ANDREW NEIL, 5-6-2013: Would you keep child benefit for better-off taxpayers?
MARGARET CURRAN: Well, what we are saying, and Ed will make his own speech tomorrow, and I don’t have foresight of that… What we are saying is when you get into government, and when we come in in 2015, we won’t be able to do all that we wanted to do… Will child benefit for the wealthiest people be our top priority? I’m not sure about that.
ED MILIBAND, 6-6-2013: When it comes to the decisions of the next Labour government it won’t be our biggest priority to overturn the decisions this government has made on taking child benefit away from families earning over £50,000 a year.
We must admit, for someone who hasn’t seen the speech it’s a heck of a guess. Does anyone want to ask Ms Curran if she’s got a score forecast for Croatia vs Scotland?
Tags: and finally
Category
uk politics
From the excellent Part 1 of STV’s new documentary “Road To Referendum” (based on the book by Iain Macwhirter, out this week), Labour PM Harold Wilson and Scottish Secretary Willie Ross punt a rather familiar line four decades before Ed Miliband.

We’re sure there’s nothing at all sinister in the fact that the show was unavailable to most viewers due to an unprecedented cross-media technical failure, which also wiped out the STV news at 6pm and this evening’s Scotland Tonight, incidentally.
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culture, pictures, uk politics
A FOREIGN POLICY
Margaret Curran should know the truth
Of engaging brain before opening mooth;
Using the word “foreigner”
Like a profanity
Offends large sections of humanity.
She should know better and be more carin’
Each one of us is a Jock Tamson bairn;
To hear an apology would be divine,
But don’t hold your breath – I won’t hold mine.
(c) M. Campbell, 2013
.
Tags: and finally
Category
culture, scottish politics
Below is a short extract from an interview between Margaret Curran and BBC Radio Scotland’s Derek Bateman on Good Morning Scotland last week.

The whole thing is very much worth a listen, but this bit jumped out.
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Tags: and finallyflat-out lies
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comment, scottish politics, transcripts, uk politics
We were hunting through a load of 1980s issues of 2000AD earlier today, looking for something else altogether, when we stumbled across this. It seemed somehow timely.

We can’t think why.
Tags: and finallycartoons
Category
pictures, uk politics
Johann Lamont used to be an English teacher. We presume she was a conscientious and caring educator. We imagine she’s as horrified and embarrassed by this press release from the train-drivers’ union ASLEF yesterday as we are.

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analysis, culture, disturbing
No, honestly, they’re just dancing.

Tags: and finally
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pictures
(And Finally… #36)

Five points if you get the joke.
(Tilt o’the topper to Dr. Morag Kerr.)
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pictures
It’s indescribably beautiful that the No camp’s much-trailed “500 questions” PDF about independence actually features 507. At least they’re getting their arithmetic wrong downwards for a change. When all those are answered they promise hundreds and hundreds more, so we thought we’d give them a head start on Volume 2.

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Tags: #500questionsand finallyarithmetic fail
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culture, scottish politics
Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones yesterday:

Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones today:
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Tags: and finallybritnatsunionist of the day
Category
comment, disturbing, uk politics
Our mole at "Better Together" HQ leaks another upcoming poster.

Great work, Anas "Agent X"!
Tags: and finally
Category
leaks, pictures
The Scotsman reports today the less-than-astonishing news that the Orange Order plans to take the (Ulster Says) No side in the independence debate, lining up with such other lovely “Better Together” bedfellows as the BNP, National Front and UKIP in a coalition of all the most likeable aspects of Britishness.

In the light of this exciting and important development, we couldn’t help but wonder how their last attempt at influencing Scottish politics had gone.
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Tags: and finallybritnatscartoonsChris Cairns
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comment, scottish politics