We’ve only ourselves to blame, we’d be the first to admit. When we titled yesterday’s piece “AMS for lazy people” it was pretty much an invitation for people to get us to do their research for them, and so it proved.
Even as we slumped exhausted over a red-hot calculator, several readers wasted no time demanding a breakdown of how the mechanisms of the electoral system had affected last year’s European elections, in which UKIP defied some expectations (and delighted the Unionist parties and media) by taking a seat in Scotland.
The email we’ve had more than any other since the 8th of May is this one:
“Please can you explain how the Scottish election system works, and whether it’s a good idea for me as an SNP voter to give my list vote to someone else so as to ensure the maximum number of pro-Yes MSPs in Holyrood?”
We’d planned to leave that question until much nearer the relevant time, but to be honest we’re getting fed up of reading them, so let’s see if we can sort it out now.
Particularly alert readers may recall that we recently made a simple and seemingly innocuous Freedom Of Information request for the latest viewing/listening figures of two BBC Scotland politics programmes (Scotland 2015 and Good Morning Scotland), which was met with the standard BBC “get lost” response to any uppity licence-fee payer with the temerity to ask about how their money’s being spent.
We appealed to the Information Commissioner, and we’ve just received a prompt, and impressively detailed and specific, reply. We attach it below for your enlightenment.
For reasons best known to himself, and almost certainly NOT related to the recent publication of his new book, the BBC’s Nick Robinson has today chosen to reignite the issues surrounding his infamous questioning of Alex Salmond a week before last year’s independence referendum, claiming that the reaction to his presentation of the incident was reminiscent of “Putin’s Russia”.
The state broadcaster’s political correspondent then inflamed social media further by claiming on Twitter that a grassroots protest – neither instigated nor endorsed by the SNP or Yes Scotland – outside BBC Scotland’s headquarters in Glasgow a couple of days later was in fact organised by “a governing party”.
(Robinson also claimed the mob had been 4000-strong, although the BBC’s own report had put the figure at “up to 1000”. The demo was sedate and entirely peaceful – no arrests were made, nobody was hurt and no damage was caused.)
The footage showing that Robinson had lied on air about his encounter with Salmond was captured and published by this website, in a pair of videos which garnered well over 600,000 views on YouTube and one of the most-read posts in Wings history.
When we mentioned that fact earlier today, a reader asked what other posts were in the top 10. So we looked, and noticed that the biggest ones had a common theme.
Social media is alive today with tales of people being refused a vote in the Labour leadership election on the grounds that they don’t support Labour values (if anyone even knows what those are any more). We suspect you’ll be hearing quite a bit about it in the press over the coming days.
The prevailing reaction seems to be slack-jawed astonishment at the planetary-scale car-crash the party has allowed to develop around the issue, with another “coup” story thrown in for good measure in the Telegraph.
We can only think of one way the farce could become even worse.
Not our judgement, you understand, but that of Scottish Labour spokesclown Michael Kelly, former Lord Provost of Glasgow, speaking on today’s Good Morning Scotland:
So there’s definitely going to be a second referendum, the No campaign is going to win it again and a shattered SNP will collapse as a result, sending Labour triumphantly back to Holyrood power. (Having now come out on top in not one but two internal elections, presumably Kezia Dugdale is now also a “proven winner”.)
It’s just that we feel like we’ve heard that before somewhere.
An update, then: as we write, our anti-poverty fundraiser (which set out to gather just £500 for a young woman in Kidderminster fined almost £330 for stealing a 75p pack of Mars bars out of desperate hunger after her benefits were sanctioned) stands at a phenomenal £14,395.
This spoon-faced howler was pointed out mirthfully by vile cybernats days ago, but we suspect that the person at Scottish Labour who knows how to work the internets only comes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It’s going to be a long road back.
Earlier today Gordon Brown gave a speech in London, on a subject and for reasons which are unclear. It was widely trailed in the press, however, as an intervention in the Labour leadership campaign, with the particular goal of stopping Jeremy Corbyn from winning. It was – naturally – broadcast live and in full by the BBC News channel.
Corbyn wasn’t mentioned by name so far as we noticed, but to tell the truth we drifted in and out of the rambling, 49-minute, 30-page monologue full of celebrity namedrops and unconnected anecdotes, hypnotised as we were by Brown’s relentless pacing up and down the room like a caged animal.
Nobody who isn’t getting paid should have to endure the entire grimness of it, so using the magic of technology we’ve compressed it all down to a mere fraction of its length (just 20%) for you, but without losing any of the tone, content or intellectual nuance.
We offer it to you as an elegy. It marks the day that Labour reanimated the walking corpse of the only person left in the party that it considers to have any gravitas – not to win an election, but to try to crush the first man in living memory to enthuse tens of thousands of new members to join a political party in the hope of restoring the values it was created to uphold.
It is the day the soul of the Labour Party finally died.
Keen followers of First Minister’s Questions will doubtless be excited to witness the weekly jousts, as the dynamic new regime of Kezia Dugdale sweeps out the tired old broom of Labour’s previous FMQs inquisitor, er, Kezia Dugdale.
Curiously, while the BBC was present and broadcasting live at the announcement of the new leader and deputy, neither’s acceptance speech was broadcast on TV, radio or online, which may well have surprised viewers and listeners who’ve become used to 50-minute prime-time Gordon Brown “intervention” specials.
In Dugdale’s case, our best guess is that the BBC didn’t want to have to fact-check it.
robertkknight on Anything But That: “I wouldn’t restrict such an astute observation to today…” Sep 5, 20:05
Spartan 117 on Anything But That: “Your posts here today have been appalling. Grow up.” Sep 5, 19:46
factchecker on Anything But That: “Alas, there are no facts here to check, merely your incomprehensible meanderings around historical events using terms like ‘sine die’…” Sep 5, 19:44
James Che on Anything But That: “Mark, Its a same when politicians cant convince the electors and have to resort to violence to get their own…” Sep 5, 19:10
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “I would like yo start a crowdfunder to get James Che laid. The only condition is that he can only…” Sep 5, 18:55
robertkknight on Anything But That: “Praying that Reform win a huge majority of seats in England and damn all in Scotland. That’ll learn the ‘proud…” Sep 5, 18:42
James Che on Anything But That: “These are the reasons that Stu has difficulty holding anyone to account like the SNP under the Crown of Westminsters…” Sep 5, 18:35
Aidan on Anything But That: ““Whatever you do, do not talk about the Status of the treaty of union between Scotland and England as Unionist…” Sep 5, 18:34
James Che on Anything But That: “Factchecker. You may also need to check some other facts such as , 1: the old parliament of Scotland was…” Sep 5, 18:28
Aidan on Anything But That: “Nobody is asking the courts to “create sovereignties” because that phrase has no meaning in the English language. However, what…” Sep 5, 18:16
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Polish police now allowed to shoot illegal immigrants and the AFD set to gain power. That’s going to take more…” Sep 5, 18:15
James Che on Anything But That: “Factchecker, Scotland would have to pay the rUK billions. How did you work that one out, Scotland has never entered…” Sep 5, 18:03
James Che on Anything But That: “Whatever you do, do not talk about the Status of the treaty of union between Scotland and England as Unionist…” Sep 5, 17:48
Young Lochinvar on Anything But That: ““Con-artist” perhaps?” Sep 5, 17:28
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “There go’s the holidays in Spain.” Sep 5, 16:25
Confused on Anything But That: “I bet Simon Weston is happy that the penguins remained British, by God. https://archive.ph/61CcA a fascinating tale, full of spicy…” Sep 5, 16:24
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: ““including prominent politicians” I need to sit down for this! Eh! Duh! Who? name names.” Sep 5, 16:23
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “If they get arrested they can just say ‘I’m with Stop Oil’ and the police will help them put up…” Sep 5, 16:07
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “If we make the same assumption the elites will make, that each of the 3000 of the “correctly opinioned” deserves…” Sep 5, 16:07
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “My mask self-identifies as a letterbox. Works fine in Scotland, not so good across the border.” Sep 5, 15:59
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: ““If the negotiators and parliaments lacked the authority to alienate Scottish sovereignty” Wow! Just look at all the heavy lifting…” Sep 5, 15:56
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Patrick Grady seen at Holyrood but an official SNP statement said that no one spoke to him. His best chum…” Sep 5, 15:52
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “With Nicky No Comment on board how could you possibly lose?” Sep 5, 15:48
Minceheid on Anything But That: “agentx says: 5 September, 2026 at 2:30 pm “Dover protest ‘disgraceful’, says Jenrick It’s a little rich of Jenrick to…” Sep 5, 15:45
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “You’re gonna need a bigger campervan!” Sep 5, 15:45
agentx on Anything But That: “Apparently over 3000 have signed it now.” Sep 5, 15:35
agentx on Anything But That: “The Open Letter: More than 3,000 people—including prominent politicians, trade union leaders, and artists like Nicola Sturgeon and Hannah Lavery—signed…” Sep 5, 15:19
Grendel on Anything But That: “It was at the point where the rising rape statistics in Glasgow were being blamed on free bus travel for…” Sep 5, 15:18
Young Lochinvar on Anything But That: “MB having an Ezekiel 23:19-20 moment all to himself there..” Sep 5, 15:17
TURABDIN on Anything But That: “King America, the immature, paranoid & seriously deep in debt boss of «the west» https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16106615/ANDREW-NEIL-25-years-911-America-terror-war.html#newcomment” Sep 5, 15:07
