As alert Wings readers will know, we’re fond of a WW2 analogy from time to time. The conflict is so extensively documented, and so deeply embedded in British culture (for both good and ill), that it’s a reliable tool for getting points across concisely and clearly.
(It’s also one of the last major wars in which, overall, the good guys and the bad guys were pretty indisputably easy to identify.)
So let’s keep that in mind for a moment while we look at this.
For 10 years in Germany between 1935 and 1945, Jewish people were not legally human. The Nuremberg Laws, drafted in large part by Wilhelm Stuckart, established the principle in law that Jews were to be denied any rights on the basis that they were untermensch, a German word literally meaning “subhuman”.
It would be, to say the least, highly controversial for anyone to put forward in 2025 the idea that Jewish people had actually ceased to be human beings during that period, even though the various laws had been passed by a legitimately-elected government in peacetime and attracted little in the way of international condemnation.
The truth is that regardless of what the law said, Jewish people remained humans for the whole time, which is why Nazi war criminals were tried after the war for “crimes against humanity”. The passing of a law had had absolutely no effect on their biological reality. (Other than that it led to millions of them being murdered, of course.)
But anyway. Nicola Sturgeon.
Is the above how she imagined her feminist legacy, do you think, readers?
This is the SNP’s latest messaging. Ministers, MSPs, payroll drones and the central party account were all tweeting the graphic and variations on the line yesterday.
And it’s quite difficult even just to count the number of different ways in which it’s not just mind-bogglingly offensive, but also clatteringly, jaw-droppingly stupid.
It’s worth remembering that they didn’t have to do this.
Labour had already announced their intention to abstain. There was no danger of the budget being defeated. So the SNP could have allocated however much money they wanted from their increased funding to the pursuit of independence.
Robin McAlpine published a very important piece yesterday, detailing how the SNP is about to become even more of a leadership dictatorship than it already is.
You can read the article to see why this is a change of enormous importance, and a catastrophic one for the independence movement. It will make it just under 17 times harder for any sitting SNP leader to be challenged for the leadership – let alone defeated – and effectively turns the party into a private oligarchy every bit as total and unaccountable as that of Reform (which is not a member-directed political party in the conventional sense, but a limited company personally owned by Nigel Farage, who holds a majority of the voting shares and can do whatever he pleases with it).
We’re annoyed at ourselves, because we got sent the document revealing the change a month ago, but we missed it. And now we’re going to show you why.
The wild thing about this poll isn’t the headline that six months after winning a massive landslide majority, Keir Starmer now trails Nigel Farage – leader of a party with five MPs to Starmer’s 411 – as the electorate’s choice for best Prime Minister.
It’s the little grey numbers sitting quietly at the bottom.
Y’know, maybe we were a little harsh on the lads at Holyrood Sources yesterday when we implied that a more direct and aggressive interviewing style might have cut through John Swinney and Kate Forbes’ pathetically feeble waffling evasion on the SNP’s lack of an independence strategy in their recent podcast.
But the closest thing (along with Colin Mackay at STV) that the Scottish media has left to a proper Rottweiler interviewer – Peter Adam Smith of ITV – had a shot at that five years ago and didn’t do any better.
Smith noted that even back in 2019 Nicola Sturgeon had been droning on about how Westminster’s refusal to grant a second indy referendum was “unsustainable” for two years already. But no matter how hard he pressed, Sturgeon just kept on glibly and smugly insisting that they’d concede.
“The UK government strategy is to say no. Do you have a way around it?”
“My strategy is to say yes.” [smirks]
Readers might be forgiven for wondering how long it’s going to take the SNP to accept that that “strategy” is a failure, if seven years and three First Ministers isn’t enough for them to have worked it out. But as long as the pathologically gullible keep voting for them anyway, we suppose they have no reason to.
Willie on The Long Walk To Freedom: “And for all the senior pensioners reading Wings today they can uplift their spirits recognising that as a group of…” Dec 8, 06:15
Willie on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Information delayed is information denied is an apt line. But as we can see that is only one of the…” Dec 8, 01:37
Mark Beggan on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Where did you get your professorship? Tehran. An academic versed in colonial studys would know all the aspects good and…” Dec 8, 00:31
BLMac on The Long Walk To Freedom: “It’s about time someone in another country, eg Australia or USA revealed the names of the perjuring Alpha-Betties.” Dec 8, 00:06
Alf Baird on The Long Walk To Freedom: ““the truth is not just being delayed. It is being denied.” Should we really expect anything different in a colony?” Dec 7, 21:55
James on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Baiy and switch? Vote Yoon, because, you know, reasons. Nice try.” Dec 7, 21:12
Confused on The Long Walk To Freedom: “just asking. I thought I had “seen this before” somewhere and was wondering if it was new. All keep up…” Dec 7, 20:31
GM on The Long Walk To Freedom: “John Smythe, the people assisting him and Benjamin Harrop are all on the same path but aye, what do you…” Dec 7, 20:19
Confused on The Long Walk To Freedom: “How does this relate to https://johnsmytheinvestigations.wordpress.com/2025/10/03/foi-202500456798-selective-redactions-on-james-hamilton-correspondence/ and are you the same GM?” Dec 7, 19:00
Dan on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Stated this a few years back, but probably need an updated version of this old article, and it would likely…” Dec 7, 18:56
factchecker on The Long Walk To Freedom: “David, to use your image, we’re getting our faces hit with a broken bottle right now. They’ll keep getting hit…” Dec 7, 18:42
factchecker on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Dan, I agree with you about Labour’s record in the past. I’m just suggesting the only scenario I can see…” Dec 7, 18:30
Hatey McHateface on The Long Walk To Freedom: “There you go, factchecker, Dan says no. I’m afraid things still have to get a lot worse in Scotland before…” Dec 7, 18:18
David Holden on The Long Walk To Freedom: “An epic article in both length and breadth. A few reads will be required but after one pass I was…” Dec 7, 18:17
Dan on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Lolz, you maybe laid that voting initiative on jist a wee bitty too heavy. Aye, coz previously Labour in Scotland…” Dec 7, 17:39
factchecker on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Not a fact, this time – a personal thought. NUSNP has shown itself unworthy to govern the Scottish people consistently…” Dec 7, 17:08
Effijy on The Long Walk To Freedom: “I can’t digest such beating about the bushes, trees, and gorse. My conclusion, the SNP is rife with corruption and…” Dec 7, 16:16
James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “Also forgot to mention the destruction of infrastructure like roads, trains, water supplies, localised businesses, NHS, and other public services.…” Dec 7, 16:13
James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “Charles ( not the 3C one) Forgot to respond regards your comment Who will be the members of the new…” Dec 7, 16:04
James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “Charles ( not the RC one). If there was a Scottish parliament in reality, there would be no Parliamentary union…” Dec 7, 15:51
Morag on The Long Walk To Freedom: “We can only be grateful for people like yourself who are prepared to do this, and dogged and persistent enough…” Dec 7, 15:01
James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “Confirmation can be found in records that it was “The Great Seal of England ” that was used on the…” Dec 7, 14:04
GM on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Thanks Benjamin. I’ll look forward to your next post.” Dec 7, 13:46
GM on The Long Walk To Freedom: “Good work. I look forward to further information being released, eventually.” Dec 7, 13:36
duncanio on The Long Walk To Freedom: “The process is indeed the punishment. Much kudos goes to Benjamin Harrop for his tenacity and diligence in trying to…” Dec 7, 13:12
James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “The union of crowns only came into official bieng due to the articles of the treaty of union, Prior to…” Dec 7, 12:41
Hatey McHateface on The cost of failure: “Naw, James. It’s a little known fact that many people want to pay lots more tax. That’s why they move…” Dec 7, 10:23
