This clip was broadcast on ITV News Wales this week.
It’s a staggeringly obvious mess for a whole raft of reasons – a number of completely spurious, illogical and unsupported claims are accepted as facts without any sort of challenge or balancing voice (which has been standard practice on ITV News for a while now across almost any contentious political topic) – but it led us to somewhere magnitudes of crazier still.
The first and most important thing to note about yesterday’s judgment in the Sandie Peggie tribunal is that it’s a very big victory. The tribunal found that Sandie Peggie was gravely and heinously harassed by her employer through no fault of her own, and she’ll be entitled to substantial compensation as a result.
It also ruled, repeatedly and unequivocally, that Dr “Beth” Upton (who’s referred to in the judgment as “the second respondent”) is a man.
The motion completely ignored both the findings of the Cass Review and the Supreme Court judgment in For Women Scotland, but not a single MSP spoke in opposition to it. (Jenni Minto, the Minister For Public Health And Women’s Health, actually broke down in tears at the end because she wasn’t managing to get children’s futures permanently destroyed with sufficient urgency, mainly because the UK Parliament took legislation out of Holyrood’s hands to protect them.)
It’s really very hard to overstate what mendacious, duplicitous shite this is.
It did its job, though. As expected, the SNP conference comprehensively voted down the rebel amendments to Swinney’s motion on independence “strategy” and backed his grand plan of winning a majority, begging Keir Starmer for a second referendum – just like Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf had done before him with Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak – and then scuttling obediently away with his tail between his legs when Starmer told him to get lost.
It’d be quite hard to find an image that more completely summed up the wretched state of the SNP in 2025 than this one. Look at that tiny handful of miserable faces, sitting dejectedly around a near-empty function room. It’s so bleak Mike Leigh could make an entire movie out of it.
And we know what you’re thinking – that we sat through some internet livestream to find the most pitiful-looking freezeframe imaginable to show them in a bad light. But nope. Kevin Stewart MSP posted this cheery snapshot of his own free will on Twitter on Sunday morning, presumably in the hope of boosting party morale in some way.
But this extract from an interview to be aired on ITV tonight is actually interesting.
In it, Sturgeon doggedly continues to refuse to use male pronouns for multiple rapist Adam “Isla Bryson” Graham, despite admitting that he IS male, instead calling him “they”. But it was the bit before that that raised our eyebrows.
A little over two years ago, three SNP MSPs contested the leadership of the party in the wake of the sudden resignation of Nicola Sturgeon. All were full of grand plans and dreams for the future of the party, the nation and the independence movement.
None of the three is leader now, and in nine months’ time none of them will be SNP MSPs. Indeed, it’s overwhelmingly likely that none will be an MSP at all.
And that, readers, is not a sign of a party – or indeed a Parliament – in good health.
It seems like almost every time somebody gets accused of rape, sexual harassment or any kind of horrible creepy sex-based sleaze in Scotland these days, the same face is always lurking around grinning in the background somewhere.
Colin Alexander on The Modern Politician: “The SNP and Scottish Greens will be delighted that Ebay are procuring donations for the Mermaids charity. Are Mermaids brainwashing,…” Feb 14, 23:42
Dan on The Modern Politician: “Big Country – Steeltown Vid contains footage of dirty men doing hard dirty work so not safe for some. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ssx1Davnkw” Feb 14, 22:50
Dan on The Modern Politician: ““No, I don’t think coal mining was ever anything but dire Says it all. Perma “worried” woman rather than celebrate…” Feb 14, 22:38
Geoff Anderson on The Modern Politician: “I didn’t know he was a Spurs fan……. https://x.com/ScotExpress/status/2022733679576113365?s=20” Feb 14, 22:08
Lorna Campbell on The Modern Politician: “William Campbell: yes, I absolutely agree with you, but it was not the norm until Thatcher introduced council house ownership.…” Feb 14, 21:49
Young Lochinvar on The Modern Politician: “Well I’d like to imagine this anniversary may just, just mibbes, mighta have helped put some fire in the belly…” Feb 14, 21:46
Lorna Campbell on The Modern Politician: “Often you simply cannot turn back the clock. No, I don’t think coal mining was ever anything but dire, but…” Feb 14, 21:20
Alf Baird on The Modern Politician: “Plenty of wee coasters and fishing boats even smaller than the new £50 million Isle of Islay sailing oot there…” Feb 14, 21:09
David Holden on The Modern Politician: “There is a lot to unpack in your latest offering but just a wee tip for you. Try shutting the…” Feb 14, 19:46
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Quite right, Confused. You forever see the English as arse bandits and look where that’s got you.” Feb 14, 19:38
Confused on The Modern Politician: “flower of scotland is also RACIST and this is “zero tolerance” in a modern nation – what r u thinking…” Feb 14, 19:35
Confused on The Modern Politician: “rugby : after the postal tries have been counted by roof davison the too wee too puir inferior not quite…” Feb 14, 19:18
Cynicus on The Modern Politician: “14 February, 2026 at 6:33 pm David Holden says: “Which miserable killjoy is going to be first to come on…” Feb 14, 19:11
TURABDIN on The Modern Politician: “We regret to announce the sinking of the MV Isle of Islay in stormy seas off the straits of Gibraltar.…” Feb 14, 18:34
David Holden on The Modern Politician: “Which miserable killjoy is going to be first to come on and moan about the rugby? Congratulations to the Scotland…” Feb 14, 18:33
auld highlander on The Modern Politician: “Storms out in the Atlandic caused the delay with Portugal and Spain getting hammered. Earlier this afternoon I had a…” Feb 14, 18:02
william campbell on The Modern Politician: “Born in 1948,brought up mainly in East Kilbride,which was fresh and new then in 1957,my catching TB was the reason…” Feb 14, 17:48
Aidan on The Modern Politician: “C-24 will not be assessing Scotland’s petition in June. C-24 has no power to add further territories to the list…” Feb 14, 17:35
Willie on The Modern Politician: “I think agent X that you may have stumbled on an issue with regard to the MV Isle of Islay.…” Feb 14, 17:26
Andy Ellis on The Modern Politician: “@ Hatey Having just come back from visiting the Stone of Destiny in Perth and taking in Marie R’s last…” Feb 14, 16:44
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Good post, Andy. The shades of the signatories to the D of A will also be furious that we lack…” Feb 14, 16:30
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Thanks for your reply, Lorna. Just about every politician gets something right. Starmer, Trump, Sturgeon, Brown, Blair. They won some…” Feb 14, 16:22
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Cynicus Please show some respect when addressing a lady carrying the name of the Holy Mother Of God.” Feb 14, 16:02
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “You don’t think … Naw. Nae way could painted oan windies been carried forwards from ane set of blueprints tae…” Feb 14, 15:58
Andy Ellis on The Modern Politician: “@Xaracen You’re not paying attention. Par for the course amongst the moonhowlers in here of course: the red mist of…” Feb 14, 15:57
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Absolutely loving it, sam. The genocidal cants who unleashed their man made flu on the world, killing tens of millions,…” Feb 14, 15:54
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Wouldn’t you have been happier in London, Northy? That’s home to more than 200,000 Sovereign Scots. Haud oan, though. I…” Feb 14, 15:41