THE most humiliating job in politics yesterday was to be Scottish Labour’s “designated loser”. The gig involved pretending to be an SNP candidate and letting yourself be beaten by Kezia Dugdale at go-karting in Tranent. Not surprisingly the loser tried to hide his identity with a Stig-like helmet. Kez’s office manager, John Erskine, was suffering inside.
MOST parties take Disraeli’s quip about “lies, damned lies and statistics” as an instruction at elections, when no bar chart is to be trusted. But the Edinburgh East Tories have excelled themselves by claiming to be on 33% to the SNP’s 44%. The source is a national poll from April. The Tories’ own local stats put them third in the seat on 24%. Tut tut.
WITH the SNP’s record on education constantly under fire, you’d think its candidates would spellcheck their leaflets. Like Neil Gray in Airdrie & Shotts, for instance. According to his latest missive, he’s held 130 surgeries across the “constintuency” since 2015. No doubt some were in local skools and libararays.
THE SNP-LibDem battle in Edinburgh West is already one of the ugliest in years. Unspun hears the Libs are raging after one of their former councillors, Alistair Shields, went doorknocking for the Tories. Our not-at-all bitter LibDem mole describes the defector’s manner as “creepy”, adding: “He may not be quite the asset the Tories had hoped for”. Delightful.
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