That time of the month 135
It’s the 1st of November and we almost forgot to do a stats post. Tch, eh?
We’re calling one of those numbers another landmark.
Scorched Ayrth 174
We’re really, really sorry about that headline, on several levels.
But wait until you see what this one’s about.
It’s a trap! 106
Blair McDougall, director of “Better Together”, Dundee University, 30 October 2013:
You heard it straight from the horse’s – well, let’s be kind and say “mouth”, folks.
Revolution for lazy people 77
Oh, I was irritating when I was 15.
On our way to school, my friends would stop at Ian’s Newsagents and scatter their pocket money on the counter to work out how many fizzy cola bottles and packets of Space Raiders they could get. I’d do the same, but mine would have a copy of The New Statesman thrown in too.
Our man at the scene 190
Hello, I’m Andrew. Rather than follow my desires and mingle with the true believers at the Yes Scotland meeting in Penicuik last night, I decided to expand my horizons and instead attended the launch of Better Together Musselburgh at the Brunton Hall.
My first surprise was to discover that the meeting was being chaired by a neighbour of mine. I sloped off to the back of the hall to keep a low profile.
Spending £20 to save a tenner 81
This week it was claimed by Stuart Adam, senior economic researcher at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), that taxes would have to rise almost 14% in an independent Scotland, if they were the sole method used to fill the Scottish budget deficit.
It’s a dramatic headline, for sure. But is it an accurate reflection on the relative finances of an independent Scotland and one that remained part of the United Kingdom? As ever, you have to dig a little deeper to find out what’s really going on.
No place like home rule 164
If there’s one phrase that has long bedevilled the Liberal party and its descendants, it’s ‘home rule’. What are we supposed to understand by it? And perhaps more to the point, what do modern Lib Dems understand by it?
If you go back in Liberal history to the time of the great William Gladstone, ‘home rule’ meant something. It meant the principle of self-governance for Ireland, with certain powers reserved to Westminster.
Gladstone’s idea of home rule was very similar to what we now call Devo Max. And when Gladstone stood up for this principle and fought to drive it through parliament, he was attacked in terms we recognise only too well today.
Runaround now 99
Just when you thought it was safe, we’ve got one last bit of data for you from our second Panelbase poll, which seems to have really grabbed the attention of the Scottish political world (as best observed in the furious, hysterical reaction from “Better Together” activists on Monday evening when Scotland Tonight announced they were going to be referencing it in the show).
We asked people a couple of questions about their voting intentions in various circumstances, but some of the most intriguing and revealing results came when we inquired as to how they planned to vote in the 2016 Scottish general election.
Identity parade 357
During last month’s independence march and rally in Edinburgh we were outdoors, marching and rallying. (Duh.) So we obviously didn’t catch the teatime news, and when we got home we were intrigued to hear tales of some strange goings-on on BBC Scotland’s six o’clock TV bulletin.
The footage didn’t reappear on any later shows, so for several days we scoured the iPlayer, which had archived just about every news programme broadcast anywhere in Britain except that one. It never did show up, and it’s only thanks to the hard work of an alert reader that we’ve finally been able to get hold of it.
It’s well worth a view.
Agony aunt 87
Dear Margaret,
I have quite the conundrum. I wonder if you could help me with it.
My Scots-born best friend moved to Beijing in 2005. She previously spent a year studying in Canada, but when she came back I found no traces of latent Canadianism.
Over the last few years she has learned to speak Mandarin quite competently. She also works for the EU. That could be another nail in her coffin, right?
Ally McCoist joins STV 126
We were very pleased with the coverage of our latest Panelbase poll on Monday’s edition of Scotland Tonight. A nice introductory package showed some lingering shots of our front page and logo, and the poll findings were used as a jump-off for an interesting debate between Dennis Canavan and Ian Davidson.
It takes more than a bit of flattery to make us take our eye off the ball, though.

























