The average prison term for rape in Scotland is just under seven years. So we really don’t want to think about what Andrew “Amy George” Miller did to the poor young girl he abducted to get 20. (Indeed, strictly speaking 28.)
Miller wasn’t charged with rape, the 11-year-old was described as “safe and well” when the police found her and she was missing for just over one day. Miller also entered a guilty plea. So our blood runs cold at the thought of what must have happened in those 27 hours to nevertheless attract such a huge sentence, and we hope never to know.
As alert readers will have noticed, Wings has been perusing the SNP’s Governance And Transparency Review over the last couple of days, a document which tentatively attempts to discern just how big a mess the party’s previous leadership has left it in.
The paper has now also reached the mainstream media.
Wings already touched on that particular aspect of the party’s mismanagement back in August, but in the light of the report now formally acknowledging the problem it’s worth taking a moment to establish just how astonishingly bad it is.
These are strange and grim times for the Scottish independence movement, but we never thought it’d ever get so strange that we’d be quoting Effie Deans.
Since pretty much day one, Wings has said that the only honest and honourable way to campaign against independence would be for Unionists to say Scotland isn’t a country, but a mere region of the UK. But they lack the courage to admit what their true beliefs are, and so they fall back on fear and lies disguised as concern, all cloaked in “proud Scot” protestations.
While that might be a miserable way to conduct yourself, it’s understandable, because the moment that you acknowledge Scotland as being a country, all the debating lines against independence crumble to ashes. They’re powerless in the face of the principle that countries should choose their own governments, for good or ill, because that’s what democracy is, and few people are willing to stand openly against democracy.
And what Effie Deans’ concession of this site’s cornerstone argument reveals is that Unionists finally feel safe against any threat of independence in the foreseeable future, and with good reason.
Yesterday we took an extensive tour of all the red flags in the SNP’s 2022 accounts, which show a party in very deep financial trouble. But there was one part we left out because it deserves a post of its own.
It starkly exposes how a party chose to hold an event for around 800 members in a venue with a capacity of 15,000 and then went to a lot of effort to disguise how empty the space was, rather than, for example, just hiring somewhere of an appropriate size (and cost) in the first place.
(Look how far into the hall the stage has been placed, leaving half the arena vacant, to then be hidden behind a giant screen and curtains and banners in order to give a false impression of how full it is.)
But what’s more symbolic is that there are almost no people in it.
Slacky The Holiday Boy is off for the next THREE weeks, gallivanting around the globe on the clearly excessive wages we’re paying him. We hope he does actually come back, because his home city is becoming a poisonously hostile place for the creative.
Around 300 years ago, Edinburgh was the birthplace and residence of the Scottish Enlightenment, a remarkable period of intellectual and scientific accomplishment built around “the importance of human reason combined with a rejection of any authority that could not be justified by reason”, and which led to the city being famously dubbed “the Athens of the North”.
Humza Yousaf is played here by Morgan Freeman, the big plane carrying the bomb is the independence movement and Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer are in the chopper.
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Learning Insanity: “TURABDIN@3:08pm “Khomeini, Persia’s answer to J Knox?” —————— Maybe let’s not be so quick to knock Knox… John Knox’s plan…” Jan 17, 18:17
Lorna Campbell on Learning Insanity: ““For the Scotland Act to apply to Scotland there has to be parliament of England in existence in 1998 and…” Jan 17, 17:52
TURABDIN on Learning Insanity: “CATASTROPHE is always round the corner, it pays to have a mirror on a stick. sadly such a simple device…” Jan 17, 16:42
SophiaPangloss on Learning Insanity: “Metagender is obviously people who are attracted to breaking the fourth wall during sex, turning to the camera with a…” Jan 17, 16:40
Hatey McHateface on Learning Insanity: “Aye, TURABDIN, no fool like a progressive, pseudo intellectual, lefty fool. As we sometimes observe on Wings BTL!” Jan 17, 15:38
TURABDIN on Learning Insanity: “@Hatey McHateface You might have seen this, https://archive.is/wUC4L The west has more to concern itself with this type and the…” Jan 17, 15:08
Aidan on Learning Insanity: “@James Cheyne perhaps you could set out what you think those persuasive legal arguments are and what precedence in case…” Jan 17, 14:32
Hatey McHateface on Learning Insanity: “Scotland’s geographic position is indeed significant, not just for England but for Europe too. That makes independence less likely, not…” Jan 17, 14:06
TURABDIN on Learning Insanity: “One route is growing realization that the British State is in deep trouble with future in the hands of English…” Jan 17, 13:33
sarah on Learning Insanity: “Sorry to say that the Not Proven verdict was abolished wef 1.1.26 by our hugely learned [ahem] SNP government.” Jan 17, 13:07
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “There are many possible routes to a independent Scotland, some of the more obvious ones are being ignored. But aligned…” Jan 17, 12:30
Hatey McHateface on Learning Insanity: “Could it be that the sword is mightier than the pen? Another simple question.” Jan 17, 12:26
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “The true devastating effects on Scotland has been over three hundred years of opression and suppression of its people and…” Jan 17, 12:15
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “No one questions that the treaty between the parliaments agreement of Scotland and England ended in 1800 when the parliament…” Jan 17, 11:53
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “England has 11 missing days in its side of the treaty of union in 1752. No one questions this lost…” Jan 17, 11:49
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “There are so many issues on incorrect chronological dates alone that I am surprised that they have never been questioned…” Jan 17, 11:43
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “Scots law does have the ” Not proven ” judgement applied to it in Scotland, it also has trial by…” Jan 17, 11:38
willie on Learning Insanity: “Not much intellectual rigour from Ulster University and Queen’s Belfast then if they restrict speech. Woo woo wacky is certainly…” Jan 17, 09:00
Hatey McHateface on Learning Insanity: “I see you’ve done that authentically Scottish thing, YL, come up with a couple of disparaging names. How very productive.…” Jan 17, 08:35
Young Lochinvar on Learning Insanity: “Fear not Sarah, all will be well in the M.E. now that Teflon Tony and (super) Mario Rubix (cube) are…” Jan 17, 02:21
Cynicus on Learning Insanity: “Marie says: 16 January, 2026 at 11:38 am Re:Darlington nurses victory – no muddying of the waters there. Thank you…” Jan 17, 01:39
Jim Tadgercock on Learning Insanity: “What Lorna Campell says. Absolutely spot on . Nothing needs to be added to her statement. Regards.” Jan 17, 00:17
sarah on Learning Insanity: “O/T: a delightful few minutes watching the livestream of the Craig Murray initial hearing [has he standing or not re…” Jan 16, 21:41
holymacmoses on Learning Insanity: “People with absolutely NO self-control who demand total control over others. Singular dictatorship” Jan 16, 21:26
Aidan on Learning Insanity: “Sorry Stu, someone (James) has come and done a massive turd all over your latest blog post BTL. Some insane…” Jan 16, 20:51
Lorna Campbell on Learning Insanity: “What an excellent idea, H McH.” Jan 16, 18:48
Lorna Campbell on Learning Insanity: “The Darlington nurses have won (most of) their claims against the health authority, but the fragrant (not) ‘Rose’ has been…” Jan 16, 18:46
Hatey McHateface on Learning Insanity: “Does anybody know if one of these people convinced they are in the wrong body has ever claimed to have…” Jan 16, 16:07
Hatey McHateface on Learning Insanity: “Prick and cunt, eh? Puir James. Every bit at sea with gender as the hairiest, biggest-bollocked bloke cramming himself into…” Jan 16, 15:55
Doug on Learning Insanity: “Fit like? or Foo’s yer doos?” Jan 16, 15:32
