SNP drops plans to pardon witches

Ding, dong, the bill is dead. Yes, that’s right: Holyrood’s much-trumpeted plan to pardon witches has now been dropped by the SNP, as the party desperately tries to conjure up something resembling a governing agenda. Around 4,000 Scots accused of being witches were tortured to gain their confessions and executed under the Witchcraft Act between 1563 and 1736. Legislation to pardon them was introduced last year by Natalie Don, a backbench nationalist.

But her decision to join Humza Yousaf’s government leaves her bill without a sponsor. A Scottish Government spokesman told the Times drily that ‘Ministers have no plans to legislate in this area.’ Still, a solution may be offered by the ‘Witches of Scotland’ campaign, which claims to have received support from ‘all political parties’ and which is now ‘actively engaged in identifying a replacement for Don as a sponsor of the bill.’ Happy news for witches everywhere.

The newspaper remarks that:

Many causes have been suggested for the scale of the witch-hunts in Scotland, including the rise of a “godly state” and the prevalence of the idea of the diabolic pact, changing attitudes to women, the inquisitorial Scottish judicial system, the widespread use of judicial torture and easy targets for authorities wanting to demonstrate they were in control.