Remember when we’d had 20-odd Yes-majority polls in a row, and all the courtiers of Queen Nicola Of Trans were telling us that it was solely down to her personal strategic genius and cunning masterplan of gently persuading soft No voters by, um, not actually taking any steps to achieve independence in case it scared them?
Hi lads. This website has, we’d be the first to admit, made some pretty strong criticisms of you fellas in the last week or two, but we’re pleased to note that you finally HAVE actually manned up and released your “minifesto” tonight.
We’ll let readers judge it for themselves, but we do have one question.
The non-party women’s-rights group For Women Scotland have just published their 2021 election guide. Wings endorses its contents and recommends readers check it out by clicking the image below.
It really is quite uncanny how similar some SNP supporters have become to the most frothing, abusive blood-and-soil Yoons of 2014. But we can live with this company:
Patrick Harvie on a radio phone-in today, refusing to say if he knows what a woman is and refusing to guarantee them safety from men in women’s single-sex spaces.
Because this is a pure embarrassment from the notional main opposition leader. Even if it was all true – and we’d be very sceptical about that until we see the workings – £4.5 billion over 14 years would be £321 million a year.
That’s a substantial amount of money, but it’s also almost exactly 1% of the Scottish Government’s budget, and no government on Earth has ever had everything it attempted work out perfectly. Sustaining 99% efficiency on spending over nearly a decade and a half is actually pretty good going.
More to the point, it’s a staggeringly audacious attack line from a Westminster MP in a party whose government wasted £12 billion on ONE project in ONE year alone – the catastrophically failed COVID test-and-trace app.
(We’d still like someone to explain to us how in the world you can possibly spend £12 billion in a few months on a mobile phone app, even if it had worked.)
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.
Alf Baird on The Only Notes That Really Count: “The highest legislative authority over Scotland is England’s House of Commons, House of Lords and King; and Scotland is their…” Jul 10, 11:38
Southernbystander on The Interests Of The Many: “James – you will have noticed I am English living in England so that is what I mean by ‘we’…” Jul 10, 11:31
Aidan on The Only Notes That Really Count: “The second element of the Ghosh test is disapplied yes, the point is the test used to determine whether a…” Jul 10, 11:06
Willie on The Only Notes That Really Count: “Id say you should join You were defrauded, the fraud clearly caused you distress since you were upset enough to…” Jul 10, 10:43
sam on The Only Notes That Really Count: “I think the referendum fund raising kicked off in March 2017. Were the Weirs paid back their loan in 2018?…” Jul 10, 10:41
Alf Baird on The Only Notes That Really Count: “The usual caveat from postcolonial theory applies, following on from the increasingly dubious events over the last decade or so,…” Jul 10, 10:35
crazycat on The Only Notes That Really Count: “@ Aidan at 8.04 That’s covered in paragraphs 19-24 – Ghosh does not apply. I’m not a lawyer, but it…” Jul 10, 10:19
laukat on The Only Notes That Really Count: “Wee question – I donated but got my £25 refunded in 2019. In theory that’s a couple of years where…” Jul 10, 09:44
Hatey McHateface on The Only Notes That Really Count: “Any suggestions for the timeline over which all of this will work out? It’s looking like many of us will…” Jul 10, 08:46
Dave Albiston on The Only Notes That Really Count: “Does anyone have the timeline of when: The Weirs called in their loan The referendum fund was announced” Jul 10, 08:46
Ian on The Only Notes That Really Count: “Thought I’d see what AI makes of political betrayal and it’s consequences. It basically boils down to how strong denial…” Jul 10, 08:33
Aidan on The Interests Of The Many: “It can’t be nice being “James”, as he told us yesterday the voices inside his head are speaking in an…” Jul 10, 08:17
Hatey McHateface on The Only Notes That Really Count: ““Fresh start required, brains and stamina required, common sense reinstated, drop the rubbish, start the plans” To that, I would…” Jul 10, 08:05
Hatey McHateface on The Only Notes That Really Count: “Don’t you mean “raise a disposable plastic cup”? I don’t see you as the type who has much in the…” Jul 10, 07:46
BLMac on The Only Notes That Really Count: “If you look at the events of the last few years it’s obvious that when the SNP cleared out the…” Jul 10, 07:40
Hatey McHateface on The Interests Of The Many: “Hey, CC, you got a “please” from Wally W. He must have twigged he gets mair haddies thrown his way…” Jul 10, 07:30
Captain Caveman on The Interests Of The Many: ““Blow it out your arse”™, Fatso. People like me were the first to be thrilled for Scotland when the great…” Jul 10, 07:06
Captain Caveman on The Only Notes That Really Count: “I know this will be an alien concept, YL, but some of us have to be up with the lark…” Jul 10, 06:25
Aidan on The Only Notes That Really Count: “Aye I think the facts of the case probably do lean against the narrative I set out above, but I…” Jul 10, 06:04
Young Lochinvar on The Only Notes That Really Count: “Ooh errr.. Muham..d has just topped the list of male newborns names in home of Torydom Merry ol’ Engerlund.. Wowsers!…” Jul 10, 04:40
What Rot on The Only Notes That Really Count: “I contributed, more than I could afford at the time, but I’ve got zero evidence now that I ever did.…” Jul 10, 03:08
Onlooker on The Only Notes That Really Count: “The only notes that really count…are the ones that come in wads. Indeed.” Jul 10, 02:07
Young Lochinvar on The Only Notes That Really Count: “Ooops! Meant to say: HMcH @ 8.52. Anyway it’s after his bedtime/ wing lockdown now anyhows.. Waiting for hung-over intemperate…” Jul 10, 02:06
Young Lochinvar on The Only Notes That Really Count: “HMcH Somehow I doubt Roddy feels particularly chastised by your wee piece of grandstanding.. Anyways peeps, happy birthday tomorrow to…” Jul 10, 01:48
Stuart Swanston on The Only Notes That Really Count: “Once the donors who had requested repayment had been refunded we must assume that that total subtracted from the grand…” Jul 10, 01:02
fiona on The Only Notes That Really Count: “For everyone saying “the SNP will never…” “if the SNP had done….” etc etc, please acknowledge the fact that all…” Jul 10, 00:37
Lynn Fraser on The Only Notes That Really Count: “I have filled in your contact form. I gave statement to Branch Form. I hope to have contact from you.…” Jul 10, 00:01