Gordon Raw

@Scott_Wortley Alyn Smith on Debate Night said that the SNP would address the forecast deficit through a combination of increased taxation and economic growth. The Laffer curve and flatlining GDP since 2008 would like a word.

Fantasy politics. A shadow debate which is going to run straight into financial reality at some point. Everybody has a scottish politics plan until they are punched in the face.

Watching the Scottish leaders debate. Grim. One question on the financial black hole. Voodoo economics or cutting red tape to address it. And then promises on various public services and continuing promises (across parties) on "free" policies.

@joannaccherry @ForWomenScot @bbcdebatenight I thought Gillian Mackay was joint leader of the Scottish Greens? It seems their leaders are created equal, but some are more equal than others.

It’s not @bbcdebatenight fault but this manel does not reflect well on Scottish politics although it is perhaps an reflection of how low a priority #WomensRights are for Scottish career politicians

@doublebelle @AllisonPearson @British_Airways The App is worse, though. That dreaded message ‘There seems to be something wrong’.

@AllisonPearson @British_Airways The British Airways website is - without equal - the worst website of any multinational corporation on this earth. And they seem to have no shame about this fact whatsoever.

Wasted a few hours I won’t get back doing battle with @British_Airways customer service. Reset your password won’t reset. Told I can expect an email from the team in “3 to 5 business days”. Are they using carrier pigeon?

@moleatthedoor @DalgetySusan @maggiemellon You forgot to mention the Mars Attacks! filter.

@DalgetySusan @maggiemellon His image has been put through two filters…. The Max Headroom one and the 25-year-old Christopher Walken filter... 🤭🤭

Tim has a new profile pic.

@DeeWaynee94 @eva_kurilova Understanding was not helped by NASA repeatedly describing Artemis II as leaving Earth orbit when it was actually transitioning from a low Earth orbit to a translunar trajectory within the Earth-Moon system, remaining at all times within the Earth’s sphere of influence.

Because Artemis, Earth, and everything on it are already moving together around the Sun. 3,000 mph is its speed relative to Earth, not relative to some imaginary stationary backdrop… you lot keep discovering relative motion like it’s a conspiracy.

@DeeWaynee94 @eva_kurilova This reminds me of Freddie Flintoff (the cricketer) saying that the Earth could not be orbiting the sun because if it was a helicopter taking off from the ‘wrong’ side of the Earth would immediately be impacted by the Earth at 67,000 mph.

@QcWynter Saint-Aubin also represents excellent value compared to Chassagne Montrachet.

This "Saut de Loup", a recommendation from one of my favourite merchants, is really good. Too far east to be a Chassagne Montrachet, shut your eyes and you will be fooled. A snip at £20/btl. Chassagne Montrachets start at £50 & only rise from there. From privatecellar.co.uk

@QcWynter @CoghillIvan At a blind tasting I confidently identified Buckfast as Warre’s Otima Tawny Port.

@CoghillIvan I have never tried Buckfast but one day I shall.

@Scott_Wortley I rushed to comment on the Times website, wondering if he had made the giant pencil to wind the tape in the giant cassette if it got jammed, but I was way, way too late.

The bbc breakfast feature on the man making big versions of household objects deserved the tv burp treatment.. I miss tv burp.

@LauraEWebsterr Brilliant! This has to be one of your best covers ever, maybe only bettered by your coverage of the brutal suppression of protests in Iran by the Islamic regime, where tens of thousands of protestors were killed and executed. No….wait…..what?

The full timeline can be found online here thenational.scot/news/26008235.…

Today's front page. We have worked for weeks on a full timeline charging the US and Israel's alleged breaches of international law in Israel and Lebanon.

@DreyfusJames That’s a neat resolution of the ‘Q’ argument. They couldn’t agree whether it meant ‘Queer’ or ‘Questioning’, so they just put two Qs in there.

‘MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+’ (Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls, Two Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual… & the ubiquitous, vague ‘+’, natch…) Trying to find the through-line but, honestly, I’m stumped…

@QcWynter Well if there are any murdered indigenous women or girls in our midst, I, for one, would be surprised.

When "2S" was added to the alphabet people of all the allegedly "marginalised", I questioned whether we should revise our own prosaic "LGBTQIA+" to include the 2S people & was told that we should because there may be 1 or 2 in our midst. What though of the MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+s?

@wyllie_cameron @alexmassie Normally a post like this would be dismissed as hyperbole, but in this case it’s substantially true!

Advertisers refuse to work with them because nobody buys the paper.

@TheSimonEvans @RealTimVine I have one and a half tubs at the moment, and that’ll last me a couple of months if I use it sparingly (which I do - that’s how everyone uses it). Anyway, thanks for the heads up. I’ll be stocking up. It has a long shelf life.

Luckily, I already own a lifetime’s supply*. *one tub. (H/t @RealTimVine )

@markaizatt @DominicMcGregor That was justification No. 2, when the speed benefit didn’t stand up, but this one fell apart after Covid when WFH meant that passenger volumes went down.

@DominicMcGregor HS2 is about capacity. We’ve seen a renaissance of rail travel in the UK - more passengers and more freight and we need extra capacity to absorb this. But I agree better passenger experience - take a leaf out of Swiss railways. Better dining, bar cars etc.

We don’t need faster trains to London. I deeply believe that. The difference from 2 hours to 1 hour 30 is nominal. What we need is a better experience. There’s a psychological concept called temporal perception. Time feels longer when you’re frustrated and shorter when you’re absorbed. That buffering wheel. The email that won’t send. The Teams call dropping mid-sentence. That’s not a 2 hour journey. That feels like 4. Give every passenger reliable WiFi and a plug socket and the journey shrinks not on the timetable, but in the mind. Now @elonmusk & @Starlink can now do this. So why are we waiting. HS2 cost billions to save 30 minutes. Better WiFi would give that time back every single day.

@joshxhowie @starchanton Or, indeed, to go from satirising the establishment to being part of it.

There’s actually something quite funny here, if read as a satire on how trans activists view JK Rowling. But the Onion has instead written it for trans activists, and as such it’s utterly deranged, nasty, and terribly unfunny. The Onion is a cautionary tale of the saddest fate in comedy; to be laughed at, when you used to be laughed with.

@TheEagleEdwards @DreyfusJames Subterranean Homesick Blues?

@DreyfusJames Missing My Important WiFi, Girls! 2 Sad Lesbians Got Baked, Took Quesadillas, Queefed Quietly, Inhaled Avocados... plus extra toppings because we're inclusive AF.

@QcWynter This is the way.

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS IRONY. International Man of Action, Self-Appointed Leader of the Free World & King of the Afters, Keir Starmer, finds himself in Saudi Arabia just as the Straits of Hormuz close and missiles again whizz to and fro. We remain fully "not involved".

@WingsScotland Chapman is giving off serious Glenn Close vibes these days. Either that or Rasputin.

You’ll yearn for the halcyon days of Maggie Chapman, except MAGGIE CHAPMAN WILL BE THERE TOO.

You might think the Scottish Parliament 2021-26 was full of fuckwits, but just you WAIT until you see the remedial kindergarten that the Scottish Parliament 2026-31 is going to be.

@thesundaysport @QcWynter There really should be some kind of irony indicator on this app. If it had been developed in the UK, there would be, but as we all know, the Americans don’t do irony. They are no great users of litotes either.

@QcWynter I liked a tweet earlier thinking the poster was taking the piss out of KS. They were being serious

A strange thing has happened. I posted a gently mocking tweet in which I referred to Keir as "International Man of Action". A large account comic saw it, failed to discern irony & reposted it with abuse to his 100k+, most of whom have also taken my post seriously. What a day.