News reaches Wings this evening that Humza Yousaf has called an emergency meeting of the Scottish Cabinet at 10 o’clock tomorrow morning, just a couple of hours before FMQs. (This information has been confirmed directly to us by a source very close to a member of said Cabinet.)
An emergency Cabinet meeting is an extraordinarily rare event. As far as we’re able to establish there have only been two during the SNP’s time in power – when the budget failed to pass in 2009 and Alex Salmond’s administration had to decide whether or not to trigger a general election, and one the day after the Brexit vote to supposedly plan a second indyref (LOL). But in any case they’re extremely unusual.
The subject of the meeting has not been disclosed to us. It could, for example, concern imminent developments in Operation Branchform, or it could relate to the Bute House Agreement between the SNP and the Scottish Greens. The men in grey kilts may have come for the FM. Or Scotland could be about to declare war on Morocco or something. But we are told that the fact of the meeting taking place is a 100% certainty.
So no sleeping in tomorrow, readers. It’s probably going to be big.
There are, at the most generous possible maximum estimate, maybe 1600 people here, including the wee knot of 100 or so Unionists circled at bottom left.
We unreservedly applaud the swiftness with which the office of the Official Report of the Scottish Parliament have delivered this answer, something which other bodies in Scotland could learn from.
…the same man who LITERALLY just passed a law dividing Scotland into groups of people who are worthy of protection from hatred and those who aren’t? (Most notably women and people who know what sex they are.)
Is he, then, a “bad faith actor”? Maybe we misunderstood.
Now, before we start this piece we should probably note that we don’t think anyone’s losing anything by being excluded from Believe In Scotland’s latest money-gathering exercise (folding, please, not clinking!) in Glasgow later this month. We rather suspect most folk can manage fine without spending a Saturday afternoon listening to tedious speeches from Pat Kane, Ross Greer and Iona Fyfe.
But this is still disturbing:
Because for a party which pretty much never mentions Scottish independence, which conspicuously removed the word “INDEPENDENCE” from their conference banner last week, and which stated just days ago that independence wouldn’t be any sort of red line preventing them doing a coalition deal with Scottish Labour, to be able to effectively veto the participation of ACTUAL independence parties from (ostensibly) independence rallies is a strange state of affairs indeed.
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: “Auld Ayr, wham ne’er a town surpasses, For honest men and bonnie lasses. I had a squint at the lady…” Apr 4, 17:45
Aidan on The Gender Of Mountains: “That’s assuming everyone who has signed the petition is a Scottish resident with an entitlement to vote, and hasn’t signed…” Apr 4, 17:07
Mark Beggan on The Gender Of Mountains: “Do you know what a palmist once said to me?” Apr 4, 16:48
Andy Ellis on The Gender Of Mountains: “Yeah, the yoons will be fair shitting themselves that 0.1% of the over 16 voting age population have (consults notes)…..singned…” Apr 4, 16:47
Mia on The Gender Of Mountains: ““First Minister John Swinney is set to champion Scottish trade during the annual Tartan Week celebrations in New York, urging…” Apr 4, 14:55
Mia on The Gender Of Mountains: ““In what universe is preparing to protect yourself against a vicious, domineering, bullying, brutal, violent oaf regarded as “aggression”.” The…” Apr 4, 14:37
Mark Beggan on The Gender Of Mountains: “No no not at all. You can take the girls out of Ayrshire but ye canny take Ayrshire out of…” Apr 4, 14:18
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: “We’re all doomed. Doomed, I tell you. There is nothing left for us, but to work till we drop. Look…” Apr 4, 14:16
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: “The conclusion is inescapable. The poor woman’s been “colonised”. Is it the generic English making her behave like that, or…” Apr 4, 14:11
Marie on The Gender Of Mountains: “It’s as though our politicians are having their strings pulled by powerful people who live in other nation states entirely.…” Apr 4, 13:49
sarah on The Gender Of Mountains: “Thank you for posting the link, IB – I hoped someone would!” Apr 4, 13:30
Mark Beggan on The Gender Of Mountains: “It’s official Mother Nature is homophobic.” Apr 4, 13:30
Confused on The Gender Of Mountains: “stuck indoors, waiting for some workmen to show up … nothing much in the wasteland wings has become check this…” Apr 4, 13:28
Ian Brotherhood on The Gender Of Mountains: “@Sarah (12.37) Thanks for reminder. Have signed and tweeted link. (Currently has 6,430 signatures) petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE2135” Apr 4, 13:01
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: “This is powerful and enlightening stuff, MAI. But inevitably, some of the readers are going to be struggling to keep…” Apr 4, 12:49
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: “Mind and get your funeral plan paid up. You’ll be needing that (perhaps more accurately, your relatives will) long before…” Apr 4, 12:38
sarah on The Gender Of Mountains: “Let’s do what we CAN do. There are so many things that worry us and which we can do nothing…” Apr 4, 12:37
diabloandco on The Gender Of Mountains: “Sven , thanks for that – not a lot I can boycott by the looks of it! I’ll just have…” Apr 4, 12:04
Mia on The Gender Of Mountains: “A lot of smoke coming from the US new tariffs. Isn’t that rather convenient? Meanwhile, the deeds of the pathetic…” Apr 4, 11:05
Sven on The Gender Of Mountains: “diabloand co @ 09.12. In 2023, the latest figures I’ve viewed; Machinery and Transport Equipment 19.9 Billion pounds. Fuel 18.7…” Apr 4, 10:18
diabloandco on The Gender Of Mountains: “Could someone tell me what exactly we import from the USA other than Ford and Harley Davidsons? I need to…” Apr 4, 09:12
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: “Seems that neither Sven nor Bob have anything sensible to say about the war in the east. No change there…” Apr 3, 19:26
Robert Hughes on The Gender Of Mountains: “Of course Swinney would bend over to * accommodate * the utterly farcical ” Red Menace ” bollocks ; another…” Apr 3, 16:25
Sven on The Gender Of Mountains: “Vivian O’Blivion @ 14.15. A senior source close to the First Minister has a brass neck to dare to even…” Apr 3, 16:12
Aidan on The Long Future: “@Xaracen – there is no such thing as a binary state, states can either be unitary (like the U.K.) or…” Apr 3, 15:02
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: ““there’ll be Ruskie tanks parked in front of Hollyrood if we’re no careful” That, my dear Vivian O’Blivion, is an…” Apr 3, 14:59