To the surprise of most of those watching, including ourselves, the Court Of Session delivered its judgement immediately at the end of today’s hearing, after only the most cursory of conflabs between the three august panel members.
The short version is that the Scottish Government lost, and must now comply with Wings reader Benjamin Harrop‘s FOI request regarding evidence that was supplied to independent adviser James Hamilton during his inquiry into the unlawful investigation of false allegations against Alex Salmond.
I am greatly honoured to have been targeted for censorship in the same weekend as two great artists as rightly esteemed as Salman Rushdie and Jerry Sadowitz. (Though thankful to have not yet been violently physically attacked for my views, as both have.)
To be honest, I was amazed my most recent Twitter account lasted three months. I set it up in May for the sole purpose of a throwaway rude reply to Darren “Loki” McGarvey and Kenny Farquharson of The Times, expecting it to be banned within hours, then somehow it had thousands of followers and I figured I might as well have a bit of fun with it for however long it lasted against the barrage of shrieking outrage and mass organised complaints from the SNP Twitler Youth.
Which turned out to be until Saturday night.
Twitter has declined to identify who I supposedly incited the harassment of, or to offer any examples of the offending tweets. Obviously I did no such thing, but it’s good to know that “in order to ensure that people feel safe expressing diverse opinions and beliefs on our platform”, only some opinions and beliefs may be expressed.
Just for a little bit of fun. This is actual footage of North Korean TV news (source: NK News) from today, but I thought it deserved a more moving soundtrack.
It is of course not for this site to question the judgement of Lady Dorrian (while noting that the verdict may well be subject to appeal and is therefore not yet final), although we do find some aspects of it somewhat troubling – particularly paragraph 74 in which the fate of a defendant appears to be held hostage to the speculative “imagination” of a hypothetical observer.
But it’s not the conviction (NB we are not lawyers and the strange civil/criminal hybrid that is the offence of contempt of court makes the correct terminology somewhat uncertain) of Craig Murray that’s the true cause for concern in this matter.
What’s alarming, as this site has noted previously, is the highly selective and partisan eye with which the Crown Office appears to be pursuing the offence.
George Ferguson on The Grand Tour: “I have to comment after that exchange I have just had. Decades ago when I join the SNP and a…” Jun 13, 00:01
Confused on The Grand Tour: “main spends all day trying to save old blighty, but it’s done https://archive.ph/gPbIQ and it won’t be 2100, more like…” Jun 12, 23:39
Scot Finlayson on The Grand Tour: “Ireland is one of the most indebted countries in the world, `The national debt of Ireland was estimated at approximately…” Jun 12, 23:29
George Ferguson on The Grand Tour: “@Insider Of course I know there is more than one George Ferguson. The point I was making which you missed…” Jun 12, 23:04
James on The Grand Tour: “Careful there, MaryB -you’ll set off the Yoonhowlers and Franchise fannies!” Jun 12, 22:44
Insider on The Grand Tour: “George Ferguson …. FFS ! Grow up ! Have you never realised there may be more than one person in…” Jun 12, 22:37
Insider on The Grand Tour: “Findlay… “Governments don’t need to borrow money, they could issue their own currency…..” Aye right ! I’ve still got some…” Jun 12, 22:32
MaryB on The Grand Tour: “Scot goes Pop so pathetic. Asks a question about who should have a vote in an Indy ref. But won’t…” Jun 12, 22:24
George Ferguson on The Grand Tour: “@Dan Hi Dan a good example of AI on X. I wrote a post and Grok3 said I was George…” Jun 12, 21:52
Findlay on The Grand Tour: “Scott, I thought that every country that uses a central banking system has a ;national debt’. You say that it’s…” Jun 12, 21:47
Scot Finlayson on The Grand Tour: “Even Norway has a national debt, it borrows money to pay for infrastructure like every other nation, it is cheaper…” Jun 12, 20:59
Hatey McHateface on The Grand Tour: ““It was just under a billion quid the taxpayer paid out in curtailment charges last year to big often foreign…” Jun 12, 19:47
James on The Grand Tour: “Dan – was the bot a “John Main” model? ;-D” Jun 12, 19:38
Dan on The Grand Tour: “@ Hatey Oh do fuck off. Show me where you have ever seen me state leccy would be free? If…” Jun 12, 18:59
agent x on The Grand Tour: “FIRST Minister John Swinney has said he does not think a challenge to his leadership would be a “good idea”.…” Jun 12, 18:37
Dan on The Grand Tour: “Has anybody tried switching the internet aff, and jist leaving it aff… Was trying to find the Wings article on…” Jun 12, 18:37
Hatey McHateface on The Grand Tour: ““The 6 farms that make up the Seagreen area off the Angus coast regularly are sitting in curtailment mode during…” Jun 12, 18:31
Hatey McHateface on The Grand Tour: ““provide its people with cheap renewable energy before exporting to England or anywhere else” Sigh. It is undeniable that the…” Jun 12, 18:23
Dan on The Grand Tour: “Aye James, most of the top 5 “concerns” that sit above Scotland returning to self-governing status can’t and won’t be…” Jun 12, 18:14
Dan on The Grand Tour: “@ JBG Scotland’s leccy demand could / should be significantly higher than it is if we had more industries requiring…” Jun 12, 18:05
Alf Baird on The Grand Tour: ““it’s the establishment in our neighbour’s capital that benefits tremendously by having Scotland shackled to it.” Yes, colonialism (aka ‘the…” Jun 12, 18:02
Northcode on The Grand Tour: “This extract from an article by Sara Salyers posted on the Salvo website. Political ‘Kryptonite’ and UK Exceptionalism: …Management of…” Jun 12, 17:53
PhilM on The Grand Tour: “Wait til Vivian O’Blivian takes a keek at that line-up for the Project 2050 conference…” Jun 12, 17:47
Breastplate on The Grand Tour: “That’s right, we’ve all had enough of this democracy nonsense. Democracy isn’t even in the top 10 of things people…” Jun 12, 17:46
James on The Grand Tour: “Scotland’s Imaginary Debt; In 2022-23 Scotland raised £87.5bn in tax which goes directly to Westminster. However, the Scottish Government only…” Jun 12, 17:32
James on The Grand Tour: ““…Independence isn’t even in the top 5 important issues that the general public are even interested in…” Maybe they don’t…” Jun 12, 17:28
Dunx on The Grand Tour: “The Barrhead Boy article just reads as a wish list. He treats UDI as an end in itself. There’s nothing…” Jun 12, 17:10
James Barr Gardner on The Grand Tour: “Scotland’s power requirement is under 5GW…… There must be a dale/tarn or two in Ye Merry Olde Engalunt that would…” Jun 12, 17:07
agent x on The Grand Tour: “Hatey McHateface says: Rev Stu won’t live forever. ————————————— Is that what the polls say?” Jun 12, 16:45
Insider on The Grand Tour: “Stuart… Give up son ! Hatey can swat away a dozen wannabe wee trolls like you in the blink of…” Jun 12, 16:44
