As Twitter followers will have noticed, we’ve been busy this week with an extensive remodelling of Wings HQ, which involved the main computer being out of commission for several days while the office was basically torn down and rebuilt from scratch. (It seemed a good time to do it, given that there’s nothing remotely of interest happening in Scottish politics.)
Unfortunately the lack of activity on the site caused the comments on the last post to degenerate into the most wretched playground shrieking match, so let’s see if we can’t distract the children and talk about something else for a bit.
Particularly alert observers will have noted that Kezia Dugdale, the most spectacularly inept and unsuccessful Scottish political leader in history, this week demitted her role as Director of the John Smith Centre, which she was handed as an incentive to quit Scottish Labour after dragging it to 14% in the opinion polls.
We long ago ran out of words to express the magnitude of the contempt in which the SNP now hold the people of Scotland. Which is unfortunate, because this probably calls for the invention of a whole new scale.
Shall we go through just a few of the more crassly insulting holes in this pitiful excuse for a cover story, just to pass the time while we wait for the former First Minister to appear before the COVID inquiry? We don’t know about you, but we’ve got nothing better to do.
Nicola Sturgeon is due to give her evidence to the COVID inquiry tomorrow – if, of course, she remembers anything. We’re awaiting, open-mouthed in genuine shock, her explanation for this.
Because try as hard as we might, we cannot for the lives of us bring to mind a single possible legitimate justification for a First Minister to do such a thing.
Alert readers may however note that 19 March 2020 was just four days before Alex Salmond was cleared of all charges, and might find themselves pondering the reasons why she might want to be in possession of a cheap disposable text-capable phone at that particular point in time.
There are many people in the world deserving of sympathy at the moment, readers, but spare a thought in your busy day for Scotland’s Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain.
Just two and a half years into the post (most incumbents post-devolution have served around five), she’s already had to deal with a lot of what sports people call “hospital passes”. But she’s about to find herself in another nasty spot not of her own making.
On Tuesday 16th January the UK parliament put beyond doubt that their claims down the centuries that the UK is a respectful union of equals is, and always was, a lie.
This was the second time I’d brought my Scotland (Self-Determination) Bill before the house and there are various opinions floating around about the reasons for, and implications of, introducing the legislation as drafted. Wings kindly suggested I set out my reasons for bringing it forward for a second time, and why I consider Tuesday’s defeat in the chamber as a Pyrrhic victory for the union.
We make no apology for returning once again to the depressing subject of the Scottish Government’s proposed new law to ban “conversion practices”, because it provides such an illuminating microcosm of how far a once competent and widely-respected administration has fallen since 2015.
Emma Roddick, who is piloting the bill towards the statute books in much the same way that Mohamed Atta piloted American Airlines Flight 11 towards the World Trade Centre, is a 26-year-old who by her own admission suffers from a serious and debilitating mental illness that any sane country would regard as an insurmountable bar to political office.
Confused on The Modern Politician: “also useful, faffs a bit, the meat is from 27.00 on – www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKRq5UcsRCQ – the city is not an engine…” Feb 13, 12:10
Confused on The Modern Politician: “a useful read https://archive.ph/MPXse – some snippets thatcher pumped the oil like fuck, she pished it up a wall, to…” Feb 13, 12:07
Confused on The Modern Politician: “I like to predict new trends, to get in on it; here is one – REMIGRATION is the new rock…” Feb 13, 12:04
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: ““all the peoples of these isles need to end the faux ‘Union’ in order to save themselves and to protect…” Feb 13, 11:46
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Good taste in cars, if the allegations are true. Any chance of a link, x? Seems important to me that…” Feb 13, 11:36
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: ““defective murderous cladding panels on Grenfell” Oh my aching sides. As I recall, the majority of Grenfell victims were people…” Feb 13, 11:31
willie on The Modern Politician: “Sam @ 9.15am I don’t think people really realise the effects of PFI. These effects are many fold. Introduced by…” Feb 13, 11:05
agentx on The Modern Politician: “The charges brought against Murrell are: Embezzlement of £459,046.49 of SNP funds over a 13-year period (2010–2023). Purchase of a…” Feb 13, 11:03
James Cheyne on The Modern Politician: “Once a Country is dissolved from a two partner treaty then it become a one Country treaty, with its self.…” Feb 13, 11:02
James Cheyne on The Modern Politician: “TURABDaian, Scotland is asleep. If you have a dissolved Scottish parliament from Englands parliament and the parliament of Great Britain…” Feb 13, 10:43
James Cheyne on The Modern Politician: “Willie, Who owns them now, Scotland did then and does now, The union between Scotland and England was not completed…” Feb 13, 10:17
Alf Baird on The Modern Politician: “Yes James, the English now feel the urgent need to become liberated, to reclaim their sovereignty much like us Scots,…” Feb 13, 10:13
James Cheyne on The Modern Politician: “Willie, But who owns them now? Good point, Because Scotland and its parliament were dissolved out of a political parliamentary…” Feb 13, 10:03
TURABDIN on The Modern Politician: “WHILE SCOTLAND SLEEPS https://archive.is/8nB7W Scotland’s political class need the biggest kicking ever delivered by human feet.” Feb 13, 10:02
Marie on The Modern Politician: “If men can become female by declaring that they simply feel that they are then female as a sex category…” Feb 13, 10:00
Insider on The Modern Politician: “Sam ! Ok Sam ! We all know you can “cut and paste” now ! What’s your next “Computers for…” Feb 13, 09:57
James Cheyne on The Modern Politician: “Scotlands people not being in a 1707 treaty of parliamentary and political union, and not in a Monarchy union as…” Feb 13, 09:55
Willie on The Modern Politician: “Re the stats at 9.54am. Aside of GDP distribution into societal income classes a cursory review of the GDP growth…” Feb 13, 09:40
James Cheyne on The Modern Politician: “We tried proving that Scotland was under Colonial oppression and suppression, ‘Low and behold’ the colonists are now helping us.” Feb 13, 09:23
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: ““the governments of Thatcher and her successors have overseen an increase in health inequalities alongside an increase in income inequalities”…” Feb 13, 09:17
James Cheyne on The Modern Politician: “It is very clear that union- globalist are trying very hard to keep the Scots down and in there place…” Feb 13, 09:17
sam on The Modern Politician: ““1997-2010: The New Labour Years Having initially opposed PFIs, the incoming Labour government further entrenched the system after their election…” Feb 13, 09:15
Aidan on The Modern Politician: “It’s a classic case of selective presentation of statistics to present a misleading conclusion, in this case to avoid recognising…” Feb 13, 09:12
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Aye, sam, I dinna doot that cutting and pasting screeds of mince to bury your witterings has been a successful…” Feb 13, 08:57
sam on The Modern Politician: ““Conclusion: income growth Neo-liberal policies failed to boost the UK rate of growth across the board. Although the incomes of…” Feb 13, 08:33
sam on The Modern Politician: “https://academic.oup.com/cje/article/44/2/319/5550923?login=false “Despite this reduction in income, the economically vulnerable were able to increase their expenditure during the Thatcher years (Goodman…” Feb 13, 08:29
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Wow, sam. So not only did life expectancy continue to increase during and after Thatcher, but by your figures, real…” Feb 13, 08:19
sam on The Modern Politician: ““Clearly, the sea-change which occurred in UK economic prospects in the 1980s was not a change for the better; per…” Feb 13, 08:19
Aidan on The Modern Politician: “Your warning has sadly come to late Northcode, it is clear that many of the posters on here have long…” Feb 13, 08:09
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Is anybody else sensing this? A surge in Indy support that started around 10:18 last night and is still building!…” Feb 13, 08:06
