Her Loyal Subject 539
Posted on
January 11, 2020 by
Chris Cairns
The Toady And The Trap 291
Posted on
January 09, 2020 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Anyone who’s followed the UK political media over the last decade or so with specific reference to Scotland will know that in a very crowded field, the standout poster boy for arrogant, condescending metropolitan cluelessness is the Independent’s chief political commentator John Rentoul.
For reasons which escape us, Rentoul – who was born in India and as far as we know has spent not a single day of his life resident in Scotland – identifies as Scottish. And yet he doesn’t appear to even recognise the concept of Scotland as a political entity, and today he demonstrated that fact in a manner so stark and striking that it’s worth recording for posterity.
From the archives #12 410
Posted on
January 07, 2020 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Over the last few days, for want of anything more interesting happening in Scottish politics, we’ve been reviewing some of the entertainingly fluid criteria by which Unionist politicians used to assert that Scotland could supposedly achieve independence. But we hadn’t seen this one before:
A view apparently “almost universally shared among English Tory backbenchers” back in the late 1980s was that independence could be won by the SNP securing a majority of Scottish MPs at not one but two successive UK general elections.
Given that that line has now been crossed in THREE Westminster elections in a row, we’re all agog to find where Boris Johnson will move the goalposts to in his keenly-awaited response to the Scottish Government’s second Section 30 request, which he’s due to deliver any minute now.
From the archives #11 95
Posted on
January 06, 2020 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We’ve never been able to actually confirm the oft-cited “quote” from Margaret Thatcher suggesting that the SNP winning a majority of Scottish seats at a UK election would constitute a mandate for independence, but here’s a verified more recent one from a then-serving Conservative PM.
“[John] Major has made it clear that a majority of SNP MPs after an election would serve as a mandate to begin negotiations for separation. There are no plans to hold a referendum”, said former Thatcher minister and party chairman Norman Tebbit a few months before the 1997 election.
It was a position the Tories held right up to 2010 – the last election at which the SNP didn’t win a majority of Scottish seats, at which point the goalposts magically shifted. Now, of course, the rule is that a majority of MPs doesn’t count, but you also can’t have a referendum.
Scotland is a prisoner without hope of parole. Time for a breakout.
The success story 212
Posted on
January 05, 2020 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We couldn’t help but raise a quizzical eyebrow at this assertion from SNP MP Pete Wishart in today’s Sunday National.
It was said in the specific context of securing a second indyref in 2020, and since such a referendum has NOT in fact been secured – and looks extremely unlikely to be – we wondered which other definition of “success” might be being used to justify the claim.
From the archives #10 91
Posted on
January 03, 2020 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
From less than 10 years ago:
A plebiscitary election? Now there’s an idea you don’t hear much any more.
Crossover content 171
Posted on
January 01, 2020 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Have a great 2020, readers. We’re still in the UK, for now.
(Pic by Rafal Miazga, from Woot! 2019 tape magazine for the ZX Spectrum.)
New old times 0
Posted on
January 01, 2020 by
Wings Over Sealand
As alert readers will know by now, there’s nothing I like more than preserving weird old videogame stuff that’s in danger of being lost to posterity, unless perhaps it’s seeing games ported to strange formats they were never designed to run on, years or even decades after those formats ceased to be current.
So man, what a stroke of luck!
What’s all this, then?
The Hillary Step 237
Posted on
December 31, 2019 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
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.
A radical idea 324
Posted on
December 29, 2019 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Gee, you think?
If only someone had said something before, eh readers?
