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.
He popped up on Talk TV last night, explaining how a middle-aged man twerking at a number of very young children – some of whom seemed visibly distressed – during a recent Pride march was fine because maybe the children had asked him to (which they manifestly hadn’t), and anyway it was their parents’ fault that it happened.
And, y’know, readers can make their own judgements about that.
Hannah Graf MBE (below, right, receiving the decoration from Prince William in 2019 for his “work updating LGBTQ policy in the British Army”) is a very strange fella.
Renfrewdave on Conspiracies For Dummies: “Brilliant piece well written and linked through.” Aug 23, 08:10
Andy Ellis on Limping to the line: “Ah hae ma doots John! If wishes were horses, beggars would ride of course, but I suspect that even in…” Aug 23, 07:52
Alf Baird on Limping to the line: ““At some point a dynamic new contender is going to appear” As postcolonial theory confirms, there will be plenty of…” Aug 23, 06:50
Skip_NC on Limping to the line: “We do not know the basis of the charge of embezzlement. However, if it is the purchase of the campervan,…” Aug 23, 02:48
Skip_NC on Limping to the line: “Both reasonable assumptions. Part of it may also be the issue flagged in the 2023 audit. Time would have been…” Aug 23, 02:37
Skip_NC on Limping to the line: “css as Moët am = campervan. Obviously.” Aug 23, 02:26
Skip_NC on Limping to the line: “It might be that the money is tied up in property. As the properties sell, the party gets the money.…” Aug 23, 02:25
Skip_NC on Limping to the line: “The depreciation of the css as Moët am is not an accounting trick. It complies with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles…” Aug 23, 02:20
Andrew Kidd on Limping to the line: “Last year the auditors were appointed at the last minute so they would have incurred overtime. The first year of…” Aug 22, 22:56
John Love on Limping to the line: “That new contender will surely be the UN. Which will pull the rug out from under Scottish politics and probably…” Aug 22, 21:31
Geri on Limping to the line: “Could it be a Trust fund that they’ve left in their will that keeps collecting interest & paying out it’s…” Aug 22, 20:58
I. Despair on Limping to the line: “I won’t particularise this to the SNP and St. Peter of Murrell (St. Peter the Fishy Man) because of course…” Aug 22, 20:54
I. Despair on Limping to the line: “A total guess on my part but I wondered about how the dead lady’s estate was held and the process…” Aug 22, 20:32
Hatey McHateface on Limping to the line: ““possibly, Ms Brownrig may have just liked the cut of Humza’s jib” And why not? The voting members of the…” Aug 22, 19:42
Campbell Clansman on Limping to the line: “Stu, I agree (in principle) that “Scotland deserves better” than domination by these two pathetic inept corrupt bankrupt political parties.…” Aug 22, 19:39
Hatey McHateface on Limping to the line: ““At some point a dynamic new contender is going to appear” Is this a coded reference to the dynamic duo…” Aug 22, 19:32
100%Yes on Limping to the line: “Believe in Scotland under the theme “end London rule I’m pretty sure it not about ending London rule, its about…” Aug 22, 19:27
100%Yes on Limping to the line: “SNP SCUM, Scum no longer belongs to the Tories the SNP deserves it. The SNP won’t have the money to…” Aug 22, 19:11
agent x on Limping to the line: “No helicopter for Swinney then!” Aug 22, 18:38
twathater on Limping to the line: “I wonder if Ms Browning has been birling in her grave over the past years of sturgeons mismanagement and incompetence…” Aug 22, 18:18
Astonished on Limping to the line: “Obviously, no one has yet considered that Ms Brownrig possibly wanted to keep Scotland’s neck under the jackboot of our…” Aug 22, 18:07
Nae Need! on Limping to the line: ““For an organisation of around 20 staff to be spending £10,000 per year per employee on infotech is simply staggering.”…” Aug 22, 17:42
Nae Need! on Limping to the line: “Aye, but she’d lived in this country for 6 years prior to her death 7.5 years ago . . .…” Aug 22, 17:36
Sian Laidlaw on Limping to the line: “You may find this article of some use as it limits her estate at approximately £1.35 million split between a…” Aug 22, 17:36
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Conspiracies For Dummies: “To view the Channel 4 interview above between Krishnan Guru-Murphy and Alex Salmond, please copy and paste the Channel 4…” Aug 22, 17:33
Ex President Xiden on Limping to the line: “But can’t a deficit self identify as a profit and everything will be well?” Aug 22, 17:32
duncanio on Limping to the line: ““they can’t rely on rich benefactors like Estelle Brownrig to keep dying.” That’s hilarious.” Aug 22, 16:49
Mike on Limping to the line: “Maybe South Africa still has restrictions on how much cash can be extracted from the country each year?” Aug 22, 16:30