Pundits! But Scottish

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

I was taking a quick look through Twitter.com earlier and came across the latest column by one of Scotland's great failsons, Alex Massie, "something something be nice to a prominent children's author who can't help but be a total dick about her awful opinions because her brain is broken by online", and it made me want to start this thread. We are all rightly quick to jump on the biggest brained moments from the UK's punditry class, but Scotland really does do poorly in this regard as well.

For me, I think the most tinpot and therefore funniest part of this is in fact their relationship with Ms Rowling. It's fascinating to me that during the 2014 referendum the majority of Scotland's pundit class spent a great deal of time openly chasing her (and each other's) favour with the dullest analysis they could find. That half of them then formed a band with her homeopath husband and still use their space in Newspapers to blow smoke up her arse is very very funny. The fact that our own parochial culture war is fought largely through the prism of one of the most economically powerful and privileged people in the country by their simps is very cool imo. 

I have included some of my favourites (a VERY handsome bunch) below. Who are your favourite Scottish pundits, and what are your favourite moments in Scottish punditry? 

PLEASE NOTE:  Do NOT post in this thread if you do not have an avatar or are a smelly weirdo. Thank you x 

 

Edited December 1, 2021 by Genuine Hibs Fan

[Suspect Device]

Much like Scottish football pundits, I don't like any of them.

I don't know 2 of the ones you've posted.

Is that last one in The Corries?

3rd one down in River City?

 

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

What do you mean by 'pundits' ?

Do you mean journalists, or columnists ? 

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

I don’t tend to bother reading his shite, but I do enjoy looking at the BBC roundup of the front pages and seeing his wee face next to a totally moronic statement. 

[Thorongil]

I used to read these people and get annoyed by how moronic they were, and would argue with them online. 

I eventually realised they were irredeemable morons and that it was a waste of time so completely disengaged from them. 

One of the saddest is Kenny Farquarson and one of the most vicious is Euan McColm/Brian Spanner.

Edited December 1, 2021 by Thorongil

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

9 minutes ago, Thorongil said:

I used to read these people and get annoyed by how moronic they were, and would argue with them online. 

I eventually realised they were irredeemable morons and that it was a waste of time so completely disengaged from them. 

One of the saddest is Kenny Farquarson and one of the most vicious is Euan McColm/Brian Spanner.

Every time I read some idiot columnist in a newspaper, I remember that his primary....only....job is to help sell newspapers and/or achieve enough clicks to please advertisers. 

That said, the only one who really still gets under my skin is Tom Harris in The Telegraph. An ex-Labour MP and cabinet minister who has gone full red Tory and has become a (tedious beyond belief) full scale right-wing mouthpiece. 

His hatred of the SNP has been festering since he was humiliated by losing his seat, and since then he's become Boris Johnson's lapdog. Some guy. 

Special mention for Fraser Nelson as well. The dick's dick. 

 

[velo army]

I don't get the hatred of MacWhirter. I always liked him and his analysis seemed fair, insightful and well informed.

I haven't read the Herald regularly since I came up here though (seems like there are only about 5 copies provided daily to the whole city) so for all I know his heid may have gone. 

 

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

Massie has 3 rotating column that he has put out for the last 5 years.

Nicola is going to hang it up
SNP delaying independence
SNP focused on IndyRef instead of country

Someone must have finally caught on and now he has added TERF as a fourth column

[Thorongil]

28 minutes ago, velo army said:

I don't get the hatred of MacWhirter. I always liked him and his analysis seemed fair, insightful and well informed.

I haven't read the Herald regularly since I came up here though (seems like there are only about 5 copies provided daily to the whole city) so for all I know his heid may have gone. 

 

McWhirter has indeed always been a measured voice in the Scottish media landscape. He was largely respected. 

unfortunately for him he committed the crime of forming views which were (gasp) critical of Nicola Sturgeon. He also espoused some gender critical views. These things of course meant immediate cancellation and vilification. No debate. 

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

1 hour ago, Thorongil said:

McWhirter has indeed always been a measured voice in the Scottish media landscape. He was largely respected. 

unfortunately for him he committed the crime of forming views which were (gasp) critical of Nicola Sturgeon. He also espoused some gender critical views. These things of course meant immediate cancellation and vilification. No debate. 

I don't think that McWhirter has ever pretended to be an advocate for the SNP. 

He's definitely an independence supporter, but he's been critical of the SNP on may issues as long as I've been reading The Herald. 

 

[Ivo den Bieman]

Folk still read The Herald? wow.

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

Sorry just as a reminder

PLEASE NOTE: Do NOT post in this thread if you do not have an avatar or are a smelly weirdo

So can @Bob Mahelp (smelly weirdo) and @Thorongil (no avatar, smelly weirdo) go away please and thanks xx

 

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

Also very funny to see the man whose particular mode of thinking can only be the result of his house having a gas leak, Iain McWhirter, being defended here 

[Ivo den Bieman]

Massie is a classic Tory wet whose party has simply left his "moderate" views behind. As such he's a handwringing bore, wondering what became of "his" party of Major & Harold MacMillan, at the same time as Scots Tories are becoming as rare as oak trees on Orkney . There's no place in the contemporary UKIP Tory party of government down south for the Massies of this world.

I can remember in the 1990s when Andrew Neil was running the Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday into the ground on behalf of the weirdo Barclay brothers, he appointed Gerald Warner as a pundit. At first I thought the guy was a spoof but he's actually real- a frighteningly deranged right-wing frother who was comical back then but pretty much mainstream now. I remember the newspaper received quite a few readers' letters asking if Warner's column was intended as a joke.

Today things like Bella Caledonia, wee ginger dug, other people like Andrew Tickell who have migrated from the blogosphere into print, have as much a following as these old school opinion-formers / pundits. I can't remember when I last read a newspaper columnist seriously. Really think they've had their time. Sure there's a few dinosaurs around like Littlejohn and co, but they're on their way out.

[Thorongil]

8 minutes ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

Also very funny to see the man whose particular mode of thinking can only be the result of his house having a gas leak, Iain McWhirter, being defended here 

That’s an extreme view.

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

3 minutes ago, Thorongil said:

That’s an extreme view.

It's really not but thanks for playing

[Thorongil]

3 minutes ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

It's really not but thanks for playing

It is. You seem a wee bit immature.

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

Just now, Thorongil said:

It is. You seem a wee bit immature.

You're a grown adult who's mad into Tolkein so I'd maybe pipe down on the maturity chat buddy.

Show me anything from MacWhirter which isn't old man shouts at cloud about cancel culture nonsense or bog standard generational conflict from the last year. 

[Frank Quitely]

40 minutes ago, Ivo den Bieman said:

Massie is a classic Tory wet whose party has simply left his "moderate" views behind. As such he's a handwringing bore, wondering what became of "his" party of Major & Harold MacMillan, at the same time as Scots Tories are becoming as rare as oak trees on Orkney . There's no place in the contemporary UKIP Tory party of government down south for the Massies of this world.

I can remember in the 1990s when Andrew Neil was running the Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday into the ground on behalf of the weirdo Barclay brothers, he appointed Gerald Warner as a pundit. At first I thought the guy was a spoof but he's actually real- a frighteningly deranged right-wing frother who was comical back then but pretty much mainstream now. I remember the newspaper received quite a few readers' letters asking if Warner's column was intended as a joke.

Today things like Bella Caledonia, wee ginger dug, other people like Andrew Tickell who have migrated from the blogosphere into print, have as much a following as these old school opinion-formers / pundits. I can't remember when I last read a newspaper columnist seriously. Really think they've had their time. Sure there's a few dinosaurs around like Littlejohn and co, but they're on their way out.

Gerald Warner, now there WAS a bampot.  Not only were his columns splenetically right-wing, they were often vehicles for his extremely authoritarian Roman Catholic morality, delivered in the haughtily archaic style of Jacob Rees Mogg and Charles Moore.

[Thorongil]

1 hour ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

You're a grown adult who's mad into Tolkein so I'd maybe pipe down on the maturity chat buddy.

Show me anything from MacWhirter which isn't old man shouts at cloud about cancel culture nonsense or bog standard generational conflict from the last year. 

Ah, funny wee goalposts those. The last year only huh?