This is the 5,000th post since Wings Over Scotland began in November 2011, which is just shy of two a day, every single day, since then. We wanted such a landmark post to be something serious and significant, but in light of the utter brain-melting futility of trying to write anything sensible about politics in the UK today that won’t be overtaken by ridiculous events within seven minutes, screw it, we’re going to this instead.
So we’ll see you all later this evening for the result of Theresa May’s confidence vote. What’s the worst that could happen?
There was a certain uncomfortable 2018 inevitability this morning over the fact that where people were offended, arrests would follow.
And the burning of a cardboard model of the Grenfell Tower last night was certainly right up near the top in the pantheon of cretinously offensive things. Many victims of the appalling tragedy, which killed 72 people and injured many more, still haven’t been properly rehomed almost a year and a half later.
Much of central Cowdenbeath was closed down for several hours by the police yesterday to facilitate an Orange Order parade attended by DUP leader Arlene Foster. (Curiously, Ruth Davidson, who’d been vocal in her complaints about traffic disruption in Glasgow due to the recent Yes march, had no objections this time.)
Foster made an audaciously ironic plea for a nation “free from intolerance and hatred“, right before the next speaker stepped up to denounce large sections of the local population as “enemies of Christ”.
In our latest Panelbase poll, we asked the same independence question we asked in the last one, and got much the same answer. (Technically the indy vote went up by about a sixth of one percent, but that’s statistically meaningless.)
That’s a bit disappointing after the events of recent weeks, but also not very surprising – after all, the way the question is framed pretty much guarantees at least 38% of the population will choose the second option straight off the bat.
Much more interesting is the question we asked next.
And no, we don’t even mean the FOUR spelling mistakes in this 42-word tweet.
We mean the bit that we’ve highlighted above in blue. Because what Scottish Labour’s lowest-watt bulb was gloating about earlier today was that Lord Bracadale concluded there’d been no gap created in the law by the Kelly-driven abolition of the OBFA.
And that’s… well, that’s not quite what Lord Bracadale said.
James Barr Gardner on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Meantime the BBC carry on with their insidious propaganda – today’s bit – Sir Peter William Mathieson FRCP FMedSci FRSE…” Jan 9, 10:57
100%Yes on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Phil, I voted for the creation of Holyrood. I was proud when it opened and then when the SNP became…” Jan 9, 10:45
James Cheyne on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “% Yes, Indeed a coloniser by a different name is still a coloniser. When some one else set their code…” Jan 9, 10:39
Northcode on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““…very sweet and liquid tongue.” Wells could only have meant the braw Scots leid… certainly not Gaelic (although it does…” Jan 9, 10:18
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “A thousand curses on Wells for never clarifying what that strange, sweet and liquid tongue was. Could it have been…” Jan 9, 09:58
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “I thought everybody here already agreed the mature tree (the SNP) IS rotten deadwood. The sapling (LS or similar) will…” Jan 9, 09:53
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “I hope they grit the pavements around yours soon, Dave. You need to get out of the house!” Jan 9, 09:35
100%Yes on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “The colonizer And Greenland are in America to discuss Greenland with the Americans, I bet their isn’t one single representing…” Jan 9, 08:50
Phil on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “I was far too generous. https://capx.co/is-it-time-to-abolish-holyrood” Jan 9, 08:43
Aidan on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “@TH I don’t know where you’ve got this idea from that I’m going around saying that everyone should vote Reform…” Jan 9, 08:09
twathater on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “@ Aiden 7.07pm you and others including Stuart Campbell talk of coordinated action to bring down the snp, in your…” Jan 9, 02:11
Young Lochinvar on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “H McH @ 7.15 I am not adverse to analogies or metaphors, but: 1. The mature tree would have to…” Jan 9, 00:44
Alf Baird on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Postcolonial theory is actually a reflection of what happens during the period of colonialism. It is essentially looking back, after…” Jan 8, 22:16
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “THE TIME MACHINE by H. G. WELLS Beginning of Chapter 4: « In another moment we were standing face to…” Jan 8, 21:49
DaveL on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “I’m still getting a good laugh at your yappy wee sidekick Insider by the way with his “listen son…” “hey…” Jan 8, 21:23
DaveL on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “In a land of a million Hateys and Alf the boss had been bombing and slaughtering them for eight years…” Jan 8, 21:03
DaveL on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Hatey doesn’t believe silence speaks volumes at all. He’s certainly never tried it, It’s likely not in the nazi playbook.…” Jan 8, 20:53
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Naw, Alf, I’m not about to take lessons from the kind of people who would be implacably hostile to me,…” Jan 8, 20:25
Alf Baird on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““Recognised as alien, foreign imports by everybody else in Scotland” That sounds awfu like British Exceptionalism, Hatey. Intellectual excellence is…” Jan 8, 19:53
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Shakespeare, Huxley, Wells. Not one of them penned a single word of Scots in their entire life. Sure you’re OK,…” Jan 8, 19:20
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Depestre and Senghor. Acknowledged as Scots in these tourist shops on the Royal Mile that will run up an over-priced…” Jan 8, 19:14
Aidan on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “@TH you acknowledge the SNP tree has to come down BUT you’re avoiding the kind of coordinated action required to…” Jan 8, 19:07
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Not quite sure what you’re saying there, sam, unless it’s that the descendants of the people who were there hundreds…” Jan 8, 19:02
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “Bwuhahahahahaha! Hey! This is fun. Must do more. They do say laughter is the best medicine. “They” being the people…” Jan 8, 18:48
Hatey McHateface on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “The whisky experts talk of the legs of a dram. You must be seeing raised right arms in your whiskey.” Jan 8, 18:24
twathater on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “@ John Main 7.15am REAL independence supporters know that the big tree snp has to be chopped down to ensure…” Jan 8, 18:18
Marie on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “If you are not allowed to own your own thoughts and express your own opinions then you do not live…” Jan 8, 17:51
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: “HOME SECRETARY FACES LEGAL ACTION OVER HATE CRIME POLICING Free speech campaigner Harry Miller is seeking a judicial review on…” Jan 8, 17:04
Alf Baird on Grandpa John’s Nightmare: ““It’s a rotten system and should be called out whenever it happens” Indeed, and many people in Venezuela, Greenland, in…” Jan 8, 16:20
