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.
Insider on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “Phil, Seems an accurate summary of the situation ! The heart says YES !…why shouldn’t we be independent and run…” Apr 24, 18:03
agentx on How To Get Away With Crimes: ““together with a rising number of younger people attaining voting age, would have had a greater and fuller vision of…” Apr 24, 16:12
Phil on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “I think the Reform except on the independence question is reasonable. It doesn’t actually say Scotland can never be an…” Apr 24, 15:38
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on How To Get Away With Crimes: “UAIGNEAS Blas sméara dubh’ tréis báisteach ar bharr an tsléibhe. I dtost an phríosúin Feadaoil fhuar na traenach. Cogar gáire…” Apr 24, 14:57
lothianlad on The Pit Of Vipers: “Sturgeon and robison were along with others, corrupted, manipulated, controlled and blackmailed by the brit secret service. sturgeon drank from…” Apr 24, 14:52
TURABDIN on The Pit Of Vipers: “AN EXAMPLE OF HOW THE SOFT SELL IS DONE, https://www.facebook.com/aaciculturalinglesa/ I doubt in the texts used Scotland or Wales figure…” Apr 24, 13:52
Mark Beggan on How To Get Away With Crimes: “That’s a reality they don’t want to hear about. Flag waving and marching and blaming the English colonial fantasy. Is…” Apr 24, 13:35
Sven on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Northcode @ 12.31. “What is the true nature of the prison ?” Many factors are involved, I’d suggest, Northy. A…” Apr 24, 13:14
Lorncal on How To Get Away With Crimes: “H McH: when the time comes – and it will – there will be no choice. Either sink or swim…” Apr 24, 13:11
Northcode on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Scotland is England’s prisoner. In the year of our Lord, 1642, a chap called Richard Lovelace quilled oot these words…” Apr 24, 12:31
lothianlad on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Stick with it Stu!! We need you! Thank you for all you do for whats right.” Apr 24, 12:22
John H. on The Pit Of Vipers: “But he was eliminated in the end. It just took a while.” Apr 24, 11:47
Alf Baird on The Pit Of Vipers: “@ TARABDIN “what then the fate of peoples without sovereignty?” Indeed, the people and nation will ultimately ‘perish’ unless they…” Apr 24, 10:13
Minceheid on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Hatey McHateface says: 23 April, 2026 at 7:15 pm Hmmm. Bananas don’t have cores. Plenty of people enjoy bananas so…” Apr 24, 09:55
TURABDIN on The Pit Of Vipers: “@ Alf Baird »COLONIALISM is always a co-operative venture» (Fanon). A truism, how did the Brits & French etc hold…” Apr 24, 09:51
Alf Baird on The Pit Of Vipers: ““our wee, pretendy parliament” Twas aye a fair description of a colonial administration, Hatey, also know as ‘indirect rule’ in…” Apr 24, 08:44
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Lorncal @ 23 April, 11.07 writes: « John Money was not “tragically misguided”, Fearghas. He was a PDfile » —————…” Apr 24, 00:23
Lorncal on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Confused: that pilot would have been female with XX chromosomes – therefore, intersex or DSD. DSD people are still either…” Apr 23, 23:22
Lorncal on How To Get Away With Crimes: “John Money was not “tragically misguided”, Fearghas. He was a PDfile and made those two boys (the twin brothers, both…” Apr 23, 23:07
Hatey McHateface on The Pit Of Vipers: “I swore a solemn oath to respond to you only once in any 24-hour period. But I don’t mind breaking…” Apr 23, 23:02
Hatey McHateface on The Pit Of Vipers: ““stop the Dog Whistle politics” What other politics would most of them have left if they stopped that? “we have…” Apr 23, 22:52
Hatey McHateface on The Pit Of Vipers: “Cheers, YL. It’s good to be back. Thought I’d drop in to see how close we are to Indy. Damned…” Apr 23, 22:43
Confused on How To Get Away With Crimes: “this is all a deep rabbit hole one thing we distinguished in the past was – transvestite – someone who…” Apr 23, 22:35
George Ferguson on The Pit Of Vipers: “A pit of vipers is the strapline for this article. I just watched Question Time from Aberdeen, so an appropriate…” Apr 23, 22:33
Confused on How To Get Away With Crimes: “psychopathy runs at 100% incidence in rabbis, imams, spooks, freemasons and city/wallst bankers.” Apr 23, 22:32
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “HMcH Please re-post once you’ve sobered up and can make your point with clarity. Thanks in advance.” Apr 23, 22:29
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “HMcH Welcome back! Shouldn’t you “be sorting out” a failed business you neglected by spending 24/7 on here, or, did…” Apr 23, 21:52
