Chris Storey

The absolute shamelessness of The National's social media team. They abruptly ask “Who REALLY owns Scotland's land?” and then deliberately chop up an interview with land reform expert @andywightman to feed their anti-English grievance machine. If you actually watch the video, Wightman states that it is a “misconception” to think the land is “owned by foreigners or a lot of it's owned by English people or a lot of it's owned by the aristocracy”[04:44]. He is effectively debunking the myth. But what does The National do? They deliberately clip out the context, smack the myth in bold text across the video, and try to pass it off as a factual revelation. Selectively editing an expert to rile up tribal resentment because the actual reality doesn't fit the nationalist narrative is nothing more than propaganda.

Councillor Walker, the absolute irony of an SNP Group Leader accusing anyone else of a “pathetic political attack”😂 Your First Minister's communications team failed at their one job, scheduling a generic diversity post for exactly 11 am on Remembrance Sunday instead of observing the two-minute silence, and when a Member of Parliament rightly points this out, John Swinney throws a massive, defensive tantrum on an official letterhead. And your immediate response as the Leader of the Opposition in Fife Council is to cry “Reformesque” and shield him. Expecting the Scottish Government to correctly observe the most important civic silence of the year isn't a “disgusting” right-wing conspiracy; it is a demand for the basic, bare-minimum competence. Watching the SNP hierarchy melt down to protect an undeniable PR disaster is a typical nationalist response.

“making policy like a corner shop”? The absolute state of this internal rebellion😂 You have formed a splinter faction inside the Scottish National Party and named it “Independence”. Do you not realise how embarrassing that is? It implies the main party has completely forgotten what its fundamental political purpose actually is. The funniest part of this article is the brutal, unprompted confession session. You openly admit your membership has collapsed from a peak of 125,000 down to “around 51,000”, that your grassroots activist teams are completely “hollowed out”, and that after 17 years in government, the SNP still runs its policy operation “like the corner shop”🤭 You aren't bringing “fresh ideas” or “new campaigners”; you are just a frustrated support group for a dying political movement accidentally publishing your own party's obituary.

This is an embarrassing display of absolute hypocrisy. Nicola Sturgeon on the BBC claiming she finds it “really difficult” to see how Andy Burnham avoids a general election because he has “no political mandate”. This is from the exact same politician who was handed the keys to Bute House without a single public vote and spent two years as First Minister before ever facing an election. What a laughable article yet again from the National.

A truly outstanding self-own from an SNP MSP. You demand to know if “North Sea wealth should stay in Scotland”, yet your own government's GERS report proves every penny ALREADY DOES. It's entirely swallowed by Holyrood's spending, plus an extra £15bn UK transfer. Embarrassing.