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.
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Championing Scots is an entirely justified and laudable enterprise. There is world-class literature in it. All Scottish children should become…” May 11, 15:38
Rob on And Nothing Happened Forever: “I voted for Fergus as a representative of the old SNP before the lurch to the left wing and wokeism.…” May 11, 15:32
Rob on And Nothing Happened Forever: “So all areas, no matter what their ethnic language roots are all the scots languange? What a lot of tosh.…” May 11, 15:27
Aidan on And Nothing Happened Forever: “And all the above nationalities speak English fluently . .” May 11, 14:57
Alf Baird on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Language and national identity is not than complicated: Danish folk speak Danish; Norwegians speak Norwegian; English speak English; Welsh speak…” May 11, 14:32
Lorncal on And Nothing Happened Forever: “HMcH: fair point. Although many of understand the old saying, horses for courses, knowing that we would make terrible MSPs.…” May 11, 14:29
Northcode on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Here’s a description, given in the dialect of Central Scots, of Northern Scots as I hear it… Northern Scots -…” May 11, 14:29
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on And Nothing Happened Forever: “UK PARLIAMENT: IDENTITY AND LANGUAGE (Northern Ireland) ACT 2022 Statement made on 28 January 2026 by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent,…” May 11, 14:24
100%Yes on And Nothing Happened Forever: “I blame no one other than the SNP, its membership its politicians and the leadership anyone who was worth there…” May 11, 14:12
Northcode on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Here’s a description, given in the dialect of Central Scots, of Insular Scots as I hear it… Insular Scots -…” May 11, 14:01
Northcode on And Nothing Happened Forever: “What? Do you think I’m your info-bitch, Fergus.? You Scotti, whit are ye like? Always trying to boss us Picts…” May 11, 13:47
Iain More on And Nothing Happened Forever: “My post election afterthoughts. i blame the Leprous Sturgeon and the Toxic Wokes for the SNP lass of Skye, Lochaber…” May 11, 13:18
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on And Nothing Happened Forever: “And the colonial status of Ulster Scots is…?” May 11, 13:01
Northcode on And Nothing Happened Forever: “The Scots language has five major dialect groups: Insular Scots (Shetland, Orkney) Northern Scots (Doric, NE Scotland) Central Scots (Fife,…” May 11, 12:44
Sven on And Nothing Happened Forever: “As it seems that we’ll never “Rise now and be a nation again” until we all forsake the English language…” May 11, 12:41
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Extract from Introduction to THE PENGUIN BOOK OF SCOTTISH VERSE, introduced and edited by Tom Scott (first published 1970) —…” May 11, 12:31
Rob on And Nothing Happened Forever: “I see that the aold adage of bullshit baffling brains was attempted by Alf by not answering the question and…” May 11, 12:08
Cynicus on And Nothing Happened Forever: ““The tongue of the conqueror on the lips of the conquered is the hallmark of a slave” ======= Although this…” May 11, 11:54
Northcode on And Nothing Happened Forever: “There has been a shift from 30% to 46% of the population. But what does this shift mean? Well, I’ll…” May 11, 11:38
Alf Baird on And Nothing Happened Forever: “The liberation of ‘a people’ is seldom merely a matter of politics, rather it is primarily ‘a matter of national…” May 11, 11:38
Alf Baird on And Nothing Happened Forever: “This struck me as fitting our colonial predicament, Fearghas, as well as postcolonial theory of course, which highlights the collaborative…” May 11, 11:25
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Superb book — THE MERCAT ANTHOLOGY OF EARLY SCOTTISH LITERATURE 1375-1707, Edited by R.D.S. Jack and P.A.T. Rozendaal, Mercat Press,…” May 11, 11:25
Lorncal on And Nothing Happened Forever: “MaryB: I really don’t think that this is the distraction. For these people, independence is the distraction. They simply do…” May 11, 11:22
Rob on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Do you actually believe any of the nonsense you talk about the UN or is it just a case of…” May 11, 11:11
Alf Baird on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Aye Northcode, oor Scots langage bides deep in oor verra saul, sae naethin an nae ither fowks langage can ivver…” May 11, 10:23
Young Lochinvar on And Nothing Happened Forever: “HMcH Deflecting yet again “old boy”, as usual, and still no denial. Speaks volumes. Posting at 12.16; So what? Just…” May 11, 10:07
Northcode on And Nothing Happened Forever: “It’s difficult to capture with a single word what was done to Scotland and the Scots, but it can be…” May 11, 09:19
Hatey McHateface on And Nothing Happened Forever: “I’ve concluded that the answer to the question: “How long will this wake go on for?” is 3. Whether 3…” May 11, 07:37
Hatey McHateface on And Nothing Happened Forever: “@Young Lochinvar says: 11 May, 2026 at 12:16 am “canal tow path” “fag break” “forbidden fruit” “sin” “catamite” “glory hole”…” May 11, 07:25
Hatey McHateface on And Nothing Happened Forever: “Plant called out by plank. Sometimes the headlines really do just write themselves.” May 11, 07:18
