Ridiculously, more than eight hours after voting closed in an all-electronic election in which “counting” should have taken a maximum of one second, and at 11.30pm, the SNP have released the results of this year’s NEC elections.
There are some big stories.
Alyn Smith is OUT as Policy Development Convener, replaced by Chris Hanlon.
We had, we think it’s only fair to say, extremely low expectations of Nicola Sturgeon’s keynote speech this afternoon to the SNP’s soporific, strangled 2020 non-conference. It seems that members felt the same, because 15 seconds before the speech began only 1,166 of them were logged in to watch it.
The speech she just delivered, though, limboed under those expectations in platform shoes and a stovepipe hat without even grazing the underside of the bar.
In a post last month we referenced a ZX Spectrum computer game from 1984 called “Worse Things Happen At Sea”. Today as we watched the First Minister on the Andrew Marr Show, we were put in mind of another nautical-disaster-themed one from a great deal nearer to the end of the Speccy’s life.
When’s a Plan B not a Plan B? Well, when it’s something that could and should have been done already, and won’t be anywhere near adequate even if delivered.
Yet that seems to be what some colleagues are now arguing for. It’s welcome that their thoughts are at last turning to the possibility of the Tories saying No to the Scottish people’s democratic vote. But it’s happening dangerously slowly as the dismantling of devolution and reintegration into the UK gathers pace. Which’s why the Yes Movement needs to act now, not after a Holyrood election.
This week on Wings has been altogether more navel-gazey than we’re comfortable with, as various SNP MPs have mounted a series of all-out personal attacks on the site before the weekend’s crucial NEC elections.
So we’ll have a proper article for you a little later on today, but in the meantime it’d be remiss of us not to tidy up the last fragments of shrapnel, so we’ll direct you to the right of reply to Alyn Smith’s column that The National kindly gave us today:
(Sadly they chose to disable comments, we’d quite have enjoyed the reaction from the few remaining diehard leadership loyalists still posting there.)
We couldn’t help but chuckle yesterday when the £100K-a-year Westminster MP and obsessive Wings Over Scotland reader “Pension Pete” Wishart announced – in the space of six minutes – that this site was simultaneously an irrelevance that nobody listened to, but also somehow one of the greatest threats to independence.
Wings Over Scotland marked its ninth birthday earlier this month. To be honest, we totally forgot about it until someone reminded us. Normally we mark the anniversary with a small reflection and taking of stock over how things are going, but this year we couldn’t be bothered – we’d already mentioned readership stats in August.
But today in The National we found out that we were apparently dead.
But reports of our demise have been, as the saying goes, somewhat exaggerated.
Young Lochinvar on The quality of mercy: “Yahweh help the Is Rye Ale Ees if the I rans find the downed US pilot first. It’s a Vietnam…” Apr 5, 03:53
James on The quality of mercy: “Well, that’s “Phil” shot down in flames….. But Adrian’s working through the holidays….” Apr 4, 23:57
Confused on The quality of mercy: “since we seem to be regressing to “ropey old shite, debunked n-teenth times … ” – let’s put an old…” Apr 4, 23:32
Confused on The quality of mercy: “quite right, my fellow Scot. if the scotch were left alone with excess revenue from copious oil, gas, wind and…” Apr 4, 23:29
Phil on The quality of mercy: “Time, no- long overdue, to face some facts. This site, brilliant as it is, suffers from some fundamental flaws: first,…” Apr 4, 23:01
robertkknight on The quality of mercy: “The SNP are about as interested in independence as a vegetarian is in a mouthful of steak tartare. Fuck ’em.…” Apr 4, 22:13
Lorncal on The quality of mercy: “‘Wokism’ and the hard left are the real problem and they will follow into an independent Scotland unless they are…” Apr 4, 21:06
factchecker on The quality of mercy: “Professor, you must try harder to throw off the colonial yoke. You of all people should show a good example.…” Apr 4, 19:30
Geri on The quality of mercy: “The Fascism is strong in you, Areswipe. You don’t get to choose anything. You don’t even have a vote here.…” Apr 4, 18:59
Geri on The quality of mercy: “Very true. Start with overhauling the school curriculum. That’s where the mindset starts along with dumbing down critical thinking. People…” Apr 4, 18:52
Aidan on The quality of mercy: “There’s no leave for us James, the British state has made countering a towering separatist intellect like yourself a number…” Apr 4, 18:50
Aidan on The quality of mercy: “That’s right Geri, next time the “march” will be a swim from Leith to Kirkcaldy.” Apr 4, 18:44
Young Lochinvar on The quality of mercy: “Beggars Keep your sexual proclivities tae yersel “old boy”..” Apr 4, 18:40
Young Lochinvar on The quality of mercy: “Beggars And why exactly would I be on benefits? A bit of “othering” mixed up with “projecting” from you there…” Apr 4, 18:36
James on The quality of mercy: “Aren’t you lot on leave this weekend, “old boy”?” Apr 4, 18:35
Geri on The quality of mercy: “Areswipe, Can you not comprehend plain English? They make the route as difficult & as annoying as possible in the…” Apr 4, 18:09
Mark Beggan on The quality of mercy: “Four legs good two legs bad.” Apr 4, 17:49
Aidan on The quality of mercy: “I’m surprised the colonial authorities let it take place at all Alf. They must have your number marked though!” Apr 4, 17:45
Alf Baird on The quality of mercy: ““Scotland’s ethnocultural footprint is still large compared to other peoples” Indeed and it may well be that oor Scottish ethnicity…” Apr 4, 17:16
TURABDIN on The quality of mercy: “It also needs the intellectual capacity to effect such change. And there is the nub of the matter. So many…” Apr 4, 17:07
Alf Baird on The quality of mercy: ““It was blustery and chilly as fuck in Scotland” In addition, the route of this march was 2-3 times longer…” Apr 4, 16:57
Cynicus on The quality of mercy: “I know. I was trying to add a little humorous value!” Apr 4, 16:53
Dan on The quality of mercy: ““Yet fewer than two out of every thousand of them could be arsed with getting a bus or train to…” Apr 4, 16:30
Alf Baird on The quality of mercy: ““Scotland needs regime change” Decolonisation means a lot more than just ‘regime change’; it demands the complete transformation of colonial…” Apr 4, 16:24
agentx on The quality of mercy: “The reason I posted the link was to show that the march actually was reported by the BBC.” Apr 4, 16:17
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The quality of mercy: “Apologies. Correct spelling of host’s surname: FINKIELKRAUT” Apr 4, 14:53
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The quality of mercy: “In relation to HANNAH ARENDT’s leaving of Germany for refuge in France in 1933, this radio podcast discusses questions of…” Apr 4, 14:39
