Anyone seeking to make a compelling argument for the proposition that Scotland’s politicians and lawmakers are simply too farcically incompetent to ever be trusted with running an independent country had a gift-wrapped Godsend delivered to them last week by the idiot student children of Edinburgh.
But we can’t really put the blame on the colourfully-haired, keffiyeh-clad cretin kiddies of the capital for that, because it’s their elders and betters who opened the door.
With Reform now pretty consistently miles in front in polling for the next UK election, logically this is brilliant news for the Scottish independence movement, isn’t it?
So can anyone explain why the SNP is so desperate to stop them?
As recently as this weekend, the Scottish Government claimed that it has “made clear it accepts the Supreme Court ruling [in For Women Scotland] and is taking forward the detailed work necessary”.
But as with so much the Scottish Government says, it’s a barefaced lie.
Police Scotland have nevertheless denied that prisoners in their custody are being excessively pampered, following reports that a man was hustled out of St Leonard’s station in Edinburgh with an electric blanket over his head.
Meanwhile, following the Supreme Court ruling in the For Women Scotland case, the force’s HQ at Tulliallan was burgled by a gang of militant transactivists who stole all the toilets. Officers say they have nothing to go on.
One of the very few phrases universally recognised in Scotland but which will draw blank looks anywhere else in the UK is the dry, dark “Well, ye ken noo”. Until recently it had no equivalent that we can bring to mind in the rest of the English-speaking world, although arguably that gap has now been at least partly filled by the acronym “FAFO”.
(We try not to swear on the site, so let’s say it stands for “Fool Around, Find Out”.)
So now the smoke has cleared, the troops have departed the battlefield and the winner is enjoying the spoils, what did we find out on Thursday night, and what didn’t we?
Despite everything, we almost allowed ourselves just the very tiniest little micro-flicker of optimism when we read Tommy Sheppard’s latest in The National.
Because that much is certainly true, and it’s uncommonly candid to have anyone in the SNP admit it. So what’s the answer?
At the weekend, Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman was filmed applauding as a notoriously unhinged transactivist ranted through a megaphone to a small and almost exclusively male crowd of protestors about how he was going to openly break the law by continuing to use women’s public toilets, and addressing JK Rowling with the words “We should all take a shite on you, you heinous creeping old bitch”.
At another protest, Chapman herself asserted that the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling on the correct interpretation of the Equality Act 2010 was motivated by not by a solemn consideration of the law or by the arguments of counsel who appeared before it, but by “bigotry, prejudice and hatred”.
Chapman is – incredibly – Deputy Convener of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament, and as such her comments sparked a storm of wholly justified outrage over her flagrant breach not only of Parliamentary rules but also of the law – specifically the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008, which requires all MSPs to uphold the independence of the judiciary.
sarah on The Queer Parliament: “Someone btl said that India doesn’t permit its citizens to stand in another country’s elections. Can we ask the Indian…” May 20, 23:59
Geri on The Queer Parliament: “Exactly. I wrote a post saying basically the same but the gremlins ran away with it. Holyrood is an English…” May 20, 23:31
Alf Baird on The Queer Parliament: “Northcode is right, the only remedy for colonisation is liberation. Everything else is just ‘noise’.” May 20, 22:40
Geri on The Land Of No Laws: “The UK is becoming Totalitarian on two fronts & they’re both connected. Gender ideology & Z ideology. Permeating into every…” May 20, 22:21
jock on The Queer Parliament: “Dugdale, chair of Stonewall, is married to the depute FM. Surely a conflict of interest?” May 20, 22:15
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “Aye Hatey. Northy’s Brave New World. Even the martians got sick of listening to it.” May 20, 22:04
Rob on The Queer Parliament: “Folk are missing the main point with the two main dodgy characters the greens put in. It is not their…” May 20, 22:01
Red on The Queer Parliament: “We need mass deportations of the Green Party and their idiot supporters. No reason at all why Scots should tolerate…” May 20, 21:39
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: “What utter piss poor sophistry. Laughable. It’s probably a good idea to take a look at the formal dictionary definition…” May 20, 21:30
Hatey McHateface on The Queer Parliament: “That final sentence. Harsh but fair. Anybody think this new HR 5-year sentence just commenced will impoverish Scots to such…” May 20, 21:10
Alf Baird on The Queer Parliament: ““the UN should step in to break up the UK” That may be wishful thinking, tho international laws on ‘a…” May 20, 21:08
Lorncal on The Queer Parliament: “Twathater: that was always my own misgiving, that views such as Craig Murray’s and others’ would undermine the ‘independence only’…” May 20, 21:06
sam on The Queer Parliament: “Since you ask, Alf, (you probably know already) the answer is yes. Funding education in schools, supporting conversion therapy ban” May 20, 21:05
Hatey McHateface on The Queer Parliament: “Didn’t he live in a hole in the ground too? But please cut Northy some slack. He’s provided us with…” May 20, 21:05
Hatey McHateface on The Queer Parliament: “You forgot to say that only you can see them, Geri. Oh, and the biolabs. You forgot them too.” May 20, 20:58
Hatey McHateface on The Queer Parliament: “@Lorncal I’m afraid you’re wrong and CC is right. We need our own Trump to move fast and break things.…” May 20, 20:48
Geri on The Queer Parliament: “They’re there working in the background. The Clinton’s established a network of disrupters from all over the world that are…” May 20, 20:44
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “You remind me of the infantry man in Jeff Waynes War of the Worlds.” May 20, 20:34
Geri on The Land Of No Laws: “AI Dan Get over yersel. The GCC, that you apparently love, are authoritarian monarchies, have awful human rights records &…” May 20, 20:23
Captain Caveman on The Land Of No Laws: ““It’s something we see often with you lot… must be an English thing to gang up thegither and bully folk…” May 20, 19:59
John McNab on The Queer Parliament: “The reference in the opening excerpt from ‘Trainspotting’ to no more guys or girls, just wankers, was first aired in…” May 20, 19:51
Geri on The Queer Parliament: “The death cult brings censorship, sweeping changes to the law, population control & snoopers charter. Colonisers love division. It takes…” May 20, 19:37
Northcode on The Queer Parliament: “Here’s a plan… Scotland and the indigenous Scots can’t change a single thing about their government, their country, or their…” May 20, 19:27
Captain Caveman on The Queer Parliament: ““However, let’s not crow too soon, because far right is just as bad as far left, so we need the…” May 20, 19:20
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: ““Well that’s interesting Northcode, because above Geri stated that this country was in fact a democracy.” Yes, Geri did state…” May 20, 19:17
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “Aye Sven. I need to know more about this 77 Brigade. What’s their mandate, who funds them, who is the…” May 20, 19:14
twathater on The Queer Parliament: “As you are more than probably aware Lorna I was on WOS repeatedly urging and begging Stuart Campbell to at…” May 20, 19:06
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “No. They got into that mess all by themselves. What damage could any of the security forces do to what’s…” May 20, 18:59
Onlooker on The Queer Parliament: “But the corporations have already basically destroyed all political systems, rigging them in their own favour. They are the (world)…” May 20, 18:53