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.
Xaracen on Failure To Learn: “Aidan said; “If we assume that NSGT=colony then Scotland doesn’t meet the definition of a NSGT either so whether or…” Jan 6, 11:24
Aidan on Failure To Learn: “If we assume that NSGT=colony then Scotland doesn’t meet the definition of a NSGT either so whether or not the…” Jan 6, 11:04
Captain Caveman on And every day was exactly the same: “Another incoherent, booze-fueled 4am rant from Rambo, as broadcast from the muddy banks of some godforsaken puddle or other in…” Jan 6, 11:01
100%Yes on Failure To Learn: “The so called advocate for Scotland and its people, why should the SNP and its leadership benefit by winning the…” Jan 6, 10:49
Alf Baird on Failure To Learn: “The Treaty of Union was never fully implemented hence the ‘UK’ state does not (yet) exist. The fact remains that…” Jan 6, 10:46
100%Yes on Failure To Learn: “This is why Wings and I have constantly tried to advocate to people that ridding ourselves of the SNP is…” Jan 6, 10:39
James Cheyne on Failure To Learn: “Always getting his fact checker facts wrong, The British parliament ended by dissolution the parliament of Great Britain in 1800.…” Jan 6, 10:38
The Flying Iron of Doom on And every day was exactly the same: “Hatey McHateface says: 4 January, 2026 at 1:14 pm Let a True Sovereign Scot who has never worn a baseball…” Jan 6, 10:30
Alf Baird on Failure To Learn: “The colonizer “seldom misses an opportunity to de-base the colonized” (Memmi).” Jan 6, 10:21
Hatey McHateface on Failure To Learn: “Stop pussyfooting aboot, Xaracen. Just call the UN a bunch of male reproductive organs. Or is your New Year bottle…” Jan 6, 10:17
James Cheyne on Failure To Learn: “Now I don’t know much about football except it was in Scotland in the sixteen hundred and prior to that…” Jan 6, 10:17
Xaracen on Failure To Learn: “factchecker said: “Neither [England and Scotland] is a colony, according to the UN.” The UN is merely repeating what the…” Jan 6, 09:42
Hatey McHateface on Failure To Learn: “Fa’s Professor Baird the day? Fa’s Northy? How odd that on Nollaig Beag (January 6th on the modern, colonially imposed…” Jan 6, 09:38
factchecker on Failure To Learn: “The Professor says (regarding his claim that “Scotland is the only colony and non-sovereign state in the World Cup final…” Jan 6, 09:31
Hatey McHateface on Failure To Learn: “Nah. The real problem with Scottish fitba is that some real men are allowed to play the women’s game. One…” Jan 6, 09:25
Willie on Failure To Learn: “Dumbarton Rock @11.19pm. A good letter in the waiting to send to the Minister who is responsible for the outrage…” Jan 6, 08:14
Young Lochinvar on Failure To Learn: “Day zero? Would that not be the incumbent Unionist parties at that point in time? Love a bit of unearned…” Jan 6, 05:02
Young Lochinvar on And every day was exactly the same: “Wilma Flintstone @ 6.32 Oh dear! Not so young “unrequited love”.. Have you tw8ts not worked out that your idols,…” Jan 6, 04:47
Peter McAvoy on Failure To Learn: “Regarding anthems I believe that Flower of Scotland was inspired by the Battle of Bannockburn.Then what inspired the Star Spangled…” Jan 6, 02:46
Willie on Failure To Learn: “The creation of an additional bank holiday is not in the gift of the SNP. They do not have the…” Jan 6, 02:12
BLMac on Failure To Learn: “The problem with Scottish fitba is the real men play shinty… 🙂” Jan 5, 23:25
Independent on Failure To Learn: “Just a couple of thoughts from a long time reader/ lurker. Why not a party solely set up to recreate…” Jan 5, 23:22
Dumbarton Rock on Failure To Learn: “We await a decision by Scottish Ministers . Here’s a letter to send to Ivan McKee – send to MinisterPF@gov.scot…” Jan 5, 23:19
Campbell Clansman on Failure To Learn: “How much will it cost (in lost work, tax revenue, etc.) to have this “holiday?” Millions?” Jan 5, 22:15
Scot Finlayson on Failure To Learn: “In 78 Peru were the Copa América cup holders, having beaten Brazil on the way to the final, and beating…” Jan 5, 22:03
Ross on Failure To Learn: “Or they just think it’s a nice idea to signal giving ordinary Scots a day off for the day after…” Jan 5, 21:35
100%Yes on Failure To Learn: “The SNP don’t even mean it. Its a political stunt, all in bad taste, for a party who’s done nothing…” Jan 5, 21:11
Alf Baird on Failure To Learn: ““England is also a non-sovereign state.” Naw, yer wrang thair: England’s parliament was never dissolved in 1707, it continued. England…” Jan 5, 20:56
agentx on Failure To Learn: “A Bank Holiday = a sobering up holiday in Scotland.” Jan 5, 20:52
