Kezia Dugdale spoke for almost exactly 45 minutes to the Scottish Labour conference in Perth today. But we know you’re busy people who don’t want to sit through all of that, and that you trust us to endure it on your behalf so that we can sift through it and present you with only the important bits.
We’re big fans of socialism ourselves, so when a number of delegates at the Scottish Labour conference today, including UK leader Jeremy Corbyn, revived an old Keir Hardie line we were quite excited.
Asking the question is the easy bit: “If the all-new, super-autonomous Scottish Labour decides to oppose the renewal of Trident, and UK Labour continues to support it, which way do Scottish Labour MPs at Westminster vote on it?”
The answer, unsurprisingly, was a lot more difficult to ascertain.
There’s an extraordinary article in the Daily Record today. Here’s a bit of it:
Alert readers might feel that a few lines have gone missing somewhere between paragraphs four and five. And the fact that they have has nothing to do with dead football clubs, and everything to do with the dying Scottish media.
As we observed last night, the BBC’s Andrew Neil has reacted with rather poor grace to his chiding at the hands of respected statisticians Jim and Margaret Cuthbert. Neil embarked on a Twitter blocking spree and tried to rewrite history, claiming that he’d “simply offered” the blunt claim that there had been no cuts to the Scottish budget in the last five years “as one measure” of the money available to Holyrood.
The problem for Neil is that we recorded video of his Sunday interview with the SNP’s Angus Robertson, and anyone can see for themselves that Neil made an unequivocal assertion with no suggestion whatsoever that there were any alternative measures.
“In real terms there’s been – no – cut”, said Neil, spitting out the last three words with dramatic pauses between them for emphasis, in a statement whose stark absence of ambiguity unfortunately left him no wiggle room when the Cuthberts politely but firmly pointed out that it was “ridiculous” to argue that there hadn’t been any cuts, and that the budget “clearly has gone down”.
But Neil’s embarrassment is illustrative of a much wider delusion.
We’ve had no answer from the BBC’s Andrew Neil to the question we asked him at the weekend. There has, however, been an interesting development in the debate over whether there have been severe real-terms cuts to the Scottish Government’s budget since the Conservatives came to power in 2010.
The extremely highly-respected economic analysts Jim and Margaret Cuthbert (the former of whom was Chief Statistician for the Scotland Office) have today written an article for Bella Caledonia seeking to establish the truth of the argument between Mr Neil and ourselves. Their conclusions are expert, detailed and very clear.
We were excited to find out what they were, because we’re sure this time they’ve definitely happened, not like all the times when they said they had but were joking.
Morgatron on Anatomy Of A Grift: “Three of a perfect pair – of Sickos.” Aug 5, 16:59
Chas on Anatomy Of A Grift: “A round of golf can take 14,000/16,000 steps depending on the course played and the ability of the individual and…” Aug 5, 16:58
Lorncal on Anatomy Of A Grift: “Three men living in a ‘polycule’? Or three men in a homosexual threesome? I wouldn’t grudge anyone an op, and…” Aug 5, 16:53
Aidan on Anatomy Of A Grift: “Cue three complaints to Avon and Somerset police . .” Aug 5, 16:49
James on The Plague: “Yeah, yeah, yeah; same old unionist BS from the same old bad actors. “Naw he didnae” is the zenith of…” Aug 5, 16:42
Terry on Anatomy Of A Grift: “Brilliant. Thanks Stu. This nasty polycule of perverts has harassed us women in Aberdeen when we have done stalls and…” Aug 5, 16:40
Cuphook on Anatomy Of A Grift: “Do they live in a charity shop bin? There is a ‘Welcome to Inverurie’ sign before the one in his…” Aug 5, 16:38
Aidan on The Plague: “Okay James – so just to summarise, Scottish independence isn’t classified anywhere as an attempt to overthrow parliamentary democracy, Rishi…” Aug 5, 16:34
Captain Caveman on The Plague: “Who cares what anyone “thinks”, moron (or more accurately, what hyperbole they might have used in one speech). That doesn’t…” Aug 5, 16:00
agentx on Anatomy Of A Grift: “Personally I would stay well clear of the lot of them and not bother even checking what they are up…” Aug 5, 15:57
James on The Plague: “Fuckwit cave dweller; ask some of your Tory chums what they think. You will find your answer there ‘maaate’.” Aug 5, 15:46
Red on Anatomy Of A Grift: “Science fiction story idea – I Have No Dick And I Must Steal” Aug 5, 15:43
Ex President Xiden on Anatomy Of A Grift: “Some SNP election slogans over the years: Yes we can. Win the best for Scotland . 1997 Release our potential.…” Aug 5, 15:42
Ian on Anatomy Of A Grift: “In reference why someone might get a refund from GoFundMe, on their website it states “The GoFundMe organizer may have…” Aug 5, 15:39
Captain Caveman on The Plague: “@Fatso You originally said: “… that Scottish nationalism is classed as an attempt to overthrow ‘parliamentary democracy’ [lol] in the…” Aug 5, 15:28
James on The Plague: “The usual unionist wails “naw it isnae” “naw he didnae”… Black is white, up is down blah blah blah. Did…” Aug 5, 14:58
Insider on The Plague: “Fatso @12:52 @1:47 So what are the names of these Scottish Nationalist terrorist organisations then ?? You made the claim,…” Aug 5, 14:46
Aidan on The Plague: “I asked you James, which organisations were proscribed under the terrorism act (as you said they were) which is a…” Aug 5, 14:29
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Plague: “SUPPORT GROUP PROMOTING MALE ‘CHESTFEEDING’ SPARKS OUTRAGE A group in Edinburgh promoting the practice of biological men ‘chestfeeding’ babies has…” Aug 5, 14:14
Captain Caveman on The Plague: “There is no official UK legal, security, or counter-terrorism classification that defines Scottish nationalism as an attempt to “overthrow parliamentary…” Aug 5, 14:12
James on The Plague: ““…the passage of Rishi Sunak’s speech, under the heading ‘The dangers’, that starts with Ru**ia, I*an, N**th K*rea and C*ina……” Aug 5, 13:47
James on The Plague: ““…the passage of Rishi Sunak’s speech, under the heading ‘The dangers’, that starts with Russia, Iran, North Korea and China……” Aug 5, 13:46
Aidan on The Plague: “Which Scottish nationalist organisations are proscribed as terrorist organisations James?” Aug 5, 13:26
Campbell Clansman on The Plague: “When Lech Walesa tried to free Communist Poland, the Polish Communist security forces used to wake him up in the…” Aug 5, 13:03
James on The Plague: “Good old Adrian, as usual he is sticking up for his unionist spook colleagues on the Scotch floor at Vauxhall…” Aug 5, 12:52
Northcode on The Plague: “If you look at the long-term behavioural patterns, the colonisation dynamic isn’t really the controversial part… it’s the predictable part.…” Aug 5, 12:36
lothianlad on The Plague: “He messed with the wrong man when he tangeled with you Sturat! Stand strong. All cowards fold eventually.” Aug 5, 12:13
Chas on The Plague: “Well Done Northclown. You managed to beat Alfie Boy in bringing up the Colonialism mince. What a good little acolyte…” Aug 5, 12:09
Athanasius on The Plague: “All this petty lawfare is so unbecoming. She needs to man up.” Aug 5, 11:34
Aidan on The Plague: “Have you been arrested in the middle of the night? If what you are saying is true (which obviously, it…” Aug 5, 11:21
