Sundays have been the low point of Scottish political journalism for a while now. Traditionally a day when newspapers are heavy on comment and light on news (because politics tends to happen on weekdays), they unleash all the weary old dinosaurs who’ve been driving away readers for the last 30 years.
So you really have to stand out to be noticed for especially appalling hackery on a Sunday, which is probably why nobody from Scotland On Sunday wanted to have their name on this toe-curling piece of second-hand, lifted-from-another-paper garbage.
Professor Ronald MacDonald, you say? That name seems to ring a bell.
MARR: “What would [Theresa May] need to bring back [from Brexit negotiations] to win you over?”
DAVIS: “She needs to bring back a clear ability on the part of the United Kingdom to be able to leave this treaty when it chooses to. There is no other treaty in the world I’m aware of where a sovereign nation undertakes to join up and can only leave when the other side says so.”
We’re pretty sure we can think of an example, David.
Michael Glackin of the Sunday Times is the only serious contender to the Scotsman’s demented Brian Wilson as the most poisonously, blindly instinctive hater of anything even passingly connected to the SNP or independence in the Scottish media. His weekly bilious rants in the paper make even Scottish Daily Express hacks wince and say “Blimey, that’s a bit strong”.
But even by those standards, this week’s column is quite something. So let’s take a little look at just how much of an idiot you can make of yourself if you never allow facts to get in the way of your rage.
Watching the Six Nations rugby tournament every year is usually quite a dispiriting experience – not just because of Scotland’s invariably underwhelming performances (broken up by the occasional false dawn), but because talking about it on social media always results in an extremely tedious flood of comments about how rugby is a sport played and watched exclusively by middle-class Tory No voters.
(That’s Scotland skipper Greig Laidlaw there, with Wings mascot Hamish.)
Speaking as someone whose interest in the tournament (in the pre-inflation days when it was the Five Nations) was first sparked when my extremely working-class Bathgate comprehensive school started taking pupils to Murrayfield in the 1980s – 50p for the bus and 50p for the match ticket, which got you a seat on wooden benches actually on the grass – this attitude has always instinctively felt like complete nonsense.
So when we did our latest Panelbase poll during this year’s competition, we figured we may as well actually find out.
Today is International Women’s Day, and we wouldn’t normally pay much attention to that fact because this is a Scottish politics website, not a feminist one. But the Scottish Government is currently putting itself at odds with women in a way it would have been hard to imagine when Nicola Sturgeon became First Minister, and since what Wings does specialise in is hard data – and at the request of a lot of women – we thought it was worth putting some solid numbers on a few things in our latest poll.
Scottish Labour’s 2019 conference, which starts in Dundee tomorrow, isn’t taking place in the most auspicious of circumstances, to put it kindly. The branch office is trailing a breathtaking 22 points behind the SNP in the latest Holyrood polling, 8 points behind the Tories, and the gap is getting bigger.
Westminster polling isn’t a great deal better, with the SNP 15 points ahead despite having been in power for 12 years and doggedly attempting to commit electoral suicide with a raft of increasingly unpopular policies (more on that to come).
A few days ago we received a reply from the Information Commissioner’s Office, and as a result have sent a letter to the Conservative Party’s compliance department. You can read it below.
We’ve just got the tables from a new Panelbase poll back, and they make grim reading for Labour (North British Branch Office) on the eve of their conference.
Holyrood voting intentions (constituency):
SNP 41% (nc)
Con 27% (+2)
Lab 19% (-4)
LD 8% (+2)
Grn 3% (nc)
UKIP 2% (+1)
(1002 Scottish voters, 2-6 March 2019) Changes from December 2018
That’s getting perilously close to the all-time low of 14% achieved around the tail end of Kezia Dugdale’s disastrous leadership. And the list vote isn’t much better.
Holyrood voting intentions (region):
SNP 36% (-2)
Con 26% (nc)
Lab 19% (-3)
LD 9% (+2)
Grn 6% (nc)
UKIP 3% (+2)
But even with astonishing leads of 14% and 10% after 12 years in power, the SNP have nothing to be complacent about either – according to the Weber Shandwick seat projector, these numbers would give Nicola Sturgeon’s party 57 seats and the Greens just 4, meaning Holyrood’s pro-independence majority would be a goner and the Nats would need backing from at least one Unionist party to pass any bills, meaning no new mandate for an indyref.
Like everywhere else, Scotland is currently split down the middle and nobody knows which side of the tightrope it’ll fall off in the event of a push.
Alf Baird on A Long Hard Think: ““What does Cesaire say about Muslim colonization or Communist or Dynasty takeovers.” Not a lot aboot the former. The Communist…” Sep 14, 11:00
Southernbystander on A Long Hard Think: “Caveman you read my post but ignored the bit about ‘fascism’ so you could show-horn in your attack on ‘woke’,…” Sep 14, 10:43
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “I was a Trump fan, MH. He did some good things in his first year, including getting the hostages out…” Sep 14, 09:57
Minceheid on A Long Hard Think: “Hatey McHateface says: 14 September, 2026 at 8:38 am Trump’s approval no longer what many (including myself) thought it was.…” Sep 14, 08:58
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “All very well, Northy, but let’s sort G@za first. Indy can wait. But to be serious for a mo. Excellent,…” Sep 14, 08:50
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “Trump’s approval no longer what many (including myself) thought it was. If they give him an atlas and a marker…” Sep 14, 08:38
Rev. Stuart Campbell on A Long Hard Think: “Done, and if there’s any more of it there’ll be a visit to the pre-mod queue.” Sep 14, 08:24
Alf Baird on A Long Hard Think: ““Great Britain was the greatest colonial power the world had ever seen. They sowed the seeds of their own destruction.”…” Sep 14, 08:08
Oneliner on A Long Hard Think: “He plays them on an (of)Fender Rhodes” Sep 14, 07:49
Captain Caveman on A Long Hard Think: ““When the right start claiming anything they see as left is ‘communist’ you know they have lost the plot and…” Sep 13, 22:55
Captain Caveman on A Long Hard Think: ““3 against 1 again” Ah, your counting skills just as woeful as your debating skills I see, Alf. Anyway, it’s…” Sep 13, 22:46
Southernbystander on A Long Hard Think: “When the right start claiming anything they see as left is ‘communist’ you know they have lost the plot and…” Sep 13, 22:18
Mark Beggan on A Long Hard Think: “What does Cesaire say about Muslim colonization or Communist or Dynasty takeovers. Is that a separate study? Be honest, you…” Sep 13, 21:43
Northcode on A Long Hard Think: “I thought it might be helpful to offer a clarification of what I meant in my earlier comment where I…” Sep 13, 21:25
Alf Baird on A Long Hard Think: “Cesaire wrote specifically about Hitler, and his “crime against the white man, and the fact that he applied to Europe…” Sep 13, 20:25
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “What was he angry about?” Sep 13, 20:15
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “Four, Alf, you’re forgetting Northy. As I’ve pointed out before, if we play the “thought experiment” of agreeing 100% with…” Sep 13, 20:12
M.E on A Long Hard Think: ““What? You got a problem with it? What do we look like, the Crime Police?”” Sep 13, 20:08
Alf Baird on A Long Hard Think: ““Yet, we and those who came before us, have consistently acquiesced in our own dependency.” Indeed so Lorncal, and which…” Sep 13, 20:04
Alf Baird on A Long Hard Think: “3 against 1 again, rinse and repeat. Reminds us of an EBC independence ‘debate’.” Sep 13, 19:49
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “Blocked the Darien initiative, eh? I can’t decide which is the most ludicrous aspect of that complaint. That you’re greeting…” Sep 13, 19:06
Mark Beggan on A Long Hard Think: “That seems a lot like The man they love to hate.” Sep 13, 18:59
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “They both released cover versions of “Jerusalem”, accompanying themselves on the melodeon.” Sep 13, 18:56
DaveL on A Long Hard Think: “I’ll add childlike insults to the list of whinges and whines we hear from you. You’ll be telling me next…” Sep 13, 18:54
Mark Beggan on A Long Hard Think: “Cecil Rhodes was a raging homosexual. How does that fit with the theory. Confused? You will be.” Sep 13, 18:50
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “So Memmi was Jewish? The usual suspects are going to have to airbrush him out of the post colonial boys’…” Sep 13, 18:49
Chas on A Long Hard Think: “DaveLooney Many thanks for your response. Who do you speak for? Could it be Fanny, Mummi or Ceaser. Or is…” Sep 13, 18:26
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “I speak English, TURABDIN, and I am better than the rest. Like most Scots, I’ve little time for the inferior…” Sep 13, 18:23
twathater on A Long Hard Think: “I notice now that the yoonionist parties have come to the realisation that their unwavering support for Is ra hel…” Sep 13, 18:21
