We all knew this already, of course. Last year we commissioned a poll from Panelbase which found an enormous 41-point gap between Yes and No voters on immigration. But it was still nice to have it both confirmed and laid out so clearly by Sir John Curtice on Good Morning Scotland earlier today.
(About 1h 55m in. We’re having some trouble recording sound on our new PC at the moment, we’ll get you a proper audio link as soon as we’ve figured it out.)
It’s worth keeping to hand the next time some witless Scottish Labour goon tries to tell you that independence is bad because it’s “separatist” and that voting for the Union is the international-solidarity option. Because that’s a flat-out lie.
We now have the verdicts on Brexit from three of the UK’s four nations. The Scottish Parliament, speaking for the Scottish nation, voted overwhelmingly this afternoon to reject both Theresa May’s draft agreement and leaving the EU without a deal.
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.
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “House Jock implies someone who still lives here who suffers an identity crisis. Pet Jock is about right, the token…” Mar 13, 20:41
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Monarchy is the default for humanity, TURABDIN. It’s wired into our DNA, almost certainly because over the long term, it…” Mar 13, 20:31
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Sure, Alf, these arguments go round and round with such depressing regularity that we can now all predict where they…” Mar 13, 20:30
Scot Finlayson on Looking up at the stars: “Lord Byron penned the song, Dark Lochnagar,about his youth in the highlands, Ah ! there my young footsteps in infancy…” Mar 13, 20:30
Alf Baird on Looking up at the stars: ““as if their Scottish Sovereignty is superior to the Scottish Sovereignty of other Scots” You appear to misunderstand the colonial…” Mar 13, 20:00
TURABDIN on Looking up at the stars: “«The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike…” Mar 13, 19:43
100%Yes on Looking up at the stars: “What is there to talk about that hasn’t already been said. Looking at the Rag today I had to look…” Mar 13, 19:20
TURABDIN on Looking up at the stars: “The MASSIVE elephant in the room is the US and its emerging absolutist «monarchy». If the sun sets on the…” Mar 13, 18:52
sarah on Looking up at the stars: “O/T Does anyone know what is happening with the Voices for Independence site? There has been no entry for today…” Mar 13, 18:41
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: ““the case with most of” What’s this, Alf? Are Cesaire’s ideological foundations starting to crumble? That “most” permits some doubt…” Mar 13, 18:09
twathater on Looking up at the stars: “WOW John boy Main is getting more unhinged by the day, he is now telling Geri that her views could…” Mar 13, 17:58
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Drink! Haha, just my wee joke, Alf. Obviously the only option open to us is to buy a copy of…” Mar 13, 17:53
Alf Baird on Looking up at the stars: ““I see a few are waking from the ways that were taught them, will the all wake up or will…” Mar 13, 16:23
Alf Baird on Looking up at the stars: ““pet-Jock moon howlers” Ah, and there’s plenty of them, each following Mannoni’s “dependency complex…that these groups are psychologically made for…” Mar 13, 15:56
sam on Looking up at the stars: “I know, Sven. It is impossible to know anything with certainty about illegal immigration numbers. You can get some idea…” Mar 13, 15:55
agentx on Looking up at the stars: “Following the Union St fire the demolition company is Burnfield Demolition. Ironic.” Mar 13, 15:54
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “Police Scotland refused a request under the freedom of information to reveal the criminal numbers connected to immigrant hotels. Their…” Mar 13, 15:29
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “That has been the elite establishments plan all along. The socialist post-colonial ideology. Get into bed with the death cult.…” Mar 13, 15:23
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “That would be the exact Nasty Nats answer just get to one over the English bastards. Then they would staple…” Mar 13, 15:14
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “@ Sam How many illegal immigrants came into Scotland? I don’t know They don’t know. You don’t know. Did they…” Mar 13, 15:03
Sven on Looking up at the stars: “Sam @ 14.26. I’m guessing that would be legal immigrants, Sam. As I doubt asylum seekers awaiting classification, illegals or…” Mar 13, 14:50
Sven on Looking up at the stars: “Mark Beggan @ 14.12. I do, Mark. And if they don’t, I believe the full power of the state will…” Mar 13, 14:31
sam on Looking up at the stars: “Jist fir til let ye know, ken? https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/2022-reports/scotland-s-census-2022-ethnic-group-national-identity-language-and-religion/ The largest group of immigrants in 2022 was from the category, “Other…” Mar 13, 14:26
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Careful you dinna scuff the covers of your holy book, Geri. If you do, some meditative, focussed cant will have…” Mar 13, 14:15
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “I think you mean the government. The country is fit and able. This summer is going to be the crunch…” Mar 13, 14:12
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “I miss oor national mammie. She excelled at topping whatever England did. That was more or less her entire and…” Mar 13, 14:07
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Meditation is good for the soul. Focus is good for the mind. If a child can recite an entire book…” Mar 13, 13:58
Sven on Looking up at the stars: “Too little, too late, Mark B. I doubt this country has either the will nor the means to locate, identify,…” Mar 13, 13:19
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “Should Scotland seriously consider sending the illegal immigrants hame tae think again?” Mar 13, 13:09
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “Too late your mask slipped there Herr Von Leichtenvar.” Mar 13, 12:53
