Alert readers will undoubtedly have noticed a number of, to put it mildly, explosive-sounding developments this evening regarding the ongoing inquiries into the Scottish Government’s misconduct over false allegations against Alex Salmond.
Several reports have quoted extracts from the former First Minister’s submission to James Hamilton, who’s investigating the current First Minister over possible breaches of the Ministerial Code relating to the investigation of the allegations.
The submission – delivered on Mr Salmond’s birthday – has been widely leaked to the media but only selectively reported, and like others Wings has obtained a full copy.
We are advised that its contents do not contain anything which breaches or potentially breaches Lady Dorrian’s court order protecting the identities of the complainers against Mr Salmond, and as such there are no barriers to us publishing the entire document in the public interest, because its contents make some extremely grave and disturbing allegations against the current First Minister.
TO: Douglas Chapman MP, National Treasurer, SNP DATE: 8 January 2021
Also sent by email
Dear Douglas,
Congratulations on your recent election as the SNP’s treasurer. You may or may not be aware that in October 2020 this site asked your predecessor in the role, Colin Beattie, some questions on the subject of the supposedly “ring-fenced” indyref fighting fund that was created by donations to two separate fundraisers in previous years – referred to collectively by the party as the Referendum Appeal Fund or RAF.
We did so on behalf of numerous SNP members and non-members who had donated to the two appeals and were concerned as to the whereabouts of the monies.
No meaningful reply was received either by Wings or several individual donors who also contacted Mr Beattie asking the same questions, and a number of those people (as well as some of your elected colleagues) have asked us to put the same questions to you publicly, now that you’ve had a few weeks to settle into your new position and are understood to be interested in finding the answers.
The former SNP, and now independent, MP Margaret Ferrier was today arrested and charged with culpable and reckless conduct, a crime carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, for making a return train journey between Glasgow and London in September last year, two days after taking a coronavirus test.
This site has no comment to make on the charges, as it’s a live criminal matter, but a couple of troubling questions do arise from their existence.
So, for the historical record: I have no belief whatsoever, earnest or otherwise, that I can get rid of Nicola Sturgeon in the next four months.
I’m an idiot with a website. I have no power. I haven’t been elected to anything and I’m not the commander of an army. Information to which I’m privy would get me put in jail if I published it, and would in itself have no power to remove Nicola Sturgeon anyway. The only people who can bring that about between now and May are Sturgeon herself or, collectively, the Scottish Parliament.
This site has for some time called for Sturgeon to resign because it is our belief that she’s going to have to anyway, on account of events over which we have no control or influence. Because of that it would be the responsible and conscientious thing for her to quit early enough that the SNP/independence movement had a chance to deal with the issue of her succession and regroup in plenty of time for this May’s election.
The remaining window of opportunity for that to happen is now getting very narrow. And the enemies of independence will be beside themselves with delight about it.
Because 2020 is the maddest year in history, Ruth Davidson opened her contribution to Holyrood’s debate on the Brexit deal today with a lengthy quote from this website.
Dr Tim Rideout is one of the most serious and respected people in the Yes movement and the SNP. As convener of the Scottish Currency Group he’s presently engaged in trying to solve the party’s self-inflicted weakness over its lack of a coherent currency policy, and he’s sufficiently highly rated by SNP members that earlier this month he was elected to the party’s Policy Development Committee.
So you might think he was entitled to a view on, well, development of policy.
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.
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.
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.
Alf Baird on Blue In The Face: “Aye Robert, for a people who are out of the game, “all roads lead to Rome”. The native seldom looks…” Jul 14, 18:32
Eric on Blue In The Face: “There seems to be more buck passing here. It states these “matters were … reported to the COPFS for guidance”.…” Jul 14, 18:25
barelybare on Blue In The Face: “I agree, Houston leaves us hanging by ending the story with report to COPFS. One could conclude he is saying…” Jul 14, 17:54
Captain Caveman on The Unstoppable Lie Machine: “Heh, well maybe – but not if we’re talking about the Court of Public Opinion? That’s really quite the cliff…” Jul 14, 17:17
Young Lochinvar on Step One: “AI Dun Well you would wouldn’t you! Remember; A is B, black is white and up is down in your…” Jul 14, 16:46
robertkknight on Blue In The Face: “It is becoming clearer by the day that Police Scotland and/or the COPFS have been told this far, (Murrell trial/conviction),…” Jul 14, 16:35
Andy Ellis on Step One: “@Young Lochinbore I see you have comprehension difficulties on top of you other issues. The point of the list is…” Jul 14, 16:33
Young Lochinvar on The Unstoppable Lie Machine: “Pastor Fagat & 1.51 The classroom creep.. “Please Miss! Please Miss! Please Miss!; Alf used the “C” word!!!!”” Jul 14, 16:30
Aidan on Step One: ““Some English person took the piss out of Scots and therefore we better deny all English people living in Scotland…” Jul 14, 16:28
Young Lochinvar on The Unstoppable Lie Machine: “Confused Now now, that’s enough of that! Poor AI Dun will have swooned requiring a touch of the vapours after…” Jul 14, 16:25
Thistle's Bristles on Hey Lord Don’t Ask Me Questions: “‘His lawyer says he is “Overwhelmed by feelings of embarrassment & shame” ‘ Who is? That is, does the ‘he’…” Jul 14, 16:22
Young Lochinvar on The Unstoppable Lie Machine: “Ld Pal Val might have something to say about that!! 🙂 Anyway, it’s widely held that she doesnae like the…” Jul 14, 16:08
Rev. Stuart Campbell on Blue In The Face: “You sure? They’re usually out in August.” Jul 14, 16:05
Rev. Stuart Campbell on Blue In The Face: “I haven’t deleted any comments on this thread.” Jul 14, 16:03
Rev. Stuart Campbell on Blue In The Face: “I have of course already drafted an FOI to that effect 🙂” Jul 14, 16:01
Rev. Stuart Campbell on Blue In The Face: “I think Ian means US holding a fundraiser to bring a judicial review, not the SNP doing one.” Jul 14, 16:01
Northcode on The Unstoppable Lie Machine: “Those chickens have grown wings and flown off to Portugal, or some similar sunny place, never to return to their…” Jul 14, 15:56
Young Lochinvar on Step One: “Pastor Fagat Meant to say, in reference to one of your other sermons in defence of the infamous “franchise” that…” Jul 14, 15:48
Captain Caveman on The Unstoppable Lie Machine: “The phrase “chickens coming home to roost” springs to mind now though.” Jul 14, 15:35
Skip_NC on Blue In The Face: “Are they overdue or just not published by the Electoral Commission? In the past they have tried to publish the…” Jul 14, 15:35
Young Lochinvar on Step One: “Pastor Fagat Many thanks, interesting stuff- at last! So basically the Scottish 2014 franchise was one of the widest, loosest…” Jul 14, 15:19
Ian Smith on Blue In The Face: “It would be worth establishing at what point police became aware the money was spent on general operations, and if…” Jul 14, 15:16
Alastair on Blue In The Face: “SNP 2025 Accounts now one week overdue” Jul 14, 15:13
Ian on Blue In The Face: “I think it very much depends on who is running the fundraiser. If Rev Stu, for this purpose, I’d be…” Jul 14, 15:12
Skip_NC on Blue In The Face: “A short course on the true meaning of the Declaration of Arbroath should be required of all public servants, whether…” Jul 14, 14:54
Mark Beggan on Blue In The Face: “I bet wee McGarry is as sick as a parrot. She only nicked 25 thousand smackaroonies and got dragged in…” Jul 14, 14:54
Northcode on Blue In The Face: “What a bore… I wish Alf Baird would post some interesting stuff about colonialism and how none of the corruption…” Jul 14, 14:51
Mark Beggan on Blue In The Face: “They are still trying to get the first fundraiser back. Don’t you think asking people for money right now is…” Jul 14, 14:45
Thistle's Bristles on It just takes a beat: “I’m glad to see you pursuing this persistently. More power to your elbow! If I may be permitted to add…” Jul 14, 14:45