Robin Mchugh

Glenn Campbell's analysis of the Swinney/Starmer meeting on BritNat Breakfast this morning was predictably poor. He said Swinney maybe hasn't got as much as he thinks. Swinney has got *exactly* what he wanted. The constitution will be raised by the FM. It'll dominate coverage of the talks. One of the things that we've noticed with respect to Scottish political journalism is the very poor analysis from senior reporters. They never saw Scottish Labour's capitulation until the final days despite social media predicting it immediately after Starmer's 2024 landslide. We said last September Sarwar was cooked and Starmer would be gone within a year. Campbell's analysis has been dreadful in recent years. He foolishly claimed Rachel Reeves' first budget in Oct 2024 was going to define the 2026 Holyrood election and help Sarwar, despite nobody knowing how it was going to pan out and there being another budget scheduled for 2025. Paul Hutcheon was still punting the idea of a FM Sarwar in the middle of the Holyrood campaign despite the motormouth being well behind. Gina Davidson of LBC laughably concluded pre-vote that a 62 seat victory would be a poor result for Swinney. A pro-Union culture runs through the Scottish political media and renders it unable to see the truth. A desire to please their paymasters leads to group-think and bizarre conclusions/analysis that makes them look foolish.

EXC: FOI emails reveal the Electoral Commission’s former CEO raised concerns that far-right party Independent Green Voice’s branding may have been designed to confuse voters into mistaking it for the Scottish Greens. Senior staff pushed back👇 thenational.scot/news/26099504.…

@forthtofife @BjCruickshank @JohnSwinney SNP does indeed have a majority, Fabian, they have more Holyrood seats than all of the yoonyawnists' seats counted together! You've been listening to too much UK media.

@BjCruickshank @JohnSwinney No bill as always swinney told porkies no mandate as no majority

Oh here we go @JohnSwinney Starmer is already rowing back on your interpretation of your 'phone call: x.com/PeterAdamSmith… We are dealing with the Brit State here John, Scotland's very survival is at stake. This time we will not take NO for an answer from Starmer.

Here's Gary Robertson trying to delegitimise a clear cut election mandate by claiming turnout was too low and by aggregating party votes into a national total - something that does not happen in elections, only referendums. This is dishonest. This isn't interviewing. It's an attempt to mislead the public by disguising disinformation as a question. It happens all too often on BBC Scotland.

On May 3rd businesswoman Marie Macklin appeared on The Sunday Show to discuss criticism of Malcom Offord. She was presented as neutral. She attacked Ross Greer and the SNP. The day after the vote she revealed she was a good friend of Offord and supported him during the campaign. Once again BBC Scotland has questions to answer about the presentation of guests as neutral on political programmes when they are anything but. In this case it's worse given Macklin appeared during an actual election campaign and made several politically motivated comments that favoured Reform and negatively impacted the Greens and SNP.

@DagVms @BBCPolitics They certainly do when it's an SNP councillor/MSP/MP. No doubt Plaid Cymru will now be subject to similar BBC treatment.

Reform UK councillor quits days after election bbc.in/4uyhW6C

You can see the bbc faces hardening as he speaks

A reminder that using the First Past the Post (FPTP) system we use for Constituencies in Scot Parl (SP), @theSNP won 80% of those seats in yesterday's Scottish Election results. If applied to the whole Parliament, that would have meant winning 103/129 seats, which would have been an unparalleled majority in any current UK legislature. All the England-based parties (Labour, Tories, Reform, Lib-Dems - look up the Electoral Commission if you don't believe me) all support FPTP for Westminster (WM) - the Lib-Dems may deny this, but that's largely meaningless as they were part of that 2010-2015 UK Govt - but not for Scot Parl. Their Scottish 'leaders' all, therfore, have to take orders from their London leadership. They either accept the charge of utter hypocrisy or admit that they can't have it both ways. E.g the last attempt to change the voting system for WM was 2011 (but the UK Gov ran a very poor campaign & put forward a very weak proposition thereby guaranteeing a "No" outcome in the 2011 AV Referendum). Notably the last Referendum held in the UK was the Brexit vote on the back of the Tories' 2015 Election majority at WM won against the backdrop of 36% vote share; the SNP won 38% in the recent SP election. As we now have the largest majority supporting independence we've ever had in the SP (Scottish Greens + SNP = 73 seats), there is ZERO 'constitutional' argument for denying Indyref2. The SNP ended with 58 seats (on 38% -57 constituencies, 1 list seat) & the Scottish Greens 15 seats (their largest ever return - 2 cons, 13 list, 16% vote share). Let's hear the hypocrisy from the England-based parties and ask ourselves how long Scotland is going to put up with this, as @The_Proclaimers would say "Cap in Hand"?

@Roadwarrior29 @MrJohnNicolson There's always a picture!

@MrJohnNicolson Indeed...

Nothing says ‘look to the future’ like bringing back the Broon! Now where were we on the ‘federalism within a year’ promise? Gordon? Hello? Gordon?

@Malcolm_Offord Malcolm, yesterday evening, live on BBC Scotland, a representative of your "party" was asked if elected Reform MSPs would work with the new Scottish government. His emphatic reply was that they certainly would not. I can only assume that John S also saw/heard this.

Swinney promised he would be a First Minister for ALL of Scotland, but his first act pours scorn on the 383,425 Scots who voted for Reform. No matter. He may shut us out from his cosy club, but he cannot stop their voices being heard in Holyrood!

@ProgDirectorate Would have been higher if these two grifters didn't field their candidate in the Western Isles. SNP would have got to 59. Ironically, the party that wanted SNP second votes let a unionist in

@MrTalson @indy_swim @alisonthewliss A***h**e!

@indy_swim @alisonthewliss Celebrating cause she’s on the Holyrood gravy train!

.@alisonthewliss in 2024 vs 2026. So glad she's back in elected politics! 💛

@ChirstyFisher @nickeardleybbc There are independence supporters among those "unionist votes" Chirsty, but I'm sure you know that. And of course there is a way to find out just how many.

@nickeardleybbc Actually we don’t want to leave the UK, as you can see from the total unionist votes.

Biggest parties in Scotland (SNP), Wales (Plaid) and Northern Ireland (Sinn Fein) all want to leave the UK

@scotoshi @moneillsf @bellacaledonia You forgot Galicia and Asturias from that map.

@moneillsf @bellacaledonia 🔥

I have contacted SNP leader John Swinney and Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth to congratulate them on their enormous mandates. For the first time ever, there could be three pro-independence First Ministers across these islands. More and more people are looking towards a future beyond the constraints of the Union. I look forward to continuing to build the friendship between the people of our nations, and to working closely with both John and Rhun in the time ahead.

Malcolm Offord was a minister in a UK Tory government which did nothing when Petroineos announced Grangemouth refinery was closing in 2023. It's incredulous seeing politicians of the Thatcherite right condemning the deindustrialisation of Scotland they are hugely responsible for.

@brawday Is this the poll that has been published today by The Scotsman? If so, they could find themselves in trouble as media organisations are not allowed to publish or discuss the results of any poll on election day whilst polling stations are open.

I was hoping Greens would vote 1 SNP

@stevie2612 @Dr_PhilippaW The NHS in England is being privatised, but not through the "back door". It's blatantly obvious it's happening via the front door!

@Dr_PhilippaW Didn't you declare that our SNHS would "wither away" if the country voted against independence? And you also said that the NHS in England was being "privatised through the back door"?

Guess you just hope the #Change you get isn’t the removal of #FreeTuition!

Scotland is now named an English colony in the United Nations system. It's historic. Read 👇👇👇

Glasgow CC is paying over £32 million per year in rent for buildings sold to fund the equal pay settlement for thousands of mainly female workers due to the Labour Gvt. The total settlement is £770m Same Labour Gvt sold Strathclyde’s buses. Don’t let these chancers in.