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.
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: “Perhaps you could clarify, CC. Does that make England First Loser, or Second Loser? 🙂” Jul 19, 08:18
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: “Ah Wally, is there a sight so delightful, a sound so musical to the ear, or a scent so alluring,…” Jul 19, 08:15
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: ““then relying solely on normal internal electoral mechanisms to remedy it cannot resolve the issue” Naw? You cannot say that…” Jul 19, 08:01
Northcode on These Words Are My Own: ““God only knows what you think the “laws of decolonization” are, but the UN isn’t going to apply these “laws”…” Jul 19, 06:55
ScotsCanuck on These Words Are My Own: “Holy Crap !!! … it just could be that she is the architect of her own doom !! … she…” Jul 19, 03:28
Captain Caveman on These Words Are My Own: “Oh well, England firing six (yes, you heard it right folks SIX) goals against the French – widely fancied as…” Jul 19, 01:02
Young Lochinvar on A Matter Of Declinature: “HMcH Eh?? No. And your point is exactly, beaching a ship holed badly below the waterline allows repairs then refloating?…” Jul 19, 00:57
robertkknight on These Words Are My Own: “Nah…save the expense of construction and staffing and just dump the bastards there and let them fend for themselves. I’m…” Jul 18, 23:21
James on These Words Are My Own: “Oh, wow. You can tell when something ‘gets’ to them eh? They’re not even hiding it now, reams of unionist…” Jul 18, 22:29
James on These Words Are My Own: “Stupid fucking meaningless interjections is what the Site Prick is programmed to do. All day, every day. Rinse and repeat.” Jul 18, 22:16
James on These Words Are My Own: ““Once a Tory Prick, always a Tory Prick” ?” Jul 18, 22:12
James on These Words Are My Own: “The AI site Prick’s mission is to divert, distract and divide. All day, every day; in the hope that the…” Jul 18, 22:10
Red on These Words Are My Own: “Nicola Sturgeon. John Swinney. Humza Yousaf. Jamie Hepburn. Alex Salmond gave all these people political careers, despite their horrible inadequacies…” Jul 18, 21:53
jimburns on These Words Are My Own: “Puzzled me as well. Private Eye points out that the answer might be that as he wasn’t convicted of the…” Jul 18, 21:24
Tommo on Step One: “Indeed.There is a vague parallel I can offer from here in Wales;some years ago the Bonheddigion (look it up) decided…” Jul 18, 21:04
Saffron Robe on These Words Are My Own: “Nice one, Stuart. Let her try to prove her innocence in court. Surely the fact that all the items implicating…” Jul 18, 20:40
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: ““Such a fraud cannot be remedied by colonial elections” Havers, Alf. God only knows what you think the “laws of…” Jul 18, 20:28
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: “It is a bit of a stupid fucking meaningless poem, Onlooker, so just what did you expect? And it doesn’t…” Jul 18, 19:16
Alf Baird on These Words Are My Own: “Andy, Hatey, You are ignoring the greatest fraud against the Scots, which is neither Murrell or Sturgeon, it is the…” Jul 18, 19:04
Red on These Words Are My Own: “Thank you, Reverend. From a grateful and weary Scotland.” Jul 18, 18:59
Onlooker on These Words Are My Own: “What a stupid fucking meaningless interjection from Mr Answer Everything All Day Every Day (I Am Halfwit, Hear Me Roar!),…” Jul 18, 18:15
Carol Neill on These Words Are My Own: “And the place is nearly empty The lion the witch and the audacity of that bitch” Jul 18, 18:08
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: “Great post, Andy. “a plebiscitary general election fought on a platform that won’t take “No” for an answer” is, of…” Jul 18, 17:42
100%Yes on These Words Are My Own: “I believe we are dealing with no ordinary people, if anyone was to come forward it would be for money…” Jul 18, 17:36
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: “What did a tiger ever do to him? There’s no hatred in a tiger, nor in any predator that ever…” Jul 18, 17:33
Andy Ellis on These Words Are My Own: “@Alf 3.20pm On the contrary Alf I’m quite aware of the rupture in the movement and of the creation of…” Jul 18, 17:31
100%Yes on These Words Are My Own: “The worry for Sturgeon is, what secrets does wings have hidden away in that large safe.” Jul 18, 17:08
Onlooker on These Words Are My Own: “THE GENIUS OF THE CROWD By Charles Bukowski There is enough treachery, hatred, violence, absurdity in the average human being…” Jul 18, 16:33
LinaryG on These Words Are My Own: “Now that really is interesting. Getting control of The Scotsman would have given a nationalist slant to a major paper…” Jul 18, 16:24
