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.
Northcode on Anything But That: ““I think your final paragraph needs to be amended…” No – it doesn’t. Read it again.” Sep 6, 16:03
Northcode on Anything But That: “I support Scottish independence, but I’ve grown weary of the flawed rhetoric deployed in its name. When a movement clings…” Sep 6, 15:50
sam on Anything But That: “I think your final paragraph needs to be amended. Scottish people need to be able to hold a referendum at…” Sep 6, 15:46
Northcode on Anything But That: ““The UK Constitution…A bit of a myth that, point me to the stirring single document…” I’m not sure of the…” Sep 6, 15:44
Young Lochinvar on Anything But That: “B Top ten in spending on military eh? I wonder how much of that is spent on the money-pit “nuclear…” Sep 6, 15:31
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “The UN is the record keeper of war. They list the conflicts in the world, keep records, take statements, give…” Sep 6, 15:17
Young Lochinvar on Anything But That: “NC The UK Constitution.. A bit of a myth that, point me to the stirring single document will you? I’d…” Sep 6, 14:59
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Any relation to Darius the Great? “subjugated Thrace and forced Macedon to become a fully subordinate client kingdom within the…” Sep 6, 14:59
agentx on Anything But That: “Ultimately, while pro-independence groups look to the UN Charter as an overarching moral and political justification for independence, the UN’s…” Sep 6, 14:11
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Shut up and eat your Lembas bread. You pointy eared trouble maker.” Sep 6, 14:00
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “I thought it would be obvious. He has the woke disease. The symptoms can be quite easy to spot; Constant…” Sep 6, 13:57
Insider on Anything But That: “Bloody hell, Northy ! You’re beginning to talk sense for a change ! What happened to you ?” Sep 6, 12:57
Captain Caveman on Anything But That: “So it’s true then: Alf’s much-vaunted UN delusion will achieve… … “Hee-Haw”, to coin a phrase. I’m sure much of…” Sep 6, 12:57
sam on Anything But That: “The Convention declaration does not change the legal position. The claim of right was debated in the HoC and Sec…” Sep 6, 12:36
Northcode on Anything But That: “For those who might have fallen under the delusion that the United Nations is planning to liberate the Scots from…” Sep 6, 12:27
James Che on Anything But That: “Bilbo, Without a active 1707 treaty between Scotland and England, Scotland is not in a national debt situation with the…” Sep 6, 12:25
sam on Anything But That: “But… another one ” We, gathered as the Scottish Constitutional Convention, do hereby acknowledge the sovereign right of the Scottish…” Sep 6, 12:21
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “What’s the point? Even if we managed to fit it up for serious sexual assault, it would be out again…” Sep 6, 12:21
James Che on Anything But That: “Bilbo. Here is another thought to mull over, If Scotland is a independent Country since the 1707 treaty of unions…” Sep 6, 12:17
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Of course! Duh! But it requires a hard-nosed realism at odds with the feel good vibes that an entire generation…” Sep 6, 12:16
Northcode on Anything But That: ““So what happens now the treaty of union has passed its sell by date…” Well… we could have it framed…” Sep 6, 12:08
Northcode on Anything But That: “The truth is this: The Treaty of Union is no longer a live international treaty. It’s a historical document whose…” Sep 6, 12:03
James Che on Anything But That: “Has Westminster parliament informed the UN that the 1707 treaty between Scotland and England has come to its end date?…” Sep 6, 11:54
Bilbo on Anything But That: “I was thinking about Prof Alf Baird’s posts about how an independent Scotland wouldn’t be burdened with the financial ambitions…” Sep 6, 11:48
James Che on Anything But That: “So the 1707 treaty of union that is wrote down on old parchment paper no longer exist as a treaty…” Sep 6, 11:36
Bilbo on Anything But That: “No point interacting with wee guttersnipes like Beggan.” Sep 6, 11:36
TURABDIN on Anything But That: “@Hatey McHateface I am no apologist for the theocratic system currently gripping Ir@n but that system is not Ir@n per…” Sep 6, 11:32
James Che on Anything But That: “North code, The comment you made was a bit contradictory in its overall veiw on international treaties. The old treaty…” Sep 6, 11:25
factchecker on Anything But That: “More good sense. Additionally, I would suggest that the Claim of Right was in reality simply a political negotiating tool…” Sep 6, 11:18
