The Scottish Daily Mail’s front page lead today is so galactically despicable that it’s easy to overlook another story that it bundles in with the same “SNP BAD” attack.
While excoriating Dr Philippa Whitford for having the sheer shameless gall to help save women’s lives in her holidays, the alleged newspaper also devotes a page-high article to an attack on another Nat MP, George Kerevan, for employing his wife.
As we noted on Tuesday, Scottish Labour’s opening election salvo for 2016 has been to blame the Scottish Government for unaffordable house prices.
Of the 450 most obvious flaws in that argument, not least the extraordinary efforts a 13-year Labour government went to to keep the housing bubble inflated, the one that caught our eye was that in the past three years we were regularly told of one thing that definitely WOULD bring prices down dramatically, but which Labour pathologically fought every step of the way.
Kezia Dugdale made a spectacle of herself again at First Minister’s Questions earlier today. Using time intended for holding the Scottish Government to account over its devolved responsibilities, Dugdale once more decided instead to ignore her duty to the people of Scotland and attack the FM over a matter which is entirely outwith the Scottish Government’s control, namely the past actions of a Westminster MP.
Pausing only to demand that Holyrood interfere in the running of the independent Law Society, Dugdale then abandoned her casual endangerment of a live police inquiry by focusing instead on the morality of the aforementioned MP’s business practices:
But Ms Dugdale’s own ethics left a few things to be desired.
Earlier today we made an observation about the overblown way the media has been covering the Scottish Government’s underspend of 1.3% of its budget (a figure about which the David Hume Institute today cooed approvingly “Even Mr Micawber could not budget more accurately”).
To nobody’s great amazement, Scottish Labour rentahonk Jackie Baillie – fresh from making a complete idiot of herself over the Michelle Thomson case – couldn’t resist jumping on the bandwagon.
Quite aside from the fact that it means no such thing – there’s no less money, it’s just that some of it will now be carried over and spent this year instead – we suppose the tweet does at least mean that Scottish Labour’s policy position is clear: the Scottish Government should always spend every penny of its budget. Right?
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.
Last night we highlighted the reaction from various right-wing columnists to the SNP’s torpedoing yesterday of Tory attempts to relax the laws on foxhunting in England and Wales. Today the same commentariat has turned its rage to thoughts of revenge, in the form of “English votes for English laws”.
And we’re confused, because we don’t know what this “England” they speak of is.
By now you should all have had a chance to marvel at the extraordinary madness that is Scottish Labour’s 51-page suicide note of SNP members who’ve said rude words on the internet since 2012.
You may even have had time to read a data protection expert (and Labour voter)’s assessment of all the ways in which the dossier breaks the law.
STV’s notorious quisling correspondent Stephen “Stevo” Daisley has an interesting piece today about the latest manufactured “cybernat” shock-horror outrage being punted by the Daily Mail (although curiously, the major “CYBERNAT WEB OF HATE!” exposé they promised readers would be published on Thursday is yet to materialise).
Daisley’s column makes some valid points about how the SNP could distance itself from the most extremist elements of its online support, but with one important flaw – it overlooks a crucial factor driving internet rage, and as a result its recommendations would only actually make the situation worse.
But fear not, gentle and sensitive reader. Conveniently, there’s an easy solution.
Amazingly enough, the Scottish press today ISN’T wall-to-wall with stories about Baron McConnell of Glenscorrodale, UK peer and lawmaker, endorsing the “f***ing booting” of Conservative supporters at the weekend, in a striking contrast to when a young SNP candidate said similar but less offensive things some months ago.
(Lord McConnell’s friends were talking in the future tense about something they would do. Mhairi Black was talking in the past tense, about things which she HADN’T done.)
As far as we’ve seen, the small piece above in the Scottish Sun is the only coverage. (The Daily Record, as well as not reporting the McConnell comments at all, actually has another go at Mhairi Black instead.)
But we were having trouble recalling any “hate-filled violent mobs” (McConnell’s actual full quote) on the Yes/SNP side. And so was an alert reader who had a dig through the papers from the last couple of years.
Mia on The shifting sands of memory: ““Every true Scottish Indy supporter must avoid a second Indy Ref like the plague” Every pro-independence supporters must avoid at…” May 23, 13:43
James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “Strangely enough the people in Wales still feel, remember their annexation all these years later by England, Yet their hundreds…” May 23, 13:42
Lorn on The Ace Attorney: “No, Katielass, it was, and remains, legal. That, believe it or not, may well become our way out of the…” May 23, 13:13
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “Mia correctly concludes that every true Scottish Indy supporter must avoid a second Indy Ref like the plague. And she…” May 23, 13:04
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “That’s a mighty smart seeing eye dowg you’ve got yourself there, James.” May 23, 12:56
Lorn on The Ace Attorney: “They were not nutters: they were, mainly, members of the elite – aristocracy, etc – who had invested in Darien…” May 23, 12:50
Mia on The shifting sands of memory: “Now, this is interesting. The following quote was taken from the article Gove ‘in agreement’ with Swinney over second independence…” May 23, 12:48
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “Dunno about longer, but plenty are getting a lot denser.” May 23, 12:47
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “I’ve asked Grok for a summary of your latest post, Barbs. Grok says: “The post is a free association, alliterative…” May 23, 12:42
Mark Beggan on The shifting sands of memory: “Is it me or are the paragraphs on here getting longer.” May 23, 12:05
Alf Baird on The shifting sands of memory: “A very valid point, Northcode. Postcolonial theory (Fanon) suggests this transformation from an ‘independence movement’ to become a ‘national liberation…” May 23, 12:04
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: ““Leaving the false Union is, of course, the answer to almost every social and economic ill that Scotland is currently…” May 23, 12:04
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “Much the same could be said for the Iroquois, Northcode. And they’ve been on the receiving end for more than…” May 23, 11:59
Geri on The shifting sands of memory: “Scotland isn’t “self governing” ya plank. Does it’s votes count in Westminster? No. Can it collect it’s own revenues? No…” May 23, 11:56
Mark Beggan on The shifting sands of memory: “Was Ally MacLeod a reincarnation of Charles Edward Stuart?” May 23, 11:46
Northcode on The shifting sands of memory: “A small and inconsequential point, perhaps. But one I’d like to make. I do not favour the term ‘Scottish independence’…” May 23, 11:33
Captain Caveman on The shifting sands of memory: “@Alf Baird Wrong as usual. The “Scots” don’t purely comprise of Picts, but other ethnicities as well, most notably (but…” May 23, 11:20
Mark Beggan on The shifting sands of memory: “If only Bonnie dick head had taken a bullet at Culloden.” May 23, 11:12
sarah on The shifting sands of memory: “ON Topic: Leaving the false Union is, of course, the answer to almost every social and economic ill that Scotland…” May 23, 10:54
Alf Baird on The shifting sands of memory: “Us Picts are still here, merely under a different name, i.e. Scots.” May 23, 10:51
Northcode on The shifting sands of memory: “Good points well made and nicely summarised, James. One of the many notable things about the Scots is that we…” May 23, 10:37
Mia on The shifting sands of memory: ““The British Empire, at its peak, encompassed a vast network of territories and dominions ruled by the United Kingdom. It…” May 23, 10:32
Alf Baird on The shifting sands of memory: “Excellent summary of a colonised and therefore ‘doun-hauden’ (i.e oppressed) people, James. Albert Memmi explained the process whereby the colonizer…” May 23, 10:19
James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “One of the issues of a Colonised Country is the removal of its Culture, and their history, But along with…” May 23, 09:40
Captain Caveman on The shifting sands of memory: ““Inbred foreigners” If we’re going back to Roman times as per Scot Finlayson’s post, the question is: who in Europe…” May 23, 09:23
Vivian O’Blivion on The shifting sands of memory: “James Kelly, the Cumbernauld Copernicus dismissed four UK wide, Westminster voting intention polls in a row that put the SNP…” May 23, 09:10
Anthem on The shifting sands of memory: “True, but a Scot says, led by a bunch of inbred foreigners.” May 23, 09:09
Aidan on The shifting sands of memory: “It sounds like turning up uninvited to the UNCDC in June might actually involve quite a lot of messing about…” May 23, 08:47
