Disclaimer first: as we always say in situations like this, BOOKMAKERS’ ODDS ARE NOT PREDICTIONS. They’re based in significant part on the level of wagers placed, which means that you could affect the odds simply by making a large bet, which of course wouldn’t actually change the likelihood of a particular candidate winning.
So with that proviso, we present the following information purely for interest.
…which we felt it important to preserve for posterity lest anything happen to it. We’d charitably blame it all on the Telegraph, who made it, were it not for the fact that the Scottish Conservatives have posted it on their own Facebook page.
This is how today’s BBC News summed up (fairly accurately) the two main themes of last night’s Question Time special with Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn:
May managed to largely get away with her party’s abysmal track record of brutal cuts and austerity, while Corbyn was made very uncomfortable by a howling mob of angry, terrifyingly bloodthirsty old white men over Labour’s policy on Trident.
And while Corbyn’s position on the nuclear deterrent is idiotic and makes him an easy target for opponents, the main reason for the differing outcomes is language.
We’re being told that this Tory leaflet, where Stephanie Smith is described as “Ruth Davidson’s candidate” for Edinburgh South, is standard across the whole country.
…that will satisfy the Unionist parties. Last night Ruth Davidson told STV viewers that even getting more than 50% of the vote in a general election wouldn’t give the SNP a mandate to pursue their manifesto policies.
She was echoing the words of Kezia Dugdale just over a year ago:
So that’s clear. Davidson has reversed her previous view. There is now no peaceful democratic avenue by which the people of Scotland could express the wish for a second referendum which the two main Unionist parties would accept. They have EXPLICITLY said, in full public view, that they would reject any democratic mandate.
She’d insisted explicitly several times that a Jeremy Corbyn administration WOULD block a new indyref, even after being shown a video clip of Corbyn from earlier in the day saying he wouldn’t, and she repeatedly urged readers not to listen to the party’s leader and to instead go and look at the Labour manifesto.
Today’s Daily Record has a swipe at Jeremy Corbyn for, well, let’s call them “mixed messages” over a second independence referendum. It suggests his Scottish branch manager Kezia Dugdale would have “her head in her hands” over his latest comments, which is a bit rich considering Dugdale’s own history on the subject.
And since her headline boast when she took over as leader of the North British office was that people would know exactly what Labour stood for (and indeed she spent all of the weekend’s keynote Sunday Politics interview listing all the things she’d been very very clear about), we thought we’d have a recap and see how that was going.
Apologies in advance about this, folks, but it’s driving us mad. We got into a Twitter argument with some Tory balloon last night and this morning, and to cut a long story short it got us looking at the 1951 UK general election result.
History records it as a Tory majority, securing just over half of the Parliamentary seats (321 of 625) and forming the government under Winston Churchill despite narrowly losing the popular vote to Labour (48% to 48.8%).
But if you examine the result in the House Of Commons Library the numbers don’t add up, and we can’t figure out why.
Saffron Robe on The Secondhand Amendment: “I don’t think the exact provenance of the fabricated quotes or misquotes matters much. What matters is that false data…” Jan 21, 00:10
robertkknight on The Secondhand Amendment: “Someone should tell the Marmalade Man-baby to let Greenland alone else we’ll pave over his precious golf courses then bury…” Jan 20, 22:38
Lorna Campbell on The Secondhand Amendment: “Dunx: yes, it does. However, it will spout only that which has been fed into it. When asked for a…” Jan 20, 22:17
Lorna Campbell on The Secondhand Amendment: “Northcode: Scotland is no different position to any other country infested with this ideology whose entire aim is to subvert…” Jan 20, 22:01
Ex President Xiden on The Secondhand Amendment: “You should never question the actions of those who deign to rule over us until you have walked a mike…” Jan 20, 21:25
Bilbo on The Secondhand Amendment: “All this woke nonsense emanates from the USA. All these other countries are dependent on America, whether financially or militarily.” Jan 20, 21:21
Northcode on The Secondhand Amendment: “Any Scot who thinks the abomination that is the barely animated ragged corpse called the Scottish Government is more than…” Jan 20, 20:58
sam on The Secondhand Amendment: “Again from Iain MacKinnon “So, just about 1800, you have this man, John Sinclair of Ulbster. He was a Gaelophile.…” Jan 20, 20:50
sam on The Secondhand Amendment: “What do you mean? There were many colonies. This from Iain MacKinnon. “Did Finlay go with you to a place…” Jan 20, 20:45
PC Foster on The Secondhand Amendment: “https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/why-i-am-suing-my-trade-union/” Jan 20, 19:23
TURABDIN on The Secondhand Amendment: “WHY IS TRUMP SO ANGRY? https://archive.ph/OJUzd Infantile peavishness or too much constipation causing American food? Henry 8, that figures.” Jan 20, 14:47
sam on The Secondhand Amendment: “100%Yes below. Yes, 100% Yes. Assimilation of Intuit culture and monopolised trade” Jan 20, 14:35
Lorna Campbell on The Secondhand Amendment: “Was listening to Scotcast re the FWS case against the SG on the question of men in the women’s prison…” Jan 20, 14:11
Hatey McHateface on The Secondhand Amendment: ““timed to do maximum damage to the independence vote” Wow! Professor Baird believes the SNP are still driving hard for…” Jan 20, 13:52
Lorna Campbell on The Secondhand Amendment: “Yes, Nae Need, I agree. However, I can understand the self-interest of those who claim to be ‘trans’. That does…” Jan 20, 13:43
Lorna Campbell on The Secondhand Amendment: “Computers cannot make up facts that are not actually there. They can introduce errors as to provenance. This is not…” Jan 20, 13:28
Lorna Campbell on The Secondhand Amendment: “She knows that AI could not have made some of the errors in the way they were made. It had…” Jan 20, 13:19
Lorna Campbell on The Secondhand Amendment: “Of course, AI is used extensively, but not in the way that this judgement pans out, so, either lies are…” Jan 20, 13:09
Confused on The Secondhand Amendment: “aircrew training video for the new F47 stealth superfighter (this should be the real top gun) www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECRWT9TEaj0 us foreign policy…” Jan 20, 13:01
Lorna Campbell on The Secondhand Amendment: “James, every piece of legislation, in Scotland’s history, and every piece of legislation in England’s history referred to two sexes…” Jan 20, 12:59
Confused on The Secondhand Amendment: “not you, Scotland! https://archive.ph/PrffD but wait … trump is on a roll; while “the current thing” is no longer iran,…” Jan 20, 12:59
100%Yes on The Secondhand Amendment: “No mention of the Inuits, why am I not surprised. Took great detail to write the Kingdom of Denmark, interesting…” Jan 20, 12:46
Alf Baird on The Secondhand Amendment: ““it’s hard to know it’s true meaning and who exactly is a fascist” According to Cesaire, numerous intellectuals including Robinson,…” Jan 20, 12:43
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “Lorna, Do not confuse the two separate speeches the monarch made as they were on two separate chronological time lines.…” Jan 20, 12:37
James on Learning Insanity: “Really? That’s all you two losers have got? The great Unionist debaters. LOL. Mass debaters maybe.” Jan 20, 12:32
PC Foster on The Secondhand Amendment: “I wonder how much scope Murrell has to spill the beans on his wife or will he mysteriously die between…” Jan 20, 12:24
James Cheyne on The Secondhand Amendment: “From political attacks on farmers in France to British farmers to American farmers. From trans cults in Canada to it…” Jan 20, 12:15
