As we write there’s a protest going on outside the Scottish Parliament regarding the privatisation of ferry services to the Western Isles. It was formally announced almost three hours ago that there definitely wasn’t going to be any privatisation and that the service would remain in public hands, but the protest still went ahead.
The people conducting the protest, who’ve got the exact thing they wanted, are now doing their level best to lose it again. Welcome to Scottish politics.
Over the past few days, readers, we haven’t been able to avoid noticing a recurring theme among Unionist types on social media – namely that the Holyrood election results are proof that support for independence is declining.
But it’s not until you ask them to explain that it gets completely mental.
For much of its life, this site has been warning readers that, as their default position, they should always assume newspaper headlines are a lie until proven otherwise.
Today, Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper admitted it in public.
You win a historic third election with a second massive landslide, getting more than twice as many seats as your nearest challenger – the first time such a thing has ever happened in a Holyrood election – on the back of what’s (self-evidently) by and large a very popular policy programme and record, and before you’ve even taken your seats in the chamber all the parties you just thrashed out of sight line up to explain how you’ve been doing everything wrong.
And as alliances go, they don’t get much less holy.
We’re supposed to be taking a few days off, but it’s been tipping it down outside for 36 solid hours, so when an alert reader emailed us a question relating to this article from Monday, we couldn’t help but go and research it just to pass some time.
They’d asked how many of the Tory MSPs elected last Thursday had been rejected by the voters of a constituency seat on the same day, and we were startled by the answer – of the 24 Conservative members of the Scottish Parliament elected on the list last week, every single one was also a failed constituency candidate.
In amongst a torrent of pretty mad analysis of the election result at the weekend, we noticed the most insane reason yet suggested for the loss of the SNP’s majority:
The co-founder of a much-lauded but little-read pro-independence website asserted that the SNP were cruising to victory until the Nats got the backing of the Scottish Sun and Nicola Sturgeon was pictured posing with the front cover endorsing her party.
The whole litany of gaping flaws in that argument is something the Yes movement has needed to talk about for some considerable time now. So let’s bite the bullet and do it.
A few weeks ago we rather cruelly highlighted an old post from Kezia Dugdale’s blog in which she bitterly bemoaned the practice of candidates who’d been rejected by voters in constituency seats still being able to get into Parliament via the “back door” of the regional lists.
twathater on The Pit Of Vipers: “@ Angus, Colin Alexander has been posting comments on WOS since at least 2014 , his comments have been scathing…” Apr 21, 18:32
Alf Baird on The Pit Of Vipers: “Yes, Fanon tells us that ‘the colonialist may speak in the native tongue’, and that ‘colonialism is always a co-operative…” Apr 21, 18:28
Lorncal on The Pit Of Vipers: “Rev: stooshie going on at ‘The National’ and ‘The Herald’ newspapers because they wouldn’t run an ISP campaign advert unless…” Apr 21, 18:24
Lorncal on The Pit Of Vipers: “YL: not saying she wasn’t at the centre. Just that she did not kick the thing off, I believe. Others…” Apr 21, 18:16
Lorncal on The Pit Of Vipers: “I hate to say it, but, you know, this is women – or, at least some of them. It’s always…” Apr 21, 17:45
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “George @ 4.59 Correct.” Apr 21, 17:45
Lorncal on The Pit Of Vipers: “And look what happened to poor old Cicero, Willie. Mark Antony did for him.” Apr 21, 17:29
George Ferguson on The Pit Of Vipers: “@Alf Baird Fine Alf but when I served in Northern Ireland we were regarded as peace keepers. The context which…” Apr 21, 16:59
sam on The Pit Of Vipers: “You can add to that list the so called Troubles of NI. In which grievances over civil rights and the…” Apr 21, 16:36
100%Yes on The Pit Of Vipers: “Keir Starmer has resigned and his last wish is to grant Swinney a section 30 order.” Apr 21, 16:21
Lorncal on The Pit Of Vipers: “I didn’t say she was not, 100%. I said that she did not kick it off, others did. The opportunity…” Apr 21, 16:20
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “Fat Slag Wilma Flintstone @2.26 “paaaaal”” Apr 21, 15:29
TURABDIN on The Pit Of Vipers: “TUCKER CARLSON one of the US rights many paper messiahs opined re my country of birth, «Iraq is a crappy…” Apr 21, 14:26
Captain Caveman on The Pit Of Vipers: ““Werthers Original”” Apr 21, 14:26
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “Fat Slag Wilma Flintstone @ 1.56 “maaaaaate”..” Apr 21, 14:06
wullie on The Pit Of Vipers: “Marcus Tullius Cicero “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.…” Apr 21, 14:05
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “Geri I wonder how much longer the US superpower (empire) has got before it’s slid down to the has-beens league…” Apr 21, 13:57
Captain Caveman on The Pit Of Vipers: “Ah, Rambo “adding value” to the BTL chat with yet more fantasy as ever, I see (much like his non…” Apr 21, 13:56
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “AI dun @ 12.46 Stop clutching your pearls so tightly “old boy”, you’ll hurt yerself.” Apr 21, 13:37
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “Fat Slag Wilma Flintstone @ 6.54 “Maaaaate” Spellcheck that.” Apr 21, 13:31
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “Fearghas I thought we were talking about a mythical Tower of Babel timeline? Not a modern language imposition. Anyway apparently…” Apr 21, 13:26
Aidan on The Pit Of Vipers: “Why don’t all the normal people on Wings BTL piss off so that Geri and co can rant a rave…” Apr 21, 12:46
Marie on The Pit Of Vipers: “Thanks for this. I read Elkins “Britain’s Gulag” many years ago. Her research into the barbarity of British troops in…” Apr 21, 12:46
Ian McCubbin on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “I am sith those who say vote Alliance to Liberate Scotland. Like the English party manifestos I think the English…” Apr 21, 11:45
Geri on The Pit Of Vipers: “Typical Yoon. Always with the lies & drama. Truth is never a strong point. I’ve never been banned or silenced…” Apr 21, 11:42
Geri on The Pit Of Vipers: “Surprise, surprise that the new greater map includes all the oil & gas all over the region. The USA, who…” Apr 21, 11:35
Captain Caveman on The Pit Of Vipers: ““Years of working” 😀 😀 😀 Like AS IF pal.” Apr 21, 11:31
Captain Caveman on The Pit Of Vipers: “Well, if it’s any business of yours, “Geri”, I’m here for the interesting (and at times highly revelatory) blog pieces…” Apr 21, 11:27
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Pit Of Vipers: “Some sort of historical version of “devolution”? — « At times of war, the enemy city could be conquered and destroyed…” Apr 21, 11:01
Alf Baird on The Pit Of Vipers: “It always comes back to English ‘liberal imperialism’, where Churchill’s infamous Auxilliaries and Black & Tans who honed their ‘legalized…” Apr 21, 10:30
