A less permanent permanence 69
Posted on
December 03, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
World speed-reading record broken again 205
Posted on
December 02, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We didn’t think we’d ever encounter a greater feat of rapid comprehension than Alistair Darling digesting and analysing the entire 670-page White Paper on independence in under two hours back in 2013, readers. But we’re delighted to reveal a new champion.
Matters of life and death 53
Posted on
December 02, 2014 by
Douglas Daniel
Of all the powers that Labour were reportedly responsible for keeping reserved to Westminster, abortion law is perhaps the most revealing about Labour’s true attitude towards Scotland and devolution during the Smith Commission’s deliberations.
It’s one of a handful of issues, including embryology, xenotransplantation (that’s transplanting a cell or organ from one species to another) and surrogacy, which would otherwise fall to the Cabinet Secretary for Health had Labour not specifically reserved them when creating the Scottish Parliament in 1997.
(In fact, it was Tony Blair who personally insisted that abortion law remain reserved to Westminster. Donald Dewar was apparently in favour of devolving it, but we all know who wins in a battle between Scottish Labour and London Labour.)
If the Smith Commission was nothing else, it was an opportunity for unionists – Labour in particular – to prove their commitment to devolution by relinquishing their hold on powers previously considered too important to fall within the Scottish Parliament’s remit. Unsurprisingly, they declined it.
A letter to the editor 234
Posted on
December 02, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
…of the Press & Journal.
The unwilling accomplices 149
Posted on
December 01, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
As we’re talking about surveys, opinion polls and statistics today, it seemed worth mentioning another one that’s come to our attention. Conducted earlier in the year by YouGov but only released today, it’s a vast poll done on behalf of the Co-operative and canvassed over 180,000 people, most of them through the Co-op’s own website.
It’s relevant to us because the Co-operative also runs a political party, which has representatives at both Westminster (31 MPs) and Holyrood (4). They’re little-known because the Co-op never stands in its own right, but in conjunction with Labour, so to all intents and purposes it’s a branch of the Labour Party, funded by Co-op customers.
And it turns out most of them don’t know that, and don’t like it when they find out.
The ultimate irony 148
Posted on
December 01, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We’ve long known that Labour’s attachment to the Union was founded on the belief – though a statistically erroneous one – that it couldn’t form a secure UK government without the block of MPs (currently 40) that it sends to Westminster from Scotland.
But a fascinating article from YouGov president Peter Kellner on the YG website today suggests that the party’s desperate and eventually successful efforts to secure a No vote could turn out to be the most Pyrrhic victory of all time.
The conclusion not arrived at 114
Posted on
December 01, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
There’s a curious column in today’s Scottish Sun on the subject of the Smith Commission. We’re going to have to quote quite a large chunk of it to make our point.
Let’s play Jocko Bingo! 161
Posted on
November 30, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
This really happened today:
Bagpipes! Haggis! Tartan! Whisky! Pretty sure we just got trolled, folks.
Socialism, 2014 78
Posted on
November 30, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Here’s Jim Murphy, a self-proclaimed “socialist” and the hot favourite to be the next “leader” of Scottish Labour, interviewed in today’s Mail On Sunday while doubtless still fresh from his regular early-morning run-through of The Red Flag:
To the barricades, comrades!
Objects in the mirror 88
Posted on
November 30, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
…are closer than they appear, runs a (slightly depressing) inscription that must by law be engraved on the door mirror of cars in the USA.
Objects in the Telegraph, though, follow different rules. (Thanks, we’re here all week.)
The truth may out 101
Posted on
November 30, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
As the Unionist press and parties indulge in orgasmic paroxysms this week about how “The Vow” has allegedly been delivered and exceeded, it rings even stranger that absolutely nobody wants to claim the credit for authoring the historic document that saved the UK. Our investigations continue.
How to lie without even trying 232
Posted on
November 29, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
