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: “Lorncal What are you suggesting is propaganda? It’s documented fact that the father of a disabled child asked the German…” Mar 19, 02:02
Lorncal on Looking up at the stars: “Geri: the Nazis certainly practised eugenics, on Jews, Slavs, the disabled, those with mental ill-health or illness, etc., but they…” Mar 18, 23:46
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “Assisted dying bill; Automatic do not resuscitate classifications have been in operation for ages.. Anyway, assisted dying; Go to Muirhouse…” Mar 18, 22:03
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “As Maggie said, international law is all we’ve got between us & the barbarians. Ironic really cause they ARE the…” Mar 18, 21:38
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Looking up at the stars: “MLA CRITICISES WOKE GOVERNMENT FORM An MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) has criticised the Northern Ireland Civil Service for…” Mar 18, 21:36
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “They have options. Those options don’t have to involve everyone else. If they want to check out then go for…” Mar 18, 21:25
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Last time I looked it wasn’t Poot offering euthanasia to avoid paying healthcare & pensions or sterilising his own population…” Mar 18, 20:57
Southernbystander on Looking up at the stars: “It is palpably untrue that supporting assisted dying is all about government population control – the statement is offensive and…” Mar 18, 20:57
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Surely half a bicycle is a cycle?” Mar 18, 20:02
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “When you write “us” Geri, is that you deploying your royal we again? That makes more sense than the alternative…” Mar 18, 20:00
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “With so many women in the workforce, there’s a lot of demand for anything that will help them slim down.” Mar 18, 19:48
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Mark WEF – where billionaires empty the contents of their head thinking no one is listening. They loathe the working…” Mar 18, 19:28
Northcode on Looking up at the stars: “I like it, Sam. Here’s one of Brian’s that sums up my attempts at humour in this place: “I saw…” Mar 18, 19:24
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “The UN is struggling to exist as it is running out of money and relevance. The Titanic of gravy boats…” Mar 18, 19:15
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “Are you pals with Starmer the wanker. That’s the same pish he talks.” Mar 18, 19:02
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “@Geri You take an assisted dying bill (defeated) and turn it into the toilet habits of the rich. The genocide…” Mar 18, 18:50
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “That’s last months flag. Do keep up.” Mar 18, 18:38
sam on Looking up at the stars: “A wry sense of humour indeed. “The gross and net result of it is that people who spent most of…” Mar 18, 18:35
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “They’re not left. The billionaires are shitting themselves there’ll not be enough resources left in the world for them cause…” Mar 18, 18:11
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “America, Oops! I mean it’s proxy Iraq invaded Iran in 1980. A war lasting 9 years or so. Everything from…” Mar 18, 17:51
100%Yes on Looking up at the stars: “Welcome on board James, sorry about Alba but some how I believe it was deliberate because Alba was making progress…” Mar 18, 17:48
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “That’s because the Elite Left think people like you are scum.” Mar 18, 17:33
Lorncal on Looking up at the stars: “In Switzerland, it is mandatory, at both local (regional) and national level for referendums to be held on all major…” Mar 18, 17:05
Lorncal on Looking up at the stars: “Mark: I recall listening to a programme about Iran after the Shah was deposed, when Khomeini (1979, I think) had…” Mar 18, 15:56
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: ““big tent party” I guess the tent is implied by the flag. Still though, in the original meaning of “big…” Mar 18, 15:35
Jamie on Looking up at the stars: “Good article Rev. Talking about elections, as someone who was briefly politically homeless after the death of Alba, after some…” Mar 18, 15:19
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Tis true about the drugs. It even dispenses itself through a driver if swallowing starts to become difficult & even…” Mar 18, 13:59
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “A braw n grand sunlit day Oan ma bike n faraway Er the Clyde an alang the Kelvin Up Maryhill…” Mar 18, 13:36
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “God told me your a pain in the celestial arse.” Mar 18, 13:28
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Good to know God doesn’t go in for that Scots speaking bollox. Get Alf on the phone and tell him.” Mar 18, 13:21
