Future Shocks 88
Posted on
February 27, 2016 by
Chris Cairns
Order “Welcome To Cairnstoon”, Chris’ compilation of Wings cartoons and more, here.
Never understanding 124
Posted on
February 26, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
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:
And then people said more stuff.
Fighting for horsemeat 178
Posted on
February 26, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
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.
Some brief thoughts on Donald Trump 285
Posted on
February 25, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
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.
You can’t, can you?
We live in interesting times.
The sands of the times 265
Posted on
February 24, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
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.
The cold hard numbers 81
Posted on
February 24, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The first quote below is from Magnus Gardham in the Herald, the second one is from Kenny Farquharson in the Times, both today.
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.
Every loser wins 205
Posted on
February 23, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
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:
But what else happened?
Breaking news broken 113
Posted on
February 23, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
File this one under “the wish is the father of the thought”:
We wonder which government?
A trip down Memory Lane 78
Posted on
February 23, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
This was a little cruel, frankly.
(From today’s Daily Politics.)
Song For The Fiscal Framework 86
Posted on
February 23, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Watch the devolution committee live from 8.30am here.
England’s Dreaming 366
Posted on
February 22, 2016 by
Douglas Daniel
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.
More repeats 297
Posted on
February 21, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The slow news year in Scottish politics continues. These are all from today:
Sound familiar?
