Does @HumzaYousaf have a special attraction to Qatar? He's on holiday there just now. But here's a historical curiosity. In 2013 he was a junior SNP minister i/c 'external affairs', though they're a reserved matter, and he was also in Qatar then. 1/8 In May 2013 @HumzaYousaf visited Qatar on Scottish Government business. If anyone's aware that Qatar was a Scot Gov priority at the time, I'd love to see the evidence of why. 2/8

1/10 'The values of this place, they aren't Scotland's values' - @StephenFlynnSNP MP. My thanks to @dj_forrester for bringing his statement to my attention. 2/10 To be fair (you'll see how magnanimous that is shortly) Flynn was standing outside Westminster and pointed at it as he spoke. But as we know, the 'W' word is Scottish nationalism's favourite synonym for Britain or England.

1/14 I was surprised to hear a BBC headline today in the wake of the supreme court decision on the Scottish Parliament's right to enact a Bill for a second Scexit referendum ... 2/14 The headline (Radio 4 earlier this evening) said that there were 'protests across Scotland' against the decision. There are some things you need to know, especially if you were listening from outside Scotland.

1/4 So the mendacious language of separation evolves. #sturgeon

https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1595360080618307584

2/4 The recent nationalist trend has been to describe the union between Scotland and England as 'voluntary'. It was only ever voluntary in the sense that 315 years ago two parliaments volunteered to legislate for a union.

1/10 This article (h/t @graeme_from_IT) sums up nicely a number of points about the SNP and the recent Scottish council elections that have come to prominence in the last week or two. 2/10 The article confirms the posturing about entitlement that the SNP at all levels (local activists to cabinet secretaries) are bringing to a new grievance about council elections.

1/ A recent FOI request established 11 Scot Gov civil servants are working on the SNP's ‘detailed prospectus’ for separation. A referendum on the subject is very unlikely in the present parliament but the news raises issues about the probity of the exercise. 2/ The UK has a unified civil service. Scot Gov civil servants are also UK civil servants. Their loyalty is not to any party or administration.

1/10 M'learned friends discover the true nature of Scottish Government consultation, this time on the subject of legal 'reform' (the image taken from a long thread by @AamerAnwar well worth reading). 2/10 Scottish Government consultations, often on large complex subjects, are reduced to a relatively simple online questionnaire.

1/ Here's a response to a tweet of mine that read 'I can sense why Andy Wightman felt increasingly alienated by your party's intolerance.' And here's a thread on what I think is wrong with it and why it suggests my comment was accurate.

https://twitter.com/EyeEdinburgh/status/1433964447207510016

2/ First, let's get one thing out of the way. I'm not, and I'm pretty darned sure Andy Wightman doesn't see himself as, a 'cisgender man'. I was born male and I'm a man.

Angus Robertson's pro-separation outfit 'Progress Scotland' commissions a poll that purports to show a major shift in Scottish opinion towards Scexit. A spread in the pro-separatist journal The National leads with misleading headlines.

In two little-noticed decisions, the England, Wales and N Ireland 2021 census will go ahead as planned in March but Scotland's is deferred until 2022 because of covid. It is not clear why National Records of Scotland/Scot Gov analysed the risk of a 2021 census differently from the Office for National Statistics (for E&W) and the NI Statistics and Research Agency (for NI).

Just seen an SNP councillor tweeted yesterday 'Gonna [sic] do a 6 years ago thread throughout the day'. I missed that deadline (and her meanderings) so all in one dump here is my 6 years + 1 day thread. The preceding weekend, the city centre was alive with people for and against including a wheelchair-bound Labour MP who was roundly (and wrongly as well as disgracefully) abused by separatists for 'campaigning with the NF'.

It's a ****** being an older person in SNP Scotland. They were terrified in 2014 by unionists turning up on their doorstep to tell them they'd cease to get their UK state pension post-indy. (That much was true though I never saw a *documented* case of it happening)

Yet again the other day I was challenged by a Scottish nationalist with a list of resources Scotland possesses that would make us wealthy after separation – oil, gas, wind, water, tidal power. You know the sort of thing. An added subtext to these lists is not only that these resources will make us wealthy but England won’t be able to do without them (a bonus in nationalist eyes).

A tougher approach all-round is needed by the UK government and parliament to ensure the Scottish government abides by the devolution settlement. A clear example is foreign policy, which is reserved to the United Kingdom parliament.

Amused by the metaphor of Sturgeon 'parking' indy/separation for as long as it takes to deal with covid. The only way the SNP would park indy would be as a brand new shiny car displayed for future use amidst all the other more prosaic policy vehicles in the car park.

I have to say that at an earlier stage in the pandemic I was willing to cut all politicians a lot of slack, suspend my disbelief etc etc

https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1278279964912226305

But here you have an example of why it's so difficult.

Coronavirus - a thread on closing borders #England #Scotland #Wales Some Scottish nationalists are calling for the border (they mean with England of course) to ensure Scotland can 'beat' the virus. Their separatist newspaper The National headlines this.

BBC R4 News 8 a.m. confirming lessons on a coronavirus pandemic simulation exercise in Scotland in 2018 were not learnt. Details not on their website yet. Oops, it *was* there, tucked away with a different title bbc.co.uk/news/uk-529274…

Right, here's my take on Dominic Cummings for those rushing to defend him. Without knowing the full facts (which I don't think we have) I don't accept his 250 mile corona-busting trip was acceptable.