It’s weird. Less than 24 hours ago, we were being firmly told that a vote in the Scottish Parliament was an insignificant, indeed “meaningless”, choice between two words that meant exactly the same thing and were “interchangeable”.
So when the Parliament decided last night, by an overwhelming 113-9 margin, which of the two words it wanted to use, you’d imagine that that’d be no big deal and everyone would shrug it off in a casual, indifferent sort of way, right?
The list below is a much, much shorter one than we were expecting to run. In the end, just nine MSPs voted today against Johann Lamont’s amendment on forensic medical examinations, with one abstention. The amendment passed by a margin of 104 votes after SNP MSPs voted in favour, with only the Greens and Lib Dems opposed.
Every last one of them is a disgusting coward who doesn’t care about the feelings of rape victims and we’re ashamed to share a nationality with them.
We’ve had plenty to say already this week about the amendment that will be debated at Holyrood this afternoon. So instead we’re going to present you today with the case for each side, as made by two Scottish women on Twitter in the last few hours, and let you decide for yourselves whose argument is the more compelling.
First up, in favour of the amendment, is Scotsman writer Gina Davidson.
This site and other gender-critical voices are regularly accused of being “obsessed” with trans issues, even though the subject has been mentioned in fewer than 0.7% of Wings posts. But this week the SNP’s transgender faction – when it hasn’t been STILL raging about its battering in the NEC elections – has been swamping social media with organised complaints about a tiny prospective legislative change that they themselves insist doesn’t actually matter at all.
Rape Crisis Scotland, who are almost entirely dependent on the Scottish Government for funding, have chosen this evening to wade into the debate over the wording of a new law which is intended to lessen the trauma of people (nearly all women) who’ve been raped. We can only speculate as to whether they were pressured to do so, but the intervention seems likely only to pour petrol on the fire.
In his evidence to a Holyrood inquiry today, having been asked about some troubling WhatsApp messages concerning the case from 2018 which appeared to suggest the possibility of a conspiracy against the former First Minister, Murrell told members of the committee “I’m not on WhatsApp, it’s not a social media platform I use”.
Alert readers will have noticed a very careful use of the present tense there.
We’ve now filed a formal complaint with the Scottish Information Commissioner about this, because what we’d forgotten last week was that our original request was actually sent in September and it’s now been almost 60 working days with no sign of a proper response, not the 20 it’s supposed to take.
Because for some reason the Scottish Government REALLY doesn’t want you to know what the First Minister and Geoff Aberdein talked about in March 2018, and we think that you probably should.
We don’t normally like to devote much time on Wings to things that have been more than adequately covered elsewhere in the media, which is why you haven’t read much here about eg the Internal Market Bill. Unlike some we don’t see much point spending our limited human resources telling people stuff they already know and agree with.
But we’re going to make an exception for this next thing, which was already covered pretty well by Susan Dalgety in last week’s Scotsman, because (a) a lot of our readers, quite reasonably, will have an instinctively adverse reaction to either anything printed in the Scotsman or anything written by Susan Dalgety, and (b) a number of people have asked us to amplify this issue because it’s so important and so awful.
As well as the SNP NEC elections, the weekend saw the election of the first committee of a new grassroots independence organisation which is unfortunately and hopefully temporarily going by the stupendously terrible working name of “Yes Alba”.
15 people were elected to its ruling body by the votes of hundreds of delegates, with the top-ranked picks including SNP MP Angus MacNeil and former SNP MP George Kerevan. The majority of the successful candidates (eight) were female, even though there were no quotas or women-only shortlists imposed, and a wide range of ages was represented from young activists to former UK ambassador Craig Murray.
(We have no idea about any of their sexualities or gender identities, and also no interest in knowing, because those things have not the slightest bearing on their ability to fight for independence and are frankly none of our damn business.)
But that wasn’t good enough for Team Woke.
On a day when Joanna Cherry had a grown-up, reasoned and constructive column in The National calling for unity in the pursuit of independence, the outpouring of snide, sour sneering from a faction still raging with bitterness about being routed on the SNP NEC is instead curdling Twitter even as we speak.
And embarrassingly, not a single one of them has actually bothered to check even the most basic facts.
Alf Baird on Vibecoding A Better World: ““the “non-existent” union” exists only in the assimilated colonized mind, Hatey, it does not exist in the decolonized mind.” Oct 31, 23:17
sarah on Vibecoding A Better World: ““Does the SNP really want independence?” asks Kevin McKenna. He says they don’t. I wish the Herald had a far…” Oct 31, 21:11
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Vibecoding A Better World: “THE NEWS WHERE YOU ARE James Robertson (4 June 2014) www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhL57cjN8xY” Oct 31, 19:31
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “I’ve been critical of you in the past, Alf, for writing about the “non-existent” union when it very obviously does…” Oct 31, 18:15
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: ““bleeding from eyes, arse, cock and ears” Steady oan there, Confused. Hoo ye entertain yersel oan the weekend is nae…” Oct 31, 18:09
Alf Baird on Vibecoding A Better World: “The usual colonialist doublethink there Northcode, which can readily be reversed to reflect a dominant ‘Unionist’-Scotland rhetoric which disempowers the…” Oct 31, 17:57
WhoRattledYourCage on Vibecoding A Better World: “A few notes on the Scottish poetic, literary, and political crossover scenes: https://whorattledyourcage.blogspot.com/2026/10/this-has-few-expletives-in-it-and-some.html” Oct 31, 16:02
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Vibecoding A Better World: “Worthwhile, indeed important, watch… Discussion between James Robertson (“the news where you are”) and Alexander Linklater: ‘Imagining Scotland: Walter Scott…” Oct 31, 15:33
Aidan on Vibecoding A Better World: “For those of us familiar with your output, it will come as no surprise that your use of the internet…” Oct 31, 14:52
Confused on Vibecoding A Better World: “You could use the AI to write some more articles. Just sayin – I mean, let it do all the…” Oct 31, 14:20
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “No chemists in ScotGov, TURABDIN. They never even tried to study chemistry, after failing biology so spectacularly.” Oct 31, 13:47
TURABDIN on Vibecoding A Better World: “Is there a right way to recover Scottish independence? Yes there is. The one that works. The problem is the…” Oct 31, 13:35
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “Anybody supporting anonymity in such cases needs to support it for both – accuser and accused.” Oct 31, 13:31
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: ““This is the reality” Hmmm. If you continually assert the union doesn’t exist, Alf, best not make reality one of…” Oct 31, 13:27
Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “Yer maw gaun oot agin, James? Mind and dinna question her too closely when she comes hame. Sometimes best not…” Oct 31, 13:19
Northcode on Vibecoding A Better World: “In law, anonymity in sexual-offence cases is a structural safeguard. It is: – permanent – designed to protect complainers, not…” Oct 31, 13:13
Aidan on Faces In Sand: “Shut up James” Oct 31, 13:08
Northcode on Vibecoding A Better World: “If a strategist wanted to neutralise the independence movement, the most effective tactic would be to replace: – strategic thinking…” Oct 31, 12:32
James on Faces In Sand: “That right, aye? Prick.” Oct 31, 11:14
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Vibecoding A Better World: “May be of interest to some… ‘Shakespearean England and Views of the Irish Language’ – Mícheál Ó Mainnín « This…” Oct 31, 11:11
Alf Baird on Vibecoding A Better World: ““It’s proof, not that it’s needed, that the SNP now sits playing cards at the same table with those they…” Oct 31, 10:00
BLMac on Vibecoding A Better World: “Maybe we’re all being conned. I’ve just realised AI could also mean Actual Idiocy. We’re certainly seeing a lot of…” Oct 31, 09:32
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “Hmmm. Implanted in a hyper-realistic, humanoid robot companion, that behaviour might have some very real advantages. You could always change…” Oct 31, 09:30
Ex President Xiden on Vibecoding A Better World: “There is a compeditor to Claude on the market called Nicola. You can ask it anything you want and it…” Oct 31, 08:37
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “Precisely. Coming too, from the same Scottish government that refuses to state clearly what a woman is.” Oct 31, 08:24
agentx on Vibecoding A Better World: “Information commissioner in Salmond case: ” A Scottish government spokesperson said: “The Scottish government welcomes the decision of the Court…” Oct 30, 23:23
robertkknight on Vibecoding A Better World: “Sickening indeed, but what can you expect from a pig but a grunt. Talking of pigs… It’s proof, not that…” Oct 30, 22:12
Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “You just don’t get the genocides these days like you used to. Although I guess that once WW3 really kicks…” Oct 30, 20:52
100%Yes on Vibecoding A Better World: “Can’t wait, its has to have genocide and all the nasty bits or no one will believe it. Nobody does…” Oct 30, 20:24
