Rape Crisis Scotland, who are almost entirely dependent on the Scottish Government for funding, have chosen this evening to wade into the debate over the wording of a new law which is intended to lessen the trauma of people (nearly all women) who’ve been raped. We can only speculate as to whether they were pressured to do so, but the intervention seems likely only to pour petrol on the fire.
In his evidence to a Holyrood inquiry today, having been asked about some troubling WhatsApp messages concerning the case from 2018 which appeared to suggest the possibility of a conspiracy against the former First Minister, Murrell told members of the committee “I’m not on WhatsApp, it’s not a social media platform I use”.
Alert readers will have noticed a very careful use of the present tense there.
We’ve now filed a formal complaint with the Scottish Information Commissioner about this, because what we’d forgotten last week was that our original request was actually sent in September and it’s now been almost 60 working days with no sign of a proper response, not the 20 it’s supposed to take.
Because for some reason the Scottish Government REALLY doesn’t want you to know what the First Minister and Geoff Aberdein talked about in March 2018, and we think that you probably should.
We don’t normally like to devote much time on Wings to things that have been more than adequately covered elsewhere in the media, which is why you haven’t read much here about eg the Internal Market Bill. Unlike some we don’t see much point spending our limited human resources telling people stuff they already know and agree with.
But we’re going to make an exception for this next thing, which was already covered pretty well by Susan Dalgety in last week’s Scotsman, because (a) a lot of our readers, quite reasonably, will have an instinctively adverse reaction to either anything printed in the Scotsman or anything written by Susan Dalgety, and (b) a number of people have asked us to amplify this issue because it’s so important and so awful.
As well as the SNP NEC elections, the weekend saw the election of the first committee of a new grassroots independence organisation which is unfortunately and hopefully temporarily going by the stupendously terrible working name of “Yes Alba”.
15 people were elected to its ruling body by the votes of hundreds of delegates, with the top-ranked picks including SNP MP Angus MacNeil and former SNP MP George Kerevan. The majority of the successful candidates (eight) were female, even though there were no quotas or women-only shortlists imposed, and a wide range of ages was represented from young activists to former UK ambassador Craig Murray.
(We have no idea about any of their sexualities or gender identities, and also no interest in knowing, because those things have not the slightest bearing on their ability to fight for independence and are frankly none of our damn business.)
But that wasn’t good enough for Team Woke.
On a day when Joanna Cherry had a grown-up, reasoned and constructive column in The National calling for unity in the pursuit of independence, the outpouring of snide, sour sneering from a faction still raging with bitterness about being routed on the SNP NEC is instead curdling Twitter even as we speak.
And embarrassingly, not a single one of them has actually bothered to check even the most basic facts.
Alert readers will recall the deranged open letter released by a group of transactivists last Friday, in a nakedly transparent attempt to influence the SNP’s NEC elections that weekend which backfired on them horribly (and amusingly) when the party’s members instead kicked out three-quarters of the committee’s woke faction and replaced them with feminists, socialists and above all advocates of actually achieving independence.
If you don’t have the time to read Alyn Smith’s astonishing response to the SNP NEC election results in today’s National, we’ve edited it down to 10 seconds for you.
Alf Baird on The quality of mercy: ““Hate by its very nature is destructive. To hate an entire nation over a period of ten years rips the…” Apr 6, 18:55
Young Lochinvar on Clocks And Calendars: “What in tarnashun boyy! Aint not no none of yer good ol’ boyys talkin’ likee that in tham there Scahtland..…” Apr 6, 18:31
TURABDIN on The quality of mercy: “From WIKI: «The earliest use of the term appears in 1507, when King James IV of Scotland was granted the…” Apr 6, 16:56
Andy Ellis on Clocks And Calendars: “@YL Given that “gotten” is – as I stated – probably more common amongst Scots than English users of the…” Apr 6, 16:47
Young Lochinvar on Clocks And Calendars: “Yee Haw Pardner! You for forget to say FACT after your “construction” (?!?) statement.. Do you also call trousers “pants”,…” Apr 6, 16:27
Young Lochinvar on The quality of mercy: “Beggars Then stop dissing all things Scotland “old boy”! By your own acknowledgement ye’ll feel so much better for it…” Apr 6, 16:20
Andy Ellis on Clocks And Calendars: “The construction “might have gotten” is perfectly acceptable English usage: it’s probably more common in US, Canadian and indeed Scots…” Apr 6, 16:05
James on The quality of mercy: “Purpose here? Distract, divide, dereail. Rinse, Repeat. And he/she/it thinks everyone is his/her/it’s “mate”. When in reality I don’t expect…” Apr 6, 15:57
Mark Beggan on The quality of mercy: “To hate someone takes a lot of energy. Energy that could be better spent and used more constructively. Hate by…” Apr 6, 15:46
crisiscult on Clocks And Calendars: ““might have gotten”? Who writes the blog these days? 8-/” Apr 6, 15:17
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The quality of mercy: “CONSTITUTIONAL STATUS of CHURCH OF ENGLAND and CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. When Elizabeth was Queen the royal website carried the following:…” Apr 6, 14:35
James Barr Gardner on The quality of mercy: “I totally agree word for word, more and more people agree with it but the process needs speeding up for…” Apr 6, 14:06
James on The quality of mercy: “Wilma; “Hello, pot? Kettle here…..”” Apr 6, 12:51
Captain Caveman on The quality of mercy: “Heh. If there’s one thing I couldn’t been accused of, mate, it’s “poor self esteem”… much to the annoyance of…” Apr 6, 12:45
Jay on The quality of mercy: “Thank you for the ‘good luck’ comment, Young Lochinvar. Regrettably, I lack your knowledge of M. Beggan and what I…” Apr 6, 12:19
Confused on The quality of mercy: “an independent Scotland with the worst government imaginable is still preferrable to being in the UK with a government of…” Apr 6, 11:51
Confused on The quality of mercy: “I’m not here to talk / debate / discuss with the hotpot-eaters, but merely to piss on them, from a…” Apr 6, 11:47
Northcode on The quality of mercy: “I asked the internet this question: Do colonised elites appease their oppressor? And the internet said this: “In summary, while…” Apr 6, 11:22
Northcode on The quality of mercy: “A hae writ doun a new vers fir thon rideeculous, agin-the-Scots, hatesome Inglis naconal anthem pish tae pit in the…” Apr 6, 10:36
Alf Baird on The quality of mercy: ““Let us celebrate humiliation” Deid richt, Willie, the assimilated colonized aye celebrate their oppressor, e’en raise statues tae thaim, name…” Apr 6, 09:47
Captain Caveman on The quality of mercy: “If you don’t understand the meaning of the terms “left” and/or “right” in a political sense, maybe pick up a…” Apr 6, 09:41
Willie on The quality of mercy: ““Lord grant that Marshal Wade, May by thy mighty aid, Victory bring. May he sedition hush, And like a torrent…” Apr 6, 07:03
Aidan on The quality of mercy: “And yet here you are Alf, indulging in the oppressive language of the coloniser and therefore condemning your fellow Scot…” Apr 6, 05:00
Cynicus on The quality of mercy: “Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh says: 5 April, 2026 at 1:14 pm HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO G.F. Handel arr. J. Caponegro: Hail The…” Apr 6, 01:23
Young Lochinvar on The quality of mercy: ““Tartan Tories” Wasn’t that the invention created by “Scotch” Labour to hide the fact it was THE Labour Party that…” Apr 6, 00:35
Young Lochinvar on The quality of mercy: “Beggars Calm down “old boy”!! No need to rant 🙂 You appear to be dragging a disproportionate amount of Oswald…” Apr 6, 00:08
Mark Beggan on The quality of mercy: “1981. The Tartan Tories was what they were called then.” Apr 6, 00:04
Young Lochinvar on The quality of mercy: “Jay Good luck getting a coherent non-nazi reply..” Apr 5, 23:38
George Ferguson on The quality of mercy: “I was trying to remember when I last walked up Carlton Hill in support of Scottish Independence. I have landed…” Apr 5, 23:37
Mark Beggan on The quality of mercy: “That’s very interesting Jay you lunatic.” Apr 5, 21:28
