(Kelly’s article is here. Link to Grok’s answer here. The ChatGPT analysis that triggered the article can be read in this tweet thread. A verifiable analysis by Grok of the debate, based on a neutral question, can be read here.)
We’re stuck indoors waiting for a repairman today, so we had a little read-around of some of the less popular Scottish politics blogs to pass the time, and noted this:
James Kelly of Scot Goes Pop, which we gather from its front page was seemingly one of the “Top 50 Left-Wing Blogs of 2011”, is noticeably insistent on making the argument that we’re “stalking” and “obsessed” with him.
Since it was founded back in November 2011, Wings Over Scotland has been solely financed by its readers. The site has never carried any advertising, we have no secret corporate backers, everything we do is funded by transparent voluntary donations and subscriptions, mostly of a few pounds a month.
We have the freedom to write what we believe, thanks to you, our readers. And since those earliest days, opponents have tried to end that freedom by blocking our funding.
Just a quick bit of housekeeping here with regard to the new Wings comments section, which offers far more functionality but has also attracted a few complaints because it’s no longer a straight chronology of oldest-to-newest tweets.
(We could actually change that back, but the cost would be losing the ability to reply directly to individual comments, which is a big loss, so we’re leaving it as it is for now.)
To those beefing because that means you can’t now immediately tell which comments are new, a couple of helpful pointers. The easiest way to fix the problem is a simple one: keep the tab open.
If you keep the most recent page open in a tab on your browser, the Comment Bubble (visible at the bottom left of that pic) will keep track of all new comments – it refreshes every 30 seconds – and highlight them for you in yellow until you’ve read them.
(The little orange circle should take you to the first unread one if you click it.)
Sadly the Bubble stops working if you close the tab or navigate to a new page from it, but since most people have scores of tabs open at a time that shouldn’t be a problem. So there you go.
Welcome, readers, to what may be the final week of Wings Over Scotland.
We’ve been covering the Scottish Government’s horrific, draconian Hate Crime Act for almost four years now. But until this month, we hadn’t felt directly under threat by it. Wings is – sorry if this comes as a shock to anyone – based in Bath, in England, and we couldn’t see how the Scottish police could come after us.
We were curious to find out what we’d said, but it seems to have been expunged from The National’s website. We eventually managed to track the email down in our vaults, though, so just as a bit of a change, here it is, as a reminder of a different time.
The SNP having a fondness for lying about their membership wouldn’t have come as quite such a shock to the Scottish press if they paid a little more attention to this website. Because we were pointing it out two and a half years ago.
It was in October 2020 that we told you how the SNP’s 2019 accounts revealed the party’s true membership figures weren’t the claimed 126,000 but more like 87,000.
A week ago, readers, I had not the slightest interest in bringing Wings Over Scotland back full-time. I had my Twitter account again and was having fun and I was happy with that. It scratched the itch of being able to engage with politics (and people) without the depressing business of wading in it for work.
And then I witnessed the quite extraordinary sight of an elected member of Parliament, in the shape of the SNP’s pico-witted ambulant brain vacuum Karen Adam, publicly gloating about having managed to shut down the voice of someone critical of her party.
At the same time, an extremely minor blogger (the word “rival” would be to over-dignify them) re-opened hostilities in his campaign of self-declared “open warfare” against this site, with a rapid succession of posts (just a few of dozens) forming such a demented scattershot tirade that to patiently debunk all of it would have taken until Christmas.
And I’ll be honest, folks, it all pushed my buttons a wee bit. It really shouldn’t have, but it was properly outrageous and I’m occasionally human, so I thought “Sod it, if I’m going to have to put up with all this crap anyway I might as well make it worthwhile”.
As a rule I try not to respond to the literally dozens of deranged attacks on this site that are posted by James Kelly of Scot Goes Pop, but I really dislike being called a liar so I’m going to take a moment for this one.
James appears to have taken extraordinary offence to a two-paragraph stats post I put up to mark Wings’ 11th birthday this week, and has written two purple-faced rants about it. So for the record’s sake I’m going to comply with his demand as best I can.
Callum on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “The BIG questions. Should any doctor who is incapable of determining the sex of their patients be allowed to practice…” Jul 24, 07:42
Young Lochinvar on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Quality Doctor eh.. . Did she pass basic biology? Doctor! Doctor! Road traffic accident casualty just in and it looks…” Jul 24, 06:02
Young Lochinvar on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Aha!! P3nisbreath McP3nisbreathface is back after an absence no doubt at Langley and.. T A..v. And upset about a Barbie…” Jul 24, 05:51
Willie on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Reading the various comments it does seem that Alf Baird has very much become the focus of coordinated attack from…” Jul 24, 05:19
Hatey McHateface on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: ““You’re all afraid and it shows” Sure. I’m forever shitting ma kegs at the idea that TH and ‘Mrs James’…” Jul 24, 03:57
Hatey McHateface on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: ““There’s barely a comment posted here by a unionist (colonialist?) that is anything other than childish insult, threat, lies, diversion,…” Jul 24, 03:44
Hatey McHateface on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: ““What does tomorrow hold – an accusation of genocide?” Well, to be fair, the bar for that is being lowered…” Jul 24, 03:26
Young Lochinvar on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Lorn @ 11.32 This deviant crap has been about in Europe for ages. Remember the early 90s Harry Enfield/ Paul…” Jul 24, 01:25
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Ah! I didn’t know Bill Rolston had died. Tá sé anois ar shlí na fírinne, as the Irish say. Ar…” Jul 24, 00:37
Lorn on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “I agree, even if I don’t agree with every word Alf says. He is a distinguished academic and researcher and…” Jul 23, 23:45
aLurker on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “@Fearghas Thankyou for that Bill Rolston video, Indeed very interesting to hear the distilled observations from his book: “Ireland, Colonialism,…” Jul 23, 23:43
Jay on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Rob does not think ‘gender woo woo’ was really imported therefore he/she must be able to cite at least some…” Jul 23, 23:40
Lorn on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Mark Began: Scottish, British, European, Scandinavian, Commonwealth, American governments all culpable. Perhaps it is time that we stopped to wonder…” Jul 23, 23:32
Jay on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Rob does not think ‘gender woo woo’ was really imported therefore he/she must be able to cite at least some…” Jul 23, 23:08
agent x on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: ““Mark Beggan says: Which brings us back to the Scottish government.” ——————————————– No – equality training courses started after the…” Jul 23, 21:55
Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “‘equality training courses ‘ Which brings us back to the Scottish government.” Jul 23, 21:19
Captain Caveman on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “‘… Alf Baird puts forward a coherent and convincing argument based on sound and methodical academic research.’ He has done…” Jul 23, 21:16
agent x on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: ““Dr Searle When asked whether she thought Dr Upton was “obviously a man” she responded no. Ms Cunningham went on:…” Jul 23, 20:32
GM on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Aye Dave. There are as many trolling unionist accounts as Scottish nationalists posting now. The words ‘Scotland is a colony’…” Jul 23, 19:49
Aidan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “When was the last time I posted something bad about Scotland?” Jul 23, 19:25
Young Lochinvar on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Charlie Says Episode 1; Bad man/ stranger danger. I was at work and as mommy always told me make sure…” Jul 23, 19:18
Dan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “@ Lorn I’m only saying it like I see it. If you see the danger of all this woke stuff…” Jul 23, 19:13
DaveL on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “All the sad colonialists posting here regarding Alf Baird sound not a hoot different from the mentally disturbed chemical tits…” Jul 23, 19:10
Dan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Happy to talk about that as soon as you point me to the posts where I’ve been promoting the union…” Jul 23, 19:09