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The Secondhand Amendment 19

Posted on January 19, 2026 by

We’re really not sure this makes things any better with regard to the incredible tale that’s unfolded around the judgment in Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife.

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In fact, on any interpretation we can think of, quite the reverse.

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Learning Insanity 146

Posted on January 14, 2026 by

This clip was broadcast on ITV News Wales this week.

It’s a staggeringly obvious mess for a whole raft of reasons – a number of completely spurious, illogical and unsupported claims are accepted as facts without any sort of challenge or balancing voice (which has been standard practice on ITV News for a while now across almost any contentious political topic) – but it led us to somewhere magnitudes of crazier still.

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Governing For Beginners 108

Posted on January 12, 2026 by

My first ever real experience of politics was playing Dictator.

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Originally written by Don Priestley for the Sinclair ZX81 in 1982, it was a simple text-based game which subsequently came to other formats including the Commodore 64, BBC Micro, Elan Enterprise and the ZX Spectrum, which is where I encountered it.

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Grandpa John’s Nightmare 257

Posted on January 07, 2026 by

It’s almost – almost – worth voting SNP in May because of this:

Because it would be at least momentarily absolutely hilarious watching Swinney try to explain why his “100% guaranteed” second indyref didn’t happen if the SNP actually did get a majority on 30% of the vote (which is narrowly feasible on current polling).

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Failure To Learn 101

Posted on January 05, 2026 by

Scotland take on Haiti on Sunday 14 June (in the wee small hours of the morning), so this is nice, isn’t it?

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At least, it would be if incompetent idiots weren’t in charge.

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And every day was exactly the same 168

Posted on January 03, 2026 by

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List Voting For Cretins 122

Posted on January 02, 2026 by

This week The National published a poll it commissioned from Find Out Now for this May’s Scottish Parliament election, alongside a seat projection from Sir John Curtice. Here are the list-vote figures from the poll.

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The seat projection calculated that the election would result in 59 SNP MSPs (six short of the number John Swinney says is the minimum needed to force a second indyref), 25 for Reform, 13 for the Greens, 12 each for Labour and the Tories and eight for the Lib Dems.

It didn’t specify how many of the seats were constituency ones and how many were list ones, so we dropped Sir John a line and asked him.

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The Gulf War 86

Posted on January 01, 2026 by

Yesterday we noted in passing that independence support now outstrips that of the SNP by more than 20 points, making the party into a gigantic liability as the vehicle for enabling Scots to leave the UK. Put simply, even when voters want independence (as most now do), they’re not willing to vote SNP to get it.

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(Not, of course, that they WOULD get it if they voted SNP – the party still having no coherent or credible strategy to achieve it – but more than 40% of would-be Yes voters are no longer prepared to even try giving them the benefit of yet another mandate.)

And since what everyone loves most of all on New Year’s Day is a good old wade in some political stats, we thought we’d take a little more detail on that.

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The Fear Of The Briar 47

Posted on December 31, 2025 by

With Reform now pretty consistently miles in front in polling for the next UK election, logically this is brilliant news for the Scottish independence movement, isn’t it?

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So can anyone explain why the SNP is so desperate to stop them?

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The Curious Fringes 131

Posted on December 29, 2025 by

There’s a post on the superwoke poll-analysis account Ballot Box Scotland today bemoaning the lack of interest in the forthcoming Scottish Parliament election from polling companies, and presenting it as some sort of anti-Scottish conspiracy.

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The real reason nobody’s very interested, of course, is that as things stand the election is an obvious foregone conclusion in which the party that’s been in power for the previous 19 years will stay in power for another five, and nothing will change.

The only minor intrigue around the election is to be found at the edges and is only of real interest to politics nerds, but since we ARE politics nerds we may as well take a look at it.

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A matter of class 543

Posted on December 19, 2025 by

Something very odd happened when the Sandie Peggie employment tribunal delivered its judgment – and it wasn’t just the made-up quotes and mangled law.

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Call it institutional bias, ideological capture, or just the law doing its job, but what Employment Judge Sandy Kemp’s tribunal delivered was the most one-sided outcome since Butch and Sundance decided to come out shooting. Read the rest of this entry →

Contempt Of Government 53

Posted on December 19, 2025 by

This is actually pretty serious.

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Because, y’know, you can call us old-fashioned purists or sticklers or whatever if you like, but government ministers probably shouldn’t openly lie in prepared statements to the High Court in order to pervert the course of justice.

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    • Cynicus on The Secondhand Amendment: “Vivian O’Blivion, 19 January, 2026 at 9:09 am “In the seventies, and eighties, the composition of Westminster could be lazily…Jan 19, 10:46
    • 100%Yes on The Secondhand Amendment: “Nigel Farage will ‘try to scrap Holyrood’ as PM, says John Swinney, sign me up. The SNP has used Holyrood…Jan 19, 10:38
    • Alf Baird on Learning Insanity: ““there would be no Union” More astute observers now realise that the so-called UK ‘Union’ is of course a charade,…Jan 19, 10:30
    • Patsy Millar on The Secondhand Amendment: “Absolutely!Jan 19, 10:14
    • 100%Yes on The Secondhand Amendment: “Long tails and short skirts will sooner or later will have to end in favor of biological women and men.…Jan 19, 10:05
    • James Cheyne on The Secondhand Amendment: “Lorna, I have replied to you’re comment you made yesterday on Stu’s previous post, so not to interrupt this one…Jan 19, 09:58
    • James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “Lorna, The need to research the accumulated information under one roof would not go amiss, which is something that not…Jan 19, 09:54
    • James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “Lorna. It did not simply expand Great Britain parliament. It dissolved the parliament of Great Britain in 1800, You will…Jan 19, 09:43
    • Sven on The Secondhand Amendment: “One can only applaud Mr Kennedy, and, of course, our esteemed host.Jan 19, 09:15
    • Rogueslr on The Secondhand Amendment: “When West Midlands Police ‘made up’ evidence to ban fans, and referenced events that never occured, the result was the…Jan 19, 09:14
    • John on Learning Insanity: “FYI, The ‘Metagender’ status is specifically fluidity within identity. The technical term is ‘Schrodinger’s Twat’.Jan 19, 09:13
    • Vivian O’Blivion on The Secondhand Amendment: “The balance between independence, and oversight of the judiciary is the perennial problem. In the seventies, and eighties, the composition…Jan 19, 09:09
    • Effijy on The Secondhand Amendment: “Absolutely unacceptable whitewash and a very large nail in the coffin of justice. Why don’t they just tear up the…Jan 19, 08:31
    • WeeChid on Learning Insanity: “I’m so glad I’m retired ’cause if I was still in the workplace and had to go on one of…Jan 19, 08:26
    • Adam Hibbert on The Secondhand Amendment: “As I understand it, “Judicial colleague” is a standard phrase only used to refer to fellow judges. So the error…Jan 19, 08:10
    • Willie on The Secondhand Amendment: “If it was AI as you suggest Iain then this would mark Judge Kemp as a liar since Sandra Muir…Jan 19, 04:09
    • Tim on The Secondhand Amendment: “Are the judges and lawyers (reputed to have been) involved in “Fettesgate” in the early 90s still in place? That…Jan 19, 03:50
    • Northern Lad on The Secondhand Amendment: “*complaint not compliant!Jan 19, 03:28
    • Iain mhor on The Secondhand Amendment: “Everybody and their dug knows it was AI. Every Civil Service letter I get is patently AI generated. Nobody in…Jan 19, 03:18
    • Willie on The Secondhand Amendment: “Surely not another cover up? Surely yes I’m afraid Northern Lad. Duvet government, duvet law, might be euphemisms to describe…Jan 19, 03:18
    • Campbell Clansman on The Secondhand Amendment: “The Muir reply was pure Sir Humphrey Appleby.Jan 19, 01:55
    • Northern Lad on The Secondhand Amendment: “A long time reader and admirer of the site but rarely a commentator. What I would say is that the…Jan 19, 01:21
    • Willie on The Secondhand Amendment: “A most excellent informative article Rev Stu. And a thanks too to solicitor Ewen G Kennedy for his excellent complaint…Jan 19, 01:20
    • Cynicus on The Secondhand Amendment: ““Whether it was Judge Kemp or our mysterious John or Jane Doe who made them up, they were still made…Jan 19, 00:44
    • Young Lochinvar on Learning Insanity: “H McH Another your “bad” to add to your count. Wrong again. FACT!Jan 18, 22:13
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Learning Insanity: “For an overtly Christian articulation of the case for Scottish independence I would direct attention to the seminal 2009 book…Jan 18, 20:19
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Learning Insanity: “Professor ALF BAIRD’s commendable letter to the MODERATOR of the Church of Scotland is on BarrheadBoy’s site here: SCOTLAND’S COLONIAL…Jan 18, 19:34
    • Alf Baird on Learning Insanity: ““Indy should be such an easy sell, a unifying idea, that we really shouldn’t be bringing religion into it. Not…Jan 18, 19:23
    • BigJay on Learning Insanity: “…and I’ve found the letter in reply from the Moderator to the Professor: “Dear Alfie, TL;DR. Lots of love, Rosie.”Jan 18, 18:45
    • DaveL on Learning Insanity: “I can’t remember this particular halfwits name but I do recall that he was known for constantly ‘flouncing’ off twitter.…Jan 18, 18:42
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