I watched your STV debate with Alex Salmond on Tuesday night with interest. As the debate progressed I began to realise that your task would be so much easier if you simply put forward reasons why the United Kingdom, in its present form, is a positive force that serves the Scottish people and satisfies their aspirations.
I’ve no doubt that you’d also prefer to put forward a positive case instead of having to constantly attack the idea of independence and use negativity, uncertainty and personal attacks to achieve your aims. So why are you doing this?
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Category
comment, scottish politics
In a blur of media excitement this week about such stellar household names as Haydn Gwynne, Maggi Hambling, John Illsley, William Dalrymple, James Timpson, Amanda Foreman, Andy Puddicombe, David Rowntree, Bill Morris, David Goodhart, William Boyd, Tracy Brabin, Paul Cartledge, Glen Baxter and Andy Barrow* all telling Scots to vote No because they love us, an even more thrilling endorsement for the Union was largely overlooked – that of Dana Rohrabacher.
What do you mean, who?
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comment, culture, media, scottish politics, world
Remember the happy days of 2012 when Unionists complained endlessly that the independence debate was in danger of becoming bogged down by arguments about process rather than politics, readers?
We’re now in the third straight day of the No campaign and the media obsessing about a process (an independent Scotland’s currency arrangements) rather than the principle of whether Scotland should choose its own governments.
Above is a double-page spread from today’s Scottish Sun, which has extremely unusually gone with a front-page splash on politics (rather than its usual diet of celebrity freakshows) for the last three days, and which continues to hammer away – as all three opposition leaders did at FMQs yesterday – on the boneheaded demand for a “Plan B” if the rUK rejects a currency union.
The Sun does so despite devoting most of one of those pages to Alex Salmond telling them EXACTLY what Plan B would be, but evidently they’re a bit slow on the uptake, so let’s see if we can spell it out in words simple enough for Johann Lamont, Ruth Davidson, Willie Rennie and Andrew Nicoll to understand.
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Tags: arithmetic fail
Category
analysis, idiots, investigation, reference, scottish politics
Because you know he’s coming. Do you feel lucky, Labour voters?
Tags: and finally
Category
pictures, uk politics
We can’t really avoid mentioning the big list of “celebrities” for No assembled today by the cuddly, fluffy, funded-by-Tory-donor-oil-tycoon-linked-to-genocidal-murderers “Let’s Stay Together” campaign to lovebomb Scottish voters, summed up perfectly by an alert reader on Twitter as “a veritable Who’s That? of the British establishment”.
One of the people we HAD heard of on the list was the, er, noted historian Dr David Starkey. Dr Starkey was keen to lend his name to the letter telling Scots that “we want to let you know how very much we value our bonds of citizenship with you”.
He didn’t always feel quite so warmly towards Scotland, though.
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Category
comment, scottish politics
Private Eye editor Ian Hislop hasn’t made much of a secret of his opposition to Scottish independence. The satirical and investigative magazine, which is normally so razor-sharp on all the failings and hypocrisies of politicians and the media, has been remarkably silent on the subject of the referendum for the past few years, which one might have thought would have given it enough material to go weekly.
So in that context of that self-imposed censorship, the BBC’s coverage of last month’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow must have been really quite something.
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comment, culture, media, scottish politics, sport
It turns out that Jackie Baillie heard this and thought it was a referendum broadcast.
Silly old Jackie, eh readers?
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audio, investigation, pictures, scottish politics
Alert readers will be aware that even in a campaign characterised by dishonesty, the ever-smirking Labour MSP Jackie Baillie has carved a reputation for especially notable creativity with the truth. With our hands on our hearts, we don’t think we’ve ever heard her say anything that wasn’t a lie. However, on last night’s The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4, we believe she reached a spectacular personal best. Have a listen.
If you can’t quite believe your ears, we’ll transcribe that for you.
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Tags: flat-out lies
Category
audio, scottish politics, transcripts, wtf
We’re sure, right?
And it’ll be accompanied, we haven’t even the slightest shred of doubt, by a veritable procession of outraged columnists demanding that Alistair Darling must take personal responsibility for the actions of these people.
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Tags: britnats, unionist of the day
Category
disturbing, scottish politics
