Who reads "The National?

[Arkadia]

Without sounding (too) dismissive or (too) patronizing, I wonder... what portion of the population comprises the readership of the National? I mean, their front page was the attached.

Had I not seen it with my own eyes I would have thought it was a spoof, but instead it is meant to be taken "seriously" (just can't help the inverted commas...). So... what kind of people would take that image at face value? (Besides, it is very reminiscing of Brown saving the world...)
What next? Sturgeon ascending into Heaven?

I'm still recovering from reading part of a blog by weegingerdug posted by Nyx a week or so ago.
I definitely don't have the stomach to check out The National - thanks for the heads up though !

I don't read it and hadn't seen it...

But I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be funny, not serious.

As in, yes I'm assuming they think them working together would be a good thing, but I really don't think it's anything other than a reaction to the fact that the coalition of chaos is a ridiculously silly phrase.

I never bought it, but it was on display at my supermarket (along the other papers).

Tabulah, I am sure they could have made the same point in a more dignified way.

The National is a joke. It does make me laugh that it was set up because of complaints of MSM bias, yet it's the most biased rag out there.

Funny story. i was in our local Co-op when the guy in front of me aggressively asked the girl behind the till "Why are there no Nationals on display?!" She said "er, they are right there on the stand, would you like me to get one for you?"

He didn't even want to buy one! Just thought they'd been hidden as part of a Yoonionist conspiracy!! Made my day.

Creamcolouredponies - aw, did weegingerdug upset you? Sorry about that...! Which part upset you?

As for the cover of the National in the OP, I really doubt it was meant to be taken seriously (or indeed, "seriously"). The OP needs to unpurse her lips and let go of her pearls I think. In what way would you take that picture seriously? You don't really think that's their real clothes, do you?

Oh, this sort of thing is past for the course with the National. They had a rather questionable cover around the time of Indyref1, iirc. Nicola Sturgeon superimposed in misty-eyed fashion over a Saltire.

Nyx, I messed the article you linked. What was it?

Re: this cover, I just fail to see the point. it looks satirical to me, rather than funny or endearing. This is why I asked myself what the point it. To laugh at them or with them? I would say the former.
That is leaving aside whatever my political affiliations might be. I am talking about purely from an aesthetic point of view and trying to understand what kind of message they are trying to send. OK, they are preaching to the choir (who else would buy it - and the same applies to most papers), but were I member of said choir would I have liked it the image? I don't think so... Perhaps they should invest more on better graphic designers (mind you, their covers are in general not THAT bad).

oops... missed, NOT messed :D

I'd say, that cover would be more suited of the Spectator, or indeed Private Eye, in which case I would find it much easier to decipher.
(or the daily mirror or the Sun or whatever)
If I were the tory party, I would use it in my literature or I would make it into a giant poster for everybody to see...

To be fair Arkadia, I'm not desperately keen on that particular cover myself but I would never have thought anyone would think it was to be 'taken seriously'.

I have copied and pasted parts of a couple of weegingerdug articles recently so I'm not sure which one colouredponies was meaning. He is pretty scathing towards Conservatives/unionists in general and uses colourful language. Gets his point home though in my opinion. I am not sure if actual offence was taken, hence my question to the poster who mentioned it.

Nyx, I understand that it should be "funny a-ha", but that works only if someone else says it to me and I, the target, laugh with you. If I say it to myself (as it is in this case), I find it incredibly arrogant and misjudged. In the supermarket I had to do a double take because I could not believe that The National had come up with something like that.

It should be ironic, but it isn't.

The Nats have burned their last bridge with me. Saw a blog on fb titled 'Jeremy Corbyn would make a great Prime Minister. So don't vote for Scottish Labour'.

It was saying that if you like JC don't vote labour because they're horrible up here and getting another indyref is more important. Proof that some Nats really don't want to banish the Tories at all, because if they did, the Nationalist support base would drain away.

Morris, there's also the point that Labour in Scotland have hamstrung themselves so much that a vote for Labour in Scotland is - in a lot of places - utterly wasted and could in fact lead to the Conservative candidate winning the seat. Thus helping the Tories to win. Labour support in Scotland has taken an incredible nose-dive. They have shot themselves in the foot over and over again. And Jeremy and Nicola agree on more things that Jeremy and Kezia! You couldn't make it up.

Tactical voting has always been with us but one lot of Tory haters telling the other lot of Tory haters to vote against Corbyn as he closes the gap more each day suggests a much darker agenda to me. Kezia isn't an MP. She isn't standing in this election. Corbyn is, and is getting closer to meaningful power.

But for some, parochial issues will always take precedence, even in a Westminster election.

I would call it realpolitik rather than 'parochial issues'

Not many people would be the correct answer. Print sales are declining rapidly in any case, but National circulation figures fell 30% between July and December last year.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-39076470

8,500 copies a day. How many of them are being bought by Joe Public and how many are being bought by media or to put in doctors' waiting rooms is anyone's guess.

Thanks. That was interesting.
I wonder what the demographics might be...