Michelle Mone, the titular head of a loss-making underwear company mostly owned by a shady Sri Lankan business group, who’s spent much of the last eight years trying to blackmail Scots by threatening to punish them with hundreds of job losses if they don’t vote the way she tells them to, has a 1400-word whine/house advert in the MoS today about how beastly cybernats have forced her to finally move to England.
Who wants to be the one to break it to her that they have Twitter in England too?
In its kneejerk “SNP BAD” reaction to the Alistair Carmichael affair, the Unionist establishment – politicians and media alike – has furiously tried to divert attention from Carmichael’s smear and attempted cover-up by harking back to an incident in 2012, when the press gave vast amounts of coverage to a claim that Alex Salmond had “lied” about legal advice regarding an independent Scotland’s EU membership.
An alert reader today drew our attention to a detail we’d missed in a recent article in the Shetland News. It concerned Alistair Carmichael’s leaking of a false memo in order to smear Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP while the Orkney & Shetland MP was still Secretary of State for Scotland, and took the form of a quote from Carmichael’s Holyrood counterpart Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland:
Most of today’s papers quote an unnamed Scotland Office spokesman on the subject of the Scotland Bill 2015, and in particular its clauses concerning welfare powers:
Earlier today we noted that the indyref had empowered the Scottish people to an extent that they seemed very reluctant to give up on. But plutocracies don’t become the establishment by giving up their thrones lightly, and so today we get this:
The above is a passage we selected completely at random from the Scotland Bill 2015, the administrative manifestation of “The Vow” and the Smith Commission. It’s entirely typical of the full 77-page document (PDF), which is essentially an unreadable wordspew completely impenetrable to normal people. And that’s no accident.
In barely 48 hours, almost £37,000 has been raised by the general public to challenge the election of a British MP under false pretences. We don’t believe there’s any sort of precedent for that. It would now seem beyond any reasonable doubt that there will be an official legal challenge to the former Secretary of State.
However greatly it may be to the chagrin of metropolitan commentators like Michael White, it appears that the people of Scotland, having been awoken in large numbers by the independence referendum, are simply no longer content to sit back meekly and allow either the political establishment itself or the media which claims to scrutinise it keep its house (or Houses) in order.
The events of the last few years have made Scotland increasingly disinclined to put its trust in self-appointed gatekeepers, and willing to take matters of politics directly into its own hands. Whatever the eventual outcome of the independence story, the electorate seems not to want to go back into its box, where attention is only paid to it twice a decade. If so, the referendum will have brought about a far more wide-reaching victory than anyone ever imagined.
The UK’s forthcoming referendum on EU membership was enshrined in the Queen’s Speech today, and it seems likely that the “Yes” side will be those arguing for the UK to stay in the EU.
That’s a good thing. However, it’s difficult not to get flashbacks to 2011 when various unionist idiots were insisting that the Yes option should have been “Yes to the UK”, effectively holding a referendum on whether people wanted things to remain the same.
For us pedants, holding a referendum in order to ask people if they’re happy to leave things as they are feels instinctively odd, because if nothing else, it implies that there might be something wrong – a bit like someone randomly coming up to you and asking if you’re okay sitting where you are, making you suspect someone must have done something to the seat.
But it’s just as well, because the pro-EU side is going to need all the help it can get to avoid falling into the same pitfalls as the pro-UK side did last year. And unlike the “Better Together” campaign, the pro-EU campaign won’t have a 30%+ buffer in the polls to insulate it against being led by incompetent buffoons.
Many of you won’t have seen this quite extraordinary performance from the Guardian’s assistant editor Michael White on last night’s Scotland Tonight, and you really should.
joolz on Tuning In The Shine: ““John Swinney would live in a cave for independence” but he won’t be honest about money. He can’t claim the…” Jul 2, 15:48
Ian Smith on Tuning In The Shine: “I cannot understand why Beattie stood again, (never mind why anyone would vote for him again) if not that he…” Jul 2, 15:35
Effijy on Tuning In The Shine: “Could we enquire why Guissler didn’t investigate or ask his bbc colleagues or bosses? Because they are anti Scottish and…” Jul 2, 15:33
Shug on Tuning In The Shine: “The big question for nationalists is Why did the MSM protect the SNP Why do legal professionals at the highest…” Jul 2, 15:27
Alf Baird on Tuning In The Shine: ““don’t think any of it got “censored”” At least you got a Brit State platform Rev, congrats. I offered Geissler…” Jul 2, 15:23
Liza Laine on Tuning In The Shine: “Upton Sinclair explained this ~100 years ago: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary…” Jul 2, 15:18
Mark Beggan on Tuning In The Shine: “Good point. The only interview I seen was when he was asked about the impact it had on his life…” Jul 2, 14:37
Ronnie on Tuning In The Shine: “Enjoyed that. The only comment I would make is how does Geissler not understand how there were two crimes commited?” Jul 2, 14:34
Mark Beggan on Tuning In The Shine: “” ..Fru fru knickknacks for his kitchen..” My favorite.” Jul 2, 14:10
David Ferguson on Tuning In The Shine: “Interesting your remarks abut Colin Beattie. He has done a fantastic job of staying completely under the radar so far.…” Jul 2, 14:04
Rev. Stuart Campbell on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: ““Except that’s not quite the case. The small print of the fundraiser pretty much did say it could be spent…” Jul 2, 13:55
Rev. Stuart Campbell on The Fast Track: ““Just a thought, but is it possible the alleged ringfenced referendum cash doesn’t appear in the annual accounts because it’s…” Jul 2, 13:53
James Che on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “The so called new incoming prime minister has no given mandate to go forward, there would have to be an…” Jul 2, 13:45
Mark Beggan on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “A bit off topic but not really. The fifty percent women cabinets have a habit of turning into a a…” Jul 2, 13:31
Mark Beggan on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “I give Andy Cap twenty minutes on the seat of power before his biscuits start burning and his Marxist plot…” Jul 2, 13:23
Peter McAvoy on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “While quickly browsing the BBC Scotland today website some stories on the review of the papers front pages attracted my…” Jul 2, 13:22
Andy Wiltshire on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Houston of Police Scotland and Crown Agent John Logue of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal…” Jul 2, 12:45
Hatey McHateface on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “Out in the real world, the UK is about to get a new Prime Minister who has already outlined his…” Jul 2, 11:19
Hatey McHateface on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “Aye, Northy, you must be ruing the day you all so right royally fucked up the 2014 referendum. It’s good…” Jul 2, 11:11
Hatey McHateface on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “I have to agree Homer. Asserting that anybody who disagrees with one is a “fucking moron” who “enjoys taking it…” Jul 2, 11:04
Hatey Mchateface on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “Aye, Confused, we’d be down the pits digging coal, or on the Clyde welding supertankers, and all whilst being paid…” Jul 2, 10:51
Northcode on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “Apples and pears; low hanging fruit… easy and obvious targets. The good stuff is far higher up the tree closer…” Jul 2, 10:49
Confused on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “dana garavelli doing her 10000 words in the LRB made me think of this – www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8F7iEyitGw – there used to…” Jul 2, 10:09
Confused on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “everything is connected – and you can always be relied upon to miss the point in some shallow manner; well,…” Jul 2, 10:01
Confused on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “I dined once at Somerville College (looked good but not up to much, must have been their set menu), around…” Jul 2, 09:59
James Che on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “So it correct to assume Scotland has two tier government, the UK one and the imaginary one under the devolved…” Jul 2, 09:48
Bilbo on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: “O/T https://archive.is/0dqVv A digital ID row has dominated headlines in the last year, and banks are set to join the…” Jul 2, 09:46
Ken Gallacher on ACC Houston, We Have A Problem: “It’s obvious to anyone what has happened, murrell and his embezzlement was used as a distraction from the real crime.…” Jul 2, 08:25
Aidan on Strike A Pose, There’s Nothing To It: ““Much of the comment here, on Wings serves merely as distraction from the issues relevant to Independence and wastes the…” Jul 2, 08:20
