When Nicola Sturgeon is finally held to account for the charred, twisted and shattered ruins that she’s made of Scottish political and civic society in her desperate attempts to save her own neck, the complete discrediting of ostensible support organisations for victims of rape will be near the very top of the charge sheet.
But before we talk about that you really need to read this.
Because if you live in Scotland you can only rationally be one of two things at this moment in history: (a) terrified, or (b) an idiot.
We’ve received information this afternoon with regard to Nicola Sturgeon’s statements at today’s FMQs, which appear to have been wholly and disturbingly dishonest.
The quote below is from an email sent today by SNP communications chief Murray Foote, briefing ministers and MSPs on the official Scottish Government line, which is what the First Minister told the chamber in response to a question from Ruth Davidson.
It brings us genuinely no pleasure at all to report that events in Scottish politics are panning out exactly the way we’ve been telling you they would for nearly two years.
Like an old man getting up for the fourth time in the middle of the night, the Scottish Government has squeezed out another little dribble of its legal advice in respect of the conduct of its shambolic investigation into false allegations against Alex Salmond.
And to push that gross analogy to its outermost limit, it must have found releasing one of the documents in particular as painful as passing a rather large kidney stone.
We just put up a post, readers, but we’ve pulled it again because this has happened:
Because of this:
More as we get it, but this would seem to be an extraordinary move from the Tories if they weren’t pretty confident they had the backing of the other opposition parties. At a minimum it’s quite the scene-setter for tomorrow’s appearance of the First Minister in front of the Fabiani committee. We presume we don’t need to tell you to stay tuned.
In the end the four-hour session ran for almost exactly six hours, and Alex Salmond looked like he could have done another six standing on his head. Now, it would be only fair to acknowledge that this site was on his side before the start, but by any rational objective assessment the former First Minister delivered the performance of his life.
(We use “performance” there in the Lionel Messi sense, not the Laurence Olivier one.)
The contrast with every other witness who’s appeared before the committee was night and day. With Salmond there was no evasion, no hesitation, no forgetting, no “I’ll get back to you on that in writing”. (We recommend the Twitter feed of Scotland Speaks for some choice clips.)
Every question was answered fully, directly, fluently and immediately, without recourse to notes, and the content was never less than devastating from his opening statement to the final surprise bombshell. We were exhausted just watching it.
His words, tone and body language all absolutely radiated candour, solemnity and honesty. When the SNP members tried to trip him up on some arcane point or other, he was on them like an extremely calm hawk, methodically tearing their assertions to ribbons with the correct fact or quote at his fingertips, and ice in his veins.
Salmond came across like a man who’d been planning this day for almost a year and wasn’t going to mess it up. And he didn’t. Heavens, how he didn’t.
Readers, we swear to you we are not making this up. What you’re about to read are genuine extracts from the SNP’s official new (probably illegal) Equalities Mechanism explanatory note, detailing what does and doesn’t count as a disability when it comes to jumping the queue for a regional list nomination.
And straight away it’s a real punch in the gut for firestarters, muggers, rapists, flashers and, in most cases, hay-fever sufferers. THIS BIGOTRY WILL NOT STAND.
We must admit, the terrible people that we are, we’ve been enjoying watching today’s extended meltdown by the SNP’s woke faction about last night’s NEC election results. Because it appears their egos are so huge that they’re not even smart enough to play dignified to spoil our schadenfreudish fun. It’s been full-on public tantrums.
We’ve just been out for our evening constitutional in the relatively cool night air (Bath sweltered at an oppressive 30C today and Bear Patrol was pretty gruelling), and we thought readers might be interested in what we saw.
The city has observed lockdown with great diligence, as we’ve previously documented, and to be honest we’re not sufficiently familiar with the latest rules to say it wasn’t still doing so tonight. But a nearby park, around 9.30pm, was a disconcerting scene.
On the 1st of January, Chinese authorities took the decision to close the Wuhan food market. The following day, 41 admitted hospital patients in Wuhan, were confirmed to have contracted 2019-nCoV (novel coronavirus) which we now know as COVID-19.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a New Year message, from the private island of Mustique in the Caribbean, that the “first item” on his agenda remained his commitment to take Britain out of the EU by the end of January.
Within weeks the virus had spread across the world to many countries including Italy, Germany, Australia, the USA and of course the UK.
Young Lochinvar on The Ace Attorney: ““One of the most”.. Well aye but what about potty mouth Mhairi ( the Labour Party left me) Black? One…” May 20, 03:31
Young Lochinvar on The Ace Attorney: “I don’t think The Wallace sought a sinecure or pension from anyone. Therein lies the problem and why the English…” May 20, 02:26
Peter McAvoy on The Ace Attorney: “Yet again people commenting are arguing against the SNPs inaction and abiding by The UK supreme court opposing the Scottish…” May 20, 02:14
Young Lochinvar on The Ace Attorney: “Mia So very well said. Bravo!” May 20, 01:54
Mia on The Ace Attorney: ““I would suggest that the number of pro-independence MPs or MSPs elected at any election is irrelevant” On this point,…” May 19, 22:55
Oneliner on The Ace Attorney: “The art(ifice) of the infiltrator laid bare.” May 19, 22:29
McDuff on The Ace Attorney: “Independence is the wrong word. We were already an independent country when we joined England to create the UK and…” May 19, 22:09
sarah on The Ace Attorney: “Robert, just to confirm – your link is to the Saturday afternoon SSRG session where Sara Salyers and Prof Robert…” May 19, 21:27
Hatey McHateface on The Ace Attorney: “The traditional right-wing media is certainly portraying it as a betrayal of Brexit. I don’t know if that is true,…” May 19, 20:45
Hatey McHateface on The Ace Attorney: ““Oh. We’re going to do some more demanding” Now, now. Be fair tae the boy. He actually wrote: “That means…” May 19, 20:31
Dunx on The Ace Attorney: “The CEO of Salmon Scotland has this to say about the deal “It eases the burden on our farmers, processors…” May 19, 20:26
Dunx on The Ace Attorney: ““Confirming that the initial 1707 treaty of union was not ratified,” The treaty was ratified by the Scottish Parliament when…” May 19, 20:20
robertkknight on The Ace Attorney: “I can’t recommend this enough as it spells out our current Westminster/Supreme Court impasse/road block, as outlined in the article,…” May 19, 20:05
Andrew scott on The Ace Attorney: “Watch out Snp-rubbish Liebour awful Tories nowhere Reform will rush thru the gap” May 19, 20:03
Effijy on The Ace Attorney: “Some of Starmer’s minor concessions with the EU are built on yet again selling out Scottish Fishing Rights for yet…” May 19, 19:51
Mike on The Ace Attorney: “It would be interesting to read what “clear strategy” Sheppard proposes? Maybe Kelly’s spurious SNP1&2 will form part of it.…” May 19, 19:34
Breastplate on The Ace Attorney: “Then no doubt you voted for Scottish self determination in 2014 because of the good governance of Alex Salmond?” May 19, 18:53
Joan Savage on The Ace Attorney: “Tommy doesn’t understand anything about our history. That the so-called union never happened. The terms of the Articles of Union…” May 19, 18:48
Breastplate on The Ace Attorney: “You’re quite right Mia. I’ve yet to hear any politician explain that denying a referendum is denying democracy. It doesn’t…” May 19, 18:45
factfinder on The Ace Attorney: “I would suggest that the number of pro-independence MPs or MSPs elected at any election is irrelevant. If the wishes…” May 19, 18:31
twathater on The Ace Attorney: “Is anyone surprised that these tr@i torous scum are now starting to panic and shit themselves , they would have…” May 19, 18:26
James Cheyne on The Ace Attorney: “Mia, I love reading your comments,.you have that fire inside, along with common sense that all Scottish people sorely need…” May 19, 18:03
Elizabeth Hagan on The Ace Attorney: “If the Scottish Government had concentrated on good & successfully policies and convinced people of their abilities more people might…” May 19, 17:46
ScottieDog on The Ace Attorney: “It would be really refreshingly honest if the SNP campaigned as such – English sovereignty over Scots. So even with…” May 19, 17:33
James Cheyne on The Ace Attorney: “Tommy Sheppard, Ace Attorney, another one of the begging bowl great pretenders, that will ask for a pension from Scottish…” May 19, 17:30
Mia on The Ace Attorney: “For as long as any politician who claims to pursue independence continues to hide like a disgusting coward behind the…” May 19, 17:24
Ian McCubbin on The Ace Attorney: “I have heard bullshit, grifter talk and then there is Tommy Shepherd. The UK aka English government has no say…” May 19, 17:21
Shug on The Ace Attorney: “Poke of chips for Shepherd” May 19, 17:20
