We see Gordon Brown is celebrating his 500th article promising “federalism” in the Scottish media today. Which is nice. We always enjoy hearing about the stuff Labour pretends it’s going to do when it’s in power.
But like everyone who’s been waiting 100 years and counting for it to abolish the House Of Lords (a pledge which also gets another runout in Brown’s latest intervention, bless him), we won’t be holding our breath.
If you’re a writer for a living and you want to check if something you’ve written might be embarrassingly stupid, there’s an easy and quick technique you can use.
By way of example, here’s Kenny Farquharson in the Times today, on the subject of the supposed similarities in the relationships between the Tories and the Brexit Party, and the SNP and the potential new Wings party:
So here’s the trick: switch the protagonists around.
We really can’t be bothered with having the GERS “debate” again, in which all the same people make all the same exactly opposite spins on the exact same data. Minor annual fluctuations aside, the core reality is the same as the one we repeat every 12 months, and serious economists on both sides of the political divide still treat the figures with the disdain they properly merit.
One such person is Richard Murphy, and in an excellent piece today he posted a version of this graph which did catch our jaded eye. It purports to show the share of UK debt supposedly accounted for by Scotland – which has, let’s remember, just 8% of the UK’s population – in each of the last 16 years, and which immediately prior to the SNP’s 2011 majority stood at almost exactly that of our population share.
How very remarkable, some readers may feel, that the extent of Scotland’s supposed responsibility for the UK’s debt should have rocketed so very dramatically at the exact point when independence became a live political question.
It does rather make you wonder why the UK government, scraping as it is for every penny of possible savings, seems more and more desperate to hang onto Scotland as the terrible economic burden we become on the rest of the country grows ever heavier.
Truly, our partners in this great equal and bountiful union must be the most generous and forgiving people on Earth. We don’t deserve them.
This poll from Opinium came out a few days ago, but didn’t get as much attention as people might normally have expected, possibly because it was presented in a very difficult-to-follow graphical form. So we’ve sorted it out, and also added in the missing Lib Dem voters.
The takeaway is that a clear majority of voters both in Scotland and the UK now believe that the UK government should accept the Scottish Government’s request for a second independence referendum.
We thought readers might possibly like to hear the unexpurgated audio of our interview with The Times this week, so that they could judge the tone of our “expletive-ridden condemnations” and whatnot for themselves.
Other than a few bits of minor tidying-up – such as me umming and aahing trying to remember the name of a song, or when the manager came round to ask if we wanted more drinks – this is the whole of the “official” interview.
(In conversation with Kenny Farquharson of The Times, 1 August 2019) .
The interview was an interesting one in itself that we might talk more about later this weekend, but let’s leave that aside for now and talk about the headline take, because as usual the Scottish media is presenting it in a remarkably dishonest manner.
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: ““bombing the enemies of the chosen people” If only it was possible to have a maturely moderated debate on here,…” Mar 2, 20:01
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: “I was going to say the sludge will be collected and distributed around certain wards in early May, in an…” Mar 2, 19:46
BLMac on Two Men Unalike: “One thing concerns me about these puberty blocker trials. Are they legal? We have an Age of Consent for a…” Mar 2, 19:36
robertkknight on Two Men Unalike: “Who is he going on behalf of? King Chucky? Sir Kid Starver? MI5? Sure as hell isn’t going along to…” Mar 2, 19:26
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: “If he wears a tea towel on his heid he’ll blend right in with the rest. You should go too,…” Mar 2, 19:22
Mark Beggan on Two Men Unalike: “As happy as a condemned man spilling his last meal down the toilet.” Mar 2, 19:06
sarah on Two Men Unalike: “Hold the front page. All is not lost for Scotland’s independence. John Swinney is going to be on the Believe…” Mar 2, 18:34
Mark Beggan on Two Men Unalike: “From that comment I think you are already there. You don’t have to die to be in hell. Leftwing ideology…” Mar 2, 18:19
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: ““Hell does not exist” Apparently, in your reality, neither does humour. Is it possible to get to your reality from…” Mar 2, 18:17
David Holden on Two Men Unalike: “Oh well the Epstein files must be more serious than we thought as the lengths Donald Trump has gone to…” Mar 2, 18:11
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: “Quite an unrelated response, Marie, but I’ll bite. Unless you’re a co-religionist, you’d be a fourth class citizen in the…” Mar 2, 18:11
Marie on Two Men Unalike: “Hell does not exist. Hell is a human created concept designed by the powerful to strike fear into people and…” Mar 2, 18:10
Geri on Two Men Unalike: “Fandan, I don’t understand a word of that word salad. Try again. If you really must.” Mar 2, 18:08
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: “Anybody ken if the brain is an organ? Only, Geri’s interminable rants, and her recent claim of organ snatching, have…” Mar 2, 17:57
Mark Beggan on Two Men Unalike: “NEWS FLASH News just in. The Iranian revolutionary council is having a crisis meeting in hell.” Mar 2, 17:49
Marie on Two Men Unalike: “You would be a second class citizen in Isr Hatey. And if you owned land in West Bank it will…” Mar 2, 17:44
Aidan on Two Men Unalike: “It’s quite amazing Geri that apparently all this has been achieved by countries with no economies, no resources and weapons…” Mar 2, 17:37
Mark Beggan on Two Men Unalike: “Yes even here in Bonnie Scotland. The patchwork of Leftwing, at whatever level in society, all have the same rabid…” Mar 2, 17:36
Geri on Two Men Unalike: “One thing is crystal clear on the Scottish Independence front, Sunshine . Do not, under any circumstances, have your military…” Mar 2, 17:35
Confused on Two Men Unalike: “you admit you know fuck-all, but then have a pop anyway … how does that even make sense? – I…” Mar 2, 17:28
Geri on Two Men Unalike: ““I never post about airborne warfare.” Oh yes you do. Yer never done phappin over F-16s even though they’ve done…” Mar 2, 17:22
Geri on Two Men Unalike: “Tell the Iranians what? You wee warhawks believe any old crap the BBC propagandists tell you. There are Christians &…” Mar 2, 17:11
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: ““what expertise do you have in airborne warfare?” Compared with your obsessional butt monomania, Confused, none at all. I never…” Mar 2, 17:00
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: “Nah, Mark. The War started a little over 4 years ago. It’s being fought on many fronts. Few of the…” Mar 2, 16:52
TURABDIN on Two Men Unalike: “WELL, you couldn’t make this up, Trump fan Iranians on socials do a «victory» dance with a fist gesture that…” Mar 2, 16:51
Hatey McHateface on Two Men Unalike: “@Geri You inspire us all. The vision of an Independent Scotland you conjure up must be worth hundreds of thousands…” Mar 2, 16:37
Confused on Two Men Unalike: “not much of a rebuttal there – I mean you have to offer an actual rebuttal, not generalised statements about…” Mar 2, 16:32
Mark Beggan on Two Men Unalike: “Are we witnessing the beginning of the war against Ideology in whatever rabid form it manifests itself in.” Mar 2, 16:27
Iain More on Two Men Unalike: “Off Topic In relation to the Sassanach Tax Exiles in Dubai who are presently filling their breeks – Fuck Them!…” Mar 2, 16:25
TURABDIN on Two Men Unalike: “A word in Scotland’s delicate ear BREWDOG, a brewer not like the rest. American buy up, of course. Trust us,…” Mar 2, 16:24
