Fear and lies work. Over many decades (and really for centuries) the Unionist parties and the media have succeeded in persuading a large percentage of Scots that they’re beggars, scroungers, vagrants and “subsidy junkies” dependent on the ever-generous charity of England to keep them from starvation.
And in terms of the facts, that hasn’t always been an easy sell.
More or less since the morning of 19 September 2014, the Unionist parties in Scotland have kept up an unceasing chorus of “You lost! Accept it!” directed at the entire Yes movement, but primarily the SNP (despite the SNP having never to date disputed the result or called for a re-run of the referendum).
Readers may not be entirely astonished to discover this morning that at least as far as Scottish Labour are concerned, that principle only applies to other people.
Because we’re pretty sure there’s already a name for when political parties set out an “alternative programme of government”.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz gave an interesting interview to Good Morning Scotland just after 8am today, in which he expressed a number of careful, measured and qualified views on a variety of subjects including currency.
But obviously Scottish people are much too stupid to understand stuff like that, so the BBC quickly dumbed it down for them.
The problem is that there’s a difference between simplifying and falsifying.
The Scottish Mail On Sunday felt obliged this weekend to devote newsprint in what’s technically an actual newspaper to a piece of snark that might just be a new all-time low in the highly competitive barrel-scraping field of “SNP BAD”:
Half a page was given up to a bunch of sour complaints that the First Minister had built in FIVE MINUTES on her itinerary on a school visit (aimed at encouraging girls to take up traditionally male careers) for people to get selfies with her.
Dismayingly often, the thing that irritates us the most about the Unionist press lying to its readers isn’t the fact that they’re doing it, but the fact that they do it so insultingly badly. As an illustrative case in point, here’s the Sunday Times’ reliably dull-witted Scottish columnist Gillian Bowditch today:
Now, let’s be generous and ignore the honkingly stupid first paragraph, which paints a couple of exceptional bad years as a permanent status, and focus on the second one.
This is the demented, McCarthyite state of madness the Labour Party has reached:
This is a party now openly rejecting anyone as a member who has ever supported any other party. We’d take a minute to try to explain to them how the arithmetic of that one works out, but they’re a long, long way beyond the grasp of reason now.
Scottish Labour won a council by-election in Fife last night, held after the long-serving Communist Party/independent councillor Willie Clarke (who can be seen on the last page of our Charlie Hebdo feature here) stepped down due to ill health.
The successful candidate Mary Lockhart was understandably jubilant, but there were a couple of what seemed like pertinent facts missing from the local paper’s report.
One thing you can always guarantee on GERS Day is that the latest set of figures for Scotland’s devolved economy inside the UK will trigger another uncontrolled spurt of “SNP HONEYMOON OVER” articles from the nation’s dogged commentariat.
Today we’ve seen already examples (links below) from two ex-Scotsman editors, Iain Martin and Magnus Linklater, the latter popping up in the Times by way of a rather crass and unpleasant analogy involving Oswald Mosley and the Blackshirts.
And since we’d rather watch “Suicide Squad” again than spend any more time going over the arguments about GERS (and trust us, readers, we don’t say that lightly), we thought it’d be more fun if we finally got round to compiling a semi-definitive list of all the times the collective wisdom of Scotland’s media and opposition has confidently predicted the SNP’s imminent demise.
Aidan on Like Responsible Citizens Do: ““General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples” General Assembly resolutions are…” Sep 17, 06:07
PhilM on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “I see now why I was confused. I read ‘taking a punt’ as metaphorical and the person taking a punt…” Sep 16, 22:13
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “‘POWER, CORRUPTION & LIES’ Bit of research on article title ‘A THOUSAND ISLANDS IN THE SEA’. Line from ‘Leave Me…” Sep 16, 21:59
Hatey McHateface on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “@ Alf Baird says: 16 September, 2026 at 7:34 pm I responded to your post with a cut and paste…” Sep 16, 21:57
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Because in the hypothetical, decent, respectable, law abiding Scotland, the idea that Murrell will be out of prison, while the…” Sep 16, 21:46
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Slightly off topic perhaps, but as Murrell was sentenced to a bit over 5 years, how long will he actually…” Sep 16, 20:17
Alf Baird on Like Responsible Citizens Do: ““the framework that actually exists”, irrespective of UN reform: General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) Declaration on the Granting of Independence…” Sep 16, 19:44
Alf Baird on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Why always so negative Hatey, anyone would think you were against Scottish independence/decolonization, such is your haste to dismiss even…” Sep 16, 19:34
Aidan on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Actually, what Northcode said is that these are facts, and not subjective viewpoints, and Northcode is right about that. I…” Sep 16, 19:32
Northcode on Like Responsible Citizens Do: ““As you imply, these are largely your subjective viewpoints.” I think you may have misunderstood the nature of the points…” Sep 16, 19:15
Hatey McHateface on Like Responsible Citizens Do: ““Hence a major restructuring of the UN is expected” If so, nobody’s writing about it in the news feeds I…” Sep 16, 18:59
Hatey McHateface on Fear And Favour: ““you just slink away” Odd, Confused, other regulars like to accuse me of being here 24/7. “if I could be…” Sep 16, 18:56
Alf Baird on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “As you imply, these are largely your subjective viewpoints, which as one can see lack definitive sources. They also assume…” Sep 16, 18:42
Aidan on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Yes absolutely – within the current framework of international law there is no route to Scotland being designated as an…” Sep 16, 18:29
BH on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Did they say ‘It would not be in the public interest to know we’re corrupt as that might make policing…” Sep 16, 18:09
robertkknight on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “I recon 75% of the Wee Ginger Fud brigade have no idea what day of the week it is and…” Sep 16, 17:34
Cynicus on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““ We’re getting so much correspondence from Police Scotland at the moment that we’re starting to feel like their guiltily-neglected…” Sep 16, 17:07
Arthur Martin on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Many thanks for not taking no for an answer Stuart. It feels to me that your determination and tenacity in…” Sep 16, 17:02
J Robertson on Fear And Favour: “Your relentless determination and forensic annihilation of their clearly nonsense reasons must surely win out in the end. No problem…” Sep 16, 16:47
robertkknight on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Police Scotland and the COPFS are corrupt and as an asset of Thames House, Sturgeon is being protected. What more…” Sep 16, 15:56
Old Bill on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “A trivial point, but I think it is unprofessional for PSoS Legal Services team to be sending anonymous letters “How…” Sep 16, 15:33
holymacmoses on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “I wonder if the problem of a prosecution lies not in the problem of ‘responsibility’ – which as you point…” Sep 16, 15:13
100%Yes on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “I’ll have a guess at why Sturgeon wasn’t charge, it was her looks and personality.” Sep 16, 14:59
Sgt Oddball on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Good to see that the Chief of Scot Squad is now in charge of Police Scotland as well, ensuring that…” Sep 16, 14:25
Alice Timmons on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “*sigh*..ah, well. Better check out this year’s pension rise. I think I feel a crowd funder coming on. More power…” Sep 16, 14:22
