Ever since the SNP’s unexpected majority in 2011, there’s been a constant low-level whine of “one-party state” from various elements of the Unionist establishment. (The first example we could find from a quick Google search was Liberal Democrat buffoon Sir Malcolm Bruce in September of that year.)
It’s a curiously bitter and irrational way to refer to the outcome of democratic elections held under proportional representation, reflecting a worrying contempt for the views of voters, but after the SNP saw the benefits of First Past The Post in May 2015 (having spent decades being its victim), the angry bleating has become far more noticeable.
(The most recent politician to use the phrase was the Lib Dems’ current leader Tim Farron. Perhaps the party is engaging in displacement activity to distract itself from its craven abandonment in 2010 of its lifelong commitment to introduce PR, selling its principles cheaply for ministerial cars and a referendum on what Nick Clegg called the “miserable little compromise” of AV, which was then lost by a humiliating margin.)
The editor of the New Statesman just tweeted this image, trailing an interview with Jim Murphy, who alert readers may recall led Scottish Labour for a few months this year before its apocalyptic disaster of a general election campaign which saw it lose 40 of the 41 Scottish seats it won in 2010:
Oh, wait – maybe he’s trying to claim the credit for it.
Alert readers may recall an incident last year in which the Scottish media got itself very worked up about some independence supporters threatening to boycott holiday company Barrhead Travel after its owner sent a barking-mad letter to staff about how the company would go out of business if Scotland voted Yes.
So we’re sure that you won’t be able to move later today and tomorrow for newspaper articles about something similar, but significantly worse, that happened this weekend.
And that’s all very well, but not exactly stop-the-presses stuff – nobody reading this site is going to be terribly surprised at Scottish Labour being caught out in a lie. But the party’s house newspaper the Daily Record went for a subtly different angle on the story that did manage to provoke us to raise an eyebrow.
So we weren’t expecting this. The Telegraph have sent us a reply after we complained to IPSO about this. It’s worth a read, so we thought we’d let you see it.
We’ve got a book to read today, folks, so we’ll be with you later.
We expect it to be in the top three funniest things we read today, but to be honest with you we wouldn’t like to commit to anything more specific than that.
Kezia Dugdale talking to Gordon Brewer on BBC Scotland today:
“I’m astonished that you’ve spent 10 minutes in this interview talking about independence and Trident when almost 50% of the poorest kids in the country can’t read […] I’m sure you’d be shocked to know that 50% of the poorest kids leave our schools unable to read.”
We suspect he would too. Because it’s total cobblers.
Ex President Xiden on The Party Of The Dead: “So in this scenario if it was the wife who had been defrauding on a massive scale, buying camper vans…” Aug 9, 10:36
Captain Caveman on The Party Of The Dead: “Dry your eyes, Dan. You were the one mocking “Reform supporters” for bemoaning what even you (now) consider to be…” Aug 9, 10:32
Dan on The Party Of The Dead: “So another day and yer still acting an arse and pathetically jist casting untrue derogatory assertions about in a woeful…” Aug 9, 10:20
Captain Caveman on The Party Of The Dead: “Oh do be quiet, thicko. It wasn’t Englishmen “like me” who promoted this fake professor and lauded him to the…” Aug 9, 09:08
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Party Of The Dead: “Just saw this Turkish proverb somewhere: « The forest was shrinking but the trees kept voting for the axe as…” Aug 8, 22:18
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “If roles were reversed, maybe the wife would have bought a smaller camper van, and a smaller Jag. And no…” Aug 8, 20:47
Jay on The Party Of The Dead: “Caveman, (he of mega-loot and high-flying career) regarding your 11.41am comment: I was wondering whether you might be a well-informed…” Aug 8, 20:34
agentx on The Party Of The Dead: “The “I won’t say any more on the matter” Sturgeon: “She argued the scrutiny she faced had a gendered dimension.…” Aug 8, 20:25
Dan on The Party Of The Dead: “Ach, now yer jist acting out like a spoilt bairn due to yer lack of tolerance of other folk’s often…” Aug 8, 18:59
Stevie on The Party Of The Dead: “I would add, the same people who attacked me are the same gullibles travels, believing Hamas are freedom fighters and…” Aug 8, 18:12
Chas on The Party Of The Dead: “Maybe, just maybe your ‘speech’ is being censored because it is the same shite over and over again? The learned…” Aug 8, 17:17
Captain Caveman on The Party Of The Dead: “That’s right Dan. Fed up of twats like you.” Aug 8, 16:57
Dan on The Party Of The Dead: “Had a wee chuckle at a Reform supporter stating they’ve had enough of the UK, and he and wife now…” Aug 8, 16:39
Stevie on The Party Of The Dead: “Reading through this thread, reminds me of my being te first voice to point out that they/them had discarded all/any…” Aug 8, 15:12
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: ““It is a spectrum, none of which is any worse, or less or more worse, but it is a spectrum…” Aug 8, 14:05
Captain Caveman on The Party Of The Dead: “Yes, I read that piece that Hatey linked to the other day with incredulity giving way to rage, rage giving…” Aug 8, 11:41
David Ferguson on The Party Of The Dead: “It appears I was wrong. Glasgow did in fact award him a full professorship. I think it was the Dugdale…” Aug 8, 11:09
James Che on The Party Of The Dead: “Treaty of union article XV111private Rights Scotland.” Aug 8, 10:47
James Che on The Party Of The Dead: “If the 1707 treaty of union were a reality Scotland would have complete ” freedom of speech ” under “”Private…” Aug 8, 10:44
James Che on The Party Of The Dead: “Again free speech is being censored by moderation, no swear words, no attacks on diversity, no disagreements with others included,…” Aug 8, 10:05
James Che on The Party Of The Dead: “The policy of keeping the people blindly ignorant from the reality of facts allows for the people to be easily…” Aug 8, 09:53
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: ““Glasgow denies any knowledge of the ludicrous mountebank in any form at all” They’ve most certainly heard of him now!” Aug 8, 08:00
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “Extraordinary, Confused, that you still can’t bring yourself to get onside with a former colony fighting desperately to fend off…” Aug 8, 07:56
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “Sure, Alf, but our membership of the EU was never on the basis of a multi-party treaty between the individual…” Aug 8, 07:39
Aidan on The Party Of The Dead: “Oh yeah that’s a cracking idea that, let’s keep North Sea oil and gas in the ground but instead by…” Aug 8, 07:14
Confused on The Party Of The Dead: “main – What part of EFTA did you not understand you persistent eructation of bad faith argumentation? – I did…” Aug 7, 22:49
Alf Baird on The Party Of The Dead: “Personally, like you I’m not a big fan of the EU, Hatey. But really this should have been and is…” Aug 7, 21:44
Captain Caveman on The Party Of The Dead: “” Note the ‘C’ word there. Readers who have swallowed whole Professor Baird’s “Scotland as colony” thesis can’t seriously be…” Aug 7, 19:33
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “An interesting article on how the pro-EU government recently voted into power in Hungary is gerrymandering the constitution to ensure…” Aug 7, 19:11
