No explanation is given for why “writer at large”Neil Mackay has suddenly conducted a “wide-ranging, exclusive interview” with “one of Britain’s most senior spy chiefs” for today’s Herald On Sunday.
As far as we’re aware absolutely nothing has happened in respect of the UK’s nuclear “deterrent” to make the subject topical. Maybe Mackay just coincidentally bumped into Sir David Omand down the pub or something.
We have to admit the line below takes some chutzpah to even attempt. It’s a little bit like Harold Shipman refusing to admit to all the murders he committed on the grounds that revealing the victim/patients’ personal data would break the Hippocratic Oath.
We know, for an absolute and uncontested fact, by the Scottish Government’s own admission, that the First Minister has already committed the most serious breach of the Ministerial Code possible – lying to Parliament (section 1.3c). She lied about the date she first knew of the allegations against Salmond.
From the First Minister’s own personal written testimony, we know that the reason she lied to Parliament was that she had definitely also committed another breach of the Code, either by using Scottish Parliament premises for party matters (section 1.3i) or by failing to record government business discussed therein (sections 4.22, 4.23).
So it seems a bit late to be getting all bashful about the Code now.
Last year I was booed on the stage of the SNP’s annual conference for attempting to have a debate on how we can achieve independence in the face of Boris Johnson’s unswerving refusal to agree to a referendum.
I know that it still sticks in the craw of many that an SNP representative was booed at an SNP conference for wanting to discuss how Scotland will become independent (the very idea!), but it only made me even more determined to ensure that the democratic voice of Scotland is heard.
(It’s also passingly ironic that if Biden does win – as he still may well do arithmetically, although we wouldn’t necessarily want to put a lot of money on him living long enough to ever actually reach the Oval Office after all the legal wrangling/civil war is over – it’ll be on the votes of white men overturning those of women and people of colour, who all counter-intuitively and inexplicably swung to Trump.)
In a world where almost every vote seems to be on a knife-edge, it seems the woke left still hasn’t learned how criminally, recklessly, suicidally stupid it is to alienate 70% of the population to feed the endless, insatiable narcissism of 0.7% of the population.
Quite aside from anything else, that’s because the only votes you secure by doing so are the votes of people who’d never have voted for Donald Trump in a million years anyway. The only votes you’re gambling with are those of the natural left. And even if only a tiny fraction of the alienated actually turn, it can be enough to change the world.
When we first saw this video on Twitter through bleary half-asleep eyes this morning, we thought it was a well-done satire. But no. He actually put it out himself.
There can surely in history have never been anything that demeaned both the office of President and the USA as a nation more than the image halfway through that video of him prancing around in front of Air Force One.
Today America decides its future. And dear lord, what a choice it has.
TO: Colin Beattie MSP, National Treasurer, SNP DATE: 28 October 2020
Dear Colin,
I note that today you’ve sent an email to SNP members on the contentious topic of the party’s supposedly “ring-fenced” referendum campaign fund, which we’ve learned for the first time today has a grand official name – the Referendum Appeal Fund (which from here on we’ll call the RAF for short).
The email also contains some rather offensive implied smears about my website and myself, but I’m quite used to being abused on the internet so I’ll let that slide. As we’re both on the side of Scottish independence, rather than getting involved in a tit-for-tat slanging match I thought I’d try to reach a constructive consensus.
I notice that in your email you invite people who have “any questions” on the subject to contact you without hesitation, and while I’m not a member of the party I believe I do speak for a considerable number of people who are, so it would likely also save you a lot of tedious copy-and-pasting if you replied publicly to me as their representative.
(And because, y’know, if you don’t then you’ll probably get about a thousand individual emails from members containing the text below anyway, which doesn’t seem like a productive use of anyone’s time.)
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
