Barely 18 months after this, here’s East Lothian Labour councillor Norman Hampshire (centre) and pals campaigning today with the aid of their new best friend.
As the story collapses and investigations begin into a cut-and-dried case of unlawful civil service interference in politics (and possibly worse), may they reap what they sow. If the current polls come true, never will a party’s fall have been more abject or more complete, nor its fate more richly deserved.
This is quite something. It took 15 hours into “MemoGate” before anyone got a Scottish Government representative on air – even though they’d found time to get quotes from Willie Rennie, who isn’t the leader of a Westminster party and whose party isn’t even involved in the story. When they did, here’s what happened.
Readers can form their own opinions about the interview. But at the very end of the piece the BBC’s James Cook says “this memo does exist”. It may do, but we’re not sure what his current grounds for that statement are.
To the best of our knowledge nobody is claiming to have seen it personally except the Telegraph. The Foreign Office have denied all knowledge of any memo, the Scotland Office apparently refuses to comment, and we have no idea who allegedly wrote it.
Cook has already made, then rowed back on, some rather questionable statements in the last 24 hours. Viewers may feel it might be better if he just stuck to the facts.
That clip (from just past midnight on the BBC News channel) isn’t a bad starting-point summary of last night’s extraordinary story, except by our count the Telegraph’s piece was fourth-hand rather than third-hand.
(First-hand would have been Nicola Sturgeon. Second-hand would have been the ambassador. Third-hand would have been the consul-general. The civil servant – who doubted the story him/herself – is fourth-hand.)
This is also a pretty good primer. Now let’s get to the fun stuff.
Sheesh. We pop out for a couple of hours to feed the Wings Emergency Kitten and we get back to find that it’s the UK press that’s barfed up hairballs all over its front pages.
And the contradictory cross-vortex coverlines aren’t even the mad bit.
In over 20 years of living in Bath, spanning five general elections, we’ve never seen a political billboard in town before. There’s been no point. In vote-share terms the city is the 4th-safest Lib Dem seat in the UK (and the 2nd-safest in England), and it has been since the party won it from the Conservatives in 1992.
But we’ve got a billboard now, featuring two men whose parties haven’t got an earthly hope of winning here (one of them because it’s not standing). What’s that all about?
This is an extract from this morning’s Today programme on Radio 4 (starts about 2h 5m in), in which James Naughtie expresses an unusually frank and forthright opinion on Jim Murphy’s claim about the biggest party forming the government.
Because we’ve been thinking about it carefully, and as the biggest party always forms the government of the UK – like it or not, that’s a simple fact – there’s only one way to protect Scotland’s interests for the next five years. Independence can wait.
Like some sort of out-of-control, unstoppable lying machine, Scottish Labour keep telling the electorate that the party with the most seats in a hung parliament is the one that forms the government, and that the only way to prevent the Conservatives from returning to power is for Labour to be the biggest party.
Young Lochinvar on The Party Of The Dead: “Whoa there LL!! I was a brickies labourer prior to enlisting, it was a blistering hot summer way back then…” Aug 6, 18:43
Aidan on Anatomy Of A Grift: ““Any money you send us will be split as usual between running costs, commissioning polls, a wage for myself and…” Aug 6, 18:41
Red on The Party Of The Dead: “Lothianlad mentioned Nicola Sturgeon as the architect of the SNP’s demise. She is greatly responsible, but the rot set in…” Aug 6, 18:14
Dan on Anatomy Of A Grift: “What’s the status of a new Wee Blue Book and revenues raised for producing it? https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-loose-end https://donorbox.org/last-call” Aug 6, 18:00
thothScot on The Party Of The Dead: “It’s not uncommon that the undead are still there years and years later, shambling around shopping malls accosting people who…” Aug 6, 17:55
Bilbo on Anatomy Of A Grift: “I’ve got a feeling that social media is going to change beyond recognition in 5 years time. This is going…” Aug 6, 16:57
agentx on The Party Of The Dead: ““John Swinney @JohnSwinney ? The publication of the SNP’s accounts today shows that at the end of 2025 the party…” Aug 6, 16:51
Ian Smith on The Party Of The Dead: “I would not be surprised if they lined up positions for anyone leaving with one of their pet quangos or…” Aug 6, 16:43
Effijy on The Party Of The Dead: “They could busk until dusk and not finance the next election. Anyone with glass bottle returns, Embassy Coupons or Greenshield…” Aug 6, 16:42
Knuckle_Heid on The Party Of The Dead: “Good point Elmac and even if the SNP do manage to claw back the £400k from Peter Murrell, hopefully enough…” Aug 6, 16:38
Ian Smith on The Party Of The Dead: “Has anyone heard when the campervan and miscellaneous luxuries go up for auction? With no appeals, would it generally all…” Aug 6, 16:37
agentx on The Party Of The Dead: “I notice that they spent £221,079 on Information technology (page 15) and £117,636 on Audio Visual at the Conference (page…” Aug 6, 16:32
agentx on The Party Of The Dead: ““In November, the SNP’s ruling body agreed to a more “streamlined” staffing structure and announced plans to cut jobs from…” Aug 6, 16:22
Alf Baird on Anatomy Of A Grift: “People are conditioned by their environment, Hatey. Thus, in a colonial society the oppressed colonized group tend to suffer from…” Aug 6, 16:15
Elmac on The Party Of The Dead: “I assume that the liability of the SNP to those who donated to the ring fenced fund stolen by the…” Aug 6, 15:54
Skip_NC on The Party Of The Dead: “The drop in salaries cannot be explained by Murrell’s activities alone. There must have been redundancies and pretty hefty ones…” Aug 6, 15:37
I. Despair on The Party Of The Dead: “Eech, two articles on consecutive days headed by pictures of the “Heather Herbert” polycule.” Aug 6, 15:23
lothianlad on The Party Of The Dead: “I cant help believing that this is all part of the SNP being utterly corrupted by greed and brit nat…” Aug 6, 15:22
Chas on The Party Of The Dead: “Murrell has apparantly stated that he will repay the £400k+ that he stole from the SNP. He obviously has this…” Aug 6, 15:15
Hatey McHateface on Anatomy Of A Grift: “You’ve changed your tune, Alf. Only a couple of weeks since you (and your faithful sidekick Northy) were claiming that…” Aug 6, 14:10
Aidan on Anatomy Of A Grift: “Well exactly CC, vote in the most unqualified, malevolent, fanatical people into power election after election and then blame the…” Aug 6, 13:46
Captain Caveman on Anatomy Of A Grift: “If people vote in left wing governments year after year in Scotland, they shouldn’t be surprised at the outcomes. No…” Aug 6, 13:25
Rookiescot on Anatomy Of A Grift: “My head has fallen off and I have misplaced it. I have started a Go Fund Me account so I…” Aug 6, 13:21
Cynicus on Anatomy Of A Grift: “Herbie goes a-courtin’ https://archive.is/479cV” Aug 6, 12:18
Alf Baird on Anatomy Of A Grift: ““Every now and again we read of something going on in Scotland that makes patriotic Scots resolved to say “We’re…” Aug 6, 11:53
Southernbystander on Anatomy Of A Grift: “Fine line though isn’t there between incitement to murder and apathy to it possibly happening? I assume you would agree…” Aug 6, 11:17
