It’s probably as good an illustration of the madness currently engulfing Scottish politics as anything that unlikely suspect Anas Sarwar may have just – temporarily at least – saved Humza Yousaf’s job.
And although our head hurts already, we’ll try to explain why.
We’ll make this short, because we’ve had a long day. Wings is told by a very reliable source that there’s ANOTHER emergency Cabinet meeting scheduled for tomorrow morning, which at least means we get to use this image now.
So here’s the “exclusive” you’ll be getting from Paul Hutcheon seven hours from now.
At FMQs today, Douglas Ross announced that he was putting down a motion of no confidence in the Scottish Government in the wake of the collapse of the Bute House agreement. That creates an enormously interesting situation, because the arithmetic of Parliament is extremely finely balanced, and particularly in the light of Patrick Harvie’s subsequent contribution.
In short, what it means is that the future of the government hangs on Ash Regan.
The pause button has been released. The day is finally here.
And it’s one that EVERY supporter of independence should rejoice in.
Scotland’s fringe wankertariat has been terribly piqued by the amusing fact that Humza Yousaf’s infamous “WHITE!” speech has been reported as a hate crime more than any other event in Scotland since the introduction of the Hate Crime Act 12 days ago, on the grounds of its supposedly being racist.
The Observer, for example, blamed the stat on “neo-Nazis”.
But even if that were true, it wouldn’t of course disprove the claim. A stopped clock is right twice a day, and something isn’t intrinsically false just because a neo-Nazi says it. Hitler had some pretty messed-up ideas but the world didn’t become flat just because he said it was round.
So as is our wont, let’s look at the facts.
Paraphrased from points made by a number of people this morning, including Sonia Sodha of the Observer and in a letter by Joanna Cherry of the SNP and Robin Harper, former leader of the Scottish Greens to the Chief Medical Officer of Scotland:
The question is this:
In the light of the Cass Review findings, why do English children deserve evidence-based healthcare but Scottish ones don’t? Why is it okay to conduct untested, unproven medical experiments on Scottish children?
We do hope that someone in Scotland’s notoriously toothless media will ask the First Minister soon, and that he has a very convincing answer ready.
The Cass Review into gender medicine, which has been almost six long years in the making, was finally published this morning, and despite the fears of some – including us – that it was going to be watered down, it’s turned out to be an absolutely explosive document even on a quick skim. (It’s 388 pages long.)
The most damning aspect, though, is almost certainly this one:
Those quotes annihilate any concept of an “innocent good intentions” defence for the gender clinics. Because if you genuinely believe that you’re doing good, you don’t try to bury all the evidence.
Upper pic: Scottish Greens Spring Conference 2023.
Lower pic: Scottish Greens Spring Conference 2024.
Who can spot the missing word?
So here’s a thing.
But that’s not how the Hate Crime Act is supposed to work.
This is from the Financial Memorandum prepared by the Scottish Government for the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021.
And here’s the reality after ONE DAY.
So that went well.
Thanks to the dedication of our legal team in working over the Easter holiday, Wings has unexpectedly received the formal Opinion of legal counsel (hereafter called “the Opinion”, capitalised to avoid confusion with the ordinary use of the word in the article) with regard to the standing of the site in the light of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, which comes into force tomorrow.
We publish the Opinion below, partly to assist those worried about the Act’s impact on them but unable to afford their own legal advice.
But we also do so to place Police Scotland on notice that anything published by Wings Over Scotland is done in the light of the greatest possible care having been taken to ensure compliance with the law, and that in such a context any future attempt/s to improperly interfere with our rights of free expression under Article 10 of the European Convention On Human Rights (ECHR) will be viewed with regard to pursuing the maximum available recourse for wrongful restriction of our lawful activities.
We have both funds and the will to pursue such action.
Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)
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