Jots regairdin Independence

Scotland has the worst drug problem in Europe and Glasgow the worst in Scotland. Glasgow Council, with the support of the Scottish Government, would like to create consumption rooms where addicts can get their drugs and take them safely, thereby avoiding the risk of death via dirty needle or overdose in the street, but drug policy is one of the areas that the UK Government still reserves for itself. Consequently, the people of Glasgow can't have safe consumption rooms and will still be coming across homeless heroin and crack addicts lying in the cold streets surrounded by their paraphernalia, with no sensible mitigation or solution anywhere on the horizon.

UK minister Kit Malthouse told the BBC that consumption rooms are "a distraction" and that a "more assertive" approach was required although he didn't go into detail about what that might mean.


One thing we can take from this matter is that Scotland is being prevented from taking the action that it would like, on a matter that affects Scotland much more than England and Wales, because the government that Scots did not elect holds sway over the one that we did. Only when we have the power to decide our own drugs policy will we be able to take practical steps to reduce the worst death rate from drugs in Europe.

The SNP is not the same thing as the Independence Movement, and the Independence Movement does not consist solely of the SNP. However, the Party is obviously the one that indy supporters trust to deliver what we desire, and to that end we need it to be a united party that doesn't throw away its current popularity with a pointless and potentially catastrophic internal struggle to unseat the First Minister. But it seems that that's exactly what we are looking at.

Alex Salmond was not "cleared" of all the charges against him. The "Not Proven" verdict on the charge of attempted rape meant that the jury's message was We think you're probably guilty but the prosecution has not proved its case beyond all reasonable doubt. I'd hazard a guess that if the complainant took civil action where the burden of proof simply means the balance of probabilities, the result would be different, as was the case with footballers David Goodwillie and David Robertson who were ordered to pay £100,000 to their victim after being found by a civil court to have raped her.

The recording of Gordon Jackson QC gossiping on a train revealed that he himself cynically devised the tactic, previously demonstrated in the OJ Simpson trial, of turning the tables on the accusers and making them account for their stories. The word smell appears in the recording, and was also used by Jackson in his closing speech for the defence. He himself told the jury that Alex Salmond should have been a better man, so how the Wee Ginger Dug in today's National can write as if he left court without a stain on his character is beyond me. There does seem to be a conspiracy going on here but not by the accusers (supported by the #MeToo movement and Rape Crisis) but by Alex Salmond's friends and supporters, most notable of whom is the transphobic Joanna Cherry, herself a QC who, I'm 100% sure, would never normally support a defendant against his accusers in such circumstances.

Nicola Sturgeon has been receiving praise not only here but among English people for her calm but firm advice on COVID-19. She is admired and popular in the country. Alex is not admired by anyone other than the buffoons whose frequently racist opinions appear in the National's comments section. This is a paper that was the proverbial breath of fresh air when it first appeared but has simply turned into a pro-independence version of the Daily Express complete with the obligatory "Fury as..." headlines and faux outrage whenever an opponent makes a slip of the tongue. I don't buy it because it's largely rubbish, and if it's going to support the anti-Sturgeon movement within the SNP I hope that most of its other potential readers boycott it as well. We can't have the movement for independence hi-jacked by apologists for a creepy sexist who has, in any case, said many times that he is now retired from politics. There's a momentum in the right direction that the Labour, Tory and Lib Dem parties have failed to slow down; if our side now reverses that momentum itself by dint of a campaign to oust Nicola they will never be forgiven. In fact, it will be the names of the traitors that enter the history books as the people who stopped Scotland from gaining independence in 2021.