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to defeat) the UK government’s plans to relax England’s fox-hunting ban to a point at which it would be de facto repealed entirely.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.
Our latest Panelbase poll was conducted from 26 June-3 July, before this weekend’s astonishing events involving Greece, which are currently being documented on Twitter under the hashtag #ThisIsACoup.
We’re going to ask the exact same question again in our next one, so we can see if the EU’s actions have caused any significant change in public opinion. It should be pretty interesting either way.
Of course, it’s entirely natural that the Labour Party and The Economist should be on opposite sides. But somehow everything seems to be the wrong way round.
One of the worst things about running this website is that eventually it causes you to doubt the existence of reason. Things happen that – even putting all partisanship to one side, in so far as is humanly possible – it’s impossible to believe any remotely rational being or organisation would ever think, say or do.
A recent obvious case in point was the election of Jim Murphy as Scottish Labour leader. SNP supporters rubbed their eyes in disbelief as Labour and the media rushed, with apparent sincerity, to proclaim one of Labour’s most right-wing and divisive MPs the party’s saviour.
So unable was the nationalist side to contain its glee and amusement at what was a plainly suicidal move to anyone sane, the Unionist establishment persuaded itself a bluff was afoot and that the laughter masked fear. We all know how that turned out.
But what we want to talk about in this article is how, no matter how often that same tragi-comic farce is played out – in 2007, 2011 and now 2015 – the astonishing fact is that it never seems to make any difference. In defiance of the most famous quote attributed (apocryphally or otherwise) to Albert Einstein, Labour and its cheerleaders keep right on repeating the same actions over and over, expecting different results.
For those of us who cling to reason as the hope of mankind, increasingly despite all the evidence, it can cause outbreaks of incredulous despair. “They just CAN’T be this stupid!”, we exclaim, only for Labour to prove us wrong by offering their long-suffering Scottish members a prospective dream team of Kezia Dugdale and Gordon Matheson.
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: ““corrupt and vicious” That sums up Scottish nationalism.” Sep 6, 00:14
agentx on Anything But That: “The full statement reads: “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have…” Sep 5, 23:58
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “” Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom ” Benjamin Franklin” Sep 5, 23:31
Northcode on Anything But That: “There’s a lot of talk in this place, and elsewhere, suggesting that because of Scotland’s sovereign past and how the…” Sep 5, 23:00
Insider on Anything But That: “Mark ! Behave yourself ! “James Che” is actually a very old lady who is sadly suffering from the onset…” Sep 5, 21:22
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
