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.
It’s curious that as the Scotland Bill negotiations deadlock drags on, well beyond its original deadline of 12 February and now hurtling headlong towards the extended 23 February one with no sign of progress on the horizon, that nobody is remarking on one of the most striking facets of the new devolution proposals.
Remember “pooling and sharing”, readers? Whatever happened to that?
Last night, MP Natalie McGarry made another heavily-qualified semi-apology to the popular abusive-tweeter enthusiast JK Rowling, because that’s how bullying works. (As far as we know McGarry has still refused Rowling’s demand that she make a sizeable donation to Rowling’s charity under threat of legal action.)
One of George Orwell’s most-quoted lines is “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”
We wonder who was trying to silence the torrent of drivel below, then.
Since the astonishing election of 56 SNP MPs to the UK Parliament last May, the Unionist media – suddenly deprived of a whole contacts book full of friendly Scottish Labour bench-warmers ready to feed it cosy stories over a boozy expenses lunch in Whitehall – has raked through every bin and gutter in the land looking for anything (however pathetic) that it can try to puff up, distort, and rope into service as “dirt” on each of the Nat members, in an attempt to discredit them and the party.
So let’s just have a little look in here and – YIKES!
It notes that in 2006, the year before the SNP came to power, 65% of Scots identified themselves as “Scottish not British” or “more Scottish than British”, but by 2014 – the year of the independence referendum – that number had fallen to just 49%.
It concludes, correctly, that just as we noted on Sunday, support for independence is fundamentally political in nature, not nationalist. But that only tells half the story.
So Scotland currently has no debt? No responsibility for any share of the enormous £1.5 trillion burden run up by the UK? We’ll take that deal. Where do we sign?
Barely a week – indeed, barely a day – has gone by over the last year or so without some angry, confused and hurt-sounding Unionist pundit or politician churning out yet another article on the theme of “WHY AREN’T YOU GRATEFUL THAT WE SAVED YOU FROM INDEPENDENCE, YOU APPALLING PLEBS?”
As far as the No side are concerned, the oil-price slump is a slam-dunk game-ender which finally conclusively proves that Scotland is too wee and too poor to run its own affairs, and their uncomprehending bewilderment as support for a Yes vote not only fails to disintegrate but keeps increasing even as the oil price sinks lower and lower has been quite a phenomenon to behold.
So we were interested to see today’s Sunday Times report a YouGov poll done for the comedy grumpy-old-white-guys support group (and spectacularly unsuccessful tactical voting enthusiasts) Scotland In Union, and somewhat miss the point of the results.
There’s nothing unusual about reading something in the Scottish media that makes your eyes widen. But a piece we saw in the Courier earlier today stretched ours out to Clockwork Orange-like proportions.
Now that’s a pretty intriguing opening (as the bishop said to the actress). At first we took it to mean that an independent Scotland could effectively take over Britain’s EU membership in the event of a Leave vote, ending any debate about whether and when it would be admitted on its own.
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Plague: “GRAHAM LINEHAN | THE GLINNER UPDATE | SUBSTACK Aug 04, 2026 HOW THE BELFAST TELEGRAPH HANDLED HELEN JOYCE The Belfast…” Aug 5, 01:12
Dalif on The Plague: “You must have some amazing blood pressure medication after all that. Anyway, that was a great read.” Aug 5, 00:00
Young Lochinvar on The Plague: “Mrs YL asked what skin moisturisers he’s using, as they clearly aren’t helping..” Aug 4, 23:59
Hatey McHateface on The Plague: “There’s always a silver lining, though. Nobody’s claiming Fanon has the answer to this one.” Aug 4, 23:30
Angus on The Plague: “Police harassment of innocent citizens only happens in a police state. Most of the freedoms hard gained in the last…” Aug 4, 22:51
Jay on The Plague: “Aidan at 9:30pm. No reply facility at your ‘MI5?’ comment. Who knows? The Watson nightmare saga almost beggars belief. It…” Aug 4, 22:44
Jay on The Plague: “Ian, yuou laft out part of the tweet, “….for all I care”. That omission is the act of either a…” Aug 4, 22:27
dearieme on The Plague: “I suppose the days are long gone when you could ask “Under which statute, officer?”. Well done to you for…” Aug 4, 22:10
Aidan on The Plague: “That this was coordinated by MI5?” Aug 4, 21:30
Ross on The Plague: “This is absolutely disgraceful. Whatever else the call at 1,30am is so unneccessary as to be vexatious in itself. Hope…” Aug 4, 21:14
David G on The Plague: “I dread to think what the police do to people who don’t say anything in response to the request that…” Aug 4, 21:05
Frank Waring on The Plague: “I remember reading, I think in Tom Driberg’s ‘Ruling Passions’, that in the 1930’s and 40’s ambitious young police constables…” Aug 4, 21:04
Jay on The Plague: “Aidan: it is necessary to know where Watson made his ‘input’ to the law enforcement system and which officer decided…” Aug 4, 21:00
Jay on The Plague: “Ian Morrison: it would be interesting to learn the basis upon which you think that the Lucy Connolly tweet called…” Aug 4, 20:49
A2 on The Plague: “Wait…. Joined the dots, He was Living in Dunfermline?” Aug 4, 20:49
Hatey McHateface on The Plague: “Plausible. There’s plenty of evidence too about the woke subversion of the police. From taking the knee about Floyd, to…” Aug 4, 20:21
Old Bill on The Plague: “Spot on, El President, you’d rightly consider locking up someone battering on doors in the middle of the night. General…” Aug 4, 20:17
Hatey McHateface on The Plague: “Sorry, Ian, but I can only assume you refer to a migrant as a hotel. Nobody else does. Must be…” Aug 4, 20:12
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “Another surge in Indy support at 6:59 pm. Up another 5% since yesterday. I’m gonna lobby to get Scotland’s national…” Aug 4, 20:00
Ian Morrison on The Plague: ““Set fire to all the hotels full of the bastards”. Direct quote from the tweet. I now look forward to…” Aug 4, 19:57
Hatey McHateface on The Plague: “There can no longer be any doubt that in the U.K., ordinary law abiding people are now at the mercy…” Aug 4, 19:50
robertkknight on The Plague: “Somewhere in Avon and Somerset a village is missing its idiot. Clue…they were last seen wearing a Police uniform.” Aug 4, 19:40
Carol Neil on The Plague: “Jfc ,how much more !” Aug 4, 19:32
Aidan on The Plague: “The amazing thing here is that they’ve obviously read your blog posts and yet none of that appeared to ring…” Aug 4, 19:25
Wulls on The Plague: “I thought he was in the process of being tagged as a vexatious litigant ???” Aug 4, 19:14
Hatey McHateface on The Plague: “Sorry to be an irritant in Wokeland, Ian, but Connolly didn’t call for anybody to be burned alive. Why don’t…” Aug 4, 19:04
James on The Nobodies: “Ooh…concerted effort from the 3 Tenors/ sorry wankers. But the sad fact for these ****s is that Scotland still hates…” Aug 4, 18:59
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “Those who are interested in S. Salyers’ constitutional campaign might find this interesting: www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5jXpFrZgIU” Aug 4, 18:47
rouebadly on The Plague: “There is a question here to all his former colleagues: Why did you stay silent? The man is clearly a…” Aug 4, 18:39
Nicky T Naquetti on The Plague: “In pre-Communist China, the Imperial eunuchs were a protected clique, and to pour scorn upon them was treated like an…” Aug 4, 18:37
