Quite a few remarkable things were said on last night’s STV debate between the two prospective leaders of the Labour Party branch office in Scotland. This one, though, was especially striking.
That’s Anas Sarwar denying three times that he was a part of the “Better Together” campaign with the Tories. A startled Colin Mackay claims to have seen photographs of Sarwar campaigning with BT, at which point Sarwar insists no, he merely appeared on TV debates which happened to also have Tory guests.
Readers will doubtless be startled to hear that today’s Scottish newspapers have taken a somewhat misleading approach to the facts on one of the day’s big stories.
Several of them report the findings of a commission looking into the idea of a Citizen’s (or Universal) Basic Income, a scheme which pays every adult in the country a fixed sum every year regardless of their own income, almost completely replacing the current benefits system.
The idea is that as well as reducing poverty, the administrative costs of social security are massively reduced, as is the problem of vulnerable people not taking up benefits because of the stigma often attached to them by the press.
The downside is that it’s generally more expensive. But have the Scottish press accurately reported the scale of that cost, or have they massively exaggerated it for shock value and to serve a right-wing agenda? Read on for a surprise!
Investigative site The Ferret this afternoon published a report into the Scottish Futures Trust, the SNP’s replacement for Labour’s cripplingly costly PFI projects.
The report was undertaken by Jim and Margaret Cuthbert, a pair of economists well regarded in nationalist circles, and makes some interesting if vague comments about downsides that MIGHT, in theory, exist in the SFT now or in the future.
The headline claims are all full of highly-qualified language (“may not deliver value for money”; “profits may be unduly high”; “could restrict growth”; “potentially has adverse implications”; “impossible to tell whether“), and it’s a long way down the page until you get to anything approaching a hard fact, or indeed the revelation that the report seems to have been paid for by Scottish Labour.
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?
James on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Working class hero Wilma Flintstone; “maaaaaaate” Can’t you just hear the annoying accent? Wish he/she/it would just f*ck off to…” Mar 25, 16:16
James on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Breastplate; brilliant – headshot! Another Yoon Troll put in their place.” Mar 25, 16:10
Mark Beggan on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “@Sven When the going gets tough. The tough hide under the table.” Mar 25, 15:50
lothianlad on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “How can we be so close to achieving independence but so far away??? gravy train SNP subservients of course!!” Mar 25, 15:29
Insider on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Breastplate @ 2:10 pm Thank you for admitting you cannot understand even the most basic questions about Scottish Independence !…” Mar 25, 14:38
Mark Beggan on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “The DuRan Dingdong Cult have been trying to fight this war like it’s 1979. Now all they have left is…” Mar 25, 14:37
Northcode on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: ““…nobody ever says who will form an honest, competent Government.” Nobody can until Scotland is liberated and she regains control…” Mar 25, 14:18
Mark Beggan on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Your Party. A dirty old man and a rabid death cultist. Old Jeremy is all out of friends. They are…” Mar 25, 14:14
Mark Beggan on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Just flexing your lefty muscles with an afternoon antisemitic black Live matter rant. Isn’t it time you kissed the ground…” Mar 25, 14:11
Breastplate on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Insider, you’ve got me. I don’t understand the question or the answer, could you tell me please, pretty please, with…” Mar 25, 14:10
Insider on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Breastplate @12:18 No amount of bluster and attempted diversions on your part can disguise your comprehension problems or the fact…” Mar 25, 13:48
Northcode on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Endlessly recounting Scotland’s ancient constitutional past will not persuade those unpersuaded Scots who support the Union to change their minds.…” Mar 25, 13:37
Captain Caveman on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: ““Are you dumb? Yer literally posting on an Independence blog” Heh!! Just when you think the irony-o-meter can’t be overloaded,…” Mar 25, 13:21
Dan on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Civic nationalism was never going to work in Scotland, because Hondas rust like fuck at the best of times; And…” Mar 25, 12:55
Geri on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “I’m going to keep reminding you yoons what site yer actually posting on. Not only is it rude but it’s…” Mar 25, 12:32
Dan on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Damn it! Pity we’ve got the wrong sort of leccy up here… “The Grid cannae cope”… But Scotland is generating…” Mar 25, 12:27
Breastplate on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Insider, I think there’s a bit of projection on your part, as you clearly have no idea what I’m talking…” Mar 25, 12:18
Confused on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “blowing up ambulances is wrong – wherever it happens … https://archive.ph/M0H5A (who does this a LOT? and who started it?)…” Mar 25, 12:14
Confused on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “assimilation? integration?? civic nationalism? https://x.com/RMXnews/status/2036058154530676736 – how’s that working out? and how can it work with : people who actively…” Mar 25, 12:12
Geri on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Are you dumb? Yer literally posting on an Independence blog that not only posted thousands of articles debunking yoons pish…” Mar 25, 11:56
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Why do scottish council or the rest of Britain for that matter pay Council tax, The council tax follows your…” Mar 25, 11:36
Insider on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Breastplate…. You appear to have SERIOUS comprehension problems ! Chas’s comment was.. “nobody ever says who will form an honest,…” Mar 25, 11:23
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Why not change the subject indeed, Why does Scotland pay The Standard Great Britain annual income tax, And Scotland pay…” Mar 25, 11:17
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “North code, I know of many other issues and topics that relate to the people in general, however there is…” Mar 25, 11:11
Breastplate on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Chas, I understand that you find the concept of independence difficult so let’s come at it from another angle. If…” Mar 25, 10:49
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “There are many ways to suck the finances out of Scotlands people. False Elections, Different added on income tax’s, Mineral…” Mar 25, 10:35
Northcode on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Oh, do shut up, you Inglis bore. Why are you even posting your Anglo-drivel here? The only comments I’ve ever…” Mar 25, 10:23
