Yesterday we noted that rational people arrive at decisions about things based on the facts, not the personalities of who else might support or oppose those things. But in the interests of balance, allow us to present the counterpoint.
As it happens, we agree with McDonald on NATO membership. It would be a pointless folly and an exercise in self-destructive virtue-signalling to leave an organisation which is willing to defend Scotland militarily for free because of its strategic location, and it would be extremely unpopular with the Scottish public (including SNP voters), no matter how much those on the left might wish otherwise.
His reasoning above, however, is a wretched embarrassment.
With precisely the grim level of cynicism we’ve now come to expect as standard, the Scottish Government has released a key document relating to the Salmond inquiry two days before Christmas, hoping it’ll be buried in the ongoing coronavirus-and-Brexit-related implosion of the UK.
The document, which contains legal advice relating to the judicial review brought by Salmond regarding the Scottish Government’s investigations into false allegations of misconduct against him, is extremely heavily redacted. But a few interesting passages remain, so let’s have some fun.
He DOESN’T CARE WHAT YOU THINK. You can bleat at him for a thousand years and he won’t listen. You gave him his election and he has a majority and England has chosen its fate and there’s not a damn thing we can do to stop them dragging us down with them because you’ve wasted the last four years whining about it instead of doing the thing we elected you to do, which is put us in charge of our own future forever.
Now either get off your worthless coward’s arse and do the only thing that’s actually in your power – a plebiscitary election – instead of grandstanding around the world stage achieving absolutely sod-all except getting your face in the press again, or get out of our damn way and let someone who can do the job take over.
(PS that also includes the job of handling the pandemic, which you’re making a pig’s arse of too, but gosh, doesn’t everyone love how telegenically you’re presenting the thousands of needless deaths? New Zealand has had just TWENTY-FIVE with near enough the same population, because their leader had the courage to make the tough calls you failed to because the Selfie Queen can’t bear to be unpopular.)
And no, we haven’t been drinking. Not a drop. We’ve just had enough.
As it happened, it was fortuitous that this story intervened and stopped us writing the story we meant to run yesterday, because now we’ve got a two-for-the-price-of-one on the increasingly farcical insanity running riot in the offices of the Scottish Government.
Alert readers will have noticed the above piece from today’s Times, revealing that the Scottish Government just can’t seem to stop breaking the rules (and squandering huge vats of taxpayers’ money in the process) when it comes to Alex Salmond.
We woke up this morning intending to write about something else, readers, and then we saw perhaps the most horrifying thing we’ve ever seen in the two years since we first started taking an interest in transgender ideology.
It’s only tangentially related to this site’s purpose, but the truth is that as human beings we cannot stand by and watch this happening without at least trying to use whatever platform we have to raise awareness of it.
(The black bars on images in this article were added by us.)
Last week the High Court in England ruled that children under the age of 16 were not medically competent to consent to treatment with so-called “puberty blocker” drugs of the type that were used to “chemically castrate” the computing pioneer Alan Turing for being homosexual (a crime in the UK in the 1950s), which is believed to have led to his suicide by cyanide poisoning at the age of 41.
On 8 December this site ran an article about the Chief Executive Officer of the Scottish National Party, Peter Murrell. It has recently been drawn to our attention that the piece contained a serious inaccuracy, which we would like to remedy.
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.
The media is focusing on Murrell’s continued evasion of the question of his WhatsApp usage (Murrell bizarrely states he has several messaging apps installed on his phone but uses none of them), but there’s a much more interesting revelation in the second of the letter’s two sections.
This is a direct, unambiguous and categorical statement from the First Minister that the investigation into the false allegations against Salmond was a Scottish Government matter that was absolutely nothing to do with the SNP.
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.
Andy Ellis on Not So Octopus: “@Geri passim You’re deluded enough to think that the opinion of one KC is somehow conclusive or some slam dunk…” Apr 12, 09:58
Bilbo on Do You Believe In The Westwood?: “It reminds me of the current discussions on tech websites about the proposed change to add age verification checks on…” Apr 12, 09:31
Bilbo on Do You Believe In The Westwood?: “O/T I see that immigration is going to be part of the debate in the forthcoming Holyrood elections: https://archive.is/D4QIZ This…” Apr 12, 09:22
Sven on Do You Believe In The Westwood?: “Bilbo @ 08.36. Possibly one with his own reasons to remain unidentified ? Or am I being overly sceptical in…” Apr 12, 09:17
Captain Caveman on Not So Octopus: “…. Jeezo. Maybe lay off the meths, Rambo.” Apr 12, 08:38
Bilbo on Do You Believe In The Westwood?: “I’m sure it is Gen Z/Reddit thing to make AI generated images of yourself but what man would disguise their…” Apr 12, 08:36
Young Lochinvar on Not So Octopus: “Well Geri If Pastor Faggat was one of the founding fathers then he’s certainly developed a disturbing hate complex of…” Apr 12, 04:47
Geri on Not So Octopus: “He said he was one of the co-founders of Alba.” Apr 12, 02:15
Young Lochinvar on Not So Octopus: “Geri Pastor Faggat was rejected? Gaun! Spread the news! It’ll help ignoring/ putting in context Pastor Faggats sermons in future..” Apr 12, 01:24
Geri on Not So Octopus: ““Arguing with yoons in a “domestic setting” is pissing in the wind & so is domestic elections.” Forgot to add,…” Apr 11, 23:59
Geri on Not So Octopus: “He’s just projecting again… “but when it comes to offering any viable alternative come up empty.” People have came up…” Apr 11, 23:12
Geri on Do You Believe In The Westwood?: “That sounds just like Eppy Island. Allegedly, they liked to hunt live bait no one would miss. Then it’d be…” Apr 11, 22:31
Young Lochinvar on Do You Believe In The Westwood?: “Beggars As the old nursery story goes: “My my grandmother what an active imagination you have there”.. Old boy.. Or;…” Apr 11, 21:54
Young Lochinvar on Not So Octopus: “*Special* Captain Caveman Interview – undertaken without an internet connected device. Interviewer; Wilma Flintstone, welcome. Captain Caveman; Mate, where’s moi…” Apr 11, 19:28
Mark Beggan on Do You Believe In The Westwood?: “Free drugs and empty prisons. Homosexual drag artists at the mosque. What could possibly go wrong.” Apr 11, 19:22
George Ferguson on Do You Believe In The Westwood?: “Well the Masters is on so this is par for the course for the Scottish Government. Well done Stu another…” Apr 11, 18:32
BroughtyBoy on Do You Believe In The Westwood?: “I see the ‘Our People’s page has been taken down Stu… you’re on to something here!” Apr 11, 17:28
Young Lochinvar on Not So Octopus: “AE @ 9.03 Yippee Kate-ae faggat! You done gotten yourself all written up like a Jack rabbit n spring thar…” Apr 11, 15:25
Kevin Cargill on Do You Believe In The Westwood?: “You might need to build an interoceter to communicate with Metaluna where I’m sure Mr Westwood lives. He certainly seems…” Apr 11, 13:44
Geri on Not So Octopus: ““Being offered an opportunity but exercising discretion to turn it down does not make you a “failure”.” It does show…” Apr 11, 13:44
Alf Baird on Not So Octopus: ““the vast majority of “ordinary” Scots” If all else fails the colonizer seeks to make the indigenous native a minority…” Apr 11, 13:41
Knuckle Heid on Do You Believe In The Westwood?: “I agree Iain – who are these polling companies talking to?!” Apr 11, 13:13
Geri on Not So Octopus: “Arsey, I don’t need to. A well respected KC has already given his expert, legal opinion. Go look it up.…” Apr 11, 12:42
Northcode on Not So Octopus: ““…no constructive engagement of any sort, just the blanket unreasoning assertion that anyone who disagrees with you is… a unionist.”…” Apr 11, 12:23
Lorncal on Do You Believe In The Westwood?: “They’ve posted a photo now, have they? It still looks doctored and seems to be an image that has been…” Apr 11, 12:22
Geri on Not So Octopus: “Alf, I know. Whit a dunce! Maybe we should all club together & buy him a dictionary? Oh hang on,…” Apr 11, 12:19