Didn't spot this the other day but well worth a read for anyone interested in effective lawmaking at Holyrood level. I know I bang this drum a lot but it is genuinely very stupid the Supreme Court have decided Holyrood can e.g. repeal or amend the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, but not condition it.

A fun* game to play in Scottish policy, comms and public affairs is seeing how many MSPs have auto-replies set up. Allowing for the fact I opened one up, the answer today is 52 out of 129. * Fun milage may vary, and in fact fun is not promised at all

It really is a pity that given the possibility that the SNP could be proportionally due 5 Edinburgh and Lothian East MSPs, and that's also the region most likely to see a majority non-SNP constituency breakdown, that Angus Robertson losing Edinburgh Central may not actually turf him out of Holyrood.

Anas Sarwar, scundered a hundred

Reading Daily Record headlines/journo posts like

I am once again, as a resident of the exotic and distant land known as "Scotland", reminding the very many "it's all the media's fault!" reply guys here that we are almost certainly about to enter a third decade of SNP governance up here despite near-universal media scepticism and/or hostility.

My last thought on Starmer vs Sarwar for today is that it may look if you squint very hard like the Scottish Party standing up to the Westminster Party, but if Starmer is still PM at the end of this week it looks a lot more like the Scottish Party being hefty dinghied by the Westminster Party.

Going to the shop for a big empire biscuit after tonight's performance, mydietisruined.fairygodmother.shrek2.gif

To add insult to today's injury, some Tufton Street bawbags somehow decided to invite BBS to attend one of their nonsense, climate denialist events; great reminder of how utterly divorced from reality the Tories are now that one of their MPs is going alongside Reform.

Right Starmer get your fuckin resignation on give me something after that miserable performance

Flop day for Scotland all things considered.

Curling

Absolute complete and utter disaster. 8 out of 9 round robin wins. Lose the one to a team that doesn't even make the semis. Make the most incredible cockups and throw away a medal at the semis. Fuckin hate sport, why does anyone enjoy sport, this is shite, absolutely wallowing in misery now

Issuing a correction on a previous statement of mine, curling is not in fact so good, my day has been ruined

Stressed oot ma nut man

AW BRUCE THAT WAS ROTTEN

Okay everyone shut up nothing matters for the next two hours except my new besties Bruce and Jen

Genuinely though when Douglas Ross did this, almost the whole Conservative MSP group started posting regretful support for his position. Why did Sarwar seemingly jump without having at least, say, a dozen of his MSPs primed to do similar?

This has been the funniest day in Scottish politics this year, in 25 minutes time I get to do my post-work cycle fully in daylight because I started an hour early to finish an hour early, so I could watch the curling, honestly, banging Monday, one of the best

Anas Sarwar has lost the mandate of Heaven

Anyway is it good that in the short period after your press conference it feels like your target has gone from top panel to bottom panel?

Douglas Alexander is both a cabinet member and *co-chair of the Scottish Labour election campaign*. How do you run a campaign when your leader and the co-chair of your campaign disagree on whether the Labour PM should resign? How is that sustainable?

Apparently Baillie's powers of nuclear briefings don't work if the target is south of the Tweed

If there isn't a single question about Sarwar's own friendship with Mandelson during this press conference, we just need to abolish the entire Scottish press pack and start again, so don't let me down folks

IMAGINE THE PRIME MINISTER RESIGNS DURING THE TEAM GB MIXED DOUBLES CURLING SEMI FINAL TONIGHT That would be a fundamentally anti-Scottish course of action so actually I want Starmer to hold off quitting until at least 7.30pm

I don't actually see how Starmer going now does anything to help Sarwar or Morgan in May to be honest, as it almost certainly just feeds into a chaos vibe even if he does deserve the sack, and the most likely outcome remains three different Labour leadership contests this year

How is anyone in Scottish politics, public affairs, journalism, policy or any such fields meant to focus today I ask you

If Anas Sarwar has found a spine on Keir Starmer, can I recommend he puts his newfound vertebrae to use by also issuing an immediate apology for his "gender critical" turn and recognise he was bounced into it by unrepresentative social media and the weird fixations of his peers?

they’re calling it the most immediately effective political poster of all time

Is it a sign of a healthy situation when "I am not resigning" is a breaking headline on the national broadcaster's website, asking for definitely not a friend in any way shape or form

Look just call me the hard-F slur next time

The fact anyone associated with the heinous roasters at "Sex Matters" was ever in the employ of a Labour government should, in a good and just society, be seen as damning in and of itself. Alas, that is not our current society, but at least one other small source of malevolence is out the door

Moldovans abroad: The defence of our republic against Putin's lapdogs requires us to turn out in massive numbers to back Sandu and her party Portuguese abroad: Ooh a little fascism does sound like a treat

Apparently Yorp Scotland Branch voted both to stand at Holyrood, and also to be a separate party from the UK Party. Fascinating positions to try and reconcile in the *8 weeks* until close of nominations.

Sir, this is the Holyrood Parliamentary Canteen

"AW BRUCE THAT WAS ROTTEN", I shout at the telly with almost zero grasp of curling

The Horror is ramping up ahead of my new DnD gang's first proper session (after January's taster):

Me usually: I am not really a sport person, though it's always very nice seeing people who are having a great time Me, during the Olympics, choking up seeing some random Lugers excitement at winning medals: Maybe I should try being a sport person, this is fun

This fundamentally is the problem with a large part of the Labour Party: it has set itself against a large part of the core vote of a 21st century social democratic party, partly due to an incapability to parse such positions as existing and having merit outwith their narrow factionalism

Speaking in the full knowledge that I myself am a Friend of Politicians and Political People, I do always find moments like this extremely funny, "well actually my friend is one of the best people ever to do it and you're all being very horrible for no reason" is not insightful insider comment!

Also spare me with the claim that McSweeney couldn't rebut claims about him when he briefed to everyone with a heartbeat within 50 miles of Westminster every minor grievance he had.

McSweeney GONE, the Swiss Mixed Doubles curling team eliminated next for a good day all round 🙏 (For anyone not, for some bizarre reason, following the curling, we've qualified for semis anyway, but we have a perfect run thus far in the round robin and I want us to sweep the board)

I've always hated Switzerland (this is Curling related, not an actual statement on the nation)

Scottish Labour's strategy for the last 6 months has been willing a Theresa May-style polling collapse on John Swinney during the campaign whilst they set their voter coalition on fire.

The UK: Less than two years into office, is this the end for this Labour Government? Japan: Okay but what if we try just ONE MORE term of Liberal Democratic Party government? Yes we know we're on our fourth decade of economic stagnation and they've been in charge 90% of that but what's the harm?

"I like that the mammoth is now going down a little incline" Ah yes, this is emblematic of the decline and extinction of the species after the spread of human hunters. "No, ALLAN, it's going for a little WALK to drink some WATER 😭"

This is just so on Brand Starmer, isn't it? An increasing number of his own MPs are baying for McSweeney's blood, everyone knows the government's failing agenda is being set in large part by McSweeney, he could take a bit - just a bit - of the heat off by sacking him, but he's going to let him walk.

It's also beyond ridiculous for anyone in THIS Government to keep acting like it was elected on a swell of public support when in fact it went nowhere, popular support wise, versus 2019 and simply sat pretty whilst the Conservatives collapsed around them! I mean come on.

Trying out a new Nuclear Scottish Take which is that Scotland should be independent so that the English and Welsh don't get to steal valour from us by slapping a Team GB Union Flag on the extremely talented Scottish curlers at the Winter Olympics (My Lukewarm Gay Take is Bruce Mouat is endearing)

I cannot tell you how much I loathe that "Italian makes some English sounding gibberish noises" song, if that man is still alive? Prison.