We talk often of the “swarm of wasps” approach to debate that’s the main strategy of the No campaign. The guiding principle of it is to throw out so many dubious assertions, straw men and red herrings, all at once, that it’s all but impossible for your opponent to effectively counter all the different thrusts of the attack, like trying to swat wasps with a broken tennis racquet.
Tonight saw the launch of “Better Together Bathgate”, the No camp’s debut foray into our beloved hometown. The email advertising the event, sent out on the 15th of July, said “I hope to see you at the on 28th June” [sic], which might help to explain the rather sub-spectacular turnout of around 40 hardy souls from a town of 16,000.
Of that 40 or so, several (perhaps as many as a quarter) were dastardly pro-Yes spies. And we know that for certain, because one of them was ours.
In an extraordinary outburst on TV last night, “Better Together” campaign chairman Alistair Darling accused Alex Salmond of exaggerating the amount of extractable oil in the Scottish sector of the North Sea by 1,200%.
The former Chancellor (who we learned a few weeks ago thinks the population of Scotland is six million, creating an impressive 705,000 imaginary Scots) suggested that rather than the 24 billion barrels currently estimated by the oil industry – and commonly cited by the UK government – there were in fact just 2 billion barrels left.
It’s hard to know where to start on picking apart the torrent of misrepresentations, distortions and flat-out untruths that “Better Together” campaign director Blair McDougall was allowed to get away with in the space of a few short minutes during a rather powder-puff interview on last night’s Scotland Tonight.
So let’s just pick one at random and see how we get on.
If there’s one area where you really have to hand it to “Better Together”, it’s sheer shamelessness. Despite having been humiliatingly exposed for inflating attendance figures at their events by at least 100% twice on this site alone, to the great merriment of Yes campaigners, they just keep right on going without a hint of embarrassment.
We can’t help starting to wonder if this might all be one of those sort of “When I was going to St Ives…” trick riddle things. How many Darling Youth kids make 70?
Alert readers may recall the anti-independence “Better Together” campaign’s rather, shall we say, enthusiastic approach to statistics. Earlier today we noticed them excitedly tweeting “Head count just done! About 600 at the launch of #bettertogether Edinburgh!”, and wondered if they might have once again been so kind as to provide a picture for purposes of verification. And bless them, they had.
If you’re looking at that shot and thinking that it’s certainly full but doesn’t look much like “about 600” people, you’re not alone. So we did a quick bit of investigating.
We stumbled across this quite by accident yesterday. We think you’ll enjoy it.
The clip is from last year, and was aired on Canadian national news channel Sun News. Douglas Murray is a British writer who claims to be half-Scottish on account of unspecified links to Unionist breeding ground the Isle of Lewis, popular haunt of No-camp luminaries like Alistair Darling, virulent Labour anti-devolutionist Brian Wilson and controversial “Better Together” donor Ian Taylor.
Murray studied at Eton and Oxford and writes for august UK journals like the Spectator and Guardian, as well as appearing on numerous BBC political shows. For some reason, the Canadians consider him an expert on Scottish politics, qualified to inform and enlighten their viewers. See what you think.
We already know that the No camp has, shall we say, a bit of difficulty when it comes to basic arithmetic. But rarely do they demonstrate it so eagerly as they did last night.
We very much appreciate their helping to make our job easier.
(Our emphases.) That’s pretty clear, then – the No campaign will not accept money from “foreign donors”, but will take “up to £500” from people resident in the UK.
We’ve been documenting of late how the No campaign has grown increasingly negative and smear-based since the turn of the year, as opinion polls show a trend of small but consistent movement towards independence. One of the core characteristics of negative political campaigning is to accuse your opponents of doing the thing you’re actually doing, and the last couple of days have thrown up some striking examples.
That’s our old pal Euan McColm of the Scotsman, of course. And he’s not alone.
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “Lorncal The phrases you are looking for are: -Stairheid rammies -Manipulation -Daren’t leave the group incase they get talked about…” Apr 21, 19:41
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “Screams; GUILTY.. Nae wonder Sturgeon was in tears of gratitude when he said he’d take over eh!? Can’t last forever…” Apr 21, 19:22
sarah on The Pit Of Vipers: “100%Yes: I don’t subscribe to the National but saw this story posted by other independence supporters. It is a shocker.” Apr 21, 19:18
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “C’mon Wullie Cicero is uber untrendy now after Bojo the Clown used him as an example in his getting sacked…” Apr 21, 19:16
100%Yes on The Pit Of Vipers: “You subscribe to the national, just wondering what is it you get from this Rag??” Apr 21, 19:05
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “Lorncal Faggats and their legions of handmaidens..” Apr 21, 19:04
100%Yes on The Pit Of Vipers: “John Swinney rejects calls for public inquiry into Alex Salmond ‘conspiracy’, What a shocker.” Apr 21, 19:02
twathater on The Pit Of Vipers: “@ Angus, Colin Alexander has been posting comments on WOS since at least 2014 , his comments have been scathing…” Apr 21, 18:32
Alf Baird on The Pit Of Vipers: “Yes, Fanon tells us that ‘the colonialist may speak in the native tongue’, and that ‘colonialism is always a co-operative…” Apr 21, 18:28
Lorncal on The Pit Of Vipers: “Rev: stooshie going on at ‘The National’ and ‘The Herald’ newspapers because they wouldn’t run an ISP campaign advert unless…” Apr 21, 18:24
Lorncal on The Pit Of Vipers: “YL: not saying she wasn’t at the centre. Just that she did not kick the thing off, I believe. Others…” Apr 21, 18:16
Lorncal on The Pit Of Vipers: “I hate to say it, but, you know, this is women – or, at least some of them. It’s always…” Apr 21, 17:45
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “George @ 4.59 Correct.” Apr 21, 17:45
Lorncal on The Pit Of Vipers: “And look what happened to poor old Cicero, Willie. Mark Antony did for him.” Apr 21, 17:29
George Ferguson on The Pit Of Vipers: “@Alf Baird Fine Alf but when I served in Northern Ireland we were regarded as peace keepers. The context which…” Apr 21, 16:59
sam on The Pit Of Vipers: “You can add to that list the so called Troubles of NI. In which grievances over civil rights and the…” Apr 21, 16:36
100%Yes on The Pit Of Vipers: “Keir Starmer has resigned and his last wish is to grant Swinney a section 30 order.” Apr 21, 16:21
Lorncal on The Pit Of Vipers: “I didn’t say she was not, 100%. I said that she did not kick it off, others did. The opportunity…” Apr 21, 16:20
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “Fat Slag Wilma Flintstone @2.26 “paaaaal”” Apr 21, 15:29
TURABDIN on The Pit Of Vipers: “TUCKER CARLSON one of the US rights many paper messiahs opined re my country of birth, «Iraq is a crappy…” Apr 21, 14:26
Captain Caveman on The Pit Of Vipers: ““Werthers Original”” Apr 21, 14:26
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “Fat Slag Wilma Flintstone @ 1.56 “maaaaaate”..” Apr 21, 14:06
wullie on The Pit Of Vipers: “Marcus Tullius Cicero “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.…” Apr 21, 14:05
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “Geri I wonder how much longer the US superpower (empire) has got before it’s slid down to the has-beens league…” Apr 21, 13:57
Captain Caveman on The Pit Of Vipers: “Ah, Rambo “adding value” to the BTL chat with yet more fantasy as ever, I see (much like his non…” Apr 21, 13:56
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “AI dun @ 12.46 Stop clutching your pearls so tightly “old boy”, you’ll hurt yerself.” Apr 21, 13:37
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “Fat Slag Wilma Flintstone @ 6.54 “Maaaaate” Spellcheck that.” Apr 21, 13:31
Young Lochinvar on The Pit Of Vipers: “Fearghas I thought we were talking about a mythical Tower of Babel timeline? Not a modern language imposition. Anyway apparently…” Apr 21, 13:26
Aidan on The Pit Of Vipers: “Why don’t all the normal people on Wings BTL piss off so that Geri and co can rant a rave…” Apr 21, 12:46
