As it happens, one of the things that we’ve been occupying ourselves with during the current news drought is pulling together a post called “The SNPBAD Files”, collecting all the desperate smear and innuendo of the Unionist press as it systematically tries to discredit every one of the 56 SNP MPs elected last May.
Until last night we hadn’t been sure which had been the most pathetically dismal. Was it the MP who still did a few haircuts in his barber shop on Saturday afternoons? The one who bought a derelict London house many years before he was an MP, renovated it with his own hands and now sometimes stays there when working at Westminster, rather than charging expenses to the public for accommodation? Or perhaps the one who tweeted that he was opposed to the concept of monarchy, the foul monster?
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.
Alert readers may recall an incident last year in which the Scottish media got itself very worked up about some independence supporters threatening to boycott holiday company Barrhead Travel after its owner sent a barking-mad letter to staff about how the company would go out of business if Scotland voted Yes.
So we’re sure that you won’t be able to move later today and tomorrow for newspaper articles about something similar, but significantly worse, that happened this weekend.
Last night we ran a piece about a story in last week’s Daily Record in which a Scottish Labour official was given free rein to make an extended political attack on the SNP in the guise of a “business student” from the University of the West of Scotland, without his Labour identity being revealed, on the flimsy basis of a petition about college cuts with a few hundred signatures.
As it happens, another UWS student also has a petition doing the rounds at the moment. But it got treated rather differently by the Scottish press.
We’ve noted on more than one occasion that the spectacular SNP surge since the referendum appears to have completely unhinged much of the Scottish and UK press. Having pumped out a vast avalanche of hysterical coverage which utterly failed to stop the Scottish electorate returning 56 SNPs out of 59, the papers have responded to the rebuff by simply turning the volume up.
But even by those standards, today has been special.
Amazingly enough, the Scottish press today ISN’T wall-to-wall with stories about Baron McConnell of Glenscorrodale, UK peer and lawmaker, endorsing the “f***ing booting” of Conservative supporters at the weekend, in a striking contrast to when a young SNP candidate said similar but less offensive things some months ago.
(Lord McConnell’s friends were talking in the future tense about something they would do. Mhairi Black was talking in the past tense, about things which she HADN’T done.)
As far as we’ve seen, the small piece above in the Scottish Sun is the only coverage. (The Daily Record, as well as not reporting the McConnell comments at all, actually has another go at Mhairi Black instead.)
But we were having trouble recalling any “hate-filled violent mobs” (McConnell’s actual full quote) on the Yes/SNP side. And so was an alert reader who had a dig through the papers from the last couple of years.
At today’s First Minister’s Questions, the Scottish Labour deputy leader Kezia Dugdale launched into an ill-advised attack over an SNP candidate who’d made some foolish (but not especially outrageous) comments on Twitter in 2012. Rather than simply issuing the standard generic condemnation of abusive remarks, Nicola Sturgeon did so but also drew Dugdale’s attention to the beam in her own eye.
Labour activist, blogger, lawyer and regular BBC pundit Ian Smart (he hasn’t been seen on STV since accusing them repeatedly, without any evidence, of letting the SNP pre-approve all interview questions some time ago) is well known to readers of this blog. Bizarrely, however, Dugdale feigned ignorance of his activity.
To help her, we’ve compiled some of Mr Smart’s greatest hits.
As alert readers will already know, this site’s core long-term aim is to eventually render itself redundant, by showing people how to read between the lines, spot what isn’t being said and understand the various tricks that newspapers use in order to get the public to believe things that aren’t true without ever doing anything so crass (and more to the point, legally-actionable) as directly lying.
Today’s papers provide an especially clear-cut example.
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.
Former Labour spindoctor Charlie Whelan in the Strathspey & Badenoch Herald:
Click to enlarge as Whelan segues seamlessly from terrible Scottish “nationalism” to racial genocide in Auschwitz, because, you know, Yes voters are all basically Nazis*.
*George Galloway’s comments (made in his capacity as a nominated representative of “Better Together”) from yesterday’s BBC “Big Big Debate” were edited out of the broadcast version. We’re sure it was just to keep the running time tight.
twathater on What Went On: “DECLARATION OF DEMAND AND INTENT To John Swinney and the hierarchy of the SNP political party, currently the Scottish Government,…” Dec 2, 02:38
twathater on What Went On: “I don’t know if people remember but prior to the 2021 election I put forward a suggestion that people should…” Dec 2, 02:34
Michael Laing on What Went On: “Your comment currently has an approval rating of minus 15. I therefore think I can quite reasonably pontificate that nobody…” Dec 2, 00:04
Michael Laing on What Went On: “You’re an anti-Scottish troll, so why would you care whether the summit is a success or not? It’s got nothing…” Dec 1, 23:55
Cynicus on What Went On: “I have just wasted half an hour of my life signing up (I think). Jumped through umpteen security hoops scratching…” Dec 1, 23:36
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on What Went On: “Such fuse-lighting zeitgeist energy. Thank you gentlemen for your exhilarating rumbustious presence at the Memorial. You are us.” Dec 1, 23:10
Mac on What Went On: “Ok. It remembers the previous question so I can refine it very easily. “How many foreign NGOs were operating in…” Dec 1, 22:49
Hatey McHateface on What Went On: “My response including the English translation of verse 4 has gone into moderation. Because of the banned word verse 4…” Dec 1, 22:48
Campbell Clansman on What Went On: “Any wagers how many serious people actually participate in this “summit?” And are they going to issue yet another “Manifesto”…” Dec 1, 22:35
Hatey McHateface on What Went On: “Good try “Mac”. Now go back and ask the correct question, as required by the boy fae scotland’s original claim:…” Dec 1, 22:35
Jay on What Went On: “Has Scotland much of a history of a fascist movement, apart from on huge landed estates? RM seems to be…” Dec 1, 22:32
SteepBrae on What Went On: “Beautiful” Dec 1, 22:31
Mac on What Went On: “56 minute mark. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSzDs88DoVU&t=3567s&ab_channel=FreedomForScotland I completely undervalued these guys. I can’t think of any Scottish musicians who even come close…” Dec 1, 22:30
Hatey McHateface on What Went On: “Here’s what I see when I type “Wings Over Scotland” into the Google, Michael: The world’s most-read Scottish politics website…” Dec 1, 22:24
Mac on What Went On: “Many thanks sarah.” Dec 1, 22:21
Mac on What Went On: “If anyone is hesitating over an X subscription don’t. It is worth it for Grok alone. I don’t even bother…” Dec 1, 22:18
Mac on What Went On: “Hmmm I decided to ask Grok… “How many NGOs were operating in Georgia? At its height, Georgia was practically a…” Dec 1, 22:12
sarah on What Went On: “Yes they did. The youtube link was posted upthread by auld highlander c7 hours ago, replying to Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh.” Dec 1, 22:10
Mac on What Went On: “Did The Proclaimers sing Cap In Hand live at Alex’s memorial service? If so I would love to see that,…” Dec 1, 22:03
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on What Went On: “Re-linked HERE” Dec 1, 22:00
sarah on What Went On: “The Independence Summit will be on Wednesday 4th December, says Roddy on Through a Scottish Prism today. Roddy MacDonald [Barrhead…” Dec 1, 21:55
Michael Laing on What Went On: “Get it into your thick head, Fuckface: nobody here gives a toss about your dismal opinions. You’re like a screeching…” Dec 1, 21:51
Hatey McHateface on What Went On: “Here’s a couple of quotes from the National article: “The party manifesto has a single aim: independence. Bell explained: “We…” Dec 1, 21:40
Robert Hughes on What Went On: “Robertson to steer the NU/SNP/NU/LAB/LGBZzzz election campaign into a burning house they themselves set on fire , wae Sturgeon as…” Dec 1, 21:34
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on What Went On: “‘A MAN’S A MAN FOR A’ THAT’ was sung superbly by Sheena Wellington near the end of the Salmond Memorial…” Dec 1, 21:30
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on What Went On: “Posted version has rendered far too much spacing. Also, hyphens have been turned into question marks, of which there should…” Dec 1, 21:27
Hatey McHateface on What Went On: “You need to work with me Zander. Nae cant telt me that in order to be a genuine Scottish Indy…” Dec 1, 21:26
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on What Went On: “Here is the Gaelic Bible passage that Josh Robertson read at the start of the Salmond Memorial Service: SALM 121…” Dec 1, 21:21
Hatey McHateface on What Went On: “Calm down dear. And put your string of pearls away before you snap it and the damn things go everywhere.” Dec 1, 21:12
Southernbystander on What Went On: “I was watching the snooker and then went to the pub. It wasn’t a very good match and I thought…” Dec 1, 21:10
