If events in Edinburgh today are anything to go by – when a march and rally announced with great fanfare seven months ago, backed by both the “independence” parties in the Scottish Parliament and featuring the First Minister as main speaker, attracted perhaps 1,500 people at the most to Calton Hill on a bright and sunny day – the independence movement faces an imminent final apocalypse.
So here’s how to prepare yourself for when the SNP win a landslide with 35%, Keir Starmer says “So what?” and then a deathly silence descends for another five years.
Even Kelly Given and Iona Fyfe didn’t show up for this one. That’s how bad it is.
As the six-year fight for justice for Alex Salmond continues, we thought you might like to see this clip from this morning’s Mike Graham Show, interviewing Paul McManus, the businessman and drummer in Glasgow rock band Gun who’s stepped up to fund the Salmond family’s case against the Scottish Government despite disagreeing with much of what Alex stood for politically.
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.
Northcode on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “Guid day tae aw ye sinfu synners oot ther on this blessit Saubath, this wan day o the week set…” Apr 19, 12:36
Red on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “It’s a tough choice for left of centre voters. Do we vote for the noncey LGBTQ pervert mass immigration Net…” Apr 19, 12:28
Alf Baird on The Narcissism Of No Differences: ““This is wholly a male thing” Yes Lorncal, in ‘The Intimate Enemy’, Nandy’s study of the psychology of British colonialism…” Apr 19, 11:44
Confused on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “I see the hunday mail has got hold of the (some, at least) of the whatsapp messages … this could…” Apr 19, 11:35
Alf Baird on The Narcissism Of No Differences: ““why does Scotland not appear to have Epstein compromised individuals” As a colony we are ‘out of the game’, willie,…” Apr 19, 10:57
Bilbo on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “The right by it’s very nature, one whose only purpose is to converse, is never radical. It only appears as…” Apr 19, 10:56
willie on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “Listening to Laura Kuennsberg this morning the prog is all about why Sir Keir Starmer allowed Peter Mandelson to be…” Apr 19, 09:43
willie on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “A timely article in today’s Sunday Mail publishing emails in relation to the Alex Salmond attempted stich up. https://archive.is/oavLF” Apr 19, 09:31
Aidan on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “Again that’s more total bollocks from the both of you, the motorway network does not “mostly stop at Carlisle” does…” Apr 19, 09:22
MaryB on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “Nobody will ever agree with every policy of any one specific political party, especially in the current political climate. But…” Apr 19, 09:11
Alf Baird on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “Excellent point Dan. The same might be said for motorways which mostly stop in Carlisle, and all other essential infrastructure…” Apr 19, 08:46
John McNab on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “You don’t need ‘none of the above’, as by definition, it will be at the bottom of the ballot paper,…” Apr 19, 08:41
Nicky T Naquetti on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “Something I forgot to mention about Sheridan – his waste of public funds, by claiming legal aid in order to…” Apr 19, 08:18
Nicky T Naquetti on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “Tommy Sheridan? I suppose it may be possible to enjoy the services of prostitutes while still “respecting women” – he…” Apr 19, 07:29
Dave on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “Wow, a demonstration that grammar, punctuation, and spelling are entirely optional if conviction is high enough. ‘you’re blinkers’ ? ‘your…” Apr 19, 07:06
Mark Beggan on The Narcissism Of No Differences: ““I never thought I’d live to see the day when the right wing would become the cool ones giving the…” Apr 18, 23:25
Dan on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “This may interest you. I’ve often mentioned that for all the renewble power generated in Scotland’s geographic area, the rail…” Apr 18, 21:54
Bilbo on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “It’s nearly 50 years since the Sex Pistols released Anarchy in the UK which heralded Punk music into the mainstream.…” Apr 18, 21:41
Aidan on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “Yet another boring post. It’s a lovely evening here on Skye. Hopefully it is where you are. Go and enjoy…” Apr 18, 20:43
Lorncal on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “Turabdin: I believe you are right. We have had enough. I also believe that women have had enough, too. These…” Apr 18, 20:34
Young Lochinvar on Happy Anniversary: “George I reckon the whole counting crosses process should be topped off by the candidates doing an arm wrestle. :-)…” Apr 18, 20:03
Young Lochinvar on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “LOL! The post reads as follows. Adrian says; How incredibly boring. Succinct and to the point really plus a round…” Apr 18, 19:55
George Ferguson on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “@Dan 6:18pm Absolutely Dan A principled stance was my core belief. I don’t want taxpayers money. I had the formation…” Apr 18, 18:53
Dan on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “@George You’ll have to wait a long time for a decent and easier to instigate recall policy being implemented by…” Apr 18, 18:18
George Ferguson on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “@Sven 5:26pm True especially for wayward MSPS. I favour a recall mechanism for MSPs. A recent vote in the Scottish…” Apr 18, 17:55
Mark Beggan on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “The only winners in this election are the Civil servants and Lawyers. The only hope is that the whole woke…” Apr 18, 17:45
Alf Baird on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “Scots surely have the additional challenge dealing with colonial rule based on racial and cultural subordination which adds another dimension…” Apr 18, 17:43
Sven on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “Genuine query, George. What action is available to bring to bear on an MSP newly installed for the next 5…” Apr 18, 17:26
George Ferguson on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “@twathater Wow calm down. We live in age of social media. Every promise they make will be played back to…” Apr 18, 17:02
twathater on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “So George how are the elected politicians going to be held accountable for their ignoring their manifestos and the voters…” Apr 18, 16:19
