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.
We’ve just had the results back from some very interesting new polling, and the first snippet is a particularly instructive one.
When challenged on questions of gender, the reflex response of politicians of most parties in the Scottish Parliament is to bang on about how overwhelmingly MSPs voted for the Gender Recognition Reform bill.
Curiously, so far no journalist has bothered to ask whether they care that according to every poll, they’re utterly failing to represent the views of their constituents on the subject – which is, after all, what they’re supposed to be there for.
So we just asked directly if people felt their MSPs were doing their jobs.
Ouch. By well over 2 to 1, respondents felt that they were being let down by the people who are supposed to speak for them. (Excluding DKs the margin is just shy of 70/30, very similar to the margin by which people in polls oppose self-ID generally.)
But it’s when you drill down into the detail that it gets a bit disturbing.
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?
Diligently alert readers may have noticed that the SNP MP, former vomit-mopper and permanent embarrassment to braincells Stewart McDonald has an article in today’s National about the best way to look like he’s trying to secure independence without risking losing his cosy lucrative job in glamorous London with all his fancy MP pals.
(McDonald is also one of the party’s most virulent advocates of its massively unpopular gender reforms, which isn’t relevant to anything but we’ve got a streak to maintain.)
Unfortunately it’s 4,000 words long and unbearably boring, but since you pay us we’ve taken the bullet for you, read the whole thing and now present it here in précis form:
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.
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
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Great post, Alf. And here was me thinking the people of these islands had always enjoyed quite a privileged and…” Jan 23, 17:40
sam on Yelling at the tide: “Linguistic professors, McLeod and Jones of Edinburgh University chart the decline of the use of Gaelic language. “In the mid…” Jan 23, 17:32
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““Gaelic is exponentially closer than Inglis is to (what is known of) the language of the Picts.” I think you’re…” Jan 23, 17:28
TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “A cosmopolitan «littérateur» ancestor of mine wrote in Ottoman Turkish. He disliked Syriac, and had reservations about Arabic considering the…” Jan 23, 17:09
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: “All I know, Sam, is that when my folk arrived here there was naebody else tae be seen… and it…” Jan 23, 17:04
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Yelling at the tide: “Gaelic is exponentially closer than Inglis is to (what is known of) the language of the Picts.” Jan 23, 16:58
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““Seriously, tak yer Gaelic and yer Inglis and get yersel’s tae…” Obviously I wasn’t being serious with my last comment.…” Jan 23, 16:52
sam on Yelling at the tide: “@ Northcode “As far as I’m concerned Gaelic is the weird language of the first invader, English that of the…” Jan 23, 16:47
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Shirley-Anne Somerville has sent a baby box to New York mayor Mamdani. To show him how it works, and to…” Jan 23, 16:46
Alf Baird on Yelling at the tide: ““claim we were all colonised near a century afore 1707” As noted above, Linguistic Imperialism (e.g. language deprivation and cultural…” Jan 23, 16:42
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Ah, c’moan noo, Northy. Just the other day you were self-identifying as shit. Shit should be in seventh heaven in…” Jan 23, 16:20
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““Can we please therefore jettison the exclusivist “mither tongue” myth… No! As far as I’m concerned Gaelic is the weird…” Jan 23, 15:56
sam on Yelling at the tide: “@ “It was a choice made and maintained by Scots.” Hardly. Historian, Iain MacKinnon. “And in 1608 there was a…” Jan 23, 15:53
TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “When i was a kid my parents visited some relatives and other exiles in California, we have relatives near &…” Jan 23, 15:33
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “See fit ye’ve done noo, Fearghas? Ye’ve empowered the Baird/Northy axis tae claim we were all colonised near a century…” Jan 23, 15:15
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““He also claimed “It was the English who commanded that Scots schoolchildren be viciously belted with a leather strap…” No……” Jan 23, 15:08
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Yelling at the tide: “We observe that the following was written almost exactly a century BEFORE the Act of Union. We note that the…” Jan 23, 15:03
100%Yes on Yelling at the tide: “Is she really worth fighting for “Information commissioner sues SNP Government over ‘failure to publish Sturgeon files’. I wouldn’t give…” Jan 23, 14:51
willie on Yelling at the tide: “If I may, can I turn attention to the Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond and the recent announcement that Lomond…” Jan 23, 14:41
factchecker on Yelling at the tide: “Thank you Cynicus for some factual input. The professor writes “Ignorant rubbish” indeed. He claims “In seeking to justify only…” Jan 23, 14:29
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Aye, TURABDIN, there’s been notable failures. There’s been notable successes, too. Japan, the former West Germany before they were sunk…” Jan 23, 14:26
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: ““As we know, Linguistic Imperialism (e.g. language deprivation and cultural assimilation) are well established colonial procedures intended to make ‘a…” Jan 23, 14:10
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Dinna be sae harsh, Cynicus. It’s Baltic oot there. Northy needs his pants aflame tae keep warm and he’s discovered…” Jan 23, 13:52
Alf Baird on Yelling at the tide: ““Ignorant Rubbish” ? In seeking to justify only the English language being taught to Scots bairns in school, British educationalists…” Jan 23, 13:50
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “My, Alf, but like your sidekick Northy, you’re a tonic sometimes. Why don’t you call for what Mummy et al…” Jan 23, 13:49
Alf Baird on Yelling at the tide: ““The American psyche’s great flaw is that .. like a prepubescent child uncertain of its identity” This is a general…” Jan 23, 13:34
