If you click the image below, you can listen to just over nine minutes of Johann Lamont – whose £85,000 salary you pay – on “Good Morning Scotland” earlier today.
Presenter Gary Robertson does about as good a job of questioning the Scottish Labour “leader” (never before have the inverted commas we habitually put around that word rung so true) as anyone could ask, so no criticism can be attached to him.
But after you’ve listened to all nine minutes, can anyone tell us a single actual fact we’ve learned about the Labour Party in Falkirk that we didn’t know before?
Read the rest of this entry →
Category
analysis, audio, scottish politics, transcripts
I make videos. The written word is not my weapon of choice. But “Better Together” have left me with no alternative. Let me explain.
I’m a recently-retired video producer. Another recently-retired video producer (aka ‘the wife’) and I decided to make a series of films about how the grassroots of the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ campaigns were bringing their respective messages to the people of Scotland.
We kicked off by covering Yes Garnock Valley and West Kilbride’s public meeting in Kilbirnie. We contacted the local organisers who were very happy to have us come along, even providing us with a private side room where we could get ‘sound bites’ from the speakers, Dennis Canavan, Shona McAlpine and Alex Bell. Everybody was most welcoming, and frankly they couldn’t have been more helpful.
We’ve released the speeches and the Q&A in their entirety, warts and all, so that anybody interested can listen to the arguments and make up their own mind.
Our next foray into citizen video journalism was to have been the Better Together East Ayrshire launch event on November 1st at the Burns Monument Centre in Kilmarnock. That was where things started to go pear-shaped.
Read the rest of this entry →
Tags: captain darling
Category
comment, investigation, scottish politics
This is why you’ve had no posts today.
Meet Skye, Islay, Rona, Shuna, Cara and Jura. They’ll be staying.
Category
admin, music, pictures
So I guess now we know why Ed Miliband isn’t too bothered about whether energy companies whack their prices up before and after his 16-month “price freeze” or not.
Because we’re paying his bill either way.
Ed Miliband’s parliamentary salary is approximately £140,000. Plus expenses.
Category
uk politics
When you’re a full time carer, managing to get out for an hour or so to the local branch of Morrisons to get the weekly shopping counts as ‘quality me time’. It allows me to stock up on favourite munchies and comfort food. I like a wee slice of Kirriemuir gingerbread, slathered with butter. The other half enjoys a thick slab of it in a bowl, covered in Devon custard with a dollop of double cream. Bugger the cholesterol.
But the other day there was none in the usual aisle, just a pile of Christmas cakes.
I asked a guy stocking shelves where they’d moved it to. He apologised, and told me there wasn’t any in stock. All the ordering is done by Head Office down in England he said, and they’d sent instructions that no more would be ordered until the New Year in order to make space for piles of Christmas cake. In October.
Who eats Christmas cake in October anyway?
Read the rest of this entry →
Tags: Paul Kavanagh
Category
comment, culture
“There’ll be nae books or pencils fur Our Lady’s High School if the SNP gets in here.”
I heard those words first-hand at a door in Motherwell some years ago. But let me give you some context first. Lots of people reading this in parts of Scotland will have no idea about what I’m about to describe here so I’d better establish my credentials and provide some background.
Read the rest of this entry →
Tags: Dave McEwan Hill
Category
comment, culture, scottish politics
Tune in at 8am tomorrow for more.
Tags: and finally, trailers
Category
pictures
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.
Read the rest of this entry →
Category
navel-gazing, stats
We’re really, really sorry about that headline, on several levels.
But wait until you see what this one’s about.
Read the rest of this entry →
Tags: tallinn protocols
Category
comment, culture, disturbing, scottish politics
Blair McDougall, director of “Better Together”, Dundee University, 30 October 2013:
“UK ministers are not going to fall into the trap of acting against Scotland until Scotland decides to leave the United Kingdom”
You heard it straight from the horse’s – well, let’s be kind and say “mouth”, folks.
Read the rest of this entry →
Tags: devo minus, qft, vote no get nothing
Category
audio, scottish politics, stupidity, transcripts, video
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.
Read the rest of this entry →
Tags: Julie McDowall
Category
comment, culture, scottish politics
