Nicola Sturgeon is due to give her evidence to the COVID inquiry tomorrow – if, of course, she remembers anything. We’re awaiting, open-mouthed in genuine shock, her explanation for this.
Because try as hard as we might, we cannot for the lives of us bring to mind a single possible legitimate justification for a First Minister to do such a thing.
Alert readers may however note that 19 March 2020 was just four days before Alex Salmond was cleared of all charges, and might find themselves pondering the reasons why she might want to be in possession of a cheap disposable text-capable phone at that particular point in time.
There are many people in the world deserving of sympathy at the moment, readers, but spare a thought in your busy day for Scotland’s Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain.
Just two and a half years into the post (most incumbents post-devolution have served around five), she’s already had to deal with a lot of what sports people call “hospital passes”. But she’s about to find herself in another nasty spot not of her own making.
On Tuesday 16th January the UK parliament put beyond doubt that their claims down the centuries that the UK is a respectful union of equals is, and always was, a lie.
This was the second time I’d brought my Scotland (Self-Determination) Bill before the house and there are various opinions floating around about the reasons for, and implications of, introducing the legislation as drafted. Wings kindly suggested I set out my reasons for bringing it forward for a second time, and why I consider Tuesday’s defeat in the chamber as a Pyrrhic victory for the union.
We make no apology for returning once again to the depressing subject of the Scottish Government’s proposed new law to ban “conversion practices”, because it provides such an illuminating microcosm of how far a once competent and widely-respected administration has fallen since 2015.
Emma Roddick, who is piloting the bill towards the statute books in much the same way that Mohamed Atta piloted American Airlines Flight 11 towards the World Trade Centre, is a 26-year-old who by her own admission suffers from a serious and debilitating mental illness that any sane country would regard as an insurmountable bar to political office.
The Scottish Government’s website about its controversial and extremely disturbing new “conversion practices” legislation assures citizens that the proposal was formed after consultation with an “Expert Advisory Group”.
But all of a sudden it doesn’t seem to want you to know who they were.
After yesterday’s disturbing article about the indoctrination of Scottish schoolchildren into transgender ideology via the Scottish Government’s proposed new “conversion practices” legislation, Wings was contacted by a number of current Scottish teachers telling us we had no idea how far it had already gone.
The message below was by no means untypical:
“This stuff around the UNCRC has been a concern for a while. Some of the articles seem to be being interpreted in ways they were never intended. It has become a vehicle for activist teachers to push their own agendas, all the while hiding behind ‘children’s rights’.
Getting certified is being pushed heavily in every school. Headteachers seem to be under a lot of pressure (coming from Scottish Government) to get it all implemented. We’re currently working towards silver.”
It’s from a 2018 BBC3 documentary called Becoming A Trans Man – Leo. The 15-year-old child in the video plays with a Rubik’s Cube as Wolton, who was 31 at the time, enthusiastically grooms her into transitioning into a “man”, advocating chest binders, a double mastectomy and the irreversible mutilation of her genitalia (“Lower surgery – you want that”) that will, Wolton confirms, lead to her permanent sterilisation, as well as the destruction of her future adult sexual function.
The BBC presents it as a heartwarming tale of friendship.
Mike Russell, currently at the centre of controversy over his appointment as chair of the Scottish Land Commission, hit the political big stage during Scotland’s first ever SNP administration under Alex Salmond, whom, in turn, Mike had previously seen into office as Salmond’s campaign manager.
In 2007 he was appointed as Minister for Environment, then in 2009 he became the Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution, and his conventional ministerial career concluded when he went on to replace Fiona Hyslop as Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning until the end of 2014.
Following the 2014 independence vote, the pre-referendum era ended with Salmond’s dignified (albeit temporary) stage exit; Nicola Sturgeon took the helm and began to reform what had been left to her by her predecessor.
A core pillar of Sturgeon’s centrist reform was the construction of an almost entirely opaque ivory tower of power from which both SNP and the state would run their covert affairs with subversive, centralizing, strong-arm granularity, cleverly camouflaging its sinister implications from the public through cult-of-personality media management.
Instrumental in this, among a very few select others, was Mike Russell.
Young Lochinvar on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Could the lawyers on here cruising silently beneath the surface as opposed to those pretending to be lawyers comment on…” Aug 26, 00:11
Mark Beggan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “If Charles had fallen on the field and the ringleaders were hung the outcome for the rest may have been…” Aug 25, 22:56
agentx on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “” Transparency campaigner Benjamin Harrop wrote to the force seeking the written statement Ms Sturgeon made to officers after she…” Aug 25, 22:53
Mark Beggan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “The Geneva convention had not been written at that time. Without trying to be being contentious, what else did they…” Aug 25, 22:41
Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “C’moan boys, let’s see a fight over who gets possession of the Baton Of Erudition. Twat H is ancient, but…” Aug 25, 22:40
GM on Before Action: “Burning the quangos to the ground, man I would love to be here to witness it.” Aug 25, 21:58
Dan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “So what to do on a site that purports to want Scotland to return to self-governance… Wait for days for…” Aug 25, 21:57
Mark Beggan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “” Journalism is now a middle class hobby which is subsidized by their parents”” Aug 25, 21:42
Mark Beggan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “‘Fucks’ 3. ‘Yoonies’ 2 in the same sentence. ‘pish’ 2. ‘fuckwit’ 2. ‘Wanker’ 1. Thank you for your contribution to…” Aug 25, 21:32
Dan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Whoopsie, forgot to clip off the https:// in previous post link making vid embed.” Aug 25, 21:26
GM on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Swinney was well warned, He kent fine. The Smith Commission was a sham, containment.” Aug 25, 21:04
Aidan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “@James – £1trn in oil extracted over 40 years produces an estimated tax revenue of £4-6bn per year, around 0.5%…” Aug 25, 20:53
Captain Caveman on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Get a Time Machine or a job, Fatso, preferably both. A shower would also be in order.” Aug 25, 20:09
Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “It’s certainly near worthless when the current Scottish government at HR, the SNP and Green administration, has committed Scotland to…” Aug 25, 20:09
Aidan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “None of those studies suggest that the overall mortality rate increased between 2010 and 2019, or up to 2025 (we…” Aug 25, 20:02
Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: ““we have known for decades (if not centuries) that increasing poverty, reducing public services and taking away social security benefits…” Aug 25, 19:47
James on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Ah. As expected. The unionists seasoned pish goes “naw it isnae” [that’s Scotch, Adrian] and “naw he didnae”. “….A country…” Aug 25, 19:30
Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: ““austerity measures resulted in about 190,000 excess deaths, or a 3% increase in mortality rates, from 2010 to 2019, including…” Aug 25, 19:28
sam on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/01/24/are-uk-austerity-policies-social-murder/ “We argue that the hundreds of thousands of extra deaths seen in the UK between 2012 and 2019 (with…” Aug 25, 19:16
sam on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/35/2/235/8008562?login=false “Profound changes to mortality trends and inequalities were observed across both nations and all cities in the decade up…” Aug 25, 19:08
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “English version of a foody poem. Posted before, but a while since. “If you had seen this toast before it…” Aug 25, 19:02
sam on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2024/06/19/the-cost-of-austerity-how-spending-cuts-led-to-190000-excess-deaths/ “The austerity measures introduced by the UK government in 2010 had severe consequences for the British population. Yonatan Berman…” Aug 25, 19:00
Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Your turn with the Baton Of Erudition is it?” Aug 25, 18:45
twathater on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Where the FUCK is engerlands barnet formula where the fuck is engerlands parliament, where the fuck is engerlands version of…” Aug 25, 18:10
Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Ah, c’moan noo Aidan! Div ye want Indy or nae? If ye dae, swear blind tae abody that WM is…” Aug 25, 18:06
Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “An interesting take on things, sam. Some people would rather kill themselves than have a more equitable allocation of scarce…” Aug 25, 17:49
Aidan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “There has been no “extraordinary rise in mortality” across the UK, the mortality rate has decreased overall since 2010, and…” Aug 25, 17:41
Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: ““Typical factors: … Housing need and homelessness” Uh Oh. There’s 5.7 million UK households getting cash from the government to…” Aug 25, 17:34