While idly browsing Twitter this morning, we made a startling discovery triggered by the SNP leadership election, and it was this: nobody in Scotland really knows what the nation’s law on abortion is.
It was prompted by these two tweets, both of which appear to be true:
The thing they agree on is that Humza Yousaf has just declared that he wants to change the law around abortion so that women can abort babies in Scotland solely on the grounds that they don’t like which sex they are. And that seems like something that should probably be bigger news.
Nicola Sturgeon told Scotland’s press this morning that despite her weariness, she could have managed a few more months or even a year as First Minister, which would at least have got her halfway to keeping her promise to serve a full term if she was elected in 2021.
Which just makes her timing all the harder to explain.
We did so because we’d just been told – by a completely random source – that Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney would both resign today, and Brown would be the interim leader while a replacement was elected. We’d never spoken to this person before, but the manner in which they said it made us take it more seriously than all the “someone told me” rumours we get told and ignore every other day.
As yet only the first part has been confirmed, but you have to admit that our source is looking pretty darn hot right now.
There are terms beloved of politics activists and commonly used on social media which are a baffling mystery to the general public. We’ve spoken several times of the word “gaslighting”, which is understandably used as shorthand for quite a complex thing that’s difficult to describe concisely, but nevertheless acts as a barrier to understanding for anyone not overly political.
Below are two news reports from the Scottish Sun this week:
Both of the people arrested were male-bodied individuals who identify as women. As far as we’re aware, neither of them has a Gender Recognition Certificate. They are both the same sex, biologically and legally, and both describe themselves as female.
Yet in giving statements about their respective arrests, Police Scotland called one of them a man and one of them a woman. And we’re having no luck finding out why.
But isn’t that the Scottish Greens co-leader in that picture, in the bunnet, between his colleague Ross Greer and Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, all enthusiastically clapping Douglas just a few weeks ago?
The title of this article might sound a bit like the name of a band making their debut at Glastonbury this year, but in fact it’s something infinitely more serious.
News broke late last night that the person we must presumably now refer to as an “individual” who had been arrested in connection with the disappearance of a missing Galashiels schoolgirl (happily found safe and well and back home with her parents) had in fact been charged with an as-yet-unspecified crime.
But the alleged crime wasn’t the only thing going unspecified.
People across Scotland breathed a sigh of relief this morning when missing Galashiels 11-year-old Kaitlyn Easson was found safe and well after a multi-service search.
The police have arrested[EDIT: and now charged] a 53-year-old man in connection with her disappearance, named by the Daily Record as Andrew Miller, a local butcher. This was one of two names that numerous sources had been passing to Wings since the man was detained, but the two names only referred to one person.
After Wings’ investigation into the disturbing world of “furries” earlier this week, the mainstream press picked up on the quite extraordinary decision by SNP MSP Christina McKelvie to endorse a “counter-protest” being organised by the costume fetishists against a women’s-rights event in Glasgow tomorrow.
Because it appears the SNP are more and more openly throwing their weight behind both extreme sexual kink (and worse) and the intimidation of women.
On January 22nd the violent, abusive transgender activist Jack Douglas, who now uses the name Beth and the Twitter username “pickle_bee” (slang for “somebody who likes dick”), threatened that feminist campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen’s imminent “Standing For Women” event in Glasgow was going to be disrupted by the “furry” community, who happen to be hosting a gathering at the Crowne Plaza that same weekend.
“Why? What possible grudge could furries have against women?”, a friend giggled, as I related this news to her. But to answer that we have to know who these people are.
Last week he was prominent in a protest outside Queen Elizabeth House against the UK government’s S35 intervention over the Gender Recognition Reform Bill. He spoke alongside MSPs including Patrick Harvie, Karen Adam, Ross Greer, Paul Sweeney and Alex Cole-Hamilton, who lavished fulsome and effusive praise on him, going so far as to say that it was for Douglas personally that MSPs had pushed the bill through.
Scot Finlayson on A crisis of democracy: “£90 billion a year in interest payments for UK £3 trillion debt, most of the debt was from Brown and…” Jan 14, 23:56
Iain mhor on A crisis of democracy: “Yes and no. I’d rather say that under the Marshall Plan (of which Britain received the Lion’s share) the monies…” Jan 14, 23:43
gregor on A crisis of democracy: “BBC (2025): MSP pay to rise by 3.2% to almost £75,000: “The total cost of MSP salaries and associated taxes…” Jan 14, 23:41
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on A crisis of democracy: “I have just watched and posted the lower of two videos at the link below. It is archive footage of…” Jan 14, 23:20
gregor on A crisis of democracy: “Must be my imagination here, but It feels as though I’m talking to myself sometimes, lol” Jan 14, 23:04
gregor on Nicola’s Non-Truths: “re. “Who will get the camper van after the divorce?”” Jan 14, 22:46
Jay on A crisis of democracy: “There is something in common between Starmer and Trump.” Jan 14, 22:32
Jay on A crisis of democracy: “Yes, and as Rev Stu mentioned earlier, much depends on the design of the P.R. system used, it can put…” Jan 14, 22:25
gregor on A crisis of democracy: “Scotland doesn’t get the message, huh ? I don’t believe you… “Message: 1. a communication, usually brief, from one person…” Jan 14, 22:17
PacMan on A crisis of democracy: “That is based on the assumption that all of these appointees and members of both houses are totally loyal to…” Jan 14, 22:17
Jay on A crisis of democracy: “That summarises the threat. There is further threat from oligarchs undermining the ‘4th estate’, either buying formerly reputable titles or…” Jan 14, 22:15
Dave Hansell on A crisis of democracy: “Nope. Not even Wikipedia has a page on “The Sherman Plan” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?go=Go&search=The+Sherman+Plan&ns0=1 The search engine lists the 1787 Roger Sherman…” Jan 14, 22:03
Derek on A crisis of democracy: ““the government is opposed by four out of every five voters” isn’t really true though. Plenty of people who voted…” Jan 14, 21:58
gregor on A crisis of democracy: “COPFS @COPFS: reposted: “Disrupting serious organised crime is a priority for @ScotGov and partners on the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce…”:…” Jan 14, 21:29
willi on A crisis of democracy: “Can’t but help think what friendship the Donald John is saving up for the hapless Sir Keir Starmer who actively…” Jan 14, 21:22
Marie on A crisis of democracy: “If you say so Chatham House. Hilarious” Jan 14, 21:21
Dave Hansell on A crisis of democracy: “Surely the SNP have not done that much damage? Otherwise, we’ed have seen the official D-notice.” Jan 14, 21:20
Humza Who? on A crisis of democracy: “A promise from that amoral grifter Farage is even less reliable than one from the SNP or the Labour Party’s…” Jan 14, 21:07
gregor on A crisis of democracy: “Back To The Future: I have rejoined the SNP: “…in case anyone else is thinking it’s time to work for…” Jan 14, 21:05
Humza Who? on A crisis of democracy: “There should be enough checks and balances in the US system. That isn’t the case these days. The Republican Party…” Jan 14, 21:01
gregor on A crisis of democracy: “Operation Branchform latest (2025): Police ‘fed up’ of being blamed for length of SNP finance probe: “The Crown Office has…” Jan 14, 20:44
robertkknight on A crisis of democracy: “What’s the difference? 46 seats to pro-Devolution parties and Scotland gets shafted in any event. The nu-SNP achieved the square…” Jan 14, 20:37
agent X on A crisis of democracy: “Labour won 35.3% of the vote in Scotland = 37 seats. SNP won 30% of the vote in Scotland =…” Jan 14, 20:13
gregor on A crisis of democracy: “Chatham House: The importance of democracy: Why is democracy important to the world and how does it help maintain a…” Jan 14, 19:48