The Super-Duper Mega Vow Deluxe Plus 126
Posted on
February 02, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We’ve already said all we’ve got to say on this one.
The lost art of keeping a secret weapon 272
Posted on
January 31, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Kate Devlin of the Herald has been a political journalist as long as we can remember.
So it’s quite surprising that she’s apparently never heard of Gordon Brown before.
A bag full of nothing 131
Posted on
January 23, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We don’t get paid enough. Then again, we’re not sure how much money it would have taken to make the job of wading through the UK government’s 134-page “command paper” on Scottish devolution bearable. There may not BE that much money.
The entire document is a heroic achievement in the field of wonkspeak, screed after screed of impenetrable jargon deployed to create something which could in fact be accurately and fully summed up in six words: “Oh, we’ll figure something out later”.
Here’s a (very) typical passage:
We haven’t left out a subsequent paragraph explaining the answer. The paper simply leaves this and pretty much every other question hanging in the air, to be filled in at some unspecified future date after the general election, by whichever party is in government, if they can be bothered.
Don’t all celebrate at once.
Getting what you wish for 231
Posted on
January 21, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The No camp really do seem to be the world’s worst winners. In a mischievous piece of trolling today, the First Minister announced that the SNP’s policy of not voting on English matters at Westminster was to come to an end, and that it would intervene for the protection of the NHS, on the reasonable grounds of avoiding Barnett cuts to the Scottish budget were privatisation south of the border to lead to lower spending.
The reaction from Labour and the Tories was predictable, with the latter accusing Sturgeon of throwing principle “out the window”. George Osborne, furthermore, was quoted in the Telegraph telling a Commons committee that:
And readers might be forgiven for thinking “Hang on, isn’t that what you wanted?”
When history didn’t happen 244
Posted on
January 09, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Below is a clip from today’s “Morning Call” on BBC Radio Scotland. Speaking (from 16m 24s on the full show) are SNP MSP Mark McDonald, presenter Kaye Adams and Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald. There are a couple of noteworthy moments.
A caller named “George” had rung in concerned that the SNP might be giving up on their goal of independence, and Adams invited Mark McDonald to set his mind at rest. Here’s what happened in the next three minutes.
A number of complaints 82
Posted on
December 10, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Just keeping you in the loop, readers.
The lie and the truth 72
Posted on
December 03, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The Daily Record, 27 November 2014:
So, IS the Scottish Government budget going to “nearly double”?
A less permanent permanence 69
Posted on
December 03, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The truth may out 101
Posted on
November 30, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
As the Unionist press and parties indulge in orgasmic paroxysms this week about how “The Vow” has allegedly been delivered and exceeded, it rings even stranger that absolutely nobody wants to claim the credit for authoring the historic document that saved the UK. Our investigations continue.
The biggest lie in history 155
Posted on
November 27, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We’re going to hold off full scrutiny and analysis of the Smith Commission report on devolution until it’s actually released and we’ve read it, rather than going on pure speculation like most Scottish newspapers this morning.
But what we CAN talk about is this.
Vow left on bus, eaten by dog 279
Posted on
November 26, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We’ve had another letter from the government.
The real McPravda 218
Posted on
November 24, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Peeking at the Twitter accounts of the country’s more prominent Unionists has been an especially entertaining pastime today, as self-awareness has been cast aside even more vigorously than usual in a concerted attempt to attack new pro-independence daily The National as being an uncritical mouthpiece of the SNP akin to the infamous Russian propaganda newspaper Pravda (mostly despite those concerned admitting to not having read the first issue).
It’s surely a tribute to the pedigree and potential of the new paper that the prospect of Unionists only having 97% of the Scottish media on their side has them hoiking toys from prams with such squealing abandon, and it’s both curious and hilarious that 35 newspapers in favour of the Union was a perfectly acceptable manifestation of the freedom of the press but a single one in favour turns Scotland into the Soviet Union.
But more to the point, there’s a far better candidate for the “McPravda” sobriquet.
