Alert readers should by now have spotted our story about the findings of the Independent Press Standards Organisation with regard to the Daily Record’s “The Vow Delivered” front page from last November. The paper was found by IPSO to have been guilty of “significantly misrepresent[ing] the fiscal consequences of the Smith Commission’s recommendations”, and ordered to publish a correction.
IPSO also noted in its judgement that the Record had amended the online version of the article accordingly. But that’s only partly true.
The Independent Press Standards Organisation has delivered its verdict on the Daily Record’s coverage of the Smith Commission recommendations on 27 November 2014, after we lodged a complaint with the watchdog body.
We were going to bring you a report on the Scottish Conservatives conference in Edinburgh today (half the length of last year’s, and bereft of its glamorous sprinkling of Cabinet ministers), but we watched all of it and absolutely nothing happened.
They won the referendum and tax is bad. The end. See you next year!
This is the Minister for Care and Support, Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb, on last night’s Question Time, letting Scotland know its status as an equal and valued partner in the UK, a partner whose democratically-elected MPs have the same right to have their voice heard on behalf of their constituents as those from anywhere else.
We got fooled like big old chumps earlier this afternoon. Scottish Labour apparatchik and former “Better Together” director Blair McDougall posted a series of tweets about whether the party who wins the most seats in a Westminster election gets to form the government, which sounded exactly like the ones Scottish Labour have been posting for the last few weeks before they were exposed as being nonsense.
The big comedy reveal was that they turned out to have been said by Alex Salmond in 2007, talking about the Holyrood election of that year which the SNP won.
It was a bona fide zinger. So what point did the cunning prank prove?
Remember before the referendum, readers, when the £30bn cost of decommissioning oil platforms was a nightmarish unaffordable millstone around a future Scotland’s neck that proved it couldn’t be independent?
It turns out it wouldn’t have been so bad after all.
This week Scottish Labour quietly abandoned their “biggest party forms the government” election campaign after it was comprehensively debunked by this site and, belatedly, the mainstream media. An alert reader reminded us this evening of how the party wasn’t always so attached to the rules.
Because back in 2007, when Labour was neither the biggest party nor the incumbent administration, it had a damn good try at forming the government anyway.
All this year we’ve been noticing a curious re-writing of history in the Scottish and UK media. It’s spanned left-wing and right-wing press, and even Yes-friendly voices like Iain Macwhirter and the estimable Lallands Peat Worrier have been sucked in.
Yet it’s such a fundamentally bizarre misunderstanding of a political system that’s now been running in Scotland for 16 years that we’re bewildered at the way everyone’s suddenly decided that it happened.
The latest occurrence of this odd phenomenon was in yesterday’s Daily Record, and the subject is the newly-alleged “informal deal” between the minority SNP government of 2007-11 and the Scottish Conservatives.
The election of Jim Murphy as branch office leader has so far failed to produce a shift in the party’s catastrophic polling figures north of the border, with most projections still suggesting that Labour’s Scottish seats will be reduced to single figures in May.
Last night we catalogued a series of its howlers since Murphy took over, culminating in a humiliating climbdown over some false claims about cancelled operations in the Scottish NHS. The party’s Scottish health spokeswoman Jenny Marra turned up on today’s Good Morning Scotland to discuss the subject, and in doing so demonstrated exactly why Scottish voters are deserting it in hundreds of thousands.
There’s been considerable mirth in nationalist circles ever since Jim Murphy became leader of the Scottish Labour branch office late last year. Announcing that he wanted to “reach out” to Yes voters, his idea of an olive branch was to hire three of the most divisive and obnoxious figures to be found anywhere in his party’s entire hinterland, in a move about as conciliatory and unifying as when Rangers signed Mo Johnston.
Counter-intuitively, the link-up with Blair McDougall (who headed Murphy’s successful leadership bid) is the one that makes the most sense. After all, as “Better Together” campaign director McDougall was responsible for turning a 30-point lead for No into a 10-point one, so he clearly knows something about how to appeal to Yes people.
George Ferguson on Seven Days Too Long: “@JCD Agreed Tommy Sheridan is a good speaker as long as the audience can’t answer back. A bunch of old…” May 1, 20:10
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: “I’m truly astonished that you know so little about Scotland and the Scots that you would believe 83% of Scots…” May 1, 20:09
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: ““sharpie in large letters across the ballot “end the Union”” Good God! Does it really fall to me to have…” May 1, 19:57
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: ““You might want to remember” You might want to address the arguments presented. In case it’s you that can’t remember:…” May 1, 19:47
JCD on Seven Days Too Long: “Ok End The Union it is. The reason I’m unsure about voting ATLS is that left wing organizations in particular…” May 1, 19:42
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: ““SCOTLAND does not need more WASPS on mobility scooters” Maybe you should visit Scotland, TURABDIN. For every WASP on a…” May 1, 19:38
Alf Baird on Seven Days Too Long: “You might want to remember that “the current Scottish Government” is merely a colonial administration, and what that usually means…” May 1, 19:25
100%Yes on Seven Days Too Long: “Tangerines are marching again in Aberdeen after a spell off. For god sake who are these brainless morons.” May 1, 19:07
TURABDIN on Seven Days Too Long: “That picture speaks volumes… SNP…young, vibrant & relevant, the sexiest choice in politics.” May 1, 18:59
100%Yes on Seven Days Too Long: “You can only imagine what the next 5 yrs will bring under the SNP and Green government and it’ll be…” May 1, 18:59
100%Yes on Seven Days Too Long: “You can only amigine what the next 5 yrs will bring under the SNP and Green government and it’ll be…” May 1, 18:59
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: ““the sinking uk TITanic” Freudian slip or spending too much time studying Polanski’s pre-political gibberish?” May 1, 18:39
Captain Caveman on Seven Days Too Long: “Ah, touché! Made me laugh. Good lad. 🙂” May 1, 18:34
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: ““tax cuts for the rich” Shame you have no useful talents and lack the capacity to hold down a job.…” May 1, 18:34
twathater on Seven Days Too Long: “YL , how dare you question the suggestions put forward by AyDan & his top cheerleader and MaaaaTe , they…” May 1, 18:23
Dan on Seven Days Too Long: “Aye Y Lochnivar. Aidan trying to distract, disrupt and divert. For all the AI generated pish it posts it doesn’t…” May 1, 18:18
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: ““us liberation seeking Scots” One day, Northy, everybody who remembers the weeks and months you devoted on here to self-identifying…” May 1, 18:16
ALANM on Seven Days Too Long: “Desperate times call for desperate measures. A vote for anyone other than reform is a vote for the status quo.…” May 1, 18:13
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: ““a colony might reasonably expect some population change post independence” No shit, Sherlock! Remind us again. Just how many third-world…” May 1, 18:12
Northcode on Seven Days Too Long: ““He’s always come across as an exceedingly bitter, verbose troll to me…do you get the sense that Northcode is moving…” May 1, 18:08
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “AI Dun @ 5.23 But you suggested disenfranchised SNP voters voting elsewhere would tip the balance in the constituency you…” May 1, 17:49
Northcode on Seven Days Too Long: “… your life must be pretty dull…you must reminisce frequently upon your halcyon days back in the “Roaring Twenties”… Almost…” May 1, 17:46
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “Fat Slag Wilma Flintstone @ 5.01 Were you crying as you typed that? Oh dear..” May 1, 17:44
Bilbo on Seven Days Too Long: “The individual in article is an economic migrant who sees better opportunities here in Scotland that is financially beneficial to…” May 1, 17:33
Aidan on Seven Days Too Long: “Because Alliance are not a threat to the SNP at the levels their support is at at the moment! Nobody…” May 1, 17:23
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “AI Dun @ 4.44 How so? Account for that.. I’d imagine those who vote alliance on the constituency ballot would…” May 1, 17:10
Captain Caveman on Seven Days Too Long: “He’s always come across as an exceedingly bitter, verbose troll to me. Granted, he’s not as bad as “Geri”, YL…” May 1, 17:01
Aidan on Seven Days Too Long: “Nope – but then of course the status quo would prevail and Scotland would be further and further away from…” May 1, 16:44
Aidan on Seven Days Too Long: “@CC – do you get the sense that Northcode is moving from charming simpleton to banal troll? I used to…” May 1, 16:43
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “JCD If you can’t bring yourself to vote for Tommy then just sharpie in large letters across the ballot “end…” May 1, 16:25
