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.
The Scottish Government’s website about its controversial and extremely disturbing new “conversion practices” legislation assures citizens that the proposal was formed after consultation with an “Expert Advisory Group”.
But all of a sudden it doesn’t seem to want you to know who they were.
After yesterday’s disturbing article about the indoctrination of Scottish schoolchildren into transgender ideology via the Scottish Government’s proposed new “conversion practices” legislation, Wings was contacted by a number of current Scottish teachers telling us we had no idea how far it had already gone.
The message below was by no means untypical:
“This stuff around the UNCRC has been a concern for a while. Some of the articles seem to be being interpreted in ways they were never intended. It has become a vehicle for activist teachers to push their own agendas, all the while hiding behind ‘children’s rights’.
Getting certified is being pushed heavily in every school. Headteachers seem to be under a lot of pressure (coming from Scottish Government) to get it all implemented. We’re currently working towards silver.”
It’s from a 2018 BBC3 documentary called Becoming A Trans Man – Leo. The 15-year-old child in the video plays with a Rubik’s Cube as Wolton, who was 31 at the time, enthusiastically grooms her into transitioning into a “man”, advocating chest binders, a double mastectomy and the irreversible mutilation of her genitalia (“Lower surgery – you want that”) that will, Wolton confirms, lead to her permanent sterilisation, as well as the destruction of her future adult sexual function.
The BBC presents it as a heartwarming tale of friendship.
Mike Russell, currently at the centre of controversy over his appointment as chair of the Scottish Land Commission, hit the political big stage during Scotland’s first ever SNP administration under Alex Salmond, whom, in turn, Mike had previously seen into office as Salmond’s campaign manager.
In 2007 he was appointed as Minister for Environment, then in 2009 he became the Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution, and his conventional ministerial career concluded when he went on to replace Fiona Hyslop as Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning until the end of 2014.
Following the 2014 independence vote, the pre-referendum era ended with Salmond’s dignified (albeit temporary) stage exit; Nicola Sturgeon took the helm and began to reform what had been left to her by her predecessor.
A core pillar of Sturgeon’s centrist reform was the construction of an almost entirely opaque ivory tower of power from which both SNP and the state would run their covert affairs with subversive, centralizing, strong-arm granularity, cleverly camouflaging its sinister implications from the public through cult-of-personality media management.
Instrumental in this, among a very few select others, was Mike Russell.
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “No. They got into that mess all by themselves. What damage could any of the security forces do to what’s…” May 20, 18:59
Onlooker on The Queer Parliament: “But the corporations have already basically destroyed all political systems, rigging them in their own favour. They are the (world)…” May 20, 18:53
Aidan on The Land Of No Laws: ““The country you refer to is controlled by an authoritarian regime” Well that’s interesting Northcode, because above Geri stated that…” May 20, 18:39
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: “I am not Geri’s spokesman, and I’m certain Geri is very capable of fighting her own corner without my help,…” May 20, 18:25
Karen on The Queer Parliament: “Ask the Greens why they have 2 co-leaders. I’ll tell you – one male, one female. Were they deliberately sabotaged…” May 20, 18:17
Bilbo on The Queer Parliament: “With 5 years more years of the SNP/Green coalition, Scotland will make the excesses of the Weimar German Republic look…” May 20, 18:14
Bilbo on The Queer Parliament: “That’s the Greens elected, most likely from 2nd votes of SNP voters. Their job to fill the coffers of the…” May 20, 18:07
sam on The Queer Parliament: “There is a civil service “pronoun pledge” in Holyrood. It aims to encourage civil servants to use their “personal pronouns”…” May 20, 18:05
Lorncal on The Queer Parliament: “Mark: spot on. This is exactly what is going to happen. It is precisely what it is going to take…” May 20, 17:53
James Barr Gardner on The Queer Parliament: “The fake green party is an even worse toxin !” May 20, 17:04
Captain Caveman on The Land Of No Laws: “Characteristically verbose bollocks from you, Northcode; an awful lot of words – a meandering, trademark pretentious word-salad saying pretty much…” May 20, 16:39
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “SNP second vote, Mickey Forrester scene, ‘For all the good it done me I’d be as well sticking it up…” May 20, 16:22
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “The best scene in that movie was when Begby found out in the car!” May 20, 16:14
Northcode on The Land Of No Laws: ““…who believes he’s an 800-year old Pict, with Oscar Wilde’s mobile number…” Shall we dance? “To the rest of us,…” May 20, 16:09
bobo bunny on The Queer Parliament: “With this and the football, the whole world is laughing at us. I am ashamed that these people, and indeed…” May 20, 16:07
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “Just stumbled on a good British TV drama from 1973. The Fortunes of Nigel based on the book by Walter…” May 20, 16:06
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “If these chancers can get away with the second vote. What’s stopping a far right outfit on the ‘Trans are…” May 20, 15:59
Sven on The Queer Parliament: “Oh, they’re real enough, Mark. I just doubt that they are behind everything they get the blame for.” May 20, 15:52
MaryB on The Queer Parliament: “Perhaps the Stonewall funding shortfall has encouraged more trans activists to go into politics, so that they can keep up…” May 20, 15:49
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “That’s where the real battle will be fought. All those skeletons and missing children.” May 20, 15:43
Ian McCubbin on The Queer Parliament: “Well done both votes SNP and the let’s vote green cause they are for Indy sheeples. You have given us…” May 20, 15:42
Captain Caveman on The Queer Parliament: “This is nearing the logical conclusion of a heady combination of left wingers believing their own publicity and supposed moral…” May 20, 15:37
Al-Stuart on The Queer Parliament: “. Stu, I love your intro video. It puts me in mind of the stuff the SNP Sturgeon sycophant and…” May 20, 15:35
Alf Baird on The Queer Parliament: “Stonewall’s future now “depends on whether the public can fill the void left by fleeing sponsors”. So might we expect…” May 20, 15:34
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “I really don’t know how the Rev does it. Apart from taking me weeks to type that amount. I would…” May 20, 15:31
Mark Beggan on The Queer Parliament: “The seek them here they seek them there. They seek the 77 everywhere. They’re in the cupboard. They’re under the…” May 20, 15:29
Lorncal on The Queer Parliament: “Westminster has far too many problems of its own now, as does America, MaryB. Some would have it that this…” May 20, 15:28
Captain Caveman on The Queer Parliament: ““And it’s not just a Scottish problem. Wait until a UK Reform government meets the woke civil service.” I can’t…” May 20, 15:28
Alf Baird on The Queer Parliament: “If they were my ‘kind of people’ they would have declared independence after the first elected Scottish majority of ‘nationalists’.…” May 20, 15:22