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Wings Over Scotland


In pursuit of clarity 55

Posted on June 06, 2026 by

Wings has today sent the following emails.

————————————————————————-

The Chief Constable
Police Scotland
5 Fettes Avenue
Edinburgh
EH4 1RB

6 June 2026

Thank you for your (very swift) reply to my letter. However, I am afraid that it leaves more questions than answers.

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The Interesting Words Round 135

Posted on June 05, 2026 by

We received two emails today, just a few minutes apart. There are a couple of notable things about them. The first came from Claire Somebody at the Crown Office.

The second one, even more thrillingly, came from Service Advisor 1989847 at Police Scotland, which we assume is some sort of advanced crime-fighting robot.

In one of those emails, readers, is a three-word phrase that raised our eyebrows just about right off our heads. Before we chat any more, see if it jumps out at you too.

The Lord Of The Rings 77

Posted on June 05, 2026 by

John Swinney knows the rules. He can’t pretend he doesn’t.

So let there be no mistake about this: if Police Scotland and the Crown Office refuse to investigate the First Minister’s open public confirmation this week that a serious crime was committed by the SNP over the “ring-fenced” fundraiser money from 2017 and 2019, it will be beyond any fair dispute that Scotland is a corrupt banana republic where the powerful and the elite can simply do whatever they want, as brazenly as they like, and the law will turn a blind, uncaring eye.

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The Aims Of Justice 122

Posted on June 04, 2026 by

Wings has today sent the following letter to the named recipients.

—————————————————————————–

The Chief Constable
Police Scotland
5 Fettes Avenue
Edinburgh
EH4 1RB

Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
25 Chambers Street
Edinburgh
EH1 1LA

4 June 2026

.

Dear Chief Constable and Crown Office,

RE: REQUEST FOR CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION — ALLEGED
MISAPPROPRIATION OF RING-FENCED POLITICAL DONATIONS

I write to request that Police Scotland/COPFS open a criminal investigation into the alleged misappropriation of funds donated to the Scottish National Party (SNP) on the basis that those funds would be held and applied for a specific, designated purpose.

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For Me, But Not For Thee 40

Posted on June 04, 2026 by

Huh.

Well, that’s nice, isn’t it?

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Kings Of Crisis Management 49

Posted on June 04, 2026 by

If you subscribe to the theory that it’s better to fight 100 duck-sized horses than a single horse-sized duck, the SNP is knocking it out of the park today.

Because the papers just can’t make their minds up about the biggest story with which to attack John Swinney’s beleaguered party.

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Everything Is Awesome 27

Posted on June 03, 2026 by

You’ve had a few pretty gruelling pieces to get through in the last week or so, readers, so here’s something a little more light-hearted.

It’s from an episode of Broadcasting Scotland on 27 November 2020, a month after we confirmed our big story about the SNP accounts and the missing fundraiser money. In it, snug-toed SNP MP Pete Wishart opines that there really is nothing to worry about, and we should all just put our trust in the party.

We’ll leave you to judge whose opinion stood the test of time.

The Truth Does Out 54

Posted on June 03, 2026 by

Sometimes you have to wait a while for people to catch up.

But patience is everything, readers.

All things, we hope, come to those who wait.

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Up The Hill And Down The Slope 116

Posted on June 03, 2026 by

On Sunday, Nicola Sturgeon told Laura Kuenssberg that the SNP’s accounts “went up and down” as her excuse for not noticing that hundreds of thousands of pounds had suddenly vanished from them overnight.

Several things leap out immediately from that clip.

One, there absolutely very much WAS “something glaringly suspicious in the accounts that I should have seen” – the party she led had raised almost £700,000 in two “ring-fenced” fundraisers that wasn’t there any more, which ought to have made its leader at least mildly curious.

And two, attempting to fob responsibility off onto the independent auditors simply won’t wash. It’s not their job to determine whether the SNP has kept its political promises or not, their job is simply to match up money coming in against money going out and produce a set of numbers to show what it all adds up to. It makes no odds to them if it was spent on a party conference, a fancy motorhome or a 50-foot golden statue of Danny La Rue. All they can see is numbers.

(In any event the party’s longstanding auditors resigned in 2023 rather than risk being caught up in any more dodginess. It took months for the SNP to find anyone else willing to take the job on.)

But even leaving those things aside, if we’re going to learn anything about how The Great Indyref Swindle got to this calamitous point unchecked we need to examine just how hard Nicola Sturgeon had to look the other way to fail to see what was going on literally under her nose and literally in her own back yard.

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Pandora’s Campervan 102

Posted on June 02, 2026 by

To tell you the truth, readers, we’re suffering from a little bit of option paralysis at the moment, although happily not in the same way Peter Murrell is.

The endless torrent of revelations following on from Murrell’s conviction a week ago isn’t just fascinating in its own right – it also forces numerous historical issues to be seen in a new light. At any given second there are half-a-dozen different articles we could be writing, but also so many to read that it’s hard to find the time.

We suspect this matter is going to run and run all through the summer silly season because there are simply so many angles and so many unanswered questions.

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The View From Row Z 146

Posted on May 31, 2026 by

Sadly, this turned out to be prescient this morning.

Laura Kuenssberg did give Nicola Sturgeon an uncomfortable time in their interview on her Sunday programme on BBC News, but when confronted with the one gaping open goal that Sturgeon has no answer for – and even when Sturgeon TWICE set it up on a plate for her – Kuenssberg failed to knock the ball into the empty net.

That doesn’t – by some distance – mean there was nothing of interest to note, though, so let’s take a walk through (the first instalment of) what was said.

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Nicola’s Summer Reading List 100

Posted on May 30, 2026 by

Now that Nicola Sturgeon is finally free of her gruelling MSP workload, which could give her anything up to two extra hours of spare time a week, she might like to start making a proper dent in the contents of her fully-loaded bookshelves.

(At least until they’re seized and sold under the Proceeds Of Crime Act.)

So we thought we’d offer up a few suggestions.

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    • Ian McCubbin on The Lord Of The Rings: “My worst fears coming to fruition. Swinney as corrupt as Sturgeon and both assets of Englidh state. Our police system…Jun 6, 17:35
    • Bilbo on In pursuit of clarity: “Just to clarify, there are two routes that people can take to get their donations back. First is contacting your…Jun 6, 17:12
    • agentx on In pursuit of clarity: “This is interesting https://www.copfs.gov.uk/services/victim-services/victims-right-to-review/ Victims’ Right to Review This guide explains how the victim of a crime can ask COPFS…Jun 6, 17:06
    • Alf Baird on In pursuit of clarity: “A colonised “country will always struggle to prosper”, not least given ‘the objective of colonialism is to widen inequality’ (Memmi).…Jun 6, 17:04
    • Andrea on In pursuit of clarity: “Thanks Sven and Cynicus. I confess, i too thought it was Homer Simpson, although that would have not really gone…Jun 6, 17:01
    • Sian Laidlaw on In pursuit of clarity: “I am amazed Mr. Campbell that having addressed and sent your email to The Chief Constable of Police Scotland it…Jun 6, 16:55
    • Richard on In pursuit of clarity: “Appropriate song in the context of such good work. I guess that makes it 2 Honest Men. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKQBUqrzN1QJun 6, 16:35
    • Mark Beggan on In pursuit of clarity: “Even Police Scotland sometimes have to stand naked.Jun 6, 16:27
    • twathater on In pursuit of clarity: “I agree wholeheartedly that the misuse and misappropriation of the ring fenced referendum DONATIONS are MORE important if not as…Jun 6, 16:19
    • McDuff on In pursuit of clarity: “An exceptional letter rev and one that needed to be sent.Jun 6, 16:12
    • Knuckle_Heid on In pursuit of clarity: “How stupid are the Police & COPFS to respond so hastily (and it would appear, in concert) to such a…Jun 6, 16:07
    • Mark Beggan on In pursuit of clarity: ““Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to…Jun 6, 16:03
    • Confused on In pursuit of clarity: “I think the most you can expect is that they will look at it on VAR. – trouble is, Dot…Jun 6, 16:02
    • Cynicus on In pursuit of clarity: “Martin: “ The more expensive gifts may have been to girlfriends/boyfriends” ===== Interesting point. I note your admirable discretion in…Jun 6, 15:57
    • Al-Stuart on In pursuit of clarity: “. Hi Stuart, Brave effort. There IS another way to reach the same (and just) end that the current injustice,…Jun 6, 15:54
    • gm on In pursuit of clarity: “A very depressing article. Quangoland, a colossal job creation scheme for the elite. Anyone wondering why our country’s are in…Jun 6, 15:43
    • BH on In pursuit of clarity: “It has been amply documented that investigations can be done in advance via old skool police box.Jun 6, 15:12
    • Martin on In pursuit of clarity: “I wonder if Police Scotland considered if some of Murrell’s purchases were for wedding presents as I guess both he…Jun 6, 15:03
    • Ian on In pursuit of clarity: “People in glasshouses – https://archive.ph/OjLZR The UK is unfixable. An independent Scotland might be. That’s the real difference.Jun 6, 14:58
    • Cynicus on In pursuit of clarity: “As always, I defer to your erudition in matters linguistic, FhearghaisJun 6, 14:57
    • ALANM on In pursuit of clarity: “This is all very easily explained. We live in a country where the politicians are corrupt, the judges are corrupt…Jun 6, 14:55
    • Cynicus on In pursuit of clarity: “TURABDIN: “One arises from a low to a high station more often by using fraud instead of force. Niccolo Machiavelli”…Jun 6, 14:48
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on In pursuit of clarity: “Come off it — it’s a quote from the Simpsons!Jun 6, 14:36
    • Cynicus on In pursuit of clarity: “Alex says: 6June, 2026 at 1:19 pm “Why isn’t more being of the culture issues relating to the covering up…Jun 6, 14:35
    • Nancy Somerville on In pursuit of clarity: “Brilliant! Thank you for keeping going with this, Stuart.Jun 6, 14:24
    • holymacmoses on In pursuit of clarity: “This is good. I wonder if your source of legal information will be a lever for good.Jun 6, 14:21
    • TURABDIN on In pursuit of clarity: “STATISTA site shows support for independence at 44%, status quo on 56% that was in march. The mountain is now…Jun 6, 14:10
    • Effijy on In pursuit of clarity: “Well Done Rev. I can translate their response as we have all the power, the law is there for you…Jun 6, 13:59
    • Victor Clements on In pursuit of clarity: “There is potentially a very serious problem here for every charity and community organization and their supporters in Scotland. If…Jun 6, 13:48
    • Cynicus on In pursuit of clarity: “It refers to line 359 of Horace’s Ars Poetica indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus (“I become annoyed when sometimes the great…Jun 6, 13:33
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