There’s a good column by Kevin McKenna in today’s Herald On Sunday about Boris Johnson, from which this paragraph in particular jumped out at us.
It did so because of something else we’d just read this weekend.
On 17 January last year, the First Minister told the Scottish Parliament that she, her administration and her party would “co-operate fully” with the parliamentary inquiry into the Scottish Government’s handling of false allegations made against Alex Salmond.
She further assured the Parliament, unambiguously and without any qualification, that the committee investigating the matter “will be able to request whatever material they want, and I undertake today that we will provide whatever material they request”.
So just over a month in, we thought we’d check on how that was going so far.
The SNP’s official 2019 accounts, which were due to be published today (five weeks late), have not appeared on the Electoral Commission website. We’ve rung the EC and we’re still waiting for someone to get back to us with a reason and/or a new date.
[EDIT 3pm: the EC say they’re “fairly confident” the new date will be 23 September.]
In the meantime, there’s something else of note.
We’ve had another letter from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
And slowly, painfully, we’re starting to get at least some answers.
The Scottish political focus has been on Holyrood in recent days, with the Programme For Government announced and Westminster returning from recess. But parliaments can only do so much. Extra-parliamentary action is required for many reasons, not least because activists are increasingly frustrated at delays and uncertainty.
Giving direction and something constructive to do is therefore important; and that will have to come from within the grassroots movement.
Bad news, readers. We’ve done some research, and it’s our grave duty to report to you that according to the evidence we’ve discovered, there’s a high statistical probability that everyone reading this website will one day die.
Luckily there’s a solution: we can all just commit suicide right now.
Wait – that’s a stupid idea, right?
Let’s be clear about something straight away – we’re NOT about to write an article in defence of Tony Abbott. He IS a sexist, a misogynist and a climate change denier (and a homophobe), and as far as we can ascertain he’s NOT actually all that good at trade either. So even though the bar for improving the competence of the UK government is astonishingly low, we don’t want him in it any more than anyone else does.
But this is still an incredibly brainless thing to say:
And it explains a lot about what’s gone wrong everywhere.
Throughout the summer, the Scottish Government has been talking consistently about its goal being the “total elimination” of the coronavirus, and specifically contrasting that with England’s approach of merely “suppressing” it.
In the “framework for decision making” published in late April, the administration stated bluntly that “There is no such thing as a level of “acceptable loss”“ from the virus. But then yesterday something changed.
Oh, is it that time again? Gosh, it seems to come round quicker every year.
So forgive us if we feel like we’ve heard this song already.
Well, imagine our surprise.
If only we’d been telling you for the last two years, eh?
Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.
