This is an interesting one. Almost 40 years on from the event, Scottish politics is still plagued by micro-brained Labour types insisting that the SNP “ushered in” Margaret Thatcher after the devolution referendum of 1979 was sabotaged by a Labour MP.
SNP supporters counter that this is complete bollocks, largely because it’s complete bollocks. James Callaghan, the Labour PM at the time, blamed 34 of his own MPs for bringing his government down, by supporting an amendment from Islington South and Finsbury Labour MP George Cunningham which blocked the creation of a Scottish Assembly even though it won the referendum by a narrow margin.
(Cunningham resigned from Labour two years later and subsequently joined the SDP, but in 2012 the Daily Express dragged him out to demand that the same “40% rule” be applied to the indyref.)
History, though, has forgotten someone else who was apparently the true architect of the fix, to the extent that we’d never heard about it until now.
We thought it might be worth going through this in a bit more detail.
The phrase “out of control” is in quote marks in the Herald’s front-page headline, leading readers to believe someone has said it, but who? Let’s investigate.
We’ve got a shock result for the inaugural winner of this exciting new award, readers. Remarkably it’s NOT David Torrance – who wrote an arch review of a chapter of a book about Donald Trump that didn’t actually exist. Good effort, Davey, but no cigar.
No, the first ever Wings Absolute Fanny Of The Week is… Anas Sarwar!
In common with half of Scottish Labour, Sarwar has been raging at Paisley MP Mhairi Black for her “silence” over the closure of a 16-bed children’s ward in the town, which has been replaced by an entire new state-of-the-art 256-bed children’s hospital 10 minutes down the road, right next to the sparkly new Southern General.
But only Sarwar did it by enclosing a picture of the local paper’s front-page splash on the story. In which there was one teeny-weeny slight problem for him.
Remarkably, the notoriously unreliable and yet somehow omnipresent Scottish political commentator and reality-disputer David “Davey” Torrance was still digging last night in the wake of this story from three days ago.
Previous episodes in the series are here. If you’ve got a story like this to tell, or you know anyone who does, Phantom Power want to hear from you – drop them a line.
Late last night in the House Of Commons saw one of the most significant votes in the history of UK constitutional politics. A group of Scottish Tory MPs voted to oppose an amendment which would have protected the central building block of Scottish (and Welsh) devolution – the principle that any powers not explicitly reserved are devolved – from the UK government’s attempted huge power grab under the cover of Brexit.
Last night they could have fixed it by supporting the amendment (backed by every other Scottish MP right across party lines), which would have tipped the arithmetic and ensured its success. Instead they betrayed every voter in Scotland – including their own – by waving the bill through unamended and passing the buck to the unelected House Of Lords, which has no representatives from Scotland’s most popular party.
This morning, BBC Scotland led on the fact that it snowed a bit in Scotland in January.
It also saw the return of ubiquitous Scottish politics scribe David Torrance from a trip to San Francisco, the details of which he shared at stultifying length with the unfortunate readers of The Scottish Review.
Or at least, what he SAID were the details of where he SAID he’d been.
We’ve commented quite a few times in recent months about the Scottish media’s habit of running statistical stories rendered meaningless by the absence of any context.
The reasons for this aren’t necessarily sinister – sometimes journalists are just lazy or the full stats are hard to establish because like-for-like figures aren’t published – but usually it’s just a way to get an SNP BAD story out of isolated numbers which, if the full picture was presented, would render that impossible.
The above story from STV News today contains no furious rentaquotes from Labour or the Tories (at least not yet), so we should place it in the former category. Nevertheless, we do feel it’s our duty in a general sense to provide readers with the information that the Scottish media can’t be bothered to, so let’s do that.
John McNab on The Queer Parliament: “The reference in the opening excerpt from ‘Trainspotting’ to no more guys or girls, just wankers, was first aired in…” May 20, 19:51
Geri on The Queer Parliament: “The death cult brings censorship, sweeping changes to the law, population control & snoopers charter. Colonisers love division. It takes…” May 20, 19:37
Northcode on The Queer Parliament: “Here’s a plan… Scotland and the indigenous Scots can’t change a single thing about their government, their country, or their…” May 20, 19:27
Captain Caveman on The Queer Parliament: ““However, let’s not crow too soon, because far right is just as bad as far left, so we need the…” May 20, 19:20
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: ““Well that’s interesting Northcode, because above Geri stated that this country was in fact a democracy.” Yes, Geri did state…” May 20, 19:17
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “Aye Sven. I need to know more about this 77 Brigade. What’s their mandate, who funds them, who is the…” May 20, 19:14
twathater on The Queer Parliament: “As you are more than probably aware Lorna I was on WOS repeatedly urging and begging Stuart Campbell to at…” May 20, 19:06
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “No. They got into that mess all by themselves. What damage could any of the security forces do to what’s…” May 20, 18:59
Onlooker on The Queer Parliament: “But the corporations have already basically destroyed all political systems, rigging them in their own favour. They are the (world)…” May 20, 18:53
Aidan on The Land Of No Laws: ““The country you refer to is controlled by an authoritarian regime” Well that’s interesting Northcode, because above Geri stated that…” May 20, 18:39
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: “I am not Geri’s spokesman, and I’m certain Geri is very capable of fighting her own corner without my help,…” May 20, 18:25
Karen on The Queer Parliament: “Ask the Greens why they have 2 co-leaders. I’ll tell you – one male, one female. Were they deliberately sabotaged…” May 20, 18:17
Bilbo on The Queer Parliament: “With 5 years more years of the SNP/Green coalition, Scotland will make the excesses of the Weimar German Republic look…” May 20, 18:14
Bilbo on The Queer Parliament: “That’s the Greens elected, most likely from 2nd votes of SNP voters. Their job to fill the coffers of the…” May 20, 18:07
sam on The Queer Parliament: “There is a civil service “pronoun pledge” in Holyrood. It aims to encourage civil servants to use their “personal pronouns”…” May 20, 18:05
Lorncal on The Queer Parliament: “Mark: spot on. This is exactly what is going to happen. It is precisely what it is going to take…” May 20, 17:53
James Barr Gardner on The Queer Parliament: “The fake green party is an even worse toxin !” May 20, 17:04
Captain Caveman on The Land Of No Laws: “Characteristically verbose bollocks from you, Northcode; an awful lot of words – a meandering, trademark pretentious word-salad saying pretty much…” May 20, 16:39
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “SNP second vote, Mickey Forrester scene, ‘For all the good it done me I’d be as well sticking it up…” May 20, 16:22
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “The best scene in that movie was when Begby found out in the car!” May 20, 16:14
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: ““…who believes he’s an 800-year old Pict, with Oscar Wilde’s mobile number…” Shall we dance? “To the rest of us,…” May 20, 16:09
bobo bunny on The Queer Parliament: “With this and the football, the whole world is laughing at us. I am ashamed that these people, and indeed…” May 20, 16:07
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “Just stumbled on a good British TV drama from 1973. The Fortunes of Nigel based on the book by Walter…” May 20, 16:06
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “If these chancers can get away with the second vote. What’s stopping a far right outfit on the ‘Trans are…” May 20, 15:59
Sven on The Queer Parliament: “Oh, they’re real enough, Mark. I just doubt that they are behind everything they get the blame for.” May 20, 15:52
MaryB on The Queer Parliament: “Perhaps the Stonewall funding shortfall has encouraged more trans activists to go into politics, so that they can keep up…” May 20, 15:49
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “That’s where the real battle will be fought. All those skeletons and missing children.” May 20, 15:43
Ian McCubbin on The Queer Parliament: “Well done both votes SNP and the let’s vote green cause they are for Indy sheeples. You have given us…” May 20, 15:42
Captain Caveman on The Queer Parliament: “This is nearing the logical conclusion of a heady combination of left wingers believing their own publicity and supposed moral…” May 20, 15:37
