The list below is a much, much shorter one than we were expecting to run. In the end, just nine MSPs voted today against Johann Lamont’s amendment on forensic medical examinations, with one abstention. The amendment passed by a margin of 104 votes after SNP MSPs voted in favour, with only the Greens and Lib Dems opposed.
Every last one of them is a disgusting coward who doesn’t care about the feelings of rape victims and we’re ashamed to share a nationality with them.
We’ve had plenty to say already this week about the amendment that will be debated at Holyrood this afternoon. So instead we’re going to present you today with the case for each side, as made by two Scottish women on Twitter in the last few hours, and let you decide for yourselves whose argument is the more compelling.
First up, in favour of the amendment, is Scotsman writer Gina Davidson.
The media is focusing on Murrell’s continued evasion of the question of his WhatsApp usage (Murrell bizarrely states he has several messaging apps installed on his phone but uses none of them), but there’s a much more interesting revelation in the second of the letter’s two sections.
This is a direct, unambiguous and categorical statement from the First Minister that the investigation into the false allegations against Salmond was a Scottish Government matter that was absolutely nothing to do with the SNP.
This site and other gender-critical voices are regularly accused of being “obsessed” with trans issues, even though the subject has been mentioned in fewer than 0.7% of Wings posts. But this week the SNP’s transgender faction – when it hasn’t been STILL raging about its battering in the NEC elections – has been swamping social media with organised complaints about a tiny prospective legislative change that they themselves insist doesn’t actually matter at all.
Rape Crisis Scotland, who are almost entirely dependent on the Scottish Government for funding, have chosen this evening to wade into the debate over the wording of a new law which is intended to lessen the trauma of people (nearly all women) who’ve been raped. We can only speculate as to whether they were pressured to do so, but the intervention seems likely only to pour petrol on the fire.
In his evidence to a Holyrood inquiry today, having been asked about some troubling WhatsApp messages concerning the case from 2018 which appeared to suggest the possibility of a conspiracy against the former First Minister, Murrell told members of the committee “I’m not on WhatsApp, it’s not a social media platform I use”.
Alert readers will have noticed a very careful use of the present tense there.
We’ve now filed a formal complaint with the Scottish Information Commissioner about this, because what we’d forgotten last week was that our original request was actually sent in September and it’s now been almost 60 working days with no sign of a proper response, not the 20 it’s supposed to take.
Because for some reason the Scottish Government REALLY doesn’t want you to know what the First Minister and Geoff Aberdein talked about in March 2018, and we think that you probably should.
We don’t normally like to devote much time on Wings to things that have been more than adequately covered elsewhere in the media, which is why you haven’t read much here about eg the Internal Market Bill. Unlike some we don’t see much point spending our limited human resources telling people stuff they already know and agree with.
But we’re going to make an exception for this next thing, which was already covered pretty well by Susan Dalgety in last week’s Scotsman, because (a) a lot of our readers, quite reasonably, will have an instinctively adverse reaction to either anything printed in the Scotsman or anything written by Susan Dalgety, and (b) a number of people have asked us to amplify this issue because it’s so important and so awful.
As well as the SNP NEC elections, the weekend saw the election of the first committee of a new grassroots independence organisation which is unfortunately and hopefully temporarily going by the stupendously terrible working name of “Yes Alba”.
15 people were elected to its ruling body by the votes of hundreds of delegates, with the top-ranked picks including SNP MP Angus MacNeil and former SNP MP George Kerevan. The majority of the successful candidates (eight) were female, even though there were no quotas or women-only shortlists imposed, and a wide range of ages was represented from young activists to former UK ambassador Craig Murray.
(We have no idea about any of their sexualities or gender identities, and also no interest in knowing, because those things have not the slightest bearing on their ability to fight for independence and are frankly none of our damn business.)
But that wasn’t good enough for Team Woke.
On a day when Joanna Cherry had a grown-up, reasoned and constructive column in The National calling for unity in the pursuit of independence, the outpouring of snide, sour sneering from a faction still raging with bitterness about being routed on the SNP NEC is instead curdling Twitter even as we speak.
And embarrassingly, not a single one of them has actually bothered to check even the most basic facts.
James on The Idiot Rodeo: “Already told you, half wit. I am not and never will be your “pal”. Now fuck off back to your…” Dec 19, 12:13
James on The Idiot Rodeo: “Dan; you’ll never get an honest response from any of the usual suspects (as you know from experience) but I…” Dec 19, 11:51
Mark Beggan on The Idiot Rodeo: “In 1800 the life expectancy was 35-40 for males. That’s assuming that the person survived childhood. An incredible amount of…” Dec 19, 11:35
Aidan on The Idiot Rodeo: “@Dan – I didn’t ignore that at all, I’m specifically engaging with it! Even if this railway station was built…” Dec 19, 11:22
James Cheyne on The Idiot Rodeo: “Mark Beggan, Thank you for a realistic reply. Those thoughts are also gathering in my head. As the facts and…” Dec 19, 11:21
James Cheyne on The Idiot Rodeo: “Perhaps a mind wanting the union to exist cannot explain this away, I would include the SNP minds and the…” Dec 19, 11:11
Mark Beggan on The Idiot Rodeo: “A treaty isn’t worth the paper its written on as Stalin found out in June 1941.” Dec 19, 10:31
James Cheyne on The Idiot Rodeo: “Was The parliament of England ended in 1707 to create the Great Britain parliament, Why did the parliament of England…” Dec 19, 10:30
James Cheyne on The Idiot Rodeo: “I wonder if the people of Ireland were any the wiser than the people of Scotland were in 18001801 that…” Dec 19, 10:21
James Cheyne on The Idiot Rodeo: “I believe the parliament of England held that position for just over Two years while it made the treaty with…” Dec 19, 10:12
Dan on The Idiot Rodeo: “@ Aidan Sigh, I did propose using buses instead of the entirety of the tram fiasco in my first post…” Dec 19, 10:07
James Cheyne on The Idiot Rodeo: “I would be interested in hearing some sound debates from union favoured minds on the Dissolution of the Great Britain…” Dec 19, 10:05
Captain Caveman on The Idiot Rodeo: “Hey Fatso, notice you had no answer to your looking down on McDonalds and other workers (despite being a lazy,…” Dec 19, 09:55
James Cheyne on The Idiot Rodeo: “The last time experiments were done on humans was in WW2. Perhaps Those trials that happened after war should come…” Dec 19, 09:41
James on The Idiot Rodeo: “Yoon tossers are like the buses – none for ages then two at once. Oh, here’s your bum chum “Aidan”.…” Dec 19, 09:03
James on The Idiot Rodeo: ““Colonised by wankers”. Classic. Over to you, Main, you being long since crowned the Site Prick.” Dec 19, 08:56
Hatey McHateface on The Idiot Rodeo: “Just needed a fresh battery and the points scraped.” Dec 19, 07:57
Hatey McHateface on The Idiot Rodeo: “Why would he need a dictionary? He’s entitled to see his own case notes on demand.” Dec 19, 07:53
Mark Beggan on The Idiot Rodeo: “On this day in 1606 the Jamestown colony started.” Dec 19, 07:30
Aidan on The Idiot Rodeo: “Right Dan, but the above is all about oil and gas engineering, which isn’t a subject either under discussion or…” Dec 19, 06:31
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Idiot Rodeo: “« Is éard is féiniúlacht ann, nó cultúr Gaelach, ar deireadh thiar thall, an rún daingean chun maireachtáil beo, chun…” Dec 19, 00:35
Dan on The Idiot Rodeo: “Okay Aidan, then take some of your own advice and stop cherry-picking parts of what I wrote to lose and…” Dec 18, 23:22
Mark Beggan on The Idiot Rodeo: “Since you’ve got the dictionary out. Try Nutcase.” Dec 18, 22:55
Northcode on The Idiot Rodeo: “Is that you, Hatey? I preferred your John Main moniker most- it lent a bit of gravitas, unlike McHateface, to…” Dec 18, 22:42
Mark Beggan on The Idiot Rodeo: “@ His Northness My dear Northy. You are looking up the wrong word. School boy error. Try ‘Ringer’. And you…” Dec 18, 22:28
Northcode on The Idiot Rodeo: ““Contrast that to Northcode, who whilst admittedly sometimes amusing…” Thanks for the compliment, AI Dan. Your sycophancy won’t save you…” Dec 18, 22:24
Northcode on The Idiot Rodeo: “Are you a professor of Scottish History? ANSWER ME! YES or NO? NO! Then it is as I thought, you…” Dec 18, 21:58
Aidan on The Idiot Rodeo: “@Dan – my experience includes providing extensive professional advice on the subjects I’ve written about above. You can chose to…” Dec 18, 21:52
Hatey McHateface on The Idiot Rodeo: “As long as more than 50% of the immigrants are called Navid they, and we, will be grand. It’s a…” Dec 18, 21:26
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Idiot Rodeo: “HEALTH SECRETARY VOICES CONCERNS OVER PUBERTY BLOCKER TRIAL The Health Secretary has said he’s “not comfortable” with the upcoming puberty…” Dec 18, 21:26
