In so far as this Holyrood election has been a battle at all, the battleground for it has been tax. Not only the Unionist opposition but the pro-indy left have attacked the SNP for timidity over its plans to keep income tax rates the same as the rest of the UK, with only a tweak on the threshold for the top rate.
In their defence the Nats have deployed a line that’s been widely derided as an old Tory argument derived from the so-called “Laffer curve”, but in fact is nothing of the sort. It centres around the ways wealthy people legally shield their income from tax, but there’s a very specific and very important wrinkle that applies only in the particular case of a devolved, not independent, Scotland.
It’s not at all complicated but it’s absolutely crucial, and it’s barely been discussed on even the most superficial level in any supposed analyses of the situation undertaken in the media, so as usual we suppose it’s going to be down to us to do the job.
During this election campaign, there’ve been the usual bouts of political sparring, the tit-for-tat point-scoring frenzy played out through a plethora of media. One particular battleground, though, had a special resonance for me – the “Named Person” scheme.
I’m a former “looked-after” child. I’ve suffered the abuse and neglect that this scheme is intended to help protect children from. Having scrutinised the details for myself, I fully support it.
The rise of the SNP has so bewildered the metropolitan commentariat that even almost a decade after the party won its first Scottish election pundits still barely know which way to face to confront it. A case in point can be found in today’s Times.
It’s been quite a 24 hours for watchers of the UK media. The Sunday papers saw two of the most demented rants to have been committed to print about Scottish politics since the independence referendum.
One came from Neil Oliver in the Sunday Times – painting a blood-curdling picture of a “second hate-fest”should Scots ever choose to debate the subject again – and the other from Leo McKinstry in the Sunday Express, beside itself with unhinged rage that Scots, having voted to remain in the UK, might exercise their right as UK citizens to also vote to remain in the EU.
(As a result of which we’ve concluded that a narrow rUK vote in favour of Leave being overturned by a huge margin in Scotland for Remain would be the funniest thing that had ever happened in British politics.)
Yesterday we noted that we still hadn’t received a reply to a complaint we made to the BBC about a false assertion by David Dimbleby on Question Time over six weeks ago, despite the fact that it’s only supposed to take 10 working days.
By coincidence we got the reply today, 36 days late, and it wasn’t worth the wait.
This evening’s Question Time saw one of the most incident-packed passages on the show in recent memory. From left to right onscreen the panellists were Paul Marshall (hedge fund manager, head of a chain of academy schools and co-author of the Lib Dems’ infamous “Orange Book”), Alex Salmond, Tory minister Greg Clark, Labour’s shadow home secretary Andy Burnham and right-wing think-tanker Jill Kirby.
We’d hoped to be bringing you in-depth analysis of the Scottish Labour manifesto by now, readers, but a couple of hours after their launch event there’s still no sign of it anywhere (we’ve checked their website, Facebook page and Twitter feed, all blank).
So we’re going to nip out to the shops for a bit. In the meantime, here’s some footage we recorded of the fantastic live stream of the launch the party put out.
We’re looking forward to the publication of the Scottish Labour manifesto for next month’s election, which is due to be published on Wednesday, just eight days before the vote. We confidently anticipate that it will definitively clear up a few issues we’re still not absolutely sure of the branch office’s position on.
Considering we’re only eleven days from a general election, there’s remarkably little politics coverage in the Sunday papers today. Most of what there is is in the Sunday Herald, which has a substantial (and quite entertaining) interview with Kezia Dugdale and another two pages devoted to what’s essentially spluttering attempted justification of its shambolic front-page lead from last week.
We’re not going to go into it in depth, as James Kelly on Scot Goes Pop! has already had a close look and made a pretty fair assessment. But for want of anything more interesting to talk about, and in the wake of some depressing Twitter conversations with people who apparently STILL don’t understand either the Holyrood electoral system or basic arithmetic, we’re going to have one more wade in the list-vote debate.
You might want to see if there’s football on or something.
Alf Baird on The Fast Track: ““John Swinney … would tell you that he would live in a cave for independence” Aye Fearghas, here we have…” Jun 30, 11:05
David Henry on The Fast Track: “Missing money followed by a list of people all who lied about the missing money while others tried to shut…” Jun 30, 10:48
James Che on The Fast Track: “Hatey McHateface, You left one out at 8:11 am. Your Guff Treaty that is so old no one pays attention…” Jun 30, 09:55
James Che on The Fast Track: “Seeing as no one is scrutinising the SNP and Scotland finances in depth other than Stu, one wonders about the…” Jun 30, 09:48
James Che on The Fast Track: “Law in Scotland, All under one umbrella, [The Scotland Act] Just add water to dilute. Well done Stu, excellent jounalism.” Jun 30, 08:20
Hatey McHateface on The Fast Track: “Not really. To get to the bottom of what’s really going on you need to study the works of Fanon,…” Jun 30, 08:11
Hatey McHateface on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “It’s surely a bit odd that kids might be permitted to change their first names but not their surnames. Many…” Jun 30, 08:06
Robinov Cybernat on The Fast Track: “Aye, job done for them at that point.” Jun 30, 07:59
Hatey McHateface on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Gift it to them as reparations for centuries of Scottish colonialism. And thank our lucky stars we got away lightly.” Jun 30, 07:23
Hatey McHateface on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Good to see you offering due respect with your capitalisation of “Royal Audience”. As you say, it’s our history. Remove…” Jun 30, 07:19
DavidT on The Fast Track: “It is all very complicated, but from John Swinney’s comments, I get the impression that the general elections in 2017…” Jun 30, 07:10
Angus on The Fast Track: ““and the fact that only one of the two crimes it concerned has been resolved.” I don’t think it has…” Jun 30, 03:00
Cynicus on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: ““No Morocco, No party!” ======== Fans of Scotland’s erstwhile World Cup group opponents have borrowed the Tartan Army’s signature chant!…” Jun 30, 02:54
Angus on The Fast Track: “Very nice and easily understandable guide on how blatantly obvious crimes can be detected and solved for the dummies calling…” Jun 30, 02:51
Gordon Bain on The Fast Track: “Chill man. Lady J of Tay has this all covered.” Jun 30, 00:33
Young Lochinvar on The Fast Track: “I wonder how long Ned Stark (sorry my bad; King of oop t’ Norf Andy Burnham) will take to annoy…” Jun 30, 00:08
Young Lochinvar on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “C3PO @ 5.49 Clan Chattan? Well if not then you should make yourself familiar with the September 1396 North Inch…” Jun 29, 23:43
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Fast Track: “Well done Stuart. Case put coherently and succinctly. Geissler was very good too, except near the end (26.40) with his…” Jun 29, 23:42
Mark Beggan on The Fast Track: “I think it was the National Crime Agency that pressed for that.” Jun 29, 23:36
Mark Beggan on The Fast Track: “Well said Rev. The media do have their slippers under the political bed with the Crown office as the pillow.…” Jun 29, 23:28
Frazerio on The Fast Track: “Dear Rev, The more you dig, the more you expose. That the ‘Ringfenced’ investigation led to Murrell’s exposé and the…” Jun 29, 23:24
Dick Wall on The Fast Track: “I do recall some suggestions that the Peter Murrell stuff was rather forced on Police Scotland by a UK organised…” Jun 29, 23:12
Roland Watson on The Fast Track: “Are the Police and Crown Prosecution actually concluding that because Peter Murrell embezzled all the funds before the SNP had…” Jun 29, 22:57
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Fast Track: “WINGS OVER SCOTLAND: WHY I’M NOT DONE WITH THE PETER MURRELL CASE Scotcast, Radio Scotland, 29 Jun 2026, 29 mins…” Jun 29, 22:15
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “‘MISGENDERING’ BRANDED SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN US UNI POLICY The University of California (UC) has come under fire for including ‘misgendering’…” Jun 29, 21:43
Hatey McHateface on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Naw, Northy, agreeing that anybody who disagrees with you is a fucking moron (FM) who likes being fucked up the…” Jun 29, 21:43
Craig P on The Fast Track: “Wonder if Woman H has been getting private briefings off anyone.” Jun 29, 21:43
Karen on The Fast Track: “Just listened to you on BBC Sounds and agreed with every word, as did lawyer hubby. You thorn in the…” Jun 29, 21:37
Karen on The Fast Track: “It’s on BBC Sounds, and it’s free (like radio).” Jun 29, 21:34
