Since the astonishing election of 56 SNP MPs to the UK Parliament last May, the Unionist media – suddenly deprived of a whole contacts book full of friendly Scottish Labour bench-warmers ready to feed it cosy stories over a boozy expenses lunch in Whitehall – has raked through every bin and gutter in the land looking for anything (however pathetic) that it can try to puff up, distort, and rope into service as “dirt” on each of the Nat members, in an attempt to discredit them and the party.
So let’s just have a little look in here and – YIKES!
Sometimes it’s the smallest, most trivial things that give you away. Graham Grant is the Home Affairs Editor of the Scottish Daily Mail, and earlier this morning he tweeted this snarky dig at prominent independence supporter and pundit Pat Kane, also of the primarily-1980s band Hue And Cry:
Ostensibly it’s a throwaway gag aimed at puncturing an opponent’s pomposity and over-inflated self-regard while portraying the journalist as an arch, wise cynic.
(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.
Social media amused itself briefly tonight over a spat between former SNP MP (now independent) Natalie McGarry and children’s author and hedge enthusiast JK Rowling.
In a cunning meta-twist which simultaneously proves and disproves its own claim, the headline above is itself a lie. It’s of course not true that every single headline you read in a newspaper is absolutely false.
As politics wakes up from the holidays, any readers still bothering to gaze at the pages of the Scottish media could be forgiven for a crushing sense of deja vu.
Over the last few days, as most of Scotland’s media has focused on hysterical smear stories and outright lies, we’ve been digging around trying to uncover the truth about events around and leading to the closure of the Forth Road Bridge.
We’ve lost count of how many times we’ve drawn people’s attention to the necessity of sticking with newspaper articles right to the end if you don’t want to be horribly misled by eye-catching headlines. But it never hurts to have another example.
If you only read the start of today’s Scottish Mail On Sunday “bombshell” on the Forth Road Bridge (the left side of the picture above), you might come to a very alarming conclusion. But if you get all the way through it, to the paragraphs we’ve highlighted in red and enlarged on the right-hand side of the image, you’ll discover the truth.
We were considering having a day off today, readers. There’s absolutely nothing of any note happening in Scottish politics, and the papers have been reduced to scraping up all manner of barely-reheated leftover dregs to fill their pages.
But then someone drew our attention to something in Scotland On Sunday about the ongoing Women For Independence fiasco, and we were too annoyed to let it lie.
Spartan 117 on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “Gordoom went Scorched Earth on the UK in a fit of spiteful rage when the UK public didn’t like him,…” Sep 22, 21:05
Mark Beggan on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “Please call the SNP on 0800 633 5432 if you have any queries about your donation.” Sep 22, 21:02
Onlooker on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “An anti-Sturgeon (in a roundabout way) petition some of you might get a wry chuckle out of. Sign and pass…” Sep 22, 20:57
Spartan 117 on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “United Federation of Planets? I’d sign up for that, happily. A utopia where conflict and want among mankind is eliminated…” Sep 22, 20:56
Spartan 117 on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “I think we all know who’s havering. It’s the one who keeps spam-posting all day, every day BTL. Gie it…” Sep 22, 20:47
Hatey McHateface on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “Wheesht! If that story gets out all the SNP-supporting Scots who think likewise will make her FM.” Sep 22, 19:40
Hatey McHateface on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “Ah, c’moan noo, Alf. Gie the boy a brek. Dave’s nae ganging tae ken fit “et al” means. An try…” Sep 22, 19:38
Mark Beggan on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “Collete Stevenson thinks Braveheart was a fly on the wall documentary.” Sep 22, 18:56
Hatey McHateface on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “Man! The power of social media. For the very first time ever, I post “super sized turdberg of excrement” and…” Sep 22, 18:50
Alf Baird on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “Hatey et al are clearly on a ‘piece-rate’, Dave.” Sep 22, 18:47
Hatey McHateface on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “As you were, folks. US-UK bromance is back on: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/sep/22/andy-burnham-donald-trump-un-general-assembly-uk-politics-latest-news” Sep 22, 18:43
Hatey McHateface on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “You’re obviously unaware of my tech savviness, Bob. When I hit “Submit Comment” in reply to one of your posts,…” Sep 22, 18:41
robertkknight on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “20-25% is the norm. Simply can’t help themselves. A BTL whack-a-mole Ninja with nothing of value to add to the…” Sep 22, 18:26
Hatey McHateface on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “As it happens, Spartan, I’m on the DM Online site most days (well of course I am). I’m moderately, no,…” Sep 22, 18:15
Northcode on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “I think we’re talking about two different things. Submitting documents, speaking at side-events, or having NGOs raise issues at the…” Sep 22, 16:10
Aidan on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “Scotland has not been “recognised” in any meaningful way. Documents have been sent in, but the UN receives a whole…” Sep 22, 15:58
sam on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “Scotland has been recognised within the UN framework regarding her claim as NSGT. Documents have been submitted to the UN,…” Sep 22, 15:35
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “Short presentation by SARA SALYERS 6 days ago, on behalf of SALVO / LIBERATION SCOTLAND. www.youtube.com/watch?v=piEfPOlpI9k” Sep 22, 14:54
Spartan 117 on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “Obviously nothing better to do. Likely retired or unemployed.” Sep 22, 14:38
Spartan 117 on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “You’ll need to ask Stu to release my post from the mod queue then, because I ain’t typing it all…” Sep 22, 14:35
Northcode on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “I agree with you — Scotland is not regarded as a Non-Self-Governing Territory. That’s precisely the point I’m making. Because…” Sep 22, 14:30
sam on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “Hard to know but I’ll play the game. Gordon Brown. His “light touch” regulation of financial services helped to promote…” Sep 22, 14:22
Northcode on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “Timor-Leste doesn’t refute the point I’m making, because its situation was fundamentally different. East Timor was already on the UN’s…” Sep 22, 14:21
Northcode on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “My point isn’t about how Article 73(e) is worded in isolation, but how it functions in UN practice. The clause…” Sep 22, 14:09
Alf Baird on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “On 20 May 2002, the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste came into force and Timor-Leste was recognised as…” Sep 22, 14:05
sam on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “Northcode, “Declaration Regarding Non-Self-Governing Territories” “Article 73 Members of the United Nations which have or assume responsibilities for the administration…” Sep 22, 14:01
Alf Baird on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “Your subjective viewpoint does not reflect the Article you refer to, which merely states the need for the administering Power:…” Sep 22, 13:38
Hatey McHateface on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “You mind me of somebody who used to be a regular on here. He had to stop suddenly – trouble…” Sep 22, 13:06
Hatey Mchateface on His Majesty’s Loyal Sabre: “A likely story, Spartan 🙂 Why not mention an article by name, date and location. If it’s still online it…” Sep 22, 12:57
