Barely 18 months after this, here’s East Lothian Labour councillor Norman Hampshire (centre) and pals campaigning today with the aid of their new best friend.
As the story collapses and investigations begin into a cut-and-dried case of unlawful civil service interference in politics (and possibly worse), may they reap what they sow. If the current polls come true, never will a party’s fall have been more abject or more complete, nor its fate more richly deserved.
This is quite something. It took 15 hours into “MemoGate” before anyone got a Scottish Government representative on air – even though they’d found time to get quotes from Willie Rennie, who isn’t the leader of a Westminster party and whose party isn’t even involved in the story. When they did, here’s what happened.
Readers can form their own opinions about the interview. But at the very end of the piece the BBC’s James Cook says “this memo does exist”. It may do, but we’re not sure what his current grounds for that statement are.
To the best of our knowledge nobody is claiming to have seen it personally except the Telegraph. The Foreign Office have denied all knowledge of any memo, the Scotland Office apparently refuses to comment, and we have no idea who allegedly wrote it.
Cook has already made, then rowed back on, some rather questionable statements in the last 24 hours. Viewers may feel it might be better if he just stuck to the facts.
That clip (from just past midnight on the BBC News channel) isn’t a bad starting-point summary of last night’s extraordinary story, except by our count the Telegraph’s piece was fourth-hand rather than third-hand.
(First-hand would have been Nicola Sturgeon. Second-hand would have been the ambassador. Third-hand would have been the consul-general. The civil servant – who doubted the story him/herself – is fourth-hand.)
This is also a pretty good primer. Now let’s get to the fun stuff.
Sheesh. We pop out for a couple of hours to feed the Wings Emergency Kitten and we get back to find that it’s the UK press that’s barfed up hairballs all over its front pages.
And the contradictory cross-vortex coverlines aren’t even the mad bit.
Andy Ellis on Limping to the line: “@Alf 9.10pm Liberation is eminently possible: many peoples with much less going for them than us, and with many more…” Aug 23, 10:12
Hatey McHateface on Limping to the line: “@Andy Ellis Won’t support for Scottish Labour collapse when somebody books Sultana an Uber tour of Scotland? She could do…” Aug 23, 09:20
Hatey McHateface on Limping to the line: “Maybes Jezza and the Sun Dried Fruit will be able to reach an accommodation with Chairman Murray. More devolved powers…” Aug 23, 09:12
Alf Baird on Limping to the line: “As Albert Memmi wrote, and as you repeatedly postulate, “the abasement of the colonized… is supposed to explain his penury”…” Aug 23, 09:10
Hatey McHateface on Limping to the line: “Does that mean you will be able to post about post colonial facts in 2026? 2026 is shaping up to…” Aug 23, 09:02
Andy Ellis on Limping to the line: “Fielding candidates is one thing Alf, actually electing them is another thing. We’ve just seen the SNP polling 25% in…” Aug 23, 09:00
Renfrewdave on Conspiracies For Dummies: “Brilliant piece well written and linked through.” Aug 23, 08:10
Andy Ellis on Limping to the line: “Ah hae ma doots John! If wishes were horses, beggars would ride of course, but I suspect that even in…” Aug 23, 07:52
Alf Baird on Limping to the line: ““At some point a dynamic new contender is going to appear” As postcolonial theory confirms, there will be plenty of…” Aug 23, 06:50
Skip_NC on Limping to the line: “We do not know the basis of the charge of embezzlement. However, if it is the purchase of the campervan,…” Aug 23, 02:48
Skip_NC on Limping to the line: “Both reasonable assumptions. Part of it may also be the issue flagged in the 2023 audit. Time would have been…” Aug 23, 02:37
Skip_NC on Limping to the line: “css as Moët am = campervan. Obviously.” Aug 23, 02:26
Skip_NC on Limping to the line: “It might be that the money is tied up in property. As the properties sell, the party gets the money.…” Aug 23, 02:25
Skip_NC on Limping to the line: “The depreciation of the css as Moët am is not an accounting trick. It complies with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles…” Aug 23, 02:20
Andrew Kidd on Limping to the line: “Last year the auditors were appointed at the last minute so they would have incurred overtime. The first year of…” Aug 22, 22:56
John Love on Limping to the line: “That new contender will surely be the UN. Which will pull the rug out from under Scottish politics and probably…” Aug 22, 21:31
Geri on Limping to the line: “Could it be a Trust fund that they’ve left in their will that keeps collecting interest & paying out it’s…” Aug 22, 20:58
I. Despair on Limping to the line: “I won’t particularise this to the SNP and St. Peter of Murrell (St. Peter the Fishy Man) because of course…” Aug 22, 20:54
I. Despair on Limping to the line: “A total guess on my part but I wondered about how the dead lady’s estate was held and the process…” Aug 22, 20:32
Hatey McHateface on Limping to the line: ““possibly, Ms Brownrig may have just liked the cut of Humza’s jib” And why not? The voting members of the…” Aug 22, 19:42
Campbell Clansman on Limping to the line: “Stu, I agree (in principle) that “Scotland deserves better” than domination by these two pathetic inept corrupt bankrupt political parties.…” Aug 22, 19:39
Hatey McHateface on Limping to the line: ““At some point a dynamic new contender is going to appear” Is this a coded reference to the dynamic duo…” Aug 22, 19:32
100%Yes on Limping to the line: “Believe in Scotland under the theme “end London rule I’m pretty sure it not about ending London rule, its about…” Aug 22, 19:27
100%Yes on Limping to the line: “SNP SCUM, Scum no longer belongs to the Tories the SNP deserves it. The SNP won’t have the money to…” Aug 22, 19:11
agent x on Limping to the line: “No helicopter for Swinney then!” Aug 22, 18:38
twathater on Limping to the line: “I wonder if Ms Browning has been birling in her grave over the past years of sturgeons mismanagement and incompetence…” Aug 22, 18:18
Astonished on Limping to the line: “Obviously, no one has yet considered that Ms Brownrig possibly wanted to keep Scotland’s neck under the jackboot of our…” Aug 22, 18:07
Nae Need! on Limping to the line: ““For an organisation of around 20 staff to be spending £10,000 per year per employee on infotech is simply staggering.”…” Aug 22, 17:42
