We’ve spent a fair bit of time over the course of this website’s existence documenting the multi-media witch-hunts that invariably arise in the Scottish media whenever some obscure and/or anonymous independence supporter on the internet says something slightly intemperate (or even just expresses an unpopular opinion).
We especially enjoy contrasting it against the way that the elected, taxpayer-funded representatives of major political parties can get away unremarked with comparing the First Minister to dictators and genocidal mass murderers (of the sort “Better Together” donors like to give hundreds of thousands of pounds to).
The vast difference in the amount of media weight given to abusive behaviour from British nationalists and that from the independence side (the infamous “cybernats”) has long been a feature of Scottish political debate, but over the last 12 hours the phenomenon has seen an intriguing new twist.
This is Labour leader Ed Miliband on Radio 4’s “World At One” yesterday:
(From 16m 12s on iPlayer.)
“I think people are asking this very very important question about the country, which is, y’know, are our problems so deep that NOBODY can actually make a difference to them? My emphatic answer is yes.”
Ours is too, though to a slightly different question.
We had to be out most of yesterday, so we didn’t have time to cover a story which broke in the morning in several UK papers. 24 hours later, though, we can still find no mention of it in the Scottish media, which remains fully occupied in filling its pages with recycled wittering drivel about the pound.
This is a worrying state of affairs, because yesterday’s story is of direct concern to an awful lot more Scots than a hypothetical scaremongering fantasy about currency.
Weirdly, the front-page lead story of today’s Herald newspaper is (at the time of writing) completely absent from the online edition. We did a little digging and found that it had been somehow fused into a piece about three women and a baby being involved in a car crash, with no text.
Hopefully the Herald will fix the glitch soon, but in the meantime we’ve managed to get a hold of this low-resolution but (just barely) legible image.
Our survey of Scottish political website readership closed last night, and the results are in. And we must admit, we really didn’t see this one coming.
Remarkably, the winner of the poll – excellent news resource BBC Scotlandshire – was on 0 votes the day before voting closed, largely because we’d forgotten to include it. But to our surprise, in the small hours of the morning a whopping 1,011 votes arrived out of nowhere – or more specifically, according to our IP tracking, from a single building close to the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood.
When we checked, we found that it was the headquarters of a smaller and more amateurish news-reporting organisation, so we assume that lots of employees working the late shift had all decided to vote to express their admiration for a respected rival at once. (Curiously all from the same computer, and now we come to think about it, several hours after the poll had in fact closed.)
An alert reader pointed something interesting out to us this morning. STV News, the Telegraph and the Paisley Daily Express all carry an almost word-for-word-identical story (the only one with a byline is the Telegraph’s version, which credits it to the grumpy-looking Josie Ensor), all three of them headlined with slight variations on the phrase “Over 60 per cent unconvinced on Scottish independence”.
It refers to a poll conducted for the “Better Together” campaign, and reports its findings accurately. Or to be more precise, reports some of its findings.
We stumbled across this quite by accident yesterday. We think you’ll enjoy it.
The clip is from last year, and was aired on Canadian national news channel Sun News. Douglas Murray is a British writer who claims to be half-Scottish on account of unspecified links to Unionist breeding ground the Isle of Lewis, popular haunt of No-camp luminaries like Alistair Darling, virulent Labour anti-devolutionist Brian Wilson and controversial “Better Together” donor Ian Taylor.
Murray studied at Eton and Oxford and writes for august UK journals like the Spectator and Guardian, as well as appearing on numerous BBC political shows. For some reason, the Canadians consider him an expert on Scottish politics, qualified to inform and enlighten their viewers. See what you think.
The Scottish Co-operative Party’s 2011 manifesto is one full of co-operative and mutual solutions to the challenges faced in Scotland, issues of independence, devolution or the constitutional settlement did not feature. The annual Co-operative Party conference has passed motions which promote a view of Scotland playing a vital role in a United Kingdom.
We have noted the personal comments made by Mary Lockhart, a long serving Co-operative Party and Labour Party member. Mary has been a great advocate for co-operative and mutual solutions. Whilst we recognise that members of political parties hold differing, sometimes opposite, positions the views Mary has expressed are not shared by the Party. Mary has offered her resignation from the role of Chair of the Scottish Co-operative Party and the Scottish Executive committee has accepted this.“
The BBC’s flagship satirical programme “Have I Got News For You” is, of course, comedy. The tone of the opening minutes of last night’s episode was a little uglier and nastier than the usual friendly inter-regional jibes (normally delivered by the likes of Jeremy Clarkson and accompanied by rebukes from the rest of the panel), but it really wasn’t anything to get overly worked up about. Comedy isn’t always cuddly.
It must have been a little uncomfortable for the No camp, though.
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TURABDIN on The quality of mercy: “AMERICA & allies have a rather big problem….and it’s not located in west Asia. What a collection toadies those allies…” Apr 5, 18:29
Mark Beggan on The quality of mercy: “I was playing the Smiths debut album the other night. Classic. Then today one of my neighbours said he heard…” Apr 5, 16:54
Mark Beggan on The quality of mercy: “And what are you going to do about it? Let me tell you. Nothing.” Apr 5, 16:45
Mark Beggan on The quality of mercy: “You can’t even stand a candidate for the Scottish elections. You are in no position to demand anything. Repeating this…” Apr 5, 16:42
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TURABDIN on The quality of mercy: “INDIA still wrestles as to the appropriateness of English dress and language in law courts. The Chief Justice of Kolkata…” Apr 5, 14:20
Dan on The quality of mercy: “How “GERS” worked in India. https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/08/18/how-gers-worked-in-india/” Apr 5, 13:59
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Northcode on The quality of mercy: ““…The resolution concerned the slave trade, in which Scots were complicit…”| In which SOME Scots were complicit as opposed to…” Apr 5, 13:19
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The quality of mercy: “HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO G.F. Handel arr. J. Caponegro: Hail The Conquering Hero, from Judas Maccabaeus, HWV 63 First performance…” Apr 5, 13:14
TURABDIN on The quality of mercy: “Cooperation with British Colonialism in India, an Overview During the British colonial period in India, many Indians, especially from the…” Apr 5, 12:26
James on The quality of mercy: “Northy; didn’t you know; according to Yoon Trolls like “factchecker” -who have never “checked” a “fact” in their entire existence-…” Apr 5, 12:25
Northcode on The quality of mercy: ““Jesus of Nazareth” or “Jesus, son of Joseph” or “Christ Jesus” or “Jesus The Christ” or just that familiar plain…” Apr 5, 12:25
Northcode on The quality of mercy: ““As of March 2026, the UN General Assembly has not formally declared colonialism IN TOTO a crime against humanity,…” I…” Apr 5, 11:55
factchecker on The quality of mercy: “A simple internet search shows that “As of March 2026, the UN General Assembly has not formally declared colonialism in…” Apr 5, 11:13
TURABDIN on The quality of mercy: “When talk & reason fail. Frantz FANON’s Perspective on Violence The Role of Violence in Decolonization Frantz Fanon, a prominent…” Apr 5, 10:53
Alf Baird on The quality of mercy: ““Colonisation of Scotland since 1707” According to the UN colonialism is a scourge and a crime against humanity, which must…” Apr 5, 10:27
James Che on The quality of mercy: “There are corners and legal jams one can bring upon ones self through greed and Colonialism. Westminster parliament of the…” Apr 5, 09:00
James Che on The quality of mercy: “Rev Stu, Thanks for inserting two of my old comments in your new post first of all, It can be…” Apr 5, 08:49
Young Lochinvar on The quality of mercy: “Yahweh help the Is Rye Ale Ees if the I rans find the downed US pilot first. It’s a Vietnam…” Apr 5, 03:53
James on The quality of mercy: “Well, that’s “Phil” shot down in flames….. But Adrian’s working through the holidays….” Apr 4, 23:57
Confused on The quality of mercy: “since we seem to be regressing to “ropey old shite, debunked n-teenth times … ” – let’s put an old…” Apr 4, 23:32
Confused on The quality of mercy: “quite right, my fellow Scot. if the scotch were left alone with excess revenue from copious oil, gas, wind and…” Apr 4, 23:29
Phil on The quality of mercy: “Time, no- long overdue, to face some facts. This site, brilliant as it is, suffers from some fundamental flaws: first,…” Apr 4, 23:01
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