It really can’t be overstated what extraordinary tweets these are.
That’s the editor of the conservative, ultra-establishment Spectator openly linking to a document that the Crown Office – the agent of the Queen herself – has threatened to prosecute the Scottish Parliament for publishing, and which has officially been deleted but is for some reason actually still available on the Parliament’s website.
The Spectator is giving the Queen the finger. And that’s not even the mad bit.
It’s difficult to know where to even start on the absolutely extraordinary reaction to our post about yesterday’s meeting of the SNP National Executive Committee. Our traffic exploded to levels not seen since 2014, racking up tens of thousands of pageviews an hour, and social media was aflame with argument into the small hours of the morning.
A whole raft of issues arose from our exclusive revelations, but the one we want to talk about now is the one that was buried at the bottom of what a panicked SNP hastily and laughably produced as the “minutes” of the meeting, and we didn’t even notice it until a couple of hours after the original post.
But they also ruled that because Dugdale is a drooling halfwitted imbecile who doesn’t know what simple words mean she was entitled to use her stupidity and ignorance as a defence, so we lost the case and to this day (the original smear having happened way back in 2017) our lawyers are still negotiating with her lawyers over the final costs.
So trust us when we tell you this: today’s front-page lead in the Herald On Sunday is a great big pile of stinky unmitigated horse-bollocks.
It’s our sad duty to report this fact to you, readers: our experience of sending Freedom Of Information requests to the Scottish Government is basically that the more answers you get from them, the less information you end up having.
In an attempt to freshen up its usual panel of tired and tiresome politicians and pundits, last night’s Question Time (ostensibly from an oddly-vague location in “the North East”) featured moderately-known circus fortune-teller Gypsy Rose Petulengro, crossing her palm with silver for some analysis in a short break from one of her celebrated seances.
The clip above was her take on whether Nicola Sturgeon would resign if either of the current inquiries found that she’d systematically and repeatedly lied to Parliament and broken the Ministerial Code, and the strange thing about it was that for someone who was professing to be looking into the future, she didn’t even appear to know the basic pertinent facts of the present or the past.
The Spectator’s application to the High Court for a variation of the anonymity order in HM Advocate vs Alexander Salmond has just finished. It seems to have been agreed by all parties that Lady Dorrian will now amend her order to read thus:
“An order at common law and in terms of section 11 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981, preventing publication of the names and identity and any information likely to disclose the identity of the complainers in the case of HMA v Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond, as such complainers in those proceedings.”
Alert readers will have noticed by now that while we were at the dentist getting rid of all our excess money, the Fabiani inquiry has published Alex Salmond’s written evidence submission, ahead of his in-person appearance currently scheduled for next week.
We’re feeling a bit confused this morning, readers. Maybe someone can help.
Below is the key part of the letter sent by the Clerks of the Scottish Parliament, acting on behalf of the Fabiani committee, to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) a week and a half ago, requesting material for their investigation into the Scottish Government’s botched handling of false allegations against Alex Salmond.
As we’d told you at the time, the request was a sham, designed to produce nothing of any value, because it carefully excluded the only person whose communications with Sue Ruddick were actually of relevance – SNP chief executive Peter Murrell.
(Murrell being an employee of the party, NOT a member of the Scottish Government, a civil servant or a special adviser.)
Northcode on The Marshalling Plan: “I don’t know whit tae tell folk whin thae frunch and girn aboot aw the evil bairgin roond the world…” Feb 7, 11:34
Cynicus on A Stitch In Timing: “MR SWINNEY GOES TO WASHINGTON Absolutely correct, Willie. This is a tawdry attempt to equate his residence at the British…” Feb 7, 11:27
James Cheyne on The Marshalling Plan: “Sometimes you need to hold your nose and engage your brain.” Feb 7, 11:02
James Cheyne on The Marshalling Plan: “What the Epstein document files release overall has done is shown the depth and lowly depraved nature of those whom…” Feb 7, 10:59
PC Foster on A Stitch In Timing: “Perhaps you or Stu could do a FOI request. Some poking around is needed.” Feb 7, 10:42
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: ““‘rudimentary understanding’ of the colonial condition” Aye, Alf, we’re just too thick to understand. When we travel abroad, we’re all…” Feb 7, 10:10
Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: ““that mythical country, the UK” The colonial hoax and the colonizers inevitable rejection of the colonized has yet to be…” Feb 7, 09:26
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “Good point, Willie. Our host could turn this place into a serious forum for discussion and debate overnight, by moderating…” Feb 7, 08:54
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “We all defer to your encyclopedic expertise on video clips, James, gleaned while hunched over them for day after day,…” Feb 7, 08:36
GM on A Stitch In Timing: “‘We all know that Swinney stayed with Mandelson on his whisky trip to USA in Sep 25. I have done…” Feb 7, 01:43
DaveL on A Stitch In Timing: “Shouldn’t you be goose stepping somewhere? Who’d be Hatey?” Feb 7, 00:41
Willie on A Stitch In Timing: “The issue of John Swinney going to Washington to meet the President and lobby for Scotch whisky is exactly what…” Feb 7, 00:31
James on A Stitch In Timing: “Must have struck a nerve eh, Prick? “This has driven right-wingers into a frenzy with completely false claims about the…” Feb 6, 23:08
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “Sorry, Northy, but I couldn’t understand any of that. Please translate into Scots and re-post. Thanks in advance.” Feb 6, 22:41
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: “Woo Hoo, James manages to put both hands on his keyboard. Giving your usual hobby a night off, James? You…” Feb 6, 22:39
Northcode on A Stitch In Timing: “The ancients – being the ancients – had a name for when words are used out of their ordained order…” Feb 6, 21:40
James on A Stitch In Timing: ““….life changing injuries….” Yet more bollocks from the Site Prick. To quote Craig Murray; “The final question was the charge…” Feb 6, 20:45
GM on A Stitch In Timing: “I see that argument quite clearly Lorna when you put it as you just have. There are plenty women in…” Feb 6, 20:15
PC Foster on A Stitch In Timing: “Scottish Executive- correct” Feb 6, 20:03
agentx on A Stitch In Timing: “They chose to be “activatists” let them fund it themselves.” Feb 6, 19:41
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: ““we are reminded here that: “colonialism is based on psychology”” Is that because it’s Friday, Alf? Seems like only Wednesday…” Feb 6, 19:41
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on A Stitch In Timing: “Or Scottish Executive?” Feb 6, 19:34
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: ““finding none of the activists guilty on any of the charges” Given they committed burglary, assault and grievous bodily harm…” Feb 6, 19:27
agentx on A Stitch In Timing: “We all know that Swinney stayed with Mandelson on his whisky trip to USA in Sep 25. I have done…” Feb 6, 19:17
Lorna Campbell on A Stitch In Timing: “Alf: I know it will take a lot more than that. The point I was trying to make is that…” Feb 6, 18:19
PC Foster on A Stitch In Timing: “It was always known as the Scottish Parliament. However the machinery was called the Scottish Administration until Salmond renamed it…” Feb 6, 18:04
Willie on A Stitch In Timing: “Couldn’t help but reflect on the latest reports about our out beloved Labour party politico one Mr Peter Mandelson. Its…” Feb 6, 17:40
Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: ““try to rehabilitate Scotland before independence” I suspect that’s not generally how decolonization and ‘self-recovery of culture’ works, which is…” Feb 6, 17:18
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on A Stitch In Timing: “Re Sven. Point taken.” Feb 6, 17:06
Alf Baird on A Stitch In Timing: ““Not the Crown” ? Hardly. The root of the despicable colonial situation is that elites in Scotland aye tak thair…” Feb 6, 16:48
