We don’t know whether Sky News’ senior Scotland correspondent James Matthews recognised double-jobbing Labour MP and councillor Hugh Gaffney on today’s strike march in Glasgow or not. (We suspect he did, but as Gaffney’s only been an MP for a year and a half we can’t be sure.)
What’s certain is that he gave him plenty of time, opportunity and cues to disclose who he was, and Gaffney didn’t take any of them, leading to this extraordinary clip.
The indyref sometimes caused feelings to run rather high, and people on both sides made themselves very unpopular with those on the other side. But four years of water has flowed under the bridge since then, and not everyone is still in the same trenches.
Some high-profile names have switched to from No to Yes (often but not exclusively as a result of Brexit), and the reception afforded to floor-crossers like Murray Foote, Eric Joyce, Jackie Kemp, Mike Dailly, Tom Morton and Simon Pia hasn’t always been an entirely warm one, with some unable to keep a lid on their old grudges.
And in a similar vein, some of the remarks in recent days on the reported switch to Yes of Billy Connolly – a few from people I thought better of – are deeply offensive and potentially deeply damaging.
Well well, look who suddenly believes in second referendums.
It’s fascinating to note how you can completely reverse Kezia Dugdale’s position on the subject simply by substituting the word “Scotland” for the words “the UK” in that second tweet, and imagine she was talking about the independence march in heavily-Remain-voting Edinburgh earlier this month instead of the (proportionately smaller) one in London yesterday.
The BBC’s Scottish politics website today prominently carries this story:
Our famously alert readers may recall as far back as five-and-a-half months ago, which was the last time the Scottish media tried to whip up demented scare stories about baby boxes, which have been given to every new mother in Finland for approximately 70 years and caused absolutely no documented problems.
So what’s fresh about the story to justify this significant new coverage? Let’s see.
Tory MP Kirstene “dumber than a box of” Hair is best known for being the member of the UK Parliament who didn’t vote in the Brexit referendum because it was too difficult.
The Scottish Daily Mail today has a big headline relaying the seemingly-unambiguous bad news that unemployment in Scotland has apparently risen by 11,000.
But cheer up, folks, because better times are ahead.
We’re pretty sure it was “Listen to you about being ‘better together’, so that they ended up with a Tory government they didn’t vote for but which was imposed on them by the people in a much larger country, and which has a long track record of imposing brutal, callous welfare policies on the poor for largely ideological reasons, and which has entirely predictably continued to do so”.
James Jones on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Rev. Spooner says: “the SNP mouthpiece was at pains to make the point that “no public money was stolen”. Now…” May 27, 11:40
Captain Caveman on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “2020 was a bit of a kerchinger, by the looks!” May 27, 11:16
Chas on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Absolute mince……..as usual. Very easy to pick random figures out of thin air. It’s all you have. But no quotes…” May 27, 11:16
Captain Caveman on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Surprised no one noticed the 6-wheel campervan. I think my missus would’ve raised an eyebrow at that point 😀” May 27, 11:10
Captain Caveman on No Money Back, No Guarantee: ““I fancy a nice set of Salt n Pepper grinders.” Salt n Pepper…? I just had the most ghastly fleeting…” May 27, 11:05
Alf Baird on No Money Back, No Guarantee: ““NOT estranged when the thefts were carried out” Likewise, Scotland and England are not exactly ‘estranged’, the former held tighter…” May 27, 10:28
Socrates MacSporran on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “It is a clear demonstration of how thick Starmer and the Labour Government are, that they are not rushing to…” May 27, 10:04
agentx on No Money Back, No Guarantee: ““Murrell, who is Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband, pled guilty to embezzling £400,310.65 from the SNP over a 12-year period.” ——————————————————-…” May 27, 09:47
agentx on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Murrell’s escalating thefts 2010: £537 2011: £706 2012: £1083 2013: £1,518 2014: £3,425 2015: £5,520 2016: £46,284 2017: £43,724 2018:…” May 27, 09:40
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “@sarah: glad you both enjoyed it. My friend remembered his dad singing it to him at bath-time when he was…” May 27, 09:30
Aidan on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “£85,000 a year is about £56,000 after tax (but before pension contributions, and fixed costs like housing). So the £400k…” May 27, 09:28
DavidT on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “I am not making excuses for her, but it’s reasonable to assume that if he had an annual income of…” May 27, 09:01
Willie on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Definition of stupidity the promotion of two votes SNP it is not young Lochinvar. Rather it is the definition of…” May 27, 08:34
Hatey McHateface on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “BBC is reporting that Murrell bought “a bottle of Loctite super glue (£3.50)”. I wonder, as a bit of a…” May 27, 08:33
Hatey McHateface on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Here you go YL. This is what is really going on in the world: https://unherd.com/2025/10/military-drones-will-upend-the-world/?ref=refinnar The people controlling the supply…” May 27, 08:06
Hatey McHateface on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Drop a few hints and she might get a copy of Sturgeon’s Collected Speeches for you.” May 27, 07:15
James on The Final Robbery: “I salute wings, always a top notch read and putting the rest to shame. Well done sir!” May 27, 06:58
Young Lochinvar on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Anyone else just sitting idly assessing this whole mess, and the whole mother of all messes down in London, and…” May 27, 04:19
gm on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/26/sturgeon-husband-murrell-crimes-jewellery/” May 27, 02:26
GM on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Click on the pictures above. Also Telegraph, Sun, Reptile, even the BBC (who backed her to the hilt whilst hounding…” May 27, 02:23
Young Lochinvar on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “GM Link please? Ye know, that’s 2/3rds of the party leaders/ seniors during the independence debates have either been described…” May 27, 02:03
Young Lochinvar on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Frank According to reports on the BBC ££where££ then a fair old percentage of purchases were from what you would…” May 27, 01:46
A2 on Woman buys thing with own money: “Who’d a thunk I’d remember about this post after all this time? (Is that first line an edit?)” May 27, 00:29
Mark Beggan on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “When is the Police auction? I fancy a nice set of Salt n Pepper grinders. Maybe get a designer bag…” May 27, 00:16
GM on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “It appears that Nicola Sturgeon is finally being called out by the MSM. ‘Sturgeon claims never to have seen..yet we…” May 26, 23:59
Skip_NC on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Not as such, I don’t think. He didn’t steal pound notes. He took it in kind. There was the sale…” May 26, 23:20
Skip_NC on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “The amount of Short Money is not unknown. It may be hidden in the SNP financial statements but it is…” May 26, 23:11
sarah on Off-topic: “You’re a lucky man, TC, with your wildlife – especially the goldcrest. I’ve only seen one once in all my…” May 26, 23:03
