Earlier today we highlighted some of the social-media charm of Labour blogger and BBC pundit Ian Smart, after the Scottish branch office deputy leader Kezia Dugdale demanded that the First Minister should take a more pro-active role in policing the comments of party members on Twitter and Facebook.
Mr Smart’s history of incredibly abusive and offensive comments stretches back many years. But of course, it wouldn’t be reasonable to berate Scottish Labour for its failure to act if it wasn’t aware of them. So we had a trawl through his Twitter followers list just to see if there was anyone who might have noticed and brought it to the leadership’s attention so they could have a quiet word.
At today’s First Minister’s Questions, the Scottish Labour deputy leader Kezia Dugdale launched into an ill-advised attack over an SNP candidate who’d made some foolish (but not especially outrageous) comments on Twitter in 2012. Rather than simply issuing the standard generic condemnation of abusive remarks, Nicola Sturgeon did so but also drew Dugdale’s attention to the beam in her own eye.
Labour activist, blogger, lawyer and regular BBC pundit Ian Smart (he hasn’t been seen on STV since accusing them repeatedly, without any evidence, of letting the SNP pre-approve all interview questions some time ago) is well known to readers of this blog. Bizarrely, however, Dugdale feigned ignorance of his activity.
To help her, we’ve compiled some of Mr Smart’s greatest hits.
We’re just putting this shot of today’s brief Edinburgh gathering (from Isabel Hardman of the Spectator) here for the record, so people can compare it with the footage and images that appear on tonight’s news bulletins and tomorrow’s newspapers.
We’re going to have to check what the CBI’s position on electoral reform was before First Past The Post threatened to elect a load of SNP MPs and became a democratic outrage in the process. We’ll get back to you on that one.
Alert readers were startled yesterday when a former UK Prime Minister who WASN’T Gordon Brown suddenly took it upon himself to lumber out of his crypt and unleash an unsolicited intervention in the general election campaign.
As apparently that’s now the requirement for anyone attempting to influence a vote in Britain, we’re sure Sir John – a man best remembered in the world of politics for cheating on his wife with one of his ministers and instituting the Cones Hotline – will remind us which constituency he’s standing for any minute now.
If you thought the right-wing press was having paroxysms at the weekend, readers, you’re going to love what they had lined up for the day of the SNP manifesto launch.
Let’s have a little tour of the London newsrooms, shall we?
The splendid video below is a short clip from one of a Scottish Labour “campaign rally” held on Saturday morning. (And we do mean Saturday morning – the gathering seen in the distance at the very beginning as Murphy walks up through a deserted Buchanan Street appear to be waiting outside the Sainsbury’s Local, which opens at 7am.)
One can only admire Anas Sarwar’s upbeat view of his audience. But from the broader perspective, readers might be forgiven for wondering what on Earth was going on.
Our alert readers will probably be aware of the psychological phenomenon commonly known as the five stages of grief. If not, there’s a rather good piece by Andrew Nicoll in today’s Scottish Sun about it in the context of Scottish Labour.
But while perceptive, Nicoll is a little behind the times, because it appears that the party’s branch office manager Jim Murphy has invented a sixth.
Welcome, viewers, to the new final stage of grief: delusion.
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Northcode writes « Tho if a culture had the nature of a coloniser aboot it… then a wid hae nae…” Jan 12, 01:20
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Alf writes: « The point, which you appear to have missed, is that our friend wha comes here tae bide…” Jan 12, 00:59
Alf Baird on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““plummeting” The point, which you appear to have missed, is that our friend wha comes here tae bide notes he…” Jan 11, 23:49
Northcode on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““You’re plummeting, Alf.” Only in your eyes, Gael. And only because Professor Baird challenges your false narrative on the importance…” Jan 11, 22:43
Northcode on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Dinna be daft, Alf. Us Scots fowk be ane o the wrechit o the Earth… ye micht as weel expect…” Jan 11, 21:53
sarah on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “www.scotcourts.gov.uk/livestream/ – to watch tomorrow Monday 12th Jan from 09.30 the Court of Session case of Craig Murray applying for…” Jan 11, 21:50
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: ““So where is Scotland’s Atom Bomb moment?” At this rate, any century now. The British Brainwashing Corporation and MSM generally…” Jan 11, 21:23
Alf Baird on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““I speak and read three forms of Arabic plus Syriac, French, English, some German, Spanish, Hebrew, Farsi and Turkish and…” Jan 11, 18:30
Nae Need! on Off-topic: “I’m going to add The Alienist to my watch list. Thank you for the recommendation 😉 IMNSHU Pluribus is excellent.…” Jan 11, 17:17
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “Hi, Nae Need! It barely does exist compared to the old days 🙂 . I only returned around Christmas to…” Jan 11, 17:00
Nae Need! on Off-topic: “Hello Off TOPICers, I didn’t know this place existed until today. Have any of you watched Pluribus? None of the…” Jan 11, 15:16
Northcode on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “A hiv makkit this short Sunday sermon… First: Ither fowks cultures are mild cuiriosities tae me tho a widnae dream…” Jan 11, 15:01
sam on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “See this? The genetic landscape of Scotland and the Isles https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1904761116” Jan 11, 14:33
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “Thought I’d cheer us all up with this uplifting song (before Trump does something really stupid): www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIoBrob3bjI” Jan 11, 14:22
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “TURABDIN. And my sincere apologies to you for the rather exasperated tone of my initial comment. (Though you will perhaps…” Jan 11, 14:20
Nae Need! on Failure To Learn: “That was one of my first thoughts too. My second thought being about the word ‘failure’. Failure presumes an attempt…” Jan 11, 13:45
Nae Need! on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Having had the time this morning to follow this discussion, I too am in agreement with Aidan and Hatey. Wonders…” Jan 11, 13:39
TURABDIN on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “@ FEARGHAS MAC FHIONNLAIGH, @ ALF BAIRD, @ ANDY ELLIS. COMING FROM AN ANCIENT CULTURE whose language, various iterations of…” Jan 11, 12:40
Andy Ellis on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “@Alf As it happens, this is the only applied theoretical framework explaining Scotland’s colonial condition and urgent need for decolonization:……” Jan 11, 11:59
James Cheyne on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “I agree that a lot of history is bunk, most is just tail spun yarns. The treaty of York 1237…” Jan 11, 11:08
James Cheyne on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Indeed Henry 111 father Earl of Cambridge, according to DNA does not appear to be his father at all, Ceciley…” Jan 11, 10:47
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “@Andy Ellis There was more in my original post but it went to moderation. I was writing about the pictures…” Jan 11, 10:34
Alf Baird on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““develop his own coherent theories rooted in our own, unique, Scottish circumstances” As it happens, this is the only applied…” Jan 11, 10:31
Bilbo on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““Young women” may well speak for themselves but what they speak about is another thing. The actions of that nutter…” Jan 11, 10:23
Andy Ellis on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “I suspect it won’t be over until we see some strange fruit in turbans swinging from the lamp posts of…” Jan 11, 10:08
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““Whatever would Fantoosh, Mammy and Ceasar make” Who cares. It’s all part of his depressingly cringy acceptance of mediocrity that…” Jan 11, 09:58
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “It’s over. We won. With the exception of one dead body, President Trump got all the hostages home.” Jan 11, 09:48
Andy Ellis on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “@Hatey 9.17am Write up a bigly petition offering The Donald the croun, and beseeching him tae accept it. Use the…” Jan 11, 09:46
Andy Ellis on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “So what you’re saying Alf is that the speakers of Scots colonised the (largely) Brythonic speaking lands that now comprise…” Jan 11, 09:35
