It would be improper not to note that in addition to this:
…Darren McGarvey has contacted me directly by email this evening with what I take to be a sincere apology, which I’ve accepted as such.
(It was a private communication and won’t be reproduced here.)
I have no problem at all with people disliking me and saying so – I’m hardly a shrinking violet – but I can’t abide hypocrisy, which is what the massive pile-on from friends of Neil Mackay yesterday amounted to, and while I couldn’t give the slightest toss about the opinions of the people involved, even one person doing the decent thing over what was said deserves to be acknowledged. While I’m sure that we’ll continue to disagree profoundly and strongly on many or most things, what’s right is right.
It contains nothing that those who listened in on the case by telephone last week didn’t hear for themselves – it’s simply an 11-page summary of what was debated in court and casts no new light on what Lady Dorrian said at the time.
We’ll be very interested to see whether or not The Spectator – or perhaps more to the point its lawyers, who we must presume had vetted and cleared the initial publication just as Alex Salmond’s lawyers had – now feels able to restore the redacted paragraph that it removed after what it can now be publicly revealed was a threat from the Crown Office (a threat also received by this website).
The magazine’s response today is non-committal on the subject.
While it is this site’s belief that the paragraph in question DOES NOT identify anyone as a complainer – the Crown Office has not communicated which “other evidence” it feels could be combined with the paragraph, which makes no reference whatsoever to the criminal case, to provide identification – the restoration of the missing paragraph would certainly appear to provide circumstantial evidence to that effect, something which would be entirely due to the intervention of the Crown Office.
But overall, the needless delay in publishing this document has merely run down the clock on the inquiry by another week – time that it can ill afford – without providing any real additional clarity.
(We’re a bit puzzled as to why The Spectator’s counsel appears to have given up so easily on the second element of their application, which sought to specifically permit the publication of both Salmond and Geoff Aberdein’s written evidence.)
The fact that the judgement wasn’t released yesterday probably means, at a minimum, no more evidence sessions until next week, as the committee generally only meets on Tuesdays. We hope that doesn’t become a crucial issue, but we fear that the written judgement is sufficiently tepid that the crooked SNP members of the committee, and the spineless Andy Wightman, will use it to justify rejecting Salmond’s evidence and therefore hearing from him in person, rendering the entire undertaking moot anyway.
The SNP have plumbed some real depths recently, but this is a new low.
Although we suppose on one level you could spin it as a positive, namely that disabled people really are just like everyone else – they can be despicable scumbags too.
I started writing this post two weeks ago, incensed at the behaviour of the SNP NEC and their proposals to introduce self-ID for disability. Then they sacked Joanna Cherry from the front bench.
Joanna Cherry is probably one of the few people left in the SNP exec that even knows what Chesterton’s Fence is, and its importance in lawmaking. As a gay woman, she understands on a practical level the issues round equality legislation.
It also means that she’s a particular target for certain groups. Ye shall know a genius by this sign; all the dunces of the world are in confederacy against her.
Two weeks ago a Wings scoop caused quite a furore to erupt around the SNP’s ham-fisted and corruptly-motivated attempts to increase BAME and disabled representation at this year’s Holyrood election.
We’ve always been opposed to what were until recently known as “quotas”, and prior to that “positive discrimination”, but have now been cunningly rebranded as “diversity and inclusion” because that’s a much more difficult thing to say you object to.
It’s easy to make an honourable-sounding case against any form of “discrimination”, because decent and civilised people are taught to automatically think of discrimination as a bad thing, even if you put “positive” in front of it.
So the word “quotas” was adopted to move the concept from a pejorative term to a neutral noun – objecting to “quotas” doesn’t sound intolerant, any more than objecting to (say) “procedures” does. So that’s fine, because you can still discuss it like adults without too much unpleasantness.
But those pushing the agenda got smarter still by changing the name again. If you say you object to “diversity and inclusion”, you sound like a monster and a racist, because diversity and inclusion are plainly good things – no decent person wants to live in a monoculture, or to exclude anybody from society – and so the debate is immediately drowned out by self-righteous tossers screaming “BIGOT!” and “NAZI!” at everyone.
And yet in the context of social policy the three phrases mean the exact same thing. They’re all systems for overriding raw democracy so as to increase the representation of selected groups at the expense of other groups, for one reason or another.
(Sometimes it’s ostensibly just penance for historical wrongs, while at other times it’s supposedly for economic benefits, and so on.)
And while the proponents of those systems will openly argue that the only group being disadvantaged is straight white men so it’s all fine (because nobody likes straight white men and anyone standing up for them can be easily dismissed as a “gammon” for lots of woke points and Twitter likes), it isn’t even remotely close to the truth.
Because in “diversity and inclusion”, some groups are a lot more included than others.
The two main centres of infection for the woke entryist poison currently disfiguring the SNP are Stirling and Aberdeen, where they coalesce around two Westminster MPs – Twitler Youth gauleiter Alyn Smith and the worryingly unhinged Kirsty Blackman.
In recent months Wings has documented numerous attempts by the faction (which is chiefly characterised by its hyper-extremist and fundamentalist version of transgender ideology) to gerrymander and fix the party’s internal election processes to ensure that its disciples – who are enormously unpopular among the grassroots membership and have repeatedly failed to win by playing fair – get selected as candidates.
Sven on Looking up at the stars: “I enjoyed your wee ditty ‘Bout a Prince once so pretty. But, now I fear He’s no longer so dear…” Mar 15, 07:09
Aidan on Looking up at the stars: “I wasn’t aware that anyone on here was having a sensible conversation on either energy or food security, but if…” Mar 15, 07:07
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “Two little boys Had two little toys One a tottie boat grey The other a helicopter-green, and Happily they played…” Mar 15, 06:22
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Careful you don’t catch that zip running up the back of yer napper..” Mar 15, 02:23
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Get a grip, ya balloon. Hello! Is that the polis? Someone upset me on the internet… Whhhhaaaaaa! Whaaaaa! I’m sure…” Mar 15, 02:15
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “If you comment on this platform again I will report your comment to the Police. Just fucking try me. Prick.” Mar 15, 00:34
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “You are coming in your pants hoping for a retaliation from the Islamic inbreds. It will happen. The attack will…” Mar 15, 00:30
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “I see an advert has been created for Magnum Bon Bons that hasn’t learnt the hard lesson that trannifying products…” Mar 14, 22:38
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “Not going to happen. Now Iran will attack theirs. They said the other day they’d be moving to reciprocal targets.…” Mar 14, 20:39
Sven on Looking up at the stars: “Please, YL, It’s challenging enough for this old duffer’s weary and deteriorating grey cells to sort out and skip over…” Mar 14, 20:33
Geri on Looking up at the stars: “If predictions pan out as some suggest – it’s going to be you living in a Totalitarian Theocracy. A one…” Mar 14, 20:26
Dan on Looking up at the stars: “@Aidan You’re putting way too much effort into responding to the wrong conversations… You’ve time to “engage” and bicker with…” Mar 14, 20:24
Aidan on Looking up at the stars: “Oh fuck me another one has started. I can’t go watch the borders rally tonight as I’m in Spain but…” Mar 14, 19:45
Dan on Looking up at the stars: “Hey Aidan ya bawbag. No point in you complaining about Wing’s BTL discourse dying on its arse when your own…” Mar 14, 19:14
agentx on Looking up at the stars: “It’s an 80 minute game – Ireland 43 – 21 Scotland at the end. It was a great game of…” Mar 14, 18:58
Aidan on Looking up at the stars: “A useless piece of smegma like you isn’t gonna be doing any rounding up, sit doon.” Mar 14, 18:23
James on Looking up at the stars: ““…murder and torture…” That’s your job, right?” Mar 14, 17:49
James on Looking up at the stars: “Sven; There always was and only ever will be one original “Site Prick”. It is in reality a 77th bunch…” Mar 14, 17:48
Young Lochinvar on Looking up at the stars: “Just seen the news and have noted the latest piece of subliminal doublespeak. Kharg island in Iran was attacked because…” Mar 14, 17:47
James on Looking up at the stars: “Aw, Adrian, petal; I rather think it would.” Mar 14, 17:45
Sven on Looking up at the stars: “Maybe be more specific as to which particular “site prick” you identify, James, some of our views may differ.” Mar 14, 17:38
Aidan on Looking up at the stars: “Yeah you come and round me up James you stinky fat shit. It’ll definitely go well for you.” Mar 14, 17:08
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Looking up at the stars: “[« The Scottish approach was based on their misunderstanding of the two words ‘Scotia’ and ‘Scotus’. From the fourth century…” Mar 14, 16:55
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Looking up at the stars: “« Bunaíodh cur chuige na nAlbanach ar an míthuiscint a bhain siad as an dá fhocal ‘Scotia’ agus ‘Scotus. Ón…” Mar 14, 16:53
Mark Beggan on Looking up at the stars: “Ok. You have just advocated murder and torture. You are a cowardly prick. Now get to fuck.” Mar 14, 16:03
Hatey McHateface on Looking up at the stars: “Not that long AGO, Rev Stu published an article on here, ripping THE shit out of somebody for producing material…” Mar 14, 15:58
James on Looking up at the stars: “Can we start the round ups and lynchings with the 77th bunch? And unplug the Site Prick while we’re there?” Mar 14, 15:57
James on Looking up at the stars: “Wish someone would offer £20 for you to fuck off.” Mar 14, 15:31