A man telling a lie 46
Posted on
November 23, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Ed Miliband on the BBC 10 O’Clock News, 21 November 2014.
Gander dislikes sauce 174
Posted on
November 22, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
There’s a glorious piece in today’s Daily Mail from BritNat arch-troll Simon Heffer, in which he fumes and splutters about the outrageous idea of finding himself, thanks to the huge surge in support for the SNP since the referendum, ruled next year by a government “that only a small minority in England would have voted for”.
We’re sure that Scots everywhere will empathise with the unfortunate Mr Heffer’s intolerable plight, having many decades of experience of that very scenario. We’d also be interested to know, however, if he sent a submission to the Smith Commission detailing his radical solution to the whole devolution issue, as outlined in the Mail on 6 September this year:
We very much hope that he did.
Conflicting accounts 157
Posted on
November 21, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
From an editorial in today’s Daily Record:
“The debate in the House of Commons yesterday proved once and for all that The Vow is doing its job.
The Prime Minister insisted no review is ‘on the horizon’, saving valuable funds for Holyrood.”
But that isn’t a very accurate report of events, for several reasons. Not least of them is the fact that David Cameron wasn’t even there.
The time is right 235
Posted on
November 21, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Last night, the Lib Dems outpolled the Monster Raving Loonies by just 198 votes.
(Well, the original Monster Raving Loonies, anyway. Not the ones who won.)
A serious matter 257
Posted on
November 20, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Packed Labour benches for the devolution debate in the Commons today.
We’re sure Gordon Brown’s just nipped out for a Snickers or something.
Not quite getting it 367
Posted on
November 19, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Labour MSP Kezia Dugdale today marked the historic nomination of Scotland’s first female First Minister with a Daily Record column in characteristically sour style, which waited until the second paragraph before sticking in a Margaret Thatcher comparison.
It wasn’t until later that it got confusing.
The faithful lie 155
Posted on
November 19, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Last night’s bizarre edition of Scotland 2014, in which the three Scottish Labour “leadership” candidates were quizzed by the daughter of a former Labour leader in front of an audience of the candidates’ own supporters (comprising MSPs, councillors and activists), saw all three stick doggedly to what’s clearly going to be the party’s main pitch in the 2015 general election – “Vote SNP, get Tories”.
It’s a line the party has trotted out at every election for decades, and which has been getting pumped out almost daily since Johann Lamont’s resignation – former deputy “leader” Anas Sarwar (who oddly declined to stand for the actual job when it became available) penned a column for the Evening Times on Monday, for example, entitled “Every vote for an SNP candidate is a vote to help elect David Cameron”, and he said the same thing in the Commons this very afternoon.
As alert readers will know, we like to check the facts on these things.
Margaret Curran, Buzzfeed User 293
Posted on
November 18, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
…is the phrase that was making us chuckle this morning.
It headed an article of disingenuous carping so feeble that we can’t even be bothered archive-linking to it, entitled “Ten SNP Fails Since 2007”, because Margaret is bare down with the kids, innit? But we couldn’t help noticing one of the examples.
The lesser of evils 115
Posted on
November 18, 2014 by
Douglas Daniel
Ever since Nicola Sturgeon announced on Saturday that the SNP would never put the Tories in government, various mainstream political pundits have shown an alarming level of inability to grasp the concept of someone who cannot possibly become Prime Minister declaring their preference out of those who can.
Perhaps we’re being a bit unkind, as this isn’t a regular feature of British politics – usually we only hear the leaders of the two main parties telling us why they’re the best for the job, with the Liberal Democrat candidate comically trying to pretend that they stand a chance of being Prime Minister – but it does highlight the extraordinarily parochial nature of political debate in the UK media.
Because anyone who cares to cast a glance across the continent will see that such scenarios are not just common, but often an integral part of politics across Europe.
The leader who won’t lead anyone 137
Posted on
November 17, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We know some readers hate listening to audio (we do too), so here’s a full transcript of this interview from this morning, with some brief added commentary.
The necessity of treachery 116
Posted on
November 17, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Readers, since Sunday we’ve been endeavouring on your behalf to find the elusive alleged Scottish Labour conference resolution to oppose the renewal of Trident which Neil Findlay insists is still current policy. We’ve drawn a blank, and Mr Findlay himself has been no help, telling an alert reader that:
“I can’t recall the year – it was quote [sic] some time ago but I am reliably informed it hasn’t changed since then.”
We still haven’t tracked anything down, but thanks to another alert reader we did find a fascinating piece in the archives of the Herald. We share it with you below.
