(It seems needlessly churlish and picky to also point out that McGarry currently isn’t an “SNP MP”, so we won’t do that.)
Instead, the author, worth hundreds of millions of pounds, intends to try to pressure McGarry into making a donation to her childrens’ charity, Lumos, which we can only presume is happy to receive money generated by what some people might regard as intimidation bordering on blackmail.
So that’s all well and good. If you’re going to bully people, after all, it’s probably best if it’s at least for a worthy cause. Rowling was full of praise for abusive Tweeter “Brian Spanner” when he raised some money for the same charity last year by selling t-shirts mocking the loony “Scottish Resistance” campaign group.
But not all charitable donations attract such gratitude.
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.
Northcode on Protest But Don’t Survive: “Even the acting talent that is the world famous Brian Cox (albeit he was working with a poor script) could…” Mar 30, 09:24
Jamie on Sicknote Slippers: “Read the roll of honour, Scotland’s bravest men…” Mar 30, 07:47
Cynicus on Sicknote Slippers: “Rev, your link to “a pretty openly anti-Semitic protest “ shows nothing of the kind. It is to a Twitter…” Mar 30, 02:21
Young Lochinvar on Sicknote Slippers: “Meant to conclude: Signed: Your angry and defrauded long term true independence voter base..” Mar 30, 01:12
Young Lochinvar on Protest But Don’t Survive: “Yup.. You know what grips me; these testimonial interviews? What about his rank failures in post on transport (ultimately passed…” Mar 30, 01:06
Young Lochinvar on Sicknote Slippers: “Absolutely Geri, but also Dhondt (Westminsters git) as well! The non-achieving political and Quango class parasites are everywhere, and, I…” Mar 30, 00:51
Geri on Sicknote Slippers: “Aye, “Trust in Nicola” I’m still waiting on this grand plan she was supposedly working on in the background. Whit…” Mar 29, 23:26
100%Yes on Sicknote Slippers: “Well done to Fiona for her tweet it must have taken this coward hours to reply with a correct response.…” Mar 29, 23:07
Mark Beggan on Sicknote Slippers: “Fat Pete has joined the elite. and the far right he will defeat. All his career he’s been on the…” Mar 29, 23:05
100%Yes on Sicknote Slippers: “To be honest Farage can be PM for all I care and certainly couldn’t give a flying F*cking if he…” Mar 29, 23:01
100%Yes on Sicknote Slippers: “His only regret is he was never elected to be speaker of the house of commons. Your not a rich…” Mar 29, 22:49
Dan on Protest But Don’t Survive: “It’s been fairly obvious to most informed folk that the NuSNP are the problem with regard to progressing Scotland’s return…” Mar 29, 22:41
Davie on Sicknote Slippers: “Farage will not be the nest Prime Minister. He is a charlatan, a rehashed Tory and establishment containment. Like them…” Mar 29, 21:15
TURABDIN on Sicknote Slippers: “Hey, mr Wishy Washy, the «far right» within the rotting BritState is a peculiarly English problem, let them deal with…” Mar 29, 20:01
Geri on Protest But Don’t Survive: “Why don’t you tell the group what socialism is? I’m sure we’d all love to read yer take on how…” Mar 29, 20:00
robertkknight on Sicknote Slippers: ““The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but…” Mar 29, 19:53
H Scott on Sicknote Slippers: “The far right were on the Royal Mile haranguing the indy march. Peter Wishart could have killed two birds with…” Mar 29, 19:50
James on Sicknote Slippers: “Wait…Pishfart is one of the SNP UK agents who are ‘Lords-in-waiting’, but “…a pretty openly anti-Semitic protest..” Really? Seen any…” Mar 29, 19:41
Young Lochinvar on Sicknote Slippers: “Wet P1shfart is a bad parody of himself..” Mar 29, 19:19
Sven on Sicknote Slippers: ““When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to call “Present” or “Not Guilty”.…” Mar 29, 19:15
sarah on Protest But Don’t Survive: “Well, all the sensible ones! And despite the obvious exceptions, most are sensible, nice people. 🙂” Mar 29, 19:03
James on Protest But Don’t Survive: “Nah…. “The Untold History of the United States” by Oliver Stone.” Mar 29, 19:01
Terry on Sicknote Slippers: “Well done for highlighting this.” Mar 29, 19:00
James on Protest But Don’t Survive: ““Agent” – aye; you’ve given yersel the proper pen name, right enough.” Mar 29, 18:42
Rev. Stuart Campbell on Protest But Don’t Survive: ““All the other thinkers and activists would gladly work with you.” LOLZ” Mar 29, 18:27
James on Protest But Don’t Survive: “Well said, Northcode….and somehow appropriate maybe, to paraphrase; “We find ourselves opposed by forces that operate in the shadows, without…” Mar 29, 18:27
Rev. Stuart Campbell on Protest But Don’t Survive: “What we have to do about it is destroy the SNP. Until people realise that, there’s no moving forward.” Mar 29, 18:26
twathater on Protest But Don’t Survive: “C’mon now James the cave dweller has every right to come on to a supposed indy supporting blog and give…” Mar 29, 18:18
