One of the great things about this site’s sky-high viewing figures is that on the rare occasions when we might be, for example, out having a walk in the park to get over the crushing disappointment of somehow losing yet another Scottish Cup semi-final, our ever-vigilant readers will remain alert.
We’re off to watch the Scottish Cup semi-final now, so to keep you all entertained for the next couple of hours here’s a little something we put together at the request of columnist and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch, and for anyone who was listening to Radio Scotland’s “Headlines” this morning.
Hopefully we won’t need it ourselves by 3.30pm. #COYR
Even Sparta’s mythical iron-bar currency – specifically designed, so legend had it, to shackle the economy by being too heavy to buy or trade anything – was marginally better, in Alistair Darling’s view, than anything an independent Scotland might be able to use for money, all of which will lead to inevitable doom.
Because Scotland, as all good unionists know, is the only country in world history for which there is no currency option that will work at all.
Have you seen the film of the coronation? I’m not talking about the grand televised extravaganza in Westminster Abbey with the young Queen Elizabeth done up like a wedding cake – I mean the Scottish coronation, in Edinburgh, three weeks after the glamorous London ceremony of 2 June 1953.
It’s not easy to locate. You’ll struggle to find a picture of it, or even a documented reference – a brief casual mention squeezed in right at the end of this article on the monarchical website is the best we could do.
Acting on the advice of her ministers, Elizabeth attended the ceremony dressed in an ordinary coat and hat. The honours of Scotland were presented to her, and she held them as if they were volatile explosive devices, standing stock-still until they were taken back again by be-gowned flunkies.
There would be no actual official crowning. It might give the natives ideas.
It seems that we’re letting the side down a bit here. If the same percentage of us were willing to vote Yes as the men, we’d be home and dry come September 18th, living in a nuclear-weapon-free democracy for the first time in our lives. But it seems like a lot of us are either not convinced or haven’t begun thinking about it yet.
I don’t believe it’s the former: anyone genuinely looking at the arguments, not to mention the behaviour of those on both sides of the debate, could hardly fail to be convinced that independence is a good thing. So I’m guessing it might be the latter.
We didn’t do a stats post at the start of April (still just under 4m pageviews a month, if you’re curious) but when someone tweeted these figures this morning we thought they were worth a wee toot, because they’re more than just nice news for us.
They’re from the independent web-traffic analysis site Alexa.com, and they detail the relative rankings for the seven biggest dedicated Scottish politics sites on the web.
The last batch of data from our Panelbase poll concerns social attitudes, away from directly party-political issues. We did a whole bunch of these last time, with a mixture of predictable and unexpected results, and Scots had a surprise or two for us again.
We’ve had these sitting around for a few days without getting round to posting them, but as we’re currently knee-deep in the last tranche of data from our Panelbase poll, it seemed as good a time as any to clear the decks.
First up in the ambiguously-named Posterotron is the “respectable” face of British nationalism, in the form of UKIP European-election candidate David Coburn.
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “@Northcode 4pm Ethnic Finns, or Suomalaiset, are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland, with a rich cultural heritage…” Dec 21, 17:15
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “I think that qualifies you to play for Ireland’s national football team if not outright for Irish citizenship Mark. Odd…” Dec 21, 17:07
Northcode on A matter of class: “Correction: The Ethnic Egyptians are known as Misriyyun not whatever nonsense Wordpress created when it processed the text of my…” Dec 21, 16:16
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “@factchecker 2.3ppm In fact, his concept of each country being run by a separate ethnic group seems distinctly wrong. Is…” Dec 21, 16:09
Northcode on A matter of class: ““The eminent professor…” As usual the point being made immediately, and irredeemably, soars swiftly over the minds of colonists. There…” Dec 21, 16:00
Mark Beggan on A matter of class: “And there was me drinking Guinness with the Irish. It all went well until I happened to mention I was…” Dec 21, 15:51
Mark Beggan on A matter of class: “You need to get over that or you will not go forward.” Dec 21, 15:49
Mark Beggan on A matter of class: “You will be arrested for that.” Dec 21, 15:41
factchecker on A matter of class: “The eminent professor says “You know, like ethnic Norwegians run Norway. Or ethnic Finns run Finland. Or ethnic Indians run…” Dec 21, 14:39
Alf Baird on A matter of class: “Hatey, I assume you have good reason for suggesting that ethnic Scots should not run their own country? You know,…” Dec 21, 14:05
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “Westminster parliament of England and Ireland simply pretended through deceit and lies it was the same legal construction and legal…” Dec 21, 14:03
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “Some information omitted perhaps on purpose is that when you dissolve the GB parliament treaty 1800 you dissolve the monarch…” Dec 21, 13:41
Captain Caveman on A matter of class: “Oh good grief, here I am sat with a “negroni hangover” following a rather spectacular dinner with friends (Mrs C…” Dec 21, 13:40
Northcode on A matter of class: “DANCE, SLAVE, DANCE! Yet another imprinted sex-bonded colonist to add to my entourage of sex-bonded colonists.” Dec 21, 13:36
Northcode on A matter of class: ““… does not an imprinted sex-bonded slave make.” This is an example of another flower of rhetoric called Hyperbaton. Made…” Dec 21, 13:31
Alf Baird on A matter of class: ““Why, oh, why… do the colonists on here come across as being a tad thuggish?” Maybe because ‘colonialism is force’…” Dec 21, 13:26
Northcode on A matter of class: “I mispeeled incomprehemsibeness (I’m big enough to own my literary failures)… it should, of course, read as incomprehensibleness (which is…” Dec 21, 13:20
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “Perhaps Scots do not wish to replace pretend union for the civic nations kind of union,” Dec 21, 13:08
Northcode on A matter of class: “A colonist speaks… and, as usual, it speaks incomprehemsibeness… and Inglis its first lingo tae. I shall deal with its…” Dec 21, 13:06
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “The responses BTL from the usual suspects tend to give the lie to your assertion though Northy. We all know…” Dec 21, 13:01
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “For a English Irish parliament and the Queen of England and Ireland cannot fit that Humpty dumpty parliament again,” Dec 21, 12:59
James Cheyne on A matter of class: “History is replete with the ghosts of vanished States. So it is, No more Succession to the Hanoverian dynasty since…” Dec 21, 12:54
GM on A matter of class: “Interesting juxtaposition Ben Hope. Dinnae gie up hope o’ a court case or twa in the new year. I haven’t.…” Dec 21, 12:45
Captain Caveman on A matter of class: “Hey Fatso, are you still looking down on the hardworking poor, e.g. McDonalds workers getting up at 6am to work…” Dec 21, 12:38
James on A matter of class: “Northy; The Site Prick proved your point – within 25 meenits! Watch oot, the resident Yoons have got the hots…” Dec 21, 12:25
Northcode on A matter of class: “Why, oh, why (anyone know what this sweetly scented thing is?) do the colonists on here come across as being…” Dec 21, 12:17
Andy Ellis on A matter of class: “Kudos to Northcode for introducing the esoteric concept of egrogores to BTL discourse, if for little else in his nativistic…” Dec 21, 12:12
Northcode on A matter of class: “DANCE, SLAVE, DANCE!” Dec 21, 12:00
Hatey McHateface on A matter of class: “Moving whit, Northy? Yer bowels? A poignant and moving text written in (checks notes) the lying language of the coloniser?…” Dec 21, 11:57
Northcode on A matter of class: “How does one deploy a Diacope in a sentence? A Diacope is a flower… a flower of rhetoric. Some folk…” Dec 21, 11:56
