The Some Arsehole Doctrine 226
Yesterday we drew attention to a disgracefully untrue claim made by the leader of the Ruth Davidson No Surrender To A Second Referendum Party at the day’s FMQs.
Davidson had attempted to pass off the personal views of just THREE members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors as representing the official position of the august and 125,000-strong body. It’s the sort of bare-faced lie we’re sadly accustomed to hearing from opposition leaders in the chamber, but it was also an illustration of a much wider and depressingly-growing phenomenon.
Let’s learn about it together.
RICS rolling 391
Here’s Ruth Davidson at FMQs today, telling the chamber that “last week the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors said the real problem facing investment and jobs in Scotland was [Nicola Sturgeon’s] threat of a second referendum”.
Would you like to know how many actual people that was, readers?
God have mercy on us all 336
Following our news report at the weekend that Kezia Dugdale had gone to the USA to help Hillary Clinton, a concerned reader etc etc with inevitable results etc.
Delivering for indy 44
Anyone who’s donated to this site’s fundraisers in the past will be familiar with the excellent work of AyeMail, the not-for-profit fulfilment company set up to help all sorts of pro-independence groups raise money by taking care of all the tedious admin and letting them get on with their campaigning.
They’re also raising money themselves at the moment, both for their own costs and to produce a series of projects to help groups strapped for cash. They’ve got almost 60% of their target in the bag already, but with only a day to go they’re running around £5000 short of being able to do everything.
They provide a hugely valuable service and resource, producing tangible and practical benefits for the Yes movement – Wings would be utterly lost without them – and if you’ve got a couple of quid spare for the cause you couldn’t find a better use for it.
Opposition For Cowards 201
Just over three and a half years ago, we ran an article about how being an opposition MP or MSP is the cushiest gig in politics. You get all the pay, benefits, holidays and status, but you don’t have to actually do very much except whinge about how rubbish the government is, which most people are happy to do for free as a hobby.
Most of the time you don’t even need to turn up at your workplace.
(Sure, there are all your constituents to deal with, but if you’re not in power all that really amounts to is forwarding their letters to the government and demanding action.)
Tomorrow, the Holyrood opposition will give us a virtuoso demonstration.
The hungry gamekeepers 380
Old media and new media spoke with one voice in Scotland today:
But for once it was the dead-tree press that held the moral high ground.
Writers of fiction 365
We were hugely excited earlier on today to receive news of a long-hoped-for team-up between two of our very favourite people on the internet: catastrophically thick Daily Express hack Siobhan McFadyen and popular lawsuit enthusiast JK Rowling.
What we hadn’t expected was a starring role.
The results we’ve come to expect 176
Saturday 11.34am:
Saturday 8.02pm:
Wow, that’s fast. We can only assume she took John McTernan with her.
A matter of competence 809
Back in May we wrote this:
The prediction duly came true, as most of ours do. Sometimes we hate being right.


























