The Sun (English edition only, the Scottish one goes for a domestic murrdurr story) has an inflammatory front page today, as Parliament debates the most important series of votes so far on Brexit, including one to overrule devolution.
It’s a rerun of a(n in)famous previous front-page illustration from the paper, which you can see below. But there’s something odd about it.
It’s probably fair to say that the voters of Scotland have been feeling a little put-upon lately. In the last decade they’ve been sent to polling stations on no fewer than 12 occasions (Holyrood elections in 2011 and 2016, UK elections in 2010, 2015 and 2017, council elections in 2012 and 2017, European elections in 2009 and 2014, and finally referendums on AV, independence and the EU).
And they’ve been subjected to endless weeks, months or even years of campaigning and haranguing each time. One woman – who only had to endure nine of those 12 – had famously had enough of it.
Yet Scots face possibly three more in the next 12 months or so, if various factions get their way, taking the total to 15 major votes in a decade. And if we want to secure the desired outcome in any of them, we’re going to have to ease the load on folk a bit.
This Wings story from April about a wildly untrue Scottish Daily Mail front-page splash has been entirely vindicated by a correction in the paper today, conceding both of the key complaints we made in our piece.
The Mail has, as you’d imagine, printed the correction rather smaller than the original story, so we thought we’d blow it up a little here for easier reading.
Because we’re sure they wouldn’t want anyone to miss it.
Some new data from the long-running Scottish Social Attitudes Survey was released tonight, and it makes for fascinating reading.
The headline stat is that for only the second year in the 18 years the study has been running, independence is the most popular option for the governance of Scotland:
This doesn’t, however, mean that it’s the majority view, because while independence is backed by 45% the “No” option is split into two – support for devolution (41%) and those ultra-Yoons who want Holyrood abolished (8%).
Now, considering that as recently as 2012 those figures were independence on 23%, devolution 61% and no Parliament 13%, that’s still a remarkable shift in Scottish public opinion in a very short space of time – support for indy has DOUBLED in five years while devolution has dropped by a third.
And indeed, when the survey asked a straight Yes/No question the results came out even closer, at 48% Yes to 52% No – a 3% swing to Yes from the 2016 figures.
We must admit, folks, that our initial reaction to this Scotsman headline from a couple of days ago was simply a weary sigh of “Oh FFS, here we go again”.
Blaming the Scottish Government for a private company’s decision to close down its plant and make hundreds of Scottish workers redundant is just the sort of ludicrous negative spinning we’ve come to expect from the country’s press over the past seven years, so this latest example just seemed like nothing more than par for the course.
But there turned out to be a little more to it than that.
So this story is the front page of tonight’s Evening Times.
It’s a pretty slim piece deploying a Glasgow mother to attack the SNP-run city council over a recent increase in nursery fees, and it sounds like the new higher cost might be a pretty big deal to her.
And no, we don’t even mean the FOUR spelling mistakes in this 42-word tweet.
We mean the bit that we’ve highlighted above in blue. Because what Scottish Labour’s lowest-watt bulb was gloating about earlier today was that Lord Bracadale concluded there’d been no gap created in the law by the Kelly-driven abolition of the OBFA.
And that’s… well, that’s not quite what Lord Bracadale said.
Mark Beggan on A matter of class: “As a youth Alfie came across the fat slug of a word “colonised” and hungarily sank his woke teeth into…” Dec 27, 22:02
Alf Baird on A matter of class: “Always so many questions on this and that, all of which avoid the most important matter; that is, for the…” Dec 27, 21:41
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “I see Reform gained 28.9% of 1st preference votes in the Buckhaven, Methil and Wemyss by election back in November.…” Dec 27, 21:14
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “Tell us Alf, how do you know how many of the 50,000 incomers support Reform? How many of them are…” Dec 27, 21:00
Alf Baird on A matter of class: ““Reform Scotland membership now at twenty one thousand and rising.” Surprising its not a lot more considering at least 50,000…” Dec 27, 20:05
Mark Beggan on A matter of class: “Reform Scotland membership now at twenty one thousand and rising. How’s the colonized discussion going?” Dec 27, 19:30
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “….whilst conveniently completely overlooking that what the majority of Scots think is highly influenced by the UK MSM and what…” Dec 27, 19:25
Dan on A matter of class: “@ AiDan says: at 6.25 pm Above the belt? And jist what “rules” are we playing with here. Your rules…” Dec 27, 19:20
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “@ Northcode 6.15 pm An outright lie easily disproved… your rhetoric is truly abysmal. The figures aren’t hard to find…” Dec 27, 19:19
agentx on A matter of class: “How many people on here felt colonised as they ate their Christmas dinner and went for a walk on Boxing…” Dec 27, 19:03
Dan on A matter of class: “Captain Caveman says: at 4:43 pm “Nah. I don’t care what yours or anyone else’s views are…” Yawn, then why…” Dec 27, 18:59
Aidan on A matter of class: ““These arseholes will pick up on and try to make hay out of the slightest thing” Bringing someone’s daughter up…” Dec 27, 18:25
Dan on A matter of class: “And newby AiDan enters the chat… Get your programmers to read a bit further back, and you will see plenty…” Dec 27, 18:23
Northcode on A matter of class: ““Alert readers might be interested to know that the number of Scots claiming French as their mother tongue is the…” Dec 27, 18:15
Dan on A matter of class: “Keep ripping into this shite Northcode. 2 min vid on Bloomberg of Jim Rogers stating how Scotland’s oil props up…” Dec 27, 18:11
Aidan on A matter of class: ““But no CC, FF is bonkers, and just continues on with his relentless efforts (with obvious support from unionists like…” Dec 27, 18:05
Dan on A matter of class: “Aye Alf, it’s so obvious what is going on. These arseholes will pick up on and try to make hay…” Dec 27, 17:53
Northcode on A matter of class: ““Britain doesn’t need to become great again – it already is” What utter nonsense from Piotr Wilczek… whoever he is.…” Dec 27, 17:50
Northcode on A matter of class: ““It always triggers the moonhowlers when I point out that the most influential voice in Scottish political blogging thinks their…” Dec 27, 17:49
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “@ Alf 5.16pm Au contraire (that’s French that is…) Alf, I feel sure enough of my identity not to have…” Dec 27, 17:46
Alf Baird on A matter of class: “As demonstrated in the btl attacks here, the assimilated natives “place themselves in a considerably superior position to the average…” Dec 27, 17:16
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “@ Dan 4.20pm For the benefit of the minimally self aware or those who read with their lips moving like…” Dec 27, 16:47
Captain Caveman on A matter of class: “Nah. I don’t care what yours or anyone else’s views are – some things just aren’t done, and that’s one…” Dec 27, 16:43
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “@ Northcode 4.14pm In the unlikely event of the English deciding they wanted to dissolve the union I doubt they’d…” Dec 27, 16:34
Dan on A matter of class: “Ach, awa an dinae talk pish, ya pair o tag team fannies. My point was that folk, whether related* or…” Dec 27, 16:20
Northcode on A matter of class: ““…ethno-nationalist bigots don’t get to set the referendum franchise and decide on who is and isn’t pure enough to qualify…” Dec 27, 16:14
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “James, rather than clog up BTL discourse here with your cack-tsunami of ill thought out ramblings, wouldn’t you better advised…” Dec 27, 15:24
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “@Capt. Caveman 2.49pm Blood and soil bigot types just can’t help themselves bud. He’s not the first and doubtless won’t…” Dec 27, 15:10
Captain Caveman on A matter of class: “@Dan Bringing someone’s kid into it is lower than a snake’s belly. I mean, I know you’re a miserable, bitter…” Dec 27, 14:49
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “@Alf 6.45 pm Like gender ideology, so-called ‘civic nationalism’ ideology is also “Delusional nonsense” of the ‘snake oil’ variety, and…” Dec 27, 14:47
