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.
Geri on What We Don’t Know Now: “I don’t think the SNP can even be described as devolutionist – they’ve achieved the grand total of hee-haw on…” Jun 8, 20:29
James Barr Gardner on What We Don’t Know Now: “O/T has anyone been booted off Facebook this week ?” Jun 8, 19:43
agent x on What We Don’t Know Now: “Oh dear – another topic quoting “polls”. When will people learn?” Jun 8, 19:30
Dunx on What We Don’t Know Now: “That would be more useful if it was written in a language that most Scots could understand. It’s current version…” Jun 8, 18:48
Hatey McHateface on What We Don’t Know Now: “So the takeaway from Labour (a foreign, pro-union party) winning the by-election is that the union is in more trouble…” Jun 8, 18:38
Geri on What We Don’t Know Now: “It could start with him holding a leadership election & the SNP already has/had a current commanding position, still live…” Jun 8, 18:29
Geoff Anderson on What We Don’t Know Now: “As regards Independence the reality is that it is finished because the SNP will get the votes of the deluded…” Jun 8, 17:32
100%Yes on What We Don’t Know Now: “Who are the membership of the SNP and what is their IQ, these are the questions most of us has…” Jun 8, 17:00
David on What We Don’t Know Now: “My final thought. If I could relate it to the NHS. The NHS has recruited overseas and is now got…” Jun 8, 16:58
Mia on What We Don’t Know Now: ““Alba not standing candidates is curious to me” I couldn’t agree more. It does not look like Alba is seeking…” Jun 8, 16:51
duncanio on What We Don’t Know Now: “Yep. The SNP have been in a “commanding position” since May 2015 – Swinney is hoping that the dumb electorate…” Jun 8, 16:33
Liz on What We Don’t Know Now: “Swinney is reported to have said, he’s rearranging the deck chairs in the Cabinet BECAUSE of the loss in Hamilton…” Jun 8, 16:27
Alf Baird on What We Don’t Know Now: “Scots fowk awready hiv thair ain constitution: https://salvo.scot/the-scottis-constitutional-covin/” Jun 8, 16:20
Stuart MacKay on What We Don’t Know Now: “Just get version 0 out there, put out a call for review / input, and revise as necessary. The one…” Jun 8, 15:43
Iain mhor on What We Don’t Know Now: “Alba not standing candidates is curious to me. Fair enough if it is purely a fiancial matter, but tactically you’d…” Jun 8, 15:35
Rev. Stuart Campbell on The Jokers: ““Interesting to see RevStu again gloating at SNP failure. Perhaps he’s right to insist that the SNP are no longer…” Jun 8, 15:30
Dave on What We Don’t Know Now: “Swinney talks in abstract terms: “And that comes about by the SNP performing much better, of getting into a commanding…” Jun 8, 15:11
Hatey McHateface on What We Don’t Know Now: ““Whose niece is she?” That’s just so baaadddd. And I’m loving it!” Jun 8, 15:02
Stuart LAW on What We Don’t Know Now: “Believing in Independence, and being willing to vote for it, are two very different things. Because we’ve all seen what…” Jun 8, 14:59
Campbell Clansman on What We Don’t Know Now: “Since the running average of polls shows that support for Indy ISN’T above 50%; And since the voters repeatedly vote…” Jun 8, 14:58
Hatey McHateface on The Jokers: “Hi George, Thanks for the update. I was referring to Ferguson’s OG for Iceland Good luck with the ongoing…” Jun 8, 14:55
George Ferguson on The Jokers: “@Hatey McHateface What Ferguson are you referring to here? Here is a wee update from me. I got an estimate…” Jun 8, 14:37
Aidan on The Jokers: “I don’t know who is more insane, the people continually competing with each other to offer the most insane, delusional,…” Jun 8, 14:16
duncanio on What We Don’t Know Now: “The First Minister in an interview reported in The Sunday National today said: “My challenge is to make sure that…” Jun 8, 14:07
Rev. Stuart Campbell on What We Don’t Know Now: “Larkhall was part of the constituency for the 14 years the SNP have held it.” Jun 8, 13:49
gm on What We Don’t Know Now: “A logical, fair assessment. Fairer than I would be to the SNPs controlling clique. With support for Independence above 50%…” Jun 8, 13:43
Allison Graham on What We Don’t Know Now: “Agee with all of the above Stu. If Scotland wants a different future folk must work in reality not fantasy…” Jun 8, 13:26
Good luck with the ongoing…
