The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Author Archive


Once upon a time 152

Posted on March 24, 2016 by

“Dry your eyes. On your feet.”

Sometimes the world’s random turns throw up a charmed piece of timing. That was the first tweet that I read on 19th September 2014, sitting on the side of the bed, eyes burning, wondering what on Earth I could possibly do with a day for which I’d bought champagne, but which broke my heart before dawn.

dryeyes

I’d resisted Twitter for a while, then fallen in love with it, weirdly comfortable with the disembodied voices of strangers. Small phrases, 140 characters: at its best, little postcards that made me smile, laugh or think.

For whatever reason, that tweet cut through, its arrival perfect to give me a virtual shake. I’d tell the writer – if I knew who they were – that I managed to carry out half of their instruction to us hollow-eyed, political orphans that day, though I failed miserably for a while on the first bit.

Today we should have become independent. We’re not, and it’s not okay, but since I don’t think we can ignore the power that time and timing can possess, and since words are all I’ve got, I’d like to tell you a story.

Read the rest of this entry →

Sowing seeds 110

Posted on April 12, 2014 by

Dear Scottish women,

It seems that we’re letting the side down a bit here. If the same percentage of us were willing to vote Yes as the men, we’d be home and dry come September 18th, living in a nuclear-weapon-free democracy for the first time in our lives. But it seems like a lot of us are either not convinced or haven’t begun thinking about it yet.

sowingseeds

I don’t believe it’s the former: anyone genuinely looking at the arguments, not to mention the behaviour of those on both sides of the debate, could hardly fail to be convinced that independence is a good thing. So I’m guessing it might be the latter.

Read the rest of this entry →

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,790 Posts, 1,222,478 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Young Lochinvar on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “MB @8.07 A depressingly accurate assessment I suspect.Jul 22, 20:27
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Radiohead Creep.Jul 22, 20:17
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Is it case the Scottish government can’t step into it as they are the cause. It’s their secret cult of…Jul 22, 20:07
    • Milady on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Wait, just when I think I’m keeping up we get “trans*” – what does the * mean?! (Other than I’m…Jul 22, 20:02
    • agent x on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Mark Beggan says: 22 July, 2025 at 7:43 pm Can the UK government step in on this scandalous behaviour? ———————————————–…Jul 22, 20:01
    • Bilbo on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “A song for Dr Upton: https://tinyurl.com/2s4m3vumJul 22, 20:01
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “The Scottish government are the criminals. It’s our money being spent on insulting us.Jul 22, 19:57
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Can the UK government step in on this scandalous behaviour? No matter the outcome Dr Upton will have to change…Jul 22, 19:43
    • Anne Johnston on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “For Everything, and that is EVERYTHING, I say ‘Follow the Money’and you’ll find the real criminals behind this enterprise …just…Jul 22, 19:31
    • agent x on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Yet NHS Fife internal disciplinary procedure has cleared Sandie of all charges/allegations against her. Today she has been accused of…Jul 22, 19:13
    • Bilbo on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “I wonder if that is a Freudian slip with the idea that men who have relationships with Trans women thinking…Jul 22, 19:03
    • Young Lochinvar on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Yup. It’s weirdly similar to the behind the scenes shenanigans recruiting people to testify against / stitch up Alec Salmond.Jul 22, 19:01
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “It looks like Dr Searle has taken it upon herself to be Judge, Jury and executioner.Jul 22, 18:42
    • Young Lochinvar on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Gilruth! Jesus H Christ.. The phrase “inept clown that’s achieved nothing worthwhile and effed up a shed load of stuff…Jul 22, 18:39
    • robertkknight on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Welcome to Sturgeon’s Scotland, a.k.a the tartan shitshow, that can’t distinguish a woman from a man. Meanwhile, Swinney fiddles whilst…Jul 22, 18:26
    • Young Lochinvar on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Well said. I saw that too and just gave up bothering even trying to understand their jibber jabber claptrap..Jul 22, 18:19
    • Dan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Ach, as an occasional engine builder, I thought bigender described an entity that identified as being / or was attracted…Jul 22, 17:53
    • DaveL on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “That’s a question for Greens MSP Patrick Harvie. He’s the proud recipient of an award from the deceased chief cheese…Jul 22, 17:51
    • Fergus on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: ““… straight (attracted to the same gender)” I suspect “same” was meant to say “opposite”. [but they can’t say that…Jul 22, 17:38
    • Neil Mackenzie on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Ah… Nope. If you’ve used ‘male’ or ‘female’ to mean someone’s gender, you’ve made a mistake and used the wrong…Jul 22, 17:26
    • Rogueslr on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “We knew at 13 weeks that we were expecting a daughter, that’s approximately 24 weeks before birth. So AFAB is…Jul 22, 17:20
    • James Barr Gardner on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “I wonder if NHS view Paedophilia as normal and reducing the age of consent down to 10 years is normal…Jul 22, 17:16
    • KOF on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “” … an illustration of how far Scotland has sunk since Alex Salmond stood down.” Alex Salmond voted for the…Jul 22, 17:04
    • agent x on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Meanwhile the warped and twisted evidence continues today with Kate Searle!Jul 22, 17:03
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “I would like to dedicate this song to Mr. Upton: “Boys Keep Swinging” Heaven loves ya The clouds part for…Jul 22, 16:48
    • Mark Beggan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Holyrood is the only sinking ship where the rats have decided to stay.Jul 22, 16:15
    • I. Despair on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Anent the uselessness and idiocy of NHS Fife management – I don’t know if her post technically counts as management…Jul 22, 16:13
    • Aidan on The Pillars Of Sanity: “@Xaracen – thrown out is a figure of speech, it’s not been printed out and physically thrown out of the…Jul 22, 16:12
    • Stuart on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Meanwhile in other news, (and pay attention to the last paragraph from the article re devolution) Farage has spoken, this…Jul 22, 15:39
    • agent x on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Does NHS Fife not welcome Heterosexual? No mention of the majority of people.Jul 22, 15:07
  • A tall tale



↑ Top