Y’know, maybe we were a little harsh on the lads at Holyrood Sources yesterday when we implied that a more direct and aggressive interviewing style might have cut through John Swinney and Kate Forbes’ pathetically feeble waffling evasion on the SNP’s lack of an independence strategy in their recent podcast.
But the closest thing (along with Colin Mackay at STV) that the Scottish media has left to a proper Rottweiler interviewer – Peter Adam Smith of ITV – had a shot at that five years ago and didn’t do any better.
Smith noted that even back in 2019 Nicola Sturgeon had been droning on about how Westminster’s refusal to grant a second indy referendum was “unsustainable” for two years already. But no matter how hard he pressed, Sturgeon just kept on glibly and smugly insisting that they’d concede.
“The UK government strategy is to say no. Do you have a way around it?”
“My strategy is to say yes.” [smirks]
Readers might be forgiven for wondering how long it’s going to take the SNP to accept that that “strategy” is a failure, if seven years and three First Ministers isn’t enough for them to have worked it out. But as long as the pathologically gullible keep voting for them anyway, we suppose they have no reason to.
The National carried a strange article yesterday, apropos of seemingly nothing, about a Brussels-based political thinktank supposedly linked to the right-wing Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban. The piece actually originated on superwoke “fact-checking” site The Ferret a couple of days earlier, and professed to expose how the thinktank was “stoking Scotland’s culture war”.
Alert readers will already have pricked up their ears at this point, because “culture war” is a radical-left dogwhistle term used to obscure, belittle and dismiss groups (largely though not exclusively comprising left-wing feminists) fighting for the safeguarding of children and the protection of women’s and LGB rights.
Any rational assessment of Scottish (or indeed UK or world) politics at the moment tends to be negative and depressing, so since it’s a new year we thought we’d make an extra-special effort at writing something positive.
Unfortunately that does require us to enter the realm of fantasy. But hey, everybody needs a little holiday from time to time, right?
Nobody really answered the question in this article from a few days ago. A few of the dimmer bulbs in the indy movement have been getting over-excited at what are still currently a couple of outlier polls from fringe polling companies, which suggest that the 2026 election could unexpectedly return a pro-indy majority due to the Unionist vote being split four ways in the wake of UK Labour’s implosion in government.
That scenario depends on all sorts of dubious propositions, but in any event what none of them have addressed is what that would change even if it did happen, given that Holyrood has a pro-indy majority RIGHT NOW (and has done so on every single day since the indyref more than a decade ago) and it’s produced nothing whatsoever in terms of movement towards independence by any possible measure.
And it occurred to us that we had genuinely no idea what the SNP’s current official indy strategy is, because the party’s been in such farcical chaos and turmoil ever since Nicola Sturgeon’s sudden resignation. So we thought we should go and check.
To be honest, we’re not much the wiser for having read it.
Look, we know that mocking front pages on The National is low-hanging fruit, and this particular example could hardly be any more of a self-parody if it tried.
But just for the sheer mental exercise in that stone-dead last week of December when nobody even knows what day it is, let’s imagine if it came true.
The Scottish Government just issued another response in the long-running Freedom Of Information battle with alert Wings reader Benjamin Harrop over its conspiracy to frame and imprison the late Alex Salmond on false charges. Here’s a genuine extract.
Since it was founded back in November 2011, Wings Over Scotland has been solely financed by its readers. The site has never carried any advertising, we have no secret corporate backers, everything we do is funded by transparent voluntary donations and subscriptions, mostly of a few pounds a month.
We have the freedom to write what we believe, thanks to you, our readers. And since those earliest days, opponents have tried to end that freedom by blocking our funding.
6 November 2024 was a normal sitting day in the Scottish Parliament, so we shouldn’t be surprised that Nicola Sturgeon spent the previous evening in London, watching a special screening of a dreadful BBC Three sitcom about – of course – drag queens.
But remarkably, though she must have been puffy-eyed and weary, the 6th was one of the few days when she did actually manage to turn up at Holyrood to do her job.
Polling in Scotland, the UK and Wales in the last few days has shown Great Britain taking a fairly heavy swerve to the right after just five months of Sir Keir Starmer’s government. Labour now lead Reform (who have five seats to Labour’s 411) by just three points in the UK and are even more remarkably now in THIRD place in Wales, a country where the party has won every single election for over 100 years.
Scotland, meanwhile, is heading for a hung Parliament in 2026 in which – as this site has been telling its readers for the last year and a half – the only possibility of a stable administration will be an SNP-Labour coalition.
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “Stuart McHardy cuts through the crap re The Jacobites: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx7fJY1hr98 Remember history is usually written by the victors unless the…” Mar 13, 21:18
Hatey McHateface on The tint of rose: “Boo hoo, Mia gurnin aboot being “forced oot o the EU agin oor will” again. Hindsight is, of course, a…” Mar 13, 20:38
Mia on The tint of rose: ““I cannot see anything which would suggest that the treaty intended to retain two separate sovereign states with their respective…” Mar 13, 19:30
Hatey McHateface on Signal and noise: ““she hates the English with a venom” Are you sure? Has she tried to get them jailed on trumped-up sexual…” Mar 13, 18:52
Hatey McHateface on Signal and noise: “Good point, Lorn. Still, part of living your best trans life requires somebody to take a (hopefully sharp) knife to…” Mar 13, 18:47
agent x on Signal and noise: ““what are the odds on Sturgeon running for MP in the UK Parliament at the next opportunity?” Zero chance -…” Mar 13, 18:31
diabloandco on Signal and noise: “Oops! Sorry Rev!” Mar 13, 18:10
agent x on Signal and noise: “Eric Trump at Bute House with Swinney today.” Mar 13, 17:11
sarah on Signal and noise: “Nothing is happening politically – not for independence nor as competent government. Holyrood currently is a toxic puddle – gone…” Mar 13, 17:00
diabloandco on Signal and noise: “He had a more black and white view of diversity.” Mar 13, 16:26
diabloandco on Signal and noise: “He had a more black and white view of diversity.” Mar 13, 16:21
Xaracen on The tint of rose: “Aidan said: “in context of over 300 years of union governance, I think we have to see the fundamental principles…” Mar 13, 16:12
Sven on Signal and noise: “Charles (non R one) My money would still be on her looking for a post with the EU or UN.…” Mar 13, 15:55
TURABDIN on Signal and noise: “Signals & Noises in a land far, far away….. RWANDA, new «enriched» kid, thanx2UK, on the neo imperalist block… https://archive.is/k4YGa…” Mar 13, 15:24
John McGregor on Signal and noise: “Ave no priblem way men dressing as womem but as long as they have awe their bits they are MEN…” Mar 13, 15:04
Charles (not the R one) on Signal and noise: “Don’t forget this – the only reason the SNP is able to behave like this, is because so many Scottish…” Mar 13, 14:58
willie on Signal and noise: “Why should we worry about the country that Scotland has become. We allowed it to happen. Economic stagnation over the…” Mar 13, 13:37
Lorn on Signal and noise: “Well, Hatey, you are going to have to explain that one to the four (at the last count) ‘men’ who…” Mar 13, 12:54
Aidan on Signal and noise: “In another turn of events Sarah is partially right and Stuart is partially wrong. Designation as a non-self governing territory…” Mar 13, 12:29
Marie on Signal and noise: “I agree but we need to fight for Scotland’s historical legacy as an epicentre of enlightened thinking. Political parties that…” Mar 13, 11:13
diabloandco on Signal and noise: “I used to be proud of Scotland but now I see it as a land of misogyny, perverted beyond belief…” Mar 13, 09:43
Dave G on Signal and noise: ““Scotland’s top gender law specialist” as ITV dubs her is actually an English barrister (she has a Scottish father) who…” Mar 13, 09:30
TURABDIN on Signal and noise: “«all within the law, none outside the law, none against the law» pace Benito MUSSOLINI” Mar 13, 09:11
100%Yes on The evolution of fairness: “Sara, Your correct the UN Decolonisation of Scotland is a winner for so many reason. Its progress, when all we…” Mar 13, 08:59
Frank Gillougley on Signal and noise: “Maggie Chapman was born in the wrong body and she is also a time-traveller. She was born as Lavrenty Pavlovich…” Mar 13, 07:26
Hatey McHateface on Signal and noise: ““Don’t you want an independent Scotland to be the first islamic country in the EU?” I want the Islamic leader…” Mar 13, 07:10
Yoon Scum on Signal and noise: “We really need a party in Scotland which is 1 :- Actually sane 2:- ignores the indy issue as it…” Mar 13, 06:47
Yoon Scum on Signal and noise: “Try and get two facts into your teeny weeny head FACT 1 My number 1 priority is to make scotland…” Mar 13, 06:44
Hatey McHateface on Signal and noise: ““if we fill Scotland with ‘trans’ people, the climate will be saved. The last one was a joke” Zatso? Then…” Mar 13, 06:44
Yoon Scum on Signal and noise: “You’re sounding like a far right reform voter there Don’t you want an independent Scotland to be the first islamic…” Mar 13, 06:28