Just a quick one-week-on update: thanks to your incredible support, our fundraiser for legal action now stands at a phenomenal £14,683 including all sources. We’re well beyond the initial target of £5000, but since even a modestly-eminent QC costs slightly over £8 a minute, every extra penny helps.
The Yes movement, like almost all movements, is plagued with a small but incredibly loud faction of intolerant, destructive extremists. Alert readers will have noticed that this site has again been the victim of them this week, but we’re not alone. They’ve also gone after two print publications – The National and iScot – over their “transgressions” against the beliefs of these self-appointed arbiters of what people are allowed to think.
What those two outlets and Wings have in common is achievement.
Last month saw the first meeting between the UK Brexit delegation and the EU’s, and by many accounts it fell far short of the UK’s expectations. David Davis spent months drumming up the “strong and stable” approach which would see both the divorce deal and the subsequent post-Brexit trade deal negotiated simultaneously. He was told by everyone that this wouldn’t happen, but simply brushed off the warnings. When push came to shove, he finally accepted that he’d have to negotiate the divorce deal first.
This is just the latest in a long string of failures and ineptitudes over the course of the UK’s handling of the whole farcical process and it got me thinking. If Scotland had voted Yes in 2014, what would it have looked like if the Scottish Government had handled that vote the way the UK has managed Brexit?
Millionaire-funded diehard loyalist forelock-tugging faction Scotland In Union published an extraordinary blog post yesterday.
Its 606 words comprised a sort of Caledonian Cringe Greatest Hits, allegedly penned by someone called Fiona Annesley (of whom we’re told nothing else, and who has no detectable online presence), but the line that particularly caught people’s eye was this:
The complete series so far. 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.
I went to “Dunkirk” at the cinema today. If you want to know what it’s like, just watch this trailer 40 times in a row and save yourself the £12.
It’s a poor movie, disjointed and aimless and curiously lacking in tension or narrative given the real-life subject matter. (It’s remarkably short on dialogue, which is lucky because you can barely make out any of what little script or story there is from behind the endlessly howling one-note airhorn of the soundtrack. It’s a bit like someone filmed an IKEA assembly manual in live action during a Formula 1 race.)
But I couldn’t help thinking that part of the reason it was so unengaging was because it felt akin to watching a boxing match between two fighters you don’t like. If Mike Tyson took on Tyson Fury, would you cheer for the rapist or the anti-Semitic homophobe?
Today’s Daily Record covers the story we mentioned yesterday about a report from a Scottish Labour campaign group making the pretty factually-uncontestable point that the branch office’s dismal strategy in last month’s election held the UK party back.
We’ll be honest with you here, readers – even though it’s only July, when it comes to sheer ham-fisted, tin-eared, clown-shoed, foot-shooting idiocy we didn’t think anything in Scottish politics in 2017 could possibly top the SNP’s decision that the surefire way to win back voters after a poor election result was literally mutilating puppies.
After all, that’s the sort of thing you say as a self-evidently ludicrous and hyperbolic joke: “Ha ha, the SNP are so dominant in Scotland these days that the only way they could lose an election would be if Nicola Sturgeon went on telly and started hacking the tails off week-old puppy-dogs without anaesthetic! LOL!!!!!”
It couldn’t even be defended as a grotesque but cynically cunning attempt to win votes from the rural hunting-and-fishing lobby – they did it right AFTER the election, when all those people had just gone out and voted Tory anyway.
But bless their hearts, Scottish Labour never once saw a low bar that they didn’t try to slither under, and today they pulled off the seemingly impossible.
Bilbo on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “That’s a valid point if you’re not living in a flat but given the amount of days we actually get…” Jun 28, 10:55
Knuckle_Heid on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: ““What we have here is Police Scotland and the Crown Office both failing to act in the public interest” Absolutely…” Jun 28, 10:34
TURABDIN on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “SCOTLAND…. freed from the opiate of the masses, «sport», a top ranker for corruption along with the porn and drug…” Jun 28, 10:15
Minceheid on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Well, the power efficiency of aircon devices has improved quite a lot in recent years. Given that high temperatures are…” Jun 28, 10:08
Bilbo on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Due to the ‘internal market’ there doesn’t need to be any state sponsored individuals seeking havoc. The senior positions in…” Jun 28, 10:04
Bilbo on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “I don’t follow football and have never been interested in Scotland football games but I had watched the antics of…” Jun 28, 09:56
Captain Caveman on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Wow. Just wow! Surely the finest, absolute textbook example of self projection, Northy; indeed, as good as you’ll ever see…” Jun 28, 09:53
Bilbo on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Thanks for the link Sam. Even the media are calling out the absurdity of it when the admit in the…” Jun 28, 09:52
Graham Macready on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Reading the above it is almost incomprehensible to see the level of incompetence and buck-passing from these organisations. If this…” Jun 28, 09:49
Captain Caveman on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Heh! Well, 8:30am is just a *tad* early, even for me. Mind you, there’s always a Bloody Mary, with plenty…” Jun 28, 09:01
Bilbo on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “You really do need to be keeping off the drink CC.” Jun 28, 08:43
sam on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Is this what you mean? https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2026/06/10/penicuik-dcnn-1644-why-should-i-make-the-data-available-to-you-when-your-aim-is-to-try-to-find-something-wrong-with-it/#more-85669” Jun 28, 08:31
Hatey McHateface on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “I’ve always seen climate change, in the UK at least, as being nature’s way of preparing the country to better…” Jun 28, 08:30
Captain Caveman on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: ““Climate change hysteria” you say? “Net zero”…? Well, that’s lefties for you. The sentiments behind your post are akin to…” Jun 28, 08:19
Hatey McHateface on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “But not those who write about it on a public forum accessed by millions? That seems to be the gamble…” Jun 28, 08:17
Hatey McHateface on The Promise: “@ Lorncal says: 27 June, 2026 at 12:17 pm “there is no cut-and-dried answer” Precisely. The forced juxtaposition of Highlands…” Jun 28, 08:04
Bilbo on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “I see that we’re getting some good weather for a change and the climate based hysteria has started up again…” Jun 28, 07:56
Hatey McHateface on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Loving your use of hyphens there, Northy. You could never have equaled that writing in Scots. Plus, of course, nae…” Jun 28, 07:43
Hatey McHateface on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Man, Northy, but your recent trip to Alpha Centauri hasn’t improved your mood any. Any word on what punishment is…” Jun 28, 07:38
Graham Fordyce on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “I wonder if a Complaint to the Law Society of Scotland might move matters forward: Rule B1.2: You must be…” Jun 28, 07:37
Young Lochinvar on The Promise: “HMcH So your logic is that it’s only the good ol’ UK that’s is keeping Scotland from fragmenting into parts.…” Jun 28, 06:06
Willie on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Could not concur more with your comments Achnababan. The British state insidiously controls the police, Crown Office,major quango and civil…” Jun 28, 05:43
Achnababan on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “One thing should be clear from this situation and others (Alex Salmond) is that the British State is controlling Scotland…” Jun 28, 04:14
Young Lochinvar on The Guilty Party: “Alf The projects you cite highlight slightly different issues but the same underlying problem: client driven contractual risk transfer. It…” Jun 28, 03:51
Young Lochinvar on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “C Very true. However I don’t think even Swinney went on the election campaign trail with family in tow saying…” Jun 28, 03:07
Cynicus on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Scotland’s team manager,Steve Clarke, has just resigned. It takes an honourable man to act honourably. So, don’t expect the resignation…” Jun 28, 01:07
Angus on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: ““But we promise you this, readers: the questions are never going to stop. And unlike the SNP, we keep our…” Jun 28, 00:14
Red on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Stuart, I don’t mean to embarrass you or be a sook but I’ve been a reader of yours since the…” Jun 27, 22:25
