Although we’re retired we already wrote this, so we may as well put it up for the 99.9% of Scots who don’t read the comments on David Leask‘s columns in the Herald.
It’s a claim he’s been banging on about since at least 2014, without ever providing a scrap of evidence to support it (his standard modus operandi), and yesterday was no exception. So let’s show Little Dave how proper big-boy journalists do it.
The First Minister released a short film this week.
While it has the character of a hostage video, with terrorists just off-camera pointing a gun at the unfortunate victim and forcing them to read out a pre-prepared text, sadly we doubt that was the case. We think this is really what she believes and intends.
Readers, we swear to you we are not making this up. What you’re about to read are genuine extracts from the SNP’s official new (probably illegal) Equalities Mechanism explanatory note, detailing what does and doesn’t count as a disability when it comes to jumping the queue for a regional list nomination.
And straight away it’s a real punch in the gut for firestarters, muggers, rapists, flashers and, in most cases, hay-fever sufferers. THIS BIGOTRY WILL NOT STAND.
Because 2020 is the maddest year in history, Ruth Davidson opened her contribution to Holyrood’s debate on the Brexit deal today with a lengthy quote from this website.
One of the dumber things we see regularly posted on social media is that Yes voices should stop criticising the First Minister because her leadership is the only reason Yes is now consistently ahead in the polls and we would have no chance of winning a new referendum with someone else in charge.
This is obviously nonsense, because Nicola Sturgeon was SNP leader and FM for five years in which support moved barely a single millimetre, until COVID-19 came along. Our current lead is due entirely to a tiny invisible virus and a giant Etonian buffoon.
When we first saw this video on Twitter through bleary half-asleep eyes this morning, we thought it was a well-done satire. But no. He actually put it out himself.
There can surely in history have never been anything that demeaned both the office of President and the USA as a nation more than the image halfway through that video of him prancing around in front of Air Force One.
Today America decides its future. And dear lord, what a choice it has.
Scotland’s media is still unable to contain its outpouring of bitter, resentful rage over Alex Salmond’s exoneration by a jury on trumped-up sexual assault charges.
Flailing blindly in all directions it’s achieving little other than to embarrass itself, such as last night when Scotland On Sunday had to change its front page in a late panic. But the media’s toxic fury at being denied Salmond’s head on a pole has also led it to do something far, far more serious and reckless.
And every one of them knows exactly what they’ve done.
There are now exactly two weeks remaining of the Scottish Government’s second fake “consultation” into its proposed reforms to gender law.
We say “fake” not out of cynicism or mad paranoia, but because the cabinet minister responsible for the reforms has already made it explicitly, publicly and repeatedly clear that she intends to press ahead with them regardless of the responses, and that the only purpose of the “consultation” is to try to persuade people to agree with them.
Shirley-Anne Somerville reiterated this position just days ago, telling Scotland Tonight that she was “absolutely determined” to enact the bill and only interested in silencing opposition and removing any “medicalisation” of the process of gender transition.
While the Scottish Government has met literally hundreds of times with transactivist groups with regard to the reforms, it has refused to meet women’s groups critical of them, and frequently lied about that refusal.
The consultation document and the draft bill leave enormous logical and legislative gaps which are likely to cause untold chaos if the reforms are implemented. The Scottish Government has apparently learned nothing from the shambolic fiascos around the Offensive Behaviour (Football) Act and Named Person legislation, both of which have collapsed despite widespread public support – something the proposed gender reforms emphatically do NOT enjoy.
We’re obliged for the sake of sanity to assume that at some point the First Minister, the Cabinet Secretary or both will have to undertake at least one proper interview on the subject of these extremely serious and potentially catastrophic proposals.
For the consideration of whoever may conduct these interviews, we submit below some questions which a very considerable number of people in Scotland – primarily but by no means exclusively women, and encompassing a majority of every political and social demographic – urgently want answered.
TURABDIN on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “I do not associate Trump or his MAGA foreign policy, or deals as he calls his «ploys», with nuance. The…” Sep 19, 16:02
Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Talking of ‘delusion’, Hatey, the comment below from Ambassador Murray tends to reject yours and your colonial cohorts claim that…” Sep 19, 15:25
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Confused. If it is possible where do you envisage The Westminster parliament and government war being Scotlands if Westminster dates…” Sep 19, 15:09
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Havers, Alf, Confused wants the gas chamber for those who disagree with him. His kind don’t make good points. You’re…” Sep 19, 14:30
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “They’re saying war is coming whether they shill for it or not. Odd, really, I thought it was obvious near…” Sep 19, 14:24
Andy Ellis on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “It’s the usual MO of the hard of thinking contingent which has (sadly) come to dominate BTL discourse in here.…” Sep 19, 14:16
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Loving how the Argies, descendants of genocidal, colonising Europeans, are now setting their sights on their next colonialist conquest -…” Sep 19, 14:07
Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “We might also ‘twig’ that Imperial England has long since became a refuge and right of abode for millions of…” Sep 19, 13:25
Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Aye, hunners o dodgy one-sided ‘annexation’ and ‘we’ll hiv yer sovereignty, thank you’ treaties are the wey it wis done…” Sep 19, 13:02
Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Confused makes a good point. As Professor Edward Said wrote: “The imperial relationship is there in all cases. Irish people…” Sep 19, 12:45
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The BBC along with the rest of the British MSM are indeed shilling for war, as is the FSL in…” Sep 19, 12:26
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The parliament of England, the monarch of England the politicians, the Commissioners all held the two mistakes and errors. 1:…” Sep 19, 12:24
TURABDIN on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Stretching the neo colonial theme, kinda Woody Guthrie..ish These lands are our land, no longer your land From the icy…” Sep 19, 12:23
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Agentx, It was and is of no account what Scotlands old parliament did when adjourned in Scotland in 1707. To…” Sep 19, 12:03
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Many of the people you refer to as “Yoons” are independence supporters, myself included. (I was recently accused of being…” Sep 19, 11:58
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Agentx, The old Scottish parliament was already dissolved by the Monarch of England on the 28th April 1706 in England,…” Sep 19, 11:56
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “A bit early to be pished. Someone obviously left the COSHH cabinet unlocked last night. Snorted the Denso and necked…” Sep 19, 11:51
Confused on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “bbc shilling for war on the front page https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmn0jke547r5o delusions of a fool, pining for the past https://archive.ph/f0c0J getting involved…” Sep 19, 11:42
Confused on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Ben Gvir recently had a rant on X “It’s time for the State to publicly recognize that the Malvinas Islands…” Sep 19, 11:40
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “This makes the “Scotland Act itself reservations and restrictions on Scotland from the legislation and Statues of then Westminster parliament…” Sep 19, 11:39
agentx on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Timeline of the 1707 Union January 16, 1707:The Treaty of Union was formally ratified by the Parliament of Scotland. March…” Sep 19, 11:02
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Simply said for late comers, The ratification of Scotlands side of the 1707 treaty of union occurred after the parliament…” Sep 19, 11:02
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Both the bill of rights and the act of Settlement were passed by the parliament of England prior the Scottish…” Sep 19, 10:47
Andy Ellis on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Why would anyone trust a word Trump – or indeed any of his GOP successors say? Even if the Democrats…” Sep 19, 10:41
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Are Sweden and Germany Anglophone countries? How about Greece, Austria, Italy and Ceuta (Spain)? Your response is just more of…” Sep 19, 10:05
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The Westminster parliament records do not float an idea or theory that Scotland is Colonised , it proves it into…” Sep 19, 10:05
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Alf, Even you and the UN have to chronologically apply dates and time lines to arrive at the ” theses”…” Sep 19, 09:54
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “If you’re referring to the US-Denmark-Greenland deal, the reality would appear to be more nuanced. And it’s yet to be…” Sep 19, 09:44
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “No psychology, no theory, putting meat on the bone through the records of Westminster parliament, from the Horses mouth one…” Sep 19, 09:34
Andy Ellis on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Or, you know…in the real world, it’s not the yoons contributing to BTL discourse that are the issue it is…” Sep 19, 09:29