The Scottish Tory MSP reacted furiously to a story in The National which said Scotland had been absorbed into England by the 1707 Act Of Union, rather than becoming a “partner” in anything, and had ceased to exist as a state in international law.
Which was a weird response, because that’s been the official stated position of both the UK government and the Conservative Party for at least the last 12 years.
As alert Wings readers will know, we’re fond of a WW2 analogy from time to time. The conflict is so extensively documented, and so deeply embedded in British culture (for both good and ill), that it’s a reliable tool for getting points across concisely and clearly.
(It’s also one of the last major wars in which, overall, the good guys and the bad guys were pretty indisputably easy to identify.)
So let’s keep that in mind for a moment while we look at this.
For 10 years in Germany between 1935 and 1945, Jewish people were not legally human. The Nuremberg Laws, drafted in large part by Wilhelm Stuckart, established the principle in law that Jews were to be denied any rights on the basis that they were untermensch, a German word literally meaning “subhuman”.
It would be, to say the least, highly controversial for anyone to put forward in 2025 the idea that Jewish people had actually ceased to be human beings during that period, even though the various laws had been passed by a legitimately-elected government in peacetime and attracted little in the way of international condemnation.
The truth is that regardless of what the law said, Jewish people remained humans for the whole time, which is why Nazi war criminals were tried after the war for “crimes against humanity”. The passing of a law had had absolutely no effect on their biological reality. (Other than that it led to millions of them being murdered, of course.)
But anyway. Nicola Sturgeon.
Is the above how she imagined her feminist legacy, do you think, readers?
Y’know, maybe we were a little harsh on the lads at Holyrood Sources yesterday when we implied that a more direct and aggressive interviewing style might have cut through John Swinney and Kate Forbes’ pathetically feeble waffling evasion on the SNP’s lack of an independence strategy in their recent podcast.
But the closest thing (along with Colin Mackay at STV) that the Scottish media has left to a proper Rottweiler interviewer – Peter Adam Smith of ITV – had a shot at that five years ago and didn’t do any better.
Smith noted that even back in 2019 Nicola Sturgeon had been droning on about how Westminster’s refusal to grant a second indy referendum was “unsustainable” for two years already. But no matter how hard he pressed, Sturgeon just kept on glibly and smugly insisting that they’d concede.
“The UK government strategy is to say no. Do you have a way around it?”
“My strategy is to say yes.” [smirks]
Readers might be forgiven for wondering how long it’s going to take the SNP to accept that that “strategy” is a failure, if seven years and three First Ministers isn’t enough for them to have worked it out. But as long as the pathologically gullible keep voting for them anyway, we suppose they have no reason to.
On 15 October 2012, I signed the Edinburgh Agreement with David Cameron to secure the independence referendum of September 2014.
On the same day Peter Kellner of the polling company YouGov wrote one of his condescending commentaries from London dissing any hope for the Yes campaign.
Kellner’s view was almost universal, and not just among the London pack of journos and politicians. Most, if not all, of the Scottish media agreed with him.
However, by September 2014 things looked very different.
Those of you on Twitter will probably be aware of this already, but for the rest:
It should be a bit of a lark, although the retrospective part will probably be rather more fun than the looking-forward part. I don’t get out much, so if you want to come along and throw some rotten fruit and/or say hi, tickets are here.
James on What We Don’t Know Now: ““Fuck around and find out, the angry child recites this every day.”” Jun 9, 08:16
Hatey McHateface on What We Don’t Know Now: ““HCB to prosecute and silence any and ALL criticism about their REVILED and vehemently opposed GRB” Did that actually work…” Jun 9, 07:57
Hatey McHateface on The Jokers: “She’s safe! Praise be! They’re gonna take her home, but first, like a naughty but badly parented child, she’s gonna…” Jun 9, 07:49
Hatey McHateface on What We Don’t Know Now: ““50% must however keep you awake at night in a cold sweat” I guess that could be true, but only…” Jun 9, 07:42
Hatey McHateface on What We Don’t Know Now: “The MSM is reporting a new crackdown on dog ownership and dog walking in the Ir@nian shithole. What does our…” Jun 9, 07:38
twathater on What We Don’t Know Now: ““My challenge is to make sure that we can turn that aspiration in the public for Scottish independence into a…” Jun 9, 03:47
Young Lochinvar on Ball Of Confusion: “Aaaah Souness! Wasn’t he the highly paid sports monkey that said Scotland back in the day should throw the match…” Jun 9, 02:38
Young Lochinvar on What We Don’t Know Now: “Well said Geri! What the politico monkeys based in their city offices just don’t get is that having given them…” Jun 9, 01:26
Young Lochinvar on What We Don’t Know Now: “50% must however keep you awake at night in a cold sweat. Intrude in your dreams does it? I think…” Jun 9, 01:15
Young Lochinvar on What We Don’t Know Now: “Very good post. Regarding Alba; well, they’ll have to start standing at elections and by elections as I’ve certainly never…” Jun 9, 00:48
Rob on What We Don’t Know Now: “Never heard of a BME programme in the NHS in Scotland. I would like to see some proof it exists…” Jun 9, 00:13
Rob on What We Don’t Know Now: “I look at the Sp and don’t think that they represent me or what I want the country to be,…” Jun 8, 23:07
Alf Baird on What We Don’t Know Now: “Here it is in English, Dunx, nae bather at aw: https://salvo.scot/the-scottish-constitution/” Jun 8, 21:57
Northcode on What We Don’t Know Now: ““Scots fowk awready hiv thair ain constitution:” aye, Alf. mair than cuid be sayd fir the Inglis fowk wha hiv…” Jun 8, 21:35
Peter Joy on What We Don’t Know Now: “Jocky Wilson, in the bath with a pint. I think I get it. ‘As a child, Wilson’s parents were deemed…” Jun 8, 21:13
Geri on What We Don’t Know Now: “I don’t think the SNP can even be described as devolutionist – they’ve achieved the grand total of hee-haw on…” Jun 8, 20:29
James Barr Gardner on What We Don’t Know Now: “O/T has anyone been booted off Facebook this week ?” Jun 8, 19:43
agent x on What We Don’t Know Now: “Oh dear – another topic quoting “polls”. When will people learn?” Jun 8, 19:30
Dunx on What We Don’t Know Now: “That would be more useful if it was written in a language that most Scots could understand. It’s current version…” Jun 8, 18:48
Breeks on What We Don’t Know Now: “The SNP can reinvent itself as many times as it likes, but unless or until it addresses the cynical brazen…” Jun 8, 18:41
Hatey McHateface on What We Don’t Know Now: “So the takeaway from Labour (a foreign, pro-union party) winning the by-election is that the union is in more trouble…” Jun 8, 18:38
Geri on What We Don’t Know Now: “It could start with him holding a leadership election & the SNP already has/had a current commanding position, still live…” Jun 8, 18:29
Geoff Anderson on What We Don’t Know Now: “As regards Independence the reality is that it is finished because the SNP will get the votes of the deluded…” Jun 8, 17:32
100%Yes on What We Don’t Know Now: “Who are the membership of the SNP and what is their IQ, these are the questions most of us has…” Jun 8, 17:00
David on What We Don’t Know Now: “My final thought. If I could relate it to the NHS. The NHS has recruited overseas and is now got…” Jun 8, 16:58
Mia on What We Don’t Know Now: ““Alba not standing candidates is curious to me” I couldn’t agree more. It does not look like Alba is seeking…” Jun 8, 16:51
duncanio on What We Don’t Know Now: “Yep. The SNP have been in a “commanding position” since May 2015 – Swinney is hoping that the dumb electorate…” Jun 8, 16:33
Liz on What We Don’t Know Now: “Swinney is reported to have said, he’s rearranging the deck chairs in the Cabinet BECAUSE of the loss in Hamilton…” Jun 8, 16:27
Alf Baird on What We Don’t Know Now: “Scots fowk awready hiv thair ain constitution: https://salvo.scot/the-scottis-constitutional-covin/” Jun 8, 16:20
