The Unionist parties are taking such a kicking in the polls for next month’s Holyrood election that you could forgive them for not always knowing where they were.
The above tweet does indeed have the potential to be “astonishing”, given that (a) Ruth Davidson isn’t standing in Carnoustie, and (b) the 2011 result suggests that there are only around 700 Labour voters to find in the entire town behind the “1000s” of doors that 20 Tories have impressively managed to knock by teatime.
(Indeed, the area is so Labour-unfriendly that the Tories actually managed to come 2nd five years ago, getting over 50% more votes than the Labour candidate.)
But it’s not the only piece of geographical confusion afflicting the UK parties.
Alert readers may recall that a few months ago the Scottish press got itself in a right old lather about a temporary closure of the Forth Road Bridge. The SNP were attacked relentlessly in the media for what a subsequent inquiry in fact found to have been an “unforeseeable” fault on the bridge which posed no risk to life. But fair enough.
This week, 17 schools in the Edinburgh area were closed down over fears that they might be unsafe after the wall of one of them fell off in high winds, two years after another wall in an Edinburgh school collapsed and killed a 12-year-old girl.
All 17 had been built under a controversial PFI scheme signed in 2001, when the UK government, Scottish Parliament and Edinburgh City Council were all controlled by Labour, and which isn’t due to be finally paid off for another 20 years.
The Scottish press and opposition’s incandescent and somewhat vague fury at the Scottish Government working to bring billions of pounds in investment to Scotland has continued undiminished in this weekend’s newspapers. Scottish Labour in particular are getting themselves very worked up about today’s Sunday Times.
“Incredible”? Sounds exciting. Let’s find out more.
Those of you who read our post of earlier today probably didn’t feel there was anything ambiguous going on in it. When Ruth Davidson intervened in an election debate to protest that the chair, the BBC’s Louise White, was being unfair to Nicola Sturgeon, it was pretty obvious who she meant, and White’s response removed any doubt.
Which makes this eye-witness account of the event, spotted by an alert reader this afternoon, odd in several ways.
We were rather gobsmacked, readers, when we tuned into this morning’s BBC Radio Scotland phone-in at 9am. Ostensibly discussing the promotion of “Rangers” to the Premiership, presenter Louise White adopted the most astonishingly, openly partisan and aggressive approach we’ve ever heard from a host on the state broadcaster (which is no small feat), on the subject of whether the club was a new one or not.
Callers were harangued, interrupted and hustled on for daring to suggest the truth. It was a jaw-dropping display of disregard for not only impartiality but basic journalistic regard for the plain, uncontestable facts of the matter.
But don’t panic, football-haters. This post is about something else.
This is an intriguing and engrossing extended chat between Christopher Silver and Iain Macwhirter for what will hopefully become a regular series by the excellent Phantom Power Films, creators of Altered States and lots more:
It’s well worth whiling away a little bit of your afternoon on.
Bilbo on Yelling at the tide: “I see that it is trending in the UK MSM about Trumps inferred comments towards British soldiers in recent conflicts…” Jan 23, 19:51
Southernbystander on Yelling at the tide: “These baby boxes seem incredibly cruel. How have the SG got away with providing boxes to stuff a baby in…” Jan 23, 19:48
Bilbo on Yelling at the tide: “Increased standard of livings but better quality of life?” Jan 23, 19:47
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Yelling at the tide: “« Gaelic culture reached its zenith in Scotland during the eleventh century, when the borders of the kingdom were extended…” Jan 23, 19:23
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““Scots has faced every pressure a language can face, and yet it’s not only still here—it’s growing.” – from “How…” Jan 23, 18:14
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “That’s OK though, sam. The “Education (Scotland) Act 1872” was undoubtedly enacted by some big, bad, English barsturts who then…” Jan 23, 17:50
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “So what they say about incest is true. Crivens, help m’boab!” Jan 23, 17:45
sam on Yelling at the tide: “Wuz that yer Da n Ma? Interested? https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/scots-language” Jan 23, 17:41
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Great post, Alf. And here was me thinking the people of these islands had always enjoyed quite a privileged and…” Jan 23, 17:40
sam on Yelling at the tide: “Linguistic professors, McLeod and Jones of Edinburgh University chart the decline of the use of Gaelic language. “In the mid…” Jan 23, 17:32
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““Gaelic is exponentially closer than Inglis is to (what is known of) the language of the Picts.” I think you’re…” Jan 23, 17:28
TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “A cosmopolitan «littérateur» ancestor of mine wrote in Ottoman Turkish. He disliked Syriac, and had reservations about Arabic considering the…” Jan 23, 17:09
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: “All I know, Sam, is that when my folk arrived here there was naebody else tae be seen… and it…” Jan 23, 17:04
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Yelling at the tide: “Gaelic is exponentially closer than Inglis is to (what is known of) the language of the Picts.” Jan 23, 16:58
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““Seriously, tak yer Gaelic and yer Inglis and get yersel’s tae…” Obviously I wasn’t being serious with my last comment.…” Jan 23, 16:52
sam on Yelling at the tide: “@ Northcode “As far as I’m concerned Gaelic is the weird language of the first invader, English that of the…” Jan 23, 16:47
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Shirley-Anne Somerville has sent a baby box to New York mayor Mamdani. To show him how it works, and to…” Jan 23, 16:46
Alf Baird on Yelling at the tide: ““claim we were all colonised near a century afore 1707” As noted above, Linguistic Imperialism (e.g. language deprivation and cultural…” Jan 23, 16:42
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Ah, c’moan noo, Northy. Just the other day you were self-identifying as shit. Shit should be in seventh heaven in…” Jan 23, 16:20
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““Can we please therefore jettison the exclusivist “mither tongue” myth… No! As far as I’m concerned Gaelic is the weird…” Jan 23, 15:56
sam on Yelling at the tide: “@ “It was a choice made and maintained by Scots.” Hardly. Historian, Iain MacKinnon. “And in 1608 there was a…” Jan 23, 15:53
TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “When i was a kid my parents visited some relatives and other exiles in California, we have relatives near &…” Jan 23, 15:33
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “See fit ye’ve done noo, Fearghas? Ye’ve empowered the Baird/Northy axis tae claim we were all colonised near a century…” Jan 23, 15:15
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““He also claimed “It was the English who commanded that Scots schoolchildren be viciously belted with a leather strap…” No……” Jan 23, 15:08
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Yelling at the tide: “We observe that the following was written almost exactly a century BEFORE the Act of Union. We note that the…” Jan 23, 15:03
100%Yes on Yelling at the tide: “Is she really worth fighting for “Information commissioner sues SNP Government over ‘failure to publish Sturgeon files’. I wouldn’t give…” Jan 23, 14:51
willie on Yelling at the tide: “If I may, can I turn attention to the Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond and the recent announcement that Lomond…” Jan 23, 14:41
factchecker on Yelling at the tide: “Thank you Cynicus for some factual input. The professor writes “Ignorant rubbish” indeed. He claims “In seeking to justify only…” Jan 23, 14:29
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Aye, TURABDIN, there’s been notable failures. There’s been notable successes, too. Japan, the former West Germany before they were sunk…” Jan 23, 14:26
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: ““As we know, Linguistic Imperialism (e.g. language deprivation and cultural assimilation) are well established colonial procedures intended to make ‘a…” Jan 23, 14:10
