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.
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.
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?
Just under four years ago the world was hit by a pandemic that spread like wildfire and caused misery wherever it reached. It’ll be remembered by almost everyone who lived through it, especially those who worked to protect society’s most vulnerable.
We’ve all heard about its effect on our NHS, but less so on those working within social care. As the COVID inquiries on both sides of the border continue to reveal more and more troubling information, Wings readers should hear the story of what it was like to work in social care in Scotland during the COVID pandemic.
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.
Readers may have been baffled by a news story yesterday, in which an event where two men insulted each other in the street (“Deviant!”, “Bigot!”) has led to one of them, but not the other, being arrested and charged with an unspecified crime by police.
In particular, many people on social media have contrasted the situation with one from a month ago, when a large male transactivist violently assaulted a feminist woman at a “Women Won’t Wheesht” meeting in Aberdeen but merely received a recorded warning rather than being arrested and charged.
So we’re very grateful to Roddy Dunlop KC, the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates (the “trade” body of Scotland’s senior barristers), for posting an extremely informative, and disturbing, summary of the relevant laws on Twitter this morning.
It is our solemn duty to inform readers that deranged, shovel-handed Scottish Greens member and known associate of rapists and paedophiles Scott “Heather” Herbert has taken the hump at a Wings article from yesterday in which he was satirically featured.
He filed a malicious false copyright claim with YouTube which resulted in a silent video clip from the article showcasing his comically gigantic man-hands being scheduled for deletion, despite Herbert owning no copyright in the video (it’s the property of TalkTV, who have raised no objections to it) and having no legal standing to file any complaint.
But YouTube’s abysmal automated structures operate on the basis that all complaints are intrinsically valid, and allow absolutely no way for Wings to appeal this decision.
Northcode on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “By the way… the “Argumentum ad baculum” fallacy was pretty much the only rhetorical device used by the unionist (colonialist…” Jan 10, 08:05
Northcode on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Sic is ma langsome boredom, which remains unspent bein confrontit as it is wi aw the *bauchness an *dullskitishnes flotterin…” Jan 10, 07:19
GM on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “2nd best post of the day Duncan, and how could the low grade human dross, Swinney and Sturgeon do what…” Jan 10, 01:16
Alf Baird on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Whilst it invariably does seem to be mainly those on the left or centre-left who must support independence/decolonization from a…” Jan 9, 21:13
100%Yes on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Love the flag mate. Are you talking about the Alba Party? I do agree with on the idea reform will…” Jan 9, 20:57
Scot Finlayson on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “@Hatey McHateface, USA doing what your Great Brutish Empire used to do, going round the world knocking heads together. Very…” Jan 9, 20:55
100%Yes on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Sarah, I hate to bust your bubble, but you need to learn and learn the hard way. Scotland will never…” Jan 9, 20:49
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “THE ORIGINS OF GEORDIE AND NORTHUMBRIAN DIALECTS « An exploration of the origins of the Geordie and Northumbrian dialect. In…” Jan 9, 20:39
Jamie on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Change is coming, the people might be sleeping now, but the noise and “populism” that reform will bring to the…” Jan 9, 20:10
agentx on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “In this fantasy land who would be First Minister of Scotland?” Jan 9, 19:58
Willie on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Sanction Starmer, sanction Britain. Surely not. The UK is in a special relationship with the USA. Great Britain is a…” Jan 9, 19:49
sarah on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “O/T but a very good piece of information. Alert readers will remember how Joanna Cherry won an important constitutional case…” Jan 9, 19:06
100%Yes on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Anna Paulina Luna, a US Republican congresswoman and ally of Donald Trump, warned she would bring forward legislation to “sanction…” Jan 9, 17:44
Scot Finlayson on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Europe needs to wake up. Too long expecting USA to protect them and have gone soft. Make Europe Great Again.…” Jan 9, 16:49
Chas on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “It used to be mince from 300 years ago. We are now going back 800 years for FFS. Do you…” Jan 9, 16:40
Young Lochinvar on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “H McH @ 9.53 We are in rare agreement. I revert to my original “beef” then, the fact this site…” Jan 9, 16:00
Alf Baird on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““English speech which is harsh tae the ear and is mair thick gruel than sweet liquid.” Aye Northcode, Englis aye…” Jan 9, 15:56
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “GEORGE STEINER: LANGUAGE AND SILENCE (Essays 1958-1966) « Languages are living organisms. Infinitely complex, but organisms nevertheless. They have in…” Jan 9, 14:51
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “They’re having an exciting day of rest in Tehran. Looks like the experts who wrote off the Domino Theory may…” Jan 9, 14:41
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “It’s taken you a while to get there 100% Yes. Not a few people said at the time that the…” Jan 9, 14:31
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Homer will speak Gaelic just as soon as Matt Groening decides he does. Perhaps in a scene involving Willie the…” Jan 9, 14:24
James Cheyne on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “All parties pass their failures on to the next failing manager that does not actually manage until they achieve the…” Jan 9, 14:19
James Cheyne on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Snp are as shameful as those down south, no different no better. I saw the vacant glaiket look on Starmers…” Jan 9, 14:09
100%Yes on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “John Swinney not informed of US using Scottish airport in military operation. Why would John care he’s just the caretaker…” Jan 9, 13:49
100%Yes on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Traitors from the SNP membership to councilors, MPs, MSPs, Business for Scotland, Believe in Scotland, The National, and the scroungers…” Jan 9, 13:23
McDuff on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Yes you are tired, very very tired which explains the bilge you believe to be a remotely accurate post on…” Jan 9, 12:45
Northcode on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““…to an extent that English does not do.” Aye, if only mair than hauf a dozen fowk roond the wirld…” Jan 9, 12:38
James Cheyne on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “The story and law of Treaties is such that they stand until they don’t Stand. When one half of a…” Jan 9, 12:21
TURABDIN on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Never trust a search assistant, on anything. The Ai trolls everything, including the non fact checked with which the internet…” Jan 9, 12:20
