To be honest we didn’t pay it a lot of heed, assuming that “Scottish fishing industry leaders” just meant Bertie Armstrong again – a longstanding ultra-staunch Unionist and Leave supporter with a track record as a reliable anti-independence rentaquote – and nothing in the coverage led us to believe otherwise.
But then we saw a picture:
Mr Armstrong is the white-haired and bearded chap standing immediately to the right of Davidson in the photo, with his hand on the top corner of her pledge. But who’s the fellow immediately to the left of her?
She’s currently contesting Edinburgh West, which the party has some credible hopes of winning, having held the seat for almost 20 years prior to 2015. And it seems that her former employer has decided to try to give her a helping hand.
And, y’know, they’re really not allowed to do that.
Something really quite strange happened yesterday. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was caught red-handed in the act of telling a bare-faced, unarguable lie in the middle of a general election campaign, and nobody cared.
Reacting to the Crown Prosecution Service decision not to prosecute dozens of Tory MPs who’d broken the law in getting elected in 2015, the PM offered up a quote, which was reported in most of the newspapers:
Nice wee bit of snark on “all the major parties, and the Scottish nationalists” there. But there’s a slight problem with the statement, which is that it’s an absolute lie.
In the last few days we’ve been talking a lot about the bizarre perversion of arithmetic that now seems to dominate political campaigning in the UK, and which has the media so tied in knots that the poor Telegraph now thinks nothing of saying the SNP gained council seats, lost them and gained them again in the space of four paragraphs.
But numbers are confusing and we’re very hungry at the moment after some major dental surgery made eating difficult, so we weren’t really paying attention until Ruth Davidson started talking about pies.
Most of the papers today are full of stories screaming hysterically about a (real, but somewhat exaggerated) decline in Scottish educational standards. But if the contents of those papers are anything to go by, Scotland’s schools have been disgorging idiots into the general population for a lot longer than the last 10 years.
He’d very kindly sent us a copy of the same article he’d sent the Beeb. We attach it below. We’ve highlighted in bold the only bits that didn’t make it into the BBC piece.
When our dear old pal the Scottish Labour super-goon Duncan Hothersall tweeted this earlier today, we just couldn’t resist a wee fact-check. We love to see people take the moral high ground, but numbers are fluid these days and you can’t be too careful.
Young Lochinvar on A matter of class: “What has happened to this site? What has happened to the BTL/ Below the Bridge comments more like? Just sample…” Dec 23, 03:35
twathater on A matter of class: ““If only Wings BTL provided a forum where adults could maturely discuss and debate stuff like this. What fascinating dialogues…” Dec 23, 02:04
twathater on A matter of class: “You will notice Alf that as soon as the Franchise Fanny rolls up with his usual round of progressive poncy…” Dec 23, 01:55
DaveL on A matter of class: “Concerning your reply to my above request all you came up with was a sort of pantomime ‘they’re behind you’…” Dec 22, 23:15
Dan on A matter of class: “@Lorna What post of mine are you actually responding to with that wordy spiel? A Ctrl F search of page…” Dec 22, 23:05
Lorncal on A matter of class: “Dan: the problem is that this stuff is not going away any time soon. It has infiltrated every aspect of…” Dec 22, 22:10
Dan on A matter of class: “John Bot sounds a bit weary and lacking in accuracy as it churns out more drivel. A quick refresher, perhaps……” Dec 22, 21:16
agentx on A matter of class: “Alf Baird says: 21 December, 2025 at 2:05 pm Hatey, I assume you have good reason for suggesting that ethnic…” Dec 22, 20:27
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: “You’ll eat and enjoy the traditional denner (not dinner) of True Scots everywhere: mince.” Dec 22, 20:20
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: “Sure, Dan, you’ve stated a lot of things, in between the insults, the hair-trigger rants and the potty-mouthed childishness. And…” Dec 22, 20:16
Scot Finlayson on A matter of class: “North Briton`s Judges,everyone a public school twonk, Craig Murray was jailed by Judge for eight months for contempt of court…” Dec 22, 19:52
Dan on A matter of class: “Jesus fuck, if I’d wanted to hear from an arsehole, I’d have farted. But what a sad little bot twat…” Dec 22, 19:41
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: ““decade’s worth of posts on here on a myriad subjects” Sure, Dan. I don’t doubt that. Just as I don’t…” Dec 22, 19:21
Dan on A matter of class: “Aidan says at 2:09 pm “The bigger picture Dan is that the only thing you seem to be in favour…” Dec 22, 18:32
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: “Oh dear, Northy. If there are any psychologists reading here they’ll be in no doubt about what ails you. Get…” Dec 22, 17:05
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: “Hey, Northy, you’ve succeeded in conveying a real sense of hysteria through your prose. If it’s genuine, and not just…” Dec 22, 16:54
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: “Good one, Sam. “Sovereigntists”. Like it. Throwing a spelling error though. “Sovereign tits” doesn’t, so perhaps that’s what the author…” Dec 22, 16:51
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: ““Surely any self respecting native Scot would communicate solely in their own language, not that of their oppressor?” This. 100…” Dec 22, 16:45
Insider on A matter of class: “For Christ’s sake ! Will ye just shut up woman and pit ma dinner on !” Dec 22, 16:44
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: ““Bawbag”, eh, Dan? Let me guess – you’ve packed in the calls for productive dialogue on here as part of…” Dec 22, 16:40
James on A matter of class: ““…I actually worked in industry in the early 80s…” LOL. Aye,right.” Dec 22, 16:29
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “When England went Solo as an English parliament in 1800 so did Scotland, When the monarch of England went Solo…” Dec 22, 16:15
James on A matter of class: “Who’s “we”? LOL. You think anyone reads the shite that you post? What you might think you “know” in your…” Dec 22, 15:57
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “North Code, Scotland does need to wake up, and pretty quick, If England claims only Scotland is bound by the…” Dec 22, 14:29
sam on A matter of class: “https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-923X.13214 “Exploring Sovereignty in Scotland” David McCrone Michael Keating “The largest proportion in the sample, 30 per cent are ‘Scottish…” Dec 22, 14:21
Captain Caveman on A matter of class: “I couldn’t care less whether the likes of you believes me or not – as I’ve already told you. Feel…” Dec 22, 14:09
Aidan on A matter of class: “The bigger picture Dan is that the only thing you seem to be in favour of is highest taxes on…” Dec 22, 14:09
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “@Alf Baird 8.24pm Like any peoples language the Scots language plays ‘a vital role in shaping and defining ethnic identity’,…” Dec 22, 14:07
James on A matter of class: “We’ve only got your word for that though, haven’t we sweetie? You’re a Reform shill so probably a born liar.” Dec 22, 13:53
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “Alf Baird. Even with the trickery, bribery and deceit it must be remembered that the Scottish participation was only set…” Dec 22, 13:48
