It’s both a comprehensive refresher of events surrounding the Scottish Government’s conspiracy to convict Alex Salmond on false charges, and a sharp reminder of why Scotland is, in truth, not yet a country in a fit administrative state for independence.
But one part in particular ought to be the headline news tonight.
Independence is dead as a political issue in Scotland for the next few years. This much should not be in any dispute. A Labour government with a crushing majority sits firmly in Westminster with absolutely no intentions of granting a second referendum, and the SNP has loudly and clearly abandoned any other strategy.
This fact is understandably painful and difficult to come to terms with for anyone who’s devoted the last 13 years (or more) to pursuing that cause and now isn’t quite sure what to do with theirself. But for those who still aren’t ready to face up to the unpleasant reality, there’s always the comforting world of fantasy.
Because there’s always money to be made from snake oil and pie in the sky.
The average rape sentence in Scotland is seven years, so to get six years plus three years’ supervision for the technically lesser crime of sexual assaults means they must have been pretty grim ones.
So we know that Cameron Downing is a very bad man. Which does rather invite the question of why he was so popular in the SNP.
The SNP have been pretty clear about the reason they think they got a battering in last week’s election: it was because people were voting to kick out the Tories.
Now, that’s obviously nonsense. There were almost no Tories in Scotland to start with – just 10% of voters had a Tory MP – and only one of the six actually lost his seat. (Which was entirely down to the ham-fisted interference of Douglas Ross rather than an SNP surge – the SNP’s vote share in the seat in question went DOWN.)
If you wanted to keep Tories out in Scotland all you had to do was keep voting for your current MP, most of whom were SNP, rather than risk splitting the anti-Tory vote by switching to Labour and risk letting the Tories squeeze through in the middle. (Which would have happened in many seats had the Tories’ own vote not collapsed.)
But if it was true that the SNP lost because the electorate thought the election was about getting rid of the Tories, whose fault was that?
To be honest, folks, we’re not quite sure what to do with ourselves at the moment.
Everyone and his wee dug is writing election-aftermath columns and offering the SNP advice of varying intelligence and solemnity about how to recover from the shattering blow they’ve just been dealt by Scottish voters.
But it’s a pointless exercise. They may as well be yelling down a manhole.
The Scottish Greens, in a feat of remarkable hubris and financial profligacy, stood 44 candidates in this week’s general election, knowing that most of them would lose their deposits, which they duly did.
But not quite all of them. And there the comedy arose.
Because while SNP boneheads on social media are raging idiotically at Alba, Wings and others for causing division and damaging the unity of the indy cause yada yada yada, a small handful of Green candidates made a real difference.
Lorncal on The Idiot Rodeo: “Listened to another Martin Geissler podcast. Couldn’t believe it. The female presenter said that the judge might yet prove to…” Dec 16, 00:32
Hatey McHateface on The Idiot Rodeo: “Have you seen photos of our MSPs? If the bints were forced to undress in front of the blokes, the…” Dec 15, 23:25
Marie on The Idiot Rodeo: “They are not required to undress in changing rooms at Holyrood and put on a uniform in order to do…” Dec 15, 23:08
Aidan on Let’s make this simple: “@Dan – I’m sorry that all this discussion about Scottish politics bothers you on this Scottish politics blog.” Dec 15, 22:42
bobo bunny on The Idiot Rodeo: “And who are you suggesting we vote for?” Dec 15, 21:10
bobo bunny on The Idiot Rodeo: “As the saying goes – never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake. The SNP government have lurched…” Dec 15, 21:08
Captain Caveman on Let’s make this simple: ““Honesty, drive, determination, competence, and above all, a solid grounding in reality” That’s one hell of a checklist for most…” Dec 15, 19:59
Charles (not the R3 one) on The Idiot Rodeo: “Tommo was, in my opinion, exactly correct when he wrote : “These people are obsessives – toilets seem to figure…” Dec 15, 19:38
Hatey McHateface on Let’s make this simple: “@Aidan One heck of a lot of “ordinary”, “normal” Scots would welcome the chance to vote for a party of…” Dec 15, 19:00
Hatey McHateface on The Idiot Rodeo: ““got a genuine logical argument against Scottish independence I can rip tae shreds?” Sure. There’s yersel. A genuine contender for…” Dec 15, 18:45
Hatey McHateface on The Idiot Rodeo: “@Stuart, leave Oor Northy alane. If he wisnae oan here, posting his repetitive mince/shite combos, he’d be oot oan the…” Dec 15, 18:25
Northcode on The Idiot Rodeo: “I’m thinking “rip to pieces” would have been a better expression to round off my last comment… “tear to shreds”…” Dec 15, 18:03
James on The Idiot Rodeo: “As expected. Another 90 minute patriot.” Dec 15, 17:45
Northcode on The Idiot Rodeo: “Ach! I I meant to post my last comment here. Oh, well… I’ll just have to post it again -…” Dec 15, 17:42
agentx on The Idiot Rodeo: “Northcode is really having a bad day – he has replied to the wrong post now.” Dec 15, 17:30
Northcode on The Idiot Rodeo: ““Will it come on 10 stone tablets?” Knaw, it’s aw digital – it disnae weigh onythin’ at aw… idiot (dae…” Dec 15, 17:20
Mark Beggan on The Idiot Rodeo: “That’s ok. We never read the first one either.” Dec 15, 16:47
Tommo on The Idiot Rodeo: “Is there not an odd similarity between the above ‘ooot for indy’ nonsense so well eviscerated and the ‘judgement’ in…” Dec 15, 16:39
Dan on Let’s make this simple: “Ooh, there’s excellent potential here. After the summer of dung beetle battles, we could now piss away even more time…” Dec 15, 16:23
Stuart on The Idiot Rodeo: “PAPER ONE IN THE 10 PART BAIRD SERIES! 10 parts, I cannae wait! Will it come on 10 stone tablets?…” Dec 15, 15:53
diabloandco on The Idiot Rodeo: “OT RSPCA heavily advertising their appeal , please remember that we have the SSPCA and they need anything we can…” Dec 15, 15:51
sog on The Idiot Rodeo: “The NHS Fife legal team may have dug deeply. One off-colour joke was all they presented.” Dec 15, 14:17
sog on The Idiot Rodeo: “It saddens me that the Greens are following the same downward path.” Dec 15, 13:16
sog on The Idiot Rodeo: “I worked in Engineering. Post-9/11 I read a report, I think by the NY City, on the sequence of events,…” Dec 15, 13:14
Northcode on The Idiot Rodeo: “Oops! Just realised I’ve posted this that last comment already… apologies.” Dec 15, 12:58
Northcode on The Idiot Rodeo: “Alf Baird posted an excellent (I think so, anyway… and that’s all that really matters) comment yesterday. I feel it’s…” Dec 15, 12:35
Northcode on The Idiot Rodeo: “Here’s a spare and random thought I had about some stuff… NORTHCODE’S SPARE AND RANDOM THOUGHT BEGINS… There is no…” Dec 15, 12:12
SilentMajority on The Idiot Rodeo: “Does our ‘government’ awaken each morning, and go through a rendition of “Eeny-meeny-miny-moe!” to decide which opinion to support today…’are…” Dec 15, 11:35
Aidan on Let’s make this simple: “What is the “cunning plan” that you refer to here? As far as I can see, and perhaps there’s something…” Dec 15, 11:24
Alf Baird on How Far To Go, How Far: “Sovereign Scots voted in successive majorities of SNP ‘nationalists’ to withdraw Scotland from the UK charade and to prevent an…” Dec 15, 11:12
