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.
Ten years ago this month I was in a pub called The Porter in Bath with my girlfriend and her family, buying everyone whiskies and gabbling deliriously (I’d been up for over 40 hours at that point) about the significance of what had just happened.
Alex Salmond’s SNP had just broken the Scottish electoral system, winning an absolute majority of seats in a Parliament designed expressly to stop that from ever happening. A total of 72 pro-independence MSPs had been elected, and it was already clear that an independence referendum was going to happen despite the Labour Party’s best efforts. It was impossibly exciting.
This month I sat and watched 72 ostensibly pro-indy MSPs be elected again, but this time with my heart breaking, knowing that they would achieve nothing and indeed had no real intention to even try.
We are, as always, absolutely enthralled at the prospect of discovering from James Kelly what our vile secret masterplan has been over the last 18 months.
Today is going to be by some distance the quietest one in Scottish politics this week, so I hope you’ll forgive me a personal indulgence, readers. Because while I just ignore unimaginably vast torrents of online abuse every hour of every day of every year, once in a blue moon some things get said that you just can’t let pass.
Paul Kavanagh made a lot of unpleasant personal-attack tweets yesterday off the back of an unpleasant personal-attack article on his blog, which I don’t propose to get into the many individual falsehoods and misrepresentations of here.
(While I believe his evidence in the Dugdale case actually did more harm than good, I don’t hold him responsible for that and I appreciated his willingness to try to help when others I’d considered friends had turned their back.)
So, for the historical record: I have no belief whatsoever, earnest or otherwise, that I can get rid of Nicola Sturgeon in the next four months.
I’m an idiot with a website. I have no power. I haven’t been elected to anything and I’m not the commander of an army. Information to which I’m privy would get me put in jail if I published it, and would in itself have no power to remove Nicola Sturgeon anyway. The only people who can bring that about between now and May are Sturgeon herself or, collectively, the Scottish Parliament.
This site has for some time called for Sturgeon to resign because it is our belief that she’s going to have to anyway, on account of events over which we have no control or influence. Because of that it would be the responsible and conscientious thing for her to quit early enough that the SNP/independence movement had a chance to deal with the issue of her succession and regroup in plenty of time for this May’s election.
The remaining window of opportunity for that to happen is now getting very narrow. And the enemies of independence will be beside themselves with delight about it.
We’ve been having a closer look at the latest polling for next year’s Holyrood election (YouGov, from this week), and in particular the list numbers. We thought you might be interested in a little stat from them.
That’s the full breakdown. But that’s not the graphic that really tells the story.
Alert readers may have noticed that the hypothetical Wings list party is once again the talk of the steamie, with the usual suspects stamping their feet and pouting about it yet again on social media, in particular the firmly-ensconced SNP MP Pete Wishart and the worryingly obsessed former poll-analysis website WINGS OVER SCOTLAND IS BAD AND TERRIBLE AND STUART CAMPBELL SOMETIMES DOES SWEARS SO NOBODY WOULD EVER VOTE FOR HIM! Goes Pop.
(We’re not sure where this sudden outbreak of 18th-century Puritanism about Scottish people using colourful language has come from, to be honest. It seems the weirdest and least plausible grounds for objection imaginable in a country that’s literally world-famous for its enthusiastic embrace of swearing, but *shrug*.)
The trigger was a bizarre piece in yesterday’s Courier (also picked up by the National, the Evening Express and others). They phoned us last week ostensibly to talk about a new website set up by a bunch of loony Unionist zoomers who with amusingly ironic timing have named themselves “The Majority”, and whether we thought they’d have any impact or be able to attract funding.
We chatted perfectly amiably to the reporter for several minutes on the subject, so we were quite surprised when the story that eventually appeared didn’t contain a single mention of them, and instead was solely about the Wings party, which he’d also asked us a couple of “Oh, by the way, while I’m here”-type questions about.
So let’s just clarify a couple of things for the record (again).
A concept has recently arisen in Scottish politics for which this site feels at least partly responsible, and which is making the strangest bedfellows of Unionist commentators and SNP ultra-loyalists. It’s summed up very concisely in today’s Times.
Let’s just unpick that extraordinary meltdown for a moment.
James on The Long Unravelling: “Aye, willie, times are hard, everything’s going up in price and in wades the Scottish Government to help everyone out…” Nov 21, 13:15
James on The Long Unravelling: “Ah, but the *Great Producer of Spittle’s Daily Heil says different. [*The smart-arsed half-educated sophistry merchant]” Nov 21, 13:11
James on The Long Unravelling: ““12 UK Shadow Storm missiles launched by U into R. Each missile costs £767k. £9ml for one day of firing…” Nov 21, 13:08
Mark Beggan on The Long Unravelling: “Wouldn’t it be nice to blame the Scottish for shiting in their own kennel once and awhile.” Nov 21, 13:06
Campbell Clansman on The Long Unravelling: “Reminder: Swinney has been in SNP leadership roles the last 25 years, including the Salmond years. He LED the SNP…” Nov 21, 13:02
TURABDIN on The Long Unravelling: “Roll up! Roll up! Choose your «nationalism»… https://archive.is/53H02 but make it one Nato can use…..mr Swinney & co” Nov 21, 12:40
Alan Austin on The Long Unravelling: “Unfortunately promoted well above his abilities. Even worse he is the best the SNP have. Not sure any of the…” Nov 21, 12:28
Robert Hughes on The Long Unravelling: “You . What fckn difference will your preference for one side make ? Zero . What get’s me is people…” Nov 21, 12:24
Dan on The Long Unravelling: ““…the genie is out the bottle, so yes, you need to pick a side. Or, do you have an alternative?”…” Nov 21, 11:50
Shug on The Long Unravelling: “So is swinney a plant or promoted above his abilities” Nov 21, 11:46
robertkknight on The Long Unravelling: ““Is that what you think this is about , eg ” supporting ” XY or Z” That’s exactly what it’s…” Nov 21, 11:09
Hatey McHateface on The Long Unravelling: ““where a country has its territorial integrity invaded by a foreign power, that has to be repelled… I support the…” Nov 21, 11:07
Alan Austin on The Long Unravelling: “As a unionist and someone who voted against having a devolved parliament I am afraid all my fears have come…” Nov 21, 11:02
Hatey McHateface on The Long Unravelling: “I think most readers will understand that anybody genuinely anticipating “Catastrophic Nuclear War” won’t be wasting precious time pontificating on…” Nov 21, 10:56
Dick Wall on The Long Unravelling: “As humans we are little different from any others. What makes us different is our institutions. How we go about…” Nov 21, 10:40
Aidan on The Long Unravelling: “The report does not use the word “conditional” anywhere and certainly does not describe the ability of the U.K. Parliament…” Nov 21, 10:38
TURABDIN on The Long Unravelling: “Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable. James…” Nov 21, 10:11
boyce on The Long Unravelling: “Alex Salmond passed a powerful and successful organisation to Nicola, who then immediately drowned it in a cesspit. She’s now…” Nov 21, 09:54
boyce on The Long Unravelling: “You’d think with John Swinney would be able to control the finances wouldn’t you?” Nov 21, 09:50
gregor on The Long Unravelling: “Yup: #WEFButtPlugsRUs #ScotlandLast” Nov 21, 09:33
boyce on The Way Forward: “You omit the reasons though. The SNP lies about Alba, its demand for both votes and the national media’s exclusion…” Nov 21, 09:20
boyce on The Way Forward: “I stopped voting SNP because the SNP promised the world and then, like Labour, settled into power in Holyrood and…” Nov 21, 09:15
Colin Alexander on The Long Unravelling: ““MSP ‘disturbed’ over Milngavie schools participation in ‘LGBT project'” “AN MSP says she was “deeply disturbed” to find out two…” Nov 21, 09:00
Robert Hughes on The Long Unravelling: “He’s just following orders from his superiors : like the rest of ” them “” Nov 21, 08:49
Breeks on The Long Unravelling: ““… is difficult to sustain in the face of the evidence as to what Parliament has done without objection and…” Nov 21, 08:30
Robert Hughes on The Long Unravelling: “And all the Reality-denying idiots are out still refusing to accept we stand on the very brink of absolute devastation…” Nov 21, 08:17
gregor on The Long Unravelling: “re. “Swinney The Muppet” LBC: NEW: Scotland’s FM John Swinney backs US measures to allow U***ine to use long-range missiles…” Nov 21, 08:15
gregor on The Long Unravelling: “The National: Exclusive: Fears for nuclear ‘target’ Trident amid escalation tension with Ru****: “Hosting nuclear submarines in the Clyde isn’t…” Nov 21, 08:12
Alf Baird on The Long Unravelling: “The key point (from that report and other material, not least the Articles of Union) is that the joint Anglo-Scottish…” Nov 21, 07:51