We’ve already discussed the contents of the videos released last week by the BBC containing interviews with Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Houston of Police Scotland and Crown Agent John Logue of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
But videos (especially lengthy ones) are always a bit of a pain to reference, and these are incredibly significant documents, so we thought it’d be quite useful to post the full transcripts too, with the text tidied up (taking out all the “um”s and “eh”s and so on) for ease of reading.
This is the interview with John Logue (Stuart Houston’s is here):
And below is what’s said in it. We’ve added a comment here and there, in red.
We’ve already discussed the contents of the videos released last week by the BBC containing interviews with Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Houston of Police Scotland and Crown Agent John Logue of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
But videos (especially lengthy ones) are always a bit of a pain to reference, and these are incredibly significant documents, so we thought it’d be quite useful to post the full transcripts too, with the text tidied up (taking out all the “um”s and “eh”s and so on) for ease of reading.
This is the interview with Stuart Houston (John Logue’s is here):
And below is what’s said in it. We’ve added a comment here and there, in red.
The Observer, for example, blamed the stat on “neo-Nazis”.
But even if that were true, it wouldn’t of course disprove the claim. A stopped clock is right twice a day, and something isn’t intrinsically false just because a neo-Nazi says it. Hitler had some pretty messed-up ideas but the world didn’t become flat just because he said it was round.
The Cass Review into gender medicine, which has been almost six long years in the making, was finally published this morning, and despite the fears of some – including us – that it was going to be watered down, it’s turned out to be an absolutely explosive document even on a quick skim. (It’s 388 pages long.)
The most damning aspect, though, is almost certainly this one:
Those quotes annihilate any concept of an “innocent good intentions” defence for the gender clinics. Because if you genuinely believe that you’re doing good, you don’t try to bury all the evidence.
Ruth Davidson finally emerged today from a summer of hiding from press stories about her racist and sectarian councillors and MSPs to give a bizarre, nervy and gabbling interview to Good Morning Scotland.
Highlights included calling Show Racism The Red Card an “anti-Semitic” organisation and proposing the building of eight entire new towns in Scotland (the funding source and potential locations for this colossal undertaking were not specified), all filled with social housing which would nevertheless be for sale under Right To Buy.
(Which if it could somehow magically be done would of course lead to the homes being quickly sold at heavy discounts, leaving councils insufficient money to fund their replacements and creating another massive housing bubble and crisis.)
But our very favourite bit was when (at 2h 17m) she said this:
To be honest, readers, if we encountered a 30-sq-foot drunk waving a broken glass around in a pub, we’d just be looking for the door as fast as possible. But clearly Ruth Davidson frequents different sorts of bars to us.
So just for a bit of light-hearted Friday fun, we thought we’d ask: what WOULD you say to that person in that situation?
This is amazing, readers. It’s an extract from this afternoon’s The Big Debate on Radio Scotland, in which a journalist – the BBC’s Gordon Brewer – finally gets round to asking someone from Scottish Labour how they can make the extra £500m they need to fund their tax-credits “policy” while keeping all taxes the same.
You might have to listen through a few times to get your head round it, because that really is what a grown woman actually tried to get away with in front of a live audience.
An alert reader pointed us today to this audio clip of Jim Murphy. It’s not tagged, but we THINK it’s from a Radio Clyde interview about three weeks ago which oddly didn’t seem to get picked up at the time by anyone in the media.
Below is a clip from today’s “Morning Call” on BBC Radio Scotland. Speaking (from 16m 24s on the full show) are SNP MSP Mark McDonald, presenter Kaye Adams and Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald. There are a couple of noteworthy moments.
A caller named “George” had rung in concerned that the SNP might be giving up on their goal of independence, and Adams invited Mark McDonald to set his mind at rest. Here’s what happened in the next three minutes.
Today we’ve become quite obsessed with Jim Murphy’s pathological avoidance of a straight answer to the question of whether income tax should be fully devolved to the Scottish Parliament or not. The BBC now has a report on his much-trailed speech in Glasgow, but we’ll get to that in a moment. First it’s worth having a listen to this.
It’s an interview taken from the “Pienaar’s Politics” podcast on Radio 5 Live earlier this month. And it makes for an intriguing study of the art of evasion.
Lee Floyd on Progressing To Oblivion: “Scotland under the SNP has become a very strange, corrupt place….and the politicians seem to be immune. I wonder when…” Jul 19, 17:42
Anne on Progressing To Oblivion: “There were a number of greedy cynical people in whose interest it was to get rid of Alex Salmond and…” Jul 19, 17:42
Anne on Progressing To Oblivion: “There were a number of greedy cynical people in whose interest it was to get rid of Alex Salmond and…” Jul 19, 17:39
Alf Baird on These Words Are My Own: ““helping raise awareness as to why quite so many Scots think and behave the way they do.” Excellent point Dan,…” Jul 19, 17:33
Andy Ellis on These Words Are My Own: “@ Northcode 1.27pm Constitutional architecture can be changed. The default position is certainly that it is better if that change…” Jul 19, 17:22
Mark Beggan on Progressing To Oblivion: “As if we needed a further example of Leftism in action. A mental disease that starts in the mind then…” Jul 19, 16:35
Andrew Kidd on Progressing To Oblivion: “There have been proposals to end abridged accounts for a couple of years but successive Govts have kept kicking the…” Jul 19, 16:31
Mark Beggan on Progressing To Oblivion: “Angus Robertson is epitome of what a greedy self-righteous prick, who gets away with stealing from the school tuck shop…” Jul 19, 16:06
Andrew F on These Words Are My Own: “Hatey, that’s one of your worst efforts ever. We’ll see, but Sturgeon can’t keep running from this one. She’s already…” Jul 19, 15:52
Nicky T Naquetti on Progressing To Oblivion: “Let’s be fair here…. Translating “Boku No Piku” into Indonesian isn’t cheap.” Jul 19, 15:40
Dan on These Words Are My Own: “Franchise Fanny jist loves taking the divisive cheap shots, and knocking Scots for not having the moral and political cojones*,…” Jul 19, 15:33
sam on These Words Are My Own: “Andy, “to face such a veto down”. How do you envisage doing that?. Scotland is of strategic importance to England.…” Jul 19, 14:17
DavidT on These Words Are My Own: “Perhaps the £58,735 worth of items were dropped from the indictment as part of a deal where he agreed not…” Jul 19, 14:00
Alf Baird on These Words Are My Own: “You seem to be getting closer to the realisation (always delayed for the native intellectuals and bourgeoisie, according to Fanon)…” Jul 19, 13:58
Northcode on These Words Are My Own: “The issue here isn’t sentiment, passion or the level of frustration people feel. It’s the constitutional architecture. A majority can’t…” Jul 19, 13:27
Aidan on These Words Are My Own: “@Northcode – I am not NOW saying that, I’ve pointed that out from the beginning. There is no formal hierarchy…” Jul 19, 13:19
Mark Beggan on These Words Are My Own: ““If wishes were horses, beggars would ride” wise words my Granny used to say.” Jul 19, 12:50
Andy Ellis on These Words Are My Own: “What if the constitutional structure itself prevents a majority from being actionable? They always refuse to engage with that question……” Jul 19, 12:40
Mark Beggan on These Words Are My Own: ““If the political will were truly manifest” “native Scottish perceptual matter” “worldview in the particular is perversely constrained” “Turn on,…” Jul 19, 12:17
Andy Ellis on These Words Are My Own: “@Alf Where is this “plebiscitary election policy”, Andy? You sound like Believe in Scotland who in 2024 promised such an…” Jul 19, 11:56
Mark Beggan on These Words Are My Own: “There is nothing as sad as a stupid Scot who refuses to accept defeat. They turn on their own, blaming…” Jul 19, 11:54
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: “Some Scots got confused when asked if Scotland should leave a non-existent union.” Jul 19, 11:49
TURABDIN on These Words Are My Own: “@AndyEllis If the political will were truly manifest nothing could seriously prevent the restoration of national sovereignty & independence. The…” Jul 19, 11:46
Mark Beggan on These Words Are My Own: “It wasn’t just the referendum some Scots lost over ten years ago.” Jul 19, 11:38
Alf Baird on These Words Are My Own: ““Hence we come back to the required democratic mandate for Indy, and the best way to get that – a…” Jul 19, 11:25
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: ““Westminster would have simply shrugged its shoulders and handed the Scots the ‘deeds to Scotland’?” Why would it? It’s not…” Jul 19, 11:21
crazycat on These Words Are My Own: “At the time of his sentencing, when there was discussion about how he managed to qualify for legal aid despite…” Jul 19, 11:14
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: “And, they’re off. Sun’s shining outside. That won’t last forever. This pointless argument will. Andy already has the win on…” Jul 19, 11:02
paul on These Words Are My Own: “I would be delighted to see the documentation of this transaction. If you’re spending that much money on pens, hairdryers…” Jul 19, 10:53
paul on These Words Are My Own: “…which doesn’t go that far these days in that london. The portugese property looks like one of her husband’s more…” Jul 19, 10:33
