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.
In the dying days of World War 2, as Berlin crumbled to rubble under Russian bombs and rockets, the Nazis played a desperate last card in the shape of the Volkssturm, an ad hoc fighting force primarily comprised of old men, invalided veterans and those not deemed fit for normal military service. (As most of those were already dead.)
They were rounded up and sent off to the front (usually only a few hundred yards away) in their civilian clothes, armed with whatever odds and sods of weaponry could be scrabbled together – most commonly the one-shot Panzerfaust anti-tank grenade, as seen in the pic above – and invariably slaughtered in the streets by the disbelieving battalions of the Red Army, because it didn’t matter to Hitler whether they lived or died.
Hatey McHateface on The Sacrifice: “@Zimba Regarding moral inconsistencies. I believe a meaningful debate between fair-minded individuals acting in good faith first needs some kind…” Apr 2, 21:17
sarah on The Gender Of Mountains: “IMPORTANT: Leah Gunn Barrett attended the Public Petitions Committee at Holyrood today in order to see what would happen to…” Apr 2, 19:40
agent x on The Gender Of Mountains: “Caroline Lucas says: “He helped transform the fortunes of the Scottish Green party – taking the party into government for…” Apr 2, 18:13
Porty on The Long Future: “Have a wee look at her post and highlights of committee meeting today at Holyrood today, she’s a fighter, well…” Apr 2, 18:08
Porty on The Long Future: “So the game’s a bogey, so we call it a day?” Apr 2, 18:04
Porty on The Long Future: “So the game’s a bogey, so we call it a day?” Apr 2, 18:00
Aidan on The Long Future: “@Xaracen – to understand why the geographic separation requirement is so important you have to look back at the context…” Apr 2, 17:31
Porty on The Long Future: “Was & still am a follower of the Rev, but starting to question myself why, isn’t it about time he…” Apr 2, 17:27
Porty on The Long Future: “Was & still am a follower of the Rev, but starting to question myself why, isn’t it about time he…” Apr 2, 17:27
twathater on The Gender Of Mountains: “Another piece of evidence to EXPOSE the continued ongoing lunacy that we must find some way to address https://open.substack.com/pub/iainmacwhirter/p/trans-cat-msp-cleared-of-non-crime?r=5catlo&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email” Apr 2, 16:38
Zimba on The Sacrifice: “First off, apologies for essentially posting the same (or similar) comment twice. I’m not a frequent poster here (or anywhere…” Apr 2, 15:59
Zimba on The Long Future: “This is not a portrait of what Scotland’s politicians alone have become. The malaise is sadly European generally and is…” Apr 2, 15:21
Mark Beggan on The Gender Of Mountains: “Is Greer related to Chapman. Strange shaped head sneering mouth with studs for teeth and eyes that sit suspiciously in…” Apr 2, 14:35
Mark Beggan on The Gender Of Mountains: “The Teletubbies have to say bye bye Dipsy. Dipsy likes bouncing on his bottom. But now Dipsy has a sore…” Apr 2, 13:45
Hatey McHateface on The Sacrifice: “Ah, Zimba, always good to hear from the kind of poster who believes that any number of dead men, women,…” Apr 2, 13:17
Zimba on The Sacrifice: “Good job, Hatey, our kindly bombs and bullets can help them learn to see their own moral failings before it’s…” Apr 2, 12:14
Zimba on The Sacrifice: “Good thing, Hatey, our bombs and bullets are there to help them see their moral failings while being clinically slaughtered.” Apr 2, 11:57
Andrew scott on The Gender Of Mountains: “Good news the green gnome is standing down as co co chair scot greens BAD NEWS NOT STANDING DOWN FROM…” Apr 2, 11:40
Louise Hogg on The Long Future: “ALBA Party exists: 1. So voters HAVE a genuinely pro-Independence option to vote for on the ballot paper. As Young…” Apr 2, 11:15
sarah on The Gender Of Mountains: “Hear, hear. The Rev is doing a great job in not letting this all go unreported.” Apr 2, 11:04
Louise Hogg on The Gender Of Mountains: “Absolutely agree, Lorn. This utter infestation of porn-addict driven filth needs cleared out of any organisation directly or indirectly receiving…” Apr 2, 10:40
Xaracen on The Long Future: “@Aidan; No, Aidan, I’m not trying to argue that a ChatGPT summary overrides the explicit language of a UN declaration.…” Apr 2, 08:49
Alf Baird on The Gender Of Mountains: ““‘jellyfish legislation’” The Welsh term for jellyfish is ‘wibli wobli’, which seems to well describe this type of legislation.” Apr 2, 08:49
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: “Just two? You’re not paying enough attention ” Apr 2, 08:37
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: “While many in the world are celebrating the “end of woke”, the legions of woke, fully insinuated into positions of…” Apr 2, 08:33
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: ““Colonialism is over” But wait, Geri. Haven’t you to duly punish them at the ballot box first? You’re trying to…” Apr 2, 08:21
Chas on The Gender Of Mountains: “I suspect that Geri and Billy Carlin are the same person, with two user names?” Apr 2, 08:19
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: “Ah ken YLS, but I still think there’s hope for you yet. And so I soldier oan.” Apr 2, 08:12
Young Lochinvar on The Gender Of Mountains: “It’s an unprofitable exercise arguing with drunks, trolls, bots or spooks (y’all).. Good-bye ya roaster..” Apr 2, 02:40