We long ago gave up expecting any sort of principled consistency from the Scottish Tories. Whether it was Ruth “line in the sand, no more powers” Davidson magically morphing into a champion of extended devolution, or suddenly reversing her position on free prescriptions, the party is now almost as fluid on policy as Scottish Labour.
The underlings, of course, dutifully follow their leader’s example. Readers familiar with Adam Tomkins’ remarkably rapid journey from fiery pro-independence republican to an ultra-Unionist ultra-Conservative monarchist will, we suspect, barely have batted an eyelid this morning as he unblinkingly performed a full 180-degree turn on the concept of universal basic income.
The first version is entirely accurate. Readers can decide for themselves why someone at the BBC felt it needed to be changed from neutral terms to pejorative ones.
The above story is feeble enough as it stands, even allowing for it being a desperately slow news week for Scottish politics. Maureen Watt is 66 years old and has asthma, and making a pensioner with breathing difficulties sprint a mile to get to a speech on time probably isn’t the most cost-effective way for the Parliament to save four and a half quid, once you’ve factored in the cost of the ambulance and everything.
Sometimes it’s hard for Yes supporters in Scotland not to be a bit jealous of Catalonia.
Despite their would-be nation being only a little bit bigger than Scotland, and despite being faced with very real physical and legal intimidation, the Catalan independence movement regularly manages to put hundreds of thousands of people on the streets.
Yes marches and rallies in Scotland, by comparison, often struggle to get attendances numbered in the hundreds, largely because squabbling factions refuse to get along with each other and by far the biggest entity in the Yes movement – the SNP – wants nothing to do with them.
Marches don’t win independence, of course. But what does?
We referenced this a few days ago because we definitely remembered it happening, but we’d been unable to actually locate the evidence, and at Wings Over Scotland that sort of thing bothers us. After a very considerable amount of effort we’ve now tracked it down, so we’re bunging it up here to preserve it for the record.
(At that point host Frank Skinner gave up and moved on.)
It’s from one month after the indyref, and the interesting thing is that Robinson is twice given the opportunity to respond to Skinner’s question about whether he thought that the pro-Yes supporters had any sort of fair point about his alleged bias, and both times – rather than, say, just dismissing it with a quick “Of course not” – he ducks it.
Readers can, as always, make their own judgements.
Amid the horror of events in Catalonia yesterday, the Prime Minister of the UK – quite unintentionally – said something during an interview on the Andrew Marr Show which was highly pertinent not only to the Catalan referendum but to British domestic politics too. We thought it needed saving for the record.
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: “Guardian Online reporting the funeral of Stanislav Orlov. That such a tragic fate should strike down early such a nice…” Dec 24, 13:04
Dan on A matter of class: “Hmm, what are the views and concerns of Scots… https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-ginger-stepchild/ Immigration being in the top three, and the rise of…” Dec 24, 13:01
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: “Hey Young Lochinvar. I do hate it when none of the usual suspects can be arsed to respond to a…” Dec 24, 12:49
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “Independence for Scotland does not necessarily mean your version. But rather the Scots people as a whole,.. Perhaps not, but…” Dec 24, 12:47
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “The Snp , the dodgey trials, the governance, the gender issue, british media bias reporting or none reporting, resources and…” Dec 24, 12:25
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “Is it worrying that Scotland does not appear to be in the united kingdom of England and Ireland since 1800,…” Dec 24, 12:01
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “Name calling and sarcasm are the lowest form of wit my granny used to say,” Dec 24, 11:48
Young Lochinvar on A matter of class: “Aidan @ 8.49 Oh dear; a few too many dry sherrys for you last night and the intemperate sore head…” Dec 24, 11:43
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “It never falls far from the thread of supporting Scottish independence, whereas your own falls into name calling and personal…” Dec 24, 11:42
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: ““I have been around here a LOT longer than you have” Sure, Cynicus. All the more perplexing then that judging…” Dec 24, 11:29
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: ““we also live in that of the eternal, conceited, bully boy superpower” Sorry, TURABDIN, but I can think of at…” Dec 24, 11:21
Cynicus on A matter of class: “Andy Ellis says: 24 December, 2025 at 9:14 am “You must be relatively new here if you think off-topic posting…” Dec 24, 11:02
Cynicus on A matter of class: “Hatey McHateface says: 24 December, 2025 at 8:05 am “Defo worth a read” ====== Agreed. Why don’t you give it…” Dec 24, 10:55
TURABDIN on A matter of class: “INTERPRETATION is all. We live in the shadow of the semantic Tower of Babel & we also live in that…” Dec 24, 10:43
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: ““it was never a good idea to accept mass migration which wasn’t predicated on those who chose to live here…” Dec 24, 10:32
diabloandco on A matter of class: “Ha! Ha! Ha! Oh you are a one – best joke so far!” Dec 24, 10:11
Marie Clark on Off-topic: “Hi folks, to anyone still looking in now and again, Merry Christmas to you and yours. I hope Santa will…” Dec 24, 10:07
sam on A matter of class: ““Corrections” may not be allowed. Amendments for “clerical errors” are permitted. What is being done is unlikely to be viewed…” Dec 24, 09:57
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “It is earnestly to be hoped that a future Scottish government takes a more Danish approach to immigration. I suspect…” Dec 24, 09:29
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “You must be relatively new here if you think off-topic posting is somehow novel. In its pomp when Rev Stu…” Dec 24, 09:14
Aidan on A matter of class: “@YL – there is nothing wrong with an evening out, in fact I am constantly encouraging the regulars here to…” Dec 24, 08:49
TURABDIN on A matter of class: “A SCOTSMAN on the make in London. Be leery as the English say. Archive.is/ph etc is flaky & the captcha…” Dec 24, 08:32
Achnababan on A matter of class: “These new corrections are all fairly trivial j think and I suspect this has been done deliberately to create the…” Dec 24, 08:18
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: “On Scotland’s most read politics website, an apposite link to an essay discussing 21st Century international realpolitik: https://unherd.com/2025/12/the-curious-liberalism-of-the-axis-of-evil/ Defo worth…” Dec 24, 08:05
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: ““A self-governing Scotland would have control of our immigration policy” That which is claimed without evidence can be refuted without…” Dec 24, 07:43
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: ““the MSM is giving this very thread some attention” FFS! We all have to hope that Rev Stu has been…” Dec 24, 07:36
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: “Hey Northie. I’ve been mulling over the best way for you to leverage the term Porridge Wog, at least until…” Dec 24, 07:29
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: ““Looking forward to seeing analysis on here” I bet you’re looking forwards to the brand new Ferrari you’ve asked Santa…” Dec 24, 07:08
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: ““one more shift to go tomorrow before the holidays” The Christmas Holidays, you mean? Lord save us! What an admission.…” Dec 24, 07:04
Cynicus on A matter of class: “Whoops!! Another Kempian slip. The phrase, “on -topic “above should read, “off -topic”. What is it the other way about?…” Dec 24, 02:03
