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.
Northcode on The Party Of The Dead: “Alf Baird argues that “territorial alienation” occurs when land is transferred from public control to external or private authority, resulting…” Aug 10, 09:08
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: ““Sae we hiv tae spell it oot” In yer ain time, Alf. Spell oot fit “territorial alienation” is wi oot…” Aug 10, 08:34
Alf Baird on The Party Of The Dead: ““I bet if you spent an afternoon on any Scottish High Street and asked 100 Sovereign Scots what “territorial alienation”…” Aug 10, 07:46
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “Mair mince. You’re determined to never focus on anything practically useful, Alf. I bet if you spent an afternoon on…” Aug 9, 23:48
Alf Baird on The Party Of The Dead: ““a warning from history about getting into Unions” Annexation inevitably resulted in the territorial alienation of Scots and Scotland, the…” Aug 9, 21:37
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “Aw, Alf, I’ve only just noticed your name check. So you’re an antisemite too? It figures. Is that something else…” Aug 9, 20:42
robertkknight on The Party Of The Dead: “Jamie VI… A man of dubious morals and questionable intelligence. Dr Johnson probably had him mind when proclaiming “The noblest…” Aug 9, 20:25
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “I’m 100% certain that a Middle Ages fat quine would be regarded as super model material today. She was probably…” Aug 9, 20:20
Alf Baird on The Party Of The Dead: “” is that simple extrapolation regarding professors?” The ‘phenomenon’ (i.e. the tendency to not employ Scots) seems to affect all…” Aug 9, 20:01
Dan on The Party Of The Dead: “No response Jay… I guess CC is busy listing his Rangey and Porsche on Marketplace, and packing his belongings for…” Aug 9, 17:21
Southernbystander on The Party Of The Dead: “Thanks Alf. One thing though you say you looked at three ‘ancient’ institutions but say above ‘all 19 higher education…” Aug 9, 17:03
Captain Caveman on The Party Of The Dead: “@Alf FYI the propelling of Cambridge Professors in this manner isn’t the fault nor desire of “Reform supporters” – they’re…” Aug 9, 15:34
Alf Baird on The Party Of The Dead: ““what is your actual evidence” I looked at some 40 departments in three of Scotland’s ‘ancient’ universities and found that…” Aug 9, 15:08
Young Lochinvar on The Party Of The Dead: “Not one to celebrate, today is the 1503 anniversary of the so called “Marriage of the Thistle and the Rose”…” Aug 9, 14:18
Southernbystander on The Party Of The Dead: “Alf said: ‘Same reason all 19 higher education institutions in Scotland mostly appoint people from outside Scotland as professors’. You…” Aug 9, 14:15
Alf Baird on The Party Of The Dead: ““Had a wee chuckle at a Reform supporter stating they’ve had enough of the UK, and he and wife now…” Aug 9, 14:06
Ex President Xiden on The Party Of The Dead: “So in this scenario if it was the wife who had been defrauding on a massive scale, buying camper vans…” Aug 9, 10:36
Captain Caveman on The Party Of The Dead: “Dry your eyes, Dan. You were the one mocking “Reform supporters” for bemoaning what even you (now) consider to be…” Aug 9, 10:32
Dan on The Party Of The Dead: “So another day and yer still acting an arse and pathetically jist casting untrue derogatory assertions about in a woeful…” Aug 9, 10:20
Captain Caveman on The Party Of The Dead: “Oh do be quiet, thicko. It wasn’t Englishmen “like me” who promoted this fake professor and lauded him to the…” Aug 9, 09:08
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Party Of The Dead: “Just saw this Turkish proverb somewhere: « The forest was shrinking but the trees kept voting for the axe as…” Aug 8, 22:18
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “If roles were reversed, maybe the wife would have bought a smaller camper van, and a smaller Jag. And no…” Aug 8, 20:47
Jay on The Party Of The Dead: “Caveman, (he of mega-loot and high-flying career) regarding your 11.41am comment: I was wondering whether you might be a well-informed…” Aug 8, 20:34
agentx on The Party Of The Dead: “The “I won’t say any more on the matter” Sturgeon: “She argued the scrutiny she faced had a gendered dimension.…” Aug 8, 20:25
Dan on The Party Of The Dead: “Ach, now yer jist acting out like a spoilt bairn due to yer lack of tolerance of other folk’s often…” Aug 8, 18:59
Stevie on The Party Of The Dead: “I would add, the same people who attacked me are the same gullibles travels, believing Hamas are freedom fighters and…” Aug 8, 18:12
Chas on The Party Of The Dead: “Maybe, just maybe your ‘speech’ is being censored because it is the same shite over and over again? The learned…” Aug 8, 17:17
Captain Caveman on The Party Of The Dead: “That’s right Dan. Fed up of twats like you.” Aug 8, 16:57
Dan on The Party Of The Dead: “Had a wee chuckle at a Reform supporter stating they’ve had enough of the UK, and he and wife now…” Aug 8, 16:39
Stevie on The Party Of The Dead: “Reading through this thread, reminds me of my being te first voice to point out that they/them had discarded all/any…” Aug 8, 15:12
