Somehow managed to end up down the tuition fees rabbit hole again today. It's become an article of faith, but it's nothing more than nationalist sleight of hand letting politicians hide from the real issues facing Scottish higher education. Let's recap what actually happened: 🧵 1. 1962: The Education Act abolished tuition fees for UK resident students on full-time courses across the UK, and introduced a system of means-tested maintenance grants.

An utterly extraordinary extract from an email from Circularity Scotland to the SNIB is revealed in @thetimes today, suggesting explicit collusion between the Scottish Government and the shut down DRS scheme administrators to avoid Freedom Of Information requests. Looks illegal. Circularity Scotland writes: "We have seen a number of attempts from political opposition parties to try and build their knowledge of CSL and DRS operations using the right of FoI. For this reason our discussions with Scottish government are currently predominantly verbal >

The saddest thing about this ever-mounting moral panic around LGBT kids is that we're seeing decades of careful policy burned on the altar of "common sense". "Of course parents should be informed if a child comes out at school" say people who simply haven't thought it through. And the reason they haven't thought it through is that they don't really care. It's all edge cases, a tiny minority, and if they have to suffer they have to suffer, c'est la vie. They pretend to care so deeply about child safeguarding, but glibly ignore its first principles.

One of the features of a moral panic is that it amplifies incidents that feed it, and leaves the public with a false impression of the prevalence of behaviours among certain populations. It behoves all of us to try to avoid drawing simplistic conclusions from such reporting. The tragedy is that the very nature of a moral panic means it almost always serves to obscure a bigger, much more difficult to solve problem. While we're focused on the tiny group deemed a threat to society, the much bigger threats continue to play out but are shielded from view.

On #HolocaustMemorialDay we reflect on the darkest time of European history, remembering the murdered six million Jews and all those persecuted by the Nazis, including Roma and Sinti people, disabled people, lesbians and gay men, trans people and political opponents to the Nazis. We remember that when Adolf Hitler was named chancellor in 1933 he enacted policies to rid Germany of "Lebensunwertes Leben", "lives unworthy of living". What began as a sterilisation programme ultimately led to the extermination of millions, and the persecution of millions more.

This will be giggled at by some - it's Rod Stewart for pity's sake - but I think there are a lot of traditional, decent Conservatives who, like him, look at this reactionary, economically illiterate and morally bereft government and see something they just can't support any more.

https://twitter.com/LizWebsterLD/status/1618696058162515969

I mean, if you're a One Nation Tory you're looking at a party which has systematically undermined the NHS and the welfare state, has failed to deal with a housing crisis, and shows no sign whatsoever of even worrying about these issues, never mind having a plan to fix them.

Media and public outrage about child sexual abuse focuses hugely on cases of stranger danger, and has very little to say about the vast majority of offences that are committed by those responsible for caring for children, often members of their family. Media and public outrage about rape and sexual assault of women focuses hugely on cases of stranger danger, and has very little to say about the vast majority of offences that are committed by partners, ex-partners, family members and friends.

The more I read responses to yesterday's #indyref2 ruling the clearer it seems that the problem for pro-independence Scots isn't the Scotland Act, or the Supreme Court, or whatever version of "democracy denied" they are currently peddling. It's that they haven't won the argument. And much as many will blame stubborn opinion on a biased media or the dead hand of the UK Government, if they actually listened to their fellow Scots who remain unconvinced they might appreciate that we simply think it's a bad idea. We're not anti democracy. We're anti bad ideas.

Two arguments the Supreme Court has killed stone dead today:

1. That Scotland is a colony with the right to self-determination.

2. That a Scottish election can deliver a mandate for an independence referendum.

Both of these commonly deployed lines are now dead. This prompts the very reasonable question: what is the democratic route for Scots to hold a second referendum on independence? It's a question that needs an answer, but a workable one will only come through a process of consensus-building, not ultimatum-waving. My thoughts:

As we await the #SupremeCourt ruling on @ScotParl powers today, it's worth remembering that a #mandate is a function of both votes and powers. The powers of the Scottish Parliament are defined in statute and the clear intent of the law is to reserve powers over the #constitution. @ScotParl Basic logic tells us that nobody who intentionally used their vote in 2021 to call for #indyref2 could have been under the impression that @ScotParl was a sovereign body, because the whole point of holding a second referendum is to have another chance of voting to make it one.

Scottish Water is sitting on £500m of reserves, and that figure is growing. Its executives are taking home £100k bonuses. But the Water Industry Commissioner for Scotland is requiring an increase in water charges of 13% this year. We have public ownership, but no public benefits. As @jackiebmsp says, surely rather than hiking prices unnecessarily during a cost of living crisis, our publicly owned water company should freeze prices and consider a rebate to consumers. Otherwise what is the point of the public ownership of which we are so vocally proud?

Paul Kavanagh in The National mounts a stinging attack on BBC Scotland for accurately reporting a leaked minute of a meeting of Scottish NHS executives. Like Humza Yousaf, he pretends the article made claims it didn't, then debunks those claims. The BBC did nothing wrong here. It was entirely in the public interest to know that these discussions are taking place. The article placed them in context and made very clear that they were discussions not decisions. Kavanagh aims to undermine honest journalism so that his variety can gain more traction. Grim.

It's remarkable how "there won't be a hard border, Scotland can just be part of the CTA" coexists with "we need independence to put in place a more liberal immigration policy". You can't have both, but independence campaigners keep pretending that you can. I'm not just trying to score points here. This sort of thing is typical of a campaign which pretends independence is the solution to problems which in reality have to either be solved across these islands or not at all. There is no flag-waving shortcut to winning the argument.

The Parliamentary Conservative Party is going to struggle to unite under Rishi Sunak, but ordinary members are surely going to be in open revolt. This is literally the man they overwhelmingly rejected a few weeks ago. Hugely damaging however you look at it. And it's not just the stark reality of a party riven by ideological idiocy. It's that party in government at a time of profound economic crisis, a substantial element of which is their fault, which is destroying businesses and leaving families choosing between heating and eating.

I just read a thread of older people saying when they were at school nobody transitioned gender, and nobody was diagnosed as autistic. Both have of course become much more prevalent today. What was fascinating was that not one of them mentioned that nobody came out as gay either. It seems, at this point, to be largely socially unacceptable in a public forum to suggest the increase in gay visibility is due to social contagion (though it was a widespread view 20 years ago). But it's seemingly still acceptable to suggest that about autism or trans identity.

This latest attack on Stonewall seems to be a reworking of the old line that teaching children cis-het norms is safe and good, but teaching children that non-cis-het people also exist is dangerous and sinister. And lots of the people parroting this crap used to understand this. The bottom line here is that LGBT+ people exist, and the minute you decide you're happy talking to kids about mixed sex couples and cis people but you're not happy talking to them about same sex couples and trans people, you are showing us exactly who you are.

"Our nationalism is better than other nationalisms" - every nationalist ever.

https://twitter.com/SunScotNational/status/1525787322884579330

I oppose all nationalism. English nationalism, British nationalism, Scottish nationalism, all have critical threads in common which make them dangerous. They rely on blaming an "other" group for bad things. They propose outcomes that won't solve the problems they claim they will.

Here we go! #Eurovision That was rather beautiful. #GivePeaceAChance #Eurovision

I've just been informed by @BBCScotlandNews that Nicola Sturgeon has "led" the condemnation of Alex Salmond's show on RT. That is an utterly preposterous claim. He's been criticised since the show started by almost everyone *but* Nicola Sturgeon. Playing catch-up is not leading! @BBCScotlandNews Before the next NS fan pops up with the same 2017 line, "I am sure Alex’s show will make interesting viewing – however, his choice of channel would not have been my choice. Of course, Alex is not currently an elected politician and is free to do as he wishes" is not condemnation!

That Sunak article in the Sun is pretty extraordinary. He cites a "colder than usual winter" meaning we've "used up more of our gas stores". But the Tories shut down three quarters of the UK's gas storage in 2017, and so far this winter has been one of the mildest on record. He goes on to say it would not be credible to respond to this "significant shock" with borrowing, despite almost his entire tenure as Chancellor thus far being defined by a response to a significant shock paid for by borrowing. I realise this is a leadership pitch but honestly.

"Progressive alliance" folk: yes, the UK needs fundamental democratic reform. But what the SNP wants is independence. Scots voters know that, and the majority of them don't want it. Give them a choice between an SNP-inclusive alliance and the Tories, they'll vote for the Tories. In other words a "progressive alliance" that includes the SNP would, in Scotland, drive votes towards the Tories not away from them, and reinforce the Ulsterisation which has already taken hold here. It would be fundamentally self-defeating if your aim is to reform UK democracy.