What with this poll apparently being such terrific news for John Swinney’s runaway popularity with the people of Scotland, readers might be wondering why SNP MSP Graeme Dey has apparently forgotten to include the actual figures or link to the source so that people can find out for themselves.
Although we’re retired we already wrote this, so we may as well put it up for the 99.9% of Scots who don’t read the comments on David Leask‘s columns in the Herald.
It’s a claim he’s been banging on about since at least 2014, without ever providing a scrap of evidence to support it (his standard modus operandi), and yesterday was no exception. So let’s show Little Dave how proper big-boy journalists do it.
The First Minister released a short film this week.
While it has the character of a hostage video, with terrorists just off-camera pointing a gun at the unfortunate victim and forcing them to read out a pre-prepared text, sadly we doubt that was the case. We think this is really what she believes and intends.
Even just the tweet above by the author of the Times piece fails all kinds of basic journalistic standards of impartiality, but the article itself is vastly worse.
Any time you’re not sure whether something that happens in Scottish politics is good or bad for the cause of independence, here’s a top tip for you: see how the enemies of independence feel about it.
“Running scared” would seem to be a fair, if understated, summary.
In an attempt to freshen up its usual panel of tired and tiresome politicians and pundits, last night’s Question Time (ostensibly from an oddly-vague location in “the North East”) featured moderately-known circus fortune-teller Gypsy Rose Petulengro, crossing her palm with silver for some analysis in a short break from one of her celebrated seances.
The clip above was her take on whether Nicola Sturgeon would resign if either of the current inquiries found that she’d systematically and repeatedly lied to Parliament and broken the Ministerial Code, and the strange thing about it was that for someone who was professing to be looking into the future, she didn’t even appear to know the basic pertinent facts of the present or the past.
Alert readers will know by now that there’s nothing the Scottish media – and the Scottish Daily Mail in particular – likes more than printing scary-sounding figures with no context whatsoever by which people could judge how big or small they really are.
Nothing’s changed today (other than a rather sneaky inset shot of an old story about a different statistic which misleadingly makes today’s one look like a big increase), so rather than bang on we’ll just fill in the blanks: ScotRail runs around 760,000 trains a year, so this year’s cancellation figures amount to about 3.5% of all trains.
Which is to say, around one time in every 30 that you go to get a train it’ll have been cancelled and you’ll have to wait for the next one, which on the average commuter line will probably mean 15-20 minutes.
Which is still a pain in the hole, of course, but if it’s such a high number ask yourself why the Mail is so pathologically averse to simply telling you what percentage it is.
We’ll see you again with these figures in a few weeks, folks.
Wings Over Scotland isn’t the only website dedicated to scrutinising the truthfulness of things claimed by politicians and media pundits. There’s the widely-respected and diligent FullFact.org, there’s Scotland’s own The Ferret, and there’s the BBC’s Reality Check (which frequently takes the more unconventional approach of, er, not making a finding either way about what the reality of things is).
And then there’s Channel 4’s FactCheck, which we’re going to generously assume had a liquid lunch yesterday and was a little under the weather.
Because not only is the conclusion that it reached on the subject of an independent Scotland having to use the Euro utter nonsense that’s been debunked roughly 1000 times in the last six years, it doesn’t even agree with itself.
Michael Glackin of the Sunday Times is the only serious contender to the Scotsman’s demented Brian Wilson as the most poisonously, blindly instinctive hater of anything even passingly connected to the SNP or independence in the Scottish media. His weekly bilious rants in the paper make even Scottish Daily Express hacks wince and say “Blimey, that’s a bit strong”.
But even by those standards, this week’s column is quite something. So let’s take a little look at just how much of an idiot you can make of yourself if you never allow facts to get in the way of your rage.
GM on Holiday Relief: “I PDF’ed most of his articles in the period after Iain died. I go back to them from time to…” Jun 17, 23:46
crazycat on Holiday Relief: “The legislation only applies to England and Wales. It always used to be SNP policy not to vote in cases…” Jun 17, 23:12
Insider on Holiday Relief: “agent x…… Well, we must all wait with bated breath to see what “post colonialism” tells us ! It will…” Jun 17, 22:45
Towbar Sullivan on Holiday Relief: “This vote on Abortion – did the SNP go AWOL? There’s no record of them voting at all. WTF? https://votes.parliament.uk/votes/commons/division/2058” Jun 17, 22:35
George Ferguson on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “@James 9:56pm Welcome to the World of lost deposits. I was a member of the SNP and Alba. I thought…” Jun 17, 22:35
Scot Finlayson on Holiday Relief: “What is wrong with this British Labour government, Starving kids, freezing pensioners, allowing the mass rape of young girls, assisted…” Jun 17, 22:23
James on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Voting for me? Dunno what planet you’re on, George. I ditched my membership in 2018 when the missing money/Salmond stitch…” Jun 17, 21:56
George Ferguson on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “@James An SNP thug. Nuf said. When you come up with intelligent policies I will start voting for you again.…” Jun 17, 21:20
George Ferguson on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “@James 8:26pm According to Grok I am an Architect from Bristol. Of course I think freeports is an opportunity just…” Jun 17, 20:51
sarah on Holiday Relief: “Reading some of Iain Lawson’s blog articles today showed what quality of thinking and personality is missing from the SNP.…” Jun 17, 20:32
James on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Are you the same George Ferguson who bigs up Freeports?” Jun 17, 20:26
agent x on Holiday Relief: “How much has the Scotland 2050 thing cost and who is paying for it?” Jun 17, 20:17
George Ferguson on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “@Hatey McHateface 7:25pm And the tradegy is my wife was friendly with the Murkle cluster. Not long married I represented…” Jun 17, 19:59
agent x on Holiday Relief: ““Orkney Islands Council has accepted it must remain part of the UK – after spending two years exploring opportunities for…” Jun 17, 19:52
Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: ““preferred the presenter to be a bit more serious” Hmmm. Not with a name like Randy Credico. That handle will…” Jun 17, 19:46
Chas on Holiday Relief: “783 times. I confess, I may have missed a few as I am not on here every day. Most people…” Jun 17, 19:37
Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “Wouldn’t a truly representative Scottish Citizen’s Convention reflect Scottish society at large – 52% opposed to Indy? That being the…” Jun 17, 19:30
Hatey McHateface on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “James will still be able to grasp his chipolata in the dark. That’s all that matters to him.” Jun 17, 19:25
Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “Nah. It’s them that’s supposed to laugh at you. You’ll never reach Step 3 if you’re doing Step 2 all…” Jun 17, 19:20
sarah on Holiday Relief: “Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp talking a lot of sense in an email this evening. He says that SNP need to refocus on…” Jun 17, 19:11
agent x on Holiday Relief: “I don’t think that Swinney’s I have a dream speech will knock Rev. Martin Luther King Jr’s speech off top…” Jun 17, 18:36
Young Lochinvar on Holiday Relief: “Indeed, or that of sneaky Pete and the 600 grand?” Jun 17, 18:25
twathater on Holiday Relief: “And yet the cult will gorge on this cold wattery porridge as if they were attending a banquet of the…” Jun 17, 18:12
Onlooker on Holiday Relief: “How’s the Salmond case coming along?” Jun 17, 17:56
George Ferguson on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “@James 5:07pm Easy if you understand how the National Grid works. You want to live in the dark and that…” Jun 17, 17:22
Alf Baird on Holiday Relief: “Yes 100%, I see Indyscotnews now offers the audio in program entitled: ‘WBAI New York: ‘Live On The Fly’ with…” Jun 17, 17:14
James on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “But don’t we export 8Gw of leccy 24/7 as it is? Why on earth would we want a nuclear power…” Jun 17, 17:07
100%Yes on Holiday Relief: “Hi Alf, was listening to Craig Murray, Sara Salyers and yourself on Randy Credico radio talk show, well done all…” Jun 17, 16:58
George Ferguson on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “@Mary B 11:26pm You should been at the EDRP Inquiry in Caithness. The cluster theory was well and truly debunked…” Jun 17, 16:45