Every now and again you’ll go to clean them up and find something that you’ve been meaning to write about in a quiet moment, and this certainly counts as a quiet moment in Scottish politics, so let’s do this one now.
Because the story above is from March, but we don’t think we’ve ever seen anyone anywhere talk about just how weird it is, or what it tells us about the 2024 SNP.
As we’ve repeatedly pointed out, Wings has made NO comments about the “workplace harassment” allegations made against Alex Salmond several years ago. We’ve only commented on the CRIMINAL allegations, and workplace harassment isn’t a crime. (It’s a matter for an employment tribunal, not the police.)
But the real question is WHY Andy Wightman is so doggedly attached to these two complainers that he’s determined to keep digging himself further into a hole of lies. And everyone knows what you tend to find when you start digging holes.
David Davis may be the last of his kind – a libertarian Tory from a council-scheme and grammar-school background, and also one of the few remaining big beasts occupying the political jungle of the back benches.
(He could in fact have been Tory leader, and would have been if David Cameron and George Osborne hadn’t teamed up to defeat him in 2005 after he won the first ballot.)
So on the rare occasions when he leads a Commons adjournment debate, as he did last Thursday evening, those with an educated eye for politics sit up and take notice.
In any functional nation, Friday’s revelations in Parliament by Sir David Davis would have been headline news. An extremely powerful figure, the then-First Minister’s chief of staff, was named and accused of conspiring with the Scottish Government, civil service and media to imprison an innocent man – the former leader of the country – on very serious charges of sexual assault, and of seeking to destroy his reputation by illegally leaking the false allegations to the press.
Liz Lloyd had never been publicly named as the suspect before that moment, so it was almost immeasurably bizarre that only two of Scotland’s newspapers (and two of its lowest-selling), namely The Times and – belatedly – The National, bothered to even report the accusation, far less spend any time seriously delving into it.
But it still wasn’t as odd as THIS response from a former Green MSP.
What on Earth is being suggested here? Let’s try to find out.
Independence is dead as a political issue in Scotland for the next few years. This much should not be in any dispute. A Labour government with a crushing majority sits firmly in Westminster with absolutely no intentions of granting a second referendum, and the SNP has loudly and clearly abandoned any other strategy.
This fact is understandably painful and difficult to come to terms with for anyone who’s devoted the last 13 years (or more) to pursuing that cause and now isn’t quite sure what to do with theirself. But for those who still aren’t ready to face up to the unpleasant reality, there’s always the comforting world of fantasy.
Because there’s always money to be made from snake oil and pie in the sky.
The average rape sentence in Scotland is seven years, so to get six years plus three years’ supervision for the technically lesser crime of sexual assaults means they must have been pretty grim ones.
So we know that Cameron Downing is a very bad man. Which does rather invite the question of why he was so popular in the SNP.
The SNP have been pretty clear about the reason they think they got a battering in last week’s election: it was because people were voting to kick out the Tories.
Now, that’s obviously nonsense. There were almost no Tories in Scotland to start with – just 10% of voters had a Tory MP – and only one of the six actually lost his seat. (Which was entirely down to the ham-fisted interference of Douglas Ross rather than an SNP surge – the SNP’s vote share in the seat in question went DOWN.)
If you wanted to keep Tories out in Scotland all you had to do was keep voting for your current MP, most of whom were SNP, rather than risk splitting the anti-Tory vote by switching to Labour and risk letting the Tories squeeze through in the middle. (Which would have happened in many seats had the Tories’ own vote not collapsed.)
But if it was true that the SNP lost because the electorate thought the election was about getting rid of the Tories, whose fault was that?
To be honest, folks, we’re not quite sure what to do with ourselves at the moment.
Everyone and his wee dug is writing election-aftermath columns and offering the SNP advice of varying intelligence and solemnity about how to recover from the shattering blow they’ve just been dealt by Scottish voters.
But it’s a pointless exercise. They may as well be yelling down a manhole.
Oneliner on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “I’m not going to read Sturgeon’s book. But I’m not going to read it at a time of my choosing.…” Mar 21, 11:37
Mia on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “” the only scenario I can envisage the conspiracy being exposed is if it was calculated that such exposure would…” Mar 21, 10:57
Mia on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: ““whether or not prosecution is in the public interest” Ahh! The mythic and ever evasive “public” interest. One hell of…” Mar 21, 10:45
Mia on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “Sometimes, the timing of things is as good a source of information as the “thing” itself. On the 12 March…” Mar 21, 10:19
Hugh Wallace on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “@dave The COPFS does not bring charges on the basis of ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’ but requires sufficiency of evidence…” Mar 21, 09:32
100%Yes on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “The SNP can do what ever it wants provided it doesn’t break up the Union.” Mar 21, 09:22
100%Yes on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “Was this ever in doubt, NO. Its time to move on from Sturgeon and Salmond and entirely get behind Liberation…” Mar 21, 09:17
Mia on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: ““Care to explain why the British state opened Holyrood?” Until the oil was discovered, under a classic colonial mentality, Scotland…” Mar 21, 09:00
Chas on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “Is this ‘news’ really a surprise to anybody? Nothing is ever certain in a Court of Law. However a case…” Mar 21, 08:49
Lynn on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “Sadly I no longer believe in the justice system , police or politicians. I do believe we now live in…” Mar 21, 08:45
Aidan on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “@Dave – beyond reasonable doubt is the burden of proof the PF must meet on questions of fact in a…” Mar 21, 08:21
Hatey McHateface on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “If you have evidence for your vagina claim, we’d all (ahem) like to see it. Maybe in an hour or…” Mar 21, 08:18
X_Sticks on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “Indeed, but they’re about to ‘fix’ that miscarriage of justice too with their ‘new evidence’ recently discovered that will back…” Mar 21, 08:16
Hatey McHateface on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “Here I am, Old Lochinvar sah! Ready to collect my ‘J’ badge from you, one of the self-identifying trained killers…” Mar 21, 08:10
Hatey McHateface on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “Maybe it was she who could clearly see that Indy would lose. Again. Maybe it was she who could clearly…” Mar 21, 08:01
Hal Martin on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “This is all great book publicity for Sturgeon’s shitey book ‘Frankly’ (a hilariously appalling generic title, especially given her notoriously…” Mar 21, 07:51
Robert Hughes on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “This outcome was entirely predictable and the whole saga something of a sideshow – albeit an absurdly protracted ( and…” Mar 21, 07:12
Effijy on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “If Sturgeon is back in the family home where is Murrell living? Is he living in the mobile home battlebus?…” Mar 21, 06:54
yoon scum on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “Care to explain why the British state opened Holyrood? Care to explain why the British state granted indyref1 ? If…” Mar 21, 06:48
Callum on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “Title of Sturgeon memoirs: ‘I CAN’T REMEMBER A THING’ Possibly the smallest book in the world.” Mar 21, 06:39
Yoon scum on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “If you believe that then you have a far higher opinion of the abilities and forward planning of the British…” Mar 21, 06:38
yoon scum on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “I’m more then happy to help out and to handle the accounts >>Opens up the camper van catalogue<<” Mar 21, 06:37
yoon scum on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “YEP She will have influence in certain areas And the timing is just too good” Mar 21, 06:29
Yoon Scum on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “Excuse me while I die laughing at those that claim that Sturgeon was a asset of the British state As…” Mar 21, 06:28
Callum on Live chat update: “Sturgeon said: “I have done nothing wrong, and I don’t think there was ever a scrap of evidence that I…” Mar 21, 06:27
robertkknight on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: ““because it was money raised from party members” Plenty here will testify to that assertion being simply wrong.” Mar 21, 06:07
twathater on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “As I have said repeatedly on here and elsewhere, Number 1 the donors were NOT all members of the Scum…” Mar 21, 03:46
Callum on The Deep-Fried Banana Republic: “So what actually happened to the £600k? Who knew? Who benefitted? Will Sturgeon be called to the witness box for…” Mar 21, 02:51
