The reaction of the Scottish media and political opposition to Audit Scotland’s annual report on the NHS today has been nothing if not predictable. But we thought you might like an instructive and enlightening look at the two very different types of approach they’ve taken to trying to mislead the Scottish people about it.
First up is the non-specific Scottish Labour apparatchik (as far as we’re aware he has no official role in the party since Jim Murphy quit – indeed we don’t know what he does for a living at all any more) Blair McDougall:
This is what we in the writing trade call a “flat-out lie”.
We weren’t going to take Professor Adam Tomkins’ hysterical “NATMAGEDDON!” article for this week’s Spectator seriously enough to pull it apart line by line.
But once we’d wiped the tears from our eyes we thought we’d better do our job.
After we highlighted the ridiculous inconsistencies in press reports last week regarding Edinburgh MP Michelle Thomson’s business dealings with a couple in Cumbernauld, we’ve been in a lengthy dialogue with Sunday Mail editor Jim Wilson over the plainly utterly wrong claim in the latter paper that:
After we provided the Mail with documentary evidence of the sale price, we naively expected a tiny mealy-mouthed correction buried in a corner of this week’s edition. But what we got was something very substantially worse even than that.
We apologise for another post on the subject of The Wright House, everyone, but we do love getting our teeth into a puzzle, especially when it comes with a side order of lots of juicy evidence of the Scottish media telling people outright lies.
This should be the last one for the forseeable future, and we’ve actually got some solid info to impart this time rather than just a confused expression, so buckle up.
It appeared on any possible interpretation to be complete nonsense, but Ms Dugdale – who’s pledged to make education the issue at the heart of her leadership – has been somewhat reluctant to clarify the statement.
Several queries from her Lothian constituents have gone unanswered, but one Wings viewer did manage to get a single tweet of response.
The editor of the New Statesman just tweeted this image, trailing an interview with Jim Murphy, who alert readers may recall led Scottish Labour for a few months this year before its apocalyptic disaster of a general election campaign which saw it lose 40 of the 41 Scottish seats it won in 2010:
Oh, wait – maybe he’s trying to claim the credit for it.
Kezia Dugdale talking to Gordon Brewer on BBC Scotland today:
“I’m astonished that you’ve spent 10 minutes in this interview talking about independence and Trident when almost 50% of the poorest kids in the country can’t read […] I’m sure you’d be shocked to know that 50% of the poorest kids leave our schools unable to read.”
We suspect he would too. Because it’s total cobblers.
There’s been a veritable flurry of polls commissioned to mark the impending one-year anniversary of the independence referendum. In the last 48 hours alone we’ve seen ones from Survation, YouGov and Panelbase, making a variety of interesting findings. As ever, though, the trick is in the interpretation.
As we were poking around with this, we thought it’d be useful to have all the basic donations and spending information about the referendum in one place. It’s normally scattered around different places and hard to access easily, and it’s quite interesting.
James Che on Still Time To Save Her: “There are multiple bullet points that explain why there is no Westminster parliament of all of Great Britain, That the…” Oct 11, 11:40
Lee Floyd on Still Time To Save Her: “Christ. Is there a country on this island that isn’t fucking corrupt?” Oct 11, 11:37
Bilbo on Still Time To Save Her: “The Burqa and similar attire is worn by SOME Muslim woman. Dresses that cover the whole face of a woman…” Oct 11, 11:32
Marie on Still Time To Save Her: “And then there are the “holy” books that make both men AND women second class aren’t there? Good Goy.” Oct 11, 11:29
James Che on Still Time To Save Her: “At what point do the English Westminster parliament laws become voided in Scotland, as Scotland remains a Country for the…” Oct 11, 11:15
TURABDIN on Still Time To Save Her: “The Scottish police outfit is a member of an ngo called CCA Global. https://www.cca-global.com/standards/ This is essentially a «consumer excellence»…” Oct 11, 09:58
Hatey McHateface on Still Time To Save Her: ““No easy answers” Naw? Maybe it’s just you that’s stumped. Other folk can quite clearly see that in a country,…” Oct 11, 09:18
Willie on Still Time To Save Her: “Stevie, As long a people abide by society’s contemporary laws then they should be free to do as they choose.…” Oct 11, 08:33
Hatey McHateface on Still Time To Save Her: “Smart move from Swinney, there. Appeal to the only constituency that continues to increase – sometimes by as much as…” Oct 11, 08:25
Stevie on Still Time To Save Her: “I despise the SNP : of coursee they/them will agree John Swinney “Oct 8 My duty as First Minister is…” Oct 10, 23:30
sarah on Still Time To Save Her: “O/T: openletter.earth has An Open Letter Regarding the Principle of Popular Sovereignty and the Right of Self-determination. It was written…” Oct 10, 22:19
Dan on Still Time To Save Her: “Ooh, or maybe those taxpayer funded well renumerated folk in positions of power and influence near the top of organisations…” Oct 10, 18:14
Aidan on Still Time To Save Her: “Have you been on the bubbly this morning?” Oct 10, 16:07
sarah on Still Time To Save Her: “Rev, I think I’ve had a brainwave on who could fund the remaining £370,000. I’m putting it on here in…” Oct 10, 11:57
Alf Baird on Still Time To Save Her: “As Prof John Mearsheimer stated: “The primary goal of states is to survive and this drives and structures its actions”.…” Oct 10, 11:32
Bea on Still Time To Save Her: “Looks as if others have also had this, although maybe not accidentally followed a link. While of course possible we…” Oct 10, 11:16
robertkknight on Still Time To Save Her: “It’s straightforward really. If, to preserve their anonymity, a covert agent or source attached to a state agency must engage…” Oct 10, 09:21
Mike on Still Time To Save Her: “Even if Murrell is forced to pay the money back, he’s entitled to 50% of that house. Plus he has…” Oct 10, 08:51
PhilM on Still Time To Save Her: “We’re talking about different things by the sound of it. So what are YOU saying exactly with the words ‘would…” Oct 10, 03:31
robertkknight on Still Time To Save Her: “cont. The wording of the Act is as follows: 84. In respect of Scotland, national security is a reserved matter,…” Oct 10, 00:53
robertkknight on Still Time To Save Her: “You’re wrong, sorry… “Because national security and core intelligence powers are reserved, the UK legislation still takes effect in Scotland…” Oct 10, 00:25
Alan Scott on Still Time To Save Her: “Where’s Franz Fanon when you need him? We could achieve true liberation through revolutionary decolonisation if he was amongst us…” Oct 10, 00:25
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Still Time To Save Her: “Issue related to this site. Scrambled small blue text entirely filling the screen. Have encountered it a few times spread…” Oct 9, 23:41
PhilM on Still Time To Save Her: “No. A few people on this forum in the last few years have misunderstood this bill and its application to…” Oct 9, 23:24
sarah on Still Time To Save Her: “I too got that blue/black area on my laptop this evening. I closed and tried again but still there. The…” Oct 9, 22:59
robertkknight on Still Time To Save Her: “Not experiencing similar so it may be your device which is the issue as opposed to this site.” Oct 9, 22:43
Southernbystander on There May Be Justice: “Hm, I think the general opinion is that Burnham’s victory was not decisive enough to warrant an early GE. Despite…” Oct 9, 22:38
Bea on Still Time To Save Her: “Cntd (in case of use) … From browsing history, links seem to have been to (or redirected through): goldfishouncereburial dot…” Oct 9, 22:22
