Iain Macwhirter @iainmacwhirter Twitter profile

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

1 year

Tired of Twitter. Fed up with Facebook. Try my Substack columns. No proprietors, no surveillance, no bull.

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Last Seen Profiles

@welcometoaldeas

@gopherhockeysi

@feelingshy0

@8buio

@portalbaldwin

@Samiraibien94

@rainbowvzlastor

@CaliforniaOld

@KirstenHeaton25

@CeriTho12379911

@thdizmir

@Belu_belhh

@OhioSt_Rivals

@Jenny5740733051

@agate3live

@AndrewVanGinkel

@CPGuarena

@QSection2023

@BushnellGolf

@Ck2Sports

@janawinter

@CinemaTRE

@GabeAlves81

@Ururi_Rapis

@_vihkie_

@mbk28

@bongbongchae3

@melimeen

@metaplaces_io

@777Realofficial

@TrumpChumpGrl64

@Oswaldo37401667

@neuletoile

@yuka_chan_dayo_

@Robertf55815666

@xrp_cc

Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

3 years

Twitter is disgusting today. A stomach-churning display of insensitivity and mindless nastiness over Prince Phillip. These people disgrace the left.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

4 years

Lisa Nandy on @afneil "We should look outwards to other countries where they've had to deal with divisive nationalism...in places like like Catalonia". So broken heads, riot police and locking up elected politicians. Someone tell me I misheard, please.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

8 years

Scotland in 2014 voted to remain in the UK in order to remain in the EU. Now Scotland is taken out of the EU by the UK. Trouble ahead.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

Astonishing this happening in the European Union. Political prisoners - incarcerated for holding a referendum.

Òmnium Civil Rights Europe

@OmniumIntl

5 years

⚖ The Spanish Constitutional Court has decided that the two peaceful Catalan activists, @jcuixart and @jordialapreso , have to remain in prison. International #HumanRights ' organisations call their detention "arbitrary" and "excessive". #DemocracyOnTrial #Catalonia

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

This whole anti-semitism issue is toxic. I am now turning off notifications because of the relentless abuse I have been receiving - see my time line - merely for saying Labour is not an antisemitic party and that Corbyn doesn't hate jews. This must stop.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

6 years

Clara Ponsati hands herself into the police in Edinburgh tomorrow. She faces 30 years in jail for the crime of staging a referendum. This is ruthless political persecution under our very noses - yet the public outcry has been strangely muted. My @heraldscotland column tomorrow.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

Labour is not an anti-Semitic party and Jeremy Corbyn does not hate Jews. I hold no brief for Labour,but I think it is time that everyone called this out for what it is: a smear campaign.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

7 years

Spain jails democratically elected ministers - in 2017. Authoritarian leaders across the world raise a toast to EU hypocrisy.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

“Cis” is both a term of abuse and a form of linguistic apartheid. It robs women of their unique sexual identity. Intimidates them into accepting the absurd proposition that any man can become a biological female just by announcing it. “Cis” is the most extreme form of misogyny

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

6 years

You can say what you like about the Scottish Government’s determination to defend the the principle of consent. But you can’t say it’s about pushing a nationalist agenda. This is about defending Donald Dewar’s 1998 Scotland Act.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

3 months

Is this for real? Shocking if so. As a former rector of Edinburgh University myself I applaud the new chair of the university court who seems genuinely open minded - unlike the many blackballing bigots on campus.

Edinburgh Labour Students

@EdLabStudents

3 months

In light of the recent appointment of Simon Fanshawe as Rector at the University of Edinburgh, the society has written a statement expressing our thoughts.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

Remember that North Sea oil that ran out? As if by magic, it has returned.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

1 year

Not only is Kate Forbes only allowed to have religious beliefs if she renounces them publicly, she also faces disciplinary action for saying a rapist is a man. The SNP leadership is turning into a witch hunt.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

4 years

The idea that Scotland, alone of the small nation of Europe from Norway to Slovakia, should be incapable of running a successful economy is not just offensive, it is economically illiterate. All GERS tells us is that this is not possible within the UK as presently constituted.

Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

4 years

(Repost) Suddenly, Scotland’s debt problem doesn’t seem so scary as the U.K. deficit heads into orbit and debt tops £2 trillion. GERS was always an index of failure; post-Covid it’s a bogus bogeyman.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

Breathtaking hypocrisy from Swinson. When Scotland was engaged in that much-celebrated exercise in participative democracy, where were the LibDems? In government with the Tories, supporting austerity and breaking promises on tuition fees. Harsh? Hostile?

Source

@SourceScot

5 years

‘We saw it in Scotland first’: Swinson says indyref heralded ‘harsh, hostile’ politics in Lib Dem leader victory speech - #JoSwinson wins Lib Dem leadership comfortably - “Twitter trolls, fake news, demonising journalists - we saw it in Scotland first”

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

6 years

People who've been vociferously demanding that Alex Salmond resign are now furious that he has. Also much faux indignation over his crowd-funding his legal action, saying it is bank-rolling sexual harassment. It's as if he has no right to defend himself. Depressing.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

3 years

"Sacked". One of the leading Scottish nationalists of her generation, gifted lawyer who took on Boris Johnson over Brexit, ardent feminist and lesbian, regarded by many as a future leader of the party. Astonishing.

Joanna Cherry KC

@joannaccherry

3 years

Despite hard work, results & a strong reputation I’ve been sacked today from @theSNP front bench. My constituents & fellow party members who gave me a resounding mandate in recent NEC elections should rest assured that I will continue to work hard for them.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

1 year

SNP ministers are refusing to work under Kate Forbes because of her religious beliefs. Imagine if they’d said that about a Muslim politician? Yet both branches of the Abrahamic faith are equally “socially conservative” on gender. Free to read:

Get Back: it’s ok to be Muslim but not Christian in the SNP

Both branches of the Abrahamic faith are “socially conservative” on gender

iainmacwhirter.substack.com

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

Said Mundell argues that the SNP tabled their motion to rule out no deal “because the SNP want no deal chaos”. Is the man quite mad?

Representing Border

@ITVBorderRB

5 years

WATCH: Scottish Secretary @DavidMundellDCT explains why he didn't back an amendment from @thesnp tonight which would have completely ruled out a no-deal #Brexit .

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

21 days

Maggie Chapman wanted kids as young as young as 8 to be allowed to change legal sex. Also attacked school biology books for claiming sex is binary. This is what “progressive” nationalism became in the social media dark ages. Parents will not forget or forgive.

Maggie Chapman MSP

@MaggieChapman

22 days

A short, initial response to the Cass Report. Trans Healthcare is vital to protecting and supporting the rights and lives of trans people. @scottishgreens will oppose any moves to increase the age of accessing gender affirming care to 25. 1/n

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

4 years

For someone who is claimed to be such a brilliant debater, Boris Johnson is surprisingly inarticulate. He doesn't seem to know what he wants to say, and has real difficulty finding the words. Gabbles his policy lines. Utterly unconvincing. #bbcqt

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

6 years

The President of Catalonia, Calres Puigdemont, still can't risk returning home - despite election victory - because he could be arrested for sedition. In a democracy?

Spanish PM defends handling of Catalan crisis after election blow

Mariano Rajoy calls for dialogue and cooperation, after deposed Catalan leader offers to meet him but not in Spain

www.theguardian.com

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

3 years

Janey Godley, Rangers and a morality tale for the cancel culture. She has now been dropped by the Scottish Government's covid campaign. (Via Unspun @heraldscotland )

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 months

Scotland should have some of the best public services in Britain with 20% more per head in public spending. Yet the NHS is collapsing and councils are bankrupt. Something has gone terribly wrong and it’s not lack of money.

The Times & The Sunday Times

News and opinion from The Times & The Sunday Times

www.thetimes.co.uk

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

This is a wilful misunderstanding. The women questioning Self-ID are not right wing homophobes. They are feminists, understandably concerned about sex based rights. They will not be silenced by cat calls of “TERF” and “cis”. This debate needs to be open

Mhairi Hunter 🇺🇦 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

@MhairiHunter

5 years

@GraceBrodie @dhothersall @MimiAugello We'd never have repealed Section 28 if we had listened to voices like yours. And Scotland would be a worse place. As it is, we are a much better country for having had that difficult debate and making the right choice.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

6 years

This confirms that there is nothing that Corbyn could conceivably say that would satisfy his pro-Israeli critics. Any concession will be seen as a confirmation of anti-semitic perfidy. Your can’t appease a smear campaign.

Stephen Pollard

@stephenpollard

6 years

So Corbyn’s great move is a piece in the Guardian saying our worries are overheated rhetoric and all would be well if only we could just talk. And not a word of contrition about anything except process. He really is shameless

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

3 years

Nicola Sturgeon’s worst nightmare? Fielding questions from Alex Salmond and George Galloway at FMQs. Panelbase poll suggest it’s possible.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

7 years

How can the Catalan independistas demonstrate that they are in the majority when Spain refuses a referendum? My column.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

3 years

I don't understand how the SNP can vote for No Deal when they've spent four years calling for one. And making increasingly alarming forecasts of what would happen if Britain "crashed out" without a trade deal. They even went to the Supreme Court to prevent a No Deal Brexit.

Kirsty Hughes

@KirstyS_Hughes

3 years

Good call from SNP MPs to vote against Brexit deal

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

1 year

The UK government has no alternative but to block the Gender Reform Act. It runs a coach and horses through UK Equality law. Transparent attempt to introduce Self ID in England by the back door. And undermines devolution settlement.

Can Sunak force trans people to change sex at the border?

The Scottish Gender Reform Recognition Act is headed for the UK Supreme Court

iainmacwhirter.substack.com

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

6 years

Extraordinary that anyone would take Theresa May as a credible authority on what Scottish voters think.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

3 years

Not even the most ardent conspiracy theorist could identify a complainant from the passages censored. What is redacted is a lot of detail about meetings Nicola Sturgeon has had trouble recalling. That looks terrible. via @guidofawkes

Salmond Evidence to be Removed By Holyrood

Holyrood is to to remove, redact, and republish ministerial code submission with "immediate effect" after an intervention by the Crown Office, which as

order-order.com

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

1 year

Actually, the SNP Government has been in charge of NHS Scotland for 15 years - and gets 23% more public spending per head than England. This thread is pure party political propaganda.

Prof. Devi Sridhar

@devisridhar

1 year

Front-line staff point to the fragile state of the NHS after 12 years of underinvestment and neglect by UK government. When I ask ‘Is it really that bad in the NHS?’, the overwhelming response, from usually understated and dry people, is, ‘It’s even worse’.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

Want to know what real fascism looks like? Take a look at Spain’s repression of Catalan nationalists.

Want to know what real fascism looks like? Take a look at Spain’s repression of Catalan nationali...

The SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has landed in Dublin seeking political asylum, along with her deputy, John Swinney, and the party’s constitutional affairs minister, Mike Russell. Their hasty departu…

iainmacwhirter.wordpress.com

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

3 years

Unfortunately, the Scottish Government which Prof Sridhar advises, followed the same group think, made the same mistakes: delaying lockdown, halting community testing, failing to protect elderly. This is no time for 'wha's like us' triumphalism.

Prof. Devi Sridhar

@devisridhar

3 years

I hope people can now see that those of us speaking out at the time were not anti-Tory, or trying to be difficult. We were highlighting serious problems with the early response and wanted to guide the country towards a better path. To help save UK lives and the UK economy.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

“Women” would do nicely.

James Mackenzie

@mrjamesmack

5 years

@iainmacwhirter What term would you prefer for cis? It’s surely just as neutral a term as trans.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

29 days

I understand why people still don’t quite believe that this is the law of the land. So here it is in blue and white…

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

1 month

Read it and weep. I’ve often distanced myself from ⁦ @WingsScotland ⁩ in the past. But whatever you think of his combative style, if he’s right then free speech has died in Scotland. Buried by the progressive authoritarians who’ve colonised the SNP.

Into Darkness

Welcome, readers, to what may be the final week of Wings Over Scotland. We’ve been covering the Scottish Government’s horrific, draconian Hate Crime Act for almost four years now. But u…

wingsoverscotland.com

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

6 years

Does anyone really care about Chris Evans leaving the BBC. Is this really national news?

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

4 years

Labour is proposing to expel anyone who accepts the biological definition of Male and Female. Thousands of furious women members have signed up to #expelme in disgust (or if you prefer #expellme ) This only weeks after Labour’s worst defeat since 1935. Outstanding!

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

3 years

Not so much a smoking gun as a barrage of howitzers. 6 hours of the most astonishing testimony delivered with a fluency and authority rarely heard in the debased culture of modern politics. The last 1 1/2 hours will need to be examined minutely. But she asked for evidence...

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

1 year

Humza Yousaf deepens the split in his party, reveals himself to be a vindictive loser and deprives his cabinet of its most able member. Not bad for his first day in the job. via @spectator

Is Humza Yousaf destined for Liz Truss's fate?

Kate Forbes can now sit back and enjoy the show as Humza Yousaf does his best to emulate Liz Truss. Forbes is now the leader in waiting.

www.spectator.co.uk

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

1 year

"Motorhome, what motorhome?" says exSNP treasurer, Colin Beattie. Later he suddenly remembers. The SNP is now a situation comedy, led by a natural comedian, but not in a good way. via @spectator

Humza 'useless' Yousaf is living up to his nickname

Things are going from bad to worse for the hapless Scottish First Minister

www.spectator.co.uk

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

29 days

The one thing everyone, from India Willoughby to JK Rowling, can agree on now surely is that the Hate Crime (Scotland) Act has been a comprehensive, unmitigated, technicolour disaster.

Conor Matchett

@conor_matchett

29 days

EXCLUSIVE: Humza Yousaf targeted with MORE hate crime complaints than JK Rowling The FM has been targeted for a speech made in 2020, but police said yesterday it wasn't criminal. The Harry Potter author's tweets were also deemed not criminal

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

If voters had known the half of what would follow a No vote back in 2014, Scotland would be independent by now.

Iain Macwhirter: Five years on, a velvet divorce could now be the way ahead

FIVE years ago today, many Scottish hearts were broken by the result of the Scottish independence referendum. Top of the list was Alex Salmond, who…

www.heraldscotland.com

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

May’s stress on immigration is not only morally wrong, it’s just wrong. EU immigration = net 87k. NON-EU = net 235k. Voters have been misled. Leaving EU cannot reduce immigration to “tens of 1000s”. The whole Brexit /migration discourse is BOGUS.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

Hard to argue that this isn’t massively worse than staying in the EU. At least we now have a say in the laws from Brussels. Not under May’s naive WA.

Fraser Nelson

@FraserNelson

5 years

Martin Howe QC has been through the small print of May’s Brexit deal. His verdict: it’s not bad, it’s atrocious. Here’s his list of horrors:

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

6 years

Gone in fifteen minutes. If May was trying to make the case for Scottish independence she could hardly have done a better job. My column:

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

1 year

Anyone who questions the transwoman are women dogma gets vilified. But the Greens attack women like @holyroodmandy especially hard. Blatant misogyny tolerated by SNP/Labour leadership.

Shahrar Ali

@ShahrarAli

1 year

Quite extraordinary revelations being made here about @patrickharvie - who certainly has form on attacking me through press - here @holyroodmandy describing how she was personally targeted by him after she'd solicited thought pieces from party leaders.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

6 years

Good point. It would have dominated the front pages, and every BBC news bulletin, for weeks...months.

The National

@ScotNational

6 years

Letters: Just imagine for a single moment that Scotland’s SNP government had announced plans to stockpile food

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

7 years

A Neil comprehensively out-briefed. If there's a better studio performer than @nicolasturgeon I don't know who it is.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

1 month

Let’s be clear: “non-crime hate incidents” are not only recorded by police they are searchable and can have devastating consequences for rhe careers of people targeted. All the supposed legal experts here denying this need to wake up. This is a scandal.

Sarah Phillimore

@SVPhillimore

1 month

Let me tell the people of Scotland a story about my experience of being recorded for a non crime hate incident. An anonymous account began boasting on Twitter that I had a 'record for life of my hate'. So I made a Data Subject Access Request of my local force, and got 12 pages

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

Worth remembering that the Theresa May had to be forced to concede this meaningful parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal. If she’s had it her way, she would have forced it through on “prerogative” powers.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

3 years

Can we just reflect a moment on how demented this is. How did biology become transphobic?

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

6 years

My successor as Edinburgh Rector, @ann4rector is accused of transphobia merely for retweeting an event discussing the Gender Recognition Act. Regrettably, @EdinburghUni has equivocated. It should defend freedom of speech on campus and disown this smear.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

4 years

Here’s how it works: They say: Transwomen Are Women. You say: “Er, you don’t mean that literally do you; they’re not biologically female...” They: transphobe! bigot! scum! You: lose your job.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

2 years

Someone remind Nicola Sturgeon that NATO is a nuclear alliance.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

7 years

Actually they voted for the SNP by 431 to 276, and therefore, on your terms, fabulous Scotland presumably voted Yes to #Scotref .

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

6 years

There is far too little outcry about the Ponsati case. To listen to some politicians you'd think it was sub judice even to mention it. It's not. It's ruthless political persecution by the Spanish state.

Patrick Joyce

@pforpaddy

6 years

Jeremy Vine just admitted on Radio 2 that the first he'd heard of the Clara Ponsati case was right now on his show. Says it all chums

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

1 year

JK hashtagging male bodied trans sex offenders in Scottish women's prisons. Humza insists that this had nothing to do with GRR Bill. It did. Scottish Prison Service was piloting Self-ID prior to the legislation. Incredible but true.

J.K. Rowling

@jk_rowling

1 year

What a lovely pink heart. Now tell us why you voted down the amendment to stop rapists being housed in women’s jails, @HumzaYousaf . #IslaBryson #KatieDolatowski #ParisGreen

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

3 years

“Team Sturgeon hoped to paint Alex Salmond as a Donald Trump conspiracy theorist. All ego and incoherence with not a shred of evidence. It didn’t work”

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

The tone of this belies the footage. The demonstrators did not "clash" with police. Protesters were subjected to the violent repression we have come to expect from the Spanish police. Watch and learn.

Sky News

@SkyNews

5 years

Watch as independence separatists clash with police in Catalonia. The havoc caused by the protests could be the first indication of how the future looks for the independence movement. Watch more videos like this here 👀

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, can't serve under Boris Johnson. Now Alan Duncan signs off too. Yet our own Scottish Secretary, David Mundell, remains, despite being the only one who actually said he "couldn't serve". Has he no self-respect?

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

24 days

Not only is the new Hate Crime Act massively unpopular, and almost certainly unenforceable, it’s ignited a revolt against all attempts to outlaw free speech. Scots are just not having it.

Hate Crime Act has united Scots against the SNP

Yousaf’s ill-conceived legislation seems to have fomented a generalised revolt against laws that penalise free speech

www.thetimes.co.uk

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

4 years

A group of highly-placed SNP members made allegations of attempted rape and sexual assault - thrown out by a female-led jury - that could have sent an innocent man to jail for the rest of his life. They’re continuing to promote these allegations from behind a cloak of anonymity.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

7 years

SNP's Angus Robertson is the only one who actually sounds like a party leader here. Even though he isn't. #BBCDebate

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@iainmacwhirter

29 days

Police Scotland will now have to disclose EVERYONE who’s been logged as committing a “hate crime incident” (as @murdo_fraser was without his knowledge) And then wipe the slate clean. Can’t have selective enforcement based on political affiliation.

Murdo Fraser

@murdo_fraser

29 days

Reaction to @PoliceScotland advising that they have NOT recorded 'non-crime hate incidents' in relation to comments by @HumzaYousaf & @jk_rowling (1/4)

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

1 year

Just don’t call him “Useless”. But Humza Yousaf’s stuck with the soubriquet. Surrounded by scandal and confusion over finances and motor homes he always seems to be the last to know what’s going on.

Humza Yousaf's incompetence will only help the SNP sink faster

Once an image is established in the public mind it's hard to get rid of it. It has to be said that Humza Yousaf's recent performance has been less than entirely useful.

www.spectator.co.uk

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

Something very odd about this letter bomb attack on Glasgow University. In the day, IRA always excluded Scotland from its "mainland" campaign.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

6 years

I wouldn't trust RT for a nanosecond about Ukraine or Chechnya - but I'm not sure I was right to trust the BBC about the Iraq War or Northern Ireland. UK media was pretty appalling during the 2014 referendum.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

6 years

Labour's claim that Salmond is "abusing his power" by crowdfunding his legal action is bizarre. He doesn't have any power - or hasn't anyone noticed. He's not a minister, MP, MSP, or even a member of a political party. He is precisely nobody.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

7 years

Election campaign suspended. BBC cancelling all its political programmes. Can't they see this exactly what the bombers want?

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

Lest we forget. In ‘79, scotland voted Yes to devolution by 52% to 48%. But the result was rejected by WM as too narrow a margin to justify even modest constutional change. Yet today...

ruth wishart

@ruth_wishart

5 years

Correction: Yes won at 51.6 in '79 and Leave at 51.9 in 2016. The point I was trying to make is that a slender victory in the first was invalidated by transparent chicanery whilst a similar Leave vote was heralded as the sacred will of the people.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

6 years

Genuinely mystified why the press didn't make more of this. It's a great "story" whatever side of the fence you sit. Scottish parliament has the right to withhold consent except on those occasions when it does. Hilarious.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

3 years

The Hate Crime Bill is an open invitation for malicious complaints of abuse/insult/offensiveness even by members of your own household. Police must record these as yet more "hate incidents". The intention is to criminalise free expression and appease the SNP's woke-right.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

Powerful and courageous interview from @joannaccherry MP on law, leadership and suing Pink News. Rapidly emerging as the most formidable politician in Scotland.She doesn't mess about.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

2 years

An apology.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

4 years

Stable. Door. Horse. #TOMORROWSPAPERSTODAY

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

17 days

Yousaf can’t ignore Cass. GRR Bill is toast-Starmer won’t lift the UK veto. Bill to outlaw trans “conversion therapy” is dead on arrival. Puberty blockers have to go plus transing of schoolkids. Ditto public funding of lobby groups. SNP needs to move fast.

Parents will not forgive Yousaf if he fails to ban puberty drugs

The government in England has heeded the warnings of Dr Hilary Cass and taken action, while Scottish politicians have responded with bluster, equivocation — and even silence

www.thetimes.co.uk

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

"Jeremy Corbyn's claim that he would go back to Brussels and negotiate a better Withdrawal Deal is the most cynical political falsehood since Donald Trump promised to make Mexico pay for the border wall" My column on Labour abstentionism:

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

1 month

If the Hate Act *doesn’t change the law* why have Police Scotland spent three years planning for it? And enlisted 500 “hate crime champions”? And launched a Hate Monster campaign telling us to report breaches to 411 clyping centres?

How much damage will this clype’s charter cause before it’s binned?

Just because the Hate Crime Act is vague and contradictory, that doesn’t make it ineffectual. In fact, its very vagueness is what makes it so insidious

www.thetimes.co.uk

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

6 years

Rajoy surely in an impossible position now. The Independistas he hounded for “sedition” have just won the Catalan election. There will have to be a referendum. Shame on the EU for tacitly supporting repression.

TIME

@TIME

6 years

'The Spanish state has been defeated.' Pro-independence parties sweep Catalan election

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

7 years

Impressive defence of immigration, public investment, and tuition fees from @nicolasturgeon Can see now why Theresa May bottled it.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

Hold no brief for @derbychrisw but can anyone explain what he’s said that is actually anti-Semitic? Saying AS is exaggerated in Labour? No. Showing a film about a Jewish Labour activist? No. Debating the state is AS in a party is not an expression of racial hatred.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

Has @joannaccherry just made herself the next SNP leader in waiting? Discuss.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

6 years

Genuine question: Is appearing on RT any different from appearing on Aljazeera or Fox? Or Dacre's Daily Mail? Or appearing in the Murdoch papers, Sun/Times? i don't appear on RT, but I'm not entirely sure why.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

Reforming the Gender Recognition Act must not abolish the biological meaning of sex.

MOST people reading this column will surely agree that people who wish to change their gender should have the freedom to do so. We’ve come a long way since the days when people with non-heterosexua…

iainmacwhirter.wordpress.com

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

1 year

Alex Neil was the minister responsible at the time. How can Yousaf remain a candidate? Incredible.

Alex Neil

@AlexNeilSNP

1 year

This is not true. Humza deliberately skipped the vote

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

4 years

There is of course a border between Scotland and England. What Boris Johnson presumably means is that there is free movement across it. There may not be for very much longer.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

7 years

Keep hearing that #ScotRef mandate requires an SNP "overall majority" in Holyrood. When did a UK government last have over 50% of vote?

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

10 years

Westminster is now so obsessed with answering the English Question, they've forgotten they haven't answered the Scottish one yet.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

To understand just how serious is Madrid’s repression of Catalan independence campaigners, just imagine the U.K. prosecuting the SNP for “violent rebellion” after indyref2. My column:

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

3 years

If Hancock’s to blame over testing and decanting old people, where does that leave Nicola Sturgeon? She halted community testing in March 2020. Freeman admits they “didn’t take the right precautions to protect care homes”. Or was it public health/NHS to blame?

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

The GERS data inscrutable as always. Scotland surely doesn’t generate 60% of the UK’s net fiscal deficit with 8% of population. As Richard Murphy points out, it’s ludicrous.

Andrew Neil

@afneil

5 years

Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) statistics published today show that Scottish fiscal deficit fell from £13.8bn to £12.6bn last year, still around 7% of GDP and among highest in EU. The UK’s deficit was 1.1% of GDP.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

3 years

What's not acceptable, surely, is not naming names or specifying what this transphobia in the SNP actually is. This just launches a witch-hunt against feminists like @joannaccherry . Again.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

1 year

Lunatics in the Scottish National Party want to suspend the finance secretary Kate Forbes because she misgendered a double rapist. A rapist - who can only be a man. Who are these people?

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

1 year

My Times column: Self-ID is not being introduced in England. You can’t have people changing sex at the Border. So Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Act is headed to the Supreme Court.

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

3 years

10 years of Tory austerity blah blah…but what about 14 years of SNP government? Why has it made so little difference despite 30% more spending per head here?

Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

3 years

After 22 years of devolution a million Scots live in poverty, attainment gap’s as wide as ever, growth not improved since 2000. Oh, and Glaswegians still live 10 years less than Rutlandites, according to Boris Johnson. Is there a message here?

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

10 months

Unless you want a referendum tomorrow, please don’t vote SNP. Humza’s defacto referendum 2.0 is even dafter than the original.

The Times & The Sunday Times

News and opinion from The Times & The Sunday Times

www.thetimes.co.uk

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Iain Macwhirter

@iainmacwhirter

5 years

What’s really unhelpful is people saying this all started with the 2014 Independence referendum. True, there were bad words on social media. But the Holyrood never descended to anything like this week’s bear pit

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