Over at my old haunt Political Betting, there's been a fair bit of wishful thinking recently about the prospect of SNP abstentions on tuition fees helping to get the Lib Dems off the hook. Mike Smithson noted that simply holding the vote on a Thursday night might help, because the nationalists sometimes "can't be arsed" to stick around that late in the parliamentary week (translation - their constituencies are further away from Westminster than most), while a couple of posters claimed this morning that the SNP's policy of not voting on domestic English affairs ought to guarantee an abstention anyway. When it was pointed out that Pete Wishart had already confirmed in the Herald that the SNP would be sticking with previous practice and voting against higher tuition fees due to the impact on Barnett consequentials, it provoked these rather colourful reactions...
"Sorry but this ‘have you cake and eat it’ attitude makes me grrrrr."
"Boak - Wishart makes me sick."
Now, here's a novel suggestion. Instead of grumbling about the SNP following the inescapable logic of an inadequate devolution settlement that leaves Scottish funding totally at the mercy of the side-effects of "domestic English" policy decisions, why not do something about the system itself? These posters can rest assured that under full fiscal autonomy, the SNP would have no need or wish to ever again intervene on English tuition fees.
Also, isn't it curious that, in the eyes of PB Tories, Inverness MP Danny Alexander's vote in favour of the coalition proposals doesn't seem to have the same boak-inducing qualities, or indeed to fit the definition of a politician attempting to possess an already-consumed cake?
*
From what I saw of the coverage of the Megrahi leaks on the ITV lunchtime news, it couldn't have come out much worse for Scottish Labour - the message was that the London government had been quaking in the face of threats from Libya, while in contrast the SNP government had turned down each and every inducement offered by the Gaddafi regime. Having said that, I do have to question the quality of the reporting when it was suggested at the end of the piece that the cables "reveal" that Megrahi is expected to live five years - it should be clear from even the most cursory glance that talk of that kind of timeframe predated the decline in his health, and even at that stage five years was thought to be unlikely.
Showing posts with label Pete Wishart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pete Wishart. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Sunday, February 1, 2009
It's my time...
Or rather it really is the time for this particular blog, which tries rather unnaturally to be simultaneously about both the Eurovision Song Contest and Scottish politics from a nationalist perspective. So what could be better - or more improbable - than a UK Eurovision selection final featuring a cameo by none other than the SNP's Pete Wishart MP? OK, there probably are quite a few things that would be better, but at least it allows me to marry both subjects in the same post for once!
So Jade goes to Moscow! The outcome I desperately wanted, but certainly wasn't predicting. But the revelation of the night for me was how beautifully the twins performed It's My Time, and for the first time I started to understand Lloyd-Webber's point about how special it can be when two close siblings sing in harmony. It was a subtler performance than the other two acts, and in a perverse way there's a little bit of me that's disappointed they won't get the chance to repeat that performance on the Eurovision stage. But in any case they thoroughly deserved their second place on the night.
The other delight about the outcome is that we can now look forward to four solid months of Keith Mills smugly telling us the UK have no chance because our singer "oozes far more confidence that her limited vocal range would support". Charmin'. Perhaps we should swap her for the "almost perfect" Chris Doran? (OK, that's maybe a bit too catty even for me!)
Final thought - ever since I heard the title of the song (which is growing on me nicely, by the way) I've been wondering what the 'it's my time' lyric reminded me of from a Eurovision point of view. It suddenly struck me a couple of hours ago - it's this song...
That, for the uninitiated, is Evelin Samuel's Diamond of Night, the 1999 Estonian entry. Very different type of song of course (it's practically a lullaby), but it's one of my all-time favourites, and I think at this stage we'd probably settle for a repeat of its sixth-placed finish! It also had the distinction, as Terry Wogan pointed out in his commentary, of being the last Eurovision song of the twentieth century, since it was the last in the running order that year. That is, except for those people who think the twentieth century ended on 31 December, 2000!
So Jade goes to Moscow! The outcome I desperately wanted, but certainly wasn't predicting. But the revelation of the night for me was how beautifully the twins performed It's My Time, and for the first time I started to understand Lloyd-Webber's point about how special it can be when two close siblings sing in harmony. It was a subtler performance than the other two acts, and in a perverse way there's a little bit of me that's disappointed they won't get the chance to repeat that performance on the Eurovision stage. But in any case they thoroughly deserved their second place on the night.
The other delight about the outcome is that we can now look forward to four solid months of Keith Mills smugly telling us the UK have no chance because our singer "oozes far more confidence that her limited vocal range would support". Charmin'. Perhaps we should swap her for the "almost perfect" Chris Doran? (OK, that's maybe a bit too catty even for me!)
Final thought - ever since I heard the title of the song (which is growing on me nicely, by the way) I've been wondering what the 'it's my time' lyric reminded me of from a Eurovision point of view. It suddenly struck me a couple of hours ago - it's this song...
That, for the uninitiated, is Evelin Samuel's Diamond of Night, the 1999 Estonian entry. Very different type of song of course (it's practically a lullaby), but it's one of my all-time favourites, and I think at this stage we'd probably settle for a repeat of its sixth-placed finish! It also had the distinction, as Terry Wogan pointed out in his commentary, of being the last Eurovision song of the twentieth century, since it was the last in the running order that year. That is, except for those people who think the twentieth century ended on 31 December, 2000!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)