It’s increasingly common now for the Scottish news to feature another prison scandal or employment-tribunal judgment highlighting the extent of gender-ideology capture in the country’s public authorities.
But it’s normally quite hard to get an overall picture of just how captured any particular public body really is, so we should offer some thanks to the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) who’ve helpfully provided us with a comprehensive primer in the form of a briefing for a board update later this week.
Innocent readers might have thought that the people managing a national park would be most concerned about attracting visitors, protecting wildlife, repairing paths and keeping local businesses sustainable, that sort of thing. But that’s not how things work in Scotland any more.
Because the CNPA are about to present the organisation’s 19 board members with an 91-page report and annex detailing all their vital work on… equalities issues.
A couple of days ago a reader asked on Twitter if we thought Reform, who continue to lead in UK opinion polling, might allow a second indyref if they actually got into power, as it would for obvious reasons be hypocritical of them not to. And to be frank we dismissed it out of hand, because Nigel Farage is the ultimate British nationalist, he’d have no obvious political reason to, and since when did hypocrisy bother politicians?
And then last night a longstanding Courier/Press & Journal reporter (who despite that is an all-round decent chap and indy supporter) tweeted this:
And actually, on further thought, that’s not the craziest idea at all.
Every now and again you’ll go to clean them up and find something that you’ve been meaning to write about in a quiet moment, and this certainly counts as a quiet moment in Scottish politics, so let’s do this one now.
Because the story above is from March, but we don’t think we’ve ever seen anyone anywhere talk about just how weird it is, or what it tells us about the 2024 SNP.
You’d have to be living in a pretty strict prison not to have heard the big story from today’s Olympics in Paris, in which male Algerian cheat Imane Khelefi was put in a boxing ring with young Italian woman Angela Carini and allowed to hit her in the head for 46 seconds until she retired, in tears and in fear for her safety, saying “I had to preserve my life”.
Sound like your kind of fun, men? It’s surprisingly easy!
When you’ve been watching Scotland playing football for 50 years of your life, you become accustomed to disappointment. You expect disappointment. Anything better than disappointment becomes a bonus.
The Flying Iron of Doom on The Marshalling Plan: “Ah, so Reform won’t be coming up with the goods either? That’s going to annoy a few folk, but what…” Feb 4, 18:44
Nae Need! on The Marshalling Plan: “The conversation has moved since I was last here, and so has my thinking (or what passes fir thinking in…” Feb 4, 18:40
agentx on The Marshalling Plan: “Don’t forget the curlers are in action in the Winter Olympics – live on iPlayer now.” Feb 4, 18:08
Cynicus on The Marshalling Plan: “A Farage fanboy opines. I have no idea what he means and don’t really care.” Feb 4, 18:08
Aidan on The Marshalling Plan: “‘No judges’ – so how do you think the law might be administered in that context?” Feb 4, 18:08
Hatey McHateface on The Marshalling Plan: “If Reform do what they say, reform our politics, then they will have succeeded in working themselves out of a…” Feb 4, 17:21
agentx on The Marshalling Plan: “John Swinney has ordered an investigation into his government’s dealings with Peter Mandelson to see if the “interests of Scotland…” Feb 4, 17:21
Cynicus on The Marshalling Plan: “BigJay says: 4 February, 2026 at 3:32 pm . “…….lots of people are saying at the moment that they’ll vote…” Feb 4, 17:02
Hatey McHateface on The Marshalling Plan: “Whooda thunk it, eh? The academic in his ivory tower, poring over his books, references and arcane theories reaches exactly…” Feb 4, 17:00
Chas on The Marshalling Plan: “Unbelievably you make more sense when you write about the 300 year old pish. How do individuals get appointed to…” Feb 4, 16:35
James Cheyne on The Marshalling Plan: “Hatey, Never a truer word spoken, Perhaps they should all be fully transitioned, a new disguised terminology for ( medically…” Feb 4, 16:07
Alf Baird on The Marshalling Plan: ““The only hope of getting rid of the SNP” and ensure you vote for independence is to vote for THE…” Feb 4, 15:52
James Cheyne on The Marshalling Plan: “It is with valid reasoning of the above alone that Scotland should have a Sovereign peoples parliament in Scotland, run…” Feb 4, 15:37
BigJay on The Marshalling Plan: “It’s 92 days (including today) to the Holyrood election on the 7th of May. Candidates have to be registered 23…” Feb 4, 15:32
James Cheyne on The Marshalling Plan: “Willie, The present labour prime minister does not have a clean track record on past judgements or a present one…” Feb 4, 15:18
Cynicus on The Marshalling Plan: “factchecker “ The only hope of getting rid of the SNP is to vote for a party that already has…” Feb 4, 15:00
James Cheyne on The Marshalling Plan: “Willie, The case for Andrew is still as yet incomplete, I am sure there is more to come out, and…” Feb 4, 14:56
DaveL on The Marshalling Plan: “Factchecker would be better served hanging pencils from his nostrils…” Feb 4, 14:48
James Cheyne on The Marshalling Plan: “Factchecker, it has always been notable that no attention has been paid to – facts, but rather to learned opinion…” Feb 4, 12:59
Cynicus on The Marshalling Plan: “Cherrybank says: 2 February, 2026 at 8:29 pm I think Craig Houston the You- tuber has a good chance of…” Feb 4, 12:44
DaveL on The Marshalling Plan: “Labour makes sense? If it’s fact checking that’s led you to that conclusion you should give it up.” Feb 4, 12:10
factchecker on The Marshalling Plan: “A sensible analysis, I think, Chas. It is almost unimaginable that any ‘new’ pro-independence party or group of parties can…” Feb 4, 11:11
Alf Baird on The Marshalling Plan: ““I will never vote fascist” Civilization helps us “locate the origins of fascism within colonialism” (R.D.G. Kelley). And postcolonial theory…” Feb 4, 10:27
Alf Baird on The Marshalling Plan: “Professor Black confirmed that in 1707 Scotland was annexed and England’s parliament was merely rebranded as ‘United Kingdom’ whenever it…” Feb 4, 10:10
Chas on The Marshalling Plan: “Irrespective of the content, which Stu diligently and accurately provides in his articles, it never takes too long before the…” Feb 4, 10:00
Marie on The Marshalling Plan: “Good post Willie. Who (ultimately) financed JE’s activities and why?” Feb 4, 09:47
sam on The Marshalling Plan: “An insight into the political organisation of the Reform Party According to Beth Rigby. Beth Rigby Tweet 3 Feb 2026…” Feb 4, 08:57
Hatey McHateface on The Marshalling Plan: “Receiving loud and clear, Skip_NC. You’ll be happy with your 7 pro-Indy seats at HR for the next 5 years.…” Feb 4, 08:52
Hatey McHateface on The Marshalling Plan: “Perhaps ordinary Scots fowk see no need to vote to dismantle something they are being told doesn’t exist. That would…” Feb 4, 08:37
