(c) GETTY
During Question Time the PM hinted at this reversal but used the opportunity to make a sad attempt to improve the currently disastrous image of her Scottish MPs and said the change would be because of their representations to the Treasury. I reported on this in October:
After endless exposures of bigotry, neo-facism, racism, misogyny and homophobia among the ranks of their activists, councillors, MSPs and MPs, are the Scottish Tories trying to do something useful. Here’s some of their ‘previous’:
Open Democracy Expose bad smell in funding of Scottish Tories
I told you. Tories cannot contain their inherent nastiness.
However, Scotland’s 13 Tory MPs have all written to the Chancellor to ask him to give the Scottish police and fire services VAT-exemption as is the case for their English equivalents. The anomaly is because the Scottish services are ‘national’ while the English services are ‘local’ thus exempt from VAT by HMRC under current legislation. Since 2013, Police Scotland has paid a total of £76.5 million in Vat and currently has a £25 million overspend despite an extra £55 million this year from the Scottish Government. It’s clear what is causing the overspend. As the Scottish Tories’ popularity seems to be falling again in the polls, I suspect the Chancellor might be more sympathetic to them than he has been to the same plea from the Scottish government over the last few years. So, admittedly useful but probably mainly self-interested like the DUP deal Theresa did to survive.
However, it’ll clearly take more than this news, no matter how much GMS and RepScot carpet bomb us with the story, to help them now. Peak Oil may not be as soon as we thought but Peak Scottish Tories has passed. See this for evidence:
SNP pulling ahead again and Tories falling back to third place in Westminster voting intentions
Talking-up Scotland 
Sorry but can’t help but what a face in that photo.Re the story we do know who will be taking the credit if this happens it will be the Commander Ruth Davidson and her merry band and as you say GMS Gary and The bird RS will be praising them.
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Yes, the face is a stotter or is it stoatter. Will you listen to GMS Gary for me?
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It is ‘STOATER’, just one ‘t’. ‘Stot’ is simply Kelvindale or Morningside ‘bool-in-the-mooth’ poshifying of Scots, cf Whole Stones and not ‘hailstanes’ or even ‘hailstones’.
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Stoat/stot: A further thought, this time about the embourgeoisement of football, where the ‘stoat up’ has been replaced by the ‘dropped ball’, where, ridiculously, one side is allowed a free hit to return the ball to the other side and is politely applauded by the fans. In my years on the ash and blaes pitches in amateur leagues in the West of Scotland a ‘stoat up’ was aggressively contested, where the intention was not just to win the ball but, principally, to hack your opponent’s shin or give him a boot in the cream crackers. We sometimes shook hands at the end of the game.
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Scott, you have hit the nail on the head. We will have wall-to-wall praise for the ‘feisty thirteen’ when the Chancellor throws them this bone. The PM indicated that it was their opinion that mattered, not that of the Scottish Parliament. You can see the headline: “10 years of SNP failure, 5 months of the Ruth Davidson Party success”.
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There’s been a slight slackening of the belt at BBC Shortbread over the last week on Saturday’s Shareen Nanjiani’s show, we had Darren McGarvey Sergio Casci and , Angela Hagerty of Commonspace, being allowed to have a right dig at the hypocrisy of the attacks on Salmond’s show on RT, on Sunday B4 9 Bill Whiteford was interviewing Sir Roderick Braithwaite Retd. Diplomat and author, speaking freely about Trident and all things to do with Nuclear warfare. . . .
Today Stewart Cosgrave was allowed to side with Salmond and RT
After FMQ’s the presenter summed up the shenanigans . . . And omitted to mention Ruthless the Tank Person, or her woeful questions.
IMHO something’s afoot at Pathetic Quay
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After FMQ’s the Radio> presenter
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Interesting to see what REpScot do. Will you watch it for me?
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Sorry John . . . . It’s Eck’s show on RT for me. . . Starts at 18.30. . . Haven’t watched (Rep. Scot) it for years . . . Don’t know how you managed it.
If I was in charge of the Honours dept of an Indy Scotland, you’d be getting The Golden Jimmy Bunnet, placed on your Heid by Sir Sean.
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That would be interesting. Is it because they think Indyref2 is deid? And it’s one thing to invite those polite folk from Common Space but quite another to invite Ponsonby, Campbell or me. I’d refuse of course until I get a public apology.
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I’m thinking / hoping it’s because they know they’ve lost their audience, as you’ve pointed out before . . . . Making an attempt to hold What’s left of their audience. . . .
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Here’s hoping that Theresa (my God – that photie!) has managed to paint Hammond into too tight a corner so he can’t wriggle out of things this time. The VAT money will be extremely useful (and spent in Scotland – generating a multiplier effect). if it remained in the Westminster exchequer it would be earmarked for ‘austerity’ saving and be doing nobody any good at all.
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