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I think the Nazis are pretty good 236

Posted on April 27, 2015 by

If you’re trying to give someone an example of a terrible group of people from history, I think the Nazis are pretty good for that purpose. They fulfil the criterion excellently, what with all the invading and occupying and repression and genocidal murder and everything, and there’s very little ambiguity or any shades of grey about their evil.

nuremberg

Now, alert readers may have spotted that while the headline of this article is a genuine quote from the paragraph above, and could be technically correctly described as my words by someone with malicious and dishonest intent (something which does in fact happen regularly), it gives a highly misleading impression of what was really said.

And with that, welcome to the Scottish media.

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Category comment, debunks, media, missing context, scottish politics

The bonfire of policies 85

Posted on April 27, 2015 by

Normally you have to wait until after an election for this stuff.

sunlab

But Scottish Labour’s promises are collapsing one by one with 10 days still to go.

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Category comment, scottish politics

The party that cried “Wolf!” 243

Posted on April 26, 2015 by

There’s a fascinating detail in the latest Panelbase/Sunday Times survey of Scottish public opinion, which shows a further 2.5% swing to the SNP compared to the same company’s last poll earlier this month.

ffa2

Those are some remarkable figures, but they tell a much wider story.

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Category analysis, scottish politics

The wild weekend 162

Posted on April 26, 2015 by

Saturday:

natbash

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Category comment, media, uk politics

Labour then and Labour now 170

Posted on April 25, 2015 by

Scotland on Sunday, 21 March this year:

“Ed Miliband will go on the offensive against the SNP on a visit to Scotland tomorrow as Labour prepares to unveil a dossier of evidence to show that Nationalist MPs supported the Tories 70 per cent of the time during the last two Labour governments.

Discussions are also underway to commemorate the 28 March anniversary of 11 SNP MPs joining the Tories to help vote down Jim Callaghan’s government in 1979.

The historic vote led to the election which brought in Margaret Thatcher and heralded 17 years of Conservative rule. Proposals to mark the day include wearing a black arm band and laying a wreath at the miners’ memorial.”

And here’s the Guardian today.

“Lord Heseltine, the former Tory deputy prime minister who championed the regeneration of Britain’s inner cities in the 1980s, is being lined up by the shadow business secretary to advise Labour in government.

In a sign of how some Labour figures will try to revive the ‘big tent’ approach of Tony Blair, Chuka Umunna described Heseltine as a visionary who could advise him on plans for the further devolution of power to the English cities and regions.

‘There is no denying it, a lot of people in the Labour movement are quite inspired by what he’s done in rejuvenating cities and regions,’ he told the Guardian. ‘Just because he is a Tory should not stand in the way of us working with him in the future and I very much hope to do that.'”

We’re sure those miners Scottish Labour laid a wreath for a month ago will be chuffed.

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Category comment, history, scottish politics, uk politics

Ironic juxtaposition 135

Posted on April 25, 2015 by

juxtaposed

Category comment, media, pictures, uk politics, wtf

The ugly stepchild 72

Posted on April 25, 2015 by

trollsmart

Tags: , ,
Category scottish politics

We’ve said it before 155

Posted on April 24, 2015 by

And we’ll say it again.

patriotbroon

Category comment, scottish politics

When is a FACT not a FACT? 121

Posted on April 24, 2015 by

Remember this, readers?

asimplefact

Turns out it wasn’t THAT kind of “fact”. You know, the true kind.

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Category comment, debunks, scottish politics

The end of excuses 198

Posted on April 24, 2015 by

You might not think it, readers, but even after all this time we’re still capable of a certain degree of innocent, naive trust in Scottish journalism.

When Nicola Sturgeon didn’t just issue a boilerplate condemnation at FMQs yesterday after ludicrously overblown allegations of Twitter “trolling” by an SNP candidate, but went on the counter-attack over Labour’s grotesquely abusive Ian Smart, we foolishly thought that might make both sides of the story newsworthy.

And then we opened the papers.

hayhem

We don’t expect the media to be impartial. But let there today officially be an end to even the slightest pretence that it’s at least fair, professional and honest.

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Tags: ,
Category analysis, comment, media, scottish politics

A serious case of hypocrisy 344

Posted on April 23, 2015 by

A few days ago, a constituency poll by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft found that the SNP were leading narrowly in Edinburgh South – a seat in which they secured a paltry 7.7% of the vote in the 2010 general election. Keep that fact in mind, readers.

Today the Edinburgh Evening News (EEN) published an article by David Maddox, a senior political journalist on the Scotsman, alleging that the SNP candidate for the seat, Neil Hay, had “liken[ed] anti-independence campaigners to Nazi collaborators” in a tweet over two and a half years ago (from a pseudonymous account under the name “Paco McSheepie”), and had also tweeted a series of attacks on pensioners.

eenhay0

Scottish Labour immediately leapt on the article and demanded Mr Hay be sacked as the candidate, less than two weeks before the election. It’s not possible to replace a candidate at such a late stage – some voters may already have voted by post – and such a move would thereby effectively have handed the seat to the Labour candidate and previous MP Ian Murray by default.

The story turned out to be an absurd, massive exaggeration and misrepresentation of the reality. But it also exposed a level of naked, shameless dishonesty and hypocrisy in Scottish Labour, and in particular its deputy leader Kezia Dugdale, that even this site hadn’t previously dared to imagine.

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Category analysis, comment, disturbing, investigation, scottish politics, video

The blind eyes 91

Posted on April 23, 2015 by

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.

smartbbc

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.

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Category comment, investigation, media, scottish politics

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