So this didn’t go down too well on social media last night.
Prof Bueltmann, who’s made her life in Scotland for 20 years, was (as far as we can tell) the only independence supporter to speak at a poorly-attended rally in Edinburgh calling for a fatuously-named “People’s Vote” on Brexit.
And when some Twitter users expressed a modicum of resentment at being ordered to get behind the “People’s Vote” campaign by the very people who are responsible for Scotland still being shackled to the UK and therefore dragged out of the EU in the first place, the Unionists got terribly hurt and sniffy.
One of the first posts we ever wrote on Wings Over Scotland, back in November 2011, recorded the fact that total daily sales of newspapers in Scotland had dipped below a million for the first time ever (to a total of 986,657).
The six-and-a-half years that have followed have been probably the most tumultuous in Scottish history – an independence referendum, a Brexit referendum and the death of Rangers, to name but three of the significant events that have taken place in just two-thirds of a single decade.
At the very least, then, you’d imagine that the period might have given the declining newspaper industry one last dead cat bounce.
The like-for-like sales total of the same newspapers today is 492,353.
Today’s Daily Record has a “shock” poll revealing what this site told you a week and a half ago – namely that just under half of Scots want a second referendum on Brexit. (Our Panelbase poll said 46%, the Record’s YouGov one says 48%.)
Amusingly, the paper describes this minority as “overwhelming support” for another vote, and runs an editorial leader demanding that Labour and the SNP unite to back such a proposal.
And, y’know, we may as well make the obvious point.
What that means is that, at least for now, our YouTube channel is back (Back! BACK!), minus the 13 videos complained about by the BBC on copyright grounds. The situation is once again that Corporation has 14 business days to file a formal court challenge, and unless it does so the channel will be reinstated in full.
Before we were so rudely interrupted, we were about to write a little more about the issues around the BBC’s takedown of this site’s YouTube channel. Because while we got a very respectable five-and-a-half minutes on Good Morning Scotland earlier today, you never have the time on radio or TV to say everything you want to.
Incidentally, we get the impression – nothing more solid than that – from a number of sources that BBC Scotland are somewhat out of the loop over the whole affair, and the impetus to silence Wings has actually come from London, which is slightly scarier. But aside from that, there are a number of really rather disturbing aspects to the situation.
As we’re writing this, our YouTube channel remains dead. We’re still trying to navigate through YouTube’s awful maze of robotic guards to reach a human being, and while at least two newspapers – The National and the Scotsman – have asked the BBC for a comment, none has been forthcoming.
The mainstream media’s attacks on this site in the last couple of years have included getting our Twitter account shut down in 2016, getting me arrested, having all of Wings’ electronic equipment confiscated by the police and now killing our YouTube channel full of crucial documentary evidence, most of which isn’t available anywhere else. (On top of an endless catalogue of smear stories and hatchet jobs, of course.)
Now, we’re not planning on going anywhere, but in the face of such a concerted and increasingly sinister assault aimed at silencing us, we also can’t make any guarantees that Wings itself will continue to survive. WordPress may prove as fragile in the face of malice as Twitter and YouTube have.
So in case we fall victim to another unexpected technical/censorship catastrophe, or suddenly commit “suicide”, you might want to strengthen the rest of the team.
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “Beautifully painted windows on her! She’s sailing under the flag of the UK, a fictional country. Hope the Ukies don’t…” Jan 30, 17:43
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “It’s an interesting idea, Lorna. But it comes up against the unimpeachable fact that no parliament can bind its successor.…” Jan 30, 17:36
agentx on Shield Of The Phantom: “For anyone interested the new ferry built in Turkey – Isle of Islay is currently sailing down the east coast…” Jan 30, 17:26
Lorna Campbell on Shield Of The Phantom: “100 to 200 women die at the hands of men each year in the UK – considerably more than ‘trans’…” Jan 30, 16:19
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: ““So what have you ever achieved?” No mirror needed, James, to see I’ve achieved the writing of a simple statement…” Jan 30, 16:15
Lorna Campbell on Shield Of The Phantom: “Absolutely agree, James. Any changes to the basic Treaty Articles is tantamount to resiling the Treaty because the changes have…” Jan 30, 16:05
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: ““communicate the kind of neutrality that taxpayers expect of civil servants” Odd. I thought we all understood that Scottish civil…” Jan 30, 15:40
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Shield Of The Phantom: “PEER: CI CIVIL SERVICE CASE HIGHLIGHTS DANGERS OF ‘POLITICISED POLICING’ Baroness Fox of Buckley has commended The Christian Institute’s legal…” Jan 30, 15:24
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “I believe that one of the Voyager spacecraft has just marked a major and unique achievement. It is now one…” Jan 30, 15:24
sam on Shield Of The Phantom: ““In our study, we looked at how genetically similar the Pictish genomes were to other ancient genomes from Britain and…” Jan 30, 13:57
sam on Shield Of The Phantom: “There was frequent contact between the Gaels and the Picts. The Gaels brought Christianity from Ireland into the west of…” Jan 30, 13:46
Sven on Shield Of The Phantom: “Willie @ 12.26. Whilst it’s the same basic principle, former Army medic, 51 yr old David Toshack whose on daughter…” Jan 30, 13:24
Aidan on Shield Of The Phantom: “So you think that constitutional legal questions are determined by reference to vague anecdotes and metaphors and without reference to…” Jan 30, 13:12
Southernbystander on Shield Of The Phantom: “Both Sun Ra and Karlheinz Stockhausen said they were from Sirius, so the Picts hailing from somewhere in the Andromeda…” Jan 30, 13:08
James on Shield Of The Phantom: ““So what have you ever achieved?” Look in a mirror and ask yersel that, ya fucking roaster. But I expect…” Jan 30, 13:03
James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “The parliament of the Great Britain or Uk cannot add a reservation or alter its original dates on the treaty…” Jan 30, 12:46
Cynicus on Shield Of The Phantom: “Lorna, I think this comment belongs elsewhere.” Jan 30, 12:43
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: ““I see no implied self-aggrandizement” How about the disparagement I refer to? See any of that? It’s a perfectly natural…” Jan 30, 12:42
Willie on Shield Of The Phantom: “So the latest Tribunal hearing into a custody officer being sacked for not pandering to a woo woo gender bender…” Jan 30, 12:26
Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “Few readers will know nor care that the word “pict” comes from the Latin. It is derived from a common…” Jan 30, 12:25
James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “A Treaty is a formal agreement legally binding between two or more Sovereign States, Treaties are roughly Contracts, All treaties…” Jan 30, 12:11
Northcode on Shield Of The Phantom: “Gaelic is the language of the Scotti, the invader of Pictland who came from Ireland. Gaelic bears no relation to…” Jan 30, 12:10
James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “Aiden. Logically and legal common sense. Destroy the foundations of your house and it automatically falls. Destroy the foundations of…” Jan 30, 11:36
James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “In this sense hanging on the belief that the treaty of union still exists has its upside. 1) Scotlands people…” Jan 30, 11:26
Oneliner on Shield Of The Phantom: “I see no implied self-aggrandizement in YL’s comment” Jan 30, 11:19
Aidan on Shield Of The Phantom: ““The Articles, terms and conditions of the Treaty of Union cannot be touched by the parliament of Great Britain, and…” Jan 30, 11:03
James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “Lorna Campbell. Lorna Campbell / Aiden 29th Jan 8: 45 pm. ” History is not a record of What has…” Jan 30, 10:52
sam on Shield Of The Phantom: ““Alf Baird says: 29 January, 2026 at 9:31 pm “Over time their cultures merged.” Linguistic evidence rather sugggests divergence”. Robert…” Jan 30, 10:14
sam on Shield Of The Phantom: “Tribunal hearing in Edinburgh. Began on 28/1/2026. Still going. Tribunal Tweets has links to their coverage of the hearing from…” Jan 30, 10:07
