I've accepted Stew's "Twitter challenge" - but it's been eerily quiet so far. Buyer's remorse in Bath?

 

Challenge accepted, Stew. You're unblocked, so let's GET THIS ON. Looking forward to at last hearing a substantive response to my points, and to "debating" them as you put it. I confidently predict you'll quickly run away and block me again within six hours, but prove me wrong! https://t.co/nVwpukuCf9

— James Kelly (@JamesKelly) May 15, 2025

One-hour update: silence from Stew.

— James Kelly (@JamesKelly) May 15, 2025

Two-hour update: silence from Stew. Hmmm. One might almost wonder if he never considered the possibility that I might say "yes" to his challenge, and is now getting cold feet.

— James Kelly (@JamesKelly) May 15, 2025

While we wait patiently to discover whether Stew still thinks, in the cold light of day, that his challenge was quite such a wizard idea after all, I may as well take this opportunity to provide an explanatory note for the gullible.

I'm sure this will be immediately obvious to most of you, but the anonymous commenter who "knows how I operate", and who "took the precaution of screenshotting his comments" and then "sending them to Stew" was none other than Stew himself.  Even if his writing style wasn't instantly recognisable (nobody else would say "You KNOW current polling means those SNP list votes will be wasted, you're just blinded by hatred of one man"), he gave himself away absolutely blatantly by repeating exact words and phrases he's used in his blogposts within the last week.  He even used his "blinded by hatred" line in a blogpost title.  

It's not at all unusual for Stew to attempt to post anonymous comments on Scot Goes Pop.  In one recent case, he openly admitted doing it, but that was just the tip of the iceberg - he's been doing it intermittently for years and years.  As something of a connoisseur of the Stew prose style, I'm able to intercept most of them.  He does tend to work on the assumption that the rest of the world is too stupid to see straight through him, but there are exceptions to that rule, I'm afraid.

Incidentally, the eagle-eyed among you will have spotted that although Stew has unblocked me on Twitter, he hasn't unmuted me, so doubtless that will be his excuse for "not noticing" that I've taken up his challenge.