Big Bruvver 116
Posted on
July 19, 2014 by
Chris Cairns
Trouble in Middleland 265
Posted on
July 18, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
After the implosion of Rory Stewart MP’s “Hands Across The Border” initiative (to be replaced by “Make A Big Pile Of Rocks For The Union”, which we’re sure will be a roaring success, despite being currently £52,500 short of its fundraising target), we comforted ourselves that there was still to be a big lovebombing exercise between Scotland and England this month, in the form of the Border Union Rally.
Tragically, it seems as though some “unforeseen technical problems” have struck the event – although we’re not absolutely sure how you can have technical problems with going for a walk – and it too has had to be cancelled.
The website has vanished, so the precise details of these insurmountable logistical obstacles aren’t as yet forthcoming. (We’re finding it hard to shake the terribly cynical suspicion that they’re related to the difficulty of calling something a “rally” if there are only three people at it.) But we’ll bring you more news as we get it.
Before you do anything else today 290
Posted on
July 18, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Go and read this. It’s an electric piece of polemic on Bella Caledonia by the respected Scottish playwright Peter Arnott, and it’s the best distillation we’ve ever read of one of the key principles of the referendum debate.
The myth that a No vote is a vote to keep things the way they are is one of the most powerful and dangerous weapons wielded by the anti-independence campaign. The reality is far worse, for all sorts of reasons.
Some are cold hard facts: the financial trap waiting for the Scottish Government in the form of “more powers” that aren’t powers at all, but huge burdens which will cripple the Scottish budget. But what Arnott’s piece outlines is something much more insidious.
A self-fulfilling prophecy 293
Posted on
July 17, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Kerry Gill in the Scottish Daily Express, 17 July 2014:
“Two months to go until the referendum, but acrimony will last for years
Our emphasis. It sure is a mystery where this “acrimony” is coming from, eh readers? Perhaps, if we all have to get along together after the referendum, it might possibly be better not to engage in furious, unhinged rants where you call your opponents a bunch of racist bigots. Just a thought, like.
What could have been and what was 299
Posted on
July 17, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Alert readers might be thinking that headline sounds vaguely familiar and they’d be right, because we published a post two months ago with a similar title, highlighting the curiously inverse relationship between media scare stories about alleged abuse in the referendum campaign for which there’s no evidence whatsoever and actual abuse that really happened.
We were put in mind of it this week, after the Daily Record ran a particularly barrel-scraping “vile cybernats” piece about how a Labour activist from England got a little bit of extremely mild stick on Twitter after announcing he was on his way to Scotland to stick his nose in the independence debate, and how he WORRIED that he might meet a hostile reception at the railway station (although of course, and happily, he didn’t).
“Better Together” campaign leaders Blair McDougall and Alistair Darling constantly demand that the Yes campaign, and Alex Salmond in particular, takes responsibility for and action against random online nutters behaving in abusive or threatening ways, even when those people have no discernible connection to Yes Scotland or the SNP.
But they’re less keen on putting their own house in order.
If we’d brought Parkinson 82
Posted on
July 16, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Our mole in the No camp risked life and limb to bring us this behind-the-scenes footage of the filming of the exciting “Scotland, You’re Our Best Friend” video.
To be honest, it only confirms our suspicions.
I Used To Be A Celebrity 268
Posted on
July 16, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
With two hands and a map 310
Posted on
July 16, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson, bless her wee heart, is banging once again in today’s Scottish Sun on the drum she’s made her own personal pet issue of the referendum campaign – the BBC.
The Tory chief – who likes to bash the public sector but has spent almost her entire life funded by the taxpayer, first as a Beeb employee, then as a student at a Scottish university and now as an MSP – notes that viewers in Ireland pay £5.50 a month to access the iPlayer, and that the same fate might befall an independent Scotland.
It sounds a reasonable argument, but like so many of the No camp’s assertions it unfortunately falls to pieces under the pressure of reality.
What it would be like 266
Posted on
July 15, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The media and the No camp, in so far as those are two different things, got incredibly excited today about some comments made by new European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in which he said that the EU wouldn’t undergo any further enlargement for the next five years.
“Juncker deals blow to Alex Salmond’s EU claims” (Telegraph)
“Independence: Juncker deals blow to Scots EU plans” (Scotsman)
“Alex Salmond’s dream of staying in the EU dealt a blow by new President of the European Commission” (Daily Record)
“Blow for SNP as Junker [sic] rules out EU expansion” (Express)
“Unionists hail Juncker ‘hammer blow’ to Scotland’s EU place” (Financial Times)
So far so mundane. And then something odd, but welcome, happened.
Don’t think of a number 181
Posted on
July 15, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Our brain protected us from looking at the Scotsman yesterday, so it wasn’t until late last night that we noticed what we first thought must be some sort of elaborate spoof.
“Labour claim 1m may lose jobs after independence”, ran what we suspect may in the post-match analysis come to be regarded as the most deranged headline of the entire referendum campaign. There are fewer than 2.6m people working in the country altogether, which would mean Labour were threatening almost 40% of all the jobs in Scotland would be lost with a Yes vote.
It wasn’t until two thirds of the way down the article that we discovered the headline writer had in fact gotten a little carried away, and that Labour had once again just plucked the word “million” out of the air to sound scary, claiming that only “some” of the jobs were allegedly at risk.
But how many is “some”?
When is a doctor not a doctor? 176
Posted on
July 15, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
A post appeared on the news-and-discussion site Reddit Scotland last night. We’ve reproduced it in full below, because it seems like something people should know.
As you would be done by 171
Posted on
July 14, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Below is a clip from the short report on social media in the independence referendum that appeared on tonight’s STV News, and will apparently also air on Scotland Tonight. (You can see the whole thing here.)
Like every other media report of our article about Alex Johnstone MSP, it omits the bit where we explained WHY we called him some rude names, but in this case we’re happy to accept that that was for reasons of time.
The more interesting bit is Johnstone’s own comments, because the MSP’s reaction is a breathtaking piece of hypocritical dishonesty that seems to us to be entirely in keeping with the character of the man.
