At an eye watering £850K Labours botched BritCard is the most expensive imaginary card in history. We defeated Blair on this and now Starmer. It was a blatant Westminster attack on basic liberties and privacy. Off to the digital dustbin it now goes....
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2587477...
'Somebody think of the Scottish Labour MPs' said absolutely no-one. Caught in a nasty civil war they neither desired or anticipated they are the nobody's children of UK politics. Read about their week from hell. My National column.
www.thenational.scot/politics/258...
The re-emergence of the far right is the most sinister development in UK politics. This time they have a bigger pool to fish from with the political normalisation of a hostility to asylum seekers and immigration. This is how we stop them.
petewishart.com/how-to-take-...
My attempt to bring good manners and respectful language back to Parliament....
Here's the piece without a link to Xitter.
www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/5409...
Glad that the First Minister is looking at my suggestion of buffer zones at asylum hotels. The ugly and disgraceful behaviour we saw at Perth on Saturday can not go on. Perth does not deserve this.
x.com/alasdair_cla...
The levels of aggression and hate from the far right activists who came to Perth today was totally unacceptable and distressing. We really need to seriously consider safe buffer zones at protests at asylum hotels. We can't go on like this.
www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/5409...
Looking for the perfect present for that independence craving person in your life. Look no further. The ultimate insider account of the tumultuous days of the Scottish Independence Referendum. Get it here.
luath.co.uk/products/insid…
Thanks to @petewishart.bsky.social for highlighting the @lsepress.bsky.social report to the home secretary, commissioned by #PCS and Refugees Together which suggests policy changes which would enable refugees to contribute to UK economy and be self-sufficient quicker.
www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/...
We have reached the beyond chaos stage now. They've been playing a cynical and dangerous game with people's finances and they don't even know if they've u-turned on their u-turn. What an absolute mess and any credibility they might still possess shredded.
news.sky.com/story/starme...
For years music fans have been ripped off by the spivs, touts and profiteers. And for years we have fought to have fans protected. The Government pledged to take action. Now is the time for that pledge to be put into place.
www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottis...
Runrig. Rise and Fall.
"There was an hour that never knew a gloaming
The whole of life, enchanted in a day
And we'll be there, forever in the places
Where we used to be".
#RemembranceDay
www.youtube.com/watch?v=d75_...
@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...
Grok has actually admitted that what is said is defamatory. I'll send it through privately.
Hi Jolyon. When I asked the Grok app if I was a 'rape enabler' it even said that such an allegation 'could be defamatory'. If you think this would be useful I would be more than happy for this exchange to be used.
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...
