Just over a hundred years ago, the rights of women in the UK were still entirely decided by men. Women didn’t have the vote (a small minority would be given it in 1918, but most would have another decade to wait), there were no women in Parliament, and women basically had no say in anything that happened.
Record scratch and jump-cut to the present day.
That’s Kirsty Blackman, an SNP MP elected in 2015 who wouldn’t even have been allowed to stand for election a hundred years earlier, and who seems determined to take women’s rights back to that century.
It really is deeply dispiriting the see the level of utter burning contempt in which Nicola Sturgeon holds the independence movement, if this is the sort of ludicrously insulting garbage she thinks it’ll swallow.
The BBC’s coverage of the Scottish election campaign and what has been described as its “virtual blackout” of ALBA will be the subject of special Ofcom election Committee hearing on Friday 23rd April.
We imagine people may wish to read the Alba Party manifesto.
It can be downloaded by clicking the link above. Had we formed our own party it’s pretty much the manifesto we’d have written, and we especially endorse the gorgeous pooch on the front.
The First Minister released a short film this week.
While it has the character of a hostage video, with terrorists just off-camera pointing a gun at the unfortunate victim and forcing them to read out a pre-prepared text, sadly we doubt that was the case. We think this is really what she believes and intends.
We’ve been racking our brains for a few hours now, but we still haven’t been able to think of a single UK citizen of the last 100 years – indeed, probably the last 300 – who has terrified the British establishment more than Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond.
By any conceivable measure Salmond is the most successful Scottish politician of all time. He’s the only one to date to have won a (supposedly impossible) majority in the Scottish Parliament, the only one to have secured an independence referendum, and the man who took Scotland to the brink of regaining its democracy, where – despite the best efforts of his successor – it still just about remains.
He survived a uniformly hostile media for 20 years as SNP leader, then also survived a corrupt and criminal conspiracy within his own former party to have him imprisoned, walking out of court a free and innocent man despite a two-year smear campaign in the press and a police and government operation of unprecedented scale trying to convict him.
(A point that hasn’t been made enough in coverage of the entire fiasco is the amount of police resources which were devoted to the case. Ask the average woman who’s alleged a sexual assault below the level of rape – or indeed an actual rape – if SHE got a team of two dozen dedicated police officers interviewing over 400 people at a cost of millions of pounds to try to firm up HER claim.)
So you’d think that when he formed a brand-new political party, which got numerous elected representatives from the SNP to defect to it, and contested a notionally-crucial Scottish general election, it would sound like a work of absurdist dystopian fiction if one were to suggest the media would exclude it from even participating in televised election debates in a manner more befitting North Korea than a Western democracy.
So-called “puberty blockers” – the class of drugs that were used to “chemically castrate” computing pioneer Alan Turing for being homosexual (a crime in the UK in the 1950s), which is believed to have led to his suicide by cyanide poisoning at the age of 41 are extremely dangerous.
Scotland’s only gender clinic, the Sandyford, had to apologise just a few months ago for having concealed the very serious hazards posed by the drugs. But it has no plans to stop prescribing them to under-16s.
And the Scottish Government refuses to intervene in the matter.
Dr Malcolm Kerr joined the SNP in 1967, has contested local council and Scottish Parliament elections and is currently an activist in Cunninghame North constituency.
I’ve been a member of the SNP for long enough to recall the days when the party was capable of generating killer slogans. “It’s Scotland’s Oil”. “Independence – Nothing Less”. Those were the days!
Nothing describes the SNP’s descent towards being the new New Labour better than its choice of slogans in recent years. “Stronger for Scotland” serves only to flag up just how powerless the party’s large contingent at Westminster is. “Progress” is entirely meaningless.
And fellow activists and members may recall just how depressing it was to attend the most recent in-person spring Conference, when the leadership felt that the slogan “Hope” was going to be inspiring. When you’ve been in power for 14 years you’re supposed to DO things, not just hope for them.
We’re getting to the point where we should soon be Blairite enough to invade Iraq. Fortunately, we lack the means.
Yesterday the SNP released their 2021 election manifesto, and on the divisive subject of gender reform it was as bad as we feared. Yes, there is obfuscation to mask intent, but the intent is crystal clear all the same. Especially if we judge the SNP by their record and all the things they have failed – and continued to fail – to address.
The manifesto commits to reforming the GRA while ensuring that it will not affect the rights or protections women enjoy under the Equality Act.
Northcode on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Time for a reminder: In braw rich Scots leid: Ther scarce be a wird pit doun here fae colonialists (unyonists…” Jan 12, 12:34
Northcode on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “It’s hardly worth the effort, but let’s gie it juist wan mair try, eh? Defintion of the Scots word Plummet…” Jan 12, 12:23
DaveL on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “What? You don’t like my suggestion? What’s wrong with you? Go on tell us about Stepan Bandera then…” Jan 12, 12:06
James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “There was always a reason why I chased and persued the treaty of union relentlessly, Perhaps a few more people…” Jan 12, 12:01
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “@DaveL Why don’t you practise swinging your keyboard at arms length. Firmly grip your keyboard on the short side, really…” Jan 12, 11:55
James Cheyne on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “And this is where it becomes very complicated for the Snp and the devolved governance. They either trust they are…” Jan 12, 11:49
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “@ Northcode says: 12 January, 2026 at 10:33 am “plomet (Wyclif), -ette (Caxton), plommet (1483), plummet(te (1494), ball of lead…” Jan 12, 11:45
DaveL on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Hatey, you could get the UK government to invite some of your Azov Brigade pals (the UK government loves them…” Jan 12, 11:42
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “@ Alf Baird says: 12 January, 2026 at 11:06 am “Scots language speakers, aboot twa million o us still” I’ll…” Jan 12, 11:34
James Cheyne on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Sarah, It will come to many eventually that they will have to make a decision on wether the treaty of…” Jan 12, 11:23
Alf Baird on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “The reason the Scots language is of central importance to the matter of independence is because it is primarily the…” Jan 12, 11:06
Willie on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Just finished listening to the live stream of the court of session proceedings in the case of the proceeding relating…” Jan 12, 10:52
Northcode on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Scottish National Dictionary (pre 1700) PLUM(M)ET, -at, n. Also: plwm(m)-, plumb-, plomand -ett, -it. Only Sc.: The pommel or knob…” Jan 12, 10:33
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “@ Northcode says:11 January, 2026 at 10:43 pm “‘plummet’ means something other in the language of the Scots than your…” Jan 12, 09:56
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “An article about Homeless Project Scotland: https://unherd.com/2026/01/scotlands-rebel-homeless-shelter/” Jan 12, 09:45
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““disna bather lairnin ony o his host fowk’s languages, neither Scots nor Gaelic” Whoops! Correction required. “disna bather lairnin ony…” Jan 12, 09:22
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Great news, sarah. Personally, I can’t wait until it becomes legal to march through Scotland’s streets, chanting about “rivers” and…” Jan 12, 09:14
Cynicus on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““I might also take the opportunity to draw attention to a recent quality illustrated book investigating the Gaelic and Welsh…” Jan 12, 02:42
Cynicus on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““there’s an oven ready and legitimate Stuart pretender Franz, Duke of Bavaria” ========== Be careful! The Crown Prince, Francis of…” Jan 12, 02:18
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Northcode writes « Tho if a culture had the nature of a coloniser aboot it… then a wid hae nae…” Jan 12, 01:20
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Alf writes: « The point, which you appear to have missed, is that our friend wha comes here tae bide…” Jan 12, 00:59
Alf Baird on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““plummeting” The point, which you appear to have missed, is that our friend wha comes here tae bide notes he…” Jan 11, 23:49
Northcode on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““You’re plummeting, Alf.” Only in your eyes, Gael. And only because Professor Baird challenges your false narrative on the importance…” Jan 11, 22:43
Northcode on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Dinna be daft, Alf. Us Scots fowk be ane o the wrechit o the Earth… ye micht as weel expect…” Jan 11, 21:53
sarah on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “www.scotcourts.gov.uk/livestream/ – to watch tomorrow Monday 12th Jan from 09.30 the Court of Session case of Craig Murray applying for…” Jan 11, 21:50
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: ““So where is Scotland’s Atom Bomb moment?” At this rate, any century now. The British Brainwashing Corporation and MSM generally…” Jan 11, 21:23
Alf Baird on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““I speak and read three forms of Arabic plus Syriac, French, English, some German, Spanish, Hebrew, Farsi and Turkish and…” Jan 11, 18:30
Nae Need! on Off-topic: “I’m going to add The Alienist to my watch list. Thank you for the recommendation 😉 IMNSHU Pluribus is excellent.…” Jan 11, 17:17
