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raging at Paisley MP Mhairi Black for her “silence” over the closure of a 16-bed children’s ward in the town, which has been replaced by an entire new state-of-the-art 256-bed children’s hospital 10 minutes down the road, right next to the sparkly new Southern General.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.
An alert reader this weekend linked us to a 1963 speech by the famed American civil rights and racial equality campaigner Malcolm X.
We’d never heard of it before, which is probably to our shame, but as we read it we were overcome by an inexplicable sense of incredible familiarity.
We present it to you below for your interest, without further comment or editing, but we’ve included a few pictures just to break up the block of text.
Ruth Davidson appeared on Good Morning Scotland today as part of their series of interviews with what they call “the leaders of the larger parties in Scotland”, which for some reason is also including the Lib Dems and Greens.
You can listen to the piece – which showcased the usual evasive, time-killing waffle technique Davidson employs as standard, noticeably uncomfortable only when Gary Robertson pressed her on welfare-cuts suicides – for yourself if you want, but in our Panelbase poll last month we discovered a difference between Davidson and Nicola Sturgeon we thought was quite interesting, so we’re going to talk about that instead.
Xaracen on A Matter Of Declinature: “All of the arguments above are redundant! The English half of the Union has absolutely no legitimate authority over the…” Jul 17, 11:11
Alf Baird on A Matter Of Declinature: ““I point out the fact that it does exist” Yes, and it is well established via the colonial mindset/condition that…” Jul 17, 10:45
Northcode on A Matter Of Declinature: ““…the kind of bold, fearless, patriotic Scot that could lead our charge to freedom…” There you go again… you’re never…” Jul 17, 10:41
James Che on A Matter Of Declinature: “Willie. The Crown office of England Wales, Due to the Act of Settlement passed by the parliament of England -…” Jul 17, 10:36
Hatey McHateface on A Matter Of Declinature: “Really, Cynicus? What is it you cannot say? You fearty fantasist, you. Not exactly a recruiting poster for the kind…” Jul 17, 10:20
James Che on A Matter Of Declinature: “The evidence that Scotland is and has been Colonised since 1707 lies in the parliament for England and Wales. As…” Jul 17, 10:17
Hatey McHateface on A Matter Of Declinature: “Odd that you think I’m flogging the union, Alf. I point out the fact that it does exist, to the…” Jul 17, 10:13
robertkknight on A Matter Of Declinature: “The Code of Conduct does not permit members of either House to refer to fellow members using dishonourable terms, including…” Jul 17, 09:33
Captain Caveman on A Matter Of Declinature: ““Never trust a Tory” Well, that’s the kind of blind, catch-all tribalism that is pretty much largely responsible for the…” Jul 17, 09:22
Willie on A Matter Of Declinature: “Utterly outrageous how the Crown Office decided to remove £60k of stolen goods from the charge sheet when these items…” Jul 17, 09:15
MaryB on A Matter Of Declinature: “I remember being surprised when David Davies appeared at Alex’s Glasgow Arena gig. But, in fact, they had become friends…” Jul 17, 09:00
Hatey McHateface on A Matter Of Declinature: “You reckon, Auld Lochnagar? Man, but you must have put the fear of death into the Orcs eyeballing you across…” Jul 17, 08:41
BLMac on A Matter Of Declinature: “Looks like we are about to find out whether our police work for Scotland or are a tool of a…” Jul 17, 08:34
Hatey McHateface on A Matter Of Declinature: “Ah, c’moan noo, Red. Have you learned nothing from the teachings of Professor Baird and oor ain dear, dear Northy?…” Jul 17, 08:27
Hatey McHateface on A Matter Of Declinature: “Getting out their what? Ooo err missus!” Jul 17, 08:10
diabloandco on A Matter Of Declinature: “David Davis defended Alex Salmond in the house before – didn’t know you could call someone a liar in the…” Jul 17, 08:07
diabloandco on A Matter Of Declinature: “Looks like the world and its mother blames the manager from what I see in the press.Don’t really get involved…” Jul 17, 07:51
Aidan on A Matter Of Declinature: “It’s an intemperate response Northcode, a childish response would be, for example, claiming you have won an argument you haven’t…” Jul 17, 06:13
Young Lochinvar on A Matter Of Declinature: “Powerful stuff. Quite illuminating that she calls him a “coward hiding behind Parliamentary Privilege” while she herself pays a lawyer…” Jul 17, 03:00
Cynicus on A Matter Of Declinature: ““her most evil act was stitching up Alex Salmond to hide the truth” about Murrell’s crimes.” Lying Nicola Sturgeon destroyed…” Jul 17, 01:07
Young Lochinvar on A Matter Of Declinature: “HMcH @ 6.03 Even by your standards “old boy” over in the Scotchland Office that is a particularly pointless, smug…” Jul 17, 01:01
Cynicus on A Matter Of Declinature: ““ Dug wi a bone…” ============== But NOT a Wee Ginger one” Jul 17, 00:40
James on A Matter Of Declinature: “Aw, Northy- dinna be too hard on Poor Adrian. He’s just trying to join in.” Jul 16, 22:33
James on A Matter Of Declinature: “Well said, Alf. Don’t let these plants grind you down. Their orders are divert, distract, and divide. All day, every…” Jul 16, 22:29
robertkknight on A Matter Of Declinature: “Certainly didn’t miss and hit the wall.” Jul 16, 22:24
Alf Baird on A Matter Of Declinature: ““So why don’t you fess up to what this means” It means the ‘union’ aw you folks keep floggin is…” Jul 16, 21:48
Northcode on A Matter Of Declinature: ““Right, well the fact that you can’t fucking read doesn’t stop you posting endless drivel hour after hour, day after…” Jul 16, 21:47
sarah on A Matter Of Declinature: “Thanks, Dan, for posting the link at 6.22 to David Davis in the Commons today calling Sturgeon a liar and…” Jul 16, 21:41
100%Yes on A Matter Of Declinature: “Comments are simply priceless, thank you all made me lol. Its only the start.” Jul 16, 21:33
