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.
Aidan on Anything But That: “Of course that is a wholesale rejection of the rule of law in society. What you appear to be proposing…” Sep 5, 12:01
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Can your cock touch your arse? yes? Go fuck yerself ya parasite.” Sep 5, 11:56
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Do you really hate the Rev that much. Maybe you think you are getting at us but you insult the…” Sep 5, 11:41
Northcode on The Shortest Day: ““… a political and economic union is not a marriage in any literal sense.” But such a union could certainly…” Sep 5, 11:40
Xaracen on Anything But That: “@Aidan; Rejecting the idea that courts can validate an act that was void ab initio is not rejecting the authority…” Sep 5, 11:34
James Che on Anything But That: “As mentioned it is not the parliament of Great Britain or the parliament f the UK that Scotland has a…” Sep 5, 11:25
Alf Baird on Anything But That: ““We know Andy Burnham won’t give him a referendum and we now know he won’t accept one from Nigel Farage,…” Sep 5, 11:03
James Che on Anything But That: “This tecnology is on its last legs, it pleases itself, no doubt I will at some time have to update…” Sep 5, 11:02
Aidan on Anything But That: ““not obliged to pay taxes” “ not obliged to follow the pretendy devolved parliaments and SNP back door laws” That’s…” Sep 5, 10:47
factchecker on Anything But That: “In claiming historic ‘reparations”, presumably James Che would also agree that Scotland would have to repay rUK the £billions due…” Sep 5, 10:29
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “A good link, twathater. One tiny criticism of your post, if I may be so bold. You could have also…” Sep 5, 10:01
James Che on Anything But That: “Scotland did thanks Chas,” Sep 5, 09:40
James Che on Anything But That: “During the current time line unionists and think tanks are volunteering to make themselves look like backward groups, not capable…” Sep 5, 09:37
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: ““not obliged to pay taxes” You mind me of the boy who occasionally pops up on here to tell us…” Sep 5, 09:24
Chas on Anything But That: “Let’s have a wee game this morning. It’s called………..Spot the loony!” Sep 5, 09:17
James Che on Anything But That: “Union minded people will only reap what they sow, And if Scotland turns out to be a Colony, there are…” Sep 5, 09:13
James Che on Anything But That: “What will NOT happen is that the ( Westminster parliament of England) is proven Correct in legality laws, With either…” Sep 5, 09:04
James Che on Anything But That: “And that multiple conversations is the point, Because nothing belongs to The state of Great Britain in wealth obtained from…” Sep 5, 08:47
Hatey McHateface on The Shortest Day: “My central point is that your analogy is a ludicrous one. “A forced marriage is, by its very nature, illegitimate,…” Sep 5, 08:18
Saffron Robe on The Shortest Day: “My central point is that the Union was illegitimate at its inception, and the passing of time does not alter…” Sep 5, 03:15
twathater on Anything But That: “Another link to educate people to the damage progressives do https://markacollett.substack.com/p/strangled-and-raped-by-an-ethiopian?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=4738145&post_id=214132287&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=nd6hf&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email” Sep 5, 02:46
Young Lochinvar on Anything But That: “S117 @ 2.10 “Plastic”!! Plastic?! Steady on there laddie-buck! I recount; “The first blow that Lord Forbes struck The blade…” Sep 5, 01:28
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Burnham gave him a wee piece of Manchesterism to play with. Said “Here you go, John, you can be King…” Sep 4, 23:41
James on Anything But That: “Cheers, girls; you’ve proved my point. As expected.” Sep 4, 23:10
willie on Anything But That: “Water was hived into East , West and North before it it was fettled up to become Scottish Water. A…” Sep 4, 23:05
willie on Anything But That: “Water was hived into East , West and North before it it was fettled up to become Scottish Water. A…” Sep 4, 22:47
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “@ James says: 4 September, 2026 at 9:33 pm “all they have is inults” Side splitting for two reasons, the…” Sep 4, 22:25
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: ““Fourteen health boards into two” Why two? Theoretical mathematicians argues there are only 3 numbers worth dealing with: zero, one…” Sep 4, 22:18
Aidan on Anything But That: “Oh it’s “James” – this should be good Adult nappy.” Sep 4, 21:59
