for months and months, the patience of English and Welsh voters with Parliament refusing to implement their 2016 vote to leave the EU finally snapped. Some wildly improbable Labour seats – including the constituency of Grenfell Tower, for God’s sake – went to the Tories, especially in Wales and the north of England, in order to “Get Brexit Done”.
The Lib Dems, the only UK party with a clear (okay, fairly clear) Remain position and with a minimum of 48% of the electorate to target, somehow contrived to LOSE seats, not only compared to their 21-MP starting point (bolstered by defectors since the last election) but compared to the 12 MPs they won in the 2017 election itself.
And the SNP? Well, the SNP failed too.
Because having expressly told voters that the election wasn’t about independence but about stopping Brexit, they won 13 more seats, but seats which have zero leverage at Westminster and will be able to do absolutely nothing to prevent the UK leaving the EU seven weeks from now. For all Scotland’s renewed “STOP BREXIT” message, Brexit will not be stopped. The UK, and Scotland with it, will depart next month.
We can’t help but note at this point that if the party had taken our advice and done a deal with the Tories in October to let Brexit pass in return for Section 30 powers, we’d now have an indyref in the bag (which we’d win) and as a parting gift to our southern kin we’d also have saved England from having a thumping great Tory majority for the foreseeable future.
Cynicus on The Curious Fringes: “Apologies to Mr. Ellis for misplaced posting intended for Prof Baird” Dec 31, 02:40
Cynicus on The Curious Fringes: “Alf Baird says: 30 December, 2025 at 2:49 pm “a language the majority don’t understand” ======= Alf, if you have…” Dec 31, 02:36
Cynicus on The Curious Fringes: “Alf Baird says: 30 December, 2025 at 2:49 pm “a language the majority don’t understand” ======= Alf, if you have…” Dec 31, 02:33
James Cheyne on The Curious Fringes: “TURABDIN, Is it still a kings shilling? Perhaps its turned-into the-faith of all coinage,” Dec 30, 23:03
James Cheyne on The Curious Fringes: “Never be shamed into avoidance of you’re mother tongue and language, Many times we have been punished because we did,…” Dec 30, 22:56
Mark Beggan on The Curious Fringes: ““Everybody knows that the dice are loaded Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed Everybody knows the war is over Everybody…” Dec 30, 22:08
Northcode on The Curious Fringes: ““Scots is important enough to be taught in schools.” Indeed, Sam. I think the Scots leid is a fantastic language…” Dec 30, 21:52
Aidan on The Curious Fringes: “I should add the “1.5m identified as Scots speakers . . “” Dec 30, 21:30
Aidan on The Curious Fringes: “@Sam perhaps there is some nuance that I’m missing but “Scots identified as Scots speakers and another 267,000 understood it”.…” Dec 30, 20:54
Mark Beggan on The Curious Fringes: “‘I pulled into Nazareth just about half past dead. I just need to find a place where I can lay…” Dec 30, 20:48
sam on The Curious Fringes: “It is a minority of Scots who speak Scots. Even so the 2011 Census tells us that 1.5 million Scots…” Dec 30, 20:10
TURABDIN on The Curious Fringes: “British politics is overwhelmingly English, has the party of Scotland even noticed? Taken the king’s shilling maybe?” Dec 30, 18:30
Northcode on The Curious Fringes: ““May 2026 bring us closer to our shared view, however different our paths.” Agreed… a noble sentiment and one fitting…” Dec 30, 17:41
Andy Ellis on The Curious Fringes: “@ Northcode Season’s greetings to you, to yours and even the other usual suspects. May 2026 bring us closer to…” Dec 30, 17:22
Chris Downie on The Curious Fringes: “I saw various posts on the old FB live feed today showing Swinney proclaiming in a recent interview that he…” Dec 30, 17:22
Rob on The Curious Fringes: “The fact that the SNP have been the government for some years because a majority voted for them does not…” Dec 30, 17:10
Northcode on The Curious Fringes: “I thank you for your kind sentiments, Mr Ellis. I look forward to the day, as do you, when we…” Dec 30, 17:06
100%Yes on The Curious Fringes: “The national, the writers who write for the RAG the two dave’s, Saorsa, Gordon Ross, Scot goes pop and others…” Dec 30, 16:40
Alf Baird on The Curious Fringes: ““So why are they against independence?” Postcolonial theory (Fanon) tells us that a dominant national party ‘lacks courage at the…” Dec 30, 16:24
100%Yes on The Curious Fringes: “Judas betrayed Jesus and was given money for doing it, Judas said I didn’t do it for the money, but…” Dec 30, 16:00
Andy Ellis on The Curious Fringes: “@ Northcode 3.31 pm That’s ye telt aff by Professor Baird nou, Ellis, ye linguicidal maniacque ye. The phrase “like…” Dec 30, 15:50
Andy Ellis on The Curious Fringes: “@ Northcode 1.03 & 1.43 pm Surely this is your area of expertise, Andy Inglis, is it not? Attempting to…” Dec 30, 15:48
Northcode on The Curious Fringes: “That’s ye telt aff by Professor Baird nou, Ellis, ye linguicidal maniacque ye. Witches kin mak folkes tae becom phrenticque…” Dec 30, 15:31
factchecker on The Curious Fringes: “It doesn’t seem logical that the SNP should support a continuation of the status quo. They have had full access…” Dec 30, 15:01
James Cheyne on The Curious Fringes: “It just needs a bit of analyses regards Scotlands actual position, Scotlands 1707 treaty is with the parliament of England,…” Dec 30, 14:58
Northcode on The Curious Fringes: ““The smart mind in Scotland says…” Aye, James, but the Scots have been fooled across many generations these past three…” Dec 30, 14:52
Alf Baird on The Curious Fringes: ““a language the majority don’t understand” Despite being prevented by our colonial educators from learning Scots, it remains that oor…” Dec 30, 14:49
James Cheyne on The Curious Fringes: “North Code, And you know what is Strange about the Colonised mind in Scotland. It accepts when the Great Britain…” Dec 30, 14:25
Northcode on The Curious Fringes: ““The mind of the coloniser. Thinking England’s borders end at the top of Scotland.” Aye, James. And some of them…” Dec 30, 14:10
Saffron Robe on The Curious Fringes: “James Cheyne says: “So you vote in Scotland to maintain the pretence and fool ourselves we have democracy, all the…” Dec 30, 13:59
