Now don’t get us wrong, readers. We’re sure that gormless Tory MP Ross Thomson is not, repeat NOT, permanently binned off his tulips on methamphetamine. He just has an unfortunate habit of photographing that way.
So when an alert reader sent us a link this morning to an extraordinary interview in which the Brexiteer claimed to have “killed indyref 2” in 2017, we didn’t automatically dismiss it as the drug-addled rantings of an ego-crazed madman.
Today, on the shortest day of the worst year in recent memory, the people of Catalonia will vote in an election under the control of a brutally repressive government which has unjustly dissolved their devolved parliament, imprisoned their democratically-elected leaders, viciously beaten hundreds of voters for no crime other than trying to vote, and banned almost all types of expression of public support for Catalan independence, including outlawing colours of the rainbow.
All this has happened within the borders of civilised free Europe, and the other nations of that great continent have largely either turned a blind eye to Catalonia’s suffering, or actively sided with the Spanish regime. Many people fear that today’s election will be rigged, or that if pro-independence parties win the result will simply be ignored and the election re-run until the “right” result is arrived at.
The UK media has barely acknowledged the election is taking place, even though it appears that many of the most cherished and fundamental human rights and freedoms of the West are at stake in it. (Or perhaps precisely for that reason.)
(And if that seems overly melodramatic, ask yourself who would ever have imagined a 21st-century democracy sending in riot police, in full view of the eyes of the world, to literally drag blood-soaked elderly women out of polling stations by the hair?)
All we can do is watch and hope that justice prevails, and that the darkest hours do prove to be those that come before a bright new dawn.
The media is aflame this morning with discussion of the agreement between the UK and EU with particular regard to Ireland, in which the UK essentially concedes just about everything including free movement, the thing most Brexiters voted Leave for.
We’ve largely avoided analysis of the Brexit negotiations here on Wings up until now, because there’s been a raft of people who are far more expert on the subject than us doing it at enormous length, very little of it directly concerned Scotland, and so nobody really needed our tuppence-worth. But this one’s big.
Yesterday’s Daily Record (which would increasingly be an accurate three-word name for the paper) ran an innocuous piece of page-filler fluff rubbish, and for once we’re not talking about a David Torrance column.
It featured the “psychic” predictions of a man who, the Record told us – no fewer than FIVE times in the opening few lines – previously predicted Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, and who had a track record of “incredible accuracy”.
There was a nice moment at yesterday’s Scottish Independence Convention.
It was widely appreciated by Catalan people, none of whom (so far as we could see) took the expression of solidarity as implicit support for Catalan independence, only for freedom and democracy. But someone wasn’t quite so happy.
This is the former Labour UK government minister, socialist and internationalist Brian Wilson in the Scotsman today, gloating and crowing that the democratically-elected government of Catalonia has been deposed and imprisoned (the latest in a series of arrests and jailings of leaders of the independence movement) for seeking to discover the will of the Catalan people in a referendum, in accordance with the mandate they were elected on – an act Wilson somehow contrives to describe as “tyranny”.
Wilson, whose Twitter avatar is a picture of himself with Fidel Castro, asserts that the Spanish government’s literally fascist coup and oppression of its people is a “lesson for Scotland”. We doubt we’re alone in finding that view chilling.
We’re not a Catalonian-politics website and we don’t even have an opinion on whether Catalonia should be independent, but sometimes it’s easier to understand the workings and failings of the media if you watch how it behaves on a subject you’re not directly and closely involved with. Last week was one of those weeks.
He was brought on to give voice to what has become the universal UK-media spin on events in Catalonia – that both sides are to blame, that the Catalan government was provocative and irresponsible to call an “illegal” referendum, and that the only way for the area to achieve independence is through the 1978 Spanish constitution, despite it expressly forbidding any such action and its cornerstone of existence (also known as the “Preliminary Title”) being “based on the indissoluble unity of the Spanish Nation”.
So in the striking absence of any useful information in the press, we thought we’d do a little digging and see how that might work.
James on The Outsiders: ““….our next sensible leader…” LOL, parody; like it.” May 31, 20:06
Sven on The Outsiders: “Andrew Scott @ 19.34. More power to their elbow … I’d gladly buy them a half.” May 31, 20:01
A2 on The Outsiders: ““that’s a rational view for them to be taking.” Well that’s new, have we turned a corner?” May 31, 19:56
Northcode on The Blackout: “Ignore the question marks separating paragraphs in my last post. Looks like a rogue ASCII character snuck it’s way into…” May 31, 19:48
Dan on The Outsiders: “Aye, George, that pretty much sums it up for me. FFS, Scottish footy fans will unify and get over the…” May 31, 19:43
Northcode on The Blackout: ““In a colonial society the issue is not simply where one is born, tho that is important, but whether they…” May 31, 19:35
Andrew scott on The Outsiders: “O/T the pride flags were removed by “persons unknown” from the route of the march in Arran Polias alba are…” May 31, 19:34
Alf Baird on The Outsiders: “Folks have clearly had enough of woke politicians and their crazy laws which oppress the people; which explains why astute…” May 31, 19:24
Eleanor Johnston on The Outsiders: “When one has to resort to an analogy of an uncouth sexual act; it highlights how desperately worried and ill…” May 31, 18:51
George on The Outsiders: “True about Farage but I’m more shocked that we can’t produce an independence party of integrity and achievement.” May 31, 18:35
George on The Outsiders: “Yup. Good enough for me.” May 31, 18:33
Mark Beggan on The Outsiders: ““and when you’ve got them by the balls their hearts and minds follow”.” May 31, 18:01
Northcode on The Outsiders: ““Vote for Scotland. STAY AT HOME.” A slogan that should be on posters pasted over every bus stop, billboard and…” May 31, 17:47
James on The Outsiders: “Rookiescot; Quite agree, I suppose it shows just how thick and/or gullible the populace are becoming, and the power of…” May 31, 17:24
Anton Decadent on The Blackout: “What do you know about the beans?” May 31, 17:16
Mark Beggan on The Outsiders: “And the Lion tamer was fake.” May 31, 17:05
Mark Beggan on The Blackout: “Thanks for that pointless display of prices. Didn’t even have the decency to convert to British Pounds Sterling and there’s…” May 31, 17:02
SilentMajority on The Outsiders: “I definitely liked this article, especially the comment related to….. “the by-election is a free hit: you can give them…” May 31, 17:01
Rookiescot on The Outsiders: “Do you think the guy who caused the problem should be rewarded with peoples votes and hence power? There is…” May 31, 16:57
Nae Need! on The Outsiders: “Good question. And who, other than [Redacted], has their grubby paws on the cheque book these days, now that the…” May 31, 16:57
agent x on The Outsiders: “Gordon Strachan is no longer a regular pundit for Sky Sports due to controversial comments he made about Adam Johnson,…” May 31, 16:54
Mark Beggan on The Outsiders: “Well I’m sick of the elephants and chimpanzees in drag. Bring on the Clowns!” May 31, 16:43
Rev. Stuart Campbell on The Outsiders: “Yeah, was pretty rank. Couldn’t believe there wasn’t even any post-game studio analysis.” May 31, 16:41
Rev. Stuart Campbell on The Outsiders: ““And after the disaster of Brexit thats the biggest issue facing the UK?” And you think if the SNP win…” May 31, 16:40
Mark Beggan on The Outsiders: “How much money, that the SNP don’t have, was spent on the election?” May 31, 16:26
Stu H on The Outsiders: “The Independece minded electorate should abstain as they did the last westminster election. The present snp colonial administration Will see…” May 31, 16:21
Rookiescot on The Outsiders: “And after the disaster of Brexit thats the biggest issue facing the UK? The lies Farage told and continues to…” May 31, 16:19
Nae Need! on The Outsiders: “Interesting. Very. Quite exciting in a way. I’d so like to see the main parties getting a good drubbing! As…” May 31, 16:01
Mark Beggan on The Outsiders: “He knows the difference between a boy and a girl. That puts him miles ahead of SNP plc ltd and…” May 31, 15:51
David on The Outsiders: “On a different point I thought the BBC coverage of the Scottish Cup Final was as bad as I’ve ever…” May 31, 15:47