Bustin’ flushes
Wings Over Scotland marked its ninth birthday earlier this month. To be honest, we totally forgot about it until someone reminded us. Normally we mark the anniversary with a small reflection and taking of stock over how things are going, but this year we couldn’t be bothered – we’d already mentioned readership stats in August.
But today in The National we found out that we were apparently dead.
But reports of our demise have been, as the saying goes, somewhat exaggerated.
We’re certainly more alive than that column by Alyn Smith, which vanished from the website before anyone could archive it or it could even be lodged in a Google cache.
But fortunately Mr Smith’s dedicated and loyal fanclub was on hand, and a copy of his full-on personal attack (“bigots”) on people like us, the SNP Women’s Pledge group and the SNP Common Weal group survived for posterity. (Click to enlarge.)
[EDIT 12.21pm: we see it’s back now.]
“The SNP’s answer to Voldemort” is obviously going straight on our bio page, although since we’ve never been in the SNP we’re not actually the SNP’s answer to anything. (And we also can’t be a “party within a party”, since we’re, um, not within a party.)
We also don’t recall ever “urging the general public” not to vote for Smith in last year’s election – we merely said WE wouldn’t if we lived in his Stirling constituency, the nerve centre of the party’s Twitler Youth faction for which “Daddy Bear” is the figurehead.
Regarding our “obsession”, Wings has run a total of 37 articles touching – to some degree or other, sometimes only passingly – on transgender ideology, which is 0.67% of the 5,533 posts in the site’s history, or 4% of our 866 posts since we first broached the subject almost three years ago. Since the issue came to the political fore, 96% of Wings posts haven’t mentioned it in any way.
We were also a touch confused about Smith’s last line – “We’ve a referendum to win”. Have we? Did we miss a big news story somewhere? Last we heard the SNP had, by its own admission, no credible plan to even secure one, never mind win it.
But “a sad busted flush”? In August we noted that we’d had 670,000 visits in July, far more than every other indy site big enough to register statistics put together.
So we guess now we’re “busted” that must have taken a dive.
Oh.
Independently-audited visits in October were in fact up by 28% compared to August. Wings currently comprises 61% of all traffic to stat-recorded pro-indy websites, up from 55% in August. (A rather bigger share of the “vote”, we can’t help noting, than the 51% Smith boasts about getting in a two-horse race in Stirling.)
In truth, readers, we’d been planning on taking another break for a little while. We feel like we’re just repeating ourselves a lot at the moment, because COVID-19 has killed all normal politics and almost all there is left to do is point out the absolute cancer tearing the SNP apart from the inside, whether it’s the abandonment of any practical intention to achieve independence, the pandemic of corruption riddling every level and aspect of the party from the financial to the moral, or the betrayal of voters with the incessant pushing of massively unpopular policies snuck in on the back of votes for independence. And while it’s stuff that needs saying, it’s not much fun writing about it and we’ve said it all dozens of times already.
But if we’re getting under the skin of Smith and his violent misogynist woke faction this much, we suppose we’re just going to have to carry on. Because if the stats are any guide – and they’re pretty much all we have to go on – you still want to hear about it.
Even if the likes of Pension Pete (20 years’ service to the Crown builds you up quite an entitlement – amounting to roughly £50K a year in Wishart’s case by the end of the current term – that might go out of the window if Scotland were to inconveniently become independent before you retired) would much rather you didn’t.
You are doing a vital job at a crucial time, Stu. It pleases me to see your hit-statistics not only being so high, but rising too.
Just keep it up Stu – its Those two idiots that need to “Dae Wan!”
All publicity is good publicity. Anyone who highlights the woke cancer at the heart of the SNP is doing a good job in my eyes.
Can you also add Comfy-feet Pete’s “vile Wings” to your bio?
Always makes me smile
Definitely not time to take a break! You are quietly reaching more & more people at a time when the so-called party of independence is showing itself to be increasingly inept & corrupt.
But don’t take too long a break, Stu; we’re rootin’ for you to keep us abreast of the ‘Salmond’ enquiry, as the media like to call it.
Rev, I do sympathise with how you feel about repeating yourself and having to criticise SNP so much rather than the opponents of the normal state of countries [i.e. Unionists].
However given that 856,000 people read your output, it is clear that your work is essential to preserve and drive the cause of truth.
Please carry on. And what about a crowdfunder for some sweetie-alternative products?
I can see your point about repeating yourself Stu. But to me you are always worth reading when the email comes through or someone else tweets the link.
The SNP has been trying to kill you off ever since Yes Scotland tried to tell bemused Yes groups not to link to Wings or distribute the WBB. Which the vast majority simply ignored. We certainly ignored it in RIC. Car boots were opened a canvasses packed full of WBB’s.
I have a pdf version of the Black version. As campaigning with the ISP begins soon I will have cause to consult it I’m absolutely sure. Even with the IMB’s power grab in recent memory it won’t hurt to mention older examples.
You have a gift for robust yet careful journalism that reallly only otherwise exists on The Register which I drop into regularly.
The phrase “Busted Flush” is a busted flush.
There was a time when the SNP was a useful party – when it actually aspired to independence.
“Can you also add Comfy-feet Pete’s “vile Wings” to your bio?”
Has been in there for ages. BE MORE ALERT 😀
“However given that 856,000 people read your output”
To be scrupulous, as always, that figure is visits, not unique users.
Please keep doing what you do, Stu!
While Wishy and the Sith keep trotting out their bitchy wee comments, you are needed more than ever.
The bit that really really caught my attention in that article by Smith was this.
The SNP is not your vehicle and we don’t need your leadership, put up and set up your own party if you want.
I really really hope someone takes this asshole at his word.
we need a vehicle that is roadworthy standing on the constituency.
I live in hope.
@Rev Stu @ 12h50
Indeed it does, my apologies. Coupled with ‘divisive demagoguery’ too. Lovely.
“Alliteration is the last refuge of the inarticulate” (Victor Lewis-Smith, I think)
Please don’t give up your good work on all fronts, Rev. I cannot believe the brass neck of this man, Alyn Smith. The piece is back, by the way, and allowing comments, which is unusual, as the trans lobby usually gets a free ride in the newspaper, as with everywhere else in the mainstream, like a bunch of narcissistic toddlers throwing a tantrum in the middle of the store and everyone crowds around offering dummies and sweeties.
This stuff, the odious ‘hate crime’ legislation and the GRA reform are going through in 2021, or before, if they can get away with it. Free tampons now – which is a very good thing, and well done to the SNP for that – but is it intended to be a sweetener? Will trans women qualify as they will be legally ‘women’? Even more womanly than women, apparently, who, some trans woman stated on Twitter, are horrible hags with horrible bodies, who shouldn’t exist and ‘real women’ like him should. Insanity, on the one hand, and anti democratic mores, on the other, prevail in Scotland. It’s now official. Alyn Smith and his faction say so.
The delusion is strong in them @ Lorna Campbell. From what I’ve seen of trans identifying men their idea of “womanliness” is a best offensive , more usually repellent.
“…the cause of gaining independence” why not just say “the independence cause”
I know he rambled on a bit, but every statement from a leadership figure always seems to be couched in ambiguous terms. It’s consistent enough that it’s not a coincidence. All the time it’s “could”, “should” and “maybe” never “will”, “must” and “do”.
Sooner or later the party has to come to terms that pursuing independence and running the government are two full-time jobs and the leadership is either too old, too tired or simply not up to the job.
In a sense it’s understandable. If you can only fit independence in for 15 minutes on Wednesday mornings at 9:15am then the gradualist approach makes a lot of sense. They are relying on the track record in government to do the speaking for them. The only problem though is that leaves the whole endeavour as a hostage to fortune. Westminster’s not sitting on their hands and the day is coming soon where there will be nothing left to be gradualist about.
Any idea why the Daddy Bear’s article has been disappeared?
Orders from the Inner Inner Party, or is the National scared of being done for defamation?
. . . and if the article’s back now, has something been changed or cut?
Reading the stuff from Alyn Smith, whether as above or his twitter SNP adoring drivel from the wacky woo woo Stirling swamp is nothing more than political fellatio.
It beggers belief that it needs a blogger, running a shoe-string, fact finding set-up, to shine a light on all the madness emanating from what is supposed to be Scotlands leading political party for independence and it’s so called leadership..!?
Let’s be honest about it, if we didn’t have Wings we’d be completely f*****d, or does anybody here think SGP, the dug, Craig M and others could do the same as the Rev does..!
Stu I think Voldemort meaning ‘Flight of Death’ is a promotion for you over demagogue. In terms of you hitting the target consistently and concisely. The next 6 months will be very busy with so many issues remaining unresolved. I expect over a million hits will be surpassed very soon. Take this afternoon if it goes the way I think it will. We will be heading for a Judicial Review on examining the failures of the first Judicial Review. Heading into the realms of farce.
You sound a tad like me Rev. I’m the kind of person that doesn’t truly get motivated until I’m really pissing off the right people, which is when I’m like a dog with a bone. Keep up your work. I found so many things in that article amazingly patronising and dishonest, so much so that it would take quite a narcissist to imagine readers would lap it up as honest and rational:
e.g. outside agencies influencing the SNP – I’m sure his lengthy parliamentarian work has highlighted how politics works so he’s clearly talking pish with the idea that the only thing that should influence the SNP is what members want. No such thing as lobbying? Media has no influence? UK Government policy has no influence? Focus groups and surveys have no influence? I could continue.
« The SNP is not your vehicle » perhaps Mr Smith might like to say something to his rainbow festooned pals who have effectually turned an independence party into a pride themed catwalk for odd ball identitarians. .
Boy on boy. Are you getting under their skin? These attacks seem to indicate you are. Let’s wants to end your social media output. I wonder why? Sounds rather dictatorial.
My mind is now firmly made up. If I have a candidate who is firmly pro Indy I will vote for them, otherwise I will spoil my ballot for constituency but vote probably ISP on the list.
They hate cyber Nats. Well cyber Nats can hate right back.
They need us more than we need them. Starting from scratch is hard but seemingly necessary. Do not tell me there are bigger fish to fry. I refuse to vote for anyone who thinks of me the same as something they have trodden on in the street.
I have influence in my neck of the woods and I will use it.
Making “Ordinary housewife’s “ aware of the backdoor Oh Er missus GRA and wokerati agenda’s
You must continue to keep your forensic EYES on both the Yoons and the SNP.
Because at this time that party is the only vehicle to get us over the line to the most important objective. Independence.
And winding up Cosy Pete or Pension Pete by exposing the hypocrisy of those blocking our right to be independent is a thankless task but someone has to do it. If not you who?
It is very interesting that the people who hate you the most (by a long way) are the allegedly pro independence SNP wokerati. They are the ones most desperate to write you off. And I really mean desperate.
I think you are really getting to them, more and more… and they get shriller and shriller as a result.
Pete Wishart has been reduced to a slavering idiot repeating the word demagogue over and over like a madman. Does he honestly think that convinces people. (Oh wait after reading his last article he obviously does think he can spout a load of empty rhetoric and folk will confuse it with an actual plan to achieve something. So probably yes.)
I see this site as key to getting awareness (of just how corrupted and rotten the SNP have become under Team Sturgeon) to ‘take off velocity’ among the wider Scottish public.
Because for sure the MSM are helping Sturgeon out big time by showing little interest in it all (another very damning indicator).
Slowly I sense things changing, especially in the last year. Other important voices of dissent are to starting to really wade in now.
Reading that Robin MacAlpine piece, someone quoted on the previous article, punches are increasingly no longer being pulled. To read some of those paragraphs in it, it is astonishing that he is talking about an SNP lead Scottish government.
Wing’s is the one place with enough punching power to really worry these snide woke roasters . If you pack it in who the fuck is really left to shine a light on them. This site has real clout. And Pishypants Pete and the rest of them know it which is why they attack it/ you relentlessly.
Fuck’em.
The single most important next step for achieving independence is exposing Team Nicola for what they are and what they have done. That is it, nothing else at this point. It is kill or be killed time.
So I would argue the work Wings is doing now is just as important if not more than the massive contribution made in the run up to 2014. Unfortunately this time it is not a battle anyone wanted or foresaw. But it cant be avoided.
Just for fun, I’ve dropped The National’s editor a line asking if I get a right of reply. I’ll let you know if I hear back.
No point in stopping now.
As I write I’m wearing the world-famous VILE CYBE RNAT sweatshirt.
Still great value.
You are getting up their noses Stu because they know you’re on to them,
They are lying to us because they know Nicola is not gonna call a referendum or electoral plebiscite either side of HR2 and it’s not like it’s a big secret she’s already told us she’s not gonna do it
Remember her words on the Andrew Marr Show when he asked her if independence was parked meantime and she said yes it is parked until COVID is over (and here’s the important bit) “AND IT’S ECONOMIC LEGACY” !
That’s it right there, that’s her telling the world there will be no independence on her watch as long as she’s in power, I don’t know when she turned against independence or why but she has and she isn’t even hiding the fact it’s as clear as day for us all to see.
She has to go it’s as simple as that
To paraphrase Shakespeare:
“Is it possible disdain should die while she hath
such meet food to feed it as Signior Smith?
Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come
in her presence.”
Much Ado About Nothing
No! – no breaks allowed!
Here was me, earlier this week, about to suggest you publish an online ‘Daily’; Politics, Sport, Cairns, Quiz, Bathtub*, Pete’s Ermine**, Music, Politics (I like politics) and some stuff along-the-lines; Brilliant Scots We Never Knew About. You could do that on your head, dude.
*Bathtub: sights, sounds and scandal around Somerset we might find interesting, esp the scandal.
**Pete’s Ermine; where the collar of Wishart’s Santa suit becomes self aware and manipulates him into writing bawdy songs about his love for The London (a play on Roy Hattersley’s dug, truth being more accurate than the fiction)
I’ll sell any paper copies on street corners thus;
“Get your thrills here – pages and pages of grandeur and gore!”
Notify me of new posts!
Simple thankyou from me
If they dislike JKR so much, why use a Potter reference?
Sunshine on Leith song extract: “Please don’t go”.
Parties within parties are a danger to the cause of independence according to Alyn Smith.
No, you’re mistaken. A monolithic party which tolerates no dissent from a leader who is disinterested in pursuing independence is a danger to the cause of independence.
Just a wee bit of info. My wee pro Indy site registered over 72,000 views in the month of October. It was Yours for Scotland’s best month since I started in late June. Not quite in Wings league but further evidence people are interested in finding out an alternative view to the Big Daddy fantasy story.
Happy belated. Don’t take a break. As George Monbiot just wrote, “The persistent trick of modern politics – that appears to fool us repeatedly – is to disguise economic and political interests as cultural movements.“ Your consistent criticism and drawing attention to the parasitical wokerati currently destroying the SNP is precisely what needs to be done, and it requires a certain bravery, which, by dint of being a grumpy ol bastard, you have. Thanks for that.
Covid Schmovid …theres plenty to be getting on with…lest we forget the Holyrood Lying Cabal…that house of cards needs as many ill-winds blowing at it as possible.
If folk like Alyn ( that really was a terrible piece..can anyone explain the rationale behind that “By engaging” paragraph?…hell mend The National) and BlockerBuster Pete are downcrying you then you know you’re doing something right…and hey with such publicity, cue the Million Hits in 2021…reach for the stars!
Heh heh, if you are Voldemort, does Smith see himself as Harry Potter? Are we Death Eaters? I could quite fancy myself as Helena Bonham Carter…
BTW…did Alyn pay tribute to you when he created his wee Bleu Book…a dedication perhaps, a signed copy even…
Alyn “I welcome all fellow travellers but decry the organised attempts to influence my party” Smith… doesn’t like Stu, Robin MacAlpine, or critics of GRA as it stands…
Altogether now…
“It’s ma party and I’ll cry if I want to… cry if I want to… cry if I want to…. you would cry too if it happened to you!”
If it was only just about a party… Well done Stu. Respect.
From the article: “…have wilfully sought to misrepresent and undermine policy and have been vicious in their conduct on social media…”
I’ll take no lectures on conduct on social media from an Errol Flynn wannabe who continues to indulge and defend his mono-browed, poisonous and vindictive partner who is fluent in spewing venom on any kind of media that will tolerate him.
Please keep doing what you’re doing. You have a huge amount of support who perhaps aren’t as vocal about it as they should be.
Iain Lawson
Good to hear Yours for Scotland is getting widely read. Wings, Craig Murray and YfS are the quality.
Interesting to see the stats for blogs. So much for the blogs who claim kinship through shared criticism of SNP and brickbats received as a result, who don’t feature.
Paid my Delegate fee today for the SNP Conference and Alyn and his woke crowd can go whistle for my vote.
Stay hyper alert Stu, Im sure the odious HCB has you in its sights. Id like to see you evolve. Maybe a radio channel?
So, 856,000 visits to “ever-vile” Wings (my absolute favourite of Wishy Washy’s inane splutterings) in October.
No wonder he and Daddy Bear are throwing a strop. These figures will realy rip their knitting.
It’s a wee shame, soanitis.
This isn’t politics, it’s petted-lip handbag fighting.
Thank you. ?
Read this in the paper version this morning tried for ages to find it online to post it in hear, as you say it was nowhere to be found. I take it even the National saw the far ranging hypocrisy in Daddy Bears column today.
“I welcome all fellow travellers but decry organised attempts to influence my party.”
How very totalitarian of you!
That’s how democratic politics is supposed to work you peanut.
They call him Daddy Bear.
We call him Diddy Bore.
Iain Lawson @1.46pm.
Well done Iain keep the good work up I and many others read your interesting articles.
Many Thanks.
Can someone explain to me why this site is constantly tarred as “vile”? It’s not like Rev Stu runs articles called “Why I Hate English People”, is it? Doesn’t as far as I am aware mock the afflicted. Have Wishart or Smith ever read the comments on Twitter feeds or YouTube videos, there are a lot of things in the world more vile than this site! It’s a bit Trump-like, if you ask me.
Trump like of them, that is, just spewing insults. “Vile Wings!”
The bold Alyn and his ilk fail to realise that the ONLY reason we continue to vote SNP is to secure independence. There is NO other reason. He’d do well to remember this because he is not untouchable
Pete Wishart loves Wings (The Rev) referenced as Voldemort.
link to twitter.com
I wonder if Wishart realises how much he sounds like James Traynor ranting and raving at ‘internet bampots’ who, as it turned out, had a point in that case too.
Not one of the Scottish news outlets comes close to the quality of Wings’ investigative journalism. They are either unable or unwilling to look beyond the everyday political stories that are handed to them.
Wings’ articles are a vital answer to the witholding of public information by Sturgeon and her ministers. Keep going, Stu. You are needed.
On Smith’s article. He says: –
‘So I say to all the frustrated would-be kingpins, all the bigots seeking to import their obsessions, and to all the yesterday’s men, stop it. The SNP is not your vehicle and we don’t need your leadership.’
He has got it the wrong way round.
The SNP is entirely the vehicle for bigots and would-be kingpins to import their obsessions. In fact, it is nothing else.
Keep up the good work. This column is the highlight of my day.
“..I play for the SNP jersey..”
Brave of a Sturgeonite to mention SNP and Jersey in the same phrase seeing as no one can find out what Murrell’s done with the ‘ring-fenced’ indyref money.
I really can’t understand where Pete Wishart is coming from here, saying that bloggers are the biggest threat to independence when he knows fine well, that the biggest threat to independence comes from within the SNP itself.
link to twitter.com
Meanwhile Pete Wishart loves the nickname #Cosyfeetpete.
link to twitter.com
Please keep doing what you do Mr Campbell. Thank you.
I ware my “Vile cyber Nat” tshirts with pride always. I have several sos I can rotate them through the wash.
Keep on keeping on now needed more than ever.
Love it that your such a burr up their ass.
RepofScot @2:21
He says Cosyfeet isn’t apt since he’s 5’10” and a size 12 in shoes.
Fine. #Clownfeetpete if he prefers.
Is Pete Wishart Alyn Smith’s groupie or is it the other way round?
Does anyone think that Pete Wishart aspires to being a member of the House of Lords. Rumour has it that he does.
Well he wanted to be the Speaker of the House of Commons and that maybe tells you lots about his true commitment to independence – not!
Anyway, more important things in the news today. Seems that chilled EU sausages will from January be banned from being imported into the U.K with vice versa U.K. exports to the EU being banned.
Jingoistically the Westminster Establishment brigade in favour of Brexit are making the joke that the Germans will be the “ wurst “ whilst in Blighty we can continue to enjoy our own “ Great British bangers “.
Laffy, laffy, joke joke but the serious side to this is that British farmers won’t be able to export to the EU and that includes Ireland ( ROI) and Northern Ireland where something like 355,000 tonnes of meat crosses the border annually.
And will it, laffy laffy, joke joke impact other Scottish produce like fish, or Scottish Salmon, or Scottish shell fish, or Scottish venison and so on. Laffy laffy it might but we can eat British bangers.
Oh dear, looks like the poor hapless Scottish producers could be in for a rough old time. But who cares, certainly not the halfwit pelagic fishermen who supported Brexit. Scud it into them. They deserve it.
Aye the Jerries May be fearing the “ wurst “ ( bratwurst that is for those who thought it was something to do with whisky ) but I wonder how many of Pete Wishart’s constituency might actually be fearing for their businesses – cos even the fruit growers could be impacted to the extent that crops could be left unpicked and unsold.
Well done Pete for stopping Brexit.
@Iain Lawson (1.26) –
Just to echo what others have said Iain, and point out that your blog, along with Gordon Dangerfield’s, will surely become much busier in the weeks to come – an awful lot of msm hacks will have to get off their big fat armchairs and catch-up with harassment inquiry-related detail.
There are certain indy-supporting blogs which, for reasons best known to themselves, haven’t gone near it.
Re Harassment and Complaints Committee ,
Update from the Correspondence page ,
The Deputy First Minister wrote to the Convener on 24 November 2020 regarding the provision of documents to the Committee and witnesses at evidence sessions:
link to parliament.scot
The Committee received two communications from legal firm Levy & McRae, representing former First minister Alex Salmond, regarding the provision of documents to the Committee:
Email from Levy & McRae to the Clerks, 15 November 2020 (192KB pdf)
link to parliament.scot
Letter from Levy & McRae to the Convener, 20 November 2020 (198KB pdf)
link to parliament.scot /General%20documents/LM_letter_and_attachment_of_20_November.pdf
The Scottish Government are really determined to do everything they can to hold up submitting the evidence that’s required by the committee . So much for Nicola Sturgeon saying that they would be open and transparent with the Committee inquiry
Said it once and I’ll say again.
Vote them 2 oot at next and every opportunity. Starting in May for Smith.
HE/HIM Smith, was parachuted in from Brussels anyhow cause of a 2 min speech. It was a fraud then and he’s a fraud now.
I personally had never heard of him b4 like most of the country.
Is everyone aware that there’s quite an important vote scheduled for this afternoon in Holyrood?
A person : Wings is hated because it presents the paucity of their arguments, their dishonesty and their manipulation of the media to the yoons, the SNP self -servers, the SNP wokeratti and anyone else.
Stu will be embarrassed but he is a genuine national treasure.
More power to your elbow ,Rev.
Me @ 2.50 pm
This article from the Herald re my above comment ,
“ ALEX Samond’s lawyers have accused the SNP of potentially defaming them and their client by twisting the truth ahead of a crunch parliamentary vote. “
link to archive.vn
Ayrshire Rob : Alyn smith is an mp. So you can’t vote him out in may.
But I like the way your thinking.
Keep going, we need you.
You may well laugh, Smith really does think he is “untouchable”.
Quite ironic really. I mean, you know…
In the meantime.
Quote “Some of these announcements have been associated with explicit funding amounts, others have not. However, it is increasingly difficult to know to what extent these funding announcements are additional to previous announcements or not – and the extent to which more recent business grant allocations are recycling unused funds from previous schemes.
Taking recent announcements into account, it seems possible that around £1bn of funding for the 2020/21 financial year remains uncommitted at this point – but there is significant uncertainty around the size of this number.
The Scottish Government has indicated that it does not intend to publish any comprehensive analysis of its funding allocations over the remaining course of the year until the Spring Budget Revision in February.
This may therefore appear after the budget for 21/22 has been presented – which may complicate scrutiny of the 21/22 spending plans.”
Once again, in the middle of a pandemic, where the very economy of Scotland totters on the brink, where financial aid depends on what side you dress, apparently, there’s a billion squid gone awry.
Ref link to fraserofallander.org
A huge amount of the young people in my area have no interest in politics at all, and when I see what’s going on with the present ninnies running the snp I now understand why.
For the first time in about 50 years I will not be voting for them, I actually want them to disappear, we need to start again, we have a huge support for independence, all we need is the leadership to get us there
Keep fighting the good fight Rev.
The Wisharts, Blackfords, Murrells and Sturgeons of this world must be held to account.
After all, they “work” for us – supposedly…
Stu – I realise how soul destoying this must be for you to continually be revealing the socially dangerous false promise the SNP has become, as much as it is for those of us who previously believed in them.
As the new indy parties are only standing on the list, we need the SNP to sweep the board in the constituency seats, in order to deny the SNP list votes which the indy parties can gain.
For a lot of us now, that’s going to be a hard task. However with Nicola’s current high standing in the polls, I can’t help thinking that SNP may gain votes from those who previousy wouldn’t have voted for them, which may cancel out the previous loyal voters withdrawal.
There’s no doubt we’re in a damned if we do and damned if we don’t situation and I am quietly beelin about it.
Do you think Nicola and her hubby will depart the scene? If they do, will it damage their vote and leave them free to pick up list votes. I’d hate if RS or any Alphabettys got in on the list.
Is there someone who can lead a new indy party and stand in the constituences, at least some of the constituencies? God I wish Duncan Hamilton would appear on the scene. There’s a man with fire in his belly, which is exactly what we need.
Stu, please keep doing what you do best. It’s the only place that’s keeping us informed.
NewSNP has now driven Rhona Hotchkiss to resign. Perhaps they’ll begin to wake up one day soon.
link to twitter.com
@Willie
That’s a real worry give the technical legal name for a sausage knowingly sold without sufficient meat content is a BANGER
( 42% is The minimum meat content to be labelled Pork Sausages (30% for other types of meat sausages), although to be classed as meat, the Pork can contain 30% fat and 25% connective tissue.)
Given the export\import issue meeting the collapse of Standards and Controls then sadly I fear we will actually be left praying for a BANGER if we are a lucky!
Stu, Alyn has a point. When was the last time you wrote an article about indy? It’s been so long I can’t even remember. He actually complimented you on your superb Wee Blue Book.
Me @ 2.50 pm
Sorry folks , I don’t know what went wrong with the last link
Correction to last link ,
Letter from Levy & McRae to the convener , 20 November 2020 ,
link to parliament.scot
I take it everyone smirked at Alyns sarky “Its important that the party’s accountability continues” quip?
Its what he would have wanted!
Was it ring-fenced, wee monkey?
There’s been a lot of confusion about what ring-fenced actually means lately. A lot of internet bampots imagined that it meant it was kept safely separate from other monies. I know, crackpots.
Thankfully the SNP have clarified the matter. Ring-fenced is like when you take money from your kid’s piggy bank and you tell them you’ll put it back when they need it. If the kids don’t like it, what are they going to do, leave? Lol. Chances are the kids will forget about it soon enough so it’s all good.
Anyway, that’s ring-fenced.
Astonished @ 2.59pm
Aye,you’re right.Meant GE as they do feck all for us doon there.
Bring them home.
Most of them would never survive a Scot gov election Smith or Wishart for starters.
C Griffiths @ 15:11pm, you MUST be having a laugh.
What was yesterday’s article about Pete’s plan if not a critique of how we can realistically expect independence any time soon?
It couldn’t have been more of an article about independence.
Alyn Smith may not need our leadership,but they certainly need our support.
Just watch what happens what happens in May when all us no longer supporters really take the hump and stop canvassing for them and start doing the opposite, making the voters aware of what a shower of tossers they ALL are.
No use trying to claim that there are some good ones, where have they all been and where are they now allowing the party to get into this state?
More importantly @John Jones says at 3:32 pm
Alyn Smith and Wokoharam NEED YOUR MONEY.
Without membership money how would Murrel et al be able to cream massive salaries pursuing the policies of a very vocal minority lobby group over Independence?
PW and Daddy are approaching New Labour levels of denial. It would be funny in other circumstances.
The woke Stasi make my skin crawl. I will never support them.
Wokoharam? LOL……Brilliant
Stu
Joyeux anniversaire mon ami
Alyn Smith – the SNP’s answer to Littlefinger.
9 years of the good fight, eh? Well done. Have a rest if you need one. Half-a-Christmas is coming up, so you’ll be OK for that. However the reason, that you feel it’s Groundhog Day with every article or comment, is fair enough but that is not the case.
The latest infantile insult aimed at you, Voldemort, got me thinking. Had to Google the chap to see what he meant by it. It was as I thought it would be, the evil in the Harry Potter books.
That’s what got me thinking. There are so many issues at the moment with the SNP- the corruption, the betrayal of Yes, the facilitating of dangerous policies – and so on that you are taking on. However there is one that you championed that is overarching.
Alex Salmond. The conspiracy against him was Evil. Framing such appalling accusations against an innocent man, with the express purpose of delivering a long prison sentence,”winning the war”, is Evil.
That’s what you are fighting for, for all of us on here. Evil.
That is why you cannot give up.
I am very wary of the phrase “the right thing to do”, since David Cameron used it all the time.
Pete will still get his pension in an Indy Scotland, we’ve already established this! Archie McPherson would be proud of that bit of Project Fearing there. ?
Right then lads & lassies, I’ll be needing all your old junk ASAP. I need to build a baracade to see if auld smyffy will come to help me defend my rights as a woman? If you could all just leave it outside on Friday morning for me to collect that would be grand. ?
Really enjoying this, we have taken too much crap from the SNP inner circle, great to see WoS getting to them. They have treated us all like a nobody, we are each someone with a voice.
More importantly than us each being “someone with a voice” @John says at 8:19 pm
We are all someone with a VOTE!
And we are all someone with TWO VOTES for Holyrood at that!
“The SNP inner circle” would do well to remember that(and they need look no further than The British Labour Party in Scotland’s demise for proof of what happens when you take your members and voters for granted and for fools)!
Onwards and Upwards Rev Stu, Brexshit will soon make Covid look like a minor inconvenience.
Stay safe, keep the faith, as for the Dream it will never die, soon it will be reality as the People of Scotland truly have had enough of London Tory sheer feckin’ incompetence.
Ugh Alyn Smith and Wishart again. Ironic them using Voldemort as an insult since that character’s creator would tend to use it in general about the political party to which they belong and perhaps even more so about Smith’s trans extreme allies/activists in particular. It comes to something when one begins to feel political opponents have more integrity and judgement than those in charge of the party one has supported for almost twenty years. In fact I feel she has shown herself to have more integrity in her little finger than Smith has in his whole rotten carcass.
Well done on the anniversary. I’m glad you’re not going away but can only imagine the emotional burden at times, despite the many honest plaudits which should leaven the baggage somewhat. Still, it does bother me a bit that some much lesser writers seem to have made a better living out of writing about independence than you and received far fewer of the many brickbats that have come your way. Of course that’s because you’re the gadfly of Scottish politics we need. I feel though that something more sustained, in the form of a book about Scottish politics of these years, would stretch and prove your abilities nicely, introduce new audiences and end up being reviewed by more than just normal political, and politically biased, hacks. Or maybe you’re waiting for the title Nicola Sturgeon (my part in her) Downfall. 🙂 Many former admirers of her, like myself, can now not wait much longer for that saga to unfold.
An ‘unchallenged reign on social media’ even after being banned from Twitter? Boundless power.
Congratulations on the site longevity and impact
I write to address an urgent issue. Security of May elections (And referendum)
Attention is beginning to turn to the likelihood of a greatly increased postal vote.
What is much more important is that measures are in place ot prevent the counting process being manipulative and fraudulent.
There needs to be a published register of postal voters, so all parties can supply them with literature,
The postal voter registration needs protection against those with two or more addresses accessing more than one postal vote, with transparent checking.
The counting must not be done in another country and by a private company.
The transport, storage and prevention of prior acces (No Davidson peeks) needs tightened.
The postal votes must be counted under scrutiny, with separate tallies and cross-checking as to the postal vote registration and percentage by polling station.
The marked up postal vote registers (and other registers) must not “disapppear (Glenrothes by-election)
In short all the failings of the 2014 referendum must be prevented.
Dear Busted flush happy to chip in with the purchase of a new vehicle as the SNP 1.6lx has failed its mot.keep up the good work.