The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Archive for the ‘corruption’


The value of nothing 245

Posted on September 15, 2020 by

The most recent insult handed down by the smirking, sneering Permanent Secretary To The Scottish Government to the people of Scotland, who she ostensibly works for and who pay her enormous salary (she gets more than either Nicola Sturgeon or Boris Johnson, and who knows, possibly even slightly more than Peter Murrell), is a crass and dismissive one even by her extraordinary standards.

The Woman Who Remembers Nothing, having asked for some time to think about it, concluded that there was simply no way to estimate the total cost to the public purse of the biased and unlawful fiasco she presided over regarding the investigation of false abuse claims against Alex Salmond, and which had cost taxpayers over half a million pounds in Mr Salmond’s legal fees alone.

Her argument was that because government employees are paid fixed salaries and don’t record how much of their time they spent on specific tasks, there was no way to estimate how much had been spent on the attempt to fit up the former First Minister.

But that isn’t how anything works these days, is it?

Read the rest of this entry →

The road already travelled 244

Posted on September 13, 2020 by

There’s a good column by Kevin McKenna in today’s Herald On Sunday about Boris Johnson, from which this paragraph in particular jumped out at us.

It did so because of something else we’d just read this weekend.

Read the rest of this entry →

A kind of transparency 210

Posted on September 11, 2020 by

On 17 January last year, the First Minister told the Scottish Parliament that she, her administration and her party would “co-operate fully” with the parliamentary inquiry into the Scottish Government’s handling of false allegations made against Alex Salmond.

She further assured the Parliament, unambiguously and without any qualification, that the committee investigating the matter “will be able to request whatever material they want, and I undertake today that we will provide whatever material they request”.

So just over a month in, we thought we’d check on how that was going so far.

Read the rest of this entry →

Contempt of justice 389

Posted on September 07, 2020 by

We’ve had another letter from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

And slowly, painfully, we’re starting to get at least some answers.

Read the rest of this entry →

Let’s just kill ourselves 230

Posted on September 05, 2020 by

Bad news, readers. We’ve done some research, and it’s our grave duty to report to you that according to the evidence we’ve discovered, there’s a high statistical probability that everyone reading this website will one day die.

Luckily there’s a solution: we can all just commit suicide right now.

Wait – that’s a stupid idea, right?

Read the rest of this entry →

Last nights of the proms 49

Posted on September 05, 2020 by

Expressing a preference 310

Posted on September 02, 2020 by

Throughout the summer, the Scottish Government has been talking consistently about its goal being the “total elimination” of the coronavirus, and specifically contrasting that with England’s approach of merely “suppressing” it.

In the “framework for decision making” published in late April, the administration stated bluntly that “There is no such thing as a level of “acceptable loss”“ from the virus. But then yesterday something changed.

Read the rest of this entry →

Blah, blah, blah 246

Posted on September 01, 2020 by

Oh, is it that time again? Gosh, it seems to come round quicker every year.

So forgive us if we feel like we’ve heard this song already.

Read the rest of this entry →

The blockage 278

Posted on September 01, 2020 by

Well, imagine our surprise.

If only we’d been telling you for the last two years, eh?

Read the rest of this entry →

The Vanished 138

Posted on August 19, 2020 by

An alert viewer noticed this evening that after being broadcast twice in two days, “The Trial Of Alex Salmond” has tonight disappeared from BBC iPlayer.

We have no information as to why, although we do know it committed contempt of court by providing so-called “jigsaw identification” of one of the complainers in the case. If that’s the reason for the show being pulled, it’s going to be VERY interesting in terms of our ongoing enquiries with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service about why a number of Scottish newspapers and websites critical of Salmond haven’t been acted against for publishing exactly the same information, while pro-Salmond blogger Craig Murray faces a trial and a potential two years in prison for doing less.

We’ll keep you posted with anything we find out.

Read the rest of this entry →

The unseeing eyes 122

Posted on August 19, 2020 by

In a development which has caught us somewhat by surprise, we’ve just had a reply from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) which was both timely (in more than one sense of the word) and actually contained a straight answer.

Join us in our astonishment below.

Read the rest of this entry →

Co-ordinating the mob 194

Posted on August 17, 2020 by

If you didn’t already know that the BBC were going to run a character-assassination hatchet job on Alex Salmond tonight (and another one tomorrow), you could surmise it easily enough from the state of the Scottish media in the last few days.

We’ve almost lost count of the attack pieces on the former First Minister in the run-up to the show, from specially-commissioned opinion polls to conveniently-timed releases of allegations of unspecified “bullying” during his leadership and highly selective leaks from the documentary itself.

But it’s today’s Daily Record that dredges the depths of the journalistic sewer with a barrel and then scrapes the very bottom of it for the grubbiest, oiliest sludge it can find.

Read the rest of this entry →

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,990 Posts, 1,252,774 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Faces In Sand: “I have been appreciating the regular updates from the Francis Dearnley and Dominic Nicholls duo: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CM6l79O3cQ&t=1080s” Oct 19, 21:45
    • sam on Faces In Sand: ““Who are the ‘they’?” If you are talking about “crimes against humanity” “they” could be the clan chiefs who harmed…” Oct 19, 19:20
    • Spartan 117 on Faces In Sand: “One can often gauge the measure of a person by the company they keep. Flies are attracted to shite and…” Oct 19, 19:15
    • Spartan 117 on Faces In Sand: “Factchecker – as I said further up the thread, it’s pointless trying to apply logic to the hopelessly illogical. I…” Oct 19, 19:13
    • factchecker on Faces In Sand: “Thank you for your polite and insightful comment, twathater. It was indeed sometimes brutish. And I didn’t blame anybody. People…” Oct 19, 18:42
    • factchecker on Faces In Sand: “Fine, James, have it your way. All the Scots who colonised and exploited foreign lands all over the globe, often…” Oct 19, 18:31
    • twathater on Faces In Sand: “As usual yir wrang fuckchecker it was NOT the British empire it was and still is the BRUTISH empire ,…” Oct 19, 18:01
    • James on Faces In Sand: ““…the people of Scotland…” Which people would that be? Oh aye, the anglophone elite or ‘unionists’ if you prefer.” Oct 19, 17:58
    • sam on Faces In Sand: “Crimes against humanity? Plenty of those, historical and modern. Kincora boys home and the many r4pes (a crime against humanity)…” Oct 19, 17:25
    • Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “It goes without saying, of course, my last comment above was directed at Alf, not Factchecker….” Oct 19, 17:04
    • Aidan on Faces In Sand: “Mr Lavrov is about as popular in the free world as the coronavirus. Quite why any political campaign would want…” Oct 19, 16:27
    • factchecker on Faces In Sand: “Alf Baird says: 19 October, 2026 at 3:20 pm “The empire colonies you refer to were never ever ‘Scotland’s’ colonies…” Oct 19, 15:55
    • Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “I wasn’t aware that it was “U” that kicked this whole thing off by bombing “R”, Alf. Anything else you’d…” Oct 19, 15:54
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Faces In Sand: “I find Bill Browder’s personal story rather compelling… www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlF0ZzH6C9s” Oct 19, 15:54
    • Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “Nope, no get out of jail card for you I’m afraid. Historical facts are facts, deal with them.” Oct 19, 15:37
    • Alf Baird on Faces In Sand: “The empire colonies you refer to were never ever ‘Scotland’s’ colonies at all; many pre-dated the 1707 English annexation of…” Oct 19, 15:20
    • Spartan 117 on Faces In Sand: “Yeh but no but yeh but no but yeh it’s ok because we’re Scottish, which absolves us of anything apparently,…” Oct 19, 11:50
    • Spartan 117 on Faces In Sand: “I do agree Alf, albeit with the almighty caveat that Ru**ia is currently the poster boy of imperialism and warmongering.…” Oct 19, 11:08
    • factchecker on Faces In Sand: ““Life under the union Jack stinks and associates us with the crimes against humanity they have committed over many hundreds…” Oct 19, 11:05
    • Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “”Most of the French thinks it’s a great thing, tearing down the system of centuries old colonialist racism and all…” Oct 19, 10:54
    • Southernbystander on Faces In Sand: “The French have a tradition of using street protest to get political change (I won’t comment on whether that is…” Oct 19, 10:25
    • Alf Baird on Faces In Sand: “Its you and your hypocritical imperialistic kind who aye advocate bombing other countries Hatey, for which there are always consequences,…” Oct 19, 10:14
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “If only Scotland could find a Scottish coke heid of his calibre to lead us. Not that you’ll agree. You…” Oct 19, 09:57
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “How odd that 20 million people would want to flee from the same people who are helping out Scotland at…” Oct 19, 08:44
    • Colin Dawson on Faces In Sand: “Collette Stevenson’s mistake is quite understandable, given the SNP’s total obsession with transgender issues over the past decade or so.…” Oct 19, 00:00
    • Bilbo on Faces In Sand: “Is this migration coming from that war torn country that was serving conscription papers on beaches? That is just another…” Oct 18, 23:05
    • Elmac on Faces In Sand: “The title of Faces in Sand would be more appropriate as Faeces in Sand. How anyone with a brain, a…” Oct 18, 23:02
    • Willie on Faces In Sand: “Let’s try again to get through moderation. The potential for huge white immigration from a European country looms large. They…” Oct 18, 21:41
    • Willie on Faces In Sand: “20 million Ukr##nans are wanting to leave. With Britain in lockstep political alignment, if not blood brothers, the UK might…” Oct 18, 21:35
    • Bilbo on Faces In Sand: “@ Hatey My comment was meant to be criticism as too many people have no critical thinking nowadays due to…” Oct 18, 21:17
  • A tall tale



↑ Top