We’re blacklisted by the press regulator IPSO, but fortunately when we raise issues with especially blatant inaccuracies in UK newspapers alert readers sometimes take up the cudgel and file complaints with them because we can’t.
When indoor-hat-wearing uberYoon nutter George Galloway appeared in some of the madder corners of the gutter press this week after appearing on RT to extravagantly belittle last weekend’s indy marchers, we didn’t bother talking about it because who cares what that irrelevant old zoomer thinks, right?
But when an alert reader drew our attention to this spectacular clip of Galloway’s pre-indyref and post-indyref views on the EU we couldn’t let it go, because it so perfectly encapsulates not just what a huge buffoon George Galloway is, but the jaw-dropping, bare-faced, crass hypocrisy of so much Unionist argument.
We’re only sad he’s neither a politician nor in Scotland, or he’d be a shoo-in.
We knew this would be a fast-moving phenomenon when we created it, but we’re only just beginning to realise the magnitude of the rod we’ve made for our own backs. Because the supply of rock-headed clownshows sucking up taxpayers’ money on the opposition benches at Holyrood appear to be effectively infinite.
There’s only actually one “l” in “intolerable”, but that’s still the intellectual high point of the tweet. It really is hard to adequately convey what a brainless piece of idiocy this is without just swearing for a solid hour, but we’ll try.
We felt sure that our awarding of the inaugural Thickest Politician In Scotland title this morning would be taken as the throwing down of a gauntlet, and we weren’t wrong. Because within just hours, the Prince Regent had staked his claim to the crown.
Greene – who was rejected by the voters of Cunninghame North by almost 9,000 votes but sits in Parliament anyway – is in fact supposed to serve the people of the West Scotland region as a list MSP, not the whole country, and we’re not aware of any breakdown of how Scotland’s eight list regions voted in 2014 so we have no idea how many voted No in WS. But that’s by far the least idiotic part of the tweet.
A famous quote commonly attributed to Albert Einstein (and hotly disputed, as always, by point-missing Quote Nazis), runs that “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.
It’s been bouncing around our heads for the last couple of days, because with the SNP annual conference in full swing in Glasgow, Scottish political pundits have taken it upon themselves to start issuing bizarre assertions/advice about the party’s strategy for securing a second independence referendum.
This version, from the Herald’s cut-price David Torrance knockoff Mark Smith today, is no more than we’d expect from that source:
But we were a lot more surprised to see the notion also being taken up by someone we’d previously credited with a lot more insight and intelligence.
Alert readers will be aware that while the absolutely mind-numbing empirical stupidity of Scotland’s latest batch of Unionist MPs and MSPs is a recurring theme on Wings, we’ve never attempted to place it on any sort of formal footing. And to be honest, that sort of laziness on our part is no longer sustainable.
Especially alert readers may have noticed that we’ve had a new page on Wings for a while, maintaining a current list of Scottish newspaper circulations.
We were just checking it today and noticed that – seemingly unreported anywhere – the Scottish “regionals” had had their biannual figures published, so we thought we may as well keep you updated.
The plugin which normally embeds our Twitter feed on the Wings front page still isn’t working (doubtless because Twitter have made yet more spiteful and idiotic changes to their API), so those of you who don’t use the social media platform may have missed out on a gem this morning from everyone’s favourite Labour ultra-moderate.
Phew! Saved from economic devastation! Sounds like a narrow escape!
When the news is slow, we sometimes steel ourselves and go for a little paddle in the Yoonstream – a private collection of the most unhinged hardcore-Unionist accounts on Twitter – and see what they’re getting themselves all worked up about.
For a good few months now, they’ve all been posting mad graphs like this:
For our money – and by an admittely wafer-thin margin over the likes of Annie Wells, Miles Briggs, Alex Cole-Hamilton and James Kelly – Tory list MSP Jamie Greene is still the lowest-watt bulb in the Scottish Parliament’s festival of lights.
(Our alerter readers may have spotted that that’s an official watermarked Scottish Conservatives pic, so that’s them making him look as intelligent as they can.)
To stand out as especially doltish in a group of epic dolts like the current Tory cohort in Holyrood, you also need to be incapable of following simple logical trains of thought. So let’s see if we can illustrate with a topical example.
It’s probably time we started collecting all the media articles from the last couple of weeks about our ongoing legal battle with former Scottish Labour branch manager Kezia Dugdale, because it’s getting increasingly hard to plough through them all.
The story that Labour were pulling Dugdale’s legal funding was first broken by the Huffington Post on 19 September. Below is all the coverage we’ve found between then and now (most recent first). As best as we can recollect, incidentally, we’ve been asked for quotes for TWO of these stories.
robertkknight on The Turning Point: “Time to play “Idiot Bingo” on October 1st… I’ll be placing an X in the box next to all 7…” Sep 29, 00:39
robertkknight on The Turning Point: ““Nationalists easily forget that the Scottish people stopped independence at the ballot. Not MI5.” Utter bollocks as usual… 53% of…” Sep 28, 23:50
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “Leftist political parties are inevitably of the destructive kind, following the Soviet model of “burn everything down and rebuild in…” Sep 28, 23:34
Ebok on The Turning Point: “Cuphook says: ‘The surge in the Green vote was due to Polanski’ Spartan 117 says: ‘The surge in Green voting…” Sep 28, 23:20
James on Cowering From Destiny: “And don’t forget; “Pricks” like you too, wee man.” Sep 28, 22:34
Hatey McHateface on Cowering From Destiny: ““I try not to hate anyone” Dinna hold yersel back, James. Nobody you hate will ever give a damn.” Sep 28, 21:50
Hatey McHateface on Cowering From Destiny: “All antisemites should dig themselves a tunnel, descend into it, and never come up again. If we’re talking kids, they…” Sep 28, 21:41
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Turning Point: “Rev Stuart Campbell writes @ 5:54 pm: “Swinney has closed down all routes for the membership to do anything except…” Sep 28, 20:15
Cuphook on The Turning Point: “They’re not at odds with each other. They describe different attributes. A party in favour of workers’ rights and free…” Sep 28, 20:10
Confused on Cowering From Destiny: “Anyone who gives a shit about U is suspect – if you care enough then fuck off over there and…” Sep 28, 19:47
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “Not bollocks, largely the truth. Especially the last two points.” Sep 28, 19:32
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “The terms “left wing” and “conservative” are at odds with each other and quite frankly the absolute last thing we…” Sep 28, 19:29
Aidan on Cowering From Destiny: “lol – what has R done; – invaded its neighbours in an aggressive territorial expansion campaign. The latest one, which…” Sep 28, 19:24
Rev. Stuart Campbell on The Turning Point: “Swinney has closed down all routes for the membership to do anything except leave.” Sep 28, 17:54
Cuphook on The Turning Point: “The surge in the Green vote was due to Polanski in England. Look where the Green vote did well and…” Sep 28, 17:34
willie on The Turning Point: “It is utterly no surprise that so many of independence supporters distrust the SNP and will not vote for them.…” Sep 28, 17:20
James on Cowering From Destiny: “What has R* ever done to Scotland – or rUK for that matter? I’ll tell you as you’re obviously too…” Sep 28, 16:35
Aidan on Cowering From Destiny: “Great argument James – are you off to the UN? You’d undoubtedly be a huge asset to the cause.” Sep 28, 16:26
James on Cowering From Destiny: “Utter bollox. But you know that, eh? Distract, divert, divide.” Sep 28, 16:04
Aidan on Cowering From Destiny: “So because some independent sovereign countries joined a defensive alliance, that provides a lawful excuse for an aggressive expansionist dictatorship…” Sep 28, 15:52
Mark Beggan on The Turning Point: ““can re-group and recommence the drive towards independence.” Not only has the SNP failed the bid for independence but is…” Sep 28, 15:42
James on Cowering From Destiny: “Aw, Adrian, sweetie – don’t be coy. You know it all basically goes back to one broken promise; “..not one…” Sep 28, 15:34
Mark Beggan on The Turning Point: “What action would you recomend the “membership” take? This is the same membership that got fleeced twice.” Sep 28, 15:10
Aidan on Cowering From Destiny: “Oh aye of course it isn’t James – let me guess you sit all day in your pants drinking cheap…” Sep 28, 13:56
100%Yes on The Turning Point: “I would say the graph is precisely what Sturgeon and Swinney wanted these two never wanted Independence. I’d go even…” Sep 28, 13:54
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Turning Point: “« Data from: Scotland, Great Britain »” Sep 28, 13:45
James on Cowering From Destiny: “LOL. Oh, Adrian; even you know this is disingenuous Bollox. Divert, distract, divide, remember? Must try harder.” Sep 28, 13:39
