Hardcore nutter collective Scotland In Union are already the de facto unofficial No campaign group for the second independence referendum.
Evidently very well-connected and already flush with cash from sources unknown, the limited company recently raised a reported £300,000 for itself at a “charity” dinner attended by such luminaries of the great and the good as Lord Alistair Darling, Lord Dunlop and (um) Willie Rennie, auctioning off exotic high-end goodies like hunting trips to Africa, polo parties with the Maharajah of Jodhpur and Alpine holidays described in the lavish 60-page auction catalogue as featuring:
“A fabulous chalet and a family home, with six bedrooms sleeping 12, all en suite. Although the chalet does not come with a chalet girl, we will provide one for you.”
(There were also some signed JK Rowling books for the paupers.)
So that’s nice. Extremely wealthy people – just getting into the dinner was £250 – who are doing very well out of the way things are, donating big wads of money to some other people trying to ensure that the rich folk stay that way. No law against it. But just who are the true believers rushing bravely to the defence of the Union’s elites?
There was a rather comforting predictability about the headlines the Scottish media greeted the first day of the SNP conference in Glasgow with.
Unsurprisingly, the Express’ lead story was a piece of fabricated drivel based on alleged quotes from an unnamed source claiming that the Scottish Government would resign in order to force an election and win a mandate that it already has.
(The SNP’s manifesto this May, on which it won a third landslide election victory in a row, clearly reserved the right to call a second referendum should there be a serious material change in circumstances, explicitly citing the Brexit scenario as an example.)
Both articles are essentially the sort of comedy pastiches of terrible journalism one might create as a cautionary example in a media studies degree course, so we’ll waste no more of your time on them. The Herald’s piece, though, is at least marginally more interesting.
Alert readers may recall that almost three years ago, the No campaign issued a series of dire warnings that independence could cause supermarket prices to rise:
Thankfully, by staying in the UK and therefore leaving the EU, Scotland etc etc.
Readers may be aware that Wings Over Scotland is (fairly remarkably, really) the UK’s second-most-read politics blog, behind the hardcore right-wing “Guido Fawkes”.
Our “competitor” isn’t a site we look at a lot – the comments make the Daily Mail readership seem like enlightened and thoughtful moderates – but last week someone asked us about a smear piece they’d run on SNP MP Corri Wilson, and we only just remembered today to check it out. Our initial findings weren’t well received.
It seems that Mr Fawkes and his minions aren’t too keen on scrutiny themselves.
Ever since Scottish Daily Mail political editor Alan Roden jumped ship to go and rearrange the deckchairs for Labour, his former paper has very noticeably toned down its hysterical “SNP BAD” content. We can go through the Mail for days on end now without finding some ludicrously distorted misrepresentation or screaming outrage piece about how a Nat MP found 20p down the back of their sofa without declaring it to HMRC or such.
But we suppose that it’ll at least be bleakly funny, whenever the second independence referendum comes round, watching Labour try to sell a vote for the UK as a vote for internationalist brotherhood and solidarity.
To be honest, readers, we gave up on taking any notice of David Torrance‘s mundane attempts at trolling in the Herald some time ago. But some alert readers pointed us towards this week’s column, suggesting that it was a bald rewriting of history some way beyond their usual bland irritancy.
This was the passage they objected to:
It’s a patronising piece of “shut up and eat your cereal” condescension for sure. But to be fair to Torrance, it does also happen to be true. Wait, not true. The other thing.
The starting pistol hasn’t actually been fired on the two-year Brexit process yet, but now we have a clear statement of when it will be: this morning on The Andrew Marr Show, the Prime Minister pledged that it would happen before the end of next March.
(We might end up broke, in other words, but at least we’ll be good old British broke, with none of those awful smelly foreign Euro-Johnnies around to see it.)
And nobody was getting a sick note.
And for supporters of independence, that’s about as good as news gets.
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
Northcode on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “What if our roles were reversed and it were England governed entirely by Scotland and the Scots and not the…” Mar 25, 10:18
Chas on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “The first sensible comment from you that I have ever seen. Well done.” Mar 25, 10:00
Northcode on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “A word of advice, and I’m sorry to have to say this, James Che, but even I, a staunch supporter…” Mar 25, 09:30
Chas on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “I worry about the mental health of the nutters who post the same tripe day, after day, after day on…” Mar 25, 09:15
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Scottish people pay the standard income tax as the rest of Great Britain, however they also have added on Scottish…” Mar 25, 09:13
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Scotland is not in the parliament of Great Britain. Scotland is not in the parliament of the United kingdom. Only…” Mar 25, 09:01
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Why vote? To continue Colonialism, to hold and de- value democracy in Scotland. These are not actually Scottish elections.” Mar 25, 08:40
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Scotland is not bound to the 1707 parliament of Great Britain, Scotland is not bound to the united kingdom parliament…” Mar 25, 08:35
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “The pretend Scottish parliament and its false Scottish elections with Englands registered political parties are irrelevant to people in Scotland,…” Mar 25, 08:23
Northcode on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “The Bigger PICTure Scotland is lost… lost to a stupid, vicious and invasive foreign power. A power smaller in wit,…” Mar 25, 08:19
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Colonialism only occurs in Scotland due to Scottish people thinking they are or very briefly were in a treaty of…” Mar 25, 08:09
Dan on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “@Aidan A quick search suggests only about 4% of folk in Scotland earn the 100k figure you band about so…” Mar 25, 07:53
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Question, How and by what means is Scotland officially or legally tied to England? There is no legal or official…” Mar 25, 07:51
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Question, At what date did Englands Great Britain parliament End, ? It was dissolved in 1800.” Mar 25, 07:44
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Question, What date did the Great Britain parliament dissolve Scotlands parliament from the Great Britain parliament? 1707.” Mar 25, 07:40
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Question, At what date did Scotland make a 1707 treaty with the United kingdom parliament? It holds nor made no…” Mar 25, 07:36
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Question, At what date does anyone here find Scotland attached to The Great Britain parliament in any legal or official…” Mar 25, 07:32
Geri on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: ““…demand the implementation of devolution for The Kingdom of England, and stop the KoE treating the UK Parliament in Westminster…” Mar 25, 07:25
Aidan on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “@Dan there isn’t an option to renounce the benefits (which for most working people on an average wage or above…” Mar 25, 07:19
Breastplate on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Alan, you may think you’re a Unionist but there is no Union, just a parasitic England sacking the lifeblood from…” Mar 25, 00:02
Cynicus on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “No idea who this guy is – or what you’re talking about. Are you sure you are posting in the…” Mar 24, 23:53
