It's getting chilly up North of the Border.

For Scotland, the most chilling story of the year wasn’t Covid, bad though that was.  It wasn’t the Covid Care homes scandal that saw the deaths of many of our elderly people after the SNP government got it wrong big time.  Yes, everyone made mistakes in their Covid response.  Some bigger than others.  But the First Minister, pretending she and the people of Scotland were morally superior to the rest of the UK, really was quite nauseating.  Reprehensible.  Even racist some would say.  Nor was it the anti-hate laws, though they will be very useful in pursuance of government policy no doubt.  Or the state of Scottish education which has plummeted in the international ranking over the past 10 years. 

It was actually something more serious.  It was about the rule of law. 

The Spectator had a leader which explained how the Crown Office, led by a member of Ms Sturgeons cabinet, sought to censor and redact Mr Salmond’s allegations against Ms Sturgeon.  (We all remember Nicola in her rare, un-characteristic but very useful moment of, “I don’t remember”.)              

The allegations were published on the Holyrood Parliament’s website, and in the Spectator and other notable publications.  

The Crown Office subsequently instructed that they be removed from the Scottish Parliament’s website.  A redaction was demanded, specifically where Salmond’s original submission states that Sturgeon’s tale to the Scottish Parliament of when she first learned of complaints is "untrue and is in breach of the Ministerial Code".   In the redacted version this is deleted entirely.   Meaning it cannot be referred to in legal arguments as it no longer exist on the official record.      

Astonishingly, the parliamentary authorities meekly complied, as clear a signal you would ever need to show that the Scottish Parliament is subordinate to the SNP government.  Some argue, not unreasonably, that every government minister who was involved in, or knew of what was happening but didn’t speak out, should have resigned.  Not to do so would make them complicit.  Given none did, they are complicit.

Fortunately some media outlets like the Spectator refused to be cowed by the very serious threats from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to give it its full title. 

Remarkably, they were told they must not even publish the fact that a letter of warning was being sent to them.  Yes.  Right here in Scotland.  A nation that once could proudly boast about the integrity of its legal system.  

No matter what we may think of Mr Salmond as an individual, we all know that Salmonds words were true.  

So why did the SNP Government demand they were removed?    Well, we all know why.  Far from protecting the identity of victims, the spurious reason given, the redaction ordered of Salmond’s evidence was done to protect the First Minister from criticism. Nothing more, nothing less.              

Below is the redacted segment of Salmond’s Ministerial Code evidence in full below:               

30. The First Minister told Parliament (see Official Report of 8th,10th & 17th January 2019) that she first learned of the complaints against me when I visited her home on 2nd April 2018. That is untrue and is a breach of the Ministerial Code.                       

The evidence from Mr Aberdein that he personally discussed the existence of the complaints, and summarised the substance of the complaints, with the First Minister in a pre arranged meeting in Parliament on 29th March 2018 arranged for that specific purpose cannot be reconciled with the position of the First Minister to Parliament. The fact that Mr Aberdein learned of these complaints in early March 2018 from the Chief of Staff to the First Minister who thereafter arranged for the meeting between Mr Aberdein and the First Minister on 29th March to discuss them, is supported by his sharing that information contemporaneously with myself, Kevin Pringle and Duncan Hamilton, Advocate.       

And that, my friends, is the most chilling news of the year gone by.  It means that you or I can be silenced just because the government or her Ministers may be embarrassed by what you or I may say.  And no one will ever know as they have silenced the press too.  Welcome to what Scotland will look like if Nicola gets her way.  

No wonder many businesses are ready to move their headquarters south of the Border if Nicola gets her independance wish.

I'm not voting for a basket case.

I was a supporter of Scotland becoming an independent country at the referendum in 2014.  And I still believe that small is better.  Decisions made at as local a level as possible.   That was espoused in Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered, a collection of essays by German-born British economist E F Schumacher.  Amidst its thinking was the need to empower people more, in contrast with phrases such as "bigger is better", or "small is beautiful, but small".   

However, there was one day during the white-out caused by The Beast from the East in 2019 that made me look afresh at the direction of travel the SNP, led by Ms Sturgeon and her husband, was going.  

There was one incident that stood out for me.  Big articulated trucks were struggling on the roads, particularly on the M80.  Ms Sturgeon criticised the freight industry of being irresponsible for taking their trucks out on the roads in such weather.   

What struck me was, with that one comment, she showed a total lack of understanding of how the economy works.  Anyone who watches the Gregg Wallace series 'The Factory' will know that the raw ingredients that come into a factory to be processed have to go straight from the production line to the lorry that will deliver them across the country that same day or the next  day.  There is no storage.  If the lorries don’t travel there will be no food in your supermarket or local shops tomorrow.  It is as stark as that.   

In other words, to feed the nation the tomorrow the trucks have to be on the road today.   And Ms Sturgeon didn't understand that.  That is worrying.

If that's not concerning, how about the second thing that struck me?   

Her immediate reaction was to blame someone else for the problems on the roads.  The truckers.  And when I reflected more on that behaviour I realised this is a pattern.  Ms Sturgeon always blames someone else.   It's always someone else's fault.  Even in the COVID-19 situation, if anything isn't quite right, it's never her fault.  Always someone else.  Which suggest to me someone who is either very insecure or blind to reality.  Again, either is worrying.

More commonly however it’s Boris and the nasty Tories who are to blame.  But it could equally be one of her own like Joanne Cherry, QC, whom she sacked from a front bench post.  Why?  Because she disagreed with Ms Sturgeons’ somewhat extreme views on Trans issues.  In spite of her saying with COVID-19 we should follow the science, its different for Trans issues.  There Nicola says science in Trans issues is irrelevant. What she was saying was what you feel transcends science.    

That’s is not the independent Scotland I wish for.  An economic basket case that is built on an intolerance of anyone who disagrees with you.  No thanks.   

So while the people who display almost dictatorial attitudes remain in power, I will be voting we Remain in the UK.

The Emperor has no clothes.

So, it is official.  There has been an attempted coup d’etat. 

No, I am not referring to what is happening across the globe this morning in Myanmar where the military is on the move yet again.  I am talking about in the EU where the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the Commission being the equivalent of our UK Civil Service, decided to unilaterally invoke restrictions in both a Member state and a non Member state.   No negotiation.  Just straight in.  And Ms von der Leyen didn’t even have the courtesy to tell the Ireland's Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, what she was doing.  How excruciatingly humiliating for him. The tanks just rolled in. 

Now, imagine if Simon Case, (her equivalent in the UK), as the Cabinet Secretary and Head of the UK Civil Service, had done what Ms von der Leyen did, I think he would be out the door in a pair of handcuffs.       

But why did the EU commit a wild hostile act with no provocation?  Why did she do something that would unite the leaders of Sin Fein and the DUP, and indeed every other mainstream party in the UK? The exception was the SNP who notably kept schtum.  But perhaps Ms Sturgeon is going to have bigger problems on her plate over the next week or two.  

There is no rhyme or reason to Ms von der Leyen's actions.  But the hostile intent towards the UK is clear.  Brussels was threatening to halt the sale of life-saving drugs to a neighbouring country, not in response to any provocation, but simply because it was cross that that country was further advanced in its vaccination programme.    

But it gets worse.  In order to deflect criticism from its hopeless record in ordering vaccines, the European Commission aimed its law expressly at Britain. Its export ban did not apply to other neighbouring states, such as Iceland, Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Ukraine or Belarus.  The only country in the vicinity to be targeted was the UK.       

Why has this all occurred?  Some would argue, not without reason, that the blame lies firmly on the doorstep of Ursula von der Leyen.  Clearly she was not the popular choice for the position.  On her elevation to the post Ska Keller, a German MEP and co-leader of the Greens in the European Parliament, had harsh words.  “This backroom stitch-up after days of talks is grotesque.  It satisfies no one but party power games. After such a high turnout in the European elections and a real mandate for change, this is not what European citizens deserve.”       

Some saw her “election” as yet another case of von der Leyen being promoted merely to get her out of the way.  As the German media turned against her, magazine der Spiegel put it succinctly this week of her failed spells at various ministries: “in each instance, von der Leyen’s departure was perfectly timed.  Just as the time had come for evaluations, she had already climbed up to the next rung on her career ladder.”. 

Let’s say it as it is.   The EU threw Ireland and the Taoiseach under a bus last week.  And they tried to do the same to the UK.  Let’s not forget they did it with Greece.   And they will do exactly the same with Scotland should Ms Sturgeon get her way.     

Patrick O'Flynn summed it up well.  "Brussels has absolutely humiliated the Republic of Ireland tonight, treating its government as a third rate colonial outpost - not worthy even of receiving a telegram about new arrangements being imposed in its territory."      

Andrew Neil dryly noted: "After four years of lecturing Great Britain that it could never countenance anything that might lead to a hard border in Ireland, the European Union, in a desperate response to its own vaccine incompetence, introduces a hard border.  Then thinks better of it."      

The EU Commission is beyond inept and has turned itself into a laughing stock. It is not democratic.  It is not fit for purpose.  And the whole world can now see that.   

The emperor has no clothes.