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.
Alert readers will recall the deranged open letter released by a group of transactivists last Friday, in a nakedly transparent attempt to influence the SNP’s NEC elections that weekend which backfired on them horribly (and amusingly) when the party’s members instead kicked out three-quarters of the committee’s woke faction and replaced them with feminists, socialists and above all advocates of actually achieving independence.
If you don’t have the time to read Alyn Smith’s astonishing response to the SNP NEC election results in today’s National, we’ve edited it down to 10 seconds for you.
We must admit, the terrible people that we are, we’ve been enjoying watching today’s extended meltdown by the SNP’s woke faction about last night’s NEC election results. Because it appears their egos are so huge that they’re not even smart enough to play dignified to spoil our schadenfreudish fun. It’s been full-on public tantrums.
David Ferguson on The Longest Road: “I’ll do my best not try your patience Rev, but I’ll be posting this regularly on your threads up to…” Feb 17, 05:02
James Barr Gardner on The Longest Road: “Call me cynical, but remember to beware of Greeks bearing gifts………..” Feb 17, 03:24
Young Lochinvar on The Longest Road: “Amen to that! May they have restless sleeps..” Feb 17, 00:16
Young Lochinvar on The Longest Road: “Best review, well said! The interviewer is patronising à la MSM.. At least though he didn’t claim (on this interview)…” Feb 17, 00:08
GM on The Longest Road: “It is not as if we don’t have recent experience of being conned. This would be a cracker. The finishing…” Feb 17, 00:01
Hatey McHateface on The Longest Road: “Thanks, Alf. Took you a bit longer than I anticipated, but no harm done. I have a personal antipathy to…” Feb 16, 22:54
Hatey McHateface on The Longest Road: “There’s a rumour the ‘chunky new chapter’ will be ghosted by the script writer for the latest “Wuthering Heights” box…” Feb 16, 22:38
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Ach Northy, ye crave attention, and sometimes it seems to me I’m the only cant who will take pity on…” Feb 16, 22:33
100%Yes on The Longest Road: “Its Peter memoir we’ll be interested in.” Feb 16, 22:28
Alf Baird on The Longest Road: “More than happy to provide you and Robin with the science explaining our colonial condition, Hatey; then you and he…” Feb 16, 22:06
agentx on The Longest Road: ““Nicola Sturgeon to write ‘chunky new chapter’ to update memoir” Oh it seems her memory is returning (to try to…” Feb 16, 21:50
Northcode on The Modern Politician: “Since nothing much is happening in Scotland I’ve been pondering the nature of the ‘special’ relationship between England – also…” Feb 16, 21:30
Jennifer Livingston on The Longest Road: “Gentle is the one who shares a plate when another’s has been stolen. My family was busy getting their land…” Feb 16, 21:15
Hatey McHateface on The Longest Road: “Have a heart, x. If Effijy combusts, that’s gonna be on your conscience for literally minutes.” Feb 16, 21:14
Hatey McHateface on The Longest Road: “A plucky race, the Noggies. Right up near the top of the biggest per capita contributors to the just struggle…” Feb 16, 21:09
Dan on The Longest Road: “DaveL. Why are you so sure that there are only your two suggested options for why he may be doing…” Feb 16, 20:33
Lorna Campbell on The Longest Road: “Alf: it might be colonialism to an extent, but it doesn’t explain the actions of leaders all over the world…” Feb 16, 20:00
MaggieC on The Longest Road: “Well done to Paul and all involved in going ahead in the fight for justice for Alex. X “ So…” Feb 16, 19:55
David Holden on The Longest Road: “A short post would be thank you Paul and I don’t care what your motives are if it helps the…” Feb 16, 19:55
Hatey McHateface on The Longest Road: “The SNP office holders are individually responsible for discrepancies in the accounts, at least. Alert readers are aware that some…” Feb 16, 19:44
Hatey McHateface on The Longest Road: “Why don’t you then, Northy? As the alert readers have sussed, if you claim ADHD it’ll likely get you off…” Feb 16, 19:40
Tartan Tory on The Longest Road: ““There is two sorts of nationalism in Scotland at the moment” Enlightened, engaged and erudite. Willing to play a longer…” Feb 16, 19:39
Hatey McHateface on The Longest Road: “An interesting take by Robin McAlpine on the linkage between Mandelson and the people running Scotland at/for HR: https://robinmcalpine.org/is-peter-mandelson-running-scotland/ The…” Feb 16, 19:35
Confused on The Longest Road: “but what if shirley manson picks up nicola sturgeons legal bills? – checkmate or Rod Stewart becomes Chief Justice? BAAAAAAAAAABY…” Feb 16, 19:30
Northcode on The Longest Road: “Whit a couple o gawsie leukin birkies – like a pair o wee geeglin piglets… twa o the cutest colonialists…” Feb 16, 19:17
DaveL on The Longest Road: “F.S. There’s always one eh, but already there’s two. Bobo bunny and Effijy moaning and suspicious. Take a look and…” Feb 16, 18:23
Wally Jumblatt on The Longest Road: “someone asked “what’s in it for him”? Where do some people get their bitterness and suspicions from? If that’s how…” Feb 16, 18:18
100%Yes on The Longest Road: “The SNP isn’t fighting on any fronts that the problem, its the Scottish government and tax payers money. If we…” Feb 16, 18:14
100%Yes on The Longest Road: “He’s delusional with regards to the Labour party and Britain and to be honest I’ve never heard of him or…” Feb 16, 18:10
