When someone sent us a link last week to a picture of an Anas Sarwar election leaflet, we were immediately struck by the fact that it had the weird characteristic of being ostensibly handwritten but underlining every word in a sentence individually, which reminded us of one we’d seen from Douglas Alexander back in January.
So after a busy weekend of saving stray cats from going blind, we went to dig the two leaflets out, in the modest hope of getting a quick cheap joke about them both using the same fake-handwriting font. But instead we got a bit of a surprise.
This is how Scotland is seen in the largest part of the UK today. There’s nothing at all new about Scots being portrayed as “stealing” money rightfully belonging to England, of course, nor in the stereotype depicted by the Jimmy hat. It’s the word on the placard that tells the story: “immigrant”.
A lot of people this week quoted a line supposedly from the former Labour cabinet minister Roy Jenkins, which runs “a statement is only interesting if a sane man could say the opposite”. We haven’t been able to verify if he ever really said that or not, but it doesn’t really matter, because it’s true either way.
If you ask them on social media, Labour MPs and activists will all hotly deny that the party signed up to the Conservatives’ plan for £30bn of austerity cuts in the next five years. It’ll be interesting to see whether they try to continue doing so in the light of Ed Balls’ appearance on the Andrew Marr Show this morning.
Alert readers will have noticed that this week we’ve been fascinated by the differences between the mostly-identical Scottish and English editions of The Sun. For example, the editorial below from today’s English edition doesn’t make it across the border.
Here’s a clip from last night’s Question Time from Leeds, in which Anna Soubry MP for the Conservatives, Lucy Powell MP for Labour, Charles Kennedy MP for the Lib Dems, ardent Unionist Ian Hislop from Private Eye and various audience members spent 20 minutes attacking the SNP, with no SNP representative present.
(The closest thing was Natalie Bennett, leader of the Greens in England and Wales, who was relentlessly mocked, derided and harangued from all sides for most of the programme’s duration, including by the “anti-establishment” Hislop.)
It seems to us that the solution to the problem is simple.
For some time, readers, we’ve been puzzling to ourselves about quite why the idea of having to work with the SNP in the UK parliament enrages the Labour Party quite so much. Because it doesn’t make any rational sense.
Indeed, on any intelligent analysis the arrangement currently suggested by opinion polls is a dream outcome for the party. Think about it logically for a moment. Minority government lifts the burden of responsibility from your shoulders – there’s always someone else to blame if you bail on a manifesto promise, because you can say “We didn’t have a majority to push it through”.
(The SNP, it should of course be recorded, took advantage of this benefit of minority government more than once at Holyrood between 2007 and 2011)
But in Labour’s specific case in 2015, there’s what seems an even bigger boon.
Unionist politicians, journalists and trolls have barely been able to contain themselves with glee at today’s figures suggesting that Scotland’s economy was weaker in the last fiscal year than in previous years (though still healthy). We’ll keep this short.
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Why are you so keen to get an answer that doesn’t make sense? When you go to the shop, do…” Sep 20, 08:54
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Factchecker never checks all facts but simply avoids those he cannot cope with when they do not fit his narrative,…” Sep 20, 08:49
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Well done Willie, We do not have politicians nowadays that carry out their employment with due diligence, simple actors maybe,…” Sep 20, 08:31
DaveL on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Oh and by the way Hatey, you didn’t answer my earlier question with anything substantial; I’ll ask again. Are the…” Sep 19, 23:55
DaveL on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “With an apology like that I would expect a weeks worth of self flagellation to be in order as well.…” Sep 19, 23:06
sarah on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “@ Willie: thanks for raising this matter. It is yet another example of the failure by so many people who…” Sep 19, 21:29
Oneliner on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Described as ‘House Jocks’ on Through A Scottish Prism There are many other examples of the subculture” Sep 19, 21:25
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Apology accepted. It was a forced error in the heat of the moment, no more than that. And Alf’s hypocrisy…” Sep 19, 20:40
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “@Spartan My view is that anybody who is willing to sacrifice Ukr, or Isr for that matter, in exchange for…” Sep 19, 20:34
factchecker on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Time for an apology. At at 4.22pm I posted in reply to our learned professor’s delight at Scottish independence being…” Sep 19, 20:06
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “@Hatey – The West collectively is doing its best to actively fan the flames of conflict. The nations involved are…” Sep 19, 19:59
Factchecker on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Ah, now I understand. Being born and bred in Scotland, going to a Scottish comprehensive school and a Scottish university…” Sep 19, 19:58
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “@Factchecker – To be fair to Alf he was merely quoting 2nd hand, however his selection of sources/quotes does raise…” Sep 19, 19:54
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “What a lot of keech being spraffed here. Two PMs since 1997 were Scottish, serving a total of 13 years;…” Sep 19, 19:48
Aidan on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Fuck me Alf – so we’ve got Vl@d, perhaps we can look to get; – Bhaal – Bughuul – the…” Sep 19, 19:48
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““WM decisions are made by its MPs, not the PM” Jeezo Xaracen. How many suns do you see in the…” Sep 19, 19:13
Willie on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “To change the dial a touch this Saturday evening I was just catching up on the questions being asked in…” Sep 19, 19:12
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Aw, Dave, it breks ma hert ye’ve nae ither cant tae play wi.” Sep 19, 19:06
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “No shit, Sherlock, erm, Alf. Who’s this Ambassador Murray boy? I don’t waste my time on X.” Sep 19, 18:57
DaveL on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The self proclaimed factchecker speaks! Who takes any notice of you? You claim at 4.22pm that ‘thousands’ of innocent civilians…” Sep 19, 18:54
TURABDIN on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “@FACTCHECKER, depends on how one might define «Scottish». Pedestrian anglo-unionist clones or a Scot with a functioning individuality. Blair &…” Sep 19, 18:54
Xaracen on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““In that time we have been hugely over-represented as leaders of the UK. Hardly a ‘subaltern people’.” WM decisions are…” Sep 19, 18:45
DaveL on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “…but we keep being told by the MSM and you (wee Adolf AKA Hatey) that the Rus are losing the…” Sep 19, 18:37
Dan on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Massively wealthy UK “businessman” and tax resident in Monaco who lays off loads of folk from companies he is involved…” Sep 19, 18:03
factchecker on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “In the last 30 years, on a population basis Scotland should have had a Prime Minister for 3 of them.…” Sep 19, 18:00
TURABDIN on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “assuming your post is not ironic, which i believe it might be, the current UK cabinet has one Scot in…” Sep 19, 17:29
TURABDIN on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “One cannot be too choosey about ones friends or you might end up with none. One may sup….with a long…” Sep 19, 17:10
agentx on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““Subaltern peoples” refers to social groups, classes, or populations who are structurally excluded, marginalised, and denied a voice or agency…” Sep 19, 16:53
robertkknight on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Herman Munster couldn’t find Scotland on a map if his next hit of amyl nitrite depended upon it. The Celtic…” Sep 19, 16:45
