To be honest, Humza Yousaf’s new Cabinet satirises itself – everyone’s picking on the absurdity of noted idiot Shona Robison becoming Finance Secretary but the funniest is surely omnifailure Shirley-Anne Somerville as Trans Rights – sorry, “Social Justice” Secretary – so rather than waste our breath on it today we’re going to catch up on some results from our latest Panelbase poll that we haven’t managed to squeeze in amid the mayhem of the last couple of weeks.
They tell us some interesting things about the Scotland the new FM now leads.
The beam on Kate Forbes’ face was quite something.
She’d clearly been exhausted by the contest some time ago, and must have been dreading winning and having to continue fighting the assault from within her own party. Her evident delight and relief at her own failure was a revealing moment.
The great unknown in this election was just who the SNP membership was. No poll could tell us, and with over 50,000 people having quit the party in the last three years, nobody knew who was left. But we know now: idiots.
Today is the last day of Nicola Sturgeon’s record-breaking reign as First Minister of Scotland. In a few hours we’ll know who is to succeed her in the role. She was only the second SNP occupant of Bute House, and the legacy she bequeaths compared to the one she inherited from Alex Salmond is a matter of measureable record.
This is the second time Wings Over Scotland has asked Police Scotland a question through the proper official channels, only to read the response in the tabloid press before we’d heard it firsthand (which we still haven’t, incidentally, several days after the 28-day deadline expired).
But the sidebar piece in today’s Sunday Mail raises more questions than it answers.
We’ve been thinking about it since last night, and we’re not sure if Humza Yousaf now still has ANY of the policies he started the leadership election with.
But this one‘s got us extra-specially perplexed, since at the start it was pretty much the main unique selling point he was hanging his whole campaign on.
According to SNP President and acting CEO Mike Russell, SNP members are too thick to understand the concept of changing their vote, and integrity is “disruptive”.
We’re not very clear on why a revote would be susceptible to “hacking” in any way that the original vote isn’t, but we’re sure there’s a great explanation.
There can surely be no credible disputing that the SNP leadership election – and therefore that of Scotland’s next First Minister – is, to put it very mildly, under a cloud.
As things stand, whoever wins will be forever tainted by the process – easy meat for the Unionist opposition in the Holyrood chamber and the media and a potential legal challenge could cause untold further damage to the party.
With six days still left for voting, the case for a reballot – an administratively fairly trivial task in an election being conducted almost entirely online – is now unanswerable, and needn’t even involve a delay.
The SNP having a fondness for lying about their membership wouldn’t have come as quite such a shock to the Scottish press if they paid a little more attention to this website. Because we were pointing it out two and a half years ago.
It was in October 2020 that we told you how the SNP’s 2019 accounts revealed the party’s true membership figures weren’t the claimed 126,000 but more like 87,000.
Northcode on The Wheels Of Industry: “There’s a lot of interesting history in your comment, but I think you might be mixing together several different concepts…” Jul 24, 12:51
Dan on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Let’s see if this makes it through moderation filter. It states it is just over an hour’s read. https://www.decolonise.scot/scotland-stolen-scotland-restored-non-alignment-and-decolonisation-the-foreign-policy-of-a-nation-liberated-from-the-english-colonial-state-beyond-jim-sillars-discussion-paper-from-colo/” Jul 24, 12:32
MaryB on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Rather than watching the colonial games, it’s much better to spend your time reading Christoph Doigne Thompson’s paper: Scotland Stolen,…” Jul 24, 12:18
Cynicus on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Confused says:? 23 July, 2026 at 10:23 pm ?“EFTA came up, in the context of GDP/capita – .. …Some of…” Jul 24, 12:08
Oneliner on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “It was enough to make Faslane’s nuclear warheads sweat in their casings.” Jul 24, 12:05
Southernbystander on The Wheels Of Industry: “A place can never ‘recover’ from colonialism, and situations also vary a lot, as is how it is viewed; there…” Jul 24, 11:49
Northcode on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “It was a terrible show, Alf. Boak-inducing, fifth-rate, shoddy imperial cheerleading, right enough. I’m surprised there wasn’t a cenotaph for…” Jul 24, 11:42
Alf Baird on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Aye Northcode, instead of “a loud, symbolic objection from the independence movement” all we got was Swinney singing the colonizer’s…” Jul 24, 10:44
willie on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “And whilst we are reflecting on the new Lord it might be interesting to reflect on the family history. Anas…” Jul 24, 10:21
willie on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Sarwar follows a well trodden path of nominal Scots who get picked to be unelected lords and masters. Who in…” Jul 24, 09:43
Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Thanks for watching it on our behalf, Northy. I trust you’ll continue to put in the shifts and report back…” Jul 24, 09:27
Andrea on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “I understand what you are saying, but wouldn’t you jump at the opportunity to get away from holyrood? It must…” Jul 24, 09:25
Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “@Xaracen Have you checked the status of the England-Scotland border and for how long that has been no more than…” Jul 24, 09:22
Northcode on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Yesterday offered a striking sight: the remnants of the British Empire gathering to celebrate their shared colonial inheritance. And what…” Jul 24, 09:14
Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Odd that you continue to lump Eastern Europeans in with the Africans. I’ve never noticed much of the Sharia, stabby…” Jul 24, 09:14
Xaracen on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “factchecker said: “The Act specifies the creation of a unitary country, not a partnership of two.” Nonsense! Since neither kingdom…” Jul 24, 08:57
Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Aye, sam, we’re in the 21st century now. It’s ludicrously unrealistic to expect that hospitals should be able to count…” Jul 24, 08:39
Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: ““Post colonial theory is of no help here” Death to the heretic!!! It’s the only language he’ll understand. Talking of…” Jul 24, 08:32
sam on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Factchecker “Regarding piss poor management of resources etc, I agree – but it’s equally incompetent relative to England.” Regarding the…” Jul 24, 08:22
Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “@Aidan The CM blog is where the antisemites hang out. Although Robin McAlpine is not averse to donning the tea…” Jul 24, 08:22
Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Prepare for a shock, Alf. BOO!!! I’ll go organise the clean up for you.” Jul 24, 08:15
Hatey McHateface on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “I listened to Swinney’s sad interview on BBC R4 this morning. The interviewer was struggling to hide his frustration and…” Jul 24, 08:10
Aidan on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Now that he’s on pre-mod (I expect) he’ll go off and haunt some other forum.” Jul 23, 23:15
robertkknight on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “His King’s Colours didn’t go down too well either, with the Scots deciding upon their own design, which was contrary…” Jul 23, 23:12
Alf Baird on Ain’t it funny how things change?: ““I’m every bit as much a Sovereign Scot as you.” In a colonial society there are plenty of assimilated natives…” Jul 23, 22:41
Angus on Ain’t it funny how things change?: ““Ain’t it funny how things change?” Ain’t it also funny how things never change? Labour has been promising to abolish…” Jul 23, 22:35
Captain Caveman on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “Heh, oh really… Well, I’d “knock it on the head” and quit whilst you’re (self evidently) behind, Confused. 🙂” Jul 23, 22:23
Confused on Ain’t it funny how things change?: “EFTA came up, in the context of GDP/capita – the small, rich countries club – but you realise evil never…” Jul 23, 22:23
