At the climax of a popular and multiple-Oscar-winning movie from 1995, the Scottish leader William Wallace is portrayed heroically roaring the word “FREEDOM!”
The most tedious question we ever get asked when we criticise the SNP – because we’ve explained it a hundred times already and none of the people asking have ever bothered to look – is “But what would YOU do to secure independence, clever-clogs?”
We’ve outlined that plan in detail repeatedly – you can read it again here if you want. But maybe we need something a bit simpler for the hard of thinking, so let’s have a go.
We just noticed a finding from the most recent opinion poll that surprisingly seems to have escaped the attention of every Scottish newspaper except the Press & Journal.
As far as we can ascertain, the P&J was alone in reporting the obviously newsworthy fact that just a quarter of Scots believe the First Minister’s ridiculous cock-and-bull story about “forgetting” the occasion when she first heard that her friend, colleague and mentor of 30 years was facing charges of trying to rape some of her other friends.
But the figures are part of a wider and depressing trend.
We’ve just received the most extraordinary Freedom Of Information response from the Scottish Government, readers. Trust us, you want to go and make yourselves a strong cup of tea before you read it. Or get this guy to bring you one.
It doesn’t take a master analyst to see that the Salmond inquiry committee is running out of patience with the Scottish Government’s endless attempts to obstruct its work.
This afternoon it issued a statement, with obvious irritation, making clear that it did not wish to see documents the Scottish Government was trying to submit to it, which the committee had not asked for, and which had previously been struck down as unlawful by Lord Pentland in the initial judicial inquiry.
The Scottish Government’s only purpose in doing so was to try to put the details of the discredited and disproven-in-court allegations into the public domain with the intention of smearing Mr Salmond yet again, and the committee has made its displeasure with the plan clear, telling the Scottish Government to abandon its intended legal action to release the documents and get on with producing the ones the inquiry HAS asked for.
But there’s a little bit more to the story than that.
We’re grumpy this morning, readers, because it’s Sunday and we were planning a long lie and then someone told us about this. It’s the First Minister appearing on the Sophy Ridge show on Sky News at around 8.45am and you need to see it.
In the light of yesterday’s revelations, we’ve sent the following Freedom Of Information request to the Central Enquiry Unit (CEU) of the Scottish Government.
Back in the 1980s there was a hit game for the ZX Spectrum home computer called Worse Things Happen At Sea. In it you play a robot whose job is to get a heavily-laden cargo ship safely to port, except that more and more disasters keep befalling it.
It springs leaks, it veers off course, the engine overheats and the robot’s power runs down, until eventually the catalogue of catastrophes overwhelms the harassed metallic custodian and the boat slides down into the murky depths.
We wonder if that feels familiar to anyone at the moment.
James Che on Push The Button: “Lornical explained Scotlands situation and its people very well on the 25th of April with remarks on subject of rational…” Apr 27, 09:27
Hatey McHateface on Push The Button: “Well, well. I read the question through twice, to ensure I understood it, then I chose Blue. Seemed bloody obvious…” Apr 27, 08:51
Chas on Push The Button: “What a load of shite…………. as usual.” Apr 27, 08:44
Captain Caveman on Push The Button: “*(Sorry, lots of annoying autocorrect gibberish there, but you get the gist)” Apr 27, 08:27
Captain Caveman on Push The Button: “I totally see your logic, but as human beings the situation is surely more nuanced? Speaking for myself, I simply…” Apr 27, 08:15
Angus on Push The Button: “Being a Rev., I am surprised it does not bother your conscience to vote red, given that a red majority…” Apr 27, 03:09
Rev. Stuart Campbell on Push The Button: “Man, these comments are a real disappointment.” Apr 27, 02:02
Rev. Stuart Campbell on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “You know I edited all those front pages satirically, right?” Apr 27, 01:57
Rev. Stuart Campbell on Push The Button: “So, yes, stupid. Willing to risk death to appear “social” rather than actually think about what they’re doing.” Apr 27, 01:54
Rev. Stuart Campbell on Push The Button: ““ Does this not depend on your estimation of the trust level within the group doing the vote?” If you’re…” Apr 27, 01:53
James Barr Gardner on Push The Button: “I was once caught up in a redundancy situation, the dept had 10 staff, the management issued an edict, all…” Apr 27, 00:34
George Ferguson on Push The Button: “My daughter was a Graduate of the Royal Dick Veterinary School. And she was on the bus with us. She…” Apr 26, 22:12
Confused on Push The Button: “MAIRI MCALLAN SAYS WE NEED MORE MIGRANTS furgrowthunthuconmynetzero – brian wilson agrees, he says we need 20000 a year; did…” Apr 26, 22:02
Dan on Push The Button: “Hmm, regardez divide and rule in action. https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/elections/sp.r.2026-05-07/scottish-parliament-elections-regions/ So catch up in another 5 years for more of the same…” Apr 26, 21:41
Mark Beggan on Push The Button: “The left have created a Frankenstein they cannot control. This summer is going to be the ‘Summer of Hate’!” Apr 26, 20:14
Northcode on Push The Button: “Are you a knob or a stud? The word “button” originates from the Old French word “boton”, meaning “knob” or…” Apr 26, 20:09
Alf Baird on Push The Button: “Aye Northcode, the native ‘forgetting’ their past is a big part of colonialism, and that what is called ‘Scotland’ is…” Apr 26, 20:07
Northcode on Push The Button: ““What a load of shite. . . . . . . as usual.” Whereas the sparkling sentences of the unionist…” Apr 26, 20:05
Southernbystander on Push The Button: “But this is not an either or – helping others does not require that you have sorted your world out…” Apr 26, 20:00
Southernbystander on Push The Button: “Yes. This shifts the criticism of blue voters from virtual signalling wokerati to people with a conscience who worry voting…” Apr 26, 19:52
George Ferguson on Push The Button: “@Mark Beggan A few articles ago I detailed the precarious nature of the X38 bus route from Edinburgh to West…” Apr 26, 19:33
Steve Ashton on Push The Button: “Button! They tried to proof test the nuclear button. But the man there to press it had brains of dead…” Apr 26, 19:25
James on Push The Button: “Well, you’re the “shite” expert right enough… maaaaate.” Apr 26, 18:58
Chas on Push The Button: “What a load of shite……. as usual.” Apr 26, 18:30
Sven on Push The Button: “And, indeed, below the self proclaimed breast enhancer, the former David Paulden.” Apr 26, 18:09
Mark Beggan on Push The Button: “Wouldn’t it be karmic if all the Left wing,Antifa,Trans warriors all got their doors kicked in by a dozen armed…” Apr 26, 17:35
TURABDIN on Push The Button: “This piece is by a selfstyled «thinktank»….dohh! As all foreign correspondents rarely quit the London bubble it is not surprising.…” Apr 26, 17:33
Mark Beggan on Push The Button: “You just love the old violence. Who are you going to “tear to shreds”? Just stand at the back and…” Apr 26, 17:19
Mark Beggan on Push The Button: “Is it a coincidence that the evil regime and the Lefty Europa both advocate violence against anyone who disagrees with…” Apr 26, 17:12
Cynicus on Push The Button: ““ This article on the fractious trends in UK politics is signally notable by the absence of Scotland or Wales…” Apr 26, 17:03
