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.
Hatey McHateface on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: ““After years of simply stalling on the pursuit of independence, the SNP now appears to be in full headlong retreat,…” Aug 31, 23:07
Young Lochinvar on The Shortest Day: “LC Very good! However you forgot to mention the bribery, offers of position and rank and overall subterfuge with a…” Aug 31, 22:58
Hatey McHateface on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “A disappointing but perhaps not unexpected reversion to type, Northy. The Record View makes a valid point, not that any…” Aug 31, 22:49
duncanio on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “The Daily Record’s ‘suggestion’ is merely an effort to make British Labour relevant again in Scotland so that they can…” Aug 31, 22:46
Spartan 117 on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “Well, quite. Lard Foolkes and his ilk would happily do away with elections permanently, makes things much easier for them…” Aug 31, 22:41
Hatey McHateface on The Shortest Day: “Naw, Spartan. Exhibit W.” Aug 31, 22:35
Hatey McHateface on The Shortest Day: “That’s the Spandau gonna be well and truly cocked now!” Aug 31, 22:33
Spartan 117 on The Shortest Day: “QED, Exhibit A.” Aug 31, 22:18
Northcode on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “By George Foulkes, Baron Foulkes of Cumnock’s – Born in Shropshire and educated privately at The Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School…” Aug 31, 22:14
James on The Shortest Day: “So say the English Nationalists. Fuck off.” Aug 31, 21:57
James on The Shortest Day: “Ah. “…Naw it isnae….” The usual. Dan kindly provided the relevant liknk. https://wingsoverscotland.com/true-faith/ Read it, and weep, Yoon.” Aug 31, 21:54
Effijy on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “With all financial levers controlled by Westminster these 300 years and debt spiralling up to £3 Trillion and the first…” Aug 31, 21:44
100%Yes on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “The reality is the more and more people voice that Independence is their preferred option to the union. The more…” Aug 31, 21:40
Alf Baird on The Shortest Day: ““Maybe you could start one of the ‘democratic legitimacy’ processes yourself!” 20,000 sovereign Scots already have: https://liberation.scot/” Aug 31, 21:37
100%Yes on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “This is all because the SNP membership has grown a back bone and got upset about not being being able…” Aug 31, 21:29
Mike Fenwick on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “For info, my contribution in The National today. Tommy Sheppard writes in The National as to ” Why a de…” Aug 31, 21:28
Cuphook on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “Not that we’re going to get one due to our current political emasculation, but we’d lose another referendum unless the…” Aug 31, 21:26
100%Yes on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “The simplest solution is for Westminster to transfer the Constitutional authority to Holyrood for good and allow the Scots to…” Aug 31, 21:19
Spartan 117 on The Shortest Day: “And often with a load of abuse heaped in, along with Grrr Bloody English racism. The Siol nan Gaidheal members…” Aug 31, 21:09
Ross on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “Kudos for the uncle tom cobbley reference haha. Was sitting on his supposed seat the other day!” Aug 31, 21:07
Southernbystander on The Shortest Day: “O/T I was in Edinburgh last week for a few days and walking down South St Davids Street (off Princes…” Aug 31, 21:02
Hatey McHateface on The Shortest Day: “A billion or two deaths is WW3 once it really gets going. So far, it has just been warming up.” Aug 31, 20:52
Chas on The Shortest Day: “The majority of the rabid kind of nationalist on Wings is prepared to accept and believe any statistic presented by…” Aug 31, 20:51
Hatey McHateface on The Shortest Day: ““This being the constitutional reality some might wonder why the SNP hasn’t pursued any of those “democratic legitimacy” mechanisms” Only…” Aug 31, 20:49
Chas on The Shortest Day: “Maybe you could start one of the ‘democratic legitimacy’ processes yourself! I am sure we will all be right behind…” Aug 31, 20:42
Chas on The Shortest Day: “Finance is clearly not your strong suit Alf but……….what is? Surprised that Fanny and Mummi have nothing to say about…” Aug 31, 20:38
Hatey McHateface on The Shortest Day: “Took you a while, sam, but you’ve belatedly discovered GNI. Well done you. The night is yet young. See if…” Aug 31, 20:37
Northcode on The Shortest Day: “A question: Is Scotland a prisoner (rhetorically) of the United Kingdom unless Westminster allows the Scots the opportunity to reclaim…” Aug 31, 20:32
