Predictable stuff from Home Sec on Laura Kuensberg show just now - clamp down further on pro-Palestine protests. Very little, if any, recognition that Israel's atrocities in Gaza ara at the root of the deplorable and horrible rise in anti-semitism.

This is the road to perdition.

Some fine oyster mushrooms on a poplar log.

I've been (belatedly) looking at reg 15 of the School Premises (Scotland) Regs 1967. Strange. Half of the toilets are to be for boys. Nothing about the other half. So could gender neutral toilets be taken out of that half? Surely not - too discriminatory against girls. What a mess! Updating needed.

Kemi Badenoch saying “the last time I checked, Northern Ireland did vote to leave” is so on-brand it hurts. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Has she any idea of how this otp declaration of undying friendship for a country ruled by a genocidal regime goes down in the country at large? "https://www.thenational.scot/news/25510910.rachel-reeves-says-will-always-friend-israel/

Pheasant In north Edinburgh garden . First time I’ve seen this in over 50 years,

A new chair of the EHRC takes up office in 9 weeks. Other new appointments are expected. If the guidance submitted to the Minister is as harsh, unworkable and legally dubious as many fear, it would be reasonable for her to remit it to the newly constituted EHRC for reconsideration.

What has Yvette Cooper’s proscription of Palestine Action done to this country? Beyond absurd. It’s extreme authoritarianism. These police should be arresting rapists & crooks, not neglecting those duties to spend time arresting citizens standing against genocide. It undermines police and the law.

Some people argue that 'the British Isles' isn't political and we shouldn't be bothered by it, which is why they're invariably so open to my suggestion that we should switch to 'the Irish Isles' for the next few hundred years while we work out a solution.

And an encouraging headline in the National. "Scotland would vote for independence in new referendum, poll finds". Plus, the sun is shining and I've got a good DIY project on the go.

A rare sighting - 3 encouraging headlines (The Guardian). "Keir Starmer to launch progressive fightback against ‘decline and division’ fuelled by far right." "France recognises Palestine and calls for UN force in Gaza." "Reeves urged to take 2p off employee NI and add it to income tax in budget."

A Minister in the Scottish government resigns because he lost patience with a political opponent’s obstructive obsession with seagulls and behaved too aggressively. No fraud, no sex. There will be more sympathy for the resigner than the complainer.

From the UN. 18 September 2025 Peace and Security The United States once again vetoed a UN resolution demanding an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, following a vote in the Security Council on Thursday.

As it is ever more clear that the right’s invocation of freedom of speech isn’t remotely content-neutral, the government adopts a position which is content-neutral to the point of vacuity: isn’t it great that there was so much freedom of speech yesterday? Never mind the message, taste the liberty!

Our media and politicians are so fucking stupid that the extreme right bigots who want to deport all the brown people and stone all the queers just have to call themselves Unite The Kingdom and everyone's like "ah yes, they just want Britain to be less politically polarised"

The only thing which stopped me from regarding the far-right demonstration in London and the last night of the proms in London as two distasteful demonstrations of British (or English?) nationalism was the number of EU flags on display at the latter.

The Government proscribed Palestine Action as terrorists by claiming that secret intelligence justified doing so Newly leaked intelligence report reveals that most of their activity: - Couldn't be described as terrorism - Isn't violent but focused on property damage -Most of that damage is "minor"

Scotland is continuing to talk with the EU 🇬🇧 Significant political and public will would be required to reverse or modify the current settlement. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland’s European aspirations continue to be a matter of active political interest and a pathway back into the EU could be negotiated.

It's pretty clear now. If Scotland wants to be back in the EU, the only route is for us to join after we've regained independence. Which, by my reckoning, would take no more than seven years (including our own referendum). Here's how: open.substack.com/pub/yesinpic...

The real worries for the Labour party today are (1) that its support for Israel has been misguided and (2) that its economic growth strategy is not working and probably can't work in a durably beneficial way. The rest - flags, patriots, Rayner, Mandelson, far right rhetoric - is embarrassing froth.

Many people in the UK had no idea who Charlie Kirk was before yesterday. Now, the BBC is running a whole programme on him. Strange that they see his murder as more significant than Israel’s assassination of the Prime Minister of Yemen. #bbcbias

Peter Mandelson's stop start career has always raised the question whether his abilities are so useful that his sleaziness can be ignored. This fawning over Epstein is difficult to ignore. It is revolting. www.thenational.scot/news/2545382...

Keir Starmer tells his new government they are “a government of patriots”. How are they supposed to react? “Wow. We didn’t know that.” Flags last week. This now. He’s losing it.

What's his position on Scotland, I wonder. Does he believe the Union is voluntary, and if he does, what does he think the process is for Scotland leaving?

Looked at from Scotland, Keir Starmer's reshuffle looks typically inept. A surprising sacking of the loyal Ian Murray, for no obvious reason. Then a J turn and a junior ministerial appointment as a consolation prize. A new Scottish Secretary with little appeal and a lot of baggage.

The new EHRC guidance submitted to the Minister doesn't sound good but it's probably wise to suspend comment until the actual wording is published. It seems wrong though for this statutory body to give advance information to one newspaper. Why not a general press conference, with questions?

And how about good English flags and bad English flags? Can you buy English flags with EU stars on them or has the movement for an independent England within the EU not got going yet?

Far right anti-migrant protesters have started flying the Scottish saltire in parts of Scotland, to the fury of independence supporters who do not share their views. Maybe we need good saltires and bad saltires. Ones with the stars of the EU on them would count in my book as good saltires.

Calling for US politicians to intervene in UK domestic affairs does not look good for Nigel Farage. And it could get worse. The ones he so admires could seem even less admirable by the time of the next UK general election.

Politico: "The Sun has seen evidence to [a US] committee submitted by Nigel Farage in which he suggests the White House should use “diplomacy and trade” in the free speech battle, which sounds like calling for Britain to be bullied into a law change." Is Farage calling for sanctions AGAINST the UK?

The pro-EU parties (LibDems + Greens + SNP) have 28% now. That's much more than Blue Labour and only 1% behind RefUK. 🇬🇧🇪🇺

Headline in the Herald. "For Women Scotland challenges Edinburgh school toilets plan". Apparently they object to gender neutral toilets. This is disturbing. Safe and civilised gender neutral toilets are the way of the future. Unnecessary segregation is the way of the Taliban.

Keir Starmer’s 'legitimising' of far-right protests outside of hotels housing asylum seekers has been described as 'shameful and beyond reckless'

Keir Starmer on flags - "I always sit in front of the Union Jack. I’ve been doing it for years, and it attracted a lot of comment when I started doing it.” Poor Keir. This sounds positively Trumpian.

This is shameful. www.thenational.scot/news/2540828...

Flags fly in Wythall. One thing seems clear: they are English flags, not the flags of a British or Ukish union. From the point of view of a supporter of Scottish independence, that is just fine. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Crown Office cancels court dates for Scottish activists on terror charges 👇 www.thenational.scot/news/2539930... 👇

Saw "Dreams of Peace and Freedom" at the Edinburgh Fringe yesterday. It celebrates in song, narration and photography the contribution of David Maxwell Fyfe to the Nuremberg trials and the creation of the European Convention on Human Rights. Beautifully done. Highly relevant to present times.

Support for Scottish independence should not be equated with nationalism. Many supporters are not nationalists, hate nationalism and regard the more lurid forms of British nationalism as an extra reason for wanting to leave the British union. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Supplying Israel with targeting information, even if supposedly for the location of hostages, was always taking the risk of complicity in horrific war crimes. www.thenational.scot/news/2538514...

If Labour wants to stop decent, caring citizens, who are the very opposite of terrorists, from expressing support for Palestine Action it needs to provide them with evidence that it is really a terrorist group rather than a protest group. So far it has not done so.

So, Labour policies have resulted in more (inappropriate) arrests of peaceful protestors than even the toxic Tories managed. And if/when Palestine Action successfully overturns the "terrorist group" ruling, extremely embarrassing & damaging for the government.

Headline in The Times - "Ban trans women from single-sex spaces, equality watchdog to say". We'll see. If there are no big changes after the consultation, the Minister should at least delay approval to allow time for a massive repurposing of separate facilities into gender neutral ones.

#FreePalestine 🇵🇸 NOW.

Some good points in this piece eg “The arguments they’re putting forward – that the population isn’t permanent, the borders aren’t recognised – are a direct result of Israel’s genocide ..." www.thenational.scot/news/2535700...

And the Speaker owes them one.

The SNP and Scottish Greens have warned that recognition of Palestine must be 'irreversible' and free of political caveats

Pleased to read that George Monbiot was not arrested for carrying, to the knowledge of the police in Devon and Cornwall, a placard saying “Palestine Action are protestors, not terrorists”. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Benjamin Netanyahu condemns Keir Starmer. Not before time. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...