The cliffhanger 272
Posted on
May 05, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Polling day is here.
But there’s more to today’s election than the fate of Kezia Dugdale.
The independence dividend 393
Posted on
May 04, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
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.
The football under the carpet 188
Posted on
May 03, 2016 by
Donna Babington
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.
Twisted blood 187
Posted on
May 03, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
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.
That was a quick switch.
The Howling Of The Furies 263
Posted on
May 02, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
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.)
They were joined this morning by David Torrance in the Herald wailing that “Scottish nationalists and Brexiteers have much in common. Both are utterly vacuous” (which readers might feel was a bit rich coming from the unchallenged master of vacuity) and blaming the parlous state of Scottish political discourse mainly on this site and the vile cartoonist Greg Moodie – along, of course, with the ever-dastardly SNP.
Such was the onslaught, in fact, that Fraser “I’d put £1000 on Ed Miliband to win the election” Nelson of the Spectator, of all people, turned up as the voice of reason.
A gap in our memory 397
Posted on
May 01, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We must confess, we don’t recall when this happened.
If anyone can help us out, please do.
Generation and stimulation 224
Posted on
April 30, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
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.
Four minutes of fun 336
Posted on
April 29, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
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’ll let you watch for yourself.
Scene missing again 514
Posted on
April 27, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
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.
It’s Scottish Labour Manifesto Day! 120
Posted on
April 27, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We have high hopes.
Well, high-ish.
Clarity and certainty 414
Posted on
April 25, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
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.
For a day or two, at least.
