Alert readers may recall that the Electoral Commission recently chose, to everyone’s (cough) great surprise, to take no action against extremist Unionist shout-monkeys Scotland In Union over a number of clear breaches of electoral rules, or for failing to disclose a number of large donations from extremely wealthy donors.
10 days ago the EC published a tranche of FOI documents relating to the case on its website, with the donor details redacted to protect the identity of the various Lords, Dukes, Earls and Countesses who’d rather you didn’t know that they’d been handing thousands of pounds at a time to SiU.
So, yeah. It was on this day in 1991 that the first ever proper issue of Amiga Power (A Magazine With Tatty Shoes, or something) hit Britons’ newsagents’ shelves.
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And while vast numbers of old games magazines are now available to read as lovely friendly PDFs or similar that you can load up onto your computer or electro-tablet and flick through page by page in a gratifying manner, AP inexplicably isn’t.
As alert readers will recall, nowadays we only look at the Scottish Daily Express if we’re absolutely desperate for material, so this piece slipped past us a few days ago:
And since the only thing in the papers today is page after page of unbearable fawning drivel about the stupendously insignificant (fifth in line to the throne, will never ever be king unless a terrorist blows up Buckingham Palace with an atomic bomb, is roughly as important to the wellbeing of the nation as Hamilton Accies’ third-choice goalkeeper) royal baby, we figured we may as well have a look at it now.
Even in a sluggish news season, it’s somehow extra-dispiriting to see a once-august newspaper like the Sunday Times fill its pages by trying to flog its readers reheated old cobblers from the previous day’s Daily Mail.
We’ve already shredded the towering stupidity of the story itself (the Times dutifully repeats all the exact same drivel about meal deals and loyalty vouchers), so we were pleased when social media presented a new angle on it.
Pointing out the spectacular levels of imbecility among Scotland’s elected Tories has threatened to become a full-time job for this website in recent months. We wish we could say that today’s example was even a particularly noteworthy one, but tragically it’s about par for the course.
Today’s Scottish Daily Mail leads with a rather limp piece about some fairly minor and unavoidable loopholes in the new legislation for minimum alcohol pricing. It notes, for example, that if people order alcohol online and it’s despatched by the supplier from outside Scotland, the Scottish Government will have no jurisdiction over the price.
(Because the UK has no internal border controls and there’s no law against someone buying cheaper booze in England and bringing it home to Scotland.)
Retailers, of course, can easily block this loophole if they choose to, by refusing to deliver cheap alcohol purchases to Scottish addresses, so it’s not much of a problem.
And the other “loopholes” aren’t actually loopholes at all – one*, according to the Mail, is that “loyalty reward vouchers can also continue to be offered to cut the cost of alcohol”, which is a bit like saying it’s a “loophole” that employers could give people pay rises that they might use to buy more beer.
But if you thought THAT was stupid, Annie Wells MSP is here to raise the bar.
(NB These rules do not apply to Andrew Neil, Nick Robinson, etc etc. Like, duh. In a properly democratic country we’d be able to use FOI to actually see the blacklist, but this is the BBC we’re talking about.)
Last night – at the insistence of the SNP – the House Of Commons held a six-hour emergency debate in the wake of the UK’s unquestionably illegal bombing of Syria at the weekend, under the supposed justification of a chemical attack that may well not have happened at all, far less have been the responsibility of the unfortunate country’s murderous dictator Bashar al-Assad.
The debate concluded with a token vote, not on whether the bombing was right or wrong but which merely asserted whether Parliament had “considered” the subject. (ie voting that it had NOT done so would have made a statement that the Prime Minister acted improperly by committing UK forces to a conflict without obtaining MPs’ assent.)
Faced with the opportunity to issue a symbolic public rebuke to the government for bypassing Parliament on a matter of war and breaking international law, the radical socialist opposition Labour Party of Jeremy Corbyn… abstained.
There can surely be no country on Earth cursed and plagued with a more pathetic shower of petty, whining, gossiping harpies in those roles than Scotland. And while we knew that already, barely a day seems to go by without them reaching a new nadir.
If you’ve got the stomach to hear about the latest low point, grit your teeth, lower your expectations of humanity considerably and read on.
Yes, we know the Express announces a “killer blow” to independence every couple of weeks. But otherwise we can think of nothing to add to this story, so just click the pic to read and enjoy.
factchecker on What We Don’t Know Now: “There is no secret about what a D notice is. Since MI5 is responsible for counter-terrorism in the UK, it…” Jun 9, 11:27
BigJay on What We Don’t Know Now: “I’m sure that most people reading this will be familiar with Donald Rumsfeld’s famous quote – “As we know, there…” Jun 9, 11:07
Martyman on What We Don’t Know Now: “If you ask me, Farage would be happy to be rid of Scotland. So I don’t really understand why an…” Jun 9, 10:44
Oneliner on What We Don’t Know Now: “Talk to the press and (maybe) they will tell you what a D-Notice means. Keir Starmer well knows their scope…” Jun 9, 10:38
Captain Caveman on What We Don’t Know Now: “I agree, people tend to grasp at straws such as the preposterous “deepstate hypothesis” when far simpler, less edifying explanations…” Jun 9, 10:05
Stuart MacKay on What We Don’t Know Now: “Breeks, I know you know this already, but you can add to your list the changes to candidate selection procedures,…” Jun 9, 09:46
wally jumblatt on What We Don’t Know Now: “I don’t think Nicola Sturgeon was under the thumb of deepstate London, I think she spent her decade poisoning the…” Jun 9, 08:57
James on What We Don’t Know Now: ““Fuck around and find out, the angry child recites this every day.”” Jun 9, 08:16
Hatey McHateface on What We Don’t Know Now: ““HCB to prosecute and silence any and ALL criticism about their REVILED and vehemently opposed GRB” Did that actually work…” Jun 9, 07:57
Hatey McHateface on The Jokers: “She’s safe! Praise be! They’re gonna take her home, but first, like a naughty but badly parented child, she’s gonna…” Jun 9, 07:49
Hatey McHateface on What We Don’t Know Now: ““50% must however keep you awake at night in a cold sweat” I guess that could be true, but only…” Jun 9, 07:42
Hatey McHateface on What We Don’t Know Now: “The MSM is reporting a new crackdown on dog ownership and dog walking in the Ir@nian shithole. What does our…” Jun 9, 07:38
twathater on What We Don’t Know Now: ““My challenge is to make sure that we can turn that aspiration in the public for Scottish independence into a…” Jun 9, 03:47
Young Lochinvar on Ball Of Confusion: “Aaaah Souness! Wasn’t he the highly paid sports monkey that said Scotland back in the day should throw the match…” Jun 9, 02:38
Young Lochinvar on What We Don’t Know Now: “Well said Geri! What the politico monkeys based in their city offices just don’t get is that having given them…” Jun 9, 01:26
Young Lochinvar on What We Don’t Know Now: “50% must however keep you awake at night in a cold sweat. Intrude in your dreams does it? I think…” Jun 9, 01:15
Young Lochinvar on What We Don’t Know Now: “Very good post. Regarding Alba; well, they’ll have to start standing at elections and by elections as I’ve certainly never…” Jun 9, 00:48
Rob on What We Don’t Know Now: “Never heard of a BME programme in the NHS in Scotland. I would like to see some proof it exists…” Jun 9, 00:13
Rob on What We Don’t Know Now: “I look at the Sp and don’t think that they represent me or what I want the country to be,…” Jun 8, 23:07
Alf Baird on What We Don’t Know Now: “Here it is in English, Dunx, nae bather at aw: https://salvo.scot/the-scottish-constitution/” Jun 8, 21:57
Northcode on What We Don’t Know Now: ““Scots fowk awready hiv thair ain constitution:” aye, Alf. mair than cuid be sayd fir the Inglis fowk wha hiv…” Jun 8, 21:35
Peter Joy on What We Don’t Know Now: “Jocky Wilson, in the bath with a pint. I think I get it. ‘As a child, Wilson’s parents were deemed…” Jun 8, 21:13
Geri on What We Don’t Know Now: “I don’t think the SNP can even be described as devolutionist – they’ve achieved the grand total of hee-haw on…” Jun 8, 20:29
James Barr Gardner on What We Don’t Know Now: “O/T has anyone been booted off Facebook this week ?” Jun 8, 19:43
agent x on What We Don’t Know Now: “Oh dear – another topic quoting “polls”. When will people learn?” Jun 8, 19:30
Dunx on What We Don’t Know Now: “That would be more useful if it was written in a language that most Scots could understand. It’s current version…” Jun 8, 18:48
Breeks on What We Don’t Know Now: “The SNP can reinvent itself as many times as it likes, but unless or until it addresses the cynical brazen…” Jun 8, 18:41
Hatey McHateface on What We Don’t Know Now: “So the takeaway from Labour (a foreign, pro-union party) winning the by-election is that the union is in more trouble…” Jun 8, 18:38
Geri on What We Don’t Know Now: “It could start with him holding a leadership election & the SNP already has/had a current commanding position, still live…” Jun 8, 18:29
