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.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, before the internet, scammers used to have to work a bit harder to cheat people than they do now.
A popular method was to advertise a “clearance sale” in the press. You’d see an ad in the Daily Record or a local paper for an event in a High Street location – typically a vacant shop – promising brand-new TVs for £20, microwaves for a fiver, toasters for £2.50 or whatever. So you’d show up on the day and it always worked the same.
There’d be the ringmaster on a raised platform, surrounded by loads of unmarked white boxes, and he’d start off by picking some “random” punter from the crowd and bestowing gifts upon him. This guy would walk away with armfuls of swag for £25 or something (doubtless just going straight round the back with them), and the real show would begin.
Next the ringmaster would say “Now, before we get properly started, who’ll give me £10 for what’s on my mind?” (that phrase, “what’s on my mind”, was always the same). And basically they were flogging a mystery box, invariably containing a few trashy trinkets worth a fraction of the cost.
Any chump who bought one would then be escorted out of the shop before opening it, on the pretence that the bargains on offer in these sales were so great that they were limited to one per person. (There was always security on the door, sometimes even cops. There’s nothing intrinsically illegal about selling mystery boxes, even mainstream chainstores still do it today.)
And that was basically it. The ringmaster would delay and delay, punting more mystery boxes and never actually getting to the bit where you could buy a specific item at a specific price, and after a couple of hours the event would close down and the would-be customers would disperse in disgruntlement.
The entire Scottish media and professional-politician community is currently in a self-righteous froth about a campaign ad being run by Reform for the Hamilton by-election targeting Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
Obviously none of the acres of press coverage trusts voters to see the ad and decide for themselves, because that simply isn’t how journalism works nowadays. You’re told that a bad thing happened – whether it be a campaign ad, a comedian’s joke or the supposed terrible abuse sent to a celebrity – and how outraged various pundits or other celebrities are about it, with the clear implication that you should feel the same, but you almost never get shown or told what was actually said.
So to start with, as a basic journalistic principle, here’s the ad itself in its entirety.
Now let’s look at what you’re being ordered to think about it.
Bilbo on Anything But That: “@ Hatey I was clumsily trying to make the point about how Westminster is trying to make the UK look…” Sep 7, 21:30
Young Lochinvar on Anything But That: “MB Hmmmm.. Did you write that while still fantasising about politicians mud wrestling??” Sep 7, 21:26
Chas on Anything But That: “A succession of it’s, buts and maybes. Still, it keeps the fanatics happy” Sep 7, 21:18
Young Lochinvar on Anything But That: “CC @ 8.34 “Well hold on there Bald Eagle!” 🙂 Emotion is exactly what motivates political moves. Think; Immigration Support…” Sep 7, 21:15
agentx on Anything But That: “Formally known as the Act Salvo Jure Cujuslibet (meaning “saving the right of everyone”), this session was a crucial mechanism…” Sep 7, 21:15
Northcode on Anything But That: “The constitutional position I outlined earlier is based on the recognised historical and legal record — the Acts of the…” Sep 7, 21:09
agentx on Anything But That: “AI Overview The Salvo session provided a legal forum for individuals to present private petitions or legal grievances that the…” Sep 7, 21:06
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “I’am sorry to be rattling at the door of your ivory tower Northy. But this just can’t wait. I think…” Sep 7, 21:02
James Che on Anything But That: “Xaracen, Many thanks for setting that procedure on the correct path, North code is showing his true colours nowadays, one…” Sep 7, 21:00
Young Lochinvar on Anything But That: “FC Join Chas hiding behind the settee keiching himself feart unless gifted ratified gold standard insurance backed guarantees of instantaneous…” Sep 7, 20:58
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Yes that is true. Student politics. Let’s play government, you be the lawyer and I will be the minister. We…” Sep 7, 20:48
Young Lochinvar on Anything But That: “S Agreed, well done Xarcen! Good to see the Unionist AI bot masquerading as Northcode gas just been shown to…” Sep 7, 20:42
Captain Caveman on Anything But That: ““The point you repeatedly (willfully) miss” again and again is that ‘independence is a cultural emotion’. Independence cannot be primarily…” Sep 7, 20:34
sarah on Anything But That: “@ Xaracen: this is an excellent exposition of the Scottish constitution and the failure to comply with it in 1707.…” Sep 7, 20:15
Northcode on Anything But That: “Just to clarify for anyone following along: The idea that the 1707 Union is invalid because a “Salvo session” was…” Sep 7, 20:13
Xaracen on Anything But That: ““Once both Acts of Union (Scotland’s and England’s) received Royal Assent and came into force on 1st May 1707, the…” Sep 7, 19:46
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Looking beyond the skelp. My point is the face to face issue that Sam the bam pointed out. Repeat posts.…” Sep 7, 19:34
Chas on Anything But That: “If you think that the succinct and accurate post will deter the likes of Che, i fear you will be…” Sep 7, 19:25
Alf Baird on Anything But That: ““The point you repeatedly (willfully) miss” again and again is that ‘independence is a cultural emotion’. Independence cannot be primarily…” Sep 7, 19:21
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “But he hasn’t got a valid point. He’s making the unevidenced claim he’s capable of dishing out a skelping. That…” Sep 7, 17:34
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “What can I say, Willie. People a lot smarter than you or I have calculated the sustainable human population for…” Sep 7, 17:17
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “They do not want to understand it. That gives them nothing to rant with. Without that rant they are empty.” Sep 7, 16:23
sarah on Anything But That: “Rev, I’m very pleased indeed to see that you will be at the SSRG conference next month. I think that…” Sep 7, 16:20
Northcode on Anything But That: “I feel it’s important to clarify the constitutional reality surrounding Scotland’s political union with England as there seems to be…” Sep 7, 16:19
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Sam said, “Neither would say to me face to face what they say online for fear of the skelping they…” Sep 7, 16:11
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Just watched footage of AUOB march on the Royal mile. My Cring Meter just went off the scale. Nothing as…” Sep 7, 15:36
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Who would pay to watch Jenny Gilruth mud wrestling Alice Weidel?” Sep 7, 14:58
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “There is a lot of finger pointing going on in Germany today. What is German for ” It was your…” Sep 7, 14:52
James Che on Anything But That: “To cherry pick some old history to make a narrative fit for the sake of the parliament of Englands ….transferred……” Sep 7, 14:48
Willie on Anything But That: “Its an interesting concept that of shirkers and grifters. No doubt the captain of wealth and influence would never come…” Sep 7, 14:47
