Team Muirhead scale the Scolympic heights - which is more than can be said for the Mirror and the Express...

First of all, huge congratulations to Eve Muirhead and her team for securing what will undoubtedly be regarded as one of the all-time great Scottish sporting achievements.  I'm sure I was one of many tens of thousands who stayed up to watch the whole game against Japan in the wee small hours.  However, if you'll forgive the shameless self-indulgence, I really must take a moment to mark the fact that the Olympic curling over the last couple of weeks has also unexpectedly provided me with a little highlight of my own blogging career.  

As long-term readers will know, I genuinely am a big curling fan.  I think it probably goes back to the fact that there seemed to be someone in the BBC Scotland hierarchy when I was growing up in the early 90s who was sympathetic towards curling and used to make generous space in the schedules for highlights packages from events like the Scottish Junior Championships.  (Those days are long gone, sadly.)  So I was exposed to the sport back then, and since around 1999 I've been religiously glued to either Eurosport or the World Curling channel on YouTube every November, March and April, when 99% of people probably don't have a clue anything is even happening.  I've been to the Scottish finals day in Perth a few times, and I remember in 2016 a very nice chap from UK Sport approached me in Braehead when I was practically the only spectator (an exaggeration, but only a slight one) for the Norway v Sweden men's semi-final in the European Championships, and said "bit of a disappointing turnout, isn't it?"  So I think it's reasonable to say I'm not exactly a fair-weather fan, unlike the jingoistic Brit journalists who jump on the curling bandwagon for a couple of days every four years and then immediately forget the sport even exists.

Yes, Douglas Dickie of the Mirror, and yes, David Walker of the Daily Express, I'm looking at you.  Thanks to James Sellars on Twitter, I've only just found out that my occasional wind-up tweets about "Scottish and European curling" and "Scolympic silver medals" have triggered no fewer than two barking mad articles in national newspaper websites - one in the Mirror yesterday entitled 'Scottish nationalists hijack Team GB curling silver medal for divisive agenda', (which cluelessly uses a photo of David Murdoch's silver medal-winning team from eight years ago!) and one in the Express way back on 8th February entitled 'Nationalist blogger slammed for 'hate-filled' anti-British comment on the Winter Olympics', with the sub-heading 'James Kelly, who is a pro-independence blogger and says he is an elected member of Alba's National Executive Committee, was criticised for his tweet about curling'.  Even better, the Express went to all the trouble of getting a Scottish Conservative spokesperson to make an official comment about my tweet.

Words fail me.  I've finally made the big time now, and it's all thanks to the Roarin' Game.  It's  amazing, isn't it?  Think of all the deadly serious topics I've covered at length on this blog over the years, from gun control to the death penalty, from Covid to the destruction of devolution.  Not even the remotest flicker of interest from the mainstream media.  But a bit of throwaway banter on Twitter about the indisputable fact that the "British curling team" are all Scottish, and it's like the end of civilisation as we know it.

One day, someone will write a book about the fascinating psychological phenomenon of a minority winter sport proving to be more "triggering" for the Brit Nat hordes than practically any other subject I can think of.  The Express noted that I was heavily criticised for my tweet, which is perfectly true, but what they didn't bother mentioning is that almost all of the criticisms came from borderline-fascists, many of whom seemed to think I couldn't be Scottish because I have an Irish surname.  "Is dat royt, James?" was a particular highlight.  Blair McDougall must be so proud.

I've learned something valuable over the last couple of weeks. If you want to *really trigger* the Brit Nats, you don't have to say 'It's Scotland's Oil' or even 'the Pentland Firth is the Saudi Arabia of tidal power'.

You just have to point out the curlers are Scottish.

— James Kelly (@JamesKelly) February 19, 2022

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Please bear with me as I continue promoting Scot Goes Pop's fundraising drive.  Opinion polls are so expensive that since I started commissioning them, fundraising has almost become like painting the Forth Bridge.  If you'd like to help this blog continue for another year, or to help us commission another full-scale poll like the six we've commissioned over the last two years, here are the various options for donating...

Via the new Scot Goes Pop general fundraiser for 2022.

Via the Scot Goes Pop polling fundraiser for 2021-22, which I set up in the autumn and is part-funded.

If you prefer to donate directly, that can be done via Paypal or bank transfer:  

My Paypal email address is:  jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk

Or email me for my bank details.  (My contact email address is different from my Paypal address, and can be found in the sidebar of the desktop version of the site, or on my Twitter profile.) 

The BBC's bizarre attempt to eradicate the word 'Scotland' from the Olympics

If you haven't been astounded enough lately, try watching the video in this tweet, because it's extraordinary.  It's from the BBC coverage of the Winter Olympics, and features 2002 curling gold medallist Rhona Howie (formerly Rhona Martin) accidentally using the word 'Scotland' in relation to the Great Britain men's curling team.  The host Clare Balding's reaction is staggering - instead of just correcting the slip, she puts the whole programme on hold for several seconds to deliver the kind of patronising admonishment that a parent might give to a three-year-old girl who keeps chucking jam at her grandfather's pet gerbil.  Rhona Howie visibly shrinks into herself and mutters "sorry".  Balding wraps the whole tragic episode up with the words "that's OK" in a tone of voice that menacingly implies: "It's not OK.  Don't EVER do that again."

For the uninitiated, there are two basic points that will help to make sense of all this -

1) Clare Balding was technically correct - all Scottish athletes at the Olympics represent Great Britain, and Great Britain only, whether they like it or not.

2) Rhona Howie's slip was entirely innocent and understandable.  Every single person who has ever represented Great Britain at the Olympics in curling has been Scottish.  In every four-year cycle, there are nine major international curling events - four World Championships, four European Championships and one Olympic Games.  In eight of those nine, Scottish curlers represent Scotland.  It's only in the other one of the nine - the Olympics - that they represent Great Britain.  All of the GB curlers in the current Olympics represented Scotland at the European Championships just a few short weeks ago, and as it happens they all won medals for Scotland - the women took the gold, and the men took the silver.

All of that being true, the natural thing for Balding to do would have been to casually say "Great Britain, you mean?", in which case Howie would have said "Great Britain, sorry", and there would have been no great fuss.  But it's pretty obvious that either Balding or the person delivering instructions in her earpiece was 'triggered' by Howie's slip.  They felt that mistakenly referring to Great Britain as Scotland was something that had happened far too often, and they were sick of it, and it needed to be made an example of, and stamped out once and for all.  All of which raised a few eyebrows in Scotland, because in our whole lifetimes you could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of times a BBC presenter, commentator or summariser has ever referred to a Great Britain team as 'Scotland', whereas the BBC referring to Great Britain as 'England' happens as a matter of routine.  For example, last year, BBC Sport's official Twitter account tweeted about the "England" team in the Davis Cup - a truly jaw-dropping blunder given that Scottish players (including the not-exactly-obscure Andy Murray) have been the backbone of the Great Britain team in the Davis Cup for several years.  The tweet was eventually deleted, but I don't recall the person responsible for it being hauled onto our TV screens and forced to issue a humiliating apology.  There have been countless occasions when presenters such as Balding herself or John Inverdale have been guilty of the 'England' slip without making any sort of acknowledgement, apology or correction.

And yet we're expected to accept that the word Scotland being used too often is THE major problem that simply MUST be tackled by the BBC and be SEEN to be tackled?  I almost wonder if there is something rather sinister and political going on here.

I've been watching quite a bit of the BBC's Olympic curling coverage, and even before the Balding incident I had the distinct impression that some sort of edict had gone out strongly discouraging the commentators from using the words 'Scotland' and 'Scottish', in spite of the unavoidable Scottishness on prominent display before their eyes.  What made it obvious was Steve Cram's tortuous explanation of why Great Britain were absent from the new mixed doubles competition, which somehow managed to avoid making any mention of the fact that it was the Scotland team's responsibility to try to qualify Great Britain for the Games, and that they had narrowly failed.  But I suppose if you acknowledge Scotland's official role in the Olympic qualification process, you must also acknowledge that any medals won would effectively be a Scottish as well as a British effort...and that would never do, would it?  The only time I can recall hearing the existence of a Scotland curling team being mentioned in commentary was when Logan Gray launched into a prolonged anecdote about the use of corn brooms in the famous Canada v Scotland final at the 1991 World Championships.  "Really?" said Steve Cram in a disinterested tone, as he apparently tried to shut Gray down.

The double standard is simply breathtaking.  In a couple of months' time, the 2018 Commonwealth Games will take place in Australia.  There will be no Team GB at the event.  Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey will all compete as entirely separate teams.  And yet, on past form, the BBC presenters including Balding herself will try to downplay that division as a meaningless technicality, and will routinely refer to Scottish medals as "more success for the Home Nations".  You might remember that at Glasgow 2014, Matthew Pinsent (I think it was him, anyway) fronted a package that considered how "British" athletes' form at the Games might translate into success for Team GB once the temporary segregation was over - and remarkably didn't once acknowledge the elephant in the room, namely that Scotland was only a few weeks away from a referendum on independence that could have meant Scottish athletes would no longer compete for Team GB.  A "No" vote was, it seems, simply being taken as a given by BBC Sport.

But who knows, eh?  Perhaps Clare Balding has turned over a new leaf, and will sternly knock that sort of nonsense on the head in future.  Without fear or favour, Clare, without fear or favour.  Perish the thought that there is any sort of agenda here.

Cunning Scolympians narrowly avoid 'God Save the Queen' moment

It's the age-old curse of the Scolympian - obviously you want to do well, but terrifying dangers lie in store for anyone who gets greedy and tries to do a bit TOO well.  As Andy Murray discovered two years ago, if you go the whole hog and win gold you're likely to have to put up with this sort of thing being said about you -

"He's touched the Union Jack! Astonishing! Look at the flag! Look at Murray! You see? No distance at all between the two! The Murray shoulder is in ACTUAL CONTACT with OUR flag! He's one of us!

He's singing the anthem! Oh my God! He's actually singing OUR anthem! OK, he's sort of mumbling it...but that'll do! He's one of us! No doubt about it!

He even knows the WORDS to the anthem! Well, he knows some of the words, anyway. At least seven of them. But nobody else knows the words to the anthem either, so that means...he's one of us! Irrefutable proof!

And he hasn't produced a claymore, started screaming "Death to the English" and attacked the Duchess of Cambridge! That's what we all expected him to do...but he hasn't! Incredible! True Brit!

Gosh, how that boy has MATURED..."

So ideally what you're looking for is that sweet spot of winning the highest-value medal available that doesn't come as part of a "God Save the Queen really does have to be played" package. Through no fault of his own, David Murdoch has already heard quite a bit of that tune in the past, so no wonder he went to such extraordinary lengths today to avoid a repeat.

Job done, boys. Here's to Pyeongchang in 2018 - and let's make sure that any gold medal then will only come attached to the saltire and Flower of Scotland.

It's Silver for the Scolympians! (At least.)

Well, it's probably high time that I lived up to my billing as a curling obsessive by writing something about the dramatic events in Sochi.  It's weird how it all turns out - I said at the start of the competition that maybe Murdoch and his men's team could nick a medal, but that Eve Muirhead's rink would go in as slight favourites for gold on the women's side.  I think they certainly warranted the tag as favourites in spite of Canada being represented by the formidable Jennifer Jones rink, but I now gather that Canada were the marginal favourites in the actual betting.  Either way, though, the GB women certainly looked a better bet for gold than the men, and the way events have unfolded is a reverse of 1998 and 2002, when it was the men who started out as the great prospects, but it was the women who came through to make the semis.  We're in a much better position this time, of course, because both teams may yet win medals, but at the very least the men are going to end up with a better colour.

As for any marginal political impact, it's hard to say.  After Murdoch's incredible winning shot against Norway yesterday, I saw an Englishman tweet that "there has never been a better time for Alex Salmond to make the case for independence", which is certainly perfectly logical.  If Scotland was independent, quite literally the only difference would be that Murdoch's team would be claiming a medal for Team Scotland rather than Team GB.  There are no problems in terms of funding or resources - not only are the players all Scottish, all the curling facilities are in Scotland, and as one of our top sports any Scottish funding body would be pumping money into curling like crazy.  All the same, if the gold is secured on Friday, we can still look forward to the familiar contortions of logic from the London media as they arrive at the predictable conclusion that "this is a wonderful day for the union and a hammerblow for Alex Salmond".  (Another one?!)  But right now I think that would be a small price to pay for witnessing one of the all-time great Scolympic moments.

I also remember making the observation a few months ago that if Muirhead's rink won the gold and Scotland voted for independence seven months later, the last ever Olympic gold for Team GB would probably be claimed by an all-Scottish team in a sport with Scottish origins that is barely even played in the rest of the UK.  Well, Muirhead isn't going to pull off that feat, but Murdoch just might.  Wouldn't that be a delicious irony?

Curling : A Scolympian Story

The men's and women's curling competitions are getting underway today at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Great Britain are as usual represented by all-Scottish teams, composed of exactly the same players who competed for Scotland at last year's World and European Championships. The women's team skipped by Eve Muirhead are the current world champions (as Team Scotland), and are therefore the slight favourites for the gold medal, although two months ago they were defeated in the European Championship final by the same Swedish rink that they got the better of in the world final last spring. The men's team led by former two-time world champion David Murdoch should have at least a 50/50 chance of a medal, having won a bronze at both the worlds and Europeans last year.

Ever since curling was reintroduced into the Olympic programme for Nagano 1998, I've been a passionate supporter of the Great Britain teams, without reservation. (In spite of the gold medal won by the Rhona Martin-led women's team in 2002, it's actually been more frustration than elation along the way, with a succession of near misses.) But after the grotesque spectacle of the UK government and the anti-independence campaign shamelessly politicising the events of London 2012 (and continuing to do so even just a few days ago with Cameron's speech), I can't deny that I'm struggling against a slight feeling of ambivalence this time. We know precisely what will happen if Muirhead and co win the gold - they'll be wrapped tightly in the Union Jack by the BOA and the London media, their Scottishness will be downplayed or even denied, and they'll be harassed and cajoled into making 'helpful' comments that can be spun in a political way just in time for the referendum. It's worth remembering that Sir Chris Hoy has never explicitly declared himself an opponent of independence (OK, we all suspect that he probably is, but he's kept his position private), and yet that hasn't stopped the anti-independence campaign and the UK government ruthlessly appropriating him as their poster-boy.

It really is a disgrace that we can't all feel 100% comfortable uniting, nationalist and unionist alike, behind our country's finest athletes. The fact that we can't is entirely the responsibility of the unionist media, anti-independence campaigners and the London government. But for me personally, some loyalties run too deep, and I'll find it impossible not to support the same teams that I've cheered on for Scotland in so many previous world and European Championships, so I'm sure my ambivalence will soon clear and I'll get behind them all the way, regardless of which country's name is on their back.

Incidentally, if anyone trots out the old chestnut "they may be Scottish but they couldn't have done it without Britain", just remember that this is one case where that is absolutely, demonstrably untrue. Any medals won by the curlers will be a success made entirely in Scotland - the players are Scottish, the facilities are in Scotland, and curling would inevitably be just as high a funding priority (possibly higher) for a Scottish Olympic Association as it currently is for the BOA. The only difference would be a welcome removal of the BOA's right to interfere in selection policy - if memory serves me right, it was the BOA that insisted on selection by individual player rather than by team from 2006 onwards, which did not work out at all well for the women's team in either 2006 or 2010 as the players failed to gel.

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Yesterday was something of a landmark for this blog, with it receiving its second-highest number of visitors in its six-year history. (The only busier day was a freakish occasion in 2011 when one of my posts went viral on Twitter.) Many thanks to anyone new who dropped by!

England Ashes debacle - another blow for McDougall?

Believe it or not, I do genuinely have a passing interest in cricket, so I decided to have a little peek at the final Ashes test on Sky.  As I write this, England have collapsed to 14-3, and doubtless it will be 17-7 by the time I finish.  Now obviously this is a national sporting tragedy, but does it have wider ramifications?  The headline on this post was intended as a joke, but if our friends in the London media truly believe that absolutely everything that happened during the London Olympics was a "disaster for Alex Salmond" (another one?!), that Andy Murray winning Wimbledon was a "good day for the union" (surely every day is a good day for the union?), and that Murray's SPOTY triumph was somehow "good for the No campaign" (yes, Mike "can't be arsed" Smithson really did say that), then I'm afraid the logic is inescapable.  According to media mythology, the recent success of the England cricket team is supposed to be one of the sporting factors that have bound the UK together, in spite of the minor detail that Scotland hasn't actually been represented by that team since 1992 (before then the cricket authorities were arrogant enough to use the name 'England' for a team representing the whole of Great Britain).  So, unavoidably, as the England team are now toiling badly and heading for a 5-0 drubbing by the Aussies, it must be considered something of a calamity for Blair McDougall and the No camp.

If that claim strikes you as being a tad silly, then it probably says something rather profound about the unionist media's past attempts to exploit our athletes' sporting successes.  But stand by for more of the same if Eve Muirhead and co strike gold in Sochi on February 21st.  After all, there isn't a Scot alive who wouldn't much prefer that an all-Scottish team's Olympic triumph be placed in the "Great Britain" column, is there?  It's rather like the cricket philosophy of old, but inverted.

#Indyplan Eve Poetry (aka Burns Will Be Turning In His Grave, Part 2)

A little-known fact about myself (ie. no-one actually gives a monkey's) is that in 2008 I was one of the runners-up in Fish Publishing's now-defunct micro-fiction competition. I only offer that in mitigation, because as you're about to discover I am, always have been, and always will be indescribably rubbish at poetry. Bizarrely, I once contrived to get a "poem" I had "written" read out on TV by a curling commentator, and the rather humiliating assessment of Scotland's former world champion skip David Smith was "Burns will be turning in his grave". But it's not my bloody fault, is it? How are you supposed to say anything interesting and non-childish when you have to stop every five seconds to find a word that rhymes? And as for getting everything to fit into trochaic tetrameter or whatever...do me a favour.

But in the true spirit of Anas Sarwar, I have absolutely no intention of quitting while I'm behind. What you're about to read was inspired by Kate Higgins' suggestion that tonight feels a bit like the night before Christmas. (Having an American mum, we really do have the annual tradition of reading out The Night Before Christmas every Christmas Eve.)

'Twas the night before #indyplan
And all through Middle Eng-land
No-one in Labour was electable
And certainly not Miliband.

Yes, that's why we Scots
Must move forward in hope
For no-one else can save us
Not even the Pope.

Underground, overground, Scowimbling free, the Scowimblian of Scowimbledon Centre Court is he

When Andy Murray defeated Roger Federer in a best-of-five-set match on Wimbledon Centre Court to win Olympic gold last year, I suggested that although it might be drowned out by events elsewhere in London, in terms of pure achievement it was right up there with the greatest ever Scottish sporting moments. It was certainly one of the finest ever Scolympic accomplishments. But what we have just witnessed not only surpasses that, it might just go down as the greatest ever day in Scottish sport. It's hard to think of much else that matches it - possibly Celtic winning the European Cup with an all-Scottish team in 1967, or Allan Wells winning the blue riband athletics event at the 1980 Olympics. At the very least, though, a Scot winning the men's singles title at Wimbledon is on a par with those. And even as a curling fan, I'd probably have to concede that this is a slightly bigger deal than Eve Muirhead and co winning Scotland's second women's world championship a few months ago, although the two events in combination means we can certainly say this has already been a truly vintage year for Scottish sport!

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Here's an intriguing thought - if Scotland votes for independence next year, and Murray becomes a Scottish-registered player from 2016 onwards (he would still only be 28 or 29), how would the London media rationalise in retrospect all the stuff we've heard today about him being the first player from 'the country' to win Wimbledon in 77 years? Would they deem the rump UK to be right back to square one, with the legendary "drought" further extended? I don't ask that question in a gloating way, or even necessarily in the expectation that it will happen (there are various permutations), but there's no obvious answer. It would certainly be psychologically very difficult for them to backtrack after all this hoo-ha.

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Alas, Scottish sporting prowess has a habit of bringing out the worst in Britain's leading cat forum, as we discovered when Murray won gold last year. For obvious reasons I'm no longer your man on the spot, but you can read Mick Pork's account of what happened this time round (including his own 88th unexplained banning from the site) by clicking HERE.

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I'm not going to ruin a very special day by actually reading a blogpost with the cretinous title 'Andy Murray wins Wimbledon. This is a great day for Cameron, and the Union', but a small friendly hint for Toby Young - it can't be both of those things. It really can't. I suppose it's conceivable that it might be one or the other (although I'm struggling to see how or why), but anything that is good for Cameron must by definition be bad for 'the Union' (sniff). There is abundant evidence that support for Westminster rule in Scotland is in inverse proportion to support for the Tories in Middle England.

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You have to hand it to Alex Salmond - no-one has a greater talent for deftly capturing the mood of the nation, as he demonstrated once again by entering into the carnival atmosphere after Murray's triumph and unfurling a saltire in the Royal Box. Unsurprisingly, a few of the usual suspects weren't entirely happy about that. Prize for the most ill-judged tweet of the day goes to a chap who reckoned that what Salmond did was a bit like Nick Clegg waving a 'Yes2AV' banner at a sporting event. Yes, folks, you read that right - the Scottish national flag being waved by the political leader of Scotland in celebration of a Scottish sporting triumph is the equivalent of a referendum campaign banner. It's hard to know whether to laugh or cry. Perhaps there are some pills available that would help these people to finally "get it"? If not, they'll have to make do with explaining away why so many identical 'referendum campaign banners' were being waved enthusiastically by ordinary members of the crowd in Centre Court, not to mention on Henman Hill. Were all those people demonstrating their support for independence, rather than cheering on Murray? If so, we must be winning handily...

Of course, Salmond probably was making a point, albeit a more subtle one than the paranoid Brit Nats want to believe. If the media refuse to do their job by properly representing one of Murray's declared national identities, then the First Minister of Scotland might as well do that job for them, and he did it very effectively. I don't think any of us would begrudge English or Welsh fans for feeling that they have a stake in a triumph by a player from a fellow British nation, any more than Spaniards begrudged us for cheering on a golfer from a fellow European nation when Seve Ballesteros won his majors. But Salmond's gesture was a timely reminder to the world that Murray is, when all is said and done, a Scowimblian.

YouGov poll : Scots reject No campaign's wish for key powers to remain at Westminster

YouGov have released the details of an SNP-commissioned poll that primarily inquired into where people think that key decision-making powers should lie.

Which government do you think should be responsible for all tax and spending decisions in Scotland, including tax revenues from oil and gas?

The Scottish Government 52%
The UK Government 35%

Which government do you think would be best at deciding welfare and pensions policy for Scotland?

The Scottish Government 53%
The UK Government 34%

Which government do you think would be best at representing Scotland and Scottish interests in the European Union?

The Scottish Government 50%
The UK Government 39%

The point being of course that if voters feel that all these things should be controlled by the Scottish Government, it would be a touch odd to vote No to independence and ensure that every single one of them remains controlled by London. But perhaps there is a logically consistent way in which people who hold these views could still vote No? The only thing I can think of is that they might feel so strongly that Scotland is too wee and too stupid to control its own defence and non-EU foreign policies that everything else just pales into insignificance. But that seems unlikely. It can't possibly be that they feel they will be economically worse off under independence, because presumably the desire for Scottish control over tax, spending and welfare implies that they think a Scottish government will take those decisions more wisely. That's a pretty big consideration by any standards.

So while there's an outside chance that defence and non-EU foreign affairs may be what is swinging the balance for some, there comes a point where the Yes campaign are entitled to point out that the emperor has no clothes, and that if you actually mean what you say about wanting Scotland to control tax and spending, oil and gas revenues, welfare and pensions, and its own EU representation, it's probably best not to vote No and prevent all those things from happening.

The poll also asked whether David Cameron should reverse his apparent decision to run away from a televised debate on independence with Alex Salmond...

First Minister Alex Salmond has called for a head-to-head television debate with the Prime Minister David Cameron during the referendum campaign on Scottish independence, but it has been reported that Mr Cameron will refuse to take part in such a debate. Do you think that David Cameron should or should not take part in a TV debate with Alex Salmond?

Should take part 67%
Should not take part 19%

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Congratulations to Eve Muirhead, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams, Claire Hamilton and alternate Lauren Gray for winning the world curling championship for Scotland yesterday, after an incredibly tight game against Sweden that was decided by the final stone. I seem to recall that when Hammy McMillan's rink won the world men's curling championship in 1999, and again when Jackie Lockhart's rink won the 2002 women's title, BBC Scotland hurriedly snapped up a highlights package from Canadian television. It would be nice if they could do so again this time and bring the event to a wider audience, because after all Scotland don't become world champions in team sports every day of the week. Assuming that doesn't happen, though, the entire final is currently available to watch for free at the TSN website. If you don't want to watch the whole thing, be sure to scroll through to the end to see the Olympic-style medal ceremony, complete with the raising of flags and Flower of Scotland being played in the team's honour. Best enjoy that spectacle while we can, because of course if Muirhead and co win Olympic gold in Sochi next year (as they will presumably now be slight favourites to do), it'll be the Union Jack and God Save the Queen!

Mind you, if that does happen it might just turn out to be the last Olympic gold for Great Britain ever, in any sport. Now there's a tantalising thought...

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Yesterday was something of a landmark for this blog, as it received its second-highest number of visitors in its five-year history. (The outright highest number occurred on a freakish day in the spring of 2011 when one of my posts went viral on Twitter.) Thanks to everyone for dropping by on a very cold Sunday!

Panelbase shows yet another swing in favour of independence - plus a huge SNP lead for Holyrood

I seem to be saying this quite a lot recently, but the latest poll on independence voting intentions shows a swing to the Yes campaign. Better still, it also marks the No side's lowest lead in any poll this year.

Should Scotland be an independent country?

Yes 36% (+2)
No 46% (-1)

Strictly speaking the figures cannot be considered directly comparable to the previous poll by Panelbase, because the real referendum question is now being used. But in a sense that's good news - poll after poll is reaffirming that, at the very least, the new Electoral Commission-approved question is not helping the No side. All the pollsters who have given a verdict so far this year are now unanimous in showing a small swing to Yes in their most recent poll - Panelbase had previously been the odd one out on that score.

If the news from this poll is moderately encouraging on the referendum question, it's positively wonderful on the question of voting intention for the Scottish Parliament -

Constituency vote :

SNP 47% (+2)
Labour 30% (-3)
Conservatives 12% (-1)
Liberal Democrats 5% (-)

Regional list vote :

SNP 45% (+1)
Labour 25% (-6)
Conservatives 12% (-)
Greens 8% (+2)
Liberal Democrats 5% (-)

Which leaves only one question to be answered. Can anything stop the Willie Rennie For First Minister bandwagon?

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For anyone feeling depressed about the state of Scottish sport after events at Hampden, it might be of some consolation to know that Scotland have reached the final of the world women's curling championship tomorrow. I've just watched a recording of the semi-final against Canada, and I had a sick feeling in my stomach over the last thirty minutes as the game seemed to be slipping away. But not for the first time, Eve Muirhead saved the day with a special final shot.

Poll : How will you rank the London parties on May 3rd?

One of the advantages of the STV voting system that will be used for the local elections next month is that it allows those of us who always vote for the same party to deliver a more sophisticated verdict on the other contenders. From memory, the approach I took five years ago was to rank the SSP third after the two SNP candidates, on the grounds that they were the only other pro-independence party in the ward. I ranked the two independent candidates next, followed (last and in every sense least) by the London parties. But the toughest part was to decide in which order to rank those three parties. I think the logic I used was that Labour had to be absolute bottom for tactical reasons, because the overall council battle in my neck of the woods was between Labour and SNP. And of course I placed the Lib Dems ahead of the Tories.

In spite of the fact that my respect for the Lib Dems (a party I once plumped for in a school mock election) has plummeted through the floor in the years since then, I think that logic still just about holds good this time - at least the Lib Dems have the decency to pretend to be a Home Rule party, one day out of every sixteen. But what about you - in what order will you be ranking the London parties? Or will you even bother ranking them at all? That's the subject of today's poll - you'll find the voting form at the top of the sidebar.

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Ah, the delights of being a Scottish curling fan. If I lived in Estonia, or Slovenia, or Denmark, I could have watched Scotland play in the nail-biting world championship final yesterday, live on Eurosport International. It goes without saying I could have watched the game live if I'd been in Canada, and with glitzy all-singing, all-dancing coverage at that. But as I live in Scotland itself and am stuck with "British" Eurosport, I couldn't.

Now, doubtless British Eurosport chiefs would point out that one of the events that displaced the curling was one in which there was plenty of Scottish interest - the GB v Belgium Davis Cup tie in Glasgow. The snag is, though, that I can recall occasions in previous years when they've made the judgement that British sports fans would much rather watch an obscure game between two non-British tennis players in a WTA event, than follow the Eurosport International coverage of Scotland playing in a major curling tournament. It seems that British Eurosport's definition of "British interest" is the same as Newsnight's - ie. whatever is most interesting to viewers in the south of England.

Sadly, in the end, Scotland had to settle for silver yesterday, although it would have been gold had Tom Brewster not been slightly wide with his final shot in the tenth end. This rounds off a 'curate's egg' season for Scottish curling - Brewster's performance arguably exceeded expectations slightly, and a first European gold medal for the women's team since 1975 speaks for itself. But the big disappointment was the failure of the women to medal at the world championships, having gone in as favourites for the gold.

A couple of miscellaneous items...

First of all, here's the long-overdue confirmation of the result of the Olympic poll from a few days ago...

Will you be supporting Team GB this summer?

Yes 7%
No 53%
Only when there is Scottish involvement 39%

I must admit those figures surprised me slightly - I expected Option 3 to be the most popular. Not supporting Team GB under any circumstances creates a number of paradoxes - for instance, Scotland's campaign at the men's world curling championship has just got off to a winning start in Basel. I'm sure we all wish them well, but I'm afraid there's no getting away from the fact that a good result will automatically earn Olympic Qualifying Points for "Team GB"!

I think my own answer to the question would be either Option 1 or Option 3, depending on how irritating the London media are being on any given day.

Talking of polls, if you have ten seconds to spare, you might like to take this rare opportunity to vote for Alex Salmond as someone who deserves to be on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. I don't think the public vote has any official standing, but nevertheless it's being prominently publicised on the website. At time of writing, 3327 voters think Salmond should be on the list, and 1097 disagree.

Six shamelessly trivial reasons to vote for independence

Most of us who support independence do so for weighty reasons - a belief in a more equal society, a detestation of the presence of inhuman weapons on this country's soil, a desire for a more dynamic economy. But I'm sure we can all think of some shamelessly trivial reasons that complement the more important ones beautifully. Here are my top six...

1) Scotland will have its own entry in the Eurovision Song Contest (naturally that was always going to be top).

2) When Eve Muirhead and co win the curling gold medal at the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018, it'll be for Scotland, not Great Britain. Alas, we'll just have to accept that the 2014 gold will be for GB (perhaps Cameron's desire for an earlier referendum does have some merit after all).

3) We'll have a national Olympic association that actually supports and works with other Scottish sporting bodies, rather than undermining their very existence at every turn.

4) An immense strain will be lifted from countless TV sports presenters and commentators, who will no longer have to wearily go through the motions of pretending that they're speaking to a UK audience rather than an English one. (OK, they'll have to wait for Wales and NI to follow the Scottish example before that really happens, but it'll at least get the poor lambs one-third of the way there.)

5) The inevitable attempts to rig the TV leaders' debates at the next Westminster general election will still be an outrage, but won't actually matter.

6) It's a losing battle to try to convince several billion people all round the world that not all citizens of the UK are "English". If we can't move the perception closer to the facts, perhaps it would be simpler to move the facts closer to the perception?

Feel free to chip in with any other suggestions!

'Ye dinnae ken me but I ken you'

Three years ago, there was an infamous incident in the world of curling when the Scottish women's team ended up playing their concluding games at the World Championship with only three players. What had seemingly happened was that the skip Gail Munro had been dropped from the team, her third Lyndsay Wilson had refused to play without her, and Munro had subsequently refused to re-enter the team to fill the gap left by Wilson. Yesterday, however, Munro won a defamation case against the then-national coach Derek Brown, and it is now clear that everything was not quite as it appeared.

Leaving aside the catastrophic breakdown in the relationship between the players and the coaching staff, what leapt out at me from the judge's ruling was this extraordinary account of how the public had reacted to Munro on the basis of false information -

"Some of the local population where she lived had sympathised with her, but others had not. By way of illustration she described having been out for lunch recently and overhearing her name mentioned. When she had turned round an older gentleman had looked her in the eye and said "Aye, ye dinnae ken me but I ken you. You're the lass that didnae play for your country"."

Even if that hadn't turned out to be untrue, it has to be asked - what is with some people that they think they have a God-given right to intrude into the lives of strangers like that? I think if I'd been in Munro's position I'd have been tempted to reply - "Don't you think there's probably a very good reason why I dinnae ken you?"

Scotland through to world curling final

I was hoping/dreading (delete as appropriate) that we might have another Holyrood opinion poll overnight, but as that doesn't seem to be the case I'll instead say a quick congratulations to Tom Brewster and his Scotland team for reaching the final of the world curling championships in Canada - they defeated Thomas Ulsrud's formidable Norwegian rink in an extra end within the last hour.  We can take particular satisfaction from this result given that the Swedish skip, watching from the sidelines, was undiplomatically keen to write Scotland off...

"Edin’s troops will now prepare for Sunday’s bronze-medal game at 12 noon against the semi-final loser.

“I think Norway will win for sure so we are expecting to play Scotland,” said Edin. “Norway has really stepped up its game by 10 per cent over the Scottish team.""

It's hard to be hugely optimistic about tomorrow's final against the host nation given that Canada have already beaten Scotland twice this week, and with a bit to spare on both occasions.  However, Brewster and his inexperienced team have already handsomely exceeded expectations.  And if by any chance Scotland do win, there's one obvious question - will the Canadians play God Save the Queen in our 'honour' once again?! 

UPDATE : Alex Massie, who celebrated the Scottish women's team's semi-final triumph over Canada last year in admirably restrained fashion with the words "take that moose-munchers, now for the Krauts", is rather more bullish about our chances in the final...

"OK, Great Satan you have beaten Truth, Honesty, Goodness & Virtue twice this tournament but the Final must be ours, OK?"

The wrong kind of player power?

The world women's curling championship gets underway in Denmark later this week, and Scotland will be represented by the core of the team that triumphed at the world juniors in Perth at the weekend. The big difference is that the skip will not be Eve Muirhead, but instead the third player from the junior team, Anna Sloan - the reason being that Sloan led the team to the Scottish title a few weeks ago without Muirhead's involvement. Nevertheless, Muirhead has very sensibly been drafted in as team alternate, which in years gone by would almost certainly have meant that she would have ended up playing at either skip or third if the early results had gone the wrong way. But this time it appears not. According to Bob Cowan's blog, unless there is an illness or injury in the team, Muirhead will not be playing at all -

"It will certainly be a different role for Eve - matching stones for the team in late night practice sessions is just one of her jobs with coach Isobel Hannen. Still, as the experiences of the junior men's team show, it is so important to have a well-qualified alternate on the bench in case of illness. She will not be used as a 'tactical substitute'. This is the official line."

If true, that strikes me as mildly insane. I can certainly see the argument that a tactical substitute can sometimes make matters worse if the person in question is not used to playing with the others. But that is clearly not the case here - Muirhead could slot in naturally at any time, and when you have the world and European silver medal-winning skip from last year at your disposal, it seems a silly hostage to fortune to needlessly limit that option.

From a distance, it's hard not to wonder if this is the legacy of the bizarre events of three years ago, when the Scottish skip Gail Munro was dropped midway through the world championships because of poor form, and her third Lyndsay Wilson withdrew from the team in protest, leading to a hurried recall for Munro to make up the numbers. Munro then refused to play in a show of solidarity with Wilson, and the net result was that Scotland took to the ice with only three players in games that were vital for Olympic qualifying. In a sense what happened was nobody's fault - it was more a question of differing perceptions. Wilson presumably felt that the team were there as of right as Scottish champions and thus shouldn't be mucked about with, whereas the coaches recognised that the team were first and foremost representing a country, and the country's interests were paramount. These are both understandable perceptions, but the bottom line is that the coaches were correct. If this particular example of player power has ultimately won the argument, it seems like a terribly retrograde step for the game in Scotland.

It's still mathematically possible for Scotland to qualify, no. 2837

I've been happily immersed in the European Curling Championships all week, although a few hours ago I stupidly took the Eurosport commentator's word for it that the Scottish men's team's loss to France meant that they were out of contention for the play-offs. Having looked at the standings, it instead appears we're into another of those ever-rewarding "it's still mathematically possible for Scotland to qualify" scenarios. If they beat Sweden tomorrow, and if Denmark lose to Switzerland, they'll be into a three-way tiebreak for the fourth and final play-off place. I'm not holding my breath.

On the plus side, the women's team skipped by Eve Muirhead is going great guns, having finished top of the round-robin. If by any chance they go on to win the competition, it won't be before time - Scotland haven't won gold in the women's event since the very first European Championships in 1975. As usual, there's unrivalled coverage over at Bob Cowan's blog.

Cortina bronze for Scotland

Congratulations to Scotland for winning the bronze medal at the men's world curling championship in Cortina - it wasn't quite the colour they were looking for, but after a fairly torrid run of form at the end of the week, I'm sure they'll just be delighted to get some kind of tangible reward for their excellent play at the start of the tournament. They did it the hard way, surrendering the slender advantage they'd held early on in the bronze medal decider against the USA to go into the final end with the scores level and without the hammer, but then took a steal of two to claim what had been starting to look like an improbable victory. This also marks the first time since 2002 that Scotland have won medals in both the men's and women's worlds in the same year, which is not a bad way to bounce back after the bitterly disappointing Olympic campaigns for the 'Great Britain' teams.

After my harsh words about British Eurosport during the women's event, I suppose to even things up I should say that they haven't been quite as bad this time - there were still a couple of occasions when they didn't join live coverage of a Scotland game being shown on Eurosport International, but at least they partly made up for it by showing recorded coverage later in the evening. There were even (shock, horror) one or two occasions when they joined coverage of a Scotland game early, although the cynical side of me knows that's only because they simply didn't have any recorded footage of a French road cycle race to hand.

The irony is that he meant it

Thanks to DougtheDug on the previous thread for linking to a brief 'profile' of Stuart MacLennan at Edinburgh University Labour Club, presumably self-penned given the now-familiar 'ironic' prose style -

"Stuart is an ageing hack who just won't go away. He's worked on almost every losing by-election campaign in recent history and the few that he's stayed away from have been the ones Labour has won. Maybe he should adopt that policy more often."

Hmmm. Judging from some of the photos I've seen in the papers, Willie Bain probably wishes he had.

Beneath the profile, there are a couple of posts by MacLennan, which includes one particular unintended gem -

"How student’s can get involved in the 2011 manifesto."

By urgently mastering the correct use of apostrophes?

One thing that's been slightly unexpected over the last few hours has been the backlash against the sacking of MacLennan. His defenders fall into two broad camps - one group are adamant that he's been misunderstood, while the other group are concerned about the detrimental effect this could have on politicians' engagement with the public on social networking sites, especially Twitter. The fear (expressed by Toby Young among others) is that instead of being authentic and spontaneous, politicians' tweets will in future become as sanitised and relentlessly on-message as other forms of political communication. That ignores a couple of points - a) most politicians' tweets already fit the latter description rather well, and b) it is actually perfectly possible to 'let your hair down' and show a little personality on the internet without going to MacLennan's extreme of referring to the elderly as "coffin-dodgers" and train passengers as "chavs" (one in particular as "the ugliest old boot I've seen").

As for the other line of defence, yes, I think most people are capable of spotting that these tweets were intended to be seen as 'banter', ie. someone for comic effect adopting the persona of an individual with excessive self-regard, sneering at everything that moves. In fact, the first thing it reminded me of was Spectator journalist Alex Massie's (very funny) tweets during Scotland's semi-final win over Canada at the women's world curling championship a couple of weeks ago -

"Desperate Canucks calling for a measure: that looks like a motherf*****g three beaver-munchers..."
"that last tweet was punctuated poorly. Not 'three beaver-munchers' but 'looks like three, beaver-munchers'"
"Scotland 10 Canada 3. Gold-medal game here we go. Take that, moose-munchers."
"Jennifer Jones may be all silicon, nae tit."
"Bring on the Krauts!"

The problem with the 'tongue-in-cheek' defence for MacLennan, though, is that many of his targets for abuse were political opponents and left-wing Labour MPs, ie. it's suspiciously rather close to the views that you'd expect a typical young New Labour activist to actually hold. And while it may be possible to use phrases like 'coffin-dodger' for genuine comedic effect (indeed it's one of Sir Terry Wogan's favourite phrases) it could hardly be said to be meant affectionately in this context - he's laughing at people rather than with them. MacLennan's brand of humour seems to fulfil a need to escape to a comic-strip world in which he's ten-feet-tall and everyone else is two-feet-tall - not an unusual fantasy, admittedly, but the desire to publicly broadcast it is generally confined to fourteen-year-old boys and posters on Guido Fawkes. So never the ideal choice of candidate for Labour, then, even in this most hopeless of seats for them.

The delights of following Scottish curling on "British" Eurosport

When the dedicated British version of sports channel Eurosport was launched a decade or so back, it was billed as the end of frustration for British viewers - never again would they be left watching a little-known Belgian playing an even-littler-known Slovenian at Roland Garros, while Greg Rusedski or Tim Henman was playing on another court. But this seems to be yet another instance where the word 'British' mysteriously translates as 'English'. Last night, extraordinarily, Eurosport International showed extensive live coverage of the crucial women's world curling championship play-off between Scotland and Sweden, while British Eurosport showed just the final fifteen minutes, apparently feeling that it was far more appropriate to fill the preceding eighty minutes with recorded coverage of a cycle race in France - which at a cursory glance appeared to feature no British contenders (even of the higher-grade south-of-Tweed variety). Is a Scotland v Sweden curling match really of more interest to Eurosport International viewers in Israel than to British Eurosport viewers in Scotland? The schedulers appear to genuinely believe so.

Anyway, leaving such frustrations aside, the good news is that Scotland defeated Sweden to set up a semi-final against Jennifer Jones' formidable Canadian rink. It seems that British Eurosport will in their benevolence be showing considerable recorded coverage at 7.30 this morning, so I won't give away the scoreline, but suffice to say it might just be worth a little look...