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.
We were interested to read about this earlier this evening:
Not least because it was the first we’d heard about it. At the time of writing this post we’ve still had no communication from the Standards Commission to alert us to the judgement, which is frankly a bit of a poor show. We might file a complaint with the Standards Commission about it, depending on whether we can be bothered to wait another year and a quarter for the result.
We are of course pleased that the odious Cllr Joji has finally been formally censured for her obnoxious behaviour, but frankly she’s gotten off very lightly.
We expected nothing better from Mhairi Hunter, of course, a once-decent human being corrupted by Nicola Sturgeon into an unthinking party drone.
But the reaction of the First Minister of Scotland to Ash Regan’s defection to Alba today is a sour, ugly and childish thing that would have been unworthy of the leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party, never mind a serious grown-up in a position of power.
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.
We thought this was overdue an update. It’s got about 16 new front pages on it, one whole new row and a handful of newly-rediscovered replacements. It really is worth taking a few minutes to peruse it properly (click on the pic to enlarge it) to get the full effect of eight wasted years of deja vu disappointment.
It’s not even The National’s fault. They’re a business, they’re simply trying to sell a few papers to a diminishing audience of endlessly gullible eejits. The real fault lies with the halfwitted SNP members who just keep on doggedly failing to learn a single lesson, and repeatedly vote to carry on doing what they know doesn’t work and never will.
The writing, we mean. Because it’s not until you see it baldly written down in black and white that it really hits you how insane it is.
The SNP has 44 MPs now, and has not managed to enter independence negotiations.
Winning 29 seats would represent a LOSS of 15, or more than a third.
And they’re about to stand up in front of voters and insist that that would somehow compel the UK government to hand over what they’ve been flatly refusing since 2016.
(It’s all pretty academic anyway, obv, as we’ll be amazed if they get double figures.)
The very last shred of credibility has left the building, readers.
The greatest intellectual weakness of the independence movement is its attitude towards Trident, and trying to reason with people about it (whether readers or other independence activists) is consistently one of the most frustrating aspects of writing Wings, because nuclear disarmers and Unionists are equally impervious to logic on the subject.
The UK’s nuclear “deterrent” – or as it was more accurately and memorably described by the former Vulcan nuclear bomber squadron commander Air Commodore Alastair Mackie, “a virility symbol, like a stick-on hairy chest” – is the greatest gift to a future Scottish independence negotiating team imaginable.
The rest of the UK gets a lot of economic and infrastructural benefits from Scotland, like water and energy, but ultimately it’s not massively bothered about those. Water is not yet a critical area and energy can be sourced elsewhere, and in any event Brexit shows us that the UK is more than willing to do itself enormous harm in the service of ideological political goals.
Cynicus on Yelling at the tide: “TURABDIN says: 23 January, 2026 at 5:09 pm “Language is more than the sum of its functional utilitarian communication capacities,…” Jan 24, 01:19
James Barr Gardner on Yelling at the tide: “John Swinney’s party will go into the Holyrood Election with a new Chief Executive and new head of communications as…” Jan 24, 00:47
Bilbo on Yelling at the tide: “@ Main Got some shares in your portfolio of certain American Pharmaceutical companies?” Jan 24, 00:11
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Yelling at the tide: “Regarding Norse pronunciation effects on Gaelic, the late Professor Derick Thomson wrote: « In phonology Scottish Gaelic differs from Irish…” Jan 23, 23:08
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: ““Or am I missing something?” That’s my conclusion. Only one reply – this one. Please don’t shoot the messenger.” Jan 23, 22:48
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Sorry, Sven, too late in the day for yet another language. Besides, Hobbit Boy beat you to it.” Jan 23, 22:43
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: ““how many woman think Trans woman are woman” I wonder how many women (and men) think the plural of woman…” Jan 23, 22:41
PC Foster on Yelling at the tide: “Lorna – I could not agree with you more- I will not vote nationalist until the woke/trans are well defeated…” Jan 23, 22:12
Bilbo on Yelling at the tide: “Trumps only interest and only audience is the people of the United States of America.” Jan 23, 22:01
Run the Border on Yelling at the tide: “You would get a more coherent set of responses from a formal complaint about your energy supply. This is a…” Jan 23, 21:53
Run the Border on Yelling at the tide: “Happy to write.Get the Rev to organise it.” Jan 23, 21:41
Marie on Yelling at the tide: “Oh that fool will still be calling Donnie the worlds greatest living half Scotsman. Pitiful really.” Jan 23, 21:40
Bilbo on Yelling at the tide: “I wonder how many woman think Trans woman are woman as well?” Jan 23, 21:21
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: ““While social media is much maligned, it does give us a more realistic viewpoint of American society” No shit, Sherlock!…” Jan 23, 21:19
Sven on Yelling at the tide: “Kundi foroyskt vera upprunaliga skotska máli? ?” (Could Faroese be the original Scots language ?). Or mayhap it was Norn.…” Jan 23, 21:18
agentx on Yelling at the tide: “Sturgeon issued a statement on Friday evening, saying: “I understand Ms Darroch’s determination to get answers, and my thoughts are…” Jan 23, 21:18
Lorna Campbell on Yelling at the tide: “David Rodgers: as a male, a man, that is your privilege. It is not mine or that of every woman…” Jan 23, 21:16
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “The SG foresee the day, when Scotland leads the world in woowoo and every Scot is trans, when babies will…” Jan 23, 21:05
Lorna Campbell on Yelling at the tide: “Precisely, Ian. Feed in what you want to be regurgitated as ‘fact’ and you have the kind of dog’s breakfast…” Jan 23, 21:00
Bilbo on Yelling at the tide: “American values that depends on the right to carry guns doesn’t work in every county that doesn’t have that right.…” Jan 23, 20:49
sam on Yelling at the tide: “The SED [Scottish Education Department] was initially presided over by the Committee of Council in Education in London and had…” Jan 23, 20:25
Lorna Campbell on Yelling at the tide: “It was illegal, James, from the moment only Scotland, Wales and NI devolved. England should also have devolved in keeping…” Jan 23, 20:24
Bilbo on Yelling at the tide: “I see that it is trending in the UK MSM about Trumps inferred comments towards British soldiers in recent conflicts…” Jan 23, 19:51
Southernbystander on Yelling at the tide: “These baby boxes seem incredibly cruel. How have the SG got away with providing boxes to stuff a baby in…” Jan 23, 19:48
Bilbo on Yelling at the tide: “Increased standard of livings but better quality of life?” Jan 23, 19:47
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Yelling at the tide: “« Gaelic culture reached its zenith in Scotland during the eleventh century, when the borders of the kingdom were extended…” Jan 23, 19:23
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““Scots has faced every pressure a language can face, and yet it’s not only still here—it’s growing.” – from “How…” Jan 23, 18:14
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “That’s OK though, sam. The “Education (Scotland) Act 1872” was undoubtedly enacted by some big, bad, English barsturts who then…” Jan 23, 17:50
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “So what they say about incest is true. Crivens, help m’boab!” Jan 23, 17:45
sam on Yelling at the tide: “Wuz that yer Da n Ma? Interested? https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/scots-language” Jan 23, 17:41
