Category Archives: SNP

Defeated SNP councillor threw rosette at MP in election night strop

9:39pm Tue May 8th

Tales from last week’s elections continue to filter back to the Scrapbook office – with the most amusing being associated with grim defeat.

In the Scottish Highlands the SNP’s David Stewart, who last year won the Scottish Councillor of the Year award for his campaign to save RAF Lossiemouth jet base from closure, was thanked for his tireless efforts by being unceremoniously dumped by the voters of Heldon and Laich ward.

Regional newspaper The Northern Scot reported:

“Mr Stewart was too emotional to speak afterwards.”

But he didn’t seem to have any trouble articulating his views to his party colleague and Moray MP Angus Robertson – at whom he threw his rosette while yelling:

“This is all your fault!”

We trust Mr Robertson managed to escape the pointy end of the safety pin.

Even children are taught Salmond “Do you agree” question is biased

2:20pm Fri January 27th

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After Scrapbook parodied Alex Salmond’s leading referendum question on Wednesday, Left Foot Forward’s Alex Hern has put the academic smackdown on the SNP’s dodgy wording:

“Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?”

Technical literature on survey design is clear that questions phrased in this way result in a “small but significant increase in the amount of people voting yes.”

And it has now emerged that even students as young as 14 are taught that these types of questions are wrong. Having explained why the sample is likely to be biased, this ExExcel GCSE statistics paper asks young students why a “Do you agree …” question will skew results:

2003 EdExcel Statistics GCSE Paper 1H

Back to school for Scotland’s most famous agricultural eonomist?

That “fair and transparent” Scottish referendum ballot paper in full

3:14pm Wed January 25th

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Following the announcement of Alex Salmond’s leading “Do you agree …” referendum question, please enjoy Scrapbook’s suggestion for the wording and design of the ballot paper.

The SNP’s unveiling of this cornerstone of the poll coincided with Burns Night … by pure coincidence, naturally.

Times journalist admits to making up nonsense to meet deadline

1:14pm Fri May 13th

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Times journalist Mike Wade’s overtly hyperbolic account of the influence of the SNP’s social media strategy has raised a few eyebrows, not least because of his poorly judged comparisons with the Arab Spring in Egypt.

Other highlights include Wade referring to embedding a Facebook “like” button underneath an Alex Salmond speech as an: “ingenious system devised by [Kirk] Torrance”, the party’s new-media strategist. All he actually did was click on this link.

This exaggerated account was challenged on Twitter, more specifically why he attributed the SNP’s election victory to social media, as no such link has been explored. He replied thusly:

“a) sought to capture mood b) insufficient data & c) only 2hrs to write”

Who needs facts when you’ve got a perfectly good narrative?

David Cairns’ tragic death prompts by-election for Inverclyde

1:01pm Tue May 10th

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Scottish Labour MP David Cairns has died suddenly aged 44. The loss leaves a grieving Scottish Labour Party hoping to avoid a repeat of the Glasgow East by-election in 2008, where a supposedly safe Westminster seat was lost to the SNP.

Labour regained the seat with a substantial majority in 2010, but the 42% turnout at the by-election in 2008 handed the SNP victory.

Low turnout is not the only concern, as comparisons may also be drawn between the momentum of the SNP in 2008, and a weak Scottish leadership at the time of the poll. William Hill have installed Jackie Baillie as 7/4 favourite to succeed Iain Gray with insurgent Ken Macintosh at 5/2. It is doubtful a new leader could be in place, however, without a significant delay in moving the writ.

A former Catholic priest, the independently-minded Cairns was nicknamed “Father Fabulous” by party activists.

He will be missed.

SNP to vote against more powers for Scotland

3:00pm Thu January 27th

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It doesn’t take a particularly long memory to recall a time when the SNP opposed devolution. Indeed it was only after their poor showing in the 1997 UK General Election that they changed their tune and decide to support devolution for Scotland, as a stepping stone towards independence.

Today the SNP are about to take a step back towards their fundamentalist past by voting AGAINST more powers for the Scottish Parliament. The Scotland Bill, a product of the Calman Commission, looks set to receive cross-party support however the SNP are the only party to table a motion against the bill stating that they regard “the Bill as a whole to be unacceptable”.

As the honourable member for Glasgow Central put it:

“Who would have thought we’d see a Tory backbencher speaking in favour of more powers for Scotland and the SNP voting against it?!”

Quite.

Gingergate: SNP court redhead vote after Harman comments

3:47pm Sat October 30th

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Harriet Harman’s oddly personal (but nonetheless amusing) attack on Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, whom she called a “ginger rodent”, has generated a minor storm for which she’s been forced to apologise.

Some commentators have been highlighting the hypocrisy of a life-long champion of equality mocking a man for a physical trait. Others like Mike Smithson have suggested that Labour might have lost the ginger vote (because we all know ginger people all vote in a block.) However not content to stand on the sidelines and chuckle the SNP rolled out comely redhead Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP to condemn the remark as “anti Scottish”:

“Scotland probably has the highest proportion of redheads in the world”

Perhaps the SNP would do well to heed the wisdom of Napoleon Bonaparte:

Never interrupt your enemy while he’s making a mistake.

"Come back to England!": Russell Brand gatecrashes political interview in Scottish Parliament

8:01pm Tue October 5th

9 comments

In the lobby of the Scottish Parliament today, Russell Brand makes his feelings on Scottish devolution clear to Nationalist MSP Alasdair Allan:

Hat-tip: Kez Dugdale

Category Archives: SNP

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