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.
The Daily Telegraph just released a video called “100 Reasons Why Brexit Was A Good Thing”. It listed them to a soundtrack of “Jerusalem”, the same song that closed the Labour Party conference earlier this week with its stirring ode to just one of the four nations of the United Kingdom.
We’ve saved a few of the highlights below, just in case the Telegraph should delete the video in a fit of sanity. We’ve also added one fake one. See if you can spot it.
Aidan on The Pit Of Vipers: “See there we differ CC, I actually think Geri and “James” do live somewhere in the UK, likely in a…” Apr 23, 07:59
Captain Caveman on The Pit Of Vipers: ““Of course in this dystopian dictatorships Geri sings the praises of none of those things would be possible, the ballot…” Apr 23, 07:31
Aidan on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Eventually his time will come, he has and is continuing to commit offences which go beyond the summary only offence…” Apr 23, 07:06
Aidan on The Pit Of Vipers: “Geri’s latest rant is that: – the No campaign was allowed to campaign – people were allowed to donate to…” Apr 23, 06:35
Angus on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Today’s Scotland, legacy of the biggest betrayer in Scottish history, has become the worst banana state in the world. Rotten…” Apr 23, 00:47
Geri on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Bilbo It was shown to be a nonsense by the tragic case of David Reimer decades ago. Accidentally castrated by…” Apr 23, 00:08
Captain Caveman on The Pit Of Vipers: “Ah, the cringeworthy late night meltdowns are in progress once again I see; another day, another dollar eh. Most amusing.…” Apr 22, 22:40
Bilbo on How To Get Away With Crimes: “With AI translation, people from non-English speaking countries can now access English western social media content and from the below…” Apr 22, 22:30
Bilbo on How To Get Away With Crimes: “There was a YouTube video that had come into my feed about Norah Vincent, a female journalist who had lived…” Apr 22, 22:22
Geri on The Pit Of Vipers: “You’ve proven no one wrong AI Dan. UK elections & referendums don’t have open franchises. They forbid it for the…” Apr 22, 22:02
Geri on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Jeez! All that harassment would’ve driven me round the bend! I guess that’s the intention tho. Sucked into their crazy…” Apr 22, 21:14
Confused on How To Get Away With Crimes: “you can’t do much with crazy; you need to give it a wide berth, which is hard on twitter, if…” Apr 22, 21:13
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “A lonely AI Dun holding the fort for the probity of all things concerning “THE UNION”.. 🙂” Apr 22, 21:08
Lorncal on How To Get Away With Crimes: “The chaos these barstewards have caused is beyond calculation. Two huge mistakes were made early on: 1) in thinking that…” Apr 22, 20:48
Effijy on How To Get Away With Crimes: “The Police have long become a complete and utter farce. In recent times they have been found to be institutionally…” Apr 22, 20:26
Aidan on The Pit Of Vipers: “@James the reason why you aren’t able to defend any of the absurd statements you make is because you are…” Apr 22, 20:08
sarah on How To Get Away With Crimes: “When did the police cease to be competent? And is it only the police or is it every public authority?…” Apr 22, 20:06
SilentMajority on How To Get Away With Crimes: “…that is very grim reading…you have my utmost sympathy for having to put up with this abuse… Why on earth…” Apr 22, 19:58
robertkknight on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Don’t seriously mentally ill people get sectioned any more? Asking for a friend…” Apr 22, 19:15
David on How To Get Away With Crimes: “That is absolutely shocking. No wonder the public no longer have faith in the police.” Apr 22, 19:15
James on The Pit Of Vipers: “UN/New Caledonia independence referendum; Eligible voters; only those who were already residents of New Caledonia by 1998 and their descendants.…” Apr 22, 18:54
Dan on The Pit Of Vipers: “@ Colin Alexander The legal advice you site may have been technically correct when it said no to Scotland remaining…” Apr 22, 18:52
James on The Pit Of Vipers: “Surprise surprise, the unionist lickspittle Adrian says everything was hunky dory. But he/she/it also says Scotland in the ‘union’ is…” Apr 22, 18:48
Alison on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Watson is so dangerous. One of his daft followers will act in his name & someone he has singled out…” Apr 22, 18:34
TURABDIN on The Pit Of Vipers: “INDEPENDENCE? See you all in hell first. https://archive.is/6xCXm” Apr 22, 18:01
Aidan on The Pit Of Vipers: “Please tell us about this UN standard to which you refer about “media interference” being prohibited, by which you mean…” Apr 22, 18:00
Aidan on The Pit Of Vipers: “Yes but it’s nonsense isn’t it, the “report” is predicated on some pretty unlikely claims, like nearly 2% of those…” Apr 22, 17:44
James on The Pit Of Vipers: “The whole thing was rigged, even the dogs in the street know it. The result and process fell foul of…” Apr 22, 17:12
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Pit Of Vipers: “‘DUNOON UNIT REPORT: THE POSTAL BALLOT AT THE SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM’ (2015): “We are now convinced that the Postal Ballot…” Apr 22, 16:04