Scotland has 2,174 miles of trunk roads, of which 1.7 miles (that’s just under 0.08%) comprise the Queensferry Crossing. For the next few days those 1.7 miles are going to be subject to some partial lane closures on the southbound side for maintenance.
They’ll cause almost no disruption, because as it happens there’s another very similar bridge conveniently located just a couple of hundred yards away – linked directly to all the same roads – that traffic will use instead.
Not much of a story, is it? We don’t know how many miles of Scotland’s roads have roadworks on them on any given day of any given week, but we suspect it’s quite a lot. It tends not to make the news beyond a few seconds on the traffic bulletin at the end, but today was different.
Cash is tight in Scotland’s Unionist-run councils.
If only there was something they could do to bring more money in, something they’ve been demanding the Scottish Government do for at least the last seven years and which the councils now have the power to do for themselves.
Back in the summer we sang the praises of one of Scotland’s tiny semi-handful of pro-independence print organs, the splendid iScot. So it seems only fair that we should offer the same courtesy to the other one we mentioned at the time, The National. It’s three years old today – how the time’s flown – and its editor Callum Baird wants your support. Over to him.
We wouldn’t say that the Scottish Daily Mail was obsessed or anything, but this is just today’s hysterical coverage of possible changes to taxation in Scotland which haven’t even been PROPOSED yet, let alone actually passed into law.
The efforts by the Scottish Tories to pull off some frankly ambitious shenanigans over today’s Budget continued overnight in increasingly bizarre fashion.
As with the Poppy Scotland funding, the party appears to be quite openly punting the line “We knew all along that this was possible and the right thing to do, but we deliberately punished Scotland for not electing enough Tory MPs”, in what can only be reasonably interpreted as an attempt at blackmailing future electorates.
The Scottish media, meanwhile, is doing its best to sell the issue as “a plague on both their houses”, holding the Scottish Government and UK government equally culpable for the mess. So let’s see what we know.
Yesterday’s edition of the Scottish Mail On Sunday devoted most of a page to a weird column from Ruth Davidson (in which she appeared to believe that Alex Salmond was still the First Minister), crowing about the great deal that Scotland’s 13 Tory MPs have supposedly won for Scotland in this week’s coming budget.
The first alleged fruits of the deal were revealed today.
That tweet is quite disturbing in itself, because what it unmistakeably implies is that if Scotland had voted for more SNP MPs in June and fewer Tories, the UK government would have retaliated by spitefully punishing innocent war veterans.
And Poppy Scotland weren’t too pleased about being weaponised either.
Seriously, all those millions in development, all the hundreds of pounds people have spent buying the PS4 and the VR headset and the game and the upgrade – how hard could it be to have it detect when you'd gone seriously off track and have the navigator go "ARGH! SHIT! OW! BLOODY HELL, GET BACK ON THE ROAD YOU MORON!", so as to not completely ruin the whole thing?
How dull-witted do you have to be, how far have you missed the point by, to obsess over every last wheelnut in the name of "realism" and then sit the player beside a virtually-real companion who keeps calmly reading out directions even as the car he's in plummets down a mountainside on its roof? For God's sake.
This is Spectator columnist Alex Massie reacting earlier this week to the news of Alex Salmond doing a show for Russian news channel RT.
Alex Salmond is these days a private individual with no responsibilities to anyone, and RT is a legal, Ofcom-licenced UK broadcaster whose output is beamed free into every home in the land.
The first episode of The Alex Salmond Show featured guests from both Labour and the Tories, opened with lengthy discussion and advocation of women’s and LGBT rights, followed by a 15-minute interview with deposed Catalan president Carles Puigdemont – something which has proven beyond the capabilities of mainstream UK news outlets despite the remarkable events currently engulfing an EU member state.
(BBC Scotland, we should perhaps note at this point, does not currently carry a single dedicated political TV show from a Scottish perspective at all and hasn’t done for more than a year.)
Massie used some slightly more measured language when it came to writing about the show in the Spectator, merely describing Salmond as an “idiot”, a “fool”, a “chump”, “pitiful”, “embarrassing” and “disgraceful”. But when it came to another former Scottish party leader, he was for some reason in a rather more forgiving mood.
We’ll be honest, readers – if this doesn’t make you want to leave the UK all by itself, it may be that there’s nothing that ever will and we should just give up.
(Alternative titles considered for this piece included Live And Please Let Die, Doctor Oh God No, The Barely-Living Daylights and Quantum Of Bollocks.)
Gav on The Pit Of Vipers: “I never thought I could hate a politician like I hated Thatcher. Then along came non stick Nicky” Apr 19, 21:48
Debatablelands on The Pit Of Vipers: “Yet a third will still turn out and vote for them. If it’s depressing what this story says about the…” Apr 19, 21:46
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “Lorncal Of course she was behind it, individually or as a fully embedded major part of their own little Lord…” Apr 19, 21:46
Lorncal on The Pit Of Vipers: “Because that’s not how evidence works, tw. Lady Dorrian considered them extraneous to the actual charges. That they are coming…” Apr 19, 21:45
100%Yes on The Pit Of Vipers: “NS was front and right dead center of it all she was in total control of the SNP, just ask…” Apr 19, 21:34
Lorncal on The Pit Of Vipers: “Everything she touches fall to bits, so good news. Not before she pockets wodges of lolly, of course. Should have…” Apr 19, 21:29
Alf Baird on The Pit Of Vipers: “Aye Dan, still too many Scots in denial of our colonial status, which is of course part of the ‘condition’:…” Apr 19, 21:25
Lorncal on The Pit Of Vipers: “You know, I don’t actually believe that NS was behind it all, but she must have okayed it. She did…” Apr 19, 21:21
MaryB on The Pit Of Vipers: “The revolving door keeps revolving… Remember too, that Kez is Jenny Gilruth’s partner.” Apr 19, 21:13
Mark Beggan on The Pit Of Vipers: “So how you good folks gonna vote now?” Apr 19, 20:58
Lorncal on The Pit Of Vipers: “Joan: Joanna Cherry’s book has blown the lid off a great deal. That is why they have released it now.…” Apr 19, 20:54
George Ferguson on The Pit Of Vipers: “@100%Yes I have always voted too but there comes a time when not voting is a victory. If less than…” Apr 19, 20:41
Alf Baird on The Pit Of Vipers: ““the poisonous, posing human trash on our quangoes, running our councils, topping our public bodies” Indeed, and according to Albert…” Apr 19, 20:31
Sally Hughes on The Pit Of Vipers: “Aye Alf, and timing is everything. Swinney has promised a second referendum if they get an SNP majority. Polls indicate…” Apr 19, 20:17
100%Yes on The Pit Of Vipers: “Kezia Dugdale appointed new chair of LGBT+ charity Stonewall.” Apr 19, 20:01
George Ferguson on The Pit Of Vipers: “@Dan Well my only regret on the betting front is not backing Reform UK to get 20 MSPs at 8…” Apr 19, 19:53
holymacmoses on The Pit Of Vipers: “What saddens me most of all is that it was shiver of grubby-minded, meaningless mediocrity which created a stagnant pool…” Apr 19, 19:51
Dan on The Pit Of Vipers: “Well George, they do say Caveat Emptor and that fools and their money are easily parted… Plus you regularly state…” Apr 19, 19:37
George Ferguson on The Pit Of Vipers: “@Sarah Your positively optimistic I will give you that. Tommy Sheridan was found guilty of 5 out of 6 Perjury…” Apr 19, 19:37
sarah on The Pit Of Vipers: “@ George Ferguson: Congratulations on the grandchild – something cheerful to think about! As for not voting, in my constituency…” Apr 19, 19:21
100%Yes on The Pit Of Vipers: “George Ferguson, I too constantly give donations to SNP and then the Alba Party and for what??? When Salvo started…” Apr 19, 19:20
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “Dorian Grey One of the coven. Look after each other they do..” Apr 19, 19:04
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “T I’m not sure if it’s exactly what you were referring to but it’s worth listening to the lyrics of…” Apr 19, 18:57
Joan Edington on The Pit Of Vipers: “Much as I agree with the article, it does seem a bit too co-incidental that the Mail should decide (or…” Apr 19, 18:55
George Ferguson on The Pit Of Vipers: “@Dan 6:33pm I have been criticised for my negativity on the Alliance for Scottish Independence. I was defrauded and robbed…” Apr 19, 18:55
Dan on The Pit Of Vipers: “Even just post Indyref the signs were there that the fledgling NuSNP wanted nothing to do with the grassroots Indy…” Apr 19, 18:33
twathater on The Pit Of Vipers: “Surely questions must be asked of the judge, Dorrian WHY all these Whatsapp messages and other messages were NOT allowed…” Apr 19, 18:01
Lorncal on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “Alf: spot on, sir. Nicky: aye, Tommy was a naughty boy, but if his wife can forgive him, so can…” Apr 19, 18:01
Ian on The Pit Of Vipers: “Margaret Thatcher’s government famously attempted to ban Spycatcher (1987), a memoir by former MI5 officer Peter Wright that alleged illegal…” Apr 19, 17:46
