The Scottish Tory MSP reacted furiously to a story in The National which said Scotland had been absorbed into England by the 1707 Act Of Union, rather than becoming a “partner” in anything, and had ceased to exist as a state in international law.
Which was a weird response, because that’s been the official stated position of both the UK government and the Conservative Party for at least the last 12 years.
Despite everything, we almost allowed ourselves just the very tiniest little micro-flicker of optimism when we read Tommy Sheppard’s latest in The National.
Because that much is certainly true, and it’s uncommonly candid to have anyone in the SNP admit it. So what’s the answer?
(Kelly’s article is here. Link to Grok’s answer here. The ChatGPT analysis that triggered the article can be read in this tweet thread. A verifiable analysis by Grok of the debate, based on a neutral question, can be read here.)
In so far as it’s worth talking about Scottish constitutional politics at all these days, it’s worth taking a moment to analyse the bloodless, anodyne nothingness spouted by the First Minister on The Sunday Show at the weekend.
That clip is less than three minutes long, but it’s so soul-crushingly boring and full of content-free drone and waffle that it’s almost impossible to sit all the way through it, so we’re going to translate and summarise it for you.
Warning: despite the quite zingy title this is actually going to be a very dry stats post, readers. It is, on the other hand, based on a man having something disturbingly close to a complete psychotic mental breakdown, so there’s always that for a bit of colour.
Because the paragraph above, and in particular the highlighted part, is without a doubt the most dishonest, diametrically false and wildly extreme lie about Scottish politics that we’ve ever seen anyone tell in the 13.5 years of Wings Over Scotland’s existence.
And as a rule we don’t bother addressing them because they’re so demented you could spend 5,000 words pulling apart all the individual strands of lunacy every time, and lunatics thrive on attention, but this one does merit a very brief comment.
Because “Vote Labour, get indy” wasn’t our plan. It was John Swinney’s.
Even by the embarrassing standards of The National, the gulf between this morning’s blaring front-page splash and the weak, watery weasel words in the actual article is a chasm so wide and so yawning (in every sense of that word) that it would put the epic planetary scar of Mars’ Valles Marineris to shame.
Coupled with a feebly underwhelming Programme For Government (in which the main policy was the re-abolition of peak rail fares just months after the SNP insisted such a move was unaffordable, with no clue as to where the money had suddenly been found) and a pitiful list of candidates for next year’s Holyrood election featuring the likes of Sally “all aboard the gravy bus!” Donald, Kaukab “DECAPITATE TERFS” Stewart, Kirsten “DECAPITATE TERFS” Oswald, Alison “DECAPITATE TERFS” Thewliss and Alyn “throw anyone who doesn’t want to DECAPITATE TERFS out of the SNP” Smith, the story was an abject vision of a bleak future for independence.
The less said about the Scottish Government’s toe-curlingly embarrassing “summit” last week, the sooner we can all pretend it never happened. We’ve got little to add to the withering assessments of Robin McAlpine and Kevin McKenna and just about everyone else who’s bothered covering this pathetic waste of everyone involved’s time. (Not that the time of most of these worthless quangocrats was worth anything anyway.)
We take a moment only to note something remarkable: the closest Scottish Labour’s hapless branch manager Anas Sarwar has ever come to understanding anything.
James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “Breastplate, Aye At what point does a censorship country make a regime change to a dictatorship country. Although where there…” Jun 20, 16:15
Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “Somebody had better check the small print. It could well be that at ScotGov, a “disabled” person is somebody trapped…” Jun 20, 15:40
Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “Sure, Bip. If only we had more cheerleading for poot and more bigging up of the lassie torturing tunnel skulkers…” Jun 20, 15:36
agent x on Holiday Relief: ““THE Scottish Government has launched a “milestone” report which aims to put disabled people’s experiences and concerns at the centre…” Jun 20, 14:00
George Ferguson on Holiday Relief: “@Alf Baird 10:03am The purpose of being an Independent Candidate is surely that you don’t have a party or organisation…” Jun 20, 13:40
James on Holiday Relief: “Alongside a toon cooncil franchise and 24/7 interference by a foreign media system….” Jun 20, 13:38
Breastplate on Holiday Relief: “There’s a sign that hangs on the wall of the retirement home in The Simpsons. It says “Thank you for…” Jun 20, 13:13
lothianlad on Holiday Relief: “The 2014 referendunm was rigged.” Jun 20, 12:17
James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “There were many reasons why the Scottish referendum did not work out for the scottish people in that year, some…” Jun 20, 11:54
James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “I hope you can fit the story line together, it had to be done this way, because it kept getting…” Jun 20, 11:48
James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “Mr johnstone admmited that their friends had interfered in stuff they had no business being connected too back in 2014…” Jun 20, 11:42
James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “However the intelligence committee did a investigation around these new ruskelene friends and found they were not so friendly because…” Jun 20, 11:38
James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “Perhaps given the initial info some here may be encouraged to do some research on the group mentioned” Jun 20, 11:31
James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “They were a contented and happily connected bunch of party goers at that table, many conversations and ideas were shared…” Jun 20, 11:27
Aidan on Holiday Relief: “I’m not sure what kind of reset you have in mind, but in general jobs in the UK’s professional services…” Jun 20, 11:23
James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “There were many interesting people in the Westminter ruskelene forum such as mr rifkind, caroline nokes. Mr Straw, and other…” Jun 20, 11:18
James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “I am going to have to make this comments in separate posts, and you are going to have to glue…” Jun 20, 11:01
Hatey McHateface on What We Don’t Know Now: “An excellent post. I would add that recent moves to make it easier to eliminate “unproductives” from society are, as…” Jun 20, 10:46
Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “Lots of sound ideas in Dan’s latest post. We should be using our local resources to make our own steel…” Jun 20, 10:35
robertkknight on Holiday Relief: “Another case of “I didn’t leave the SNP… the SNP left me!”” Jun 20, 10:17
Jontoscot21 on What We Don’t Know Now: “David I am with you. Alba were my last hope but they have proven useless. I find with the exception…” Jun 20, 10:07
Alf Baird on Holiday Relief: “Its taken him long enough (since 2015!) to figure out the SNP leadership has been co-opted by the colonial /…” Jun 20, 10:03
Dan on Holiday Relief: “@ Aidan Hmm, so you’re unable or unwilling to even consider looking at things through anything other than the current…” Jun 20, 09:34
Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “Cleanup on aisle 1. Now please! His mammie’s hame at 10.” Jun 20, 09:17
James on Holiday Relief: ““Lord! Such a tedious bore.” Aye, yir aw that. Prick.” Jun 20, 08:42
socratesmacsporran on Holiday Relief: “When Fergus Ewing is bailing out of the SNP, why, other than being brainwashed in the cult, is anyone else…” Jun 20, 08:23
George Ferguson on Holiday Relief: “Tenruh Fergus Ewing should become the 4th Independent elected to Holyrood since 1999. His is the sort of profile needed.…” Jun 20, 08:16
Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “Here’s a quote from something I read this morning on the subject of assisted suicide: “some might argue that the…” Jun 20, 08:07
Aidan on Holiday Relief: “@Dan you have a very bizarre view of the main industries that drive the economy across the U.K. Why have…” Jun 20, 08:05
Tenruh on Holiday Relief: “Fergus Ewing stands as independent candidate in 2026” Jun 20, 07:07
