Yesterday was quite an eventful day, so it’s moderately possible you may have missed the alarming news that some shady Mafia-backed hedge fund or such has apparently funded these irresponsible and morally-suspect chancers (last seen shilling on air for literally Vladimir Putin and BBC Scotland, in that order) to produce an all-new series of scurrilous and dubious fact-grubbing for some inexplicable reason.
We have alerted the appropriate authorities. For safety, remain in your homes.
As you can see, the Speaker offers Ian Blackford MP, who was protesting about last night’s silencing of Scottish MPs, a choice of when to hold a vote under Parliamentary standing orders, but then improperly refuses his choice and orders Blackford from the chamber, at which point the rest of the SNP’s MPs followed him.
Let there be no mistake about what just happened. Last night, Scottish devolution – an institution 111 years in the promising, just 19 years a reality – died. Iain Macwhirter summed it up concisely and accurately.
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.
Hatey McHateface on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “@Northcode 8:18 Thanks for that rare peep into your personal life and habits, Northy. You’re a sly dog! All this…” May 27, 21:46
Geri on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Scotland is being fiddled. You can quote all the figures you like. Unless they hand over the full accounts you…” May 27, 21:45
Aidan on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Yes but we’ve been round this roundabout before, the data was wrong when you published it and now it’s both…” May 27, 21:45
Andrea on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Slightly OT, but has anyone got any idea why the investigation lasted for so many years and why it took…” May 27, 21:36
Hatey McHateface on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “After hundreds of posts, all hoaching with outright lies, why should we choose to believe your latest one, Geri? I…” May 27, 21:35
Andy Wiltshire on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “This whole business is just one more example of how the institutions of Scotland work nowadays.” May 27, 21:32
Hatey McHateface on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Havers, Northy. A handful of beads, a mirror or two, and a pint of fire water and you’d be the…” May 27, 21:24
Alf Baird on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “My article identifying ‘the cost of colonialism’ for Scotland was published a couple of years ago and was therefore based…” May 27, 21:18
Bill Scullion on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “I heard Colin Beattie on TV yesterday and he looked like startled deer when asked if perhaps he should have…” May 27, 20:47
Aidan on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Why would you be using figures from 5-years ago when for at least part of the period the U.K. was…” May 27, 20:45
Northcode on No Money Back, No Guarantee: ““We all know the answer, colonial plunder and economic under-development.” I am convinced by Alf’s argument, which is supported by…” May 27, 20:18
Onlooker on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “We have a precedent. Poe did spend some childhood time in Ayrshire, Nicola’s home gaff, after all. Maybe he’s where…” May 27, 20:17
Sheepshagger on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “If nailed on evidence of either Sturgeon’s or Beattie’s culpability were to emerge could Police Scotland reopen the case?” May 27, 19:48
Alf Baird on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “GDP-PER-CAPITA BY COUNTRY, 2021/22 Norway – $106,149 Ireland – $104,039 Switzerland – $92,101 Denmark – $60,345 Scotland – $40,325 The…” May 27, 19:13
Tommo on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Those who ask the former FM to ‘come clean’ are whistling into the wind I know nothing of Scots law…” May 27, 19:07
Izzie on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “It doesnt seem to be r esonating with the folk I speak to People seem to think that it is…” May 27, 19:06
Izzie on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “It doesnt seem to be r esonating with the folk I speak to People seem to think that it is…” May 27, 19:05
robertkknight on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “D’Izzie… Let me use a word you might understand… “Scunnered”. Over 400,000 people are so scunnered by Sturgeon, Murrell and…” May 27, 18:32
twathater on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “And as if by magic Northcode just to confirm the degeneration of the auld empire that you so eloquently expressed…” May 27, 18:12
Tenruh on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “You’ve got to wonder did he already know from the outset that there never was going to be a referendum?…” May 27, 18:08
Strathglass on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “One begins to wonder if the principal reason Murrell and others were so frightened of Alex Salmond returning to frontline…” May 27, 18:02
Mike on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “It’s a sad reflection on the state of Scotland that Sturgeon has been allowed to walk Scot free in all…” May 27, 17:44
Mark Beggan on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Amelda Murrell will probably be running a sweepstake with the inmates tobacco rations.” May 27, 17:42
agentx on All The Dirt From My Eyes: ““The Presiding Officer (Kenneth Gibson) The next item of business is an urgent question in relation to Peter Murrell. As…” May 27, 17:39
Young Lochinvar on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Bet sneaky Pete is finding consolation in jail listening to Jimmy Nails song “Ain’t no doubt”. Probably sings along to…” May 27, 17:26
Nemisis Benn on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “It is a given (by admission, not proof or evidence) that Murrell stole significant sums from the SNP for over…” May 27, 17:16
James Jones on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “It’s sad to see some people here trying to blame the Union for this. The reason the rest of the…” May 27, 17:14
Iain Ross on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “If I were the head of a political party, like JS is, and had been made aware that £c660,000 of…” May 27, 17:13
Geri on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Good grief! I’ve never been arrested but surely tae fck the police don’t let suspects go home & they can…” May 27, 17:13
Aidan on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “You’re lying again, the GDP per capita in Scotland is around 75% of Denmark, not 50%. Scotland is overall a…” May 27, 17:05
