Almost a year ago we ran a short piece mocking a Scotsman headline which claimed that “THOUSANDS” of people had signed a Tory anti-referendum petition, when the actual number was a strictly-accurate-but-pathetic TWO thousand.
We didn’t think that could ever be beaten for technically-true hyperbolic exaggeration, but we’d reckoned without the bold boundary-pushing ingenuity of the Daily Express.
Hundreds of thousands? How many hundreds, exactly?
Because when you really want people with their finger on the pulse of Scottish politics to analyse the implications of the Supreme Court decision on Brexit, where else would you go but to Channel 5’s The Wright Stuff, to hear from um, former rugby league star and haircut pioneer Martin Offiah?
You very rarely get useful stats about online newspaper readership, so we were quite intrigued by this snippet on tonight’s BBC2 Scotland documentary “Paper Thistle”, about the 200th anniversary of The Scotsman.
We don’t know what the numbers are or how brief the period was, but Wings’ average traffic is higher now than it was in 2014, while we suspect The Scotsman is moving in the opposite direction. For a single-issue website to be anywhere even in the same ballpark as a two-centuries-old broadsheet news brand with scores of full-time writers and production staff and a daily newsstand presence is a remarkable thing indeed.
We might start doing classifieds and sport just to see what happens.
The former Chancellor of the Exchequer in today’s Press & Journal:
55-45 is “far more decisive” than 62-38? We think we’re finally beginning to understand why the last Labour government left the British economy in such a mess.
This is the demented, McCarthyite state of madness the Labour Party has reached:
This is a party now openly rejecting anyone as a member who has ever supported any other party. We’d take a minute to try to explain to them how the arithmetic of that one works out, but they’re a long, long way beyond the grasp of reason now.
One thing you can always guarantee on GERS Day is that the latest set of figures for Scotland’s devolved economy inside the UK will trigger another uncontrolled spurt of “SNP HONEYMOON OVER” articles from the nation’s dogged commentariat.
Today we’ve seen already examples (links below) from two ex-Scotsman editors, Iain Martin and Magnus Linklater, the latter popping up in the Times by way of a rather crass and unpleasant analogy involving Oswald Mosley and the Blackshirts.
And since we’d rather watch “Suicide Squad” again than spend any more time going over the arguments about GERS (and trust us, readers, we don’t say that lightly), we thought it’d be more fun if we finally got round to compiling a semi-definitive list of all the times the collective wisdom of Scotland’s media and opposition has confidently predicted the SNP’s imminent demise.
Angela Eagle isn’t happy in the Labour Party and the Tories need a new leader. STV News Edinburgh may have jumped the gun slightly this evening, but this alternative career path makes a lot of sense.
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “We know where it is. What we don’t know is… Where’s Scotlands oil fund? Where is £15.5 BILLION in fake…” May 2, 03:13
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “The gas chamber again eh? Do you never bore yourself tae death playing yer banjo again? Treacherous liars & devious…” May 2, 03:03
Mark Beggan on Seven Days Too Long: “Talking money. Where’s the 600K?” May 2, 02:46
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: ““Rational, wise, educated people might well believe it’s far too early to say.” They admitted it, ya plank. The orange…” May 2, 02:03
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: ““The last ugly, overweening monstrosity cost a billion” A Yoon government. A farce from start to finish. It wasn’t their…” May 2, 01:28
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “George I swore-in in sectarian divided Glasgow during the troubles era where the oath was accepted if mumbled. Nonetheless I…” May 2, 01:13
Confused on Seven Days Too Long: “One of the problems with trying to start a new party (there are many) is that politics in a “democracy”…” May 1, 23:31
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “HMcH Highest taxing WESTMINSTER government ever.. I put that in bold as I had to do a double take! It’s…” May 1, 23:20
George Ferguson on Seven Days Too Long: “@Young Lochinvar I will fight alongside you. You are a mucker or a brother. But you must have sworn allegiance…” May 1, 23:20
Young Lochinvar on Seven Days Too Long: “George Aye.. But.. Hardly compares with Westminster and Buckingham Palace ongoing costs really though eh..” May 1, 23:06
George Ferguson on Seven Days Too Long: “@Hatey McHateface The original Scottish Parliament building cost £414 million. Well over budget I grant you that. My estimate of…” May 1, 22:53
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: “@Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh Two posters referencing Hemingway in the same day. What are the chances, eh? I’m not issuing a direct…” May 1, 22:45
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: ““SCOTLAND does not need more WASPS on mobility scooters.” LOL! Sad but true. It wouldn’t be so bad if they…” May 1, 22:42
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: “How about Raynor? Is Raynor bleating about it? Or perhaps growling? There’s a part of me that desperately wants Prime…” May 1, 22:27
robertkknight on Seven Days Too Long: “I’ll no doubt find someone palatable on the Regional paper, but my constituency paper will be defaced by a black…” May 1, 22:23
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: “Once the designs are finalised, we Scots should submit a FOI request to find out how many of the public…” May 1, 22:18
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: ““Aren’t Christians supposed to be charitable & believe in rehabilitation” They defo don’t believe in the gas chambers for those…” May 1, 22:11
George Ferguson on Seven Days Too Long: “I looked at standing as an Indendepence Candidate I informed this blog after research it was implausible that any Candidate…” May 1, 22:07
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: “Reminds me of the joke about how the oldest profession could never work in certain parts of Scotland because the…” May 1, 22:04
Hatey McHateface on Seven Days Too Long: “@Alf There’s some kind of eejit above pretending to be you.” May 1, 21:58
Iain More on Seven Days Too Long: “I am curious – Does the English NAZI Reform Party in Wales have a leader who also has 6 houses,…” May 1, 21:55
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “I dunno, redacting documents, hiding evidence, committing perjury & trying to jail an innocent man seems pretty criminal to me…” May 1, 21:54
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “I remember Du*dale promoting this openly on Twitter after indyref. Be paid to troll. Also the paid activists to ‘bus…” May 1, 21:36
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “Thanks for the links! I’ll catch up.” May 1, 21:22
George Ferguson on Seven Days Too Long: “@Geri 8:41pm I didn’t get the privilege of a reply button. I don’t want convicted criminals in charge of the…” May 1, 21:13
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: ““Remind us again. Just how many third-world immigrants does the current Scottish Government think we need to drag us kicking…” May 1, 21:12
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Seven Days Too Long: “Can’t quite remember where I got this: « DO YOU HAVE ANY OF THESE SKILLS? (Jan 2017) « 77 Brigade,…” May 1, 21:10
Dan on Seven Days Too Long: “If you despise “leftist” politics so much then why the desire to spoil your ballot paper, as there are still…” May 1, 20:48
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “Because yoons vote for them. True story. “They like their policies & they can still vote no in a ref”…” May 1, 20:47
Geri on Seven Days Too Long: “Whatever happened to doing his time & moving on? Aren’t Christians supposed to be charitable & believe in rehabilitation, George?…” May 1, 20:41
