The Scottish Daily Mail’s front page lead today is so galactically despicable that it’s easy to overlook another story that it bundles in with the same “SNP BAD” attack.
While excoriating Dr Philippa Whitford for having the sheer shameless gall to help save women’s lives in her holidays, the alleged newspaper also devotes a page-high article to an attack on another Nat MP, George Kerevan, for employing his wife.
As it happens, one of the things that we’ve been occupying ourselves with during the current news drought is pulling together a post called “The SNPBAD Files”, collecting all the desperate smear and innuendo of the Unionist press as it systematically tries to discredit every one of the 56 SNP MPs elected last May.
Until last night we hadn’t been sure which had been the most pathetically dismal. Was it the MP who still did a few haircuts in his barber shop on Saturday afternoons? The one who bought a derelict London house many years before he was an MP, renovated it with his own hands and now sometimes stays there when working at Westminster, rather than charging expenses to the public for accommodation? Or perhaps the one who tweeted that he was opposed to the concept of monarchy, the foul monster?
In a cunning meta-twist which simultaneously proves and disproves its own claim, the headline above is itself a lie. It’s of course not true that every single headline you read in a newspaper is absolutely false.
We’re not saying there isn’t a lot going on at the moment, but today’s Daily Record actually devotes a page to telling women when to change their pants.
Below is a 17-minute section of this afternoon’s John Beattie show on BBC Radio Scotland, featuring me and an amateur blogger with a keen interest in Pedigree Chum discussing the effect of the lower oil price on the Scottish economy.
So that’s genuine progress – next time some frothing Yoon screams “OIL PRICE! BLACK HOLE! SNP LIES! TOO WEE, TOO POOR!” at you, you can direct them here for categorical agreement from the Yes and No sides alike that actually the falling oil price makes an independent Scotland MORE economically viable, not less.
Unfortunately you’ll have to put up with a condescending, patronising arse sniggering randomly throughout, but it’s a relatively small price to pay.
Normally when the BBC’s Andrew Neil asks a politician to put a figure on one of their policy proposals the interviewee should be wary, because a trap is about to be sprung.
Governments, of all political stripes and nations, are often accused of being control freaks bent on constructing and enforcing a “nanny state”, where citizens’ freedoms are arbitrarily curtailed under a pretence of it all being for their own good.
The phrase most repeated by angry Unionists in the 16-and-a-bit months since the independence referendum is surely “once in a generation”. While the SNP quietly gets on with the business of government, having not mentioned a second referendum in its 2015 manifesto and not being expected to do so in this year’s either, the parties of the UK can’t seem to shut up about it.
(This is happening despite Ruth Davidson having said just nine months ago that her party wouldn’t block a second indyref, while Ed Miliband said that Labour would. However, Davidson’s organ-grinder, David Cameron, joined Labour in ruling it out just a few months later, which may explain Davidson performing a sudden U-turn akin to her famous one over more devolution.)
And when you boil it down to the brass tacks, what that means is that the parties of the Union want to hold the Scottish people prisoner.
The groupthink of the Unionist commentariat is unfailingly a sight to behold. Barely a dozen weeks ago we drew attention to a seasonal crop of articles professing that the end of the SNP’s eight-year “honeymoon” was in sight, and that surely voters would surely tire at any moment of their supposed poor record in government.
But after the damage anticipated by the press from the Forth Bridge affair and another load of ham-fisted Labour attacks failed to materialise (defused in part by a set of excellent and significantly improved NHS waiting-time stats that must have had the BBC’s Eleanor Bradford weeping inconsolably into her clipboard), the pundit hive-mind has moved swiftly on to a new outlook: morose resignation.
twathater on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “However, Forth Ports said its focus had shifted to “delivering alternative activity at the port” after considering “a number of…” Sep 18, 03:11
twathater on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “When you go on to the ICO’s website about the investigation into Police Scotland they state that ” Where we…” Sep 18, 02:59
Mark Beggan on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Vasily Grossman was reporting on the invasion of the Motherland in 1942 and found himself on the run from the…” Sep 17, 22:41
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “It’s the 87th anniversary of the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland today. Polish PM Donald Tusk has made a lengthy…” Sep 17, 21:08
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “There’s a famine in Yemen right now, sam, if you woke up this morning and discovered you’d been struck by…” Sep 17, 20:50
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “@ Dan says:17 September, 2026 at 6:34 pm “No sane, rational, or productive human being with any self-awarenbess” So true,…” Sep 17, 20:42
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““stop humping my leg, it was funny for a while” It’s still excruciatingly funny. As in like those Victorians who…” Sep 17, 20:28
Aidan on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “@Dan – I appreciate you want to rant and rave here, but let’s deal with some home truths: – the…” Sep 17, 20:08
sam on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Scotland, too during the famine caused by potato blight and gubmint policy. Charles Trevelyan, senior Treasury civil servant described Scottish…” Sep 17, 19:54
Al-Stuart on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “. The Most Reverend Stuart Campbell, Bishop of St Bartholomew., Patron Saint of Truthfulness, Church of The Clean Bath, County…” Sep 17, 18:55
Captain Caveman on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Yea chaps, ol’ Hatey’s a “leg humper” – as according to some barely coherent nutcase spewing 1.1.1 Trichloroethylene-inspired drivel and…” Sep 17, 18:50
Dan on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “TBF Hatey probably can’t hear much due to blasting out da Ed Sheeran tuneage… No sane, rational, or productive human…” Sep 17, 18:34
Confused on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “another thing – you can’t let the anglos control your food supply they have a bit of previous ireland and…” Sep 17, 18:19
Confused on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “leg hump you’ve never refuted a damn thing, never won an argument, you are like the black knight in monty…” Sep 17, 18:02
Confused on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “it is for the houthis. They think strategically. Trump started a real stupid war because the “epstein people” were probably…” Sep 17, 17:58
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““Strange that Scotland as a net exporter doesn’t have decent port infrastructure” Scotland is only a net exporter because of…” Sep 17, 17:17
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Sure, Confused, £2 for a liter of diesel is one of the greatest things ever. I guess the death toll…” Sep 17, 17:06
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Dan – bang on. The Edinburgh Trams (read: Shams) was a tremendous waste of public money that caused untold suffering…” Sep 17, 17:05
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Even easier to refute than usual, and that’s saying something. Belgium 4, USA 1. 6th July 2026. Oh dear, Confused,…” Sep 17, 16:52
Dan on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Not much consistency with you is there. So you were happy for shitloads of taxpayers money to be spaffed on…” Sep 17, 16:47
Aidan on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “If a private operator wants to run the Rosyth to Europe ferry and they can do so on a commercial…” Sep 17, 15:30
Dan on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “No shit Sherlock, that’s why I said a ferry service could be included in future port plans, not be the…” Sep 17, 15:08
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “THE PROCLAIMERS: ‘TRANS ACTIVISTS ARE TRUTH-PHOBIC’ The belief that a man can be a woman is pure myth, Scottish music…” Sep 17, 14:02
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The private finances from the private subjects within Scotland that gave to a private matter of Scottish independence within the…” Sep 17, 13:18
Aidan on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “What a odd thing to say, other than a ferry service a port can be used for: – exporting and…” Sep 17, 12:29
sarah on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Yet another failure by the SNP executive. They and Westminster were each putting up £3million to get this ferry service…” Sep 17, 12:28
Confused on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “come on now, Dan – everything Scotland runs on must come through Carlisle on a lorry. That way if the…” Sep 17, 12:24
Confused on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “yeah I am sure this lawfare will work this time negotiating the legal system in Scotland is easy – apply…” Sep 17, 12:21
Dan on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““The Port of Rosyth is an important asset for Scotland and we are committed to exploring a number of business…” Sep 17, 12:03
BLMac on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “When you see so much prevarification, you know there was not just one bad apple. The whole basketful is rotten.…” Sep 17, 11:27
