We’re on about Day 79 of NoScottishPoliticsNewsGate (today’s big “EXCLUSIVE!” in the Herald is something we told you about last Friday, and was also an “exclusive” in yesterday’s Scottish Sun), so we found ourselves getting diverted by something else in the papers this morning.
The Scottish Daily Mail had a piece on the cost of train journeys from Scotland, and living in Bath you don’t need to tell us how scandalously expensive British railways are compared to almost any other country in the Northern Hemisphere.
But the Mail is the Mail, and it couldn’t help distorting even an open-goal of a story like that until it had almost no relation to reality. And it’s a very useful illustration, should anybody need yet another one, of how this country’s newspapers vastly mislead their readers without actually technically lying.
At a time of unprecedented political chaos and uncertainty, just about the only thing you can still count on is that for any given situation, senior Labour figures will issue proclamations both firmly in favour of it and stoutly opposed to it, usually the same day.
So the stories below, which are respectively from today’s Scotsman and today’s Times, won’t come as much of a shock to anyone.
But against the odds, we think we’ve made some sense of it.
The front page lead of today’s Scottish Daily Mail:
As alert readers of this site will know, the Mail has a particular fondness for presenting statistics bereft of any context so that people have no idea how big or small they really are. So is 1,600 passengers a week receiving compensation for delays a lot or a little? Let’s find out.
All political discourse is plagued with genuine imbeciles, of course. But what’s far more depressing is when educated and normally perceptive people merely act like imbeciles for money, such as the case of Alex Massie in the Sunday Times today.
Because for the last two years, commentators who ought to know better have insisted in presenting Scotland’s choice as between Brexit or Brexit plus independence, and solemnly concluding that the uncertainties and risks of the latter being piled on top of those of the former prove that independence is no solution.
And we don’t care to have our intelligence insulted in that way.
Cynicus on Learning Insanity: ““Maybe let’s not be so quick to knock Knox…”-Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh ========= Is it OK to knock Knox provided there is…” Jan 18, 00:49
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Learning Insanity: “WIN FOR DARLINGTON NURSES IN CHANGING ROOMS PRIVACY CASE Nurses in Darlington were unlawfully discriminated against by their employers when…” Jan 17, 23:51
Xaracen on Learning Insanity: “The dates do add up, James, as long as you remember that for more than a century the two kingdoms…” Jan 17, 21:41
Xaracen on Learning Insanity: “Not so, James, I pointed out to you the first time you stated this assertion that it was nonsense, and…” Jan 17, 21:31
Confused on Learning Insanity: “https://archive.ph/vWA7t if america imposes 25% tariffs on carlsberg special brew, it represents a direct attack on the jakey community and…” Jan 17, 19:29
Young Lochinvar on Learning Insanity: “H McH You’re wrong. FACT!!” Jan 17, 19:26
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Learning Insanity: “TURABDIN@3:08pm “Khomeini, Persia’s answer to J Knox?” —————— Maybe let’s not be so quick to knock Knox… John Knox’s plan…” Jan 17, 18:17
Lorna Campbell on Learning Insanity: ““For the Scotland Act to apply to Scotland there has to be parliament of England in existence in 1998 and…” Jan 17, 17:52
TURABDIN on Learning Insanity: “CATASTROPHE is always round the corner, it pays to have a mirror on a stick. sadly such a simple device…” Jan 17, 16:42
SophiaPangloss on Learning Insanity: “Metagender is obviously people who are attracted to breaking the fourth wall during sex, turning to the camera with a…” Jan 17, 16:40
Hatey McHateface on Learning Insanity: “Aye, TURABDIN, no fool like a progressive, pseudo intellectual, lefty fool. As we sometimes observe on Wings BTL!” Jan 17, 15:38
TURABDIN on Learning Insanity: “@Hatey McHateface You might have seen this, https://archive.is/wUC4L The west has more to concern itself with this type and the…” Jan 17, 15:08
Aidan on Learning Insanity: “@James Cheyne perhaps you could set out what you think those persuasive legal arguments are and what precedence in case…” Jan 17, 14:32
Hatey McHateface on Learning Insanity: “Scotland’s geographic position is indeed significant, not just for England but for Europe too. That makes independence less likely, not…” Jan 17, 14:06
TURABDIN on Learning Insanity: “One route is growing realization that the British State is in deep trouble with future in the hands of English…” Jan 17, 13:33
sarah on Learning Insanity: “Sorry to say that the Not Proven verdict was abolished wef 1.1.26 by our hugely learned [ahem] SNP government.” Jan 17, 13:07
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “There are many possible routes to a independent Scotland, some of the more obvious ones are being ignored. But aligned…” Jan 17, 12:30
Hatey McHateface on Learning Insanity: “Could it be that the sword is mightier than the pen? Another simple question.” Jan 17, 12:26
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “The true devastating effects on Scotland has been over three hundred years of opression and suppression of its people and…” Jan 17, 12:15
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “No one questions that the treaty between the parliaments agreement of Scotland and England ended in 1800 when the parliament…” Jan 17, 11:53
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “England has 11 missing days in its side of the treaty of union in 1752. No one questions this lost…” Jan 17, 11:49
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “There are so many issues on incorrect chronological dates alone that I am surprised that they have never been questioned…” Jan 17, 11:43
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “Scots law does have the ” Not proven ” judgement applied to it in Scotland, it also has trial by…” Jan 17, 11:38
willie on Learning Insanity: “Not much intellectual rigour from Ulster University and Queen’s Belfast then if they restrict speech. Woo woo wacky is certainly…” Jan 17, 09:00
Hatey McHateface on Learning Insanity: “I see you’ve done that authentically Scottish thing, YL, come up with a couple of disparaging names. How very productive.…” Jan 17, 08:35
Young Lochinvar on Learning Insanity: “Fear not Sarah, all will be well in the M.E. now that Teflon Tony and (super) Mario Rubix (cube) are…” Jan 17, 02:21
Cynicus on Learning Insanity: “Marie says: 16 January, 2026 at 11:38 am Re:Darlington nurses victory – no muddying of the waters there. Thank you…” Jan 17, 01:39
Jim Tadgercock on Learning Insanity: “What Lorna Campell says. Absolutely spot on . Nothing needs to be added to her statement. Regards.” Jan 17, 00:17
sarah on Learning Insanity: “O/T: a delightful few minutes watching the livestream of the Craig Murray initial hearing [has he standing or not re…” Jan 16, 21:41
holymacmoses on Learning Insanity: “People with absolutely NO self-control who demand total control over others. Singular dictatorship” Jan 16, 21:26
