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.
TURABDIN on The Queer Parliament: “What next? Text books? The shelf life for politicians ought, for public health, to be short. Hallucination in the breed…” May 21, 17:02
Northcode on The Queer Parliament: “Here, I meant to add this, my final analysis bit, to the end of my last comment, but I forgot…” May 21, 16:42
agentx on The Queer Parliament: “Couldn’t you get a few more paragraphs in there?” May 21, 16:40
Northcode on The Queer Parliament: ““Speaking to the Press Association on Thursday, the First Minister said…” There’s some good rhetoric going on here… does Swinney…” May 21, 16:19
Marie Clark on Off-topic: “Hi Tinto, Geez oh, whit a sad place we live in now. I had absolutely no one to vote for…” May 21, 16:16
BigJay on The Queer Parliament: “Come on Rev., do a takedown on that howling success of an SNP politician, Angela Constance. I think she’s now…” May 21, 15:53
lothianlad on The Queer Parliament: “Lets not forget his so called friends in PIE. Harvey that is. Disgusting!!” May 21, 15:33
Geri on The Queer Parliament: “No reason that can’t happen again & forever more. Better to sail our own ship, & remove fools. Than someone…” May 21, 15:12
agentx on The Queer Parliament: “Speaking to the Press Association on Thursday, the First Minister said: “I intend to bring forward a motion to Parliament…” May 21, 15:04
Captain Caveman on The Queer Parliament: ““And the demonstrated possibility of such a condition existing is, I’d suggest, the period between 2007-2014 when with the deft…” May 21, 14:40
Sven on The Queer Parliament: “Lorncal @ 12.16. “I want a return to the norms by which society can thrive.” Exactly, LornC. And the demonstrated…” May 21, 14:22
sam on The Queer Parliament: “Having read the Tribunal Tweets transcript of much of the Employment Tribunal hearing of Ms Young v Manchester City Council…” May 21, 13:46
Stuart MacKay on The Queer Parliament: “Returning to norms does not benefit any of the existing political parties, or their positions. In fact quite the opposite.…” May 21, 13:42
Alf Baird on The Queer Parliament: ““decent unionists” Scotland was annexed by England in 1707, Scots made subject to colonial procedures ever since. There niver wis…” May 21, 13:28
Alf Baird on The Queer Parliament: ““Personally, I want a return to the norms by which society can thrive.” Return? Really? Has the hale o Scotland…” May 21, 13:20
Aidan on The Land Of No Laws: “Do you think Geri is enjoying a Pimm’s in the garden CC, or do you think she’s hanging around her…” May 21, 12:53
Aidan on The Land Of No Laws: “There are now a grand total of 70 mentions under the phrase ‘Northcode’ under this one post. All referring to…” May 21, 12:47
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: ““I’d add extreme ideology, thought police, group think/hive mentality to accept without question the State amending laws for said ideology.”…” May 21, 12:39
Captain Caveman on The Queer Parliament: “I pretty much agree with all of that. I’m used to Reform being denigrated as “far right” (especially by “ultra…” May 21, 12:35
Geri on The Land Of No Laws: “Southerbystander We know that isn’t the reason for illegally attacking a Sovereign Nation. These clowns would have us believe they’re…” May 21, 12:25
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: “” I do love the smell of burning Northcode in the morning.” Man, I really got into your head, didn’t…” May 21, 12:23
Captain Caveman on The Land Of No Laws: “Agreed, Southernbystander. As would any decent, sane, rational person with an IQ>80. 🙂 The facts speak for themselves.” May 21, 12:20
Lorncal on The Queer Parliament: “HMcH/CC: Ia absolutely agree that something drastic needs to be done now, but I am not sure the far right…” May 21, 12:16
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Queer Parliament: “EX-BBC DIRECTOR: ‘PRO-TRANS BIAS PERVADED CORPORATION’ A former BBC Director of News and Current Affairs has revealed how the trans…” May 21, 12:12
Geri on The Land Of No Laws: “Yer flying today, Northy..haha! Trust the dour, humourless, clypey eejits not to see any humour in anything. Also, absolutely spot…” May 21, 12:11
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: “I never found any of the shite you pissed aboot this place amusing… or interesting. “boring the life out of…” May 21, 12:06
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: “Look, Geri… atween the twa o us we really pissed off those thick Inglis colonialists. Mission accomplished, eh? I don’t…” May 21, 12:05
Southernbystander on The Land Of No Laws: “Isn’t this all dancing on the head of a pin? ‘Persia’ is a murderous and very oppressive regime, that has…” May 21, 12:00
