I’ve been thinking. I used to be a sociologist. I liked the way sociology asked questions, all the time, about anything and everything. Especially, I liked the way it exposed how entrenched power differentials explain the suppression of some groups. I often say it changed me for the better and for good. I think I may have betrayed my younger self recently. In the debate on the trans community supposedly trying to possess the SNP, so busy with my thing – media bias – and the rest of my life, I’ve angrily batted away other issues that seem unimportant distractions … Continue reading The transgender Moral Panic: He not busy being born is busy dying

On Reporting Scotland, announcing a target for the whole UK, which he knows he cannot set, which BBC Scotland knows he cannot set, but dropped in casually in the hope that at least some viewers might pick it up as evidence we’re better together. Scotland has actually vaccinated every care home resident while NHS England has merely offered them with thousands of lives lost for their delay. Since early February, Scotland has vaccinated far more and is only just a bit ahead at the moment because of supply shortages. Watch what happens when supplies come back on stream. What possible … Continue reading What does it have to do with him?

Dr Deepti Gurdasani of Queen Mary University of London is not the first English academic brought on to BBC Scotland, ignorant of the new context they find themselves in, but quickly applying their opinions as if they somehow know better. Do they ever wonder why no Scottish academic has been set up against a senior Scottish minister? Gurdasani makes no pretence of presenting her data as even UK-wide, clearly content that things up there are probably just the same as in the English cities from which her data derive. Gurdasani says that in the data she is seeing, in England, … Continue reading One English researcher with English data used to undermine John Swinney

This might need updating from 2017 but it still make a point, I think: September 11th 2017 Anas Sarwar is a shareholder in United Wholesale (Scotland) Ltd, run by his mum, which is currently advertising jobs at £7.50 an hour rather than the £8.45 ‘real’ living wage and far less than the £10 an hour supported by his UK leader, Jeremy Corbyn and his current Scottish Leader, Kezia Dugdale who said during the election campaign: ‘The truth is our businesses can afford to pay a little more so that workers aren’t paid a poverty wage.’ Scottish Government staff are guaranteed … Continue reading Tell your mum?

I’m not going to write anything new about Oliver. He’s not worth it. I don’t need to. Here’s a wee reminder of his achievements: NEIL OLIVER DUMPED ON BY EINSTEIN! DECEMBER 5, 2020 In the Herald today, Neil Oliver: Neil Oliver has said that he believes Scotland choosing independence would be a “step backwards” and would ‘infringe’ on his human rights. Speaking to Unlocked the Coast presenter said: “For me to draw a new hard-line separating Scotland from England in that formal sense is a backwards step. I prefer what I’ve always had and I bridle at the thought that someone can take away … Continue reading Bleeuurrrrrghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

By Legerwood There seems to be a great deal of misinformation being peddled about the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA) and the proposed reforms. Much of the misinformation/misdirection appears to be aimed at giving the impression that this is solely a Scottish Government initiative. It is not. The GRA Act 2004 was passed by the UK Government in response to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (EHCR). The Labour/LibDem Scottish Executive in Holyrood agreed to the Act via a Sewel Convention. So Gender Recognition has been in place since 2005. Around 5000 or so people have been … Continue reading The Gender Recognition Act 2004 was passed by the UK Government

I’d only just joined the SNP in 2016 when Nicola Sturgeon made clear her support for Hilary Clinton in the US Presidential Election, expressing her apparently unconstrained admiration for a woman already well-known to be accepting funds from oppressive regimes and almost certainly a war criminal, like all other senior US leaders, of course. I was shocked and wrote to complain, below. I almost left the party again because apparent blindness to the reality of the bloody costs of US foreign policy seems, to me, a far worse crime than anything critics are currently raging against, whether it be the … Continue reading It’s not ‘MY’ party and I certainly don’t feel like crying

I share many of the concerns about the SNP leadership losing a plot or two. I wish some would STFU and get on with the undermining the case for the Union, all day and every day until THE day BUT… Show me the evidence that the end of the SNP is on any horizon. Show me the evidence that any deviation in the behaviour of the leaders has caused the massed ranks of supporters to lose their direction and will to win, to deviate. Trust the wisdom of the crowd. Continue reading In the twittersphere no one can hear you scream

Former BBC producer and regular chum guest, June Graham’s musings on the pandemic, reek of confusion maybe dementia, paranoia and dark cynicism. She is essentially accusing the Scottish cabinet of extending the lockdown, not to save lives but to be able to announce a return to normal at a time that will maximise the SNP vote in May. Shereen only mutters ‘really?’ as if Graham’s suggestion is surprising but not, as it is, freaking nuts! Listen if you can bear: Nanjiani’s failure to deal with this is shameful. Continue reading SNP Government accused on BBC of extending lockdown unnecessarily to time feelgood release for election gain

I’ve lost track of the number of pseudo-intellectual treatises we’ve had about how the Union can be saved by giving the Jocks a better deal. Leaving aside the amnesia about 2014 and just how stupid we’d be to get fooled again, these apparently intelligent people don’t seem to see that it’s not and never was a union. At best it was a hostile takeover, under threat and, to this day, it’s an abusive marriage where many in their elites hold us in open or barely contained contempt. A few minutes in a Commons debate would surely dispel any misunderstanding. Remember … Continue reading Trapped with a gilded chain: They just don’t get it do they?