Welcome back to what will hopefully be normal service after we’ve been spending the last few days battling off a determined and temporarily successful attempt at hacking the site. Apologies to those who had clicks intercepted and redirected to a malware site which tried to get people to download dodgy .EXE files, but our readers are far too alert to ever fall for such things so no harm should have been done.
So back to business, which for us often means pointing out things that have been said in newspapers that aren’t true, which brings us to last Friday’s issue of The National.
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.
The difficulty is that any minute now, someone is going to ask the beleaguered First Minister the staggeringly obvious question that arises from the fact, namely:
Much of Scotland, and indeed the rest of the UK and beyond (the story below ran in the London Standard), has been grimly gripped this week by the ongoing and scarcely believable trainwreck that is Sandie Peggie Vs NHS Fife.
The tribunal has now overrun the time allotted to it, and will reconvene for another 10 days in the second half of July, ramping up the already considerable costs incurred by NHS Fife, which is in the middle of a huge financial crisis.
According to legal experts, there is little doubt about the law surrounding the dispute. NHS Fife is clearly and unambiguously in the wrong – Dr Beth Upton, the transwoman at the centre of the problem, is legally as well as biologically male, and had no lawful entitlement to be in a female changing room. The authority also appears to be in very considerable potential trouble over failing to disclose key documents and evidence when ordered by the original judge.
So it seems remarkable that the board of NHS Fife is allowing the case to continue rather than immediately conceding to save money and any more public humiliation of both itself and its staff, like the hapless nurse manager Esther Davidson who endured a very uncomfortable two days in the witness box this week, and the clearly manifestly incompetent Equality And Human Rights Lead Officer, Isla Bumba, who yesterday deleted her LinkedIn page after being identified as the person who gave Davidson incorrect and unlawful guidance.
This site hasn’t had much nice to say about the former CEO of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, Mridul Wadhwa, or the (incredibly) still-CEO of Rape Crisis Scotland, Sandy Brindley. But we’re going to thank them today, because it’s hard to see how anyone else could have been chiefly responsible for this.
Just four and a half years ago, every demographic group in the UK supported – either by a plurality or an outright majority – the presence of transwomen in women’s rape crisis centres. But today, eight out of 10 of those groups now oppose it, five by an absolute majority, with only 18-24-year-olds and (barely) Labour voters clinging on.
(Which is probably why ERCC has stuffed its board with children.)
Sometimes even awful people can trigger good outcomes. Cheers, sir and madam.
Readers may have noticed recent speculation in the media (based on the wording of a press release) that Police Scotland had ended their investigations regarding Operation Branchform. As it happened we’d already submitted a Freedom Of Information request aimed at finding that out, and the response arrived this evening.
As alert Wings readers will know, we’re fond of a WW2 analogy from time to time. The conflict is so extensively documented, and so deeply embedded in British culture (for both good and ill), that it’s a reliable tool for getting points across concisely and clearly.
(It’s also one of the last major wars in which, overall, the good guys and the bad guys were pretty indisputably easy to identify.)
So let’s keep that in mind for a moment while we look at this.
For 10 years in Germany between 1935 and 1945, Jewish people were not legally human. The Nuremberg Laws, drafted in large part by Wilhelm Stuckart, established the principle in law that Jews were to be denied any rights on the basis that they were untermensch, a German word literally meaning “subhuman”.
It would be, to say the least, highly controversial for anyone to put forward in 2025 the idea that Jewish people had actually ceased to be human beings during that period, even though the various laws had been passed by a legitimately-elected government in peacetime and attracted little in the way of international condemnation.
The truth is that regardless of what the law said, Jewish people remained humans for the whole time, which is why Nazi war criminals were tried after the war for “crimes against humanity”. The passing of a law had had absolutely no effect on their biological reality. (Other than that it led to millions of them being murdered, of course.)
But anyway. Nicola Sturgeon.
Is the above how she imagined her feminist legacy, do you think, readers?
Let’s take a passing moment just to reflect on how grotesque this is.
When she was leader, Sturgeon forced MPs and MSPs like Michelle Thomson and Mark McDonald – neither of whom were even spoken to by police, let alone arrested or questioned or charged – out of the SNP lest even the mere suggestion of wrongdoing bring shame on the party.
She is still under police investigation on suspicion of EMBEZZLING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF POUNDS FROM THE SNP, and her husband and former party CEO has actually been charged with it. She is personally on record, on video, ordering the NEC not to question the state of party finances at the time of the alleged offences.
Yet not only has she had the lack of class not to resign the whip voluntarily, not only has she shown no interest in turning up and doing the job for the last two years, but she’s actually put herself forward to stand again, and doddering, spineless caretaker John Swinney hasn’t had the stones to put a stop to it.
Nobody thinks she’s even going to actually run next year – she spends most of her time gallivanting around celebrity events talking about her life after politics – so she’s just wasting everyone’s time and trolling.
Nobody in history has ever taken the SNP for a ride as cynically as this. But the party is so rotten and broken and weak that it just meekly goes along with it, and yet still dares to pretend it’s up to the rather tougher task of making Scotland independent.
We have no words for anyone still stupid enough to believe in it.
This is the SNP’s latest messaging. Ministers, MSPs, payroll drones and the central party account were all tweeting the graphic and variations on the line yesterday.
And it’s quite difficult even just to count the number of different ways in which it’s not just mind-bogglingly offensive, but also clatteringly, jaw-droppingly stupid.
James on Looking up at the stars: “There’s a dark underbelly in the Lib Dumb movement. “Movement” being the operative word. Speaking of which – where’s Adrian…” Mar 10, 23:12
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “I dunno how he has the nerve to even collect a salary after he said Scotland shouldn’t be allowed to…” Mar 10, 21:45
Iain More on Looking up at the stars: “I have nothing to add to what has been said already although to refer to him as a wank stain…” Mar 10, 21:25
Scot Finlayson on Looking up at the stars: “Hamilton is an English carpetbagger, `A carpetbagger is a derogatory term for an outsider—historically a Northerner in the post-Civil War…” Mar 10, 21:18
Lorncal on Looking up at the stars: “Dear Lord, that man never learns, does he? We’re doing it for you, Anas! If I were Anas Sarwar, I’d…” Mar 10, 20:38
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “It’ll dawn on the electorate one day that they’re really all just one big party.” Mar 10, 20:34
ScotsCanuck on Looking up at the stars: “….. I can only say of Coal-scuttle, he is the personification of the saying “you can’t fix stoopid”.” Mar 10, 20:14
100%Yes on Looking up at the stars: “What would I rather have Lib-Dem leader resign or the SNP out on their ear, good bye SNP hopefully for…” Mar 10, 20:05
Morgatron on Looking up at the stars: “He is a useless wank stain to be honest. His friend Anas – surley thats a spelling mistake!” Mar 10, 20:05
Geri on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “‘You cling to this like mamas titty’ Says the monarchist who clings to something out the dark ages. Where men…” Mar 10, 20:03
Geri on Scotland’s Most Frightened: ““which apparently democratically elected its latest leader, in a process that with no preparation lasted a whole week, and lead…” Mar 10, 19:46
Alf Baird on Scotland’s Most Frightened: ““withdraw from the Union” There is no need to withdraw from something that does not exist. Scotland was annexed, according…” Mar 10, 19:30
Alf Baird on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “On the contrary, in the paternalist colonial society it is the colonized native as dependent ‘child’ who clings to the…” Mar 10, 19:18
sarah on Looking up at the stars: “I think he’s looking for a way out of the “leadership” – or does the extra pay mean he actually…” Mar 10, 19:05
100%Yes on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “There’s bigger fish to fry than indulge into to the mind of someone who doesn’t know from one day to…” Mar 10, 18:34
100%Yes on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “He does these video from mummy’s house, I hope. Ornament refers to something that enhances the appearance of an object…” Mar 10, 18:23
Hatey McHateface on Scotland’s Most Frightened: ““mild” Is that the Scots for over a million casualties?” Mar 10, 17:52
Aidan on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “Sorry pressed submit before I finished typing, that should say that Iran is the latest despotic dictatorship Geri is fawning…” Mar 10, 17:42
Mark Beggan on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “The things that Transgenderism and Islamic terrorism have in common is their ability to infiltrate and use Socialist administrations for…” Mar 10, 17:27
Mark Beggan on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “20 IRGC sponsored terror attacks in the Union of Kingdoms have been stopped by MI5 in the last 2 years.…” Mar 10, 17:19
Aidan on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “Good to see you back CC, as you’ll see not much has changed whilst you were away. The peaceful democratic…” Mar 10, 17:18
David Holden on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “The only thing I can find as a positive about the ” kinetic event ” in the gulf is that…” Mar 10, 17:08
Mark Beggan on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “When did the independence debate sink into colonial cryin’ and threats. I must say that a threat from a Nasty…” Mar 10, 17:01
James Che on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “Lorncal, Sorry to interrupt and to be rude, but what planet are you on? Scotland was dissolved from the Treaty…” Mar 10, 16:42
Alf Baird on Scotland’s Most Frightened: ““The Treaty is old guff” Tho the colonizer does tend to bring out these mankit violated treaties ‘whenever colonialism is…” Mar 10, 16:11
Lorncal on Scotland’s Most Frightened: “Geri: the Scottish MPs are outvoted 10 times over and can never, ever affect the Westminster vote. That is just…” Mar 10, 16:09
