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.
Lynne on The Final Robbery: “No public funds were lost Just the small matter of £2.7m Brachform has cost.” May 26, 01:37
Young Lochinvar on The Final Robbery: “Olster 2 “words”. – Boris Johnson -. They are ALL self serving scum.” May 26, 01:34
Young Lochinvar on The Final Robbery: “Reminiscent of Dugdales “yer too thick to know what ye were saying” judges summary in its case against the site…” May 26, 01:29
David Lindsay on The Final Robbery: “Tessa Jowell professed to have had no idea that David Mills had remortgaged their house. At least unless you believed…” May 26, 01:12
Olster on The Final Robbery: “I’m a unionist, unreservedly. However I have great respect for the Rev’s journalistic brilliance. I have always had a modicum…” May 26, 01:01
Ian Smith on The Final Robbery: “If the Murrell/Sturgeon junta couldn’t keep their sticky fingers off a mere 600k in the SNP’s accounts, what have they…” May 26, 00:27
Colin Dawson on The Final Robbery: “I asked Google AI: “If it transpires that Sturgeon was the benificiary of his embezzlement, can any of the assets…” May 26, 00:08
Mark Beggan on The Final Robbery: “There’s no need to rub Patrick Thistles nose in it. A Third world hick with lots of oil.” May 25, 23:57
Geri on The Final Robbery: “They’re the only two sticking to international law despite severe provocation that’d test the patience of saint. Just shows how…” May 25, 23:54
Grum on The Final Robbery: “Since I was young, Scotland was solidly Labour, and they were corrupt bastards. Unfortunately, it appears that the modern SNP…” May 25, 23:46
Confused on The Final Robbery: ““dont worry peter – that dot bain will get ya aff … ” did peter and nikki have a joint…” May 25, 23:46
James on The Final Robbery: “Two sneering, servile unionists there. Both paid by the post.” May 25, 23:32
James on The Final Robbery: “Got that, everyone? English-appointed civil servants and Vauxhall Cross are benign agents, and do nothing but good in Scotland and…” May 25, 23:29
James on The Final Robbery: “Your comment is correct. Almost. You pay f*ck all to Scotland in taxes. The ‘block grant’ as England patronisingly calls…” May 25, 23:22
Oneliner on The Final Robbery: “Agreed, Robin is on fire. The next Through A Scottish Prism should be interesting.” May 25, 23:11
Hatey McHateface on The Final Robbery: ““So where is it during the night ?” Erm. It’s the Earth that moves. It revolves on its axis. The…” May 25, 23:07
Onlooker on The Final Robbery: “https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/artist-paints-nicola-sturgeon-over-5002394” May 25, 23:02
Hatey McHateface on The Final Robbery: “That’s the size small. The size XL is £99.99.” May 25, 22:35
Skip_NC on The Final Robbery: “I’m curious why you’re including Calum Steele in that comment. He was the only one of those you mentioned who…” May 25, 22:23
robertkknight on The Final Robbery: “Anyone with an ounce of integrity should be angry as to what’s happened to the SNP over the past decade.…” May 25, 22:19
A2 on The Final Robbery: “Nope, the whole 600k is still missing. He’s nicked from the SNP but theres nothing that shows he just took…” May 25, 22:15
Hatey McHateface on The Final Robbery: ““The embezzlement amounts to an average of £35k per year, and for most of that period, him and Sturgeon would…” May 25, 22:08
GM on The Final Robbery: “True.. and we are kept in that state by the actions of self serving, conscienceless wankers. Sturgeon being the worst…” May 25, 22:02
Colin Alexander on The Final Robbery: “Well done Stuart Campbell and Sean Clerkin. If it weren’t for yous pesky kids, he would probably got away with…” May 25, 22:00
Hatey McHateface on The Final Robbery: “Hark to the tinkle of the royal wee. “We all know the media aren’t journalists these days either but government…” May 25, 21:55
Graham Fordyce on The Final Robbery: “This has always been about who controls the message. If you’re looking for justice, then take control yourself. Let’s raise…” May 25, 21:54
Graham Fordyce on The Final Robbery: “This has always been about who controls the message. If you’re looking for justice, then take control yourself. Let’s raise…” May 25, 21:54
GM on The Final Robbery: “Seats, places on quangos, assistance with setting up companies and funding for those companies, political preference, promotions, pay rises” May 25, 21:50
Chas on The Final Robbery: “Slight correction. ‘It is shite being Alf Baird’. It is always helpful to blame others other than ourselves. However there…” May 25, 21:49
Socrates MacSporran on The Final Robbery: “Alf Baird @ 9.02pm: Professor, Renton did, later in his famous rant, admit: “We’ve been colonised by wankers”.” May 25, 21:47
