Earlier this year, a Secretary of State in Her Majesty’s Government leaked an untrue memo to the press, with the intention of undermining the democratically-elected First Minister of Scotland and damaging her party in an imminent general election. He then went on national TV and lied about doing so, in order to protect his own reputation.
The newspaper he leaked the smear to printed it without making the slightest attempt to ascertain its veracity, for which it was nominated for an award (even after having been strongly censured by the press complaints watchdog). The “journalist” involved has never retracted or apologised for the story. Others have defended it.
The National today has a story we’ve been sitting on for several days while we tried to get some verifiable evidence in the form of links or screenshots to back it up.
But Labour aren’t the only people having trouble scaring up a candidate roster.
This morning’s Daily Record, and also some newspapers, report that booze-ruined internet troll and convicted violent criminal George Foulkes – who’s spent several decades of his political career campaigning to abolish the House Of Lords, and all of the last one sitting in it as Baron Foulkes of Cumnock – has dreamt up a wizard new wheeze to enhance the Scottish Parliament by giving it its own chamber of peers.
The thirsty noble aims to avoid the undemocratic nature of the UK Lords by making the new “senate” an elected chamber. But in an uncharacteristic development that will shock innocent readers to their cores, he doesn’t seem to have thought it through.
It’s probably time we had a series of these. So here’s #1.
scandal(noun) – a situation where no known crime has been committed and nobody has been interviewed by the police, yet which apparently contrasts in some way with other situations about which the exact same applies.
(Can often by identified by presence of Scottish Labour MPs/MSPs describing claims of entirely legal activity as “very serious allegations”.)
As the Scottish media winds itself up to full speed with “SNP BAD” columns about the Forth Road Bridge closure, an alert reader spotted an interesting old quote in Hansard featuring a gentleman you may recognise.
We invite anyone who may perhaps just be arriving at work after an unusually long commute this morning to imagine a Scotland where Mr Darling had been listened to, and the prospect of a replacement crossing was still several years away.
There’s absolutely no news today – Scottish politics already seems to have packed up for Christmas – so why not watch a nice documentary instead?
Altered States has been available in episode form for a wee while now, but McMaster Media have kindly put together a full-length cut exclusively for Wings Over Scotland.
It’s a fascinating analysis with lots of insightful chat from – among others – the likes of Derek Bateman, Paul “Wee Ginger Dug” Kavanagh, James “Scot Goes Pop” Kelly and Christopher Silver, to whose pre-indyref “Scotland Yet” it’s basically a post-indyref counterpart, and it’s a perfect way to pass a slow, rainy Sunday.
Tonight we watched as the conclusion of a “debate” in the UK Parliament saw the “opposition”, almost unprecedentedly, sum up the same case as the government, to roof-raising cheers and applause (which is now apparently permitted again) from the Conservative benches for a Labour shadow minister.
sam on The Land Of No Laws: “I asked “Search assist” this question: “In what ways can a country be a victim?” Here is the answer. “Ways…” May 17, 17:53
100%Yes on The Land Of No Laws: “What They Never Tell You About the Picts. It was very interesting just in case you fancy watching. youtube.com/watch?v=bzXRIEQumGE” May 17, 17:40
Mark Beggan on The Land Of No Laws: “What’s worse reading the comments or writing about the comments? What with breast implants being so expensive these days. I…” May 17, 17:06
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: “Watching folk playing Tiddlywinks or Dominoes is more interesting than watching the fitba. Painting the dots onto dominoes tiles and…” May 17, 16:49
sarah on The Land Of No Laws: “An added “oddity” to ponder. 99.9999999 times out of 100, the top team play the last game of the season…” May 17, 16:18
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: ““Have you actually read that book?” Yes, have you? Because if you have you don’t appear to have grasped Herman’s…” May 17, 16:17
Skip_NC on The Land Of No Laws: “You should be right and back in the days when we were operating under the laws written by Stanley Rous…” May 17, 16:10
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: ““I think having your whole worldview based on the fundamental belief Scotland is a ‘victim’ is profoundly counterproductive… ” Not…” May 17, 15:50
Skip_NC on The Land Of No Laws: “Have you actually read that book? The author gives all the credit and glory to the union with England.” May 17, 15:48
Southernbystander on The Land Of No Laws: “Breastplate – we live much of our lives with various purse strings controlled by someone / something else. That does…” May 17, 15:32
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: ““Er, I was just commenting on what you quoted:” Yes… and here is the comment you made: “… all those…” May 17, 15:24
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: “Apologies for the question marks showing in the hyphenated text in my comments where a hyphen should show. I switched…” May 17, 15:14
Breastplate on The Land Of No Laws: “Southernbystander, as long as Scotland has its purse strings managed by another nation, it will remain a victim. How can…” May 17, 15:10
Southernbystander on The Land Of No Laws: “Er, I was just commenting on what you quoted: ‘Historian and author Professor Arthur Herman (born 1956 – American historian…” May 17, 15:03
Mark Beggan on The Land Of No Laws: “Try taking responsibility for your own life and stop blaming dead people.” May 17, 15:01
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: “Here’s another: The Reduction of Complex Causality Fallacy Scotland’s intellectual explosion came from: Centuries of universal parish education, a Presbyterian…” May 17, 14:44
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: “Four ancient universities, universal literacy, a legal system older than England’s, and a philosophical tradition stretching back to Buchanan… and…” May 17, 14:32
George Ferguson on The Land Of No Laws: “Comprehensive article Stu. I don’t expect anything to change but an interesting take on Off the Ball about Dunfermline fans.…” May 17, 14:28
Young Lochinvar on The Land Of No Laws: “Once the ba’s oan the slates they should have nulled it and concluded the matter with a toss of a…” May 17, 14:16
Owen Mullions on The Land Of No Laws: “No excuses for the neds on the pitch but the referee Don Robertson has told the SPFL delegates that he…” May 17, 14:09
Southernbystander on The Land Of No Laws: “Tangentially – where do they get all this injury time from these days, and at the end of both halves?…” May 17, 14:08
Southernbystander on The Land Of No Laws: “It is a case of ‘is’ and ‘was a joke’ not being mutually exclusive. Scotland did punch above it weight…” May 17, 13:45
Lorncal on Steadying The Ship: “Northcode: that was funny. Such fine epithets have been said before now about psychopathic serial killers. Not saying that Dr…” May 17, 13:27
Captain Caveman on The Land Of No Laws: ““The Fallacy of Temporal Dismissal (Not a classical name, but used in modern argumentation theory)” I prefer the term Ancient…” May 17, 13:00
Willie on The Land Of No Laws: “That is exactly the point Le Blews. The Inverness match was stopped, the pitch was cleared and the match then…” May 17, 13:00
Breastplate on The Land Of No Laws: “I understand that, by the law of the game there should have been time added on for celebrations, for time…” May 17, 12:47
Campbell Clansman on Steadying The Ship: “Murray received 174 votes, finishing 7th. He was even outpolled by joke candidate “Bonnie Prince Bob.” That’s the reality of…” May 17, 12:43
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: ““It’s not the eighteenth century any more.” The Fallacy of Temporal Dismissal (Not a classical name, but used in modern…” May 17, 12:39
Dangermouse on The Land Of No Laws: “Could someone please explain what on earth yesterday’s events gas to do with the SFA, seeing as it’s an SPFL…” May 17, 12:12
