Rape Crisis Scotland, who are almost entirely dependent on the Scottish Government for funding, have chosen this evening to wade into the debate over the wording of a new law which is intended to lessen the trauma of people (nearly all women) who’ve been raped. We can only speculate as to whether they were pressured to do so, but the intervention seems likely only to pour petrol on the fire.
In his evidence to a Holyrood inquiry today, having been asked about some troubling WhatsApp messages concerning the case from 2018 which appeared to suggest the possibility of a conspiracy against the former First Minister, Murrell told members of the committee “I’m not on WhatsApp, it’s not a social media platform I use”.
Alert readers will have noticed a very careful use of the present tense there.
We’ve now filed a formal complaint with the Scottish Information Commissioner about this, because what we’d forgotten last week was that our original request was actually sent in September and it’s now been almost 60 working days with no sign of a proper response, not the 20 it’s supposed to take.
Because for some reason the Scottish Government REALLY doesn’t want you to know what the First Minister and Geoff Aberdein talked about in March 2018, and we think that you probably should.
We don’t normally like to devote much time on Wings to things that have been more than adequately covered elsewhere in the media, which is why you haven’t read much here about eg the Internal Market Bill. Unlike some we don’t see much point spending our limited human resources telling people stuff they already know and agree with.
But we’re going to make an exception for this next thing, which was already covered pretty well by Susan Dalgety in last week’s Scotsman, because (a) a lot of our readers, quite reasonably, will have an instinctively adverse reaction to either anything printed in the Scotsman or anything written by Susan Dalgety, and (b) a number of people have asked us to amplify this issue because it’s so important and so awful.
As well as the SNP NEC elections, the weekend saw the election of the first committee of a new grassroots independence organisation which is unfortunately and hopefully temporarily going by the stupendously terrible working name of “Yes Alba”.
15 people were elected to its ruling body by the votes of hundreds of delegates, with the top-ranked picks including SNP MP Angus MacNeil and former SNP MP George Kerevan. The majority of the successful candidates (eight) were female, even though there were no quotas or women-only shortlists imposed, and a wide range of ages was represented from young activists to former UK ambassador Craig Murray.
(We have no idea about any of their sexualities or gender identities, and also no interest in knowing, because those things have not the slightest bearing on their ability to fight for independence and are frankly none of our damn business.)
But that wasn’t good enough for Team Woke.
On a day when Joanna Cherry had a grown-up, reasoned and constructive column in The National calling for unity in the pursuit of independence, the outpouring of snide, sour sneering from a faction still raging with bitterness about being routed on the SNP NEC is instead curdling Twitter even as we speak.
And embarrassingly, not a single one of them has actually bothered to check even the most basic facts.
Alert readers will recall the deranged open letter released by a group of transactivists last Friday, in a nakedly transparent attempt to influence the SNP’s NEC elections that weekend which backfired on them horribly (and amusingly) when the party’s members instead kicked out three-quarters of the committee’s woke faction and replaced them with feminists, socialists and above all advocates of actually achieving independence.
If you don’t have the time to read Alyn Smith’s astonishing response to the SNP NEC election results in today’s National, we’ve edited it down to 10 seconds for you.
We must admit, the terrible people that we are, we’ve been enjoying watching today’s extended meltdown by the SNP’s woke faction about last night’s NEC election results. Because it appears their egos are so huge that they’re not even smart enough to play dignified to spoil our schadenfreudish fun. It’s been full-on public tantrums.
twathater on The quality of mercy: “Scotland will never be independent as long as we allow non Scots to vote for our independence , 2014 was…” Apr 4, 04:23
Young Lochinvar on The quality of mercy: “Beggars So you’re cool with the North Koreans, China, R, most South American countries, U, Poland and various African states…” Apr 4, 03:45
Mark Beggan on The quality of mercy: “The problem with the Western world is that they still think evil does the Goose Step.” Apr 4, 02:35
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The quality of mercy: “Hopefully a better link: LIBERATION SCOTLAND UN UPDATE www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGn2SXcM7zw” Apr 4, 00:29
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The quality of mercy: “LIBERATION SCOTLAND UN UPDATE (2 April 2026) « Peter Young (IndyScotNews) discusses with Alan McMahon, Craig Murray and Sara Salyers…” Apr 4, 00:07
Geri on The quality of mercy: ““Independence is not even in SNP voters’ top three priorities” Neither is the top two cause they’re completely out of…” Apr 3, 22:04
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The quality of mercy: “The seminal (and still available) book by Will Storrar – SCOTTISH IDENTITY: A CHRISTIAN VISION was published by Handsel Press…” Apr 3, 22:02
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The quality of mercy: “The joke was of course first cracked by Tom Nairn. You should watch (minister) Professor Will Storrar’s 10 minute tribute…” Apr 3, 21:20
Geri on The quality of mercy: “The problem is these independence marches used to be a collective of all different political parties or none at all.…” Apr 3, 21:16
Northcode on The quality of mercy: “” …the shift from an independence movement to a liberation movement…” Yes, indeed, Alf. I have, for some time now,…” Apr 3, 21:03
Geri on The quality of mercy: “Offshore/North Sea: Reserved to the UK Parliament under the Scotland Act 1998. The licensing, exploration, and exploitation of offshore oil…” Apr 3, 21:02
Karen on The quality of mercy: “Google “What was Graeme McCormick promised?” And it comes up with “Swinney committed to moving forward with the independence campaign…” Apr 3, 20:40
sarah on The quality of mercy: “O/T: naming no names but have you noticed the absence of certain prolific btl commenters? It is a bank holiday…” Apr 3, 20:18
Geri on The quality of mercy: “Swinney says nothing of the sort. Scotlands oil is a reserved matter to our Overlords & they told us it…” Apr 3, 20:17
Alf Baird on The quality of mercy: ““Do NOT vote for them” Thankfully postcolonial theory predicts the dominant national party now co-opted by colonialism disintegrates. Hence the…” Apr 3, 19:44
Geri on Sicknote Slippers: “It wasn’t an independence march. It was a march against the rise of the hard right which is what that…” Apr 3, 19:37
agentx on The quality of mercy: ““SNP and Greens join independence march ahead of Holyrood election” 28 March 2026 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy817d0pjdxo” Apr 3, 19:19
TURABDIN on The quality of mercy: “someone opined that the Scots will be free when the last minister is strangled with the last copy of the…” Apr 3, 17:53
Mark Beggan on The quality of mercy: “Baby Swinney says; Drill Baby Drill.” Apr 3, 17:43
Wally Jumblatt on The quality of mercy: “Whether people realise it or not, the ghost of Sturgeon / Murrell has to be brutally exorcised before any progress…” Apr 3, 17:40
Breastplate on The quality of mercy: “Yes, the cringing Scots who will take no responsibility or accountability for making their own decisions are simply, British Nationalists.…” Apr 3, 17:01
Young Lochinvar on The quality of mercy: “Meanwhile in Baron Von Trumphausens “world”; the US has a fighter headed to the moon (made of cheese, great cheese,…” Apr 3, 16:58
Captain Caveman on Clocks And Calendars: ““Bash harder” That’s your line, Fatso. Ugh.” Apr 3, 16:55
DebatableLands on The quality of mercy: “Believing in independence as an idea and being prepared to do something about it, are different things. Lack of enthusiasm…” Apr 3, 16:37
Andrew F on Sicknote Slippers: “But where is the evidence that the protest is “openly antisemitic”? The link doesn’t support the claim.” Apr 3, 15:26
Northcode on The quality of mercy: “The recent “Believe in Scotland” pretence at showing support for Scottish independence was never going to fool most of the…” Apr 3, 15:14
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The quality of mercy: “« I remember him [José Bergamín (Pepe)] saying to me one day that he had realized the Spanish people had…” Apr 3, 15:10
