This week Scottish Labour quietly abandoned their “biggest party forms the government” election campaign after it was comprehensively debunked by this site and, belatedly, the mainstream media. An alert reader reminded us this evening of how the party wasn’t always so attached to the rules.
Because back in 2007, when Labour was neither the biggest party nor the incumbent administration, it had a damn good try at forming the government anyway.
By now we imagine most readers have already seen the alleged leak of the Ashcroft polling results which aren’t due to be officially released until 11am today [EDIT 00.47am: out now], and which suggest some jaw-dropping SNP gains.
We’re not going to go off half-cocked until those have been confirmed, so instead here’s something sent in by an alert reader. It’s an extract from the autobiography of former Radio 1 DJ Liz Kershaw, and describes events around the funeral of Princess Diana. We think you’ll find it enlightening.
Since we’ve been talking about mad letters from Scottish Labour MPs today, we’re sharing this one with you too. We’ve been trying to make sense of it all evening.
We haven’t made any progress. It’s not just a simple accidental transposition of words, because if you switch “increased” and “decreased” around it’s still gibberish – why would the threat have decreased because of proliferation? If anyone can explain it, do drop us a line.
Alert readers may recall this baffling story from last month, in which we discovered that Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie hadn’t been able to think of any more pressing issues to occupy himself with than finding out how many times Scottish Government civil servants had accessed Wings Over Scotland in the six months leading up to the referendum.
So we were intrigued when we got an email from a viewer who just for fun had sent a Freedom of Information request to Holyrood and asked them the same question for the official Scottish and UK Liberal Democrats websites. The results are below.
Alert readers will know that we very often like to bring to your attention both Scottish Labour’s fondness for radically rewriting history and its frequent struggles with basic counting. Today, though, the North British branch office has spectacularly outdone itself and managed to pull off both at once. This is going to be hard to beat.
Above is an extract from the official record of today’s proceedings in the Scottish Parliament. And we can only applaud Rhoda Grant’s ambition.
Mark Beggan on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “You could say Jesus did his job. With Mary behind him how could he fail.” Jul 23, 15:13
Mark Beggan on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Interesting point on Islam. Western countries grew up from spoon fed orthodox religion. The Western mind has evolved but most…” Jul 23, 15:00
factchecker on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Young Lochinvar says: 23 July, 2026 at 2:23 pm FC The Scotchland Office in auld Reekie is part of the…” Jul 23, 14:50
Young Lochinvar on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “FC The Scotchland Office in auld Reekie is part of the UK government. Surely it was set up to look…” Jul 23, 14:23
Rev. Stuart Campbell on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Confused: I have deleted your comment. Any more of that shit and you’re on pre-mod.” Jul 23, 13:42
diabloandco on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “OT another expensive heart wrenching ad from RSPCA – remember that that is only for England and Wales , here…” Jul 23, 12:25
Lorncal on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Why are we always surprised/shocked/outraged by the perfidies of people who owe no allegiance to Scotland whatsoever? These people are…” Jul 23, 12:21
factchecker on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Serious question – why should a UK Government work in the best interests of any single geographical sub-section of the…” Jul 23, 12:03
sam on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Scottish Social Attitudes Study 2025 “18% of respondents said that they trusted the UK Government to work in Scotland’s best…” Jul 23, 10:20
Alf Baird on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Aye Hatey, up tae yer wee mischievous tricks agin: ‘divide and rule’, the colonizer’s tool.” Jul 23, 10:14
sam on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Sarwar’s degree in dentristy and his role as Scottish Labour Leader where he led the party to its latest debacle…” Jul 23, 10:13
Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Sure, Xaracen. But you’ll be long deid. 🙂 Me too. And, whilst no doubt Scotland will leave the UK as…” Jul 23, 09:31
Aidan on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “What made Scotland “much better” before 1707 Xaracen? I doubt there is a single objective metric that could be used…” Jul 23, 09:31
Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “With the departure of Sarwar, once again, we see that Scotland’s loss is England’s gain. And, as the pool of…” Jul 23, 09:18
Xaracen on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Hatey said; “Scotland was a much better place when it was a monarchy.” Scotland was a much better place when…” Jul 23, 08:55
Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: ““buses; but I haven’t been on one for 30 years, and you’d have to get the gun out to get…” Jul 23, 07:55
Hatey McHateface on Progressing To Oblivion: “His phone too, so there will go his language translation app. Come to think on it, taking his phone away…” Jul 23, 07:44
Aidan on Progressing To Oblivion: “I think James’ clothes will need to be buried in concrete on Gruinard Island.” Jul 23, 07:11
Aidan on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Culpable homicide isn’t an offence in England (it’s manslaughter) and Donald Findlay isn’t a member of the bar in England…” Jul 23, 07:08
Captain Caveman on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Well, it certainly looks like someone hit you on the head a fair few times, reading that. 🙂” Jul 23, 05:51
Cynicus on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Sarwar senior went to become Governor of Punjab. However Punjabophiles can relax since the office is not hereditary.” Jul 23, 00:49
Alf Baird on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “The dishonesty is first and foremost in the mankit annexation and ‘Union’ hoax which gives rise to its need for…” Jul 22, 23:26
Young Lochinvar on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “AX Tut tut.. I don’t think anyone has seriously given that moniker to Glasgow for quite some considerable time and…” Jul 22, 23:06
Young Lochinvar on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “HMcH That bad? Really? Made you reply though didn’t it? Validation an’ that eh? Enjoy lock down through the night…” Jul 22, 22:29
Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Sorry, Auld Lochnagar, but as a wind up that’s a piss poor effort. Try again around 2 AM. Your output…” Jul 22, 22:22
Dick Wall on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Well now. Let’s have a wee bit of nuance. Most places have a way of appointing ministers who are not…” Jul 22, 21:16
Young Lochinvar on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Chas Why do you lay that responsibility at Alfs door? Is it so you can blame him if things don’t…” Jul 22, 21:10
