Wings Over Scotland

Hats off to the SNP. Every time we think that the party’s leadership election can’t get any more absurdly farcical, they pull something extra-mad out of the bag.

After this happened yesterday, it suddenly become “known” across the Scottish media that the SNP NEC was going to hold an extraordinary meeting in order to authorise the release of the membership figures after all three candidates demanded them.

Some of the country’s most senior hacks, including BBC Scotland’s Political Editor and the editor of the Daily Record, sombrely informed their readers of the development.

Only trouble was, nobody had told the SNP NEC.

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This is the SNP members’ website tonight.

Looks like anything goes, folks.

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Well, this has set the cat amongst the pigeons.

Because the SNP leadership election is now a full-blown four-alarm skip fire.

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Two obvious things arise from this clip from last night’s BBC leadership debate.

Don’t worry, this won’t take long.

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He’s not our man in the contest, but a free bit of advice for Humza Yousaf anyway.

When just about everyone with eyes and a brain in their head thinks the vote’s being rigged in your favour, and there’s tangible evidence of its dodginess, and the party’s track record in this area is in fact somewhat less than immaculate, then “just shut up and let it happen” is a really, really bad response.

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Tonight’s debate on Sky News between the three SNP leadership candidates was yet another inconclusive low-scoring draw, with each contender taking a few hits (almost all from host Beth Rigby) and also landing the odd blow on each other.

The most notable of the latter was probably when Ash Regan gave Humza Yousaf a rather uncomfortable time over his claiming credit for the Queensferry Crossing when he was Transport Secretary.

As well as frantically trying to deflect by pretending Regan had attacked the SNP’s record on the project in general, Yousaf insisted that he’d played a major role in the bridge’s delivery. So let’s just check the timeline.

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The Unionist media in Scotland (ie all of the media in Scotland) usually keeps up a pretty united front when it comes to the subjects of independence or the SNP. So it’s been fascinating in these last couple of weeks to see a genuine schism develop between them on the subject of the party’s leadership election.

(For the avoidance of doubt, we do not include Holyrood Magazine, whose splendid front cover image that is, in “the Unionist media”.)

Right back at the start of the contest we highlighted The Times’ full-on love-in for Kate Forbes, but most of the Scottish press has now made their preferences clear. And you’ll never guess who they really, really DON’T want to be the next First Minister.

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Since you’d barely know that Ash Regan existed from reading or watching the Scottish media, here’s a chance to get to know her a little bit better before voting opens in the SNP leadership election tomorrow.

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We’ve been telling you for quite some time now that after eight wasted years of doing absolutely nothing with endless mandates, the SNP establishment want to back away from the party’s defining goal of Scottish independence and settle in for some lovely cosy lifelong careers at Westminster and in the devolved Holyrood, with well-paid staffer jobs for all their pals, followed by tidy £50,000-a-year pensions.

Maybe some of you didn’t believe us.

Maybe you could have another think about it.

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In fairness, you can’t really accuse them of hiding it any more.

The faint hearts and pension-seekers of the SNP think that their time has come – the moment when the party’s pursuit of independence can be quietly downgraded to a vague long-term aspiration that will ensure their seats on the gravy train for decades.

Starting at noon tomorrow is your very last chance to stop them.

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There is growing domestic and international attention on my plan to use the ballot box to decide whether Scotland becomes an independent country.

I have the only plan that has historic precedent, can be delivered legally by Scotland alone, moves us beyond the referendum stalemate, and today I can confirm that this plan is supported by 93% of SNP voters and 52% of Scottish voters.

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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.

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