Lovers of blood sports enjoyed a very special treat on this morning’s Sunday Politics Scotland, as Gordon Brewer got his teeth firmly around the throat of hapless Scottish Labour MP Ian Murray and shook him like a rag doll for ten toe-curling minutes.
We’ll have the entire 18-rated clip for you later, but Brewer was having so much fun tormenting Murray by repeatedly demanding an answer to the question of whether his party would rule out an electoral deal with the SNP that he didn’t notice when, at about the 15th time of asking, he actually got one.
If you picked up a copy of The Sun On Sunday in Scotland today, it’s possible you may have missed this article from the English edition, which hasn’t made it across the border due to print gremlins at Carlisle or something.
We feel sure that just months ago Scots were being begged to stay in the UK and exercise their “strong voice in the UK parliament”, but perhaps we’re mistaken.
Here’s delightful Labour MP “Diddy” David Hamilton this morning:
His personal attack on the First Minister’s appearance went down well, not just with the crowd in the room at the Scottish Labour conference but also with the party’s sniggering juvenile boys’ club. They wouldn’t say their wives were fat, but…
When we tweeted a link to this Morning Star story about Scottish Labour chief of staff John McTernan speaking for the right-wing think-tank Policy Exchange at a fringe meeting of the Conservative Party conference last September, several readers found it quite difficult to believe.
After all, this was a senior Scottish Labour figure telling delegates that “It’s a good thing [Margaret Thatcher] did what she did” to the UK economy, and that “There’s a far wider range of assets that are currently owned by the government which I would privatise”, among other not-terribly-socialist views. It seemed implausible.
Fortunately, we can now bring you the proof. It’s very much worth a watch.
We’re sure Scottish Labour’s few remaining voters have no cause for alarm, though. We’re almost positive that there’s no significance in the fact that McTernan was pretty much the first person Jim Murphy rushed to hire when he became leader, just a few weeks after McTernan had given the Tories advice on winning elections.
After all, just because you’re in charge of all of a party’s staff doesn’t mean that you get to exert any kind of influence over its policy [SUB PLEASE CHECK].
Jim Murphy’s practiced air of nonchalant bonhomie was coming apart at the seams all over today’s “Good Morning Scotland” (from 2h 10m). Pressed hard by presenter Bill Whiteford, the beleaguered Scottish Labour branch manager spluttered and blustered and interrupted constantly in a desperate attempt to stop Whiteford from even finishing any questions, never mind getting answers to them.
Murphy tried determinedly and repeatedly to punt the hopelessly-discredited line about the biggest party forming the government, on the sole basis that it had always been the case before, seemingly unaware that the election wasn’t being held in the past. He even tried to use the recent catastrophic Ashcroft polls to Labour’s advantage.
You can marvel at the entire nine-minute trainwreck by clicking the link below. But let’s just pull out that one argument and take a closer look at it.
Seemingly oblivious to the mockery of voters, the Labour and Tory sides of the media are today doggedly continuing with their quest to convince the electorate that voting for the SNP will let both the Tories and Labour in.
In the latest in a long series of hilarious diatribes from the right-wing English press, today’s Daily Mail (English edition only, natch) carries a mad rant from Max Hastings about “the SNP’s almost Stalinist agenda” imposing a nightmarish “socialist paradise” on the people of England via Ed Miliband and “Nicola Sturgeon, red in tooth and claw”.
Meanwhile, the increasingly hysterical Daily Record has an editorial leader – unbylined but with Torcuil Crichton’s stubby, inky fingerprints all over it – desperately screaming the official Scottish Labour line that the Nats are closet Tories, “the arrival of dozens of SNP MPs in Westminster would make a Conservative government more likely”, and that “without Labour, no one else will be able to stop Tory attacks on the poor”.
(It seems to have entirely escaped Crichton’s attention that Scotland voting Labour, including in 2010, has utterly failed to stop Tory attacks on the poor for decades.)
So now we know – voting SNP will bring about a socialist, Stalinist paradise of Tory governments attacking the poor. Glad we cleared that one up.
In modern Scotland, you’ll struggle to find a politician from any party who won’t agree with two propositions: that Scotland is a nation and that devolution has, on balance, been a positive experience.
Debates about Scottish nationality are rare these days too. A substantial majority of Scots define themselves as “Scottish only”. Even UKIP has quietly ditched its plan to abolish Holyrood and now talks of forming a government.
But for all this consensus, Scotland’s inability to fully represent itself on the airwaves and onscreen remains one of the most critical issues we must now face up to.
The referendum created an eclectic range of alternative media. But, whether we like them or not, large media institutions like the BBC maintain a reach both online and offline that only a very select number of new platforms can begin to rival.
No single project can address this problem. Only a systematic renewal of Scotland’s media landscape will change the current reality of managed decline.
robertkknight on The End Of Law: “The Labour Party – fluffing the pillows…having shat the bed.” Jun 22, 12:12
sam on The End Of Law: “You keep trying to put wwords in my mouth. My reference to “unsubstantiated garbage” was to the inadequacy of the…” Jun 22, 12:04
Spartan 117 on The End Of Law: “It’s the poisonous politics and dogma that are the problem, but don’t let facts get in the way of a…” Jun 22, 11:57
Alf Baird on The End Of Law: “” It seems likely that you hugely underestimate external influences (without using a model of determinism) which include centuries of…” Jun 22, 11:31
sam on The End Of Law: “Crude, but apt and wonderful.” Jun 22, 11:02
Spartan 117 on The End Of Law: “Indeed. Or, as one meme I have seen sums it up, Hermes have changed to Evri. It’s a bit like…” Jun 22, 10:25
robertkknight on The End Of Law: “Starmer, Burnham….two cheeks of the same arse.” Jun 22, 10:11
willie on The End Of Law: “So Starmer has gone. Deck chairs reshuffled. To change the old Labour song the reality is that ” things are…” Jun 22, 10:01
Southernbystander on A Fishy Tale: “It just about to get to well over 100 degrees in June. Wild fires rage every year burning up our…” Jun 22, 09:35
Aidan on The End Of Law: “The existence of rape gangs in Scotland is based directly on the witness testimony of those who gave evidence to…” Jun 22, 09:23
sam on The End Of Law: “Another fecking mind reader.” Jun 22, 09:12
Hatey McHateface on The End Of Law: “FFS Confused. Just take yourself off to Mecca and sign up or exchange blood or whatever it takes to join.…” Jun 21, 23:53
Confused on The End Of Law: ““the female of the species is more deadly than the male … ” Something just hit me there – lara…” Jun 21, 22:55
Red on The End Of Law: “There are no “concerns” about the findings of the Rape Gangs Inquiry Report. There are only lies and obfuscation, which…” Jun 21, 22:40
sam on The End Of Law: “Aidan, Still trying to read my mind and put words in my mouth. There are concerns about the adequacy of…” Jun 21, 21:46
Lorncal on The End Of Law: “Do you think that men who have no dangly bits are women? Really? If you are so disturbed that you…” Jun 21, 21:27
Red on The End Of Law: “Yes, it’s mostly about ‘cheap’ labour. Of course it’s not ‘cheap’ for taxpayers, rape victims, or the Scottish people who…” Jun 21, 20:56
agentx on The End Of Law: “A 15-year-old boy rescued two men who had fallen from an inflatable toy boat off the Isle of Skye by…” Jun 21, 20:24
Mark Beggan on The End Of Law: “It’s get your jacket time Sam. Pick a window you’re leaving! You fucking idiot.” Jun 21, 20:08
Lorncal on The End Of Law: “Because women and girls stand in the way of ‘progress’ – that is, most of them – not all, God…” Jun 21, 19:53
Red on The End Of Law: “GM, yes there is only one reason to keep this secret from the Scottish people It’s believed one may have…” Jun 21, 19:07
James on The End Of Law: “With his one-eye? Sounds about right. You gie-ing him a haun?” Jun 21, 18:51
Hatey McHateface on The End Of Law: “Wally Walrus wakes? Nah. Another 5 letter word preserving the alliteration.” Jun 21, 18:37
Ex President Xiden on The End Of Law: “Exactly, HR departments are used to socially engineer our thinking. Nobody complains as they fear for their jobs.” Jun 21, 18:31
Aidan on The End Of Law: “Don’t believe the lying rape victims, says Sam.” Jun 21, 18:30
gm on The End Of Law: “The working cops did their jobs properly. I don’t know where the order to keep the operation secret came from.…” Jun 21, 18:27
gm on The End Of Law: “https://www.scotland.police.uk/access-to-information/freedom-of-information/disclosure-log/disclosure-log-2024/march/24-0363-operation-cerrar-child-exploitation-glasgow-2020/ It happened in Glasgow. Operation Cerrar. You can search it. Deeply worrying. What was worse was the response of…” Jun 21, 18:19
Captain Caveman on The End Of Law: ““Do you people own anything?” #spoiler alert Nope. “IT WUZ THE TORRREEES” etc. Hatey has hit the bullseye here.” Jun 21, 18:07
Red on The End Of Law: “There’s a special place in Hell for Rape Gang deniers, sam. Have you no shame?” Jun 21, 17:59
sam on The End Of Law: “Unsubstantiated garbage” Jun 21, 17:32
