God loves an optimist 264
Posted on
December 23, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The Independent, 22 December 2014:
We can only admire Mr Murphy’s ambition.
The dangers of skimming 78
Posted on
December 22, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Libby Brooks in today’s Guardian:
The swing implied by the figures suggests that as many 10 Labour seats [sic] could fall to the SNP.”
But that’s not what the figures suggest at all.
The alpha ned 219
Posted on
December 22, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Fans of the bewildering in Scottish politics don’t look set to be disappointed in 2015.
Jim Murphy’s only been the Scottish Labour “leader” for a week, but already he seems hell-bent on hurling the party’s North British branch into the padded walls of its cell with more vigour than ever before, heroically ignoring the open door.
The Legacy 234
Posted on
December 21, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Iain Macwhirter in “Disunited Kingdom” (Cargo Publishing, 8 December 2014):
It’s a difficult assessment to dispute.
Behind the magic 158
Posted on
December 20, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We thought you might like a wee glimpse into the machinery.
An economy with the truth 141
Posted on
December 19, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
By now readers will probably be familiar with STV News reporter Stephen Daisley’s superbly withering review of Alan Cochrane’s referendum diaries. One quote from the book aroused particular interest:
According to Cochrane, the Canadian economist told the First Minister: ‘I’m only here for one day, Alex, but don’t f— with me or I’ll be up here a lot more often.’“
But did that really happen?
Oilmageddon 116
Posted on
December 19, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Political etiquette is a funny thing. Should some of the more vocal supporters of a Yes vote dare to express any degree of satisfaction at a couple of dozen journalists’ jobs being lost on a Unionist newspaper, social media is suddenly aflame with pious, angry lectures about the poor taste of rejoicing in others’ unemployment – regardless of whether it might perhaps have been caused by the paper’s own unethical actions.
But when tens of thousands of blameless oil workers face unemployment just before Christmas, it’s proving all but impossible for Unionists to keep a lid on their glee.
It could be worse 113
Posted on
December 19, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
There’s only one person on Earth currently more hated by The Sun than Russell Brand (against whom it runs a substantial attack piece roughly every other day), and that’s Vladimir Putin. So the paper’s been almost as delighted by the recently plummeting oil price as Scottish Labour and Tory MSP Murdo Fraser, because it can revel in the trouble the collapse causes Putin.
Today its main politics lead is a full-on gloat about the dreadful state Russia is in at the moment, giving up half a page to an eye-catching graphic.
It must be hoping people don’t look at those numbers too closely.
A Christmas bonus 84
Posted on
December 18, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Hang on a minute. We just got yet another begging email from Labour.
Those vacancies sound familiar. The amount, not so much. £87,500?
The tipping point 81
Posted on
December 18, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The argument that seat projections based on current opinion polling give the SNP (based on uniform swing) a wildly unrealistic number of seats seems at first glance to be compelling. More than two dozen current Labour seats have five-figure majorities, and several are higher than 20,000. Taken individually every single one represents a mammoth task, and capturing the bulk of them looks an absurd dream.
We’re deeply sceptical ourselves about the predictions giving the SNP 40 or more seats, partly for that reason and partly because the lesson of 2011 – when the Nats somehow pulled off a 30-point poll shift in around six weeks – shows how foolish it is to call a febrile-looking election that’s still the best part of five months away.
So we’re not going to be doing that. We’re not making any forecasts here. Rather, we were interested in taking a look at how it could happen, and how First Past The Post, for so long the SNP’s mortal enemy, could next year become a powerful ally.
Running terrified 181
Posted on
December 18, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The egos of the SNP’s tiny band of six Westminster MPs must be swelling by the day. For weeks we’ve been recording Labour’s standard, decades-old mantra of how Scots mustn’t vote SNP or the Tories will get in. In today’s Herald, meanwhile, no less a figure than the Prime Minister warns that if we vote SNP, Labour will get in.
And the Lib Dems? The Lib Dems have completely lost their minds.
