Apologies for the shortage of content in the last couple of days, folks. The 10-year-old Wings PC has been wheezing and groaning and emitting smoke for a few weeks, but it’s now reached a point where we can barely keep it from crashing for five minutes at a time, and we’ve run out of sticking plasters (and stuff to delete on its tiny C drive to give it a bit of cache space and stop it falling over clutching theatrically at its throat).
(Don’t even get us started on a rant about all the idiot software that insists on stealthily clogging it up with mysterious useless bloat but won’t work anywhere but the C drive. Who knew it was even possible to hate iTunes any more than we already did?)
We ordered a new one a while back, but until it gets here we might be a bit light on anything that involves a lot of typing, linking or formatting. Please bear with us.
And we do mean rank. It’s been quite a week already for super-hapless Labour MP Hugh Gaffney, but he excelled himself today when joining in with Scottish Labour’s campaign to resist building a new hospital in Gartcosh (which is the recommendation of an independent NHS panel), rather than on the site of the current one in Monklands.
(And yes, that is the same one Labour wanted to shut down in 2007.)
Because it wasn’t terribly long ago that he took a rather different view.
In many ways the Glasgow equal-pay dispute feels like the impotent final fury of the dinosaurs after the dust cloud of a prehistoric asteroid impact blacked out the sun and condemned them all to death.
What we’re seeing now is a futile howl of rage against irrelevance by the shady cabal of Labour politicians and senior trade union officials who used to treat the city as their personal fiefdom, as they sink into inglorious extinction.
We highly recommend clicking that link to read the whole series of tweets from Labour member and solicitor Ian Smart, who readers won’t need reminding is no sort of friend of the SNP or inclined to their defence. Because the story goes much deeper than the common-or-garden hypocrisy we saw yesterday.
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.
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Should have known you’d stick up for Northy, Wee Wally. What with Tourettes being the verbal equivalent of w@nking.” Sep 4, 07:35
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Food for thought. It is not a case of if but when will Reform take power and when they do…” Sep 4, 04:11
GM on Anything But That: “Well, you are a Pict? Probably.” Sep 4, 02:50
GM on Anything But That: “Unless of course they are actually lining us up for a vote we are in an utterly dire position to…” Sep 4, 02:08
GM on Anything But That: “By the way, the people I see on the street, actually sleeping on the street I have never seen drunk…” Sep 4, 01:27
GM on Anything But That: “67% of all available housing must go to immigrants(not people seeking refuge or folk from abroad who have found themselves…” Sep 4, 01:13
James on Anything But That: “Better a Pict than a “Prick” though eh, SP?” Sep 3, 22:33
James on Anything But That: “Hey everybodee… England gets the revenues. Scotland gets the nukes! Yaaaaaay! Rejoice!” Sep 3, 22:22
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “I asked Google: “how many countries or peoples can be described by specific English words by those who hate them”…” Sep 3, 21:29
agentx on Anything But That: “what is it in your Indigenous language?” Sep 3, 21:24
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Well, you are a Pict. A thousand year old, space traveling one at that. Whether in reality, or just self-identified,…” Sep 3, 21:12
Northcode on Anything But That: ““…you hate the English.” They hated me first! But, seriously, I don’t hate the English… I don’t hate anyone. I…” Sep 3, 20:28
Aidan on Anything But That: “We get it Northcode, you hate the English.” Sep 3, 19:49
Northcode on Anything But That: ““… yet the two nations and peoples can be friends now.” Setting aside this logic falling victim to the fallacy…” Sep 3, 19:23
Aidan on Anything But That: “Yeah again I think most people can get over the events of 300+ years ago. Within some people’s lifetimes, the…” Sep 3, 18:47
Northcode on Anything But That: “… or even “Keyboard Tourettes” for those who think the possessive term is misplaced. Perhaps i do suffer from keybored…” Sep 3, 18:32
agentx on Anything But That: “@ Marie – I live overlooking Gareloch and have fished there with my sons and eaten mackerel that we caught.…” Sep 3, 18:30
Northcode on Anything But That: “For the pedantic, “Keyboard Tourets” should read “Keyboard Tourette’s” Thair – sortit.” Sep 3, 18:29
Northcode on Anything But That: “Keyboard Tourets The term “keyboard tourettes” is not officially recognized, but it describes a phenomenon where individuals, often in online…” Sep 3, 18:08
TURABDIN on Anything But That: “WW3 & the AI loonies….. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/03/peter-thiel-argentina-javier-milei?CMP=share_btn_url El Niño too.” Sep 3, 18:04
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “How odd that you don’t want to pose the question in Scots, Northy. Got to say, I’m pissed that according…” Sep 3, 17:50
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Benefits to who?” Sep 3, 17:34
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “I have this theory, Northy, that you spout shite in inverse proportion to the likelihood of Scotland becoming independent. On…” Sep 3, 17:32
Northcode on Anything But That: “Westminster is nervous… and for good reason. The main event that could trigger a great upsurge in Scottish demand for…” Sep 3, 17:29
Marie on Anything But That: “Alf Baird @ 4.06pm – thanks for the link. I was in Helensburgh last month and looking out at Gare…” Sep 3, 17:21
Northcode on Anything But That: “It was always England’s empire. You never hear of Britain’s “Green and Pleasant Land” or “There’ll Always Be a Britain”…” Sep 3, 17:13
James Barr Gardner on Anything But That: “The fact that most smaller nations in Europe operate on consensus politics seems to have escaped Swinney’s vision, his view…” Sep 3, 17:07
Stevie on Anything But That: “The SNP disgusts me – nothing new then” Sep 3, 16:44
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Now, now WWW. Use its proper name. 8 Ace.” Sep 3, 16:34
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “So it’s the English empire now, Alf? What you doing here? Channeling your inner Trump? He likes to rename stuff…” Sep 3, 16:31
