The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


About us

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“It’s not worth doing something unless someone, somewhere, would much rather you weren’t doing it.” – Terry Pratchett, author

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Wings Over Scotland is a Scottish political website, which focuses particularly on the media – whether mainstream print and broadcast organisations or the online and social-network community – as well as offering its own commentary and analysis.

“Arguably the most exciting, invigorating and innovative entrant to the Scottish media world in recent years.”
– Stephen Daisley (STV News)

“Irrevocably transformed online politics in Britain.”
– Scott Hames/Dominic Hinde (New Statesman)

“Irreverent, brave, challenging, intelligent and often brilliant analysis.”
– Colin Meek (Journalism.co.uk)

“The Mumsnet of the independence movement.”
– Ross McCafferty (Daily Record)

“A highly controversial cyber organisation.”
– Barbara Davies (Daily Mail)

“The problem voice of unthinking Scottish nationalism.”
– Gerry Hassan (Sunday Mail)

“Keeping up with the activies of the media phenomenon that is Wings Over Scotland would wear out your mouse.”
– Michael Gray (Common Space/The National)

“The hate-filled website Wings Over Scotland.”
– Emma Cowing (Daily Mail)

“A world of conspiracy theories, hatred and paranoia. This is a brand of nationalism that seeks to peddle falsehoods and unfounded allegations against anyone who isn’t a believer. It is nasty, sewage politics that debases public life. And yet the Wings Over Scotland [sic] is cited as an authoritative source by some leading SNP figures who really should know better.”
– Murray Foote (Daily Record)

“The nastiest hate blog in the UK.”
– Muriel Gray (broadcaster and former independence supporter)

“Journalists don’t like Wings much, but the simple fact is that if you’re looking for forensic analysis then you’re much more likely to find it at Wings than in the pages of much of the papers.”
– Eric Joyce (former Labour MP)

“A new and awful low in Scottish politics.”
– Margaret Curran (former Labour MP)

“As relevant a source as the Financial Times.”
– Kezia Dugdale (former leader, Scottish Labour Party)

“The press hate Wings Over Scotland, not least because it is a rival. But for hundreds of thousands of Scots it was an invaluable source of facts and arguments with which to challenge the predominantly unionist message of the mainstream media.”
– Iain Macwhirter (The Herald/Sunday Herald)

“Wings Over Scotland is the nation’s most trusted media outlet.”
– Brian Ferguson (The Scotsman)

“Enabling a new breed of fascism.”
– Peter Jukes (Byline.com)

“Wings Over Scotland really is the most effective, wide reaching and important media of communication available to the Scottish independence movement.”
– Craig Murray (former UK diplomat and ambassador to Uzbekistan)

“A pugnacious website popular among sections of the alt-Nat community. Its proprietor, Stuart Campbell, has a way of expressing himself in a colourful style.”
– Alex Massie (The Times)

“Clever and highly effective.”
– Duncan Hothersall (Scottish Labour activist and party chair)

“Wings Over Scotland is the most reprehensible extreme of the independence movement. The organisation would be far and away the most despicable participant ever to have sought involvement in Holyrood.”
– unnamed Scottish Conservatives spokesman

“The SNP’s answer to Voldemort.”
– Alyn Smith, SNP MP

“A curry for anyone who can tell me who Wings Over Scotland is.”
– Euan McColm (Scotland On Sunday)

As Mr McColm would have known had he applied his fearsome investigative skills to reading the byline that’s always been clearly printed at the top of each of the site’s articles, or indeed by reading this ever-present page, Wings is owned and edited by the Rev. Stuart Campbell, a Liberal Democrat voter at every election from 1992 to 2010 inclusive and, reluctantly, in 2017. (2015 general election vote: spoiled paper.)

“Campbell is the maverick blogger who has arguably done more than anybody, bar First Minister Alex Salmond, to break up Britain. A threat to the nation.”
– Ben Bryant (VICE)

“A bit of a rebel, a buccaneer and a brigand who’s got far too much to say for himself. He doesn’t retreat and gets into fights with everyone. Newspapers used to be like that too. I like his style.”
– Kevin McKenna (The Observer)

“The poster boy for a certain type of online independence campaigner… an IT-literate troublemaker.”
– Paul Hutcheon (Sunday Herald)

Spiritual leader of the conspiracistsprone to the kind of intemperate rants that have helped to turn Twitter into such a toxic environment.”
– Graham Grant (Daily Mail)

A significant number of people appear to be using this one man’s personal opinion to decide how to vote in the referendum.”
– Ben Borland (Scottish Sunday Express)

“Whether you love, loathe or grudgingly respect him, the Bath-based nationalist is the Yes movement’s most influential opinion shaper, excluding Nicola Sturgeon herself… as famed for his vitriolic style as he is for his robust, landscape-shifting journalism.”
– Darren McGarvey (The Scotsman)

“He might be from the Dark Side, if you know what I mean.”
– Lt Col Stuart Crawford (Royal Tank Regiment, ret’d)

“King of the Cybernats.”
– Tom Harris (former Labour MP and UK government minister)

“The Wings cretin is like a human sewer.”
– Chris Deerin (Telegraph/Daily Mail)

“This ambulatory piece of excrement.”
– Brooke “Belle De Jour” Magnanti (prostitute turned author)

“The voice of sanity.”
– Jim Spence (broadcaster and journalist, BBC Scotland/The Courier)

“A master of calumny.”
– Roderick W. Dunlop (Queen’s Counsel)

“A man of principle.”
– Sheriff Nigel A. Ross (Edinburgh Sheriff Court)

“The outlaw king of the nationalist hardcore, a sarcastic outsider laying waste to Scotland’s overwhelmingly unionist mainstream media”
– Scott Hames/Dominic Hinde (New Statesman)

“The vilest possible person.”
– Susan Calman (BBC Radio 4)

“A white, middle-aged, hate-filled troll.”
– Anas Sarwar (Scottish Labour Party leader)

“He is absolutely vile, and through his divisive demagoguery he more than any other single individual could present the biggest threat to our independence.”
– Pete Wishart (super-comfortable SNP MP)

“A lot of people really value what you do.”
– Kevin Scott (The Herald, PricewaterhouseCoopers)

“Wings is a law unto himself. He takes instructions from no-one.”
– James Kelly (Scot Goes Pop)

“That snake oil salesmana low quality propagandist.”
– Michael White (The Guardian)

“Stuart Campbell has wound up a lot of people because his media-monitoring service often destroys and points up the hypocrisies and the mistakes and the misdirections of the so-called mainstream media, and I think his service is an extremely good service.”
– Stuart Cosgrove (author and broadcaster, BBC/Channel 4)

“The SNP’s Cybernat General.”
– Jackie Baillie (Labour MSP)

“Articulate, fluent and smart… Bathgate’s answer to Jane Austen.”
– Kenny Farquharson (The Times)

“Abusive online wingnut.”
– Blair McDougall (Director of “Better Together” campaign)

“One of Twitter’s prominent spewers of invective.”
– Gillian Bowditch (Sunday Times)

“Deranged maniac… a little bit nuts.”
– David Torrance (The Herald)

“I am not responsible for Stuart Campbell.”
– Nicola Sturgeon (First Minister of Scotland)

The site advocates Scottish independence, but is not affiliated or connected in any way to the SNP, and neither gives to or receives money from the party, nor indeed any other party. We have an inquiring mind, and welcome intelligent contributions from all sides of the political debate.

Got something worthwhile to say about Scotland’s future? Try us.

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COMMENTING

Wings Over Scotland has an open comments policy – if you’re a new user your first comment needs to be manually approved as an anti-spam measure, but after that anything you say will be published automatically and unmoderated, and without making users negotiate irritating Captchas or social-media registrations/logins.

However, please note that the Akismet spam filter built in to all WordPress sites will sometimes place comments which contain links – and particularly multiple links – into the moderation queue, even from approved users. Such comments won’t appear until we manually accept them, which can take anything from a few seconds to several hours if we’re out at the shops or something.

This is outwith our control, unless we want to be swamped by the literally thousands of spambot messages a day that Akismet intercepts. If you want to post several links, it’s best to do it in several comments with one link in each.

We reserve the right to edit/remove comments at any time, for legal reasons or in the event of sustained personal abuse, trolling that’s aimed purely and intentionally at disrupting rather than promoting debate, or spam which somehow manages to evade Akismet. But you’ll have to try very hard indeed, and ignore repeated warnings, to have any sort of censorship for content applied here.

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ETIQUETTE AND FORMATTING

There are, however, some rules. As the site’s readership has grown, so has the number of comments. Four-figure numbers in a single day aren’t unprecedented, and that brings with it certain responsibilities for commenters, because we can’t spend all day monitoring them and still produce the site. So please keep a few things in mind.

1. Write as if an undecided voter is reading.

Fewer than 1% of the site’s readers post comments. That means the comments give you an inaccurate picture of the overall readership, and things that might go down well within a small group of dedicated activists don’t sound so good to people who’ve come to the site looking for information to help make up their minds.

People without whom we won’t win.

So try to avoid puerile name-calling like “Bitter Together”, “Johann Lamentable” or hilarious mis-spellings/puns of Anas Sarwar’s name. The same goes for things like “Liebore”, “Wastemonster” and “Daily Retard”, and words like “Quisling” and “traitor”.

Do you think they’re more likely to win someone over, or to put them off? Would they work on you if the positions were reversed? If not, don’t say them.

(We’d also happily live for another 300 years without ever again seeing anyone using the phrase “parcel of rogues” as if they were the first person who ever thought of it, or posting entire poems or song lyrics. That’s what YouTube’s for.)

Use of the word “rape” to refer to anything other than the criminal offence is also unwelcome. So the sentence “Wastemonster has been raping Scotland for decades, but you’ll never hear those Liebore-apologist traitors at the Daily Retard reporting it”… well, don’t hold your breath waiting for that comment to show up, is what we’re saying.

2. Play the ball, not the man (or woman).

And by all means disagree, by all means disagree forcefully – but argue with people’s views, don’t insult them personally. And that includes calling them “trolls” or implying they’re undercover Unionists. We’ll decide if someone’s trolling or not. But in the meantime, if you think they are, ignore them.

If you know what a “troll” is, then you’ll also know that getting you angry and talking about them, derailing the conversation off the subject, is exactly what they want.

Email us about suspected trolls if you want. But don’t engage them in debate if you doubt their motives, and DEFINITELY don’t engage in on-thread discussions about whether they’re a troll or not.

3. Show other commenters some courtesy.

It’d be nice if all that ever mattered was the content of what you wrote. But it isn’t. Whether we like it or not, the way things look also has a huge effect on whether people read them and pay any attention.

If you post a comment that’s 3,000 words long but doesn’t have a single line break or punctuation mark, not one living soul will read it. But more importantly, the chances are that they won’t read anything that comes after it either, and that’s an arrogant and selfish thing to do to other people’s comments. We have some amazing commenters here, and they deserve not to have the information they impart undermined.

So please, please, please put some paragraphs breaks into your posts. One after every two or three sentences is a good ballpark figure. And as you’re using the internet, not a typewriter, there’s NEVER, EVER any reason for hitting Return once. It’s either none or two, depending whether you’re starting a new paragraph or not.

Terrible use of paragraph breaks (which includes using none, or far too many, or sticking loads of extra ones at the beginning or end of your post for no appreciable reason) will put your comment at severe risk of deletion.

4. Microsoft are evil.

Please don’t paste comments in from Microsoft Word. It creates utter havoc, because Microsoft are made of liquid incompetence and general horror. (Ref: Windows 8.)

5. There’s a time and place for everything.

Comment threads go off-topic. That’s okay. But posting about a completely different subject in the first few comments on an article is just mind-bogglingly rude.

If you have something totally unrelated that you really really have to say, either post it in an older thread or just bite your tongue for the four or five minutes it’ll take for there to be half-a-dozen on-topic comments. Break this rule and you’ll either get timestamp-shifted to two hours into the future or deleted, depending how cranky a mood we’re in.

6. Scotland has a world-renowned education system.

So there’s really no excuse for putting spaces before full stops and question marks at the end of sentences, or for starting your paragraphs with an indentation. Or for doing this: “…………………………..” or this: “ .  .  .  .  .  . ” when you mean this: ““.

Or for not at least knowing that sentences start with a capital letter.

Your comment won’t be deleted for breaking those sorts of rules, but please believe us when we say that if you do we’ll be positively itching to find other reasons.

7. Don’t mess up the page for everyone else.

If you post YouTube links with the http:// part at the start, they’ll embed on the page rather than being posted as links. That can lead to this sort of thing. So don’t include the http:// bit or you’ll find your video in the spam bin.

8. Remember you’re talking to people.

If you were in the pub with some friends and someone asked you what you wanted to drink, would you say “Pint of lager shandy, please, Bob. ALBA GU BRATH!”? If you wouldn’t bellow slogans at them every time you’d finished speaking, then don’t do it in bloody comments either.

The same goes for signing your name at the bottom of your comment. We can see your name on the left-hand side already. If you want people to know you’re called Steve, call yourself Steve in the name box, not “Super_Sovereign_Warrior952”.

.I

Please note that spelling errors and typos are excluded from our grammar-Nazi purge. Being dyslexic isn’t a crime. But for the other stuff – especially the absence of line breaks – there will be no mercy. Those are the rules. That is all.

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182 to “About us”

  1. Jennifer says:

    Was looking for a button to subscibe to your site and couldn't find one.  I know it's probably something obvious but I can't see it!  Cheers,  Jenny

  2. RevStu says:

    There’ll be an RSS feed shortly.

  3. Jim Campbell says:

    Great site
    in a lot of cases you are printing what I was thinking.

  4. Just want to say I have been finding the blog a great read – I remember Stuart Campbell from Your Sinclair and Amiga Power and I’m sure several other of the periodicals I used to avidly read.  It’s a joy to see you all writing so eloquently on the topic of Scottish independence.

  5. Dan says:

    RevStu says:
     
    17 November, 2011 at 1:56 am
     

    There’ll be an RSS feed shortly.
    Liar, liar, pants on fire! 🙂

  6. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    Um, there’s been one for at least a year:

    http://wingsland.podgamer.com/follow/

  7. Old Mikey says:

    It seems to me most of these polls are unreliable and shown to be following an agenda of their own. In the council elections in 2012 not one of them got near the correct outcome. Wherever these polls were taken it was not Scotland, it must have been in Poonacandy or some such place. A far more reliable poll is the old common or garden betting shop, these establishments follow the money. I wouldn’t dream of encouraging anyone to gamble but i like a wee punt. My two pounds a week on the lottery will be going on a yes vote in 2014 whenever the odds become available. If the yes outcome or the yellow horse becomes favourite, or joint fav. or thereabouts this will impact on both campaigns. The yesses will gain confidence and the nays will be trembling in their troosers. OOOOH i forgot, gambling’s a sin.  

  8. Bill Laing says:

    Cannot contribute to your lets get serious site I press continue and it doesn’t follow through to allow payment

  9. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    Sorry about that. What browser are you using?

  10. Bill Laing says:

    Internet explorer

  11. PattheCat says:

    Ok new to the comments section, but been a reader for a few months, Decided to commit to £10 a month to help Rev with his target.
    Was gonna say I am a proud Scotsman, but just found out I am in fact an Englishman in all but name….
    great 🙁

  12. Angus Coull says:

    Great idea! And long overdue! I have encountered censorship issues, hidden behind the pretext of ‘moderation’, at both the Herald and Scotsman comments threads. Not only did they do this, they were also completely unwilling to offer any detailed explanation for doing so when it was requested.
    Hopefully, this site will offer a greater opportunity for free expression from all views in the independence debate, with only posts containing genuine cases of personal abuse, spamming or trolling being removed.

  13. Eddie Dow says:

    Hi, loving this site, and if I win my impending Atos battle, then I hope to be able to pay my share to help keep the coffee pot full, I do have a couple of minor points I would like to ask about, from an almost completely computer illiterate point of view, is it possible to view the various links that many people put up, on separate pages? I know it may sound daft, but I have had to stop clicking on links, as when I have finished reading them, I usually close them, losing the WoS page I was on, probably something I am doing wrong. The other point, again probably my own fault, when I read other sites such as Bella, I can simply hit reblog on posts, meaning I can put them straight up on my own blog (again, something I am new to, but working on) not that I have much of a following, more for me to be able to find points of interest etc when arguing a point, without having to try to remember where it was! I use WordPress, and someone tried to explain to me about rss feeds or some such, but it went in one ear…….
    Anyway, hopefully someone can point me in the right direction (I know where the pier is and that didn’t help!) and look forward to learning a bit more both about this new fangled thinking machine, and the increasingly good points in the indy debate that are sadly lacking in the MSM and our “broadcasters”

  14. ecossenkosi says:

    Great Site

  15. Alan MacD says:

    Strange question, but hypothestic i suppose.
    Would you? Born an Englishman condone such actions of the fucking malevolent mob of today?
    ??????????

  16. Alan MacD says:

    Ive just read my own post aNd know its time for bed..,

  17. Onzebill says:

    Stu
    Keep up the good work, helps keep me sane, there are times I cannot believe the hatred which emanates from some of the No Scotland brigade. The SLAB people especially cannot accept that they were rejected by the Scottish electorate,

  18. Xander says:

    Great site Rev – have been lurking for a few months now.
    I’ve just found my independence anthem and thought I’d share –
    Songwriters: Kerr, James / Macneil, Michael Joseph / Burchill, Charles

    (Yes Scotland)
    You turn me on, you lift me up
    And like the sweetest cup I’d share with you
    You lift me up, don’t you ever stop, I’m here with you
    Now it’s all or nothing
    ‘Cause you say you’ll follow through
    You follow me, and I, I, I follow you

    (Better Together)
    What you gonna do when things go wrong?
    What you gonna do when it all cracks up?
    What you gonna do when the Love burns down?
    What you gonna do when the flames go up?
    Who is gonna come and turn the tide?
    What’s it gonna take to make a dream survive?
    Who’s got the touch to calm the storm inside?
    Who’s gonna save you?

    (Yes Scotland)
    Alive and Kicking
    Stay until your love is, Alive and Kicking
    Stay until your love is, until your love is, Alive

    Oh you lift me up to the crucial top, so I can see
    Oh you lead me on, till the feelings come
    And the lights that shine on
    But if that don’t mean nothing
    Like if someday it should fall through
    You’ll take me home where the magic’s from
    And I’ll be with you

    (Better Together)
    What you gonna do when things go wrong?
    What you gonna do when it all cracks up?
    What you gonna do when the Love burns down?
    What you gonna do when the flames go up?
    Who is gonna come and turn the tide?
    What’s it gonna take to make a dream survive?
    Who’s got the touch to calm the storm inside?
    Don’t say goodbye
    Don’t say goodbye
    In the final seconds who’s gonna save you?

    (Yes Scotland)
    Oh, Alive and Kicking
    Stay until your love is, love is, Alive and Kicking
    Oh, Alive and Kicking
    Stay until your love is, love is, Alive and Kicking
     

  19. Johnnie McMillan says:

    Hi,
     
    How to I subscribe to the site for articles, newsletters etc.
    It’s unclear on the site whether this is how it works.
    Thanks
    Johnnie

  20. Gizzit says:

    No question marks at the end of a sentence?  Am I misunderstanding?

  21. @Gizzit and alasdair
     
    Those aren’t two separate instructions, but just one. An alternative way of phrasing it would have been ‘Full stops and question marks at the end of sentences do not require a space before them.’

  22. Stevie says:

    It’s good that your comments mod policy is relatively relaxed — Newsnet has lost a lot of good faith and donations because their comments moderation became stiff and unfriendly.  They are still big but would have been a lot bigger if they’d not closed the door in the faces of so many.

    I go to NN for articles for my pages but tbh as an afterthought and I often forget – I keep forgetting about them and their articles appear less and less and less in my FB news feeds.

    So, good that you are keeping a loose grip on comments.  It can be an expensive mistake to become rigid and that goes for any online site.

  23. Patrick Roden says:

    Hey Rev,  Now I’m confused! Why am I called PattheCat?
    Not a big deal but just wondered if my picture has been somehow been connected to another Patrick? lol.
    Keep up the good work Stuart..104,000 and rising 🙂

  24. Juan Pablo Del Roomigrant says:

    Noted. 

  25. Dave says:

    Stu,
    Have you ever thought about adding a discussion forum to WOS? There are a lot of great comments on here but maybe they would be easier to follow in separate threads. It would also allow users to post comments not related to your (great) articles.

    There are plenty of good, free boards out there like Simple Machines or phpBB. I have set them up before and would be happy to do it for you.
    The boards have built-in anti spam but you would need volunteer moderators as well.

  26. gerard mcguigan says:

    INDEPENDENCE – “A rose smells just as sweet by any other name”

  27. scottiedug says:

    Love this site.    Intend voting Yes, and will point those friends who are undecided to this website.  Great stuff.  Keep up the good work.

  28. AndyPandy says:

    Hello,

    I would like to sign up for the cybernat orgy please! I have a mask if needed…Very refreshing website. Also, I used to be an avid reader/subscriber to YourSinclair 😉

    Regards,

    Andy

  29. Bebe says:

    I can’t believe he feels he’s justified to comment on the referendum when he’s lived in USA for many years and changes his accent when it suits him….. Not a great ambassador for the Better Together forum.

  30. Aikenheed says:

    Would it be possible to commission printed copies from the FT for distribution? I know magazines, papers etc do this sometimes

  31. Aye says:

    Do you control the twitter account? just had to block it after it transcended into a childish footballing argument, losing all credibility

  32. yerkitbreeks says:

    Can’t seem to make a post. Am on a Mac.

  33. Hamish Burgess says:

    CAMERON’S SPEECH ON FRI 7TH FEB 2014 WAS A FIX
    and I’ll show you how and provide references (at the end)to back my claims up. Just as Cambridge was the pivotal point of the spy ring based on Communism, Glasgow Caledonian University is a pivotal point of a Tory conspiracy where the common thread (no joke meant) is – believe it or not – fashion.

    Listen to Cameron’s speech on Youtube. Note the lectern has a GCU logo on it. GCU has a campus in London covering several subjects including fashion. I’ve heard (I do NOT know) that the London campus has its own logo and the lectern has that of GCU in Glasgow. I would like to know how and why GCU is the sponsor and if the Scottish taxpayer has paid the cost.

    Cameron was introduced by Professor Pamela Gillies who is Principal and Vice-Chancellor of GCU and among other things has ‘worked’ with the Institute of Directors and been voted onto the board of CBI Scotland – two organisations not noted for un-Tory activities. (Ref 1)
    MORE FOLLOWS: –

  34. Hamish Burgess says:

    CAMERON’S SPEECH FIX PART 2
    Because the BBC was slow to go over to Cameron, we missed the introduction by Pamela Gilles on the video, but Derek Bateman on his blog quotes Getty Images as reporting that Pamela Gillies and David Cameron arrived together to campaign for a ‘No’ vote. (Ref 1A). A comment on his (Derek’s) blog from ‘VowofSilence’ states, ‘We are not allowed to comment or question Pamela’s motives. If you comment you are asking for your P45’. That seems to be a GCU employee who is not impressed by the Great Blue Elephant.

    Meanwhile, back on the video; ignore the usual blethers and go to where the time on the bottom caption reads 11.15 AM. There you will hear Cameron saying, ‘My wife is an ambassador for the British Fashion Council and sees – and raves about – the international impact of our fashion, helped along massively by Scottish designers like Christopher Kane and Jonathan Saunders’. Amazing that fashion gets such a high profile in a constitutional matter, but neither his wife’s side-line nor these two names are there purely by chance as we are about to see.

  35. Hamish Burgess says:

    CAMERON’S SPEECH FIX PART 3
    Still with Cameron’s speech on Youtube video, spin forward to time 11.22 as he starts to take questions (a total of four). Look at Cameron’s face – concentrated and deadpan. Now go to 11.24 and watch his actions: he looks around, points to the rear on his left and says, ‘Lady over here’ and a quickly hidden, hint of a knowing smile, flits across his face.

    The lady replied, ‘Tessa Hartmann, Scottish Fashion Awards. I work in fashion and retail in Scotland. The Scots have played a very significant role in this wonderful British heritage that is cashmere and textiles manufacturing. Do you agree that now is the time for Scotland instead of arguing amongst themselves we should be combining resources and tackling the French and Italians and sustaining global competition.

    Not surprisingly, Cameron hastened to agree with her, praising Scots fashion. THIS WAS A PLANTED QUESTION in the best traditions of House of Commons Prime Minister’s Questions. Like PMQs fixes it started with an over-the-top praise session followed by the weasel words ‘ Does the Prime Minister agree with me’, knowing fine he will. Note that this Scot, talking about Scots, refers to ‘themselves’, not ‘ourselves’. Her butchered grammar suggests she did not master her lines properly. It may seem funny that a person to do with fashion should be sitting there and out of a hundred people be chosen ‘at random’ to ask a question. It was no coincidence and Tessa Hartman is no mere ‘worker’ in fashion as you will see. MORE FOLLOWS

  36. Hamish Burgess says:

    CAMERON’S SPEECH FIX PART 4
    We will end with the speech video, but before we do, try what I did: download and put together clips of Cameron’s face as the four questions are asked. In the other three he is dead-pan, but in the second (Hartmann) you can definitely see a quick smile of recognition on his face. By acting as if she was a stranger he lied by omission.

    However, there is much more in this chain of deceit:
    Hartmann (Ref 2) is head of Hartmann Media, founder of the Scottish Fashion Awards, has other commercial interests, is the Fashion-Editor-at-Large for the Herald (fancy title), writes for the Times and Telegraph and appears in other papers as well as magazines like Vogue and many others, including on-line. One daughter, Tessie, is a ‘No’ on the Heralds Youth Panel for the Indy Ref (nice touch of nepotism)and the other is Tallia Storm, a singer. She has also been a guest lecturer at GCU where she knows Professor Pamela Gillies (see the link). Shy has been anything but publicity shy, but yet Cameron doesn’t know her!

    How strange, considering her political activities: In early March 2010 she was ‘unveiled’ as a ‘high profile’ Tory supporter and immediately created a fuss with her views on immigration. (Ref 3) In February 2012 she hit the headlines after collapsing at Heathrow airport the morning after attending a £1,000 a head fund raiser for the Tory Party in London. Present were ministers, including David Cameron. (Ref 4)She held a ‘LadiesLeadersLunch’ on 8th February 2013 to raise funds for the Conservative and Unionist Party in Scotland. Guest speakers were Ruth Davidson and Hone Secretary Teresa May.(Refs 5 & 6)
    IN October 2013 she held her Scottish Fashion Awards in Dover House, the Scots Secretary’s official London residence. She moved after both Glasgow and Aberdeen councils decided they weren’t using taxpayers money to subsidise her champagne booze-up. The co-host was the (then) Secretary of State, Michael Moore.(Ref 7) And still Cameron doesn’t know her!

  37. Hamish Burgess says:

    CAMERON’S SPEECH FIX PART 5
    In 2011 Hartmann held her Scottish Fashion Awards in Glasgow. An award for being ‘Fashion innovator of the Year’ went to no less a person than Professor Pamela Gillies.(Ref 8)Less than a year later, in June 2012, Hartmann was given an Honorary Doctorate by GCU and is to be seen happily posing with Pamela Gillies. Nice to give each other gifts, isn’t it! (Ref 9)

    Henceforth she made great use of her title as Doctor Tessa Hartmann. Funnily enough she forgot to use it when she asked her question of David Cameron.In 2013 she made a video supposedly praising GCU (which she did) but spent half the time praising her friend Professor Gillies (whom she called ‘Pamela’) to the skies. (Ref 10) So now we have a GCU/Gillies/Hartman/Tory link, but there is more.

    Back to the 2011 Fashion Awards: Remember the two designers named in Cameron’s speech? The winner of the designer award that year was Jonathan Saunders. The award was presented by the guest of honour who was wearing a dress by the other designer mentioned, Christopher Kane. The guest of honour was the British Fashion Council’s ambassador, a certain Mrs Samantha Cameron. Some excellent photos of her posing with fashion designers and Hartmann are on the internet. She must also have met Gillies as she received her special award. Cameron said she ‘raves’ about Scottish fashion. Did she forget to rave about Hartmann and Gillies when she was putting the snaps in her family album? Didn’t Cameron ask his wife what she was up to in Scotland overnight? They say that Gordon Brown is irresistible to women! (11A & B)

    MORE FOLLOWS:

  38. Hamish Burgess says:

    CAMERON’S SPEECH FIX PART 5
    In 2011 Hartmann held her Scottish fashion Awards in Glasgow. An award for being Fashion Innovator of the Year went to no less a person than Professor Pamela Gillies. (Ref 8) Less than a year later, in June 2012, Hartmann was given an Honorary Doctorate by Prof gillies and GCU and is seen happily posing with Prof Gillies. Nice to give each other gifts, isn’t it! (Ref 9)

    Henceforth she made great use of her title as Doctor Tessa Hartmann. Funnily enough she forgot to use it when she asked her question of David Cameron. In 2013 she made a video supposedly praising GCU (which she did), but spent a large part of the time praising the one she called ‘Pamela’ to the skies. (Ref 10)

    Back to the 2011 Fashion Awards: Remember the two designers named in Cameron’s speech? The winner of the designer award that year was Jonathan Saunders. The award was presented by the Guest of Honour who was wearing a dress by the other designer mentioned, Christopher Kane.

    The Guest of Honour was also mentioned in Cameron’s speech – the ambassador of the British Fashion Council, Mrs Samantha Cameron. Some excellent photos exist of her with Hartmann and others are to be found on the internet. She must have met Gillies when Gillies received her special award. Cameron said she ‘raves’ about fashion and Scottish designers. Did she not rave about Hartmann, Gillies et al when she was putting photos in the family album? (11A & B)

  39. Hamish Burgess says:

    NOTE THAT PART FIVE APPEARS TWICE. FOR SOME REASON IT TOOK AGES TO APPEAR AND I THOUGHT IT HAD GONE AWOL IN CYBERSPACE, THUS THE RE-WRITE.

  40. Hamish Burgess says:

    CAMERON’S SPEECH FIX PART 6
    Going back to Hartmann Media’s site (Ref 1 again) note that in the centre is a photo of a basket of bottles with a Union Jack label on them and the word ‘POP’. I suspect this is actually champagne, but it shows the money they are happy to squander and were hoping for Scottish taxpayers to help with.

    Look to its right and there is a twitter window. Scroll down and there is a tweet from Downing Street on the day of the speech which Hartmann has re-tweeted at some point.

    Now go to the No 10 Twitter feed (Ref 12) and scroll down
    until you come to a posting which reads, ‘PM: Think of global impact of our fashion, helped by Scottish designers like Christopher Kane’. Below is a drop-down photo of Kane holding a Scottish Fashion Awards trophy dated 2013. The time of the tweet is 3.18AM – about six hours before Cameron made his speech and by sheer coincidence chose from 100+ people the woman responsible for these awards, who just happened to be associated with the sponsoring organisation, Glasgow Caledonian University, who was a prominent fellow Tory and fund raiser, who had entertained his wife, who had attended at least one bash where he was present, who is known as a fashion guru and who is splattered across papers, magazines and the internet. And he didn’t know her! Rubbish – he was treating the whole of the UK population as a bunch of half-wits.

    REFERENCES FOLLOW:

  41. Tasmanian says:

    Can someone tell me how to set a custom avatar for comments?

    Also, Hamish, what are you doing? Why not just email the article to Stu via the Contacts page?

  42. Hamish Burgess says:

    Tasmanian: I am not exactly Au fait with computers so this gets it done. I started life as a Morse operator! I’m going to re-do my last section, the ref list, because it seems to have vanished. I’m just hoping that somebody picks up on this and puts it to use.

    If I knew how I would upload the videos and docs instead of giving references.

  43. Brotyboy says:

    @Tasmanian

    Go to gravatar.com and create your avatar from there.

  44. Hamish Burgess says:

    I’m gonna try yet again. I’ve fed in the final section with the references to the various sites a couple of times, but they’ve vanished.

  45. Hamish Burgess says:

    CAMERON’S SPEECH FIX PART 7
    REFERENCES:

    YOUTUBE – David Cameron’s speech, 7 Feb 2014

    REF 1 – britishcouncil.org/home-about-us-board-Pamela-gillies-htm

    REF 1A – derekbateman1.wordpress.com/2014/02/08Scottish-university-joins-no-campaign

    REF 2 – http://www.hartmannmedia.co.uk/

    REF 3 – Scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/fashion-guru-Tessa-hartmann-urge…

    REF 4 – dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity/fashion-guru-Tessa-hartmann-co…

    REF 5 – ladiesleaderslunch.com/tickets.php

    REF 6 – http://www.facebook.com/LadiesLeadersLunch

    MORE FOLLOWS:-

  46. velofello says:

    Why am I having to continuously re-register?

  47. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    Because of caching measures caused by an ongoing DoS attack targeted specifically at this site. Hoping to have it sorted this week.

  48. velofello says:

    Thanks Rev. Logging-in is no big deal I was just concerned that I wasn’t up to IT speed.

  49. Just joining this site

  50. bookie from hell says:

    Do you think, better together are terrified of a YES vote over 40%,I get the feeling if its under 40% nothing will change.

    The only opinion poll I trust will be the vote 18th sept

    I hav moved from undecided to YES,after watching Lord George Robertson,Stewart Hosie debate.

    Lord George Robertson said 2015 Scottish parliament would get 30% more powers,I thought 30% of what?

    thx my 1st post

  51. Wee Copey says:

    Hi Wings Over Scotland,

    This is my first post and would just like to praise your site, I was steered towards it by a friend of mine who incessantly shared your page and I couldn’t take it anymore so I thought I’m going on to it to see what it’s all about. Am I glad I did, I find the articles and follow up comments engrossing I spend, literally, hours reading through to the end of comments and totally love it.

    KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.

    Oh and I’ve steered numerous other undecided, confused and just generally looking for information people to this site.

    Thanks again.

  52. Dawning of the day. The Corries version.Say’s it all for me.for forty years and more.

  53. May and Angus Macpherson says:

    It is great to read the truth for a change. Please continue the good work.
    We are both totally committed yes voters and want a fairer Scotland for all.

  54. sharyn stobie says:

    a wee £20.00 donated, Rev Stu I think you are Scotland’s secret weapon, keep up the good work!

  55. steven Seagull says:

    I love the site. Great stuff,and very witty.
    I was checking out how many embassies/consulates Iceland has,as a small country.

    15 embassies.
    2 consulates.
    5 permanent missions.

    Source: Iceland.is
    And no standing army.

    Way to go.

  56. No No No...Yes says:

    Not sure about Douglas Fraser, Business and Economy editor, BBC Scotland. Subliminal messages?
    Yesterday, his blog about “Scottish independence: balancing the books” analyses the GERS figures. The blog was was actually an interesting read. The last few paragraphs refer the productivity of the various parts of the UK. The eye opener is the last paragraph,

    “At the wrong end of the table, rural areas dominate. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news to beautiful places, but within the UK’s least productive 10 sub-regions are Orkney, the Scottish Borders and Caithness and Sutherland. It could be worse. You could be in Powys.”

    Now does he mean the geographic areas, or their Westminster MP’s:

    Orkney- the current Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael (Lib Dem)

    Scottish Borders- ex Scottish Secretary Michael Moore(Lib Dem)

    Caithness and Sutherland-John Thurso (Lib Dem)

    You decide..

  57. Sarah Logan says:

    Have just been authorised 3 weeks holidays from 18th September to 8th October and I’ll be partying when we become an independent country again.
    I am so proud of my roots, my country and my wonderful culture, and just know we will create a more fair, just and equal Society for our children and grandchildren.
    The better together campaign are modern day “parcel of rogues in a nation”, penned by the genius of Robert Burns.
    Love your site, Glasgow My Heart, Scotland My Soul.

  58. goldenayr says:

    Slightly OT,but since we are,rightly,lauding Brewers interview,I thought I’d add some balance.Did anybody else find the beebs man,on the ref debate on bbc2,was reminiscent of a schoolboy,who thinks he can get one over the teacher,when he was questioning John on beeb impartiality?
    I didn’t see him give Baillie the same treatment when she spouted obvious lies.He also gave her a bigger platform and kept cutting John and Michael off mid-sentence.
    P.S.
    Rev,since I stopped posting on the Scotsman I’ve not done much discussion on the ref and I,d just like to thank you for hosting a forum that isn,t biased to supporters of a YES vote.

  59. John D aka Nkosi says:

    Just so you are not confused. The strikethrough does not work.

  60. Joe Harrower says:

    Just discovered this site due to the banning of ads on the Subway. I am still dithering, but most likely will vote Yes as i am getting hacked off with the bullying by the Financial institutions telling me things are better together. If they hadn’t got us into the financial mess I would probably be a NO voter—is that totally thrown of me?

    Also Westminster won’t change if Scotland votes No, so I am tending towards a radical change for Scotland and a radical change for whats left of the UK, or whatever they are going to call themselves.

  61. edinbro says:

    Hi, I just registered with Gravatar and am trying out how to post on here.

  62. stewart says:

    The British government is SO concerned about conserving cash that it has reduced benefits to people who need them – poor people.

    Meanwhile MPs at Westminster CONTINUE to unashamedly abuse the expenses system, overclaiming, and allegedly funding private parties, while their party bosses refuse to correct the system.

    By contrast the Scottish government has legislated to assist people in need, and has dealt quickly and firmly with the few MSP expenses-abusers.

    So long as Scotland is ruled from Westminster unfairness will continue.

    England will ALWAYS be Tory, but Scotland need not be ruled by Tories – Blair and Brown were “obliged” to act like Tories in order to gain power.

  63. stewart says:

    Brian Wilson affirmed my view when he said during the Orkney debate that England will be Tory – but why does he feel this is a reason for Scotland staying in the Union?
    I say, leave England to its voted-for feudal Tory state, but free Scotland to adopt its own natural egalitarian and caring government.
    Current Scottish MPs and “lords” will of course return to Scotland after the YES vote, and more, experienced native politicians can only assist a free Scotland’s development – here of course there will never be a house of lords – Scotland is egalitarian.

  64. Public Opinion says:

    Is it okay for me to use a pseudonym, like this one:- ‘Public Opinion’?

  65. David says:

    Thanks for enlightening report on UKIP meeting. Looks like Scotland’s referendum on EU in or out is definitely happening this year. I just hope enough of my fellow Scots take that on board. Vote YES for EU membership on September 18th.

  66. Roll_On_2014 says:

    STU how can I put a link to a utube vid in a comment. Not an embedded one.

    I have tried a number of ways but without success.

  67. markmywordzzz says:

    Help me understand this please. I get the point that without Scotland, Labour would lose seats and these losses are largely cancelled out by the “other” parties that also lose numbers. I also get these “other” parties count as the opposition under a Labour government, but these ohers are still not the Conservative party. So in any future election without Scotland, Labour total seats will be “down”, the “other” parties are also down (or now non-existent like the SNP) but the Conservatives are not,as they have no seats to lose…. which means proportionally they gain surely?

  68. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    They gain, just not enough to make a difference.

  69. Paula Rose says:

    @ Roll_On_2014 – if you’re still listening doll, copy and post the link THEN DELETE EVERYTHING BEFORE THE www – otherwise you are toast and get fed to the rats.

  70. markmywordzzz says:

    Thanks Rev. Stuart Campbell. Still not sure I understand that though. In older times the lack of Scottish seats may have been roughly distributed across all the parties. However in more recent times though the loss is much more keenly felt by Labour. So looking at 2010 figures, Labour lose 41 seats, the Conservatives lose 1. The total of 18 Scottish non-Labour seats are significant in a Labour win as they count as opposition and subtract from their 41 but the total removal of 59 Scottish seats is nothing but a big plus for the Tories if their expected portion of that loss is just one seat.

  71. Alistair says:

    Silly question time, is this the same Stuart Campbell that was (or is) in the game industry?

  72. jonGZ says:

    Hi there,
    I’d like to check in, please, after hanging around outside for the last couple of months; I like they way this hotel works.

    One quick question: do I have to take the “http” off all links, or just Youtube ones?

    Oops, and now that I check out the preview; why doesn’t the 2nd (there’s a left arrow,b,right arrow before and after “all”, and after “2nd”) stop the bold print?

    Are the italics the same? Yes

    Help! ????

  73. jonGZ says:

    Ah, ok .. I think i’ve got the html under control ..

  74. jonGZ says:

    Merda! I hate typos; I’m a grammar nazi, and then I go and write “I like they way” in my first post..

    I hope you’ll be erasing these trial posts, Stu?

  75. David Hind says:

    Have been following this site for a long time but never commented before.Sending this as a test so I can comment in future to help in the fight for independence.

  76. Andrew David Mackay says:

    I will not buy a Daily Mail. I do not believe in giving My money away to tripe. Massive respect to “Wings Over Scotland” for the way it responds to this sort of malignant rubbish.

  77. robby says:

    I DONT THINK MUCH OF YOUR LOGO- THE LION LOOKS LIKE IT HAS PILES SITTING IN PAIN ON WINGS–ALSO IT LOOKS A BIT MASONIC

  78. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    That’s nice, dear.

  79. Jim Clark says:

    Just watched the indyguy/Maryhill video, upsetting but uplifting at the same time. Obviously not politicians, (they spoke from the heart) how anyone with an once of moral fibre could watch this and still vote no, doesn’t deserve the title of human being. Hail Alba.

  80. Masson says:

    Hi Wings
    I am wondering if you have heard anything about the Armed Forces, getting letters telling them to vote no in September, also asking which way they intend to vote surely this is illegal.

  81. Paula Rose says:

    They’re being asked to vote No to the UK to save their future?

  82. Duke of Albany says:

    I too was very moved, indeed I was bursting with pride that my country was offering this humanitarian aid, unfortunately it was not long before a labour politic muppet brought me crashing to earth by branding the Scottish gov terrorists for helping Hamas, oh well back to the battle for independence!

  83. Jim McLean says:

    Pie in the sky when you die. Apologies to Joe Hill

    Tory preachers come out every night
    Try to tell you what’s wrong and what’s right
    When you ask them to tell you the truth
    Up jumps Cameron or Ms Untruth Ruth

    ‘You will eat, by and by,
    In that glorious land above the sky
    Vote for Ruth, it’s the truth
    You’ll get pie in the sky when you die’ – that’s a lie!

    Lamont joins in the same Tory song
    ‘Stay with England, that’s where you belong
    And remember what Uncle Ed said
    Tomorrow you’ll get jam on your bread’

    ‘You will eat, by and by,
    In that glorious land above the sky
    Vote for Jo, just say No
    You’ll get pie in the sky when you die’ – that’s a lie!

    Willie Rennie has made this his boast
    ‘I will promise you jam on your toast,
    Tomorrow’, he shouts from afar
    ‘If I manage to open the jar’.

    ‘You will eat, by and by,
    In that glorious land above the sky
    Vote for Willie, if your silly
    You’ll get pie in the sky when you die’ – that’s a lie!

    Working folks of all Scotland, unite
    Side by side we for freedom will fight
    When we’re free from Westminster again
    To the winners we’ll sing this refrain:

    We will eat, by and by,
    In a land free from Tory Lib lies
    Just say YES, just say YES,
    Then you’ll eat in the sweet by and by – that’s no lie!

  84. flux_capacitor says:

    I’m a daily follower of this site. This is a test post, as my previous attempt to contribute to a recent thread disappeared after awaiting moderation. (It was a fair comment and broke no rules)

  85. mpopples says:

    Some useful light was thrown on the currency issue in this morning’s BBC Good Morning Scotland.

    The topic began with Alec Salmond and Alistair Darling making their points. This was followed by a very illuminating interview with an “independent expert” (the economist John Kay) spanning approx. 08:35 to 15:00 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04d5478

    It ended less usefully with two other economists to represent opposite sides of the debate.

  86. G. Campbell says:

    Test post.

  87. I See says:

    Hav,e just listened to Gordon Browns lies & some comments. I have moved here for a break. I’m afraid GB is not alone, The U.K. Gov. Enter into or cause wars, world wide on any excuse but it all boils down to OIL

    This time round they have used years of secrets, lies, neglect, abuse, brainwashing & bullying. Then more secrets & lies via the good old trusted British Broadcasting Corp. against Scotland so that they & their millionaire pals can laugh all the way to their off shore, tax free havens thinking “Wow, this is a dawdle,& we have all the oil we will ever need!”

    All those complacent Scots, who are perfectly happy with their conservative life styles should think about others & vote YES to stop these monsters in their tracks!

  88. john mcneill says:

    hi john here if a yes vote are we still in the eu common market under the rules of brussels.

  89. Alistair says:

    Same here. I want out of Europe and back in control of our own borders. If a Yes vote means staying in Europe when the rest of the UK is moving anti Europe that’s a big issue for me.

  90. BornOptimist says:

    I’ve obviously noted the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) bias in The Scotsman from viewing odd headlines/irrelevant photographs/selective video clips, etc. but this week I came across my first instance of censorship – well two actually. First I had a brief comment removed because I had been accused of a hate crime (in my opinion it was clearly a joke – but probably a poor joke at that). The second was undoubtedly an example of censorship.

    I submitted a comment recommending Scotsman readers expand their knowledge relating to the Independence referendum by looking at various web sites including Bella Caledonia, Newsnet Scotland, etc. The web site I mentioned that brought out the bogeyman was ‘Wings Over Scotland’.

    I was informed if I did not remove these three little words (note: it was not a link to the website) my comment would not be published.

    What on earth have you done, Rev, to upset the good people at The Scotsman?

    More seriously, I think this clearly means the establishment have got the wind up. Censorship of any form, other than that clearly identified when one signs up to comment, is not only to be disapproved of, it gives a clear indication of bias.

    I find it appalling to have a national newspaper blatantly ensuring information does not reach their readers, especially when it is a source that would be of benefit to anyone who wished to acquire a balanced viewpoint. Their action is also self-defeating and likely to be counterproductive.

    Although I could not mention Wings over Scotland as the source of the information I referred to (The Wee Blue Book) but once the book had been mentioned the source could easily be picked up in seconds using Google or any other search engine.

    Apart from knowing that I got my point across, even if indirectly, I am now quite happy to refer to censorship of material as a fact, not just an incidental element of media bias.

    If the Scotsman’s editors aim to be consistent then I guess we can look forward to their search and destroy programme targeting the use of another three words quite soon: ‘The Wee Blue Book’. In the meantime keep up the good work.

  91. Donald MacDonald says:

    I watch/listen to this debate from Melbourne, Australia with fondness that in my time (from canvassing in the seventies) I can see a momentum carried through the social media – towards an independent Scotland. Best wishes to those who have the privilege of voting on this historic occasion – my heart and my head is with those who say YES!

    Slainthe,

    Don

  92. Mandy Stafford says:

    Just a wee suggestion for the next two weeks… I have always referred to the Better Together campaign as No Better Together, as this is more accurate. Others should do the same.

  93. ronnie says:

    Good article in the Dundee Courier Energy supplement on Tuesday 2nd September by Dick Winchester. He has worked in the oil industry for 35 years and maintains that Westminster is happy to take the tax revenue, but unwilling to invest in oil projects, unlike Norway and the US.Thoughtful and intelligent piece.

  94. frank cobb says:

    As an English person who is interested in the referendum, I should point out that 99 per cent of the people I k ow a d meet are disinterest end in the debate and outcome_

  95. frank cobb says:

    Also I find it difficult writing on a tablet

  96. Allan Thomson says:

    To quote a famous Scotsman I’m sure all thinking Scots will “see the matter whole” when the “New Deal” arrives! Or will it be the Auld Deil? as ever in sheeps clothing. After all they continue to – “prefer sheep to thinking men, and men who think like sheep are even better”
    PS apologies to all women for that somewhat sexist last line. It’s part of the song! Check it out it’s good. No Gods and precious few heroes.

  97. apolitical says:

    In the interests of adding a little levity into the debate I thought I might suggest a unity speech in part from another Great statesman. by the first minister in the event of a yes vote .

    We shall negotiate in the beaches
    we shall negotiate in the hills
    we shall negotiate in the streets
    we shall negotiate in Brussels
    we shall negotiate in Westminster
    we shall never stop whinging
    And all from a position of weakness brilliant strategy!

  98. sam says:

    hi their I just wanted to let u all known I work for lyods but im voting yes . the companies themselves lyods rbs etc were all among the members who signed the better together support letter but we were asked If we could issue statements to give the impression that we contingency plans were being written can i just confirm this is untrue and that we were asked to make a statement but its not happening

    kind regards

  99. Hugh says:

    I live in hope that the Scottish people see through all the lies and scaremongering, given out by Westminster. If not, we will always be the poor relative. We also in this campaign see the true side to the people in the south of England towards Scotland ,in that we are all just a bunch of scroungers. This is how they think of us. This will be enforced in there view if the NO`s win.

  100. Jade McLaughlin says:

    In an Independent Scotland how would mortgage rates be effected?

  101. Jet says:

    Hi first time post
    I have been watching the comments and
    Articles on this and other websites as well
    As the polls I am self employed in the building trade
    The polls that I see do not represent what I see every day
    The real working class have grabed the idea of indapendance
    With both hands they are the people that work every hour they
    Can but struggle to pay the bills the comments of the uk party leaders
    And the bbc not only don’t hit the mark they are not even pointed in the
    General direction of the target as a result I am taking 10 people to vote and myself
    8 first time voters for any party all in mid 30s And 2 ex labour voters plus one snp voter me none of us has been polled or even spoken to so thanks to the rev for all his effort it has made a staggering
    Difference to man in the street to have you here

  102. Gerry Robertson says:

    Following on the heels of RBS/Lloyds more bad news I’m afraid for the Nationalists tonight (and believe me this is no contingency) I’ve just noticed hundreds of Geese moving South – without any prompting from Downing Street this time.
    Sorry just scaremongering again.

  103. george brown says:

    Hello my name is George Brown and I live in Glasgow. I have English friends who live here who say they will move back to England if we vote for independence. I am going to vote yes but don’t want to lose my friends. I want to say that I am not voting against English people but against Westminster politics.
    To all the 370,000 English nationals and the 130,000 European nationals who live here this is not a vote against you. You should stay whatever the result of the independence referendum both with the rights of an EU citizen and in friendship whichever way you vote.
    thank you, George.

  104. Ovic says:

    Gerry Robertson says:
    12 September, 2014 at 7:46 pm
    Following on the heels of RBS/Lloyds more bad news I’m afraid for the Nationalists tonight (and believe me this is no contingency) I’ve just noticed hundreds of Geese moving South – without any prompting from Downing Street this time.
    Sorry just scaremongering again.

    Well, if a Bank wants to do any business they will keep staff in that country. Banks like HSBC, Citibank and Barclays have staff all over the world. But registered office is in UK (London) and all in Canary Warf. Lloyds TSB always had it in London, at least as long as I worked for them. I am surprised that they are moving from Scotland. It must be result of the latest split up to make 2 entities Lloyds and TSB.
    Business do not care about Tax Registered offices, they are there to bring down Tax. Amazon has Tax registered office in Luxembourg, but its major distribution center is in Scotland.

    Also, no one can say/predict anything until negotiations have started. With UK, when it leaves EU, it will be a disaster. At least, with iScotland we will be able to remain in EU.

  105. stuart gill says:

    To all the red turncoats ukok voters that have no faith,no respect and no morals, hide yer heed in shame and don’t bother to sing “Scotland the Brave”anymore,after the 18th of September, “you can go back to England and tell them there Scotland is theirs no more” Yaasssssss

  106. Patrick says:

    It’s not just Clegg that’s got previous on breaking pledges – Cameron gave a “cast-iron guarantee” to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and then broke it http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/nov/04/david-cameron-referendum-campaign-over

  107. A Currie says:

    I’ve been at this point 35 years ago and we voted the percentage nescessary only to be cheated overnight by a change of the required percentage. Whats to stop them repeating their performance? Everyone knows the old adage, divide and quonquer. These people know every move in the book. Gus.

  108. Joe McGowan says:

    I have been reading this site for the last 8 weeks.
    I was previously a no voter. Couldn’t understand why anyone would vote yes.

    My conversation came, like so many, from being told by people who I didn’t vote for that Scotland was not capable of going it alone.

    I was told by people I did vote for that making big complicated decisions wasn’t in the Scottish DNA.

    A friend told me to to look at this site. Find out for myself what the truth is before making my mind up.

    It has been a revelation. It’s the first thing I tell people to look at to see beyond the spin and the blatent lies put out by the various media outlets.

    Thank you helping to prevent me making the single worse decision of my and my childrens lives.

    can you imagine, as I have, what you would say to a grandchild if they asked you in the near future if you voted in the independence referendum and you said that you voted no to this one real time you could make history.
    It makes me feel sad just typing it.

    lets hope that tomorrow this increadible feeling of solidarity and goodwill is represented in a resounding yes for all our sakes.

  109. hopeful says:

    question/s:
    I am disabled and HEAVILY reliant on direct payments & also reliant on my Motability vehicle. And HEAVILY reliant on health services.

    A: What will happen with my direct payments, can a scottish government guarantee my direct payment/self directed support income?
    Bi. Losing my Motabilty Contract hire vehicle with special adaptations would be unthinkable, and although I can see my current contract continuing until its natural end, when this contract expires will i be able to get a new vehicle under a new scottish scheme(and there are thousands of disabled persons dependent on these vehicles)?

    Bii: Has anybody actually done research into the possibility of a motability type operation / set up.

    C: I am currently recieving a higher care & higher mobility components of disability living allowance (I know that this is likely to change to PIP in the UK, how would a scottish government in an independant scotland ensure i recieve benefit and a reasonable standard of living.

    D: I appreciate the benefit of the NHS very much, but i also have concerns that they have not met my needs with regards to choice of medicine to treat a common auto immune/ endocrine conditions i suffer from:

    I need reassurance that the NHS would meet my needs & also hope that a scottish NHS could meet my needs which are not currenlty being met…I have had to seek private medical care and buy drugs online to meet my medical needs…
    Is there or will there be any improvements in treating patients less presciptively but more on a individual basis.

    HAve some medical practitioners got together with the intention to make changes / improvements to the NHS as sometimes i feel it is tied down by NICE & the old cronies from the GMC.

    I look forward to hearing from you as i have not decided which way i am voting yet- naturally i don’t wish to lose my mobility and this is making me want to vote no…

    thank you

    hopeful

  110. tony campbell says:

    I am not a member of any political party but voted YES yesterday morning. I am proud that I voted for hope rather than fear and I will continue to stay positive.

    I am surprised at the Yes voters here crying foul or even worse saying they are not proud to be Scottish, one even said she had never been a proud Scot? How does that work.

    My main point of discussion is the following;

    Did the Yes campaign get it wrong? I am proud that my area, North Lanarkshire voted Yes along with Dundee, West Dumbartonshire and Glasgow. Areas historically overwhelmingly Labour. Yet areas of nationalist heartland such as Moray and Perth and Aberdeenshire voted overwhelmingly NO. Places like Falkirk, Clackmannanshire and West Lothian also voted decisively NO. May suggest that the Yes campaign may have overstretched resources in west central Scotland at the expense of much softer targets. I find it incredible that areas that have SNP MP’s and MSP’s voted so decisively No. It just does not make sense to me.

    Opinions please!

  111. Hugh says:

    That`s an easy one It`s where all the money people live. Big landowners. Aberdeenshire Loads of money

  112. joseph mcgown says:

    I’ve lived in Inverness for the past 8 years. I was a no vote from the outset. Changed my mind when osborne &co said we couldn’t get the pound and all the other shameful misinformation placed in the biased media outlets.

    There are yes posters everwhere. In home windows gadens fields and the yes campaigners have always been out there handing out information and answering peoples concerns.

    Why was the yes vote so poor in the highlands? It may be there was less focus on outlying areas but inverness itself voted yes.

    The feelgood factor that has enveloped the town for the last few weeks was sadly gone today.

    no one can believe the result.

  113. Welsh Phil says:

    A long time lurker and first time poster here.

    I just wanted to offer you all, and particularly Mr Stuart Campbell, heartfelt commiserations. I feel bad enough, so God knows what it feels like from a Scottish perspective.

    Don’t let the flame go out though. WoS is the first website I check when I get up in the morning and it’s the last one I check before I turn in for the night.

    I can’t believe how utterly clueless the No voters have been. I’m sure many of them will come to realise in the days ahead that they’ve made fools of themselves. Also many of them are surely a salesman’s dream. Westminster certainly saw them coming.

    A long time friend tells me that his son’s Scottish girlfriend (she was born and brought up in Scotland) voted No. But she has an English father who voted Yes….interesting! Anyway, she lives and works in France so I pointed out that if Fartrage’s gang and the right-wing Conservative MPs get their way, we’ll be out of Europe and she may need to look for another job because she could be classed, at some point in the future, an illegal immigrant. I hope the message gets through to her.

    I’m praying that the SNP clean up in the forthcoming elections. I really wish we had the calibre of politicians in Wales that you have there. However, Leanne Wood looks promising.

    May I suggest you place, alongside the bronze statue of Donald Dewar, one of Alex Salmond………..the man’s a living legend in this neck of the woods……..well in my house anyway 🙂

  114. Neo-Nazi Thugs Take First Opportunity To Create Trouble Shock!
    And in other news, Pope comes out as Catholic; bear shit found in woods…

  115. Phil mann says:

    We need rid of the Labour Party

  116. Hugh says:

    We need labour to get in. So they destroy themselves. Let them pick up this baby and let them run with it. Without oil revenue coming direct to Scotland. Who`s going to get taxed. The poor who will suffer the most. The labour voters wanted Union let them go with it. Let them see the error of there Vote.

  117. Jellybaby rock says:

    For anyone thinking they can just not pay your TV licence & watch any kind of footage at all on PC, I pad, net book , lap top, games console or even phone. You still require the same TV licence no mater what you watch it on or what form you watch it in, for eg Netflix ect. The TV licensing equipment still picks up your use of a broadcasting device the exact same & you still risk the exact same hefty fine which would be payed to BBC.
    This is legally binding & there is even info on your TV licence regarding it or go to TV licensing & see for yourself.

  118. joe McGowan says:

    I have only ever voted labour but the way they have conducted themselves during this campaign means I will not be doing that again.

    They claim to serve the people yet didn’t even consult us to find out what we wanted. Instead they fed us misinformation and lies and will againl leave us with unfulfilled promises.

    I don’t recognise them as being a socialist movement. How can they.

  119. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    “For anyone thinking they can just not pay your TV licence & watch any kind of footage at all on PC, I pad, net book , lap top, games console or even phone. You still require the same TV licence no mater what you watch it on or what form you watch it in, for eg Netflix ect. “

    This is rubbish. I posted a picture and link of the BBC’s own iPlayer website saying you don’t need a licence for catch-up, FFS. Read things properly.

  120. apolitical says:

    Would there be any merit in discussing a possible partition within Scotland starting with the four electoral districts that voted yes ,and obviously other areas that might go on board ,revenues etc would have to be sorted out etc i.e shared 40%\60 approx., no one would really need to move to the separated counties unless they really wanted too and tax could be collected much the same if you worked in another part of the eu . Would this satisfy both camps to some degree because it is obvious that neither camp will work well with the other It sounds complicated but is it much different from devo\max or separation from ruk.

  121. Ryan Plut says:

    Rev Stu, I am so glad I found your website during the referendum. I was so unhappy when the plebiscite came up a squeaker ‘NO’. I’ve always wanted to make a comment but did not know how. I have my avatar all ready to go, for when I’m authorized. Ta.

  122. Aspen says:

    Went to have a look at the Democracy Demo. in Parliament Square about 5pm. The Grassed area is all fenced off – “for repairs”. There seemed to be more police than demonstrators one of whom told me people were scared to come because of the media reporting violent arrests. I found the atmosphere of apathy much more scarey.

  123. Bellaboy says:

    The ‘signed Vow’ was a lie made up in the DR.

    The three amigos were wrongly reported about signing a vow.

    Normally when a newspaper reports lies about leaders of main parties they are quick enough to complain and get an apology. The article being subsequently retracted.

    I wonder why they said nothing on this occasion?

  124. Joe McGowan says:

    The Diabolical Record may have printed the vow on the front page of its publication but Brown in particular wasn’t slow in using it as a standard to lead his followers and a gread deal of misguided undecided voters into the situation we are in now.

    A country being led by the nose by a corrupt organisation with only their own self intrests at heart.

    they were never to be trusted and we can only hope that a fair percentage of those who voted no realise their mistake and start asking questions of themselves as to what kind of country they want to create for the future of all people who live in Scotland.

  125. Jenma says:

    Hello
    Who was it discussed with and what was discussed?

  126. John Mc Gurk says:

    It is good to see so many people in good spirit after the
    No vote. I think Scotland is on a course to independence,
    that I think will happen sooner than we expect. Due to the actions of the parties in Westminster watering down the
    (DEVO-MAX) settlement and the disagreement on the EU

  127. Pixywine says:

    Brand New Scottish Labour branch office

  128. Jörg says:

    Again I try to say hello …

  129. Gareth says:

    Love this site and would like to see an idiots guide to how all the tax stuff works.may help folk like me understand more.for example the barrnet system

  130. Frank M says:

    Rev Stu.
    I have tried at various times to make pro-independence comments on your site and none of them have ever appeared. I don’t believe that this is satisfactory and I am bemused. I comment on Bella and other sites without any problem. I do not expect any answer from you at all, but I am just letting you know. I now give up.

  131. captmaxspacecat says:

    well that’s it had enough so just joined snp today.

  132. hamish says:

    Will the five year fixed term parliament still be in place following the 2015 election?

  133. Leslie Garner says:

    Now come on please wingers pay yer telly license.EBC is in dire straits it canny pay for the gowf.In a word GOOD the lying two faced english Corporation

  134. Graeme Dingwaii says:

    I found myself on the sharp end of some criticism after I posted your article on the NHS nurse being used by labour in a leaflet, The NHS is something that is close to my heart and to find out your article is nothing more than wind and pish!!! Which I think you are more than aware of. This put me in an position I wish not to be in, so I ask that you check the facts before posting such pish in the future. thank you.

  135. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    “I found myself on the sharp end of some criticism after I posted your article on the NHS nurse being used by labour in a leaflet, The NHS is something that is close to my heart and to find out your article is nothing more than wind and pish!!! Which I think you are more than aware of. This put me in an position I wish not to be in, so I ask that you check the facts before posting such pish in the future. thank you.”

    Kindly identify what facts you think we got wrong.

  136. Alastair says:

    In the Fife &Kinrross Extra today HM Government have a full page advert in support of the Union. Surely 7 weeks before the election this politically sensitive. Is it legal? Presumably we have all paid into this? See the HM Government website http://www.OurUnitedFuture.tumblr.com

  137. Elizabeth Cameron says:

    I’ve been looking for somewhere to ask a question. I thought that as my first comment is moderated, this was as good a place as any.

    Apparently there was a meeting, arranged by Tom Greatrex, as there is a proposal to close the After hours GP service at the New Victoria.
    I found this amid the comments and it’s not the first time I’ve come up against Labour quoting this ‘fact’

    “Dr Barrett informed everyone that local funding for services has been cut . Who all knows the fact that the Scottish Government has an ‘UNDERSPEND’ of Four Hundred and Forty four million pounds lying in an account somewhere . This is what we should be asking questions about . Our services are going to the dogs while this absurdity exists”

    I really doubt there’s any truth in this, but SLabour should not be able to go around lying any more than they already are. Any info on this would be welcome.

    I do not expect this to be published

  138. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    “Any info on this would be welcome.”

    Can do: http://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/letters/145m-is-the-true-underspend-1-3660011

  139. D Doc says:

    I’ve made a few comments and then they get lost in cyberspace. I’m obviously doing something wrong. So, on this occasion, I’m writing nothing but this mince in order to register a comment.
    Hello! Testing 123. Bicycles, tricycles, testing.
    😉

  140. alastair says:

    Check out cartoon of Miliband and Nic on Guido Fawkes. After all the innuendo of the weekend again a cartoon focuses very simply the truth. I am refreshed.

  141. Mairs says:

    The Reverend Stuart Campbell may have no use for medals, but he certainly deserves one for his contribution to Scottish freedom.

    Apologies to all for going off topic

  142. David Roy says:

    Hi Stuart…we had a brief chat pre-Indyref on a Facebook page but I havent posted here up until now.I was wondering if anyone could shed any light on the tactic being utilised by pro-unionists of scaring people of a mature and impressionable age…a.k.a. SCAREMONGERING…a despicable tactic irrespective who adopts it as policy.Given its a General Election,The Establishment figures such as our own Scottish High Heid ‘Yin (Carmichael) would probably shrug his shoulders (as in ‘The Case of The Leaked Memo’)and say ‘Well..these things happen’…so are these tactics ‘fair game’..I’m sure Police Scotland would not adopt such a ‘shit happens’ approach towards myself should I indulge in such bullying tactics towards my elderly neighbour.

  143. Joe McGowan says:

    Couldn’t agree more. Everywhere you look you see political parties lying to the public knowing that a large proportion of them won’t attempt to check on the veracity of the statements. When did lying become acceptable practice for our political parties? It wasn’t that long ago that politicians would resign if they were found to have misled the public or done something that brought their integrity into question. Now it seems that lying is just part of the game with no consequences for those who use these means to get elected into office. We seen it during the referendum and it continues today.

  144. The Black Dalek says:

    Is Jim really cracking under the strain? Personally, I think he is at it. Seeing him like this I am reminded of Jasper Carrott’s comments on Benny from Crossroads.

    “Is he really that dim? Because if he’s not, he must be a really good actor. And what’s a really good actor doing heading Scottish Labour?”

    Well I can think of at least two possible reasons.

    1) Feigning mental incapacity seems to be the WM establishment’s Plan A for the avoidance of responsibility when they get caught out, as in “Don’t blame me for the election disaster in Scotland, ah’m aff ma heid.”

    2) We are all still waiting for Jim’s masterstroke – the much-trailed 11th hour move which will stand existing opinion polls on their heads and return the usual 50 Slabberring lobby fodder to Westminster. “That will take a miracle”, I hear you say. What better miracle than Jim announcing, on or about May 5th, that yes, he was clinically certifiable, but he’s fine now, and this miracle could be yours if you vote for Scottish Labour on May 7th.

    Who knows? Maybe in the long term he is aiming for Saint Jim, rather than Lord Jim? Either way, he is at least worth an Equity card.

  145. yabadabadoo says:

    Part Two

    Robert Peffers says:
    “Unless, of course the rich have taken to printing their own money.”

    4/ The banks dont care about inflation as they take £1 from BoE then previously purchased £59 of British Government debt (10yr Gilt) at 1.69% giving them around £1 profit in ONE year. They can now pay back the BoE the £1 they owe and cream in £1 a year for the next 9 years and pay themselves a nice bonus for being so good at fraud.

    The bizarre thing in all of this is that the stated position of the SNP and especially AS is to KEEP the BoE and the British Empire banking system.

    Look at how the bbc try and close down Jim Sillars when he is explaining what is going on.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwDMXjyuNOg

    OT
    FFA was Gordon Brown’s promise of the nearest thing to home rule. It is almost worthless and potentially a trap.

    The Scottish people will not get any power until the Scottish Government can coin its own money and this is enshrined in the Constitution period(like USA and Switzerland).

    Why pay interest on money creation to the City of London when it can be done for free?

  146. Argyle says:

    Ironically, guy on the left, stays in the homeless centre around the corner from this photo. Talk about bigotry, over ruling your basic needs in life.

  147. scunneredwiwm says:

    Regarding the Scotland Bill 2015, I also had a dip and found reference to the National Assembly for Wales (Transfer of Functions) Order 1999 …

    On Page 45/81 Paragraph 37(2)

    Can it be for real?

  148. GallusEffie says:

    Trying something out…still learning.

    youtu.be/d4aLjI7Vyuk

  149. john young says:

    Are you receiving me.

  150. Am you now accepting my email address

  151. p.paterson says:

    Been reading the comments for approx. 1hr very interesting. For many years, never let the truth get in the way of a good story, has been the mantra for editors in the gutter press. This statement pretty much covers the furore over Michelle Thomson. It is amazing how the press including the BBC all came up with the same crap story at the same time and totally ignored the statement SHE WAS NOT PART OF THE POLICE INVESTIGATION. If ever proof was needed that the WHITEHALL establishment is rotten to the core this is it IT STINKS. The anti Scottish Home Rule propaganda machine is up and running true to form. They will print anything they like to denigrate the Scottish Government and the SNP you can expect this from now till the elections.

  152. Tinman says:

    Given that there have been many complaints of bias against Scotland’s newspapers and TV, do you think the Scottish Government should legislate that some Scottish Media output should controlled here?

    Do you agree with 10%?

    Or 20%?

    Or are you happy with none?

  153. Carolyn Ritchie says:

    As a teacher and an active SNP member, I just don’t get why we need the new “standardised assessments”. Just wrong.

  154. UMSM, Unionist academics & Labour MPs: paid perjurers and Brit spies.

  155. G. Campbell says:

    China, Qatar corruption = SNP BAD.

    BAE Systems corruption = BRITISH JOBS SECURED.

    “Ordinary punters won’t have heard much about gas-rich Middle Eastern dynasty accused of corruptly buying the 2022 World Cup while building football stadiums in the desert on the sun-bleached bones of immigrant labour.”

    Presumably this means the Daily Record will be boycotting the event (unless The Rangers declare independence and qualify, of course).

    “Right now we need a guarantee that the Scottish government will only use British steel, to protect British jobs, in all future procurement contracts.”

    Briitsh steel for British construction projects. How very nationalist.

    “But what would Sturgeon’s £10 billon infrastructure investment Chinese partners have to say about that?”

    “Why is that weird man with the beard so xenophobic?” most likely.

  156. Saltires-never-tire says:

    Hi everyone!
    First post,regular reader.

    In the light of last night’s result and reading everyone’s posts, there’s a lot of positive outcomes here.

    SNP can only go from strength to strength from here. It’s great to see SNP getting in for a third term. Despite the BBC’s tiresome efforts to turn round the success to an SNP failure. Furthermore we’ve managed to flush out Labour from Hollyrood. Instead of crying over the
    tories making a come back thanks to the old Labour fans desperate to seek the next best party,this can work for independence in the long run.If we only just accept for the meantime we’ll need to play the long game for independence.

    This can happen as it’ll only be a matter of time when the tories become the next useless party the same way labour went. The Tories can’t help themselves.Time will tell when Ruth looses focus on what the tories are trying to achieve when she plays the game of blocking every SNP Scotland issue that is crucial to the interests of the Scottish people. Wait until the tactical labour voter sees that the tories don’t stop at anything and don’t care for who they stamp all over to get their power,including those who at a despirate measure wanted them in.

    Secondly the greens will need to play politically careful as any united effort with the Tories could loose this big breakthrough they’ve been waiting for to get seats in Hollyrood. The greens can also be useful in terms of keeping fracking out of Scotland.

    Lastly, when Ruth does and she will,block SNP moves,SNP needs to join with the greens which still has a majority rule over the tories and what’s left of labour seats in Edinburgh. Therefore for the greens to be heard,they need the SNP.

    Roll on June,it’ll be interesting to see what comes out of the European referendum.

    Hang in there everyone,we need to stop the BBC and other toxic sources drip feeding the ill-informed,keep voting at all elections including the by elections and be patient.

  157. Whitegold says:

    Saltires never tire
    Amen to that.
    Good shout, for a first post.

  158. Christopher Bruce says:

    Listen people. The United Kingdom is not a country! Britain is not a country.

    Westminster uses ‘Britain’ , ‘UK’ and England when all the time it means England.

    These terms are not interchangeable.

    Scotland is a country recognised throughout the world as a country and a culture quite different to England, Ireland or Wales but Scotland is in a trading union with England which has, as far as the Scots are concerned, broken down.

    We don’t try and tell the English what to do but we have to tell Westminster that we are leaving this sorry union that has cheated us out of so much.

    Had the situation of the oil been made apparent to Scots in the 70s instead of slapping a 30 year secrecy block on it, independence then would have the Scotland of today as one of the top 5 wealthiest countries in the world!

    No food banks, no early deaths due to cold and under nourishment. An education system back up into the top echelons in the world. A world beating Public Heath System. Compassionate support for those that desperately need it. No nuclear weapons and a Scottish government chosen by the Scots.

    We missed it last time because of the countless lies.

    You know who the liars are, you know what they are trying to do this time, but sweep them away.

    There is such a radical difference between Scotland and England now, that there is only one clear path if the interests of Scots, their young, and Scotland itself is to be given proper consideration in the wider world.

  159. Pictish Freak says:

    Been lurking here for a while now & this is the first time I’ve visited your “About Us” page! Oops!

    Anyway, amazing site. And I absolutely love those quotes, especially the Daily Mail ones that are clearly describing themselves!

  160. BBC Scotland Tells Lies says:

    The Daily Record – David Clegg
    Scottish Labour – Paul Sinclair
    BBC Scotland – Ken McQaurrie

    This used to be the Holy Trinity of Scottish politics. They decided what news we were fed and what news we were denied on a daily basis.

    To this day they are still trying to shape our lives. But thankfully more and more Scots have woken up to their lies and they are becoming less and less relevant.

  161. YESuscitate Scotia says:

    newbie.

    howdy all.

  162. Stephen Pratt says:

    It’s quite possible Scotland might have a lot of allies this time round from south of the border, A massive amount of English business and commerce voted to remain in Europe, I no that they can’t vote in a Scottish referendum but they may see an independent Scotland in Europe as keeping a foot in the door so to speak especially if they were to relocate there business to Scotland, just a thought.

  163. colin alexander says:

    Indyref2 =

    Having shot your left foot, wait a few years telling yourself it will be different next time and then shoot your right foot.

    ——————————–

    An Indyref campaign that didn’t offer independence:

    English Monarch as head of state.

    Monetary Union, with Bank of England running the Scottish economy

    EU membership where somewhere between 13-62% of laws are made by the EU and all trade deals would be EU trade deals, and we wouldn’t have control of our own agriculture and fisheries etc.

    —————————–

    Indyref run on UK Govt terms – as the UK Govt has to give permission, UK Govt set the question and refused permission to allow alternative choices to indy. All or nothing: No Devo-Max or Home Rule to vote for.

    That gave the UK Govt / No a blank cheque to offer the moon without seeking a mandate – so no obligation to deliver campaign promises as it wasn’t part of the referendum. “No” wasn’t a vote for anything except a rejection of independence: ( The Tories and allies used that one again in GE2017 with the resulting loss of 21 SNP MPs. The electorate were told a vote for the Tories was a vote against indy, not told it’s a vote for a Tory Govt, but it gave us a Tory Govt.

    The SNP stood for: “Keep Scotland Strong at Westminster”.)

    ——————————————–

    YES campaign v NO campaign that hindsight shows were both full of false predictions and false promises that neither side were obliged to fulfil.

    ——————————————-

    Yes campaign run like a SNP election manifesto campaign with YES being a referendum on SNP policies for an independent Scotland not just a question on independence v WM domination. This turned indyref into a SNP v Labour/Tories/LibDems contest.

    —————————–

    The result was a clear victory for the Unionists. Now the UK is planning to leave the EU, a policy supported by a third of YES voters, the idea is to hold another indyref as, we are told that will give YES a majority.

    ——————————-

    If the SNP are so sure it’s a game changer, a winner: stand for election on that manifesto. Put your jobs where your mouth is, if you are so sure of victory. Bin WM devolution. Stand up for a real government not a Mickey Mouse one.

    An end to a Mickey Mouse parliament. A Holyrood that pays Hollywood sized salaries and cushy pensions and allows nice jobs on the side writing for anti-independence newspapers. If Indy is a winner this time, make it:

    A vote for the SNP is a vote for independence. Real independence, not our economy run by the Bank of England or the EU.

    A vote for the SNP is a vote to end devolution. The SNP standing ONLY for independence – never standing again for the chance to administer WM devolution.

  164. Joseph says:

    thanks

  165. Joseph says:

    subscription

  166. Old Pete says:

    Why are you blocking my comments ?

  167. Joseph says:

    test i think

  168. gullanenò4 says:

    Loved the SNP front bench waving goodbye to the Scots Tory MP’S last night after BJ announces he will hold an election.

  169. Sayajirao says:

    O/T
    Have any OAP and disabled Fifers had a letter from our
    Westminster MP? I got said letter today. It seems to be
    asking people to register for postal votes and they have
    sent a form for this purpose. Odd or what.

  170. Famous15 says:

    I think you have been hacked

    Image not stable.

  171. Prasad says:

    I wrote to my MSP Michael Russell.
    Here is my e-mail and his reply in full. I find it astonishing. I asked about legal justice and i got an answer about ‘work together, not cast aspersions on others.’ which was totally irrelevant to the topic i raised.

    Date: 14/05/2020 14:16
    From: Michael.Russell.msp1@parliament.scot
    Subject: Re: Too serious to let slide
    To: “Anand Prasad”

    [no introduction]
    I do not accept that any of this shows “without a doubt” that there is an almighty stink.

    If we want independence we have to work together, not cast aspersions on others and I would give that advice to anyone who asked me.

    I am also not willing to enter into a correspondence about this given the severe crisis we are all trying to address. I am trying to save businesses, communities and indeed lives at present.

    Michael

    ?On 14/05/2020, 10:20, “Anand Prasad” wrote:

    Hello Michael,
    I believe you are still my MSP and i hope you are aware of this article
    https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-appearance-of-justice/
    Whatever you opinion is of this matter in general, and to be honest i don’t think there should be an opinion without an enquiry, it is not possible to avoid some of the questions this article brings up.
    The question by Stuart Campbell about whether he can now publish the pieces he claim are contempt of law is a problem.
    COPFS will not answer whether the newspaper articles he quotes are contempt of law.
    What other conclusion can be drawn other than they aren’t going to pursue charges.
    But if Stuart Campbell now re-published those same articles is he free to do so.
    There appears to be some very serious double standards at play.
    It is a logical conundrum which to me shows without a doubt that there is an almighty stink and the public have a right to know its source.
    We need clarity if this isn’t going to wreck the SNP.

    prasad

  172. Mialuci says:

    Here is a wee funny song I made up, its sung to the tune of garryowen, just a bit of fun to help cheer us up

    Hear we go

    It was on a dreary new years eve when the shades of night came down
    A lorry load of volunteers nicked my eiderdown
    There where men from Greenock and from Ayr
    Ardrossan and Tiree
    But the leader of that gallant band was a guy called Hughie McPhee

    PS Hughie McPhee wis the shef in the crossroad motel, him an benny whur good mates lol

  173. Luke says:

    Apologies for my twattery Stuart – I posted a youtube link without reading the comments guidelines.

    What we’re seeing here is a bunch of Satanists running Holyrood at the moment. It reminds me of the “Greater Good” Scene from HotFuzz. You should check it out. The comparison is uncanny.

  174. AWhiteLife says:

    Just wanted to thank you for your work. If Nicola Amin isn’t keen on you, you are doing plenty right!

  175. dropthevipers says:

    does anyone know if the committee is now obliged to consider Salmonds new evidence?

  176. Jockanese Wind Talker says:
  177. Mark Boyle says:

    Hi Stu – just to warn you this AWhiteLife character who posted above has also put the following post on an older thread.

    https://wingsoverscotland.com/partial-justice/comment-page-1/#comment-2638607

    His last comment in particular could be construed as “threatening”.

    Some of the Stormfront nazi forum asshats have been talking about finding subtle ways of getting their “message” sneaked into more visited parts of the web – including Anthony Burgoyne’s 270sSoft website (the guy who does Prime Minister/President/Chancellor Forever/Infinity, etc).

    Just thought I’d better heads up you on this one.

  178. A worthless Nazi piece of shit projecting his self-loathing onto everyone else. Some things never change.

  179. Nordic Labrador says:

    https://twitter.com/indylabrador/status/1412486934350413832?s=21

    Hey, I know you said you were giving up on blogging about the bin fire that’s Scottish politics an all that – but your absence is really not improving things so here is an excellent story to research and write about ?

    Also, we need you more than ever – but hold out for now and enjoy the football – I await your comeback.

    Haste ye back ?

  180. nevermind says:

    It is sad to see Scotland whistling the controlled tunes of Westminster and Washington.
    Craig is a dear friend for years and his imprisonment over trumped up charges which stink of revenge for failing to show balance before the law and prosecute those who perjured themselves before this,imho, unsuitable judge for the sovereign people of Scotland, will not stop people waking up to this tarty and complicit Government and leaving the SNP.
    I wish those gatekeepers of bad complicit justice health, multiple long lingering illnesses and a painful death, because they could not even care that this innocent 62 year old father has severe health problems.

    Lastly where are the comments of our RT artist Alex Salmond? Is he as happy about CM imprisonment than the perjurers that were stirred up by people in Government to be complicit and make up stories?
    If people can’t see what is going on in Scotland now that they have jailed one the finest independent minds, how could they ever bee entrusted to live in a decentralised Independent Scotland, thinking and acting for themselves locally?
    Where are the calls to have Kirstie Wark/BBC/ and Sky prosecuted for their haste to publish names of the holy untouchable perjurers?
    My heart goes out to his family, children and all those who are fighting for a better accountable administration of this country/colony of the USUK. Rise up and be loud.

  181. EnglishUnionistAbroad says:

    I have for a few years now been occasionally reading your articles and often the comments too. Of course, as you can see from my ‘Name’, I do not live in Scotland or agree with your or most of your readers’ political aspirations. But I value the information, the perspective, your general ethics and your honesty. I am naturally Conservative, but do not believe in my party right or wrong, and believe that is possible to learn from and respect people you can still disagree with profoundly on some things. Thank you for your public service – I think we can agree that the SNP has needed holding to account, and I believe that you have done it best and with pure motives.

  182. Macsleuth says:

    One Company received £590,417.18 from the SNP in April/May 2021. That company was Critiquom Limited. This was for unsolicited leaflets to electors. (and I thought the footsoldiers did that}. I was curious to see where that money might end up. Following the “significant Control” angle lead me on a long winding trail which appeared to end up in a circle.?????

    In that vein I followed APS (Scotland) Limited – supplier of the Baby Boxes. It appeared to end up in a Trust in Jersey.

    Anyone more used to this sort of thing than me care to confirm if I am right and shed any further light?

  183. Macsleuth says:

    Not good having to correct my first post for a spelling mistake. It should be Critiqom Limited.
    You can also add a further £182707.65 in March to their takings,

  184. Corrado Mella says:

    Too little, too late.

    Dead as a parrot.

    E’s not pinin’! ‘E’s passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ‘im to the perch ‘e’d be pushing up the daisies! ‘Is metabolic processes are now ‘istory! ‘E’s off the twig! ‘E’s kicked the bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!

  185. Don Ferguson says:

    As lifelong supporter of Scottish independence and an ex member of 40 years I now find myself in the curious position of dreading an independent Scotland with the likes of these chancers framing the future political and constitutional landscape of my country.
    We have an opportunity to create a legislature comprised of ordinary people and no carreerists by making election to a Scottish parliament valid for two terms only and having a modest stipend attached.Can you imagine our great country governed by people who govern not for riches but for principle?

  186. James Barr Gardner says:

    When will H be exposed !



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