You’re going to need to before you watch today’s episode of The Jeremy Vine Show, featuring Paul Burrell (who used to be a royal butler about 20 years ago and somehow is now a political commentator), Nicola McLean (who used to get her surgically-altered breasts out for tabloid newspapers around the same time and then went on a reality show for halfwits with no actual talents), and Carole Malone, who we assume is some sort of live public-safety-information warning about the dangers of overdoing HRT.
Vine watches the unfolding horror with the expression of a man absolutely convinced he’s going to be murdered the next time he comes to Scotland. The most painful part is probably just after (Scottish) co-host and former weathergirl Storm Huntley (no, really) helpfully pipes up to suggest “shortbread, tartan… bagpipes” as Scotland’s economic foundations, at which point Jeremy turns in last-ditch desperation to the audience to save him from this slow-motion trainwreck and… well, you’ll see how that goes.
When the second indyref comes along, whenever the Yes campaign has a political broadcast slot on TV, we suggest just putting this on every time.
As Ofcom require any complaints about the BBC to be directed to the Corporation first, I’ve sent the BBC the letter below today (by physical mail, as the online complaint form is comically inadequate), which I expect to be a waste of time and energy. If I don’t receive a satisfactory response – and I’m sure that I won’t – I’ll take it up with Ofcom.
Right then. Our 2019 crowdfunder is officially over (the page is actually still live at the moment because several readers have asked it be kept open until the weekend so they can make their own donations, but it’ll be finally closed down on Sunday night).
And good heavens.
The main page alone narrowly beat last year’s all-sources total (ie including donations made via other routes like direct bank transfers) by nearly £600, and the actual final figure for 2019 [EDIT: updated 24 June] is, jawdroppingly, this much:
A crude clip of this segment from Shelagh Fogarty’s LBC show yesterday is doing the rounds on Twitter at the moment, and it deserves both better audiovisual quality and a wider audience. If features Regan Morann, a rather confused Tory from Scotland who has quite an opinion of himself.
An incredulous Fogarty, speaking for just about everyone listening to the show, asks “Where’s your self-respect?” as Morann burbles about debasing himself desperately in front of his English colleagues who don’t want him or care about him, and his eventual answer was enlightening, in a tragic kind of way.
The UK’s political commentariat is afire with shock today over a new poll.
The poll showed that Tory members would by margins of around 2:1 willingly sacrifice Scotland and Northern Ireland – along with the UK economy and their own party – to make sure Brexit happened. Which is all very interesting, unless you read Wings in which case you knew it a year ago.
You could actually weep for some of the people in our country.
But the point Yes supporters understand and Unionists don’t is that it’s everything to do with the question – because “who is or might be Prime Minister, or which party is in government” is never our choice. It’s the choice of England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland together. One of those countries outnumbers the others by 8 to 1.
More than that, it isn’t just who is Prime Minister now, or who may be in the future – it’s every single Prime Minister in my 35 years of existence on this planet.
Our 2019 crowdfunder now has just 24 hours to go, and to be honest it’s exceeded our wildest expectations. Despite the moribund state of Scottish politics over the last two years we’re currently around £3200 beyond the previous all-time record, and that’s just phenomenal. You never stop taking our breath away, folks.
But we’re going to rattle the tin one last time by repeating something we said last year.
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “Yep. Uncomfortable facts. The UK state finances are ruinous like most Western nations. It’s difficult to see any way out…” Sep 30, 10:18
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “Good post. ArAndeh very much set out his stall yesterday – Moar Communism is the way, as is outsourcing democracy…” Sep 30, 10:13
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: ““Nail hit firmly on the head Hatey” Ground Zero for fixing any problem is to be realistic about what the…” Sep 30, 10:10
willie on The Turning Point: “Sadly we have seen the plunder of a country’s resources before for the benefit of others. That is what empire…” Sep 30, 09:19
willie on The Turning Point: “¬”the infrastructure to capture all this “free” leccy is being mostly paid for by others – English bill payers, multinational…” Sep 30, 09:02
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “It’s truly extraordinary to see the differences between the reviews of Andeh’s stage performance yesterday. Some on the progressive left…” Sep 30, 08:56
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “Back in the day they probably did “used to obstruct and sabotage the Scottish Nationalist movement”. But they’ll have been…” Sep 30, 08:22
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: ““a reported one third of Scotlands electricity” If only that was true, Scotland would be on course to make some…” Sep 30, 08:10
Alf Baird on The Turning Point: “““Civil servants, MI5, Special Branch used to obstruct and sabotage the Scottish Nationalist movement.” Sounds exactly like what occurred in…” Sep 30, 07:50
Willie on The Turning Point: “So planning proposal.has now dropped to build the world’s largest data centre in Scotland. And its power usage will be…” Sep 30, 07:17
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “@Hatey 6:42pm Don’t get me started on Silliband/Mahatma Andy’s bungling on Pallet Line. Another fine mess completely irrelevant to our…” Sep 29, 21:02
Hatey McHateface on Cowering From Destiny: ““Independent Ireland has remained neutral for the last century thereby avoiding being dragged into Imperial England’s 80 or so colonial…” Sep 29, 20:35
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “Stick to making soup, Dan. There’s no reason for alert readers to question your claims that you know your soup.…” Sep 29, 20:23
Dan on The Turning Point: “Ach, as stated before, Scotland doesn’t need to be spending billions on defence when we jist need to deploy our…” Sep 29, 20:04
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “Not smart enough, too tarnished, and toxic. Yet she’s going on the lecture circuit and you’re not. I guess you’re…” Sep 29, 20:03
Bilbo on The Turning Point: “So the State asset is going on the lecturing circuit? Guess it’s the only thing left to her. She isn’t…” Sep 29, 19:31
Aidan on The Turning Point: “Oh I agree the Europeans should be taken much more of the cost of this (although they are for the…” Sep 29, 19:16
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “All those words, Bob, just to say you’re ignoring me. Have you ever sat down and counted all the times…” Sep 29, 18:51
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: ““marched us headlong into a conflict that was absolutely nothing to do with us and without regard to the consequences”…” Sep 29, 18:42
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “What’s conventional defense, CC? Whatever your answer is, if you know anything about the subject at all, it’ll be a…” Sep 29, 18:35
twathater on The Turning Point: “Here we go again give your vote to someone other than the snp who best represents your feelings, lend your…” Sep 29, 18:23
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “Sorry, I vociferously reject the idea that the defence of U is a “strategic objective” for *us*. It *might* be…” Sep 29, 18:15
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “““Tax cuts for the rich, benefit cuts for the poor” he cries” Except the rich aren’t getting tax cuts. And…” Sep 29, 18:13
Captain Caveman on The Turning Point: “@Aidan That’s not to say, however, that we shouldn’t be spending money on our OWN (conventional) defence (not someone else’s),…” Sep 29, 17:59
Hatey Mchateface on Cowering From Destiny: ““Ah dinnae hate you, son; I pity you” Crivens, James, yer maw will hae ye washing yer mooth oot wi…” Sep 29, 17:59
Captain Caveman on The Turning Point: “Don’t you think though, Aidan, if the things you say are true, isn’t it about time that “U”‘s immediate EU…” Sep 29, 17:56
Aidan on The Turning Point: “I will challenge you on this Spartan, the situation in U is extremely serious for all of us in Europe,…” Sep 29, 17:38
James on The Turning Point: “That last was aimed at Adrian, who is cheerleading reducing what is already the lowest -piss poor- state pension in…” Sep 29, 17:30
cirsium on The Turning Point: “Well said Willie 2014 ran them close, closer than we may know and it could not happen again. Given that…” Sep 29, 17:09
