I’m a professional community organiser, and a tenant and housing activist for some 20 years. I saw the old Scottish Tenants Organisation get smashed by Jack McConnell’s government to make way for council housing privatisation, which in Glasgow created the Glasgow Housing Association.
I’ve long wanted to rebuild a national body to give housing schemes a political voice and to push to end the housing crisis. That’s why I got involved with Living Rent, organising my community to become their first branch. Little did I know that would lead to a brush with crazed gender ideology, and see Queer Theory used to try to destroy it.
As a writer, feminist and literary events organiser in Scotland, I’m regularly sent links to information someone thinks might be of interest to me. This week it was a document commissioned by one of Scotland’s leading and most powerful publicly-funded literary organisations, Literature Alliance Scotland (LAS).
Nobody, of course, objects to transgender writers being included or supported, but the content of the guidance raises several extremely serious and concerning issues.
Normally in cases like these, there’s an instant and concerted attempt to rubbish the judgement, both from amateurs and activist lawyers like Robin Moira “Barry” White, Jolyon Maugham, and the anonymous “Pissed Off Lawyer” tweeting as @legaltweetz. They’ll issue spurious “analyses” dismissing the findings with jargon terms like “obiter”, and either question their correctness or attempt to minimise their significance.
For some reason that didn’t happen this time. The hyper-antagonist online trans army has very conspicuously failed to rush to the defence of ERCC CEO Mridul Wadhwa, perhaps because Judge Ian McFatridge’s conclusions were so relentlessly, brutally and comprehensively excoriating of Wadhwa’s appalling behaviour that no amount of spin or disingenuity could disguise it.
But then, on white charger and with papoose, enter a hero.
Mridul Wadhwa, a man with whom Wings readers have been familiar for some years, was found by the tribunal judge to have been “the invisible hand behind everything that had taken place” as Roz Adams, a conscientious, caring and highly professional woman with a long history in the sector, was systematically and methodically hounded out of her job for holding, privately and sensitively, the belief that biological sex is real.
The most striking aspect of it was the visible and audible distress on the faces and in the voices of some of the Royal Navy sailors who’d been on the ships which sent the German battleship to the Atlantic seabed as they told the story of the final battle.
We were going to write a follow-up piece to this last week, until the SNP detonated a hand-grenade in its own trouser pocket. But with the coronation of John Swinney this afternoon after the only challenger sold out for some shiny beads and trinkets, we can get back to some serious news.
The controversial charity LGBT Youth Scotland, which has been involved in a number of serious child sexual abuse scandals, continues to exert considerable influence on Scotland’s education system, thanks to extremely lavish funding from taxpayers – well over a million pounds from hard-pressed councils in the last year alone to address unspecified issues whose urgency is difficult to identify.
After our last piece we sent LGBTYS a letter raising our concerns about their improper interference with primary schools, something we were obliged to do before we could file a formal complaint with Scotland’s charity regulator, the OSCR.
We received an automated reply on 24 April saying “We are currently experiencing staff shortages and it may take up to a week to respond to your email.”
That deadline expired five days ago, and we will now be writing to the OSCR. But in the meantime LGBTYS persists in exceeding its remit, with deeply alarming results.
So there it is. In a massive, humiliating and abrupt reverse, the Scottish Greens have announced that they’ll support the Scottish Government – still led for the foreseeable future by Humza Yousaf – in this week’s confidence motion.
Shockingly enough, the debate about the Greens’ principles, intellectual consistency and integrity was an extremely brief one. Faced with the loss of their relevance and influence, they crumbled like month-old carrot cake and rushed their cards onto the table before the SNP had time to do any thinking.
Any hope Kate Forbes might have had of leading the SNP just evaporated, and so did any hope of grown-up government between now and 2026. The SNP will now spend the next two years as pathetic, grovelling puppets, doing whatever the Greens want as long as the paycheques and pension contributions keep rolling in.
It’s a tragic demise for a party that just a couple of years ago still crushed all before it in Scottish politics. But that’s showbiz, folks.
Andy Ellis on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Who are “they” in this context? The SNP? The Scottish media? Scottish &/or British unionists? It all sounds a like…” Jun 14, 10:11
Doug on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Independence supporters should boycott next year’s Holyrood election.” Jun 14, 09:41
MaryB on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Andy Ellis @ 4.32 pm I think they’re desperate that the SALVO UN work is kept from popular consciousness. Scotlands…” Jun 14, 09:16
Lorn on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “As I recall, CC, Salmond and Sturgeon came as a package. He was going to team up with Ros Cunningham…” Jun 13, 23:42
100%Yes on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “I wouldn’t be surprised if the SNP party fiances isn’t being directly funded the British labour government, so in return…” Jun 13, 22:31
Breastplate on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Yes James, it’s notable that they recognised themselves.” Jun 13, 21:50
sarah on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Agreed. No-one in power in the SNP seems to have anything in common with the long-time members or voters who…” Jun 13, 21:40
McDuff on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “I know i have droned on about this before but i still can`t believe there has not been a rebellion…” Jun 13, 21:22
100%Yes on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “SNP Government rule out Scottish independence convention surprise surprise.” Jun 13, 21:20
sarah on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “@ agent x: Angus Robertson’s response to the ICCPR petition. No, I hadn’t read it before. Of course we didn’t…” Jun 13, 21:13
Confused on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Scotland in 2050 will be Willy McWonka’s Hielan Brigadoon Golf Resort Gated Community, and we, the Scots, if we are…” Jun 13, 20:50
Tommo on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “‘(If nothing else, we suppose that’s a strong show of optimism from Swinney, who’s already 61 and will be some…” Jun 13, 20:27
Bob on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “I love the 12 mugshots: but what would Jon Snow say? (or, for that matter, Humza Yousef?)” Jun 13, 20:11
agent x on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Sarah – have you read this response to the petition? https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/citizen-participation-and-public-petitions-committee/correspondence/2024/pe2135/pe2135_c.pdf PE2135/C: Implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political…” Jun 13, 20:03
agent x on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: ““On the 17th June, a conference at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh will ponder the challenges and issues that will…” Jun 13, 19:52
sarah on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: ““What can ordinary independentistas do?” Talk to friends and family about Liberate Scotland so their candidates will receive votes in…” Jun 13, 19:42
James on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Lol….good post, Breastplate. The yoons ate ramping it up on here, new ‘names’ by the day amongst the same old…” Jun 13, 19:23
James on The Grand Tour: “Agreed, aLurker. Northcode’s excellent points were proven almost immediately by five posts from the usual Yoon suspects. The arrogance of…” Jun 13, 18:55
Ian McCubbin on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Deals for the favoured in SNP, the top grifters. It’s a disgrace. But what can ordinary independendistas do? Voting is…” Jun 13, 18:38
wullie on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “An occupying foreign power could not do a better job of destroying the country and looting its resources. In my…” Jun 13, 18:19
Effijy on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Rebrand as the New SNP. Your independence party gearing up for the next millennium. The Westminster parties, Tory, Labour and…” Jun 13, 18:17
ScottieDog on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “They’re on course for a win next year, why would they change anything. More gravy. Some of them might even…” Jun 13, 17:52
twathater on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “I notice at any mention of SALVO or Liberate Scotland the FRANCHISE fanny and his fellow YOONS,Aiden,private clansman aka corporal…” Jun 13, 17:47
sarah on The Grand Tour: “I agree, Mary – the whole independence movement should get behind the two prongs of Liberate Scotland for the 2026…” Jun 13, 17:17