Last night we ran a piece about a story in last week’s Daily Record in which a Scottish Labour official was given free rein to make an extended political attack on the SNP in the guise of a “business student” from the University of the West of Scotland, without his Labour identity being revealed, on the flimsy basis of a petition about college cuts with a few hundred signatures.
As it happens, another UWS student also has a petition doing the rounds at the moment. But it got treated rather differently by the Scottish press.
Alert contributor Calum Ferguson tells us the first bookie to come out with odds for the 2016 Holyrood election is Ladbrokes. Fortune-making opportunities seem limited.
An alert reader brought our attention today to a Daily Record article that we’d missed on Friday, reporting how a Glasgow student had launched a petition bitterly attacking the Scottish Government over cuts to college places.
Despite having attracted only 500 signatures (and only 400 more in the following five days despite the Record helpfully linking to it), the petition was deemed newsworthy enough for a hefty polemic in which petition author Eunis Jassemi pulled no punches, repeatedly lashing the SNP in highly political terms. No counterquote was offered.
Mr Jassemi was described by the Record in the piece as a “business student” and a “former Hutcheson’s Grammar School pupil”, but we can only assume that they must have run out of room before they got to a rather more pertinent item on his CV.
Last night we highlighted the reaction from various right-wing columnists to the SNP’s torpedoing yesterday of Tory attempts to relax the laws on foxhunting in England and Wales. Today the same commentariat has turned its rage to thoughts of revenge, in the form of “English votes for English laws”.
And we’re confused, because we don’t know what this “England” they speak of is.
It seems safe to say that the SNP’s de facto defeat of the fox-torturing lobby today has riled the right-wing commentariat beyond their endurance. Unable to get their way and inflict a prolonged, agonising death on small animals for “sport”, Tory columnists have instead descended howling and bloodthirsty at pack strength on their readers.
As part of their tireless campaign against abuse and threats on the internet, the Mail’s ever-alert reporters will doubtless be wanting to run a major piece on the deputy leader of UKIP calling today on a widely-read website for Nicola Sturgeon to be killed.
No need to thank us for the tip-off, guys. All part of the service.
So this site is thrilled by the announcement from the SNP that they will, after much speculation in the media, vote against (and therefore likely condemn to defeat) the UK government’s plans to relax England’s fox-hunting ban to a point at which it would be de facto repealed entirely.
And not just because foxes are a lot cuter than Tories.
The Scottish Daily Mail today leads with a screaming banner headline announcing in its trademark style that, according to a poll it commissioned with Survation, Scots are massively opposed to any income tax rises when Holyrood eventually gets power over the rates under the new Scotland Bill.
And the reason that’s weird is that we commissioned a poll on the very same thing just days before, and got a dramatically different answer.
Yesterday we listed some of the nastier items from George Osborne’s horrifying 2015 budget that Labour had said they wouldn’t be opposing, including the public-sector payrise freeze, the reduction in the benefit cap and the slashing of child tax credit for families with more than two children.
Minceheid on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Hatey McHateface says: 23 April, 2026 at 7:15 pm Hmmm. Bananas don’t have cores. Plenty of people enjoy bananas so…” Apr 24, 09:55
TURABDIN on The Pit Of Vipers: “@ Alf Baird »COLONIALISM is always a co-operative venture» (Fanon). A truism, how did the Brits & French etc hold…” Apr 24, 09:51
Alf Baird on The Pit Of Vipers: ““our wee, pretendy parliament” Twas aye a fair description of a colonial administration, Hatey, also know as ‘indirect rule’ in…” Apr 24, 08:44
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Lorncal @ 23 April, 11.07 writes: « John Money was not “tragically misguided”, Fearghas. He was a PDfile » —————…” Apr 24, 00:23
Lorncal on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Confused: that pilot would have been female with XX chromosomes – therefore, intersex or DSD. DSD people are still either…” Apr 23, 23:22
Lorncal on How To Get Away With Crimes: “John Money was not “tragically misguided”, Fearghas. He was a PDfile and made those two boys (the twin brothers, both…” Apr 23, 23:07
Hatey McHateface on The Pit Of Vipers: “I swore a solemn oath to respond to you only once in any 24-hour period. But I don’t mind breaking…” Apr 23, 23:02
Hatey McHateface on The Pit Of Vipers: ““stop the Dog Whistle politics” What other politics would most of them have left if they stopped that? “we have…” Apr 23, 22:52
Hatey McHateface on The Pit Of Vipers: “Cheers, YL. It’s good to be back. Thought I’d drop in to see how close we are to Indy. Damned…” Apr 23, 22:43
Confused on How To Get Away With Crimes: “this is all a deep rabbit hole one thing we distinguished in the past was – transvestite – someone who…” Apr 23, 22:35
George Ferguson on The Pit Of Vipers: “A pit of vipers is the strapline for this article. I just watched Question Time from Aberdeen, so an appropriate…” Apr 23, 22:33
Confused on How To Get Away With Crimes: “psychopathy runs at 100% incidence in rabbis, imams, spooks, freemasons and city/wallst bankers.” Apr 23, 22:32
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “HMcH Please re-post once you’ve sobered up and can make your point with clarity. Thanks in advance.” Apr 23, 22:29
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “HMcH Welcome back! Shouldn’t you “be sorting out” a failed business you neglected by spending 24/7 on here, or, did…” Apr 23, 21:52
Hatey McHateface on The Pit Of Vipers: “Big election in 2 weeks, Dan. You should be serious, mature, and focused on getting the voters out for your…” Apr 23, 21:28
Dan on How To Get Away With Crimes: “A new fiscal year just starts and GERS takes an early hit, whilst Scotland dodges a bullet by having the…” Apr 23, 21:27
Hatey McHateface on The Pit Of Vipers: ““if true Scots in here want to indulge in some easy sport by destroying unionist ‘arguments’” True Scots enjoy the…” Apr 23, 20:41
Aidan on The Pit Of Vipers: “What exactly has that got to do with me?” Apr 23, 20:36
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “AI Dun I see the latest polls (for what they are worth) have the Scotchland Conservative (and) Unionist (Members) in…” Apr 23, 20:11
SilentMajority on How to tell when Kezia Dugdale is lying: “I guess it continues then….starting a new job, with new ‘friends’….then alienates herself on Day One by voicing ‘respect’ of…” Apr 23, 19:45
Sheepshagger on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Self-pitying men can be like unexploded devices – when it dawns on him that nobody will ever rise to his…” Apr 23, 19:37
Hatey McHateface on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Or just vote for somebody who promises to “drain the swamp”. Boot out the ECHR. Take a chainsaw to the…” Apr 23, 19:20
Hatey McHateface on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Hmmm. Bananas don’t have cores. Plenty of people enjoy bananas so ripe they look half-rotten. But to be serious for…” Apr 23, 19:15
Hatey McHateface on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Fair play to you 100% Yes, but two weeks out, I doubt any of the usual suspects are even remotely…” Apr 23, 19:05
Hatey McHateface on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Great post about psychopathy from Confused. Very light on detail about the type of people who call for the establishment…” Apr 23, 18:53
Hatey McHateface on How To Get Away With Crimes: “That’s the mother of all long reads. I got to here: “modus operandi – personal abuse, threats to doxx people,…” Apr 23, 18:44
Alf Baird on The Pit Of Vipers: ““For England, not that much changes” Indeed, following the supposed ‘Union’ in 1707, “for England nothing changed”, whilst “for Scotland…” Apr 23, 18:22
James on The Pit Of Vipers: “Look, everyone; Adrian used the word “Brigadoon”.” Apr 23, 18:04
Northcode on The Pit Of Vipers: “Due to heightened colonialist activity in this place it’s that time again: Ther scarce be a wird pit doun here…” Apr 23, 17:53
