Stuart Darling

Scottish politics, music (mostly electronic), sport & general observations as I circuit the globe...

[Stuart Darling @StuartMDarling]

Absolutely. I know there are people involved in Scottish rugby who think we will never be good enough to beat the All Blacks... I'd suggest that mindset is a significant part of the reason that we haven't managed to get a win against them!

[Graham Love @glove931]

Incredible from Wales but hard to enjoy this after last week

Even allowing for All Blacks changes & emotional difference it just hammers home how timid & cowed Scotland were

[Stuart Darling @StuartMDarling]

@scotlandscoeff1 Nice one. Would be interesting to see how many times all of the top flight teams have achieved this over the last 15 years... do you have that to hand?

[Stuart Darling @StuartMDarling]

@scotlandscoeff1 Score 5 or more goals in a league game?

[Stuart Darling @StuartMDarling]

@realcolinquinn Well, we do have a bit of an idea...

https://t.co/SQ6XRSVbEh

[Spencer Hakimian @SpencerHakimian]

Sky News: “[Trump] says you’re full of shit”

Abdul El-Sayed: “At least I don’t let mine go in the middle of the Oval Office”

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

Stayt: Energy bills are going up in Jan by up to £469. You're giving £100. Its not going to make enough difference

Healey: "its fair.. & honest to say there's no way that govt can offset entirely the pressures people are facing"

You could do lots more. You're choosing not to

[Stephen Flynn @StephenFlynnSNP]

The Burnham Betrayal

[Stuart Darling @StuartMDarling]

And of course, the song is always worth a listen.

I just can’t understand why we’d let someone else rule our land, cap in hand…

https://t.co/TUi3Gdb3HE

[Stuart Darling @StuartMDarling]

Here is @andyburnham unknowingly referencing @The_Proclaimers - the PM could do with checking out all of the lyrics of Cap In Hand and he might get a sense of the true imbalance and failure of the UK system. The national restrictions are a bigger scandal than the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 regional ones

[Stuart Darling @StuartMDarling]

Hector Patterson surely pushing for the starting 9 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 jersey this autumn 🙌

[Edinburgh Rugby @EdinburghRugby]

66 | Hector Patterson. That's it. That's the tweet.

🏰 24 - 10 🦁 | #EDILIO

[Stuart Darling @StuartMDarling]

@ewangibbs Incidentally, the Alaska Permanent Fund was created by Alaskans, for Alaskans, to transform a finite natural resource into lasting, renewable value for generations to come:
https://t.co/H1UEuJZ3RQ

Lucky for them, and for Scotland it is a case of 'if only'!

[Stuart Darling @StuartMDarling]

@ewangibbs Alternatively your examples are every good reason for the comparison. Within the UK, Scotland the nation has a local government set-up that holds significantly less powers than a US state, & is financially hamstrung. Ergo, not good conditions for entities to make good decisions.

[Stuart Darling @StuartMDarling]

@WingsScotland Haha, I'm not sure how it sits in the scale of shocking (?) middle names, but full disclosure here, Maxwell is what my M stands for.

[Stuart Darling @StuartMDarling]

Oh oh, I am Stuart M Darling... I had never considered that could make some people uncomfortable before 🤔🤯

[Richard Gaisford @richardgaisford]

Illuminating exchange with a 19 year old voter in Detroit, worried about @AbdulElSayed’s name. @AJEnglish #Midterms2026 #Michigan

[Out Of Context Communism @OOCcommunism]

feels like there's kind of an elephant in the room with this map but I can't quite put my finger on it

[Stuart Darling @StuartMDarling]

@Hepworthclare @jruddy99 Also worth noting that the Alaska state oil fund now has almost $1trillion in it.

[The SNP @theSNP]

🇳🇴 Norway’s national wealth fund: £2 trillion.
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland’s national wealth fund under Westminster control: £0.

Norway has invested its energy wealth for the benefit of current and future generations, helping to support its public finances. Whilst Westminster has squandered this opportunity for Scotland.

[Stuart Darling @StuartMDarling]

@Hepworthclare @jruddy99 He hasn’t made a fair point. US states have far more political autonomy than Scotland has with the devolved UK settlement. Here’s a poster to help him not make the same mistake again:

[The SNP @theSNP]

🇳🇴 Norway’s national wealth fund: £2 trillion.
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland’s national wealth fund under Westminster control: £0.

Norway has invested its energy wealth for the benefit of current and future generations, helping to support its public finances. Whilst Westminster has squandered this opportunity for Scotland.

[Ed Conway @EdConwaySky]

🔥Having spent the past few months waiting for the Jackdaw decision, it just so happens to have happened on the one week I'm on holiday 🤦‍♂️
Still. Plenty of coverage from colleagues at @skynews. If you want more background there's LOADS in the archive.
For instance... 🧵

[Stuart Darling @StuartMDarling]

@bellacaledonia Ha, although he unknowingly points towards another element that highlights how bad the UK has been for Scotland. At the start of the 1700s Scotland's population was ~25% of England's population. Today it sits at <10%. Partly down to clearances but also the imbalance of investment

[Stuart Darling @StuartMDarling]

@taxicab4u @Record_Sport Not sure about that - the government doesn't have much success imposing in this space. It has to be club / fan driven. The Tartan Army manages to work on a largely self-policing approach - call out people directly if / when anyone acts out of line (saw several cases in Germany).

[Stuart Darling @StuartMDarling]

@mmgeissler My dad (81) is a lifelong Jambo & in @The_FOH, he wrote to the club after a game at Fir Park a couple of years ago to highlight how bad the issue is. Ann Budge was active at the time to set the expectations. Hopefully Calum Paterson will do the same @JamTarts. There's no need.