Wings Over Scotland

Mike Russell, currently at the centre of controversy over his appointment as chair of the Scottish Land Commission, hit the political big stage during Scotland’s first ever SNP administration under Alex Salmond, whom, in turn, Mike had previously seen into office as Salmond’s campaign manager.

In 2007 he was appointed as Minister for Environment, then in 2009 he became the Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution, and his conventional ministerial career concluded when he went on to replace Fiona Hyslop as Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning until the end of 2014.

Following the 2014 independence vote, the pre-referendum era ended with Salmond’s dignified (albeit temporary) stage exit; Nicola Sturgeon took the helm and began to reform what had been left to her by her predecessor.

A core pillar of Sturgeon’s centrist reform was the construction of an almost entirely opaque ivory tower of power from which both SNP and the state would run their covert affairs with subversive, centralizing, strong-arm granularity, cleverly camouflaging its sinister implications from the public through cult-of-personality media management.

Instrumental in this, among a very few select others, was Mike Russell.

Read the rest of this entry →

It’s rather apt that this happened on the last day of the calendar. Because it truly is the rock-bottom moment in the grotesquely sullied history of the Scottish National Party.

We’ve heard that line somewhere before, haven’t we?

Read the rest of this entry →

Well, this’d bring a tear to a glass eye.

Yeah, whatever DID happen to that?

Read the rest of this entry →

It’s funny how things suddenly become journalism, isn’t it?

We wonder what the secret is.

Read the rest of this entry →

The response of the Scottish media to yesterday’s momentous events in the Court Of Session has been illuminating in terms of who is and isn’t even attempting to do proper grown-up journalism, although as far as we can tell The Times is alone in having NO coverage of the hearing whatsoever.

The National’s “Politics” section has 54 stories on its main page, many of which are embarrassingly trivial, and mentioned that the hearing was taking place, but the actual outcome is in a completely different section, buried 30 stories down in the “News” category, 29 places below the return of David Jason to “Only Fools And Horses”.

The Herald has the barest skeleton of a report, while you have to turn to page 14 of the Daily Record for a similar piece that conveys the basic facts with nothing at all about the significance of the ruling, and STV News – embarrassingly – just runs an agency release despite having the estimable Colin Mackay and Bernard Ponsonby on its staff. (They also had nothing on air last night.) Maybe they were busy.

The Scottish Sun is by far the best of the print media on the subject. It first ran a extensive but very strangely-timed article that included reporting of actual events at the hearing but NOT the verdict, even though the court delivered its judgement mere moments after hearing the counsels’ submissions.

(The piece finishes “The appeal at the Court of Session is expected to last one day, with a written judgement taking weeks or months”.)

It followed up a couple of hours later with another substantial story including the reactions of the Scottish Government and the Scottish Information Commissioner (the opposing parties at the hearing). But the only actual analysis was done by the BBC.

Read the rest of this entry →

To the surprise of most of those watching, including ourselves, the Court Of Session delivered its judgement immediately at the end of today’s hearing, after only the most cursory of conflabs between the three august panel members.

The short version is that the Scottish Government lost, and must now comply with Wings reader Benjamin Harrop‘s FOI request regarding evidence that was supplied to independent adviser James Hamilton during his inquiry into the unlawful investigation of false allegations against Alex Salmond.

Read the rest of this entry →

The Scottish Government will make history tomorrow. For the first time ever since the advent of devolution 24 years ago, it will take the Scottish Information Commissioner to the Court Of Session to prevent disclosure of information.

On the bench will be the full firepower of the inner council of the Scottish judiciary. The Lord President himself, Lord Carloway, will be presiding (and presumably lording) over the hearing. Joining him on the bench will be a former Lord Advocate, Lord Boyd, and a former Solicitor General, Lord Pentland – pictured below, and of whom readers will last have heard here.

To use the legal parlance, that’s a big-boy lineup.

To present their case, the Government are fielding not one but two King’s Counsel – James Mure KC and Paul Reid KC.

This top legal talent does not come cheap and nor does a Court Of Session hearing. So what is this vital information that the Scottish Government – which as recently as May this year pledged to “ensure that we are the most transparent Government on these islands” – is trying so desperately to hide from the Scottish public, at the Scottish public’s very considerable expense?

Read the rest of this entry →

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.

But there are some things we DO want explained.

Read the rest of this entry →

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.

(SPOILER: a really big one.)

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.

Read the rest of this entry →

This is the end of Humza Yousaf’s speech to the SNP conference today.

And if you examine what those words mean, the conclusion couldn’t be clearer.

Read the rest of this entry →

Six years ago today.

The mass uprisings will be any minute now, we’re sure.

Read the rest of this entry →

The parasite infestation within the SNP has sensed its moment has arrived.

The final act of hostile takeover is almost upon us.

Read the rest of this entry →