It’s nearly over, readers. Just one more week of this to endure.
The most miserable election campaign of all time will end next Thursday with an election which will deliver Scotland’s most miserable devolved government of all time. Only the exact form, colour and shape of the misery remains to be determined.
So as the SNP promise through forked tongues to cut the cost of living with a pledge they know full well they have no chance of being able to actually implement, while using the powers they DO have to INCREASE the cost of everything that makes life WORTH living, let’s look at exactly what flavour of dog vomit we can expect to be choking down along with our state-approved organic broccoli and fat-free gruel for the next half-decade.
Attending the Civic Justice Centre in Manchester as part of an ongoing attempt to persecute the feminist journalist and author Helen Joyce, Watson was intercepted by Greater Manchester Police and arrested in connection with allegations of harassment of several people, one of whom was myself.
Watson had been evading justice for a long time. He provides false addresses to the police and courts (which is a crime in itself), and despite numerous criminal complaints against him he manages to dodge arrest because police forces endlessly ping-pong the complaints between each other (“He lives in YOUR area!” “No, yours!”) and allow him to repeatedly arrange voluntary interviews which he never turns up to, stalling and hiding until the six-month limit on harassment cases times out.
You can download them all here in a oner, if you’re REALLY bored. But we don’t advise it, because we can just tell you what they say in a couple of minutes.
It was exactly one year ago today that the Supreme Court delivered its judgment in the case of For Women Scotland Vs The Scottish Ministers, a judgment which has still not been implemented by the Scottish or UK governments, so it was quite bold of the SNP to choose it as the launch date for their manifesto.
The judgment (which the SNP are in fact still fighting in court) is not referenced in the document and the phrases “women’s rights” and “single-sex” do not appear anywhere in it, although it does say “We are committed to upholding and protecting the human rights of trans people as far as possible within our powers and we will do all we can to ensure that trans people’s identities are recognised and respected”.
So, y’know, more of the same to come for the next five years.
As all alert readers will know, this site likes to keep a watchful eye on the shady and disturbing activities of paedophilia-plagued charity LGBT Youth Scotland. So we were naturally intrigued to hear that they’d hired a new convenor last month.
And if you’re sitting there thinking, “Blimey, AI Christopher Walken looks very very ill”, well, stay tuned, because this story gets more and more interesting.
Alert readers will have noticed something of a minor furore in recent days around a boneheaded Scottish Greens candidate (as if there were any other kind) calling for the complete abolition of prisons.
So far Kate Nevens – who on the latest polling has a very reasonable chance of being elected on the list – has resisted calls to step down, which is probably for the best as, incredibly, her replacement would be even worse.
With the implosion of Your Party concentrating the nutter vote firmly in Green hands, the next term of the Scottish Parliament is set to feature the worst array of MSPs in Holyrood’s history, with almost everyone in the SNP with any sort of ability or experience resigning to be replaced by hyper-obedient young party drones, while the opposition are mostly putting forward the same old faces who’ve been such utter failures for the last 20 years.
It’s a grim prospect, but we do have a solution to propose.
Because the truth is that we should all be quietly sending BBC Scotland bouquets in appreciation for doing the independence movement a favour for once.
We think the lads at The Scotsman might have gotten a bit confused and/or carried away when it came to putting the clocks forward at the weekend. At 6am on Sunday morning they tweeted this:
But the link was a 404. We checked the print edition of Scotland On Sunday but there was nothing there either. Finally, though, the article has shown up in today’s paper and on the website, and to be honest with you, readers, we still think it must be some sort of mistake, because it’s two days early for April 1st.
The turnout at the “independence march and rally” yesterday was so abysmally poor that it seems almost unfair to pick on any of the scores of SNP elected representatives who didn’t bother to show up.
But dear old Cosy Feet Pete Wishart had the most chef’s-kiss excuse of all.
The reason he didn’t fancy getting his wee Billy Whizz quiff blown about a chilly Calton Hill was that he had important business “taking on the far right” – who were of course nowhere to be seen – with “half a million” (50,000) of his British besties, a convenient short Tube ride away from his London residence, at a pretty openly anti-Semitic protest called, with a double layer of delicious comedic value… UK Together.
If events in Edinburgh today are anything to go by – when a march and rally announced with great fanfare seven months ago, backed by both the “independence” parties in the Scottish Parliament and featuring the First Minister as main speaker, attracted perhaps 1,500 people at the most to Calton Hill on a bright and sunny day – the independence movement faces an imminent final apocalypse.
So here’s how to prepare yourself for when the SNP win a landslide with 35%, Keir Starmer says “So what?” and then a deathly silence descends for another five years.
Even Kelly Given and Iona Fyfe didn’t show up for this one. That’s how bad it is.
Rob on Push The Button: “As a general rule absolutely not. However there should be far more resource put into repressing illegal gun use which…” Apr 30, 14:31
Shug on Seven Days Too Long: “Will swinney survive if he does not fet the overall majority” Apr 30, 14:29
Rob on Seven Days Too Long: “The muppets that keep voting SNP are still the majority, no idea why after the last few years.” Apr 30, 14:28
Aidan on Push The Button: “@Northcode – I said “your spam is generally well written but communicates nothing of any value” And you said all…” Apr 30, 13:30
TURABDIN on Push The Button: “YET MORE OF THAT «ENGLAND» MONIKER https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/king-queen-england-visit-9-200052300.html? https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000010867018/king-charles-uk-royal-visit-trump.html If you care about your country such mislabeling is deeply insulting, even…” Apr 30, 13:25
James Barr Gardner on Push The Button: “We do not live in a Democracy, We live in a Kakistocracy !” Apr 30, 12:32
Lorncal on Push The Button: “I think it might be a Nietzschean experiment along the lines of ‘Superman’: übermensch v untermensch. Pity for others or…” Apr 30, 11:56
Sven on Push The Button: “Can’t help feeling that in the “Ukranian Three” court case the prosecution have inadvertently drawn more interest than may have…” Apr 30, 10:06
Northcode on Push The Button: ““Every accusation is an admission and all that.” For unionists and their anti-Scots chumleys wha wander roond this place stinkin…” Apr 30, 09:35
Willie on Push The Button: “Well Young Lochinvar there does seem to be a tad of a media blackout of coverage of the trial.of the…” Apr 30, 09:08
Young Lochinvar on Push The Button: “So wet wipe with a haircut Starmer currently hiding in a COBRA meeting is hoping C3 digs him out of…” Apr 30, 02:36
Young Lochinvar on Push The Button: “Beggars Was that in his Democrat, or Republican mode, or in some other future “flexible” mode? Answers on the back…” Apr 30, 02:10
Mark Beggan on Push The Button: “Senator John Kennedy says: Stramers polling in the United Kingdom “is up there with ghunarea”.” Apr 30, 00:05
agentx on Push The Button: “Fabulous “Wizard of Wishaw” tonight. 🙂” Apr 29, 23:07
James on Push The Button: “They’d all be gan roond wi bandages on their feet…..” Apr 29, 22:51
Young Lochinvar on Push The Button: “Beggars Aye very good bumpkin.. Can just imagine Quality Polis Toshan tooled up in the Donut shop queue; “Excuse me…” Apr 29, 22:26
Young Lochinvar on Push The Button: “Beggars “The Americans get overexcited”.. Have you seen “British” media recently? Now there is overexcited; “ooooh, special relationship, the Americans…” Apr 29, 22:13
Mark Beggan on Push The Button: “I think all Scottish Police Officers should be armed. Thankyou for your attention.” Apr 29, 21:53
Geri on Push The Button: “Nah, he’ll be over there grovelling to Trumpet to hurry up & call a truce. The UK is losing a…” Apr 29, 21:42
Mark Beggan on Push The Button: “The Americans get overexcited. The idea is to let the King speak then clap. A knockout speech. A Big Bromance…” Apr 29, 21:11
Iain More on Push The Button: “I guess Lord Six Houses Six Boats 5 Cars Haw Haw Offal will be an English/Brit Nat NAZI gift that…” Apr 29, 21:06
TURABDIN on Push The Button: “the point i was trying to make concerned the title obsolete «king of England, there hasn’t officially been one since…” Apr 29, 19:33
Young Lochinvar on Push The Button: “But.. Whit happens if you press both buttons?” Apr 29, 18:59
Young Lochinvar on Push The Button: “Yikes! Just saw a close up facial of Melanoma Trump.. Scary stuff; Remove the wig, make up and fake tan…” Apr 29, 18:57
Geri on Push The Button: ““but, if you compare 100 years ago with today, we were all better off, are we not?” No. Only the…” Apr 29, 16:27
Geri on Push The Button: ““I think it’s possible I might, given you being called out explicitly by the site owner for this behavior (more…” Apr 29, 16:05
Lorncal on Push The Button: “Northcode: capitalism – not the unregulated or global kind – has actually been the catalyst which has pulled the people…” Apr 29, 15:57
Andrew F on Push The Button: “Same scenario… There are 2 buttons: If you push button 1, you will survive. If you push button 2, there…” Apr 29, 15:12