Admittedly at first we were chiefly doing it in order to embarrass the increasingly angry and belligerent BBC presenter Andrew Neil, who insisted repeatedly last year that there’d been no real-terms cut to the Holyrood budget since the Tories came to power.
That claim put Neil at odds with all manner of people pointing out that the opposite was true, to which we can now add the FoAI:
But we already knew Andrew Neil was an idiot, so that was no big deal. It was another chart in the document that caught our eye and made us think.
As several alert readers have already spotted, our Twitter account was suspended at some point in the early hours of this morning. We’ve had no email from Twitter offering any sort of explanation, but it seems most likely to have been at the behest of a Daily Express hack called Siobhan McFadyen who’s been huffily bleating to the company’s executives over the weekend about this tweet:
The reason we tweeted that comment is detailed here and here. But apparently it’s an opinion that you’re no longer allowed to have.
Daily Express hack Siobhan McFadyen had a quite extraordinary meltdown on Twitter last night and this morning after we highlighted an appalling article that she’d written for Saturday’s paper.
After angrily attacking other users for a few hours, by the end she’d declared a full-on DefCon One, sending out a desperate plea for hauners from entities as diverse as the Times, the New York Times, the Telegraph, the NUJ, the Washington Post, Guardian Scotland, BBC Radio 4, the Drudge Report, the CEO of Twitter and JK Rowling.
We’ve already highlighted the abominable state of the Daily Express this week, but an article in today’s edition is surely some sort of record-breaking low.
Hold onto your hats, folks, you won’t believe this one.
The tone of coverage deployed by the Daily Express (Scottish and English editions alike) with regard to the First Minister of Scotland in recent weeks has been both bizarre and disturbing. Yesterday the paper ran this “story”:
It’s a load of gibberish, obviously. But if the FM was preparing herself for a punch-up, you could hardly blame her given what’s apparently been going on.
Supporters of Scottish independence have known for years that the civic “nationalism” espoused by the Yes movement bears no relation to the so-called “blood and soil” varieties found in many other countries. Every racist or ethnic-nationalist organisation in Britain – the BNP, the EDL/SDL, the National Front and so on – was stridently No.
The BBC lunchtime weather forecast of 15 October 1987 is now fondly looked back on as a moment of shared national doh-what-are-we-like? comedy, in the same vein as a Morecambe and Wise Christmas show or something.
robertkknight on How To Get Away With Crimes: ““It is possible to bring a private prosecution for harassment in England and Wales under Section 6(1) of the Prosecution…” Apr 23, 10:26
Geri on The Pit Of Vipers: “Scotland was so pro Union do you know what they did? They returned 56 Nationalist MPs for the 1st time…” Apr 23, 10:25
Alf Baird on The Pit Of Vipers: “Aye, if only we had nationalists instead of colonialists leading the national party, we wad be hame and dry lang…” Apr 23, 09:53
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Pit Of Vipers: “And fulsome tribute still to G.A. PONSONBY for his watershed achievement in meticulously compiling irrefutable evidence of the BBC’s default…” Apr 23, 09:49
Aidan on The Pit Of Vipers: “Purdah rules restrict the use of official government functions like official communications channels or the civil service to announce major…” Apr 23, 09:40
TURABDIN on The Pit Of Vipers: “«SCOTTISH NATIONALISM» the love that dare not speak its name without a paroxysm of cringe.” Apr 23, 09:27
100%Yes on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Seats projection for Holyrood election in latest poll. SNP 59 down Greens 23 up Reform UK 17 up Liberal Democrats…” Apr 23, 09:21
Geri on The Pit Of Vipers: “The broke the rules, continually. The broke rules on Purdah. They continually abused the state mafia TV who were not…” Apr 23, 09:07
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
