News reaches Wings this evening that Humza Yousaf has called an emergency meeting of the Scottish Cabinet at 10 o’clock tomorrow morning, just a couple of hours before FMQs. (This information has been confirmed directly to us by a source very close to a member of said Cabinet.)
An emergency Cabinet meeting is an extraordinarily rare event. As far as we’re able to establish there have only been two during the SNP’s time in power – when the budget failed to pass in 2009 and Alex Salmond’s administration had to decide whether or not to trigger a general election, and one the day after the Brexit vote to supposedly plan a second indyref (LOL). But in any case they’re extremely unusual.
The subject of the meeting has not been disclosed to us. It could, for example, concern imminent developments in Operation Branchform, or it could relate to the Bute House Agreement between the SNP and the Scottish Greens. The men in grey kilts may have come for the FM. Or Scotland could be about to declare war on Morocco or something. But we are told that the fact of the meeting taking place is a 100% certainty.
So no sleeping in tomorrow, readers. It’s probably going to be big.
More than three months have passed since Alex Salmond launched a lawsuit against the Scottish Government for its grotesquely botched handling of false allegations of sexual misconduct against him.
With Scottish politics currently in a completely moribund state, as the party of government disintegrates shambolically and the main opposition party keeps its mouth shut and its head down in an attempt to not destroy its newfound and extremely fragile status as a credible alternative, one might imagine that the political media would be desperate for the case to get under way and provide them with some juicy content.
So it’s slightly surprising that none of them has noticed the latest development.
But we’ve subsequently noticed a number of attempts by various people to muddy the story by talking about a “draft” warrant request, implying that there was no improper delay. So we checked up, and thought you might like to know how the process works.
The SNP has of course denied them, but they also denied our recent leak from the party’s draft manifesto and we know for sure that that was real. The trouble with lying all the time is that nobody believes you even if you occasionally tell the the truth.
Of course, there would be an easy way to prove the numbers were a fake – release the real ones, which is in any case the most fundamental element of transparency in a democratic election. And whatever they are could hardly be any more embarrassing than the rumours, which have candidates topping the list (and likely to get seats) on a shocking 2.4% of the vote.
We thought readers might like a look at the draft SNP manifesto introduction (written, we hear, by Mike Russell) that’s currently being passed around branches for comment.
Alert readers will undoubtedly have noticed a number of, to put it mildly, explosive-sounding developments this evening regarding the ongoing inquiries into the Scottish Government’s misconduct over false allegations against Alex Salmond.
Several reports have quoted extracts from the former First Minister’s submission to James Hamilton, who’s investigating the current First Minister over possible breaches of the Ministerial Code relating to the investigation of the allegations.
The submission – delivered on Mr Salmond’s birthday – has been widely leaked to the media but only selectively reported, and like others Wings has obtained a full copy.
We are advised that its contents do not contain anything which breaches or potentially breaches Lady Dorrian’s court order protecting the identities of the complainers against Mr Salmond, and as such there are no barriers to us publishing the entire document in the public interest, because its contents make some extremely grave and disturbing allegations against the current First Minister.
One of them, of course, is who leaked the story to Davie Clegg of the Daily Record in August of that year, when the whole thing should have been confidential and passing it to the press was an unambiguously malicious and criminal act.
Over the last year or so, this site’s commentary on matters surrounding the attempted imprisonment of Alex Salmond over false allegations of sexual abuse has attracted a considerable amount of ire from a section of the readership, demanding “proof” of the involvement of the current First Minister.
Such proof has been impossible to provide for legal reasons. But it’s always been the case that the truth could only be suppressed for so long, and events in recent days have brought the first chinks of light through the wall of smoke and mirrors the Scottish Government has been attempting to surround the matter with.
So in our very lightest and softest shoes, let’s tiptoe through what is both a labyrinth and a minefield and see if we can make some of it a little easier to understand.
Aidan on The shifting sands of memory: “@Mia – the thing I like about you is even when your arguments get comprehensively debunked or disproven, you just…” May 23, 14:22
James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “Of the four nations left to be Colonised England is the last one, and that is now in progress. But…” May 23, 13:50
Mia on The shifting sands of memory: ““Every true Scottish Indy supporter must avoid a second Indy Ref like the plague” Every pro-independence supporters must avoid at…” May 23, 13:43
James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “Strangely enough the people in Wales still feel, remember their annexation all these years later by England, Yet their hundreds…” May 23, 13:42
Lorn on The Ace Attorney: “No, Katielass, it was, and remains, legal. That, believe it or not, may well become our way out of the…” May 23, 13:13
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “Mia correctly concludes that every true Scottish Indy supporter must avoid a second Indy Ref like the plague. And she…” May 23, 13:04
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “That’s a mighty smart seeing eye dowg you’ve got yourself there, James.” May 23, 12:56
Lorn on The Ace Attorney: “They were not nutters: they were, mainly, members of the elite – aristocracy, etc – who had invested in Darien…” May 23, 12:50
Mia on The shifting sands of memory: “Now, this is interesting. The following quote was taken from the article Gove ‘in agreement’ with Swinney over second independence…” May 23, 12:48
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “Dunno about longer, but plenty are getting a lot denser.” May 23, 12:47
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “I’ve asked Grok for a summary of your latest post, Barbs. Grok says: “The post is a free association, alliterative…” May 23, 12:42
Mark Beggan on The shifting sands of memory: “Is it me or are the paragraphs on here getting longer.” May 23, 12:05
Alf Baird on The shifting sands of memory: “A very valid point, Northcode. Postcolonial theory (Fanon) suggests this transformation from an ‘independence movement’ to become a ‘national liberation…” May 23, 12:04
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: ““Leaving the false Union is, of course, the answer to almost every social and economic ill that Scotland is currently…” May 23, 12:04
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “Much the same could be said for the Iroquois, Northcode. And they’ve been on the receiving end for more than…” May 23, 11:59
Geri on The shifting sands of memory: “Scotland isn’t “self governing” ya plank. Does it’s votes count in Westminster? No. Can it collect it’s own revenues? No…” May 23, 11:56
Mark Beggan on The shifting sands of memory: “Was Ally MacLeod a reincarnation of Charles Edward Stuart?” May 23, 11:46
Northcode on The shifting sands of memory: “A small and inconsequential point, perhaps. But one I’d like to make. I do not favour the term ‘Scottish independence’…” May 23, 11:33
Captain Caveman on The shifting sands of memory: “@Alf Baird Wrong as usual. The “Scots” don’t purely comprise of Picts, but other ethnicities as well, most notably (but…” May 23, 11:20
Mark Beggan on The shifting sands of memory: “If only Bonnie dick head had taken a bullet at Culloden.” May 23, 11:12
sarah on The shifting sands of memory: “ON Topic: Leaving the false Union is, of course, the answer to almost every social and economic ill that Scotland…” May 23, 10:54
Alf Baird on The shifting sands of memory: “Us Picts are still here, merely under a different name, i.e. Scots.” May 23, 10:51
Northcode on The shifting sands of memory: “Good points well made and nicely summarised, James. One of the many notable things about the Scots is that we…” May 23, 10:37
Mia on The shifting sands of memory: ““The British Empire, at its peak, encompassed a vast network of territories and dominions ruled by the United Kingdom. It…” May 23, 10:32
Alf Baird on The shifting sands of memory: “Excellent summary of a colonised and therefore ‘doun-hauden’ (i.e oppressed) people, James. Albert Memmi explained the process whereby the colonizer…” May 23, 10:19
James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “One of the issues of a Colonised Country is the removal of its Culture, and their history, But along with…” May 23, 09:40
Captain Caveman on The shifting sands of memory: ““Inbred foreigners” If we’re going back to Roman times as per Scot Finlayson’s post, the question is: who in Europe…” May 23, 09:23
Vivian O’Blivion on The shifting sands of memory: “James Kelly, the Cumbernauld Copernicus dismissed four UK wide, Westminster voting intention polls in a row that put the SNP…” May 23, 09:10