Some People Try To Fuck With You
Well, it’s always nice to be a landmark for free speech.
But let’s start at the beginning.
This is Lynsay Watson, formerly known as Alex Horwood. He’s pretended to be a woman for more than half of his life.
As you might expect, then, he’s a very unwell man.
In 2023 he was sacked by Leicestershire Police for a prolonged and vicious campaign of harassment against former police officer Harry Miller, who now runs Fair Cop, an activist group concerned with restoring unbiased policing, including in respect of gender ideology.
Watson’s track record of harassing gender-critical voices is extremely long, and he makes no secret of it. He runs the “SEENPoliceUK” Twitter account, itself an impersonation of a genuine account for gender-critical police.
(SEEN, standing for Sex Equality & Equity Network, is an umbrella term for a number of gender-critical groups who seek to protect their members against unlawful discrimination for their beliefs, such as in the current case of Melanie Newman.)
On the fake’s Bluesky account, Watson used to say of the legitimate police SEEN group that “We exist to end them”, although he subsequently removed that threat from its bio, probably because it was too obvious an admission of intent to harass. However he’s still very open about that being his aim.
We know Watson runs the SEENPoliceUK account because last month it tweeted about an attempt to instigate a judicial review against the Crown Prosecution service, targeting its decision not to prosecute gender-critical feminist Maya Forstater.
It pretended to have learned about it from an unnamed source. But a few days earlier it had referred to it as “our” application.
And that application was made in the sole name of Lynsay Watson.
The “Sir/Madam” is a nice touch.
(It’s very obvious in any event that the SEENPoliceUK account is Watson. Every tweet is written in his unmistakeable style, which matches that of the “Peppercorn” account – now deleted, of course – which he admits to being the owner of, issuing barely-veiled threats to all and sundry, hysterical hyperbole about “torture” and “eradication”, obsession with strip searches, harassment of the same gender-critical women, and all his usual repertoire. Watson was still a serving police officer at the time.)
Watson’s fake “SEEN” most recently targeted the long-running and popular satirical account of “Dame Katy Denise”, which has been deactivated as a result.
We don’t blame the fragrant Dame Katy for doing so. As readers are about to discover over the course of this article, fighting off Watson’s attacks is a tiresome, time-consuming and potentially very expensive business which can also be frightening and distressing, and for the sake of a funny comedy Twitter account it’s probably not worth all the grief.
And the grief is the point. Watson’s fake “SEEN” account likes to encourage harassment of people he doesn’t like in general, often in threatening terms.
And he uses his knowledge from 18 years in the police (during which he never managed to rise above the rank of PC) to bring litigation with little or no hope of success, knowing that for ordinary people who’ve never been near the judicial system the process and the distress caused by it is itself the punishment.
Over and above merely intimidating people, though, Watson is determined to have those who dare to disagree with his beliefs sent to jail. Last month he demanded the imprisonment of Graham Linehan, apparently for the crime of fundraising to defend himself against a malicious court case from another toxically militant transactivist, Scottish bit-part actor David Paisley.
And he’s full of helpful advice for judges.
But the account particularly takes aim at those in or connected to the police, such as in the case of Melanie Newman, as mentioned above.
And judicial reviews are his weapon of choice.
So that’s a bit of character background for you. But where do we come in?
Wings attracted Watson’s ire over this tweet in February 2023:
He later detailed his complaint at considerable length. Below is a very substantially shortened outline of it, but you can read the entire thing here.
(Warning: most of the documents linked in this article will be dismayingly long, totalling over 500 pages of often dense legalese. We don’t advise trying to read them unless you’re having trouble sleeping, but we provide them for verification and transparency, as is our fashion.)
Among the more striking phrases lurking in the 112-part statement were accusations of “harassment by intentional misgendering” and that our conduct – with audacious irony – was “repetitious to the point of being oppressive”.
The police duly investigated and swiftly decided no crime had been committed. After much sulking and stamping of feet (we’ll skip some of the procedural steps at this point for the sake of readability), Watson eventually filed a challenge against the decision on multiple grounds – including accusing Greater Manchester Police of “institutional transphobia” and perverting the course of justice – and seeking a judicial review.
In August 2024, in a hearing before His Honour Judge Bird (p128-130), all the grounds except the first one were thrown out, but Watson was granted permission to proceed with the application on the first ground alone – that Greater Manchester Police may have incorrectly applied the law – pending a three-month stay for GMP to reconsider the matter internally.
(Which they did, reaching the same conclusion: there had been no crime.)
We should perhaps note at this point that we were blissfully unaware of all these events. Despite the law requiring “interested parties” (IPs) potentially affected by such an action – such as the person who might find themselves being prosecuted as a result – to be informed at the outset, nobody told us anything about any of it until two years later, in February of this year, when we got an email from Watson through the Wings contact form.
This was two weeks AFTER Watson’s application was heard before Mrs Justice Hill. In the course of his submissions for the hearing – still before we’d been told anything about any of it – Watson requested that the court take the unusual step of removing his address and personal details from all the paperwork to be sent to us, which was granted.
We’re sure there’s no connection between that request and the fact that Wings is aware of at least two women (both gender-critical feminists, of course) who have filed criminal harassment charges against Watson, and on which he’s currently evading being interviewed by the police by concealing his address. (He’s believed to have moved house or be living with an associate since the accusations were filed.)
(The answer to that question was comprehensively and unambiguously resolved by the Supreme Court judgment on Wednesday, incidentally – Watson is a biological male and regardless of any bodily mutilations would therefore have to be searched by a male officer, including those from his former force, the British Transport Police.)
On receiving the “interested party” order and a tranche of associated paperwork, and tweeting about it, we were very kindly offered pro bono representation by Roddy Dunlop KC – the Dean of the Faculty Of Advocates, formerly Kezia Dugdale’s counsel in our 2019 defamation case against her, and someone so committed to the defence of free speech that despite having been on opposing sides in that case he’d previously offered to represent us on a no-win-no-fee basis when we were briefly re-banned by Twitter in late 2022 at the urging of, among others, SNP MSP Karen Adam.
(The event that ended up bringing Wings back from our 2020 retirement.)
That still required the services of a solicitor with rights of audience in an English court to instruct him, so we got in touch with the Free Speech Union, which we’ve been a member of for a while.
They quickly signed us up the splendidly-named Elliot Hammer, creating an impressively formidable team.
(It’s perhaps worth noting at this point that without the much-appreciated support of the FSU and Mr Dunlop, we’d have been looking at a bill well into five figures just to file some written submissions in our defence, so readers may wish to pause momentarily and offer them their gratitude for being spared that fundraiser.)
This news enraged Watson after we filed the submissions, triggering an extensive tirade against one of Scotland’s most-respected public figures, culminating in a disgraced former police constable’s indignant assertion that Roddy Dunlop having been nominated to a judicial position “does not sit well with the Claimant at all”, something we’re sure will distress those involved in the appointment greatly.
(The email from Roddy Dunlop in the above tweet, incidentally, is a reply to one sent to him by SEENPoliceUK, using an email address that had only ever been given to… guess who?)
If you’re finding all this a little hard to follow – we know we are – let’s take a break here to quickly recap an edited chronology of key events:
TIMELINE
13 Feb 2023 – The original tweet.
18 Feb 2023 – Watson complains to Greater Manchester Police.
6 June 2023 – Police Sergeant Smirthwaite concludes that the tweet “does not reach the threshold of the offence reported”, nor “the threshold of any other offence” and closes the case.
4 September 2023 – Watson calls the police again and asks that the case be reopened as I have continued to tweet things that upset him.
25 November 2023 – Inspector Paul Mason of Rochdale Police reviews the case and agrees with the original decision, saying “This was a case of free speech and a right to offend”.
2 April 2024 – Watson files application for judicial review, weeks beyond the deadline for doing so. GMP oppose the deadline being waived.
7 June 2024 – Deputy High Court Judge Karen Ridge agrees with GMP and refuses the application (p125-127) for six separate reasons including the expiry of the deadline. Watson appeals.
14 August 2024 – His Honour Judge Bird, hearing the appeal (p128-130), grants permission to apply for the judicial review on a single ground, dismissing all of Watson’s other grounds, pending a three-month stay for GMP to review the case again.
1 November 2024 – Detective Inspector Sam Taylor reviews the case once more, agreeing with the original decision and the review decision of Inspector Paul Mason: no crime.
6 February 2025 – the application for a judicial review is heard in front of Mrs Justice J Hill. She orders that I be notified of my status as an Interested Party, provided with details of proceedings to date, and invited to make submissions if I wish.
19 February 2025 – I’m told about the existence of the complaint for the first time. With the assistance of Roddy Dunlop and Elliot Hammer, I file my submissions. Mrs Justice J Hill adds them to her considerations.
16 April 2025 – Mrs Justice J Hill delivers her judgment.
(It’s not just you and us struggling to keep track, incidentally. One amusing snippet from the original case bundle sees Watson ask a long-suffering female PC to remind him which of his many complaints he’s corresponding with her about.)
In truth, we’re quite relieved not to have heard about it until two years in. Being aware from the start and having to watch all the twists and turns would have multiplied the stress many times over. When the process is the punishment, it’s probably for the best to only be brought in at the end of the process.
But the rest is history, and you can read it in the judgment or the numerous media reports – most of which have been confined to the Manchester area, with Scottish press showing little interest.
The National, intriguingly – the only Scottish source to cover the story – filed it under “trans rights” and “crime” (indeed, it’s the lead story in their “hate crime” section), although the entire point was that there had been no crime nor even an arrest. The sort-of newspaper’s delightful readers were naturally thrilled to see free speech defended.
(They should probably hang out with Lynsay Watson – we suspect they’d get along like a house on fire, and they definitely deserve each other. Assuming they could find out where he lived, obviously.)
Lynsay Watson, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to be taking the verdict too well, to the point where he’s started talking about himself in the third person.
He had such high hopes, too.
(We’d said nothing to him since the judgment came out – we’ve barely even tweeted about it, the FSU mentioned it before we did – so we’ve got no idea what these apparent threats could mean or be referring to. Nor, if we’re honest, do we understand how you can engage with someone by implication.)
But as we’ve seen throughout this article, demented empty threats are Lynsay Watson’s stock in trade. And to be fair, he’s prolific if nothing else. Even in the midst of making so many other malicious complaints that he couldn’t tell me from Kellie-Jay Keen, he still found time to try to stop Sex Matters from being allowed to intervene in the For Women Scotland case, issuing a deranged, hysterical 56-part screed accusing them of being a Nazi, totalitarian hate group, in essence simply because he said so.
(From the SEENPoliceUK account, he called himself “one of our volunteers”.)
Calling people Nazis is of course standard fare from Watson – as we’ve seen, it’s part of what got him kicked out of the police. In the hearing for our case he made a little detour to gratuitously liken the highly respected Sussex University philosophy professor Kathleen Stock to the Third Reich’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, mere weeks before the university was fined £585,000 by regulator the Office For Students for failing to protect her freedom of speech from aggressive transactivists.
TBH, Goebbels sounds like more of a transactivist to us. Trans circles are circles!
And he probably identified as a transwoman himself, since he famously, just like Lynsay Watson, had no balls at all. But we digress somewhat.
The Supreme Court almost never allows interventions by individuals, and certainly not on the sole basis that they’re transgender. They rejected Watson’s application, and took time in the final judgment to specifically highlight how valuable Sex Matters’ contribution had been (while accurately describing them as a “human rights charity” rather than, say, a bunch of psychotic fascists).
There’s no sign that Watson will let up on his hate campaign because of his latest defeats, however comprehensive. Until the courts recognise him as a vexatious litigant, he’ll continue to plague people less well-resourced and well-supported to defend themselves than Wings, knowing that there’s very little at stake for him other than his worthless time.
His basic argument in our case seems to have been that “Okay, gender-critical people have a legal right to tweet their views sometimes, as long as they don’t say the word ‘troons’ (which is basically the same as calling a black person ‘ni**er’), but only on some days of the week, only for a certain number of years, and never after midnight”.
(Perhaps he’s mixed us up with Gremlins-critical people.)
As with the very similar case of convicted sex offender and militant trans activist Stephanie “Fat Tony” Hayden, those targeted by Watson likely have little hope of actually receiving any costs awarded against him. His entire life appears to be spent on long, involved, but uniformly unsuccessful attempts to use the police and judicial system to harass anyone who believes in the reality of biological sex, so it seems highly unlikely that he has time to earn a living – let alone to go on “touring trips” or offer tea and scones to friendly local bobbies he just happens to bump into socially – and it’s even harder to imagine anyone sane wanting to employ such a spectacular permanent liability to their public image.
(If he continues to harass us by filing further accusations attempting to impinge on our clearly-established Article 10 rights, we’ll seek a Civil Restraint Order as soon as possible, and will provide any support we can in that regard to anyone else he attacks if asked.)
We very much hope that Solicitors Journal is correct in its view that our victory will “set a precedent for future legal cases navigating the complexities of online speech”.
Lynsay Watson is a dangerously unhinged menace and a grotesque, malevolent strain on a justice system that’s already creaking at the seams. We invite readers to imagine what an astronomical waste of time and money the two years of complex and convoluted proceedings detailed above have been to the police and courts – occupying half an army of coppers at all levels and at least three different judges – on a case that was found to be ultimately ludicrous.
(Perhaps because it was the cornerstone of his delusional grand masterplan to overturn the Miller and Forstater judgments, Watson has already announced his intention to file an appeal, although having read all the case documents we cannot begin to imagine any grounds on which he’d be granted leave to do so.)
And that’s only one small example of Watson’s activities.
In writing this article we aim to provide useful information to other innocent people who fall into his insane world of paranoid vindictive spite, in the hope that it’ll help put a stop to the inconvenience, stress and cost he inflicts in the process of humiliating himself in court yet again.
(Although humiliation is a key facet of the sexual fetish of “forced sissification” which is extremely common among transwomen, and may therefore actually be part of the purpose.)
We apologise for its length – far beyond the typical Wings post, and that’s not even counting all the extra reading in the screenshots – but to even scratch the surface of Lynsay Watson’s obsessive, years-long campaign of harassment against biological realists (almost all of them women) unleashes a torrent of maggot-infested foulness that’s hard to staunch once it starts flowing.
Ultimately, sunlight is the best disinfectant. It’s long past time that some was shone on this particularly grubby, festering little tragedy of humanity, in the hope that it shrivels away to insignificance once and for all.
https://lawsuit.org/general-law/republicans-have-an-obsession-with-transgender-pornography/?fbclid=IwY2xjawKN1-FleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHgUX9XajeP1nOQpue51S50OTLTjjCDgUfaBz2dTGpFfQT3nJusOvNNZt4BFx_aem_7GRY6w_K5B5G7ciPAkMyUg
As suspected, “there’s a wee want about yon” as my Grandma used to say.
If only the police and justice system spent a fraction of the effort stopping vexatious litigants that they do infringing people’s right to free speech and liberty!
Kudos to you, Roddy Dunlop and the Free Speech Union.
He may have been sighted in Troon the other day.
There is a certain irony in scottish nationalists calling for free speech considering
The block lists
The SNP hate speech laws
The calls for silencing of the press
You where always warned that “hate speech” laws would be used against you
PS
For the hard of thinking
This is not a big thumbs up for england as they are just as bad
The UK is an oligarchy.
And we’re all doomed.
The danger is this evidently psychotic person will actually physically harm someone. It makes you wonder what sort of vetting the police actually do in recruiting new officers. During this whole debate on women’s sex based rights the public were left in no doubt police forces across the country acted as henchmen for the trans cult. Even today after the court ruling female activists are still receiving death threats and the reaction from the police has been poor.
And here was me thinking that most of us would be quite flattered to be called “mate” by our esteemed host.
fck ! Some light Easter Sunday reading , nae !
” Roll away the stone ” .The Resurrection of Rational Thinking has come – well , not for Lynsay What ? obv .
It’s ( almost ) beyond belief that a clearly unhinged individual like yon is able/allowed to inflict such protracted attrition on others and , as you point-out , given his manifest unemployability , you have to wonder how/where he gets the financial resources to fund his (un)holy war against Reason & anyone who questions his delusion . The SNP ? ( half joke ! )
Indicative of the depth to which this lunacy has infected the body politic/social , we have to accept that , despite the S.C ruling midweek , an enormous quantity of psychological ( and , probably , judicial ) fumigant will be required before this societal miasma can be considered eliminated .
What still shocks is the speed and degree to which this contagion has spread . Something which could not have happened without large sums of money funding it and the uncritical support of many ( most ) MSM and Political Class , eg the BBC , whose coverage of the S.C ruling has been – unsurprisingly – a complete , partisan ( ie pro-* trans * ) disgrace ; then again , it’s reporting on EVERYTHING now is equally disgraceful .
TBH I’m heartily sick of the whole * gender * ( non ) debate and all it’s multifarious , will-to-live-sapping stupidities , but fair play , Stu , for taking the time n effort to lay all this out for us and yr tireless opposition to the madness & defence of the main victims of it , ie women and children . * Applause *
Seconded.
I mentioned in a previous article about how men and women deal with stress differently where woman seek safety in numbers and men lash out.
With this article, it looks like my theory has some basis to it. Outwardly a man who change his physical appearance to look more feminine but if he doesn’t have the psychological attributes that fits as closely as possible the female gender then he can never be a woman.
That is one of the reasons why it used to take up two years with numerous medical and psychological tests before a man could legally change gender to female.
Interesting that the Transport Police, that this sad creature used to be in, was the very first to declare that strip searches will now be done only by officers of the same biological sex as the detained person.
Well done to you Rev. You must have a very robust grip on your sanity.
Gosh. Thank you for standing up to this monster. I do miss the lovely Dame Katy and I hope ‘she’ feels able to restore her account soon.
“It’s perhaps worth noting at this point that without the much-appreciated support of the FSU and Mr Dunlop, we’d have been looking at a bill well into five figures just to file some written submissions in our defence, so readers may wish to pause momentarily and offer them their gratitude for being spared that fundraiser.”
Indeed! Much respect and appreciation. Which raises the question: how does Watson fund all this litigation?
Either legal aid or activist lawyers
The same as Keir Starmer used todo
link to en.wikipedia.org
Indeed, how does he fund it?
It would be great to know.
Came around this article which is a number of years old but gives details of who is funding the Trans Ideology.
link to archive.is
It’s hardly a stretch of the imagination that some of the money has found it’s way over here to fund legal cases that promotes Trans ideology.
@PacMan
Thank you for the link to Jennifer Bilek’s article.
She’s good, she’s very good.
I follow her on X.
But I hadn’t read that article.
Will police forces ignore the UKSC ruling? It appears that U.K. and Scottish government ministers are now attempting to do so. They have made it plain where their loyalties lie and it would seem from leaked conversations that ministers north and south of the border are now engaged in finding ways to either ignore the ruling completely or find ways around it by putting pressure on the EHCR to not change their code of practice. So who will the police adhere to the ruling or ignore it hoping the politicians will find a way around it?
One has to ask why they wish to ignore this ruling
Considering the vast majority of the public are behind it
Well assume they are
REV
Fancy running a poll on this?
I’m happy to donate all the money the Tory party have paid me to post
Yoon Scum says: 20 April, 2025 at 10:52 am
Will these female cis Trans-allies say share a double room with one of their trans-sisters on an overnight stay?
Will these male cis Trans-allies physically step into a one of these confrontations that these trans women say they are afraid of happening due to this ruling?
All these ‘cis’ individuals who go to these marches and give support on social media platforms is one thing but it is another when they have to personally deal with the real life consequences of their politics.
Take for instance, these climate protests. People who participate on this are starting to get banging up now for and it and then Just Stop Oil says they are stopping campaigning.
Wow…that is some read.
That harasser has definitely got himself lost down the rabbit hole.
Sorry to learn that you had to put up with this…and well done to Dunlop, the FSU, and et al for providing sound support and advice. Good to know that there are still sensible people out there.
I’d ship the whole lot of them to one of our many uninhabited Hebridean islands. They could work out their pronouns and genders and radical surgeries there to their heart’s content. Nae social media, obviously, cold turkey!
Fits the Gaelic for Transylvania?
I’d tell them that each and every one of them would be welcome to come back to the real world just as soon as each is willing to concede that a normal person using normal pronouns about them is not equivalent to extreme Nazi, genocidal violence.
There would be a monthly re-supply run, with a visiting emergency dentist and doctor. So dinna fash, they’d be grand living a real life with real problems and issues to deal with.
And we’d all be grand too. We’d still have all our real problems and issues and without these ludicrous distractions, maybe we could start to make some progress with them.
This reminds me of a guy I supported as a CPN. He was an obsessive, and he was barely a bawhair away from getting locked up for continual long-term harrassment of verious professionals, beyond his many compulsory hospital admissions over the decades. He was ‘managed’ by psychiatric services like many people are, and you would be surprised at how variable the ‘diagnoses’ of treatable mental illnesses and less-treatable personality disorders had been made over the years, none of which he agreed with and for each of which he had copious notebooks and typed material. One of the issues he had was funding his continual letter-writing, typing and printing campaigns. He was quite mad, but a gentle guy, victim of his own life really.
But we wanted to destigmatise mental illness, close the asylums and return care to the community, then we wanted to pay less tax, closing the community supports and returning madness to the community too.
Yeah, we defo wanted to pay less tax, and still do.
Yet in the UK, we’re paying more tax than ever, whilst in Scotland, we’re paying even more on top.
Presumably to fund the compo for all the fuckups the SNP ScotGov has saddled us with.
Excellent point.
I think the Covid lockdowns played their part too.
There’s just SO much mental ill health ‘out there’ now.
“Unlike the SNP, he’s never published accounts and had these independently audited so donors can see where their money went (missing)”
Absolute Belter.
Who is funding this character’s forays into court?
Please tell me it’s not ScotGov..
He’s a litigant in person, so he has no costs. He still has to pay ours.
So he has to pay for a KC
that won’t be cheap
Oh dear
how sad
Never mind
Interesting to see how when he is rounded down exactly how he manages that..
Or..
Who is bankrolling him..
They are going to have to reopen mental health hospitals or society is going to be overwhelmed by mentally unwell people who are making other people’s lives a misery – and I’d include their own, in that. That approach – with decent mental health services – is the best way to “be kind”. How you stand all that garbage is beyond me, Rev.
Same.
I wasn’t aware this guy was after you.
As I live in Leics I’ve been aware of him for a while.
It takes some going to get a straight sacking by Leics Police. Supposedly “lost the plot” around 2018/19 according to other plod.
No this is just something that was said to me after the sacking was released to the press.
It was along the lines of “they were alright back then, dunno what happened after that but its been coming for a while” (sacking).
Given the proximity to covid timescales then who knows, could be just before lockdown in terms of what they remembered.
An interesting bit of info.
TY.
Nice one Wings
Shirley from the Shankhill
Used to be a man.
She had a bag of makeup
In Ford Fiesta van.
She set out for Derry
In a cold winters day.
She cried ‘No Surrender’
And went merrily on her way.
Stu, horrible that you’re dealing with this relentless mental case. I appreciate the use of the word ‘try’ in your article title. And he will continue to TRY and continue to fail.
If only Scotland’s finest legal minds would turn their attention to the most critical national matter, i.e. the oft violated and therefore worthless Treaty of Union and the colonial hoax known as the ‘United Kingdom’, where ongoing developments are passing them by:
link to liberation.scot
A most pertinent point, Alf.
And I’d like to see that too.
But for many of us independentistas, we don’t want to live in a sicker society, than the one we currently inhabit.
As you know there are numerous things going on at the same time.
This is good.
I am confident that our finest legal minds WILL get back on track, soon!
Yes in terms of ‘a sicker society’, postcolonial theory confirms that “a colonized society is a diseased society” (Memmi), for which “the only cure is liberation… extraction and reshaping of present conditions of existence”.
In regard to “our finest legal minds”, it’s a gey lang time since any Scots lawyer drafted a treaty in Scotland, which leaves rather a void in knowledge, as we can readily see.
Well said Alf Baird.
It would be fantastic if more legal minds could focus on the abuse of the Mankit Treaty of Union then our progress to an independent Scotland free from its rotten colonial master.
Interesting piece by the Rev. Well documented. It brings into sharp focus another example of how much time, money and effort has been wasted on the whole nonsense of the trans thing.
But I suppose if folks are consumed by biology denying woke nonsense it is in effect a distraction from what is the key issue of a fairer, more prosperous, more settled independent Scotland.
Fixating on biology denial whilst our country burns – all part of the Nero strategy.
I don’t suppose it’s ever occurred to any of those hooked on magical thinking about non-parliamentary short cuts to indy, and how we can simply abrogate the Treaty of Union and be wafted to the sunny uplands of independence if we just believe harder in Alf’s post-colonial theory snake oil, that in 300 years no legal minds who have turned their attention to the “critical national matter” have ever been able to demonstrate they have a credible way forward?
Why, one might almost think it was because the basic premise might be flawed, and that some folk would far rather waste their time footling about with constitutional minutiae with about as much relevance to the proximate cause as the Schleswig-Holstein question now has, than actually just doing the work and constructing a working pro-independence majority in plebiscitary elections.
Sadly the auld chip on the shoulder “we wuz robbed” excuse is a lot easier for some folk to trot out than an acceptance that we just haven’t won the argument yet.
It would seem rather mischievous to suggest Scots must depend on a co-opted political class to liberate us after a decade where they have worked only to defend colonialism and delay independence, many since retiring on colonial pensions.
With peoples in self-determination conflict, and where national consciousness is a decisive factor (Fanon), “culture is always upstream of politics” (Bono). ‘British or Scottish’ (or Irish, or Indian, or Kenyan etc etc etc); national identity and national consciousness is key for colonized peoples, determined by culture and language.
A widna rubbish postcolonial theory if I were you, the UN’s entire post WWII decolonization agenda was and remains based on that rich literature and understanding of how the colonial hoax works, thereby giving freedom to a great many exploited nations and oppressed peoples who are now UN member states.
And as the UN tells us, independence means decolonization; somebody should maybe inform the daeless nominally independence parties. For politicians who cannot properly define the meaning of independence (or define women, and much else!) would seem unlikely to find the pathway to liberation.
@Andy Ellis
UDI, in itself, is NOT magical thinking.
We do though, firstly, require an uptake of ‘The Manifesto for Independence’.
Process (step by step) MUST come before (empty)promises.
SatNav ALL the way, is the only way.
@ Nae Need 6.29 pm
UDI is one of the routes available to any people seeking self determination but, like all the other possible routes, it depends on specific criteria. The international community will overwhelmingly only recognise UDI’s in extremis, usually in response to widespread violence, ethnic cleaning, civil war etc. Even then it has often taken years.
For UDI to be accepted in the context of somewhere like Scotland, Catalonia or Quebec the international community will expect those attempting to assert their self determination to have exhausted other available routes, or to be faced with a power which is not negotiating in good faith
The Canadian Supreme Court for example made the specific point that Quebec’s route to independence would potentially include UDI in the eyes of the international community in the event the Canadian Federal government was seen to be acting in bad faith and/or refusing to negotiate.
Process, as you rightly note, is important.
Jeez, that was some read
I was recently reacquainted with the phrase “ a wee nyaff”
He definitely is one of those!
Dam, I have a headache know with all that.
Surely courts or police should be doing something about this waste of court time.
I am so pleased hat you were spared the first 2 years of this, Rev, and very sorry that you have had to spend any time dealing with this.
As Lorn says, he is clearly unhinged and, like so many things that we can lay at Margaret Thatcher’s door, is not getting the treatment that is required. “Care in the community” was a cynical way to cut costs but the actual cost is to the state of society as a whole.
Social media should be a boon but is instead a forum for uncontrolled verbal violence and this violence has real physical effects on the victims.
As for the politicians, especially Starmer, why on earth are they still siding with the transvestite activists? I don’t get it. But then I don’t get why the UK government continues to assist Israel to murder and invade Palestine.
Ther’ seems tae be a load o’ folk histin’ themselves wi’ ther’ ain petards these days, somethin’ in the watter ?
Fiona from the Falls Road
Used to be a guy.
She swore she’d get her vengeance
And blow the place sky high.
She set out for Ulster on a cold winters day.
Then she broke her lipstick
And couldn’t find her way.
Don’t mock.
Been to the Falls eh?
I have, a lot.
The experience isn’t one to laugh about Mark.
Keep the banter focused..
We know where you stay.
Suzanna was a Steaknife!
Mark Beggan at 10.25pm;
Fool, AND, Troll.
Bedfellows it appears..
Don’t advise you coming looking for me you fascetious smart ar*e, you’ll get more than you think you can deal with..
Calm yer jets. I couldn’t find a nun in a convent and If I did I’d probably blush.
We all express ourselves in our own way. I use ‘banter’ as a way to compare Trans with Terrorists. In both cases if you didn’t laugh you’d cry.
A Jester at the Kings court.
I signed up for a gold membership of the FSU after reading that. I’ve thought about it for a while but this seemed a good time to do so. Hopefully no need for me to make use of their services but it’ll help someone.
I’m glad God is operating through you Stuart, to stand up to this monster. Happy Easter! Every knee will bend to the King of Kings! Including all transgenders!
Great victory, but have you ended up incurring significant costs which cannot be recovered from him?
No. Roddy worked pro bono and the FSU paid for Elliot.
Good. Glad to hear it.
Shankhill > An tSeanchill (The old church)
Derry > Doire (grove, oak-wood)
Falls Road > Bóthar na bhFál (Road of the enclosures)
link to gobha-uisge.blogspot.com
Are you “gregor” in disguise ?
No I’m Mark. A real named person. Mr Insider.
The oak tree was revered in the ancient times. The land where it grew was considered sacred.
Mark Smith in The Herald:
John Swinney was asked this week if he wished to apologise to women after the court ruling on what’s meant by the word women and he said this: “We’ve acted in good faith. We’ve tried to navigate our way through two pieces of legislation, during which our position has been supported twice by courts in Scotland in this particular case, so the debate has been around very uncertain areas of definition and the Supreme Court has concluded on that, and that is an end to the matter.” Lots of words. But notice the one that isn’t there: sorry.
So let me do it for him because men like me, men like us, men like him, absolutely owe an apology to the women who questioned and fought what was going on with trans rights and women’s rights. Lots of politicians and activists and people with newspaper columns – me included – suggested that the women who first raised the alarm were prejudiced or transphobic or misguided and their concerns were misplaced, and here they are years later, often vilified but now vindicated, victorious and rightly so. Which is lots of words when one will do: sorry.
I’m aware, by the way, that it’s not just men who need to apologise here, and that women were involved in the vilification too (most notably Nicola Sturgeon). But men like me who waded in displayed a particular lack of humility. I remember a conversation I had with one of the campaigners against self-ID who explained to me why sex rather than gender mattered to women, and why single-sex spaces were important, and why letting in people who are physically male was a problem. And if a man, a man like me, was going to tell her she was wrong, he’d better have a bloody good argument on his side, and I was starting to realise I really didn’t. That conversation was part of the process, from about 2021 onwards, of me starting to change my mind.
There were other important points along the way, such as speaking to trans activists and hearing stuff that was often incoherent and sometimes alarming. For example, I remember one activist telling me sex was only a “loose category” and not being able to explain what they meant. I remember another telling me it was fine for people to have gender-critical opinions as long as they only expressed them in private. The activists also told me trans people were able to access single-sex spaces because that’s what the Equality Act said they could do, but did it really? And I went to some of the protests and events where the trans activists said they could see hate and bigotry and threats to their safety but I spoke to the gender-critical women and none of it was really there.
Seeing the Scottish Government’s self-ID legislation being pushed, or bull-dozed, through parliament was also an important moment in the process. I was there on the day it passed (it was later blocked by the UK Government) and the protesters outside were clear and intelligent and reasonable but angry that they were being ignored and labelled bigots. And that’s why John Swinney can’t get away with saying, when asked if he would like to apologise, that he was just trying to navigate his way through the legislation as if it had nothing to do with him. The SNP came up with the bill, they refused to properly engage with its critics, and they pushed it through regardless. Say sorry for that.
And while you’re at it, say sorry too for refusing to back down even when the protesters outside Holyrood were proved right by the case of a prisoner called Isla Bryson, the Scots-born male who started transitioning after being charged with rape and was remanded to a woman’s jail. You’ll remember the picture of Bryson in a blonde wig and tight leggings and it was that picture, surely, that really started to turn things around for a lot of people. We also had the bizarre sight, remember, of Nicola Sturgeon tying herself in knots about what Bryson was and appearing to suggest that there were three categories of human: female, male, and rapist. And don’t forget the bewildering stories of lesbians fighting to keep men out of their spaces and off their apps. People started to take notice of it all and thought: this defies common sense.
By that point in the process – early 2023 – you could feel what was starting to happen and that the common sense was starting to win, and the Cass Review on gender services for children the following year only underlined it. That period also started to give us some perspective on why people – people like me, me again – were initially so supportive of the concept of self-ID. A lot of us felt I suppose, instinctively, that there was a parallel between trans rights and gay rights. But I remember one gender-critical feminist telling me the analogy was a false one because gay men were never asking to come into women’s spaces and she was right. You could also see that the central ideas of the trans movement, especially that trans women are women, took hold before there was a chance to properly examine them.
And so now that the Supreme Court has changed the landscape with its ruling, we have the genuine prospect that we can move on from the most troubling aspects of the last few years. Such as the anti-factual language of the Scottish Greens (although Maggie Chapman was still giving it a good go after the ruling by calling for the self-ID bill to be resubmitted for royal assent). And the tribunal involving Sandie Peggie, the nurse who objected to a doctor who was born a man being in the female changing room and was suspended for it; NHS Fife will have to admit defeat. We’ll also need to work on a solution for public places, probably a third space alongside single-sex spaces.
We must also be prepared to cross our arms and wait for apologies that may never come and probably will never come from Mr Swinney and Ms Sturgeon. We know it’s hard for politicians to use the sorry word – it’s easier to accuse than admit. But it will be better for them in the long run to say sorry than try to hold to absurd positions such as “we always supported single-sex spaces” (Labour) or “we were just trying to navigate the legislation” (SNP). The Supreme Court has spoken with impressive clarity; it’d be nice if politicians did the same.
So let me give the First Minister a helping hand. Instead of saying, Mr Swinney, that you always acted in good faith and tried to navigate your way through two pieces of legislation and that your position was supported twice by courts in Scotland, try talking instead about what you got wrong, and about the way your government treated its critics, and about what you’re going to do, and when, to revise the policies guiding prisons and hospitals and so on. No one is impressed by you trying to hold to a position that no longer exists, but we might be impressed by you admitting that we’re heading for a different destination now. And we might give you credit for using the word that doesn’t come easy to men like you, like me, like a lot of us. The word is sorry.
“We’ve acted in good faith”. Let’s try backdating these words to the extensive redaction of Salmond’s defence evidence.
How right you are, Fearghas.
Swinney, the man who stood aside to let ‘new blood’ lead the SNP, redacted his principles(?) and became leader. Now he seeks to obfuscate the independence message by vilifying the Reform party.
A ‘placeman’ as Phil Boswell would say.
As a father, grandfather,uncle, son who has opposed this legislation from the get go I personally am NOT interested in ANY apology from the snp fuckwits or the other fuckwits in HR like LYING Sarwar who voted for this aberration of deviancy and perversion
Despite overwhelming opposition from the electorate these arseholes CHOSE to continue ignoring the reasonable demands for discussion from reasonable people, instead preferring to placate and accede to demands from deviants, perverts and mentally ill people
The only thing that I would find acceptable is for every fuckwit in HR who voted for this deranged legislation to resign and for them to be sued for every penny that has been wasted on this lunacy
Amen to that.
And now, at a time of straightened public finances and a bombing economy we will have to find the money to pay for the inevitable compensation costs and legal bills that are either underway and or waiting in the wings to emerge.
And then of course there will be all the costs of rewriting and implementing new policies in the various public bodies across the country. And our Scottish government and the parliament were right behind the nonsense that no one voted for.
Alf Baird is quite correct when he quotes Memmi in his comments about the diseased mind of colonised society being a diseased society.
Seconded.
Just not the grandfather, father, uncle, son bit
Cos I’m a woman.
It’s out his purfew now, it’s UK wide.
So all Swinney can do now is talk doublespeak while many of the fifth columnists infecting the nuSNP rant, rail and accuse the majority: ie the child producing voting population, of being the N word.
Swinney may be attempting to calm things while keeping Sturgeon’s plans on simmer but he is truly done now.
If he can’t stand in front of a camera and describe a woman then he is, at long last, toast.
Here’s to a new, genuine SNP; or, probably preferably successor parties with their heads screwed on vetting the floating SPADS and paid lobbying influencers who burrow their way into winning parties like ticks..
I don’t know the author and what he has written about the Trans issue but I’m guessing that since he’s deflecting with “because men like me, men like us, men like him, absolutely owe an apology to the women” he didn’t write anything critical about it himself.
I used to love reading stuff from technology based websites. It satisfied the geek in me but also allowed me to get away from all the troubles and strife’s in the world for a while.
However, these sites gave become more focused on politics, which is commonly known as woke but lets be honest about it, is nothing but American Liberalism. An example of this is the latest article from the Ars Technina site which is relevant to the Trans issue.
The article is about the Trumps administration using funding to dictate what is taught in the American education system. I’m not going to link the site because it is nothing but superficial agitprop waffle but the following paragraph caught my eye.
Leaving aside the contentious issue of antisemitism, what interests me more is the notion of “viewpoint diversity”.
I did a quick internet search about this and came up with the following link:
link to medium.com
It describes viewpoint diversity as:
Given the cultural and economic influence that America has on the Western world, there is no doubt that it has the same level of influence in the academic world so this sort of stuff is being taught here in the UK university system.
It sounds all great and well in theory but does it work in practice? Just look at the Trans debate and see how those who support Trans are empathic to the other side, woman and want to listen to their arguments.
Given the amount of nonsense and intolerance that comes out of the university system and worms it’s way through our society, those who teach this “viewpoint diversity” do not practice what they preach and allows their viewpoint to triumph over all other opinions.
There is no doubt that the Trump administration is using the “culture wars” as a smokescreen to implement their Project 2025 agenda on the American education system but given how toxic and harmful it is to society, which can be seen with this Trans issue, is it any worse than the status quo?
There is no doubt that given the amount of funding the US government gives to the American university system, this Woke/American Liberalism nonsense will be weeded out in the next couple of years and hopefully will filter out to here.
Of course, Project 2025 influenced nonsense will eventually feed itself over here to our education system but we can deal with that when that happens.
Understanding the realities of a colonial society would seem important here. For example, what you describe as the ‘education system’ in Scotland is to a significant extent not run by Scots nor does it necessarily function for or in the interests of Scots or prioritise Scottish values:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
The Trans issue has been one of the controversial issues of the SNP time in power and has also been one of the causes of the split in the independence movement.
Trans like other polarising issues is framed in the context of woke and culture wars. Looking at how the UK Supreme ruling was reported in the media, it was slanted not towards woman but Transwoman so they generate enough controversy on both sides in order to get as much clicks as possible.
This woke and culture wars stuff and isn’t political.
It isn’t political in the sense as it is driven by big American corporates in the technology, media and entertainment industries who feed off each other on order to generate controversy which gets people to view their products.
It is political in the sense that it just another chapter of the fight between American Liberalism and American Conservatism which has reached into the corner of the society of every English speaking country in the world due to the rise of the internet and social media.
It’s time to recognise these American values, both political and commercial, and rejected them where they have no place in Scottish society nor do the align with Scottish values.
743rd time posting that link. All in a failed effort to make yourself look clever. It actually achieves the opposite.
Children should be SEEN and not heard.
Mr Horwood is a nasty piece of work.
Karma always catches up.
Chas can I ask if you are homosexual or heterosexual ,it’s not really my business but it would explain your obvious fixation with anything Prof Baird does or says or posts, in an effort to help you just so you know Chas, if anything untoward happens to Prof Baird you do realise that you would become the main suspect and the proof of your fixation on Wings would provide that evidence
Twat
Is your post a rather convoluted way of asking me for a date? I am sorry to disappoint you but I am really not interested.
The rest of your drivel is laughable but kudos for you in trying to defend the esteemed professor. The members of the not so happy, ‘Happy Clappy Club’ have got to stick together.
Your user name is interesting. As far as I am aware the word ‘twat’ is a rather vulgar, but common term, used to describe a women’s genitals. As I understand it, a hatred of such is often found in transwomen who resent that they do not possess the necessary equipment which, in their eyes, would validate their female existence to others, hence their hatred.
Do you consider yourself to be female? Do you appear in the any of the photographs within the article following this one?
Grat job, Thankyou. Keep it up.
They clearly need help & should be given a stern warning to stop wasting the courts time.
Another imported Americanism – this lawfare to silence opposition bullshit.
How on earth was this person ever considered suitable to deal with the public? The Police seem to veering way off their remit. These trans activists are mentally ill & never fail to tick numerous red flags – Histrionics, Narcissism, Authoritarian, Grandiose, Anti Social, obsessive & Compulsive. They think they’re the smartest person in the room then lose their shit & play victim when they discover they’re not.
Who has the time for this bullshit 24/7? Scouring the internet for hurty feelings for informants to report to the Gestapo? Obviously someone with plenty of funding…
Thank God for the Lawyers who helped you. Poor sods for the ones who don’t. Crowdfunding is just another layer of nonsense in the latest class divide between the haves & have nots. Those who can fund good advice & those who can’t.
Absolutely shocking that a single individual can waste so much valuable judicial time on vindictive attacks and not suffer any consequences (so far). It’s unfortunate that current U.K. policy is that the Attorney General will only seek a General Restraint Order once a CRO has been obtained and breached. I am not sure that adequately deals with individuals like Watson who appear to continuously launch vexatious claims, but not necessarily against the same person. Perhaps the FSU might be interested in constructively challenging this?
“tick numerous red flags – Histrionics, Narcissism, Authoritarian, Grandiose, Anti Social, obsessive & Compulsive. They think they’re the smartest person in the room then lose their shit & play victim when they discover they’re not”
I was simply going to re-post this without further comment.
But then I thought a second time.
If you fess up, Barbs, and admit you’re having a laugh at our expense, then I’ll concede that what you did here is actually kinda cool.
Over to you.