An interesting and illuminating exchange has taken place in the last few days between the First Minister and Times columnist Kenny Farquharson, one of the many senior journalists who’ve recently jumped from the sinking ship of The Scotsman to take up less prestigious but more secure positions elsewhere.
It started on Saturday night, when Farquharson tweeted this:
In what may be a new all-time low for the broadsheet press in Scotland, this morning’s Scottish edition of the Telegraph makes a front-page lead story out of a petition with a pathetic 4500 signatures, put together by some extremist Yoon nutters to express their rage that there might be a peak-time news show actually made in Scotland.
The idea of a so-called “Scottish Six”, whereby the main six o’clock news bulletin would be a single programme made by BBC Scotland and covering Scottish, UK and world news – rather than the current half-hour London-centric UK programme followed by 30 minutes of regional murdur’n’fitba in Reporting Scotland – has been exercising the media (and pretty much nobody else) for the best part of 20 years.
But now it’s become a constitutional battleground, and the funny thing about it is that the two sides are fighting bitterly over something neither of them actually really wants.
Put your hands on your hearts, readers, and tell us that in the event of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin leading the USA and Russia a year or so from now, you can’t see this actually literally happening. [EDIT: The fight, not nuclear apocalypse. Obviously.]
Look us straight in the eye and tell us there’s a 0% chance.
Newspaper sales figures in Scotland now come out in a patchy and unco-ordinated sort of way, with different frequencies and at different times of year, so we thought it’d be worth collecting them together for easy reference.
The numbers below are the most recent figures for each title that we know of – for papers classed as “national” that means November last year, and for those counted as “regional” (which includes the Scotsman and Herald titles) it’s this month.
Figures have all been rounded to the nearest 100, and increase/decrease stats refer in all cases to the corresponding sales for one year previously.
So just to clear that up: four times £12 million is £200 million. The mystery of why people are increasingly reluctant to believe what they read in newspapers continues.
So after all the kerfuffle and commotion and comedy, a deal was done, of sorts. The unsquareable circle wasn’t squared, but the day of facing up to it was punted down the line for five years, by which point everyone hopes that it’ll be someone else’s problem. (Which is certainly the case for David Cameron.)
Every newspaper in Scotland tomorrow will look like this:
It’s quite incredible that someone with Jim Sillars’ political experience should be so naive about the tactics surrounding the EU referendum. Regardless of your feelings on the EU itself, there’s absolutely no point in any supporter of Scottish independence voting Leave this June, and here’s why.
Alert readers can’t have failed to notice a desperate Scottish Labour dusting off the old “Tartan Tories” attack on the SNP recently, over the Nats’ unwillingness to join in with Kezia Dugdale’s kerrazy kaper of hiking up income tax.
So after today we can only assume they’ll be looking for some similarly pithy zingers for their colleagues in Wales. They can have this one for free.
Aidan on Or Something: “The leadership of Liberate is a ragtag bunch of retirees and some cranks, as you might expect. They’ve paid a…” Aug 4, 14:20
Jay on Or Something: “Does the SNP have astructure of financial authority such as would indicate who spent monies on what goods and or…” Aug 4, 13:35
Young Lochinvar on Or Something: “HMcH @7.53 & 10.44 Ah! First the mouse squeaks Then the coney roars! Save us from these “terrors”!! 🙂” Aug 4, 13:22
BLMac on Or Something: “Judging by the responses a reasonable person might come to the assumption that cronies of the embezzlers are embedded in…” Aug 4, 13:21
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: ““shredded banners declaring Scotland’s ambition to be free” There you go again, Northy. Appropriating to all of Scotland the democratically…” Aug 4, 12:23
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “@CC There’s one experience where Scotland comes out top every time. Summer evenings, post rush hour, away from the cities,…” Aug 4, 12:10
Chas on Or Something: “Maybe the likes of you drove them away Northy?” Aug 4, 11:57
Northcode on Or Something: “I suspect most independence supporters have already abandoned this place. It feels like a post-apocalyptic, tumbleweed-strewn wasteland where tattered Saltires…” Aug 4, 11:28
Ex President Xiden on Or Something: “If that’s the case why don’t the crown office just say that?” Aug 4, 11:13
Captain Caveman on The Nobodies: “@Hatey You get idiots in all manner of cars, it isn’t the car’s fault. How many Audi drivers do you…” Aug 4, 11:01
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: “@ Chas says: 4 August, 2026 at 10:06 am Never underestimate the effect on a black representative of a former…” Aug 4, 10:57
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: “It’s certainly all too easy to wonder how commemorating some not very nice boys hacking each other to bits 600+…” Aug 4, 10:44
Ian Smith on Or Something: “Refusing to hand over the books to a financial audit committee must come as close to evidence of who was…” Aug 4, 10:42
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “@CC I see a few of them around here. They absolutely boss the reserved disabled parking and the double yellows…” Aug 4, 10:22
Chas on Or Something: “Who are the Office bearers, high heid yins, of Liberation Scotland, Salvo or any of their offshoots, if there are…” Aug 4, 10:06
Captain Caveman on The Nobodies: “Hey Aidan, it’s the PHEV hybrid Sport, meaning it has e-motor shove, as well as the 6-cyl Ingenium petrol engine…” Aug 4, 09:44
TURABDIN on Or Something: “thank you for that signal historical reference. it is all too easy to airbrush history, other people’s history. the stanza…” Aug 4, 09:39
Aidan on The Nobodies: “Aye James – I bet my posts give you a migraine, some of them contain more than one sentence and…” Aug 4, 09:28
Captain Caveman on The Nobodies: “@Fatso 6:09pm What is that incoherent, Frankenstein-esque AI cut ‘n paste even supposed to mean? Too thick to write your…” Aug 4, 08:33
Slim Jim on Or Something: “More power to you Rev but keep yourself safe.” Aug 4, 08:08
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: “Classic stuff indeed, Auld Lochnagar. Which do you prefer for your personal re-enactments: Tesco or LIDL? What about Sainsburys? They…” Aug 4, 07:53
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: ““Someone should tell trump he should not buy greenland, but scaatlan” Genius, Confused! It’s beyond belief that President Trump has…” Aug 4, 07:36
Young Lochinvar on Or Something: “Off topic.. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the 1388 battle of Otterburn. Froissart recounted this in detail and his commentary…” Aug 4, 00:27
Confused on Or Something: “Who reads mcalpine? It’s weak pish. As for UN recognition – everyone in the place hates “england” since they were…” Aug 3, 23:41
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: ““I was wrong” But then you’re used to that. Seriously though, Northy, even if your claim and your logic are…” Aug 3, 22:45
Carol Neill on Or Something: “@angus that’s exactly what they’re hoping for Oor Stu’s well up for them Little do they realise how many will…” Aug 3, 22:33
Hatey McHateface on Or Something: ““All the right credentials” Nah. White, white, white. “am I being just too cynical?” Naw. Not cynical enough. Peak cynicism…” Aug 3, 22:33
Alf Baird on Or Something: ““It would be good to sneer at the SNP as it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch but there is…” Aug 3, 22:29
James Jones on Or Something: “Why on Earth would you think that when devolution hasn’t delivered “greater democratic accountability” and independence would only put greater…” Aug 3, 22:14
