Planet of the twin Suns
Posted on
March 25, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We’re still not tired of these.
Although we can’t help thinking that maybe internal email is the more appropriate medium for resolving this particular workplace dispute.
Does this mean that the Scottish Sun are showing some signs of actually backing the SNP?
I’m astonished!
So, if the evil SNP have their way, the following policies will be scrapped:
Austerity
Reductions in public spending
Damaging EU referendum
Racist immigration policy
Weapons of mass murder
They will be replaced by:
Protection of the poorest in our society
End of austerity
Young workers from other countries to boost our economy
Billions saved from Trident to spend on useful things
Not treating everybody furth of the UK as a threat
What’s not to like?
So is that the Scottish version of the Sun backing the SNP then? That’s the second editorial I’ve seen recently that suggests they are, at the very least, not unhappy at the prospect of the SNP giving Labour a trouncing up here.
Of course, we all know the Sun just goes along with what they deem to be widespread public opinion – in which case, the difference here fairly undermines the notion that there’s no difference between how Scottish and English voters think, no matter how much Kenny Farquharson, David Torrance and others insist.
“Does this mean that the Scottish Sun are showing some signs of actually backing the SNP?”
I’d be pretty surprised if they didn’t. They did in 2011, and they’re not going to back Labour or the Tories, are they?
You’ve got to laugh eh..
“This is not a deranged fantasy.”
hahahaha… that will keep me going the whole day i think..
The whole MSM is one deranged fantasy. Brilliant. You couldn’t make it up. Oh, hang on, they have and printed it in black & white.
Absolutely brilliant.
We’re an evil, hateful race, determined to rain our foul breed of nazi (or commie?) politics on England’s green and pleasant land – this must not be!
So LET US GO!
Gotta love em. They do know how to turn a buck.
Happy to trash everyone, equally, regardless of which side of the border they make their sales on.
Meanwhile on a volcanic island in the middle of the pacific, an evil media mastermind strokes his persian cat and ponders his next move.
Newspapers like the sun the give political opinion that they think their readers want to read. It’s not complicated or particularly surprising that the Scottish and English Sun’s are so different
“It’s not complicated or particularly surprising that the Scottish and English Sun’s are so different”
Excluding football, the Scottish and English editions of the Sun are 90-95% identical.
Murdoch and his sychophants will write whatever brings in most revenue in whichever location he sells his stuff. It’s tailored to suit the market in which it finds itself.
I`m living in a parallel universe, how can a paper say one thin in one edition and almost the opposite in another.
But onto something no one seems to point out – scraping trident replacement will not leave the UK armed forces with out nuclear weapons they will still have “old trident” cruise missiles artillery aircraft and conventional submarines which all can launch nuclear armed munitions. (which i believe we have a few of – the numbers will be a state secret though I`m sure the rest of the worlds governments know)
Blatant proof of media manipulation. Who says that mind control isn’t rife…
Aside from anything else, it’s very refreshing to hear a politician tell us exactly what he intends to do after the election.
I’m currently stuck in Manila where my Dad’s in intensive care fighting for his life. I’m fighting beaurocracy to get him back to Scotland and all the time, at the back of my mind, is the niggling doubt that the utterly spineless Proud Scots But don’t fucking deserve home. Nor does a proud supporter since joining the SNP in the 50’s deserve those fuckers!
I hope they get a good laugh out of this post because if they ever have the misfortune to meet me in person they’ll be eating through a straw. Shameless wankers, every single No voter!
Apart from anything else, it is the one on the right that shows signs of being written by someone who is seriously deluded or wants to delude everyone else.
The second paragraph (to pick just one) is full of absolute whoppers. Every ‘proper’ economist will tell you UKGov is making an utter Horlicks of everything.
You would be forgiven for thinking we were actually two different countries, wait a minute..
It appears that the Sun’s policy is to have Labour hit directly by the SNP in Scotland, and Labour hit indirectly by using the SNP as a threat associated with them in England. The two positions are compatible if the Sun wants a Tory majority, or near majority, overall.
I think the election strategy of establishment is now about weakening Labour across the UK in the hope that the Tories edge sufficiently ahead.
There are three ways to keep the SNP out of power.
Convince Scots not to vote for the SNP, which means vote Labour. This is probably now recognised as a lost cause.
Convince the English that voting Labour will give the SNP power, so encourage them to vote Tory.
If these fail, have a Con – Lab agreement after May.
Where is the distribution line where the Scottish Sun and English Sun meet? One village told one thing and the next village something different?
The Sun is making an attempt to polarise the vote on both sides of the border.By talking up the SNP in the North of Britain they reduce Labour,and by proposing a working relationship between the SNP and Labour to the Southerners,which would be to their detriment,they automatically boost the chances of Tory victory down South.
They clearly want a Tory majority and are using the “hordes from the North” to galvanise public opinion
Hi Stu
Can I apologise for that postcard I sent you from my recent trip to England, you know the one where I called you a trouble making Nazi f++ker.
Now I’m back over the border I’d like to say what an amazing website this is and everything you do is brilliant.
Fantastic !!!!!!
The editor of the Scottish Sun has approximately 8 billion times the amount of balls the Daily record boasts …….
It is also a model of autonomy that Scottish labour could learn from.
Imagine……. Scottish labour saying “Actually no…. These policies do not benefit the people of Scotland so we will not be supporting them”
If that happened Alex Salmond would still be working in a bank, Nicola Sturgeon would be using a cafetere, and Scottish labour would be running most of Scotland.
I’m still wetting myself….
Cheers Stu.
Twin Suns eh? Dr FunFrock has nothing on the British media
Nice E-Clips.
The Sun has form when it comes to backing whichever party it thinks is going to do well in a coming election. Also Murdoch has an axe to grind with he establishment so a bit of stirring going on. Either way I don’t trust them.
What I’d like to know is what they put in the two extra column inches in the Scottish edition?
@R-type
Thinking of you mate. Don’t let the Manila heat get to you, but I’m rooting for you. BTW they killed my facebook. Currently working on a comeback.
Great post Stuart. I’m loving this election campaign.
Any analysis of Murdoch’s empire reveals two things:
1: that he always seeks to back the winning side, hence the lack of declaration during the “too close to call” referendum.
2: that, where possible, he will play divide and rule
Stu, you are providing ample evident of both being used as a tactic at the moment. All we need now is a Scottish Sun saying “VOTE SNP” on the same day rUK gets “vote Tory”
The most pro SNP news coverage I have seen a long time.
Poor old Jim Murphy must be choking on his eggs this breakfast time
The Sun is a bit weird but they are not alone. The Excess and Heil rarely (never?) print their kneejerk Scotophobic rantings in Scotland. They have one face for their English readership and one for the Scottish readership.
I am interested to see where the support falls though. It looks like the Sun might lean to the SNP in Scotland. The Record will just print whatever the Labour Party tells it and the Scotsman, Express and Mail will presumably back the Tories. The National will, I expect, back the SNP. The Herald? I am not sure what the Herald will do. Back Labour and let the Sunday Herald back the SNP? Stay neutral?
Remember this, anyone?
“At a festive picnic for more than 400 backers of the union on Sunday afternoon – to the inevitable strains of bagpipes and assisted by volunteers in ‘I ? Scotland’ T-shirts, Stewart laid the foundation stone of a cairn that he hopes will become a symbol of that mutual respect and affection in the weeks leading to the 18 September referendum on Scottish independence.”
Aye been having a look at my old dads Scottish Sun, now and again, and it has been giving SLab and Miliband a ”doing” recently. Biggest selling daily so will take all the help we can get and they like to back winners, at the moment that is SNP.
Its noticeable that its senior political journo, Andrew Nicol, almost never gets invited onto late night Scotland2015 or Scotland Tonight, just SLab propagandists from the DR.
@R- type Grunt,
Wish you well mate. Hope your dad improves.
@ R-type, I hope everything works out okay for you and yours.
You are right about the No buts. They don’t deserve Scotland
Maarcia says @ 9.12
“Where is the distribution line where the Scottish Sun and English Sun meet? One village told one thing and the next village something different?”
pleeease tell me there’s a village, hamlet, row of houses the straddle the border so one side of the street gets the Scottish Sun and the other side, well you know what I mean.
Heather McLean wrote
“Does this mean that the Scottish Sun are showing some signs of actually backing the SNP?”
Rev replied:
“I’d be pretty surprised if they didn’t. They did in 2011, and they’re not going to back Labour or the Tories, are they?”
Aye, and they also ran a brief campaign in the early 90s:
“Free by 93” – Remember that one?
You would be forgiven for thinking we were two different countries, wait a minute-
Exactly right.
You have to shake your head in sadness as the mercenary nature of the press; supporting Scottish idealism whilst whipping up hatred against those ideals in England.
We’re thinking of you R-type,
Anything anyone can do for you? speak to the foreign office, anything?
@R Type, wishing you and Dad good things, and hope you can get things sorted, much strength to you.
Well i suppose the (English) Sun did get one thing right a shambolic Labour minority led by hapless Ed Milliband i dont think i could have said it better lol
Oh but i hear Dave Cambam is no happy and is shouting i can be hapless too you know and im a lot better at it than Ed vote for me as i wont be standing for a third term(sob)SNP bad.
You just have to laugh at the Sun`s two faces both are as stupid as the other especially the Scottish Sun if they believe we will be fooled by their jumping on the bandwagon in an attempt to increase their sales up in the heathen lands ,got some breaking news for you Sun there is this thing called the interwebby which lets us see both your faces muppets.
And dont cry English Sun as i very much doubt it will be 5 years of mayhem and misery we dont intend to hang around that long
Twilight zone springs to mind.
As usual our national Bard had something relevant to say on such devious matters : –
Robert Burns.
Or perhaps I too should post an alternative version for the consumption of hapless readers from The rest of the United Kingdom : –
Aldous Huxley
(Is there nothing the English won’t steal from Scots?)
I think they are right to be concerned about the Miliband-Balls combo. A Labour leader that is less popular in Scotland than a Tory one after term of austerity is about as useless a leader as you could imagine. Lang spoon for the SNP methinks.
R-type,
Best wishes.
If the UK consular services are less than helpful remember that you can go to any EU consulate for help.
link to caltonjock.com
“Is there nothing the English won’t steal from Scots?”
Yes, our sense of fair play and doing the right thing.
(They claim to have stolen that as well, but their actions don’t follow. Unless they only stole it to lock it in a vault somewhere. It’s a shame that they haven’t figured out that when you “steal” an idea, you don’t deprive the original owner of the idea.)
Do newsagents in the Scottish Borders offer both versions? Or do they operate under the strict control of MI5?
R-type
Thinking of you at this time .
It might be worthwhile sending Nicola or Alex an email asking them to put pressure on the Foreign Office to help out .
As cearc says any European Union consulate might be able to help you .
The amount of stories that I have heard of people having to use other consulates due to the fact that ours are worse than useless is astounding .
My National buying neighbour also purchases the Daily Mail for its money off scheme. His wife gets twenty five quid every few months so he reasons the paper us out of pocket. He sits and has a morning rant at it and throws the DM across the room then calls down with a relaxing read of the National.
Takes all sorts.
My National buying neighbour also purchases the Daily Mail for its money off scheme. His wife gets twenty five quid every few months so he reasons the paper is out of pocket. He sits and has a morning rant at it and throws the DM across the room then calms down with a relaxing read of the National.
Takes all sorts.
(Might be a double posting here as I tried to sort out the spelling hash that my ipad auto checker makes. I spell correctly, it chucks in any random word it sees fit. Technology, eh?)
@Marcia 9:12 am
“Where is the distribution line where the Scottish Sun and English Sun meet? One village told one thing and the next village something different?”
The newsagent in Langholm used to stock BOTH versions of some tabloids. I don’t know if he still does because I’ve not looked in for a while.
Langholm is a ‘staunch No’ toun, but conversely with some of the most passionate Yes supporters I’ve met.
I’m not in the least bit surprised at this.
Murdoch has given the Scottish Sun editors, freedom to back whoever they wanted in the past, so I’m sure this is just an indication that they are seeing the popularity of the SNP in the polls, and backing a winner.
The idea that they are two-faced, is a misunderstanding of they way the Sun is edited in the UK.
As people have said, their backing or at least their willingness to attack Labour/Tory hypocrisy, is a great help to the SNP/Yes movement.
I,ll take support from the Sun, even though it’s a game to support the Tories! I like this way of comparing the different news in Scotland and England, so sharing it on facebook.
R type Grunt. Keep your spirits up and good luck to you and yours!
How good would it be if a yes supporter was working the printing presses and swapped articles and the English edition got our version and we got theirs?! That would be brilliant! This is stuff Nazi Germany would be proud of.
No big surprise. Remember that these guys need to sell copy in order to exist, and always likely to target the largest slice of the market.
Do they believe any of it? Different question and basically no
It’s just about the sales.
@ R-Type
Hoping your dad pulls through.
They always accuse us of being fantasy Bravehearts rerunning the referendum when it’s actually them that’s never done quoting Braveheart
Remember Robert Bruce’s father in the movie saying
“We’ll support this rebellion from our lands in the North while gaining favour with the English Nobles by condemning it from from our lands in the South”
They’ll have wee Ecks entrails out given half a chance
Got my Labour Lies leaflet in the post today with the “we need to stop the Tories being the largest party! That’s the only way to stop a Tory govt!” panic declaration on the back!
I’ve e-mailed my (Labour) MP asking him why, without mentioning either the Tories or SNP, I should vote for him to be my representative at Westminster! I’ll let you know if he manages that near impossible feat!
That’s the good thing about the internet, we can see both versions of shit that are being peddled. Do they not realise this, or, do the just not care.
Don’t care much for Murdoch or any of his media empire..
R-type, best wishes to you and I hope your father pulls through.
As others have suggested try another of the EU consulates for help.
That first paragraph alone is hilarious. The Coalition Government has: “fixed the economy, created world beating growth, zero inflation and extraordinarily low unemployment”!
I suppose if you are an oligarch that is true. For us deLonghi using plebs, a complete fiction.
While the DR yesterday was just “risible” the Sun (English version) today is hysterical and racist. Still, students of British politics will have plenty of material to work with.
The BBC also has 2 faces . As we know the Scottish one supports labour and the English one supports ukip/tories
Scottish Sun: We love you Scotland /English Sun: We hate you evil bastard jocks
Love/hate from the same side… why do I get this sudden overwhelming sense of deja vu?
Oh yes. the entire UKOK campaign for the last three years. At least the Uk’s split personality is consistent. I also agree with all suggesting the Sun is trying to undermine Labour on both sides of the border, that editorial can be taken no other way.
We’re all laughing at this nonsense in the papers but there’s a serious note here also
People like Murdoch are nasty evil and dangerous in the way they manipulate the masses because there are people out there who read newspapers and actually think they contain News
and believe this stuff
I hope when we get control of the things we need, Media will be subject to more strict laws, print and TV
Nations have gone to war over misinformation and manipulation in the past and these practices must be outlawed and the mongers of it dealt with
Incitement of the people by lying to them must be seen as a crime
Today’s @daily_politics: Salmond, PMQs, marathons, art and co-ale-ition. @afneil @Jo_Coburn @BBCJLandale @pritipatelmp @ChukaUmunna #bbcdp
could be 90 mins of SNP bashing
This is one Sun that no-one would mind suffering a permanent eclipse.
And on the space theme; look who beamed back down from Mars…none only than Kelvin “mega-mouth” MacKenzie. Now there’s a bloke who we can be assured will be up to his ‘jock-bashing’ at every opportunity.
R-Type…best wishes for a happy outcome
Now and again I post comments on the Daily Fail’s SNP articles (I know I should ignore them, but I like winding up their fascist readership).
I pointed out yesterday that they are showing the same contempt for the SNP (and by extention Scotland) that they sbowed for the IPP and Ireland a century ago and look where that got them.
O/T
Just been phone canvassed by the Labour party. They’re still pushing the ‘biggest party’ (mis)information. When informed that this was an untruth, the canvasser informed me that as a retired maths teacher, he could count!
He then pushed the line that every SNP MP elected, rather than a Labour one. meant a Tory government. After informing him that this was also untrue, unless the Labour party failed to do a some form of deal if SNP+Labour held a majority of seats, I was told I was wrong and he ended the call, but he certainly does know my voting intention for May.
Labour must be cross referencing electoral register information with the phone book. They’ve never been given my phone number and they initially asked for my son by name, he comes first on the E.R. but the phone is in my name.
R Type.
Just to wish you best of luck. keep you in our thoughts.
I am sorry Patrick but i have to disagree with you on that,lets not forget who we are talking about here ,his only goal is to get what he wants and would back anybody if he thought they could get into power,this is a man who likes to think himself as the king maker and is one of the driving forces behind neo-liberal capitalism in these islands,how many of the westminster gang are in his back pocket?
As far as i am concerned the Sun is the worst out of the lot of them and the only reason he attacks all political sides is because they havnt done what he wants and he likes to remind them that he can ruin them if he wants to.
sorry i dont know how to archive this link
link to mirror.co.uk
R-type Grunt, I feel your anger, though keep your powder dry. All the very best to you and your Dad. Hope all works out well…safe home.
It is manipulation. If you hold the condition that The Sun wants a Tory majority in Westminster both stories make sense. In Scotland back the Nats…fewer Labour seats is the result. In England make the idea of the Nats working with a Labour minority the scariest thing since…well, the referendum. The result… reduce the swing to Labour in England therefore fewer Labour seats. The TORIES prevail. The Sun is and always has been a Tory paper. They mislead and manipulate. Always have, always will. They do not back nationalism they manipulate to defeat opposition to the Tories.
@john king says: 25 March, 2015 at 9:45 am:
” … pleeease tell me there’s a village, hamlet, row of houses the straddle the border so one side of the street gets the Scottish Sun and the other side, well you know what I mean.”
Don’t know if there are different versions, (in places that straddle the Border), but Ladykirk(Scotland)/Norham,(England) that straddle the Tweed springs to mind. There are several others either straddling the border or very close to doing so including, Gretna/Gretna/Gretna Green.
All this fun and games going on in my country of birth is enough to make me get the old shield out ,sharpen up the sword and head home.
Both The Sun and The Daily Record are slightly less UNfriendly to SNP of late, hmmmm…
“We shall embrace this war by backing it from our lands in the north and condemning it by from our lands in the south” from some movie about fictional Scottish history
I particularly like the fact that the English sun felt obliged to state that its editorial is “not a deranged fantasy”. Perhaps they should have put that bit in boldface.
The Lib dems were the least popular party at the last election yet we’ve had to suffer the sneering Cameron and Clegg show for an entire parliament, so how can anyone say it’s undemocratic if the SNP make use of the current rules to rattle a few cages at the Westminster trough
The Sun is going to put on the front what ever sells their papers…….its all about money for them.
I would love to get an enormous batch of English editions one day and spread them about Scotland just so Sun readers could see what is said about Scots down south. Sadly I have a sneaky suspicion some wouldn’t notice or care.
The Sun will do anything to get a Tory government in Westminster.
RType good luck and best wishes for good outcome
It’s an identical situation to how Fox News in the US treats stories in its English and Spanish-speaking versions. They’re much happier saying terrible things about you in the version they don’t think you’ll see.
Call me cynical but what have the tories to lose in scotland? One seat? That’s literally next to nothing. Murdoch is a Tory through and through – otherwise he wouldnt be slagging off the snp in england in order to boost support for the tories. He’s just interested in the revenue up here. Scotland has long been lost seat-wise to the tories and guess what? They still rule us – we don’t matter – we are not a democracy to them. Just a chattel colonial state.
It looks to me like Murdoch wants to give Labour a kicking both sides of the border, for whatever reason.