@petewishart.bsky.social: "When parties like Reform UK rail against the ECHR - that tells us everything we need to know about why it is so desperately required." "The ECHR enshrines our freedom of speech, our right to assemble, and to worship. It is everything that the populists despise."

What has happened here is totally shocking and appalling. Grok has already conceded that it has been defamatory. I am fortunate that I have the agency to take them on. Imagine what they are doing to those who have no means to seek redress. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2559924...

I've just been called a "rape enabler" by the X AI tool Grok. This is a shocking allegation which has totally taken me aback & beyond anything I've ever encountered in normal political discourse. These AI tools are supposed to be there to serve us honestly with facts. Disturbing.

The fact that Reform & the Tories so desperately want to tear us out of the ECHR tells us everything about why we need it. It is there to protect us from tinpot populists like Farage and its protections are everything they despise. Now available to all on my blog. petewishart.com/why-nigel-fa...

We know the European Convention on Human Rights is doing the job it's designed to do when tinpot populists like Farage want to abolish it. It's there to protect us from the likes of him. My column on his campaign to deprive us of human rights protections. www.thenational.scot/politics/255...

There was a debate about 'Scottish Devolution' in Westminster tonight where Scots Labour MPs queued up to 'attack' the Scottish Gov. it was like being savaged by wet highland coos. Rarely heard such a poor debate and such inarticulate rubbish.... Terrible.

It is the SNP that is leading the charge on having Digital ID confined to the digital dustbin of history. We beat them in the 2000s. We will beat them today. Here's why they are such a bad idea. petewishart.com/two-decades-...

Like we did under Tony Blair the SNP will lead the opposition to the data -grabbing, liberty-eroding, multi-billion-pound waste of time Brit-card. Let's confine it to the great digital dustbin of history. My column in the National. www.thenational.scot/politics/255...

Managed to secure the first House of Commons debate on their Brit cards. We will vigorously oppose their data storing, privacy encroaching, multi billion pounds costing, digital white elephant.

Challenging the UK Government about the lack of any UK funding for Perth and Kinross. We are the only local authority in Scotland never to secure any UK programme support. I asked what the UK Government has against the people of Perth? I got gibberish in response.

On Politics Live today talking about our plans to secure another independence referendum. I actually get an answer from a Labour politician on how we could leave this 'voluntary union'. Be set to be disappointed....

Yesterday's statement on Digital ID. Scotland doesn't want their Brit card and we will oppose it energetically.

Expressing solidarity with the victims of the attack on Heaton Park Synagogue. But we don't give the haters and anti semites succour by restricting our right to protest or long established civil liberties.

This is exactly the kind of hate-filled politics that Reform thrives on — spreading lies, sowing distrust, and turning neighbour against neighbour. It is dangerous and reckless, and it has no place in our democracy. Farage has built his career on this brand of fearmongering.

This is better from the Courier. Helping to tackle misinformation and defuse tensions. One of the most common lies peddled by those trying to divide our communities over asylum is this rubbish about criminality. The police in Perthshire confirm - there is absolutely no evidence.

The Courier wrote an awful headline and article about asylum seekers in Perth this week and today they published an editorial about me denying a right to reply. Here's one anyway. This is a fragile situation. Words matter. petewishart.com/why-words-ma...

How long before Labour backdown on this 'Reform is racist' stuff? I give it until the close of play tomorrow. Then it will be back to the familiar territory of accommodating and copying them again.

Awful headline on the front page of the Courier. They are inflaming community tensions by trying to suggest that criminal activity by asylum seekers is being 'withheld'. P&K Council are simply following Home Office protocols and the police tell us no incidents have been reported

I think people listening to Starmer this morning will only hear this grating political white noise. Already he looks like a leader who has nowhere to go and no real idea how to turn things round. Imagine if he actually believed in something.... #bbclaurak

'Yeah, that might work'. Said absolutely no one who understands the relationship between the branch office and the mother ship. They're in this together and Anas will always do what is required.

When politics is in crisis and everything seems too hard to resolve people turn to the populists and the scapegoats. The UK is heading for a bleak destination but in Scotland we can still determine a future of our own. My Perthshire Advertiser column.

The last Labour Government tried to introduce them as part of their weird assault on civil liberties under Blair. We opposed them then. We will oppose them now. Funny what you reach to when your situation becomes desperate...

This is a fantastic poll. They have flung absolutely everything at us but we remain 17 points ahead. www.thenational.scot/news/2549288...

This is an enormous amount of money and Labour don't seem to be taking this seriously at all. A full investigation must surely be instigated. www.thenational.scot/news/2549059... www.thenational.scot/news/2549059...

He's as bad at economics as he is at deporting your friends and neighbours....

There's a real sense that Farage has grossly overreached with that nasty, intimidating press conference. He'll be coming for members of our community, friends, colleagues, people who are settled here, and when it gets personal he will lose. This might be our best chance to halt his progress yet.

The rise of the far right is now a constitutional issue and the fight for Scotland will be between independence inspired social democracy and the far right. It is a political battle we must win. petewishart.com/the-rise-of-...

Hi Scotland. That will be the people who keep our NHS together. The people who staff our hospitality and tourism businesses. The people who stop our economy from tanking. This is what Labour's pandering to Farage does.

We all know where the UK is heading and the rise of Farage and the far right is now a constitutional issue. The fight here in Scotland will be between independence inspired social democracy and the far right. It's a battle we can't lose. www.thenational.scot/politics/254...

One of the most curious independence campaigns around just now is the proposal to have Scotland branded a 'colony'. The idea that we are colonised is a million miles away from the everyday Scottish experience and is counter productive to our indy cause. My blog. petewishart.com/colony-scotl...

Fantastic evening last night with the SNP Tinto Branch on the evening of the 11th anniversary of the independence referendum. Talking about my book and the way forward for our national movement. Great night.

11 years ago today we held our future in our hands. Here's the ultimate inside account of those amazing days leading up to the independence referendum. You can get a copy here luath.co.uk/products/ins...

My letter to the Home Secretary on Musk's incitement at Tommy Robinson's far right rally. He is a malign influence on our politics and she has it within her gift to ban him from entry to the UK. She should use it.

Spot on. I'm also writing to the Home Secretary to use her power to ban Musk from entering the UK under the 'not conducive to the public good' power she has. www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...

There has always been a suspicion that drug deaths in England have not been properly recorded but now we know for sure. In Scotland all are properly counted. Thousands of deaths in England simply written out of the figures. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I've been deeply concerned about some of the misinformation around asylum seekers in Perth. The graphics below address some of the myths that are presented when issues are raised. We must have the debate rooted in facts and basic decency.

The number of children living in poverty in the UK has risen from 3.7 million in 2013/14 to 4.5 million 2023/24. This is why we will bring this vote to Parliament today. www.thenational.scot/news/2546813...

The owner of Xitter now advocating violence whilst demanding Parliament is either dissolved or overthrown. His algorithm and bots crushing any meaningful conversation on much of SM. The far right in ascendence. We could be heading to the worst of times.

The people who peddle this absurd conspiracy theory never tell us 'why'. Why every lever of the state would collude with so many women to bring down Alex. It must have been some massive reason to invest so much energy, resource & risk. But we never credibly hear why... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

At PMQs today as they introduce their callous £5 billion Benefit Cuts Bill. This will impact some 1.3 million people and push 250 000 more people into poverty. This is a Labour Government. Yes, a LABOUR Government.

Elected 24 years ago today. 7 election victories and the longest continuous SNP MP. One of the last of the millennium generation of SNP politicians who delivered an SNP Government and almost won an independence referendum. Still a lot of work to do.

Won the first of my 2 Twitter awards 11 years ago today. Winning something like this on that Trumpian hell hole now would be seen as a badge of shame. Staying on it for now as I can't seem to grow a similar following on here. No idea what I'm doing wrong....

I think the Scottish people are seeing where the UK is heading and they do not like it one bit. Support for independence is only going to get higher. www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...

I raised that appalling, racist advert that Reform have been trailing at the Hamilton by election in the Commons. We may disagree with Anas but he is a proud Scot who seeks to stand up for his country. That video is not the Scotland we know and are proud of.

An excerpt from yesterday's debate on Asylum and Borders. The way the most wretched people in the world are now portrayed and demonised should shame us all and I thank all the agencies and charities who support and advocate for the world's most desperate. We must do better.

By the 2030s Scotland will be in population decline with a smaller working age cohort unable to support an increasingly elderly society. Starmer has just announced an immigration policy that is counter to the Scottish interest. And he just does not care.

Why Reform must be confronted not appeased. Labour and the Tories have only got themselves to blame for their crushing defeats last week. My Perthshire Advertiser column.

Here's a clip from Friday's immigration debate where I explain why our population and demography issues are so pronounced and why under the UK we actually have an immigration system that actively works against everything we need as a nation.

My full speech in the Immigration Bill debate. Our population and workforce crisis is the biggest issue we face as a nation and we have a UK immigration system that works against our national interest. We must have our own solutions to tackle our own problems youtu.be/eP2lB906O2s

Loved this man's music since I first heard Selling England by the Pound in the early 1970s. Fantastic evening at the Music Producers Guild Awards tonight. The Inspiration Award could not be more fitting than for the musical genius that is Peter Gabriel.