The tea party 151
Posted on
February 24, 2018 by
Chris Cairns
The makings of a deal 374
Posted on
February 22, 2018 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
A timely reminder about how much 85% of British people (or to put that another way, English people) really value the rest of the UK.
“Lead us, Scotland, don’t leave us!” is going to be a pretty hard sell next time.
From the archives #8 156
Posted on
February 21, 2018 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
It’s still thin, thin gruel for Scottish politics in the press – everyone’s desperately trying to pretend income tax is a story again today – so while we do some research it’s back to the vaults for more ironic historical chuckles we go.
Foote replaced by Dick 455
Posted on
February 19, 2018 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Last week, just a day after we highlighted the disastrous sales collapse of the Daily Record during almost certainly the most tumultuous and eventful seven-year period in Scotland’s peacetime history, the paper’s editor-in-chief Murray Foote apparently took the Scottish newspaper industry by surprise by suddenly resigning his position.
(We’re sure, incidentally, this is entirely unconnected with the recent advertising of some senior media vacancies in Scottish Labour.)
Rival hacks dutifully issued a series of glowing tweets about what a smashing guy Foote was and how much he’d improved the paper during his 27-year tenure there in various positions, most recently editor-in-chief, group editor and deputy editor.
So even though Foote accused this site of “debasing public life” with “sewage politics, conspiracy theories, hatred and paranoia” when we forced his paper to reluctantly and belatedly correct a massive front-page lie, we thought we’d join in the salutes.
The seven-year ditch 266
Posted on
February 15, 2018 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Power retention 66
Posted on
February 15, 2018 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We still have no reliable internet, just occasional five-minute bursts or a shonky 4G phone connection, but there’s a BT Openreach man in the garden and as soon as he gets hold of a different kind of all-terrain BT Openreach man we’re hopeful that the problem will finally be fixed by the end of today, after two weeks.
In the meantime, we couldn’t help but be struck in passing by the collapse of talks on reopening the Northern Ireland’s devolved Assembly, which has now been closed for over a year following the failure of an election to deliver a workable administration.
If there’s a better illustration of just how limited the powers of devolution in the UK are than the fact that the region seems to have muddled along just fine for 13 months without the parliament, we’re having a hard time thinking of what it might be. The old saying that “power devolved is power retained” has never been more visibly true.
If Scotland wants to thrive, it can only do so with all the meaningful powers of a nation under its own control, and at the end of the day there’s only one way to get those.
Riding the rollercoaster 367
Posted on
February 13, 2018 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
From the archives #6 193
Posted on
February 12, 2018 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Ruth Davidson is available 79
Posted on
February 09, 2018 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Not to discuss the UK government’s Brexit impact report on Scotland, of course. Not a single senior Scottish Tory will face the media about that, having all viciously rubbished the Scottish government’s assessment just last month as “scaremongering”, even though it turned out to be almost identical to the UK government’s version that we’re still not allowed to officially know about.
(Some hapless minor goon was dispatched to make a fool of himself today instead.)
But it seems she’s got plenty time to go on the radio if it’s something important.
Between that, Kezia Dugdale swanning off to the jungle for a few weeks in the middle of a Parliamentary session, and Douglas Ross squeezing the occasional bit of MSP work in between linesman gigs, it’s getting harder and harder to keep a straight face when the opposition go on about the SNP sticking to the “day job”.
Any day now 103
Posted on
February 09, 2018 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Bear with us just a little longer, folks.
We’re hoping to have a man in the garden with a ladder some time this afternoon.
