Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 1h

Aberdeen: very grey, still, who knew

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 5h

Ha ha imagine Scotrail could run trains on time! Imagine! Imagine it ran basic suburban services in a timely manner so you could make your intercity trains! Lol. Lmao.

1 5

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 17h

Yes, and that was just with them being entitled, not being entitled *and* spending up to five years spitting in people's faces then expecting their vote as if the Greens and Lib Dems won't be an attractive alternative.

2

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 17h

Hello! Hello! Scotland calling! Are you aware of us? Have you ever paid any actual attention to us? Can I introduce you to Scottish Labour's 2011 campaign? A campaign that simply assumed their core voters would "come home to Labour?" Did you see 2015? Taking your core for granted can be fatal!

3 14

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 17h

I think "we need to be cautious about polling this far from the next UK election" is a reasonable warning; the number of centre-to-centre-right morons pairing it with "voters on the left will of course return to Labour if it's them or Reform" is absolutely flabbergasting.

2 1 28

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 19h

Hyaah!

1

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 19h

Am I generalising about takes I have somehow seen on the same day on this website? Yes, but also, when I use the term Yanks it is very much not intended to mean "any resident or citizen of the US" but instead "complete rockets who need to be put behind a Great Firewall for their own sake"

3

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 19h

Wasn't a fan of when he did the whole supernatural evil castle takeover thing mind you

1 2

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 19h

Smol bean people you started with 13 Colonies and ended with 50 States plus a bunch of far flung territories: you are as genocidal and imperialistic as the Euros

The US is evil people, us Euros spent hundreds of years perfecting antisemitism and xenophobia: I can assure you Nazism was not from you

1 4

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 19h

Yanks on Bluesky really need to find their Goldilocks point, so often you get takes that are either "poor us we are just smol bean oppressed former colony not like mighty Britain uwu" or, the other extreme, "we are the most evil state that ever existed and all evil since circa 1900 is rooted in us"

1 6

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 1d

(Risk for them in two directions; A, SNP never get a majority again, even an earned one, but have delegitimised Greens as contributing to justifying an IndyRef; B, winning an unearned majority on a Starmer-level fragile FPTP vote share means starting any IndyRef with fatally low political capital)

5

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 1d

Quite apart from the fact that unlike 2011, any SNP majority in 2021 will be democratically unearned ("optimal" AMS in 2011 would have still been 68 SNP MSPs vs 69 won, vs currently 43 SNP MSPs vs 62 projected), "only an SNP majority justifies an IndyRef" is a very risky idea for those who want one!

1 9

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 1d

Fundamentally not convinced this is actually a clever idea from the perspective of anyone interested in "actually achieving Independence", even if it makes sense from the perspective of "maximising the number of SNP MSPs"

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

John Swinney's independence strategy backed by SNP members

The first minister will declare a mandate for a second independence referendum, if the SNP wins a majority of seats in the 2026 Holyrood election.

www.bbc.co.uk

4 1 12

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 1d

I am otherwise completely unfamiliar with her work by virtue of not having any children in my life, but it always strikes me that if you are bigmad or scathing about a children's entertainer expressing sadness/anger at the suffering of thousands upon thousands of children you're... unpleasant!

12

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 1d

Every so often I see evidence that someone is getting what I would describe as "complete weirdo, divorced from reality" criticism for their advocacy for Palestinians and I'll be like "oh who is it this time" and a solid third of the time it's by all accounts Very Lovely Kid's Entertainer, Ms Rachel

1 8

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 2d

Nobody has ever blessed the people of Dumbarton before

Drow Paweł Włodkowic 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @dov.bsky.social · 2d

Also, "Britain" should be restricted to its medieval definition, which is the maximum borders of the Roman province of Britannia up to the Antonine Wall. So Glasgow is in Britain, unfortunately, but Dumbarton, god bless them, is not.

6

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 2d

Wikipedia editors move quickly, can't fault them on that

Screenshot of a Wikipedia change history entry stating: Ash Regan has left Alba meaning they no longer have an MSP, given this I have removed the party from the infobox

3 15

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 2d

Realising I'll need to update my draft "MSPs at risk of losing their seats" piece for BBS when I get home to account for change in circumstances of her expected loss

1 11

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 2d

Obviously she was doomed in Alba anyway and was never getting back in but now she's really sealed the deal, RIP to the political career of the person who gave us the finest bit of complete gormlessness, never before seen lack of gorm, total absence of gorm, unparalleled non-gorm in history.

Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · Jun 1

"How would the punters get to them?" absolutely entering my political meme lexicon, thanks Ash