I apologise in advance to readers for the personal indulgence of this post.
Some months ago, quite coincidentally, I happened to avail myself of Twitter’s archive function, which allows users to download their entire tweet history. For various reasons I’ve been looking at it recently, and until I did I’d been unaware that it records not just a user’s own tweets, but also the tweets from other people that they’ve retweeted.
I’ve collected some of Wings’ tweets and retweets – in reverse chronological order – below. (Famously, of course, RTs aren’t necessarily endorsements, but you can decide on the underlying tone for yourself. Each of them links to the original tweet so you can see the whole conversation, or click on the links being referenced.)
They’re all on one subject, by way of illustration, because Twitter is a transient medium full of people all too eager to jump at the slightest excuse to make spurious and hateful allegations about everything (and anyone) under the sun to serve their own agendas, and for the sake of the future of human discourse it’s worth remembering that nothing exists in isolation or free of context, and we shouldn’t jump too easily to conclusions.
The Daily Record have continued to run Kezia Dugdale’s weekly column despite her resignation as Scottish Labour branch office manager (North British division), and this week we were interested to note her assessment of the devolution years, which could be summarised neatly as “Labour devolution good, SNP devolution bad”.
We raised an especially quizzical eyebrow at the claim that the 1999-2007 Labour/Lib Dem administrations had apparently ended homelessness. So we thought we’d do that thing we do when Kezia Dugdale claims something.
This was Scottish Tory uberdunce Jamie Greene a few weeks ago, bitterly attacking the SNP for spending £22,000 on consulting the public over a policy on which the party won a landslide victory in the 2016 Holyrood election.
You might think that a government pursuing the manifesto policies it was elected on was a pretty legitimate thing to do, especially when it was asking voters for their views in order to shape that policy. Perhaps Greene was confused because the Tories have been acting as if they, not the SNP, won the election. But that raises another question.
A story from the Financial Times this week revealed the UK government’s latest act of sabotage against the Scottish renewable energy industry. It’s just one more in a long line stretching back to just after the independence referendum, when a string of “Better Together” promises were broken almost the minute the No vote was secured.
It was a particularly weak argument in the first place – if there’s a market in the rUK for Scottish energy, it’ll be there whether Scotland is independent or not. But it unravelled faster than most as soon as it had done its job.
20 years ago today, Scotland voted to have a Parliament for the first time in almost three centuries, by an overwhelming margin (although with modest enthusiasm – less than 10% more people actually voted for devolution than voted for independence in 2014, at 1.78m and 1.62m respectively).
Just 20 months after the vote the Parliament came into being, and Scotland’s media has been complaining about how useless it is ever since.
Today’s newspapers commemorate the anniversary by unleashing the full pontificating weight of the punditariat – most of whom have been opining wearily on Holyrood’s failings for the entire period – to bleat with their customary single voice about what a disappointment it’s all been.
The weird thing is that after all that time, none of them can actually explain why.
The Scottish Tories came under fire yesterday for a crass attempt by Scotland’s least-elected MSP (2,062-vote Annie Wells) to hijack World Suicide Prevention Day with a blog complaining that more people were being prescribed anti-depressants, which for many are an effective and life-saving solution.
Scottish Labour duly joined in by attacking mental health provision in Scotland despite it having significantly more NHS consultant psychiatrists per head than anywhere else in the UK. (One for every 10,000 people in Scotland, compared to 1 for every 12,500 in England and one for every 17,000 in Wales and Northern Ireland.)
But is there any explanation for why more people are suffering mental health issues?
So once again, Unionist politicians are bitterly castigating the Scottish Government for problems caused by UK government policy. It’s enough to drive you mad.
After a few months with no Scottish polling, today’s Sunday Times carries the results of a Panelbase one which, among other things, reinforces our oft-stated view that Scottish subsamples of UK-wide polls are completely meaningless.
While several of those have shown Labour or even the Tories in the lead, the full-size, properly-weighted poll still has the SNP a massive 14 points in front on 42%, with the Tories trailing behind on 28% and Labour in their now-customary third place at 22%.
Support for independence is also slightly down, with the numbers at 43-57, but it’s some other findings that are the eye-openers.
Great news, readers! After years of requests, it’s now finally possible to possess and cherish your very own adorable cuddly toy version of Wings’ symbolic embodiment of benign and welcoming independence, Hamish the lion!
One of the handiest things for truth-seeking political commentators (admittedly a rare breed) is that the three component nations that make up Great Britain currently all have different parties in government, so it’s always possible to measure the rhetoric of the main parties against their actions in the bit they’re actually in charge of.
(The same is true for many other policies the Scottish Government has implemented to fight Tory austerity, like free university tuition and mitigating the bedroom tax.)
A Scot living in the EU, and an EU national living in Scotland, discuss the implications of the Brexit being forced on Scotland against its will by the UK government.
Colin Dawson on Whatever Can Have Happened?: “In March 2026, just two months ahead of the last Holyrood election, the Scottish Government published an initial internal report…” Sep 30, 14:30
Willie on Whatever Can Have Happened?: “Cannot for the life of me guess why this has arisen Rev. Maybe Big John of the Independent minds she’s…” Sep 30, 14:15
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “@Aidan You can see why it’s so important to sell the “colony” lie. Real former colonies don’t have to shoulder…” Sep 30, 13:52
Hatey Mchateface on The Turning Point: “Farage comes out swinging: “The state pension is not a handout, nor an act of government charity. It is a…” Sep 30, 13:34
Aidan on The Turning Point: “Yes and you could always take the view that since Scotland would be a new state, it cannot have any…” Sep 30, 13:26
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “A default and “clean start” would be utterly catastrophic and yet, arguably, the only remaining option for iScot to break…” Sep 30, 13:25
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: ““Westminster has finally lost control” I’d argue we are already there, have been for several years and that most onlookers…” Sep 30, 13:20
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Turning Point: “The Irish in me suggests perhaps better not to be starting from here: Anyway, as indicated in the past, my…” Sep 30, 13:03
sam on The Turning Point: “The weak of understanding, such as wee Johnny Main attribute my posting of links and quotations from them as being…” Sep 30, 13:02
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “Very interesting what the former “green beacon”, Germany, is doing in the areas of coal mining and the use of…” Sep 30, 12:00
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “@CC The US has expended too much of its arsenal in the ME this year. It will take years to…” Sep 30, 11:47
Aidan on The Turning Point: “Noting that this was written 16-years ago of course. There is no way that rUK Government would be willing to…” Sep 30, 11:42
Aidan on The Turning Point: “Assuming that an IScotland could negotiate a share of the UK’s national debt on a per capita basis (not an…” Sep 30, 11:33
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “Sure, sam, if one side starts by making all kinds of convenient assumptions, then the final settlement can be massaged…” Sep 30, 11:29
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: ““The UK is rapidly collapsing” I agree. I’m wondering what the catalyst will be. The event that finally puts it…” Sep 30, 11:20
Captain Caveman on The Turning Point: “@Hatey If all those things you say about the rapidly changing tech of modern warfare are true – and personally…” Sep 30, 11:17
sam on The Turning Point: “Interesting post by Jim Cuthbert on how the negotiations on Scotland’s share of UK debt might be shaped post independence.…” Sep 30, 11:11
Captain Caveman on The Turning Point: “The only “way” out of it that I can see (if you could call it any sort of solution, probably…” Sep 30, 11:11
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “@Spartan An iScotland could default. Cold turkey. I’m not advocating it, but it’s an option. It would mean probably 20…” Sep 30, 10:58
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “Yep. Uncomfortable facts. The UK state finances are ruinous like most Western nations. It’s difficult to see any way out…” Sep 30, 10:18
Spartan 117 on The Turning Point: “Good post. ArAndeh very much set out his stall yesterday – Moar Communism is the way, as is outsourcing democracy…” Sep 30, 10:13
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: ““Nail hit firmly on the head Hatey” Ground Zero for fixing any problem is to be realistic about what the…” Sep 30, 10:10
willie on The Turning Point: “Sadly we have seen the plunder of a country’s resources before for the benefit of others. That is what empire…” Sep 30, 09:19
willie on The Turning Point: “¬”the infrastructure to capture all this “free” leccy is being mostly paid for by others – English bill payers, multinational…” Sep 30, 09:02
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “It’s truly extraordinary to see the differences between the reviews of Andeh’s stage performance yesterday. Some on the progressive left…” Sep 30, 08:56
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: “Back in the day they probably did “used to obstruct and sabotage the Scottish Nationalist movement”. But they’ll have been…” Sep 30, 08:22
Hatey McHateface on The Turning Point: ““a reported one third of Scotlands electricity” If only that was true, Scotland would be on course to make some…” Sep 30, 08:10
Alf Baird on The Turning Point: “““Civil servants, MI5, Special Branch used to obstruct and sabotage the Scottish Nationalist movement.” Sounds exactly like what occurred in…” Sep 30, 07:50
Willie on The Turning Point: “So planning proposal.has now dropped to build the world’s largest data centre in Scotland. And its power usage will be…” Sep 30, 07:17
