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Wings Over Scotland


Archive for the ‘history’


A Personal Best For Kezia 255

Posted on November 25, 2024 by

Credit where it’s due:

17 months is the quickest she’s ever caught up with us.

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Objection Sustained 41

Posted on September 18, 2024 by

This must be some kind of mistake.

Because we’re sure you’ve spent the last decade telling us that just couldn’t happen.

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After the swarm 72

Posted on September 11, 2024 by

On 15 October 2012, I signed the Edinburgh Agreement with David Cameron to secure the independence referendum of September 2014.

On the same day Peter Kellner of the polling company YouGov wrote one of his condescending commentaries from London dissing any hope for the Yes campaign.

“However, from Salmond’s point of view, it is about the only thing going for him. Indeed, were he to be given a truth drug, he might well curse the fact that the SNP won last year’s Scottish elections outright, and thus found himself in a position to keep his promise.

He would surely have been much happier remaining the leader of a minority government, unable to get his independence legislation through Holyrood. Then he could have railed against the Scottish satraps of the Britain-wide parties for silencing the voice of the Scottish people.

Instead, by winning an outright majority, he has shot his own fox. Rather than shed crocodile tears for his inability to call a referendum, he must now put the issue to the test.

As a shrewd and intelligent man – indeed, one of the shrewdest and most intelligent in British politics – he must know that his mission is impossible, that in two years time his country will vote to remain part of the United Kingdom, and that far from being achieved, independence will be deferred for at least a generation.

All YouGov’s evidence from the past four years is that independence is a minority passion north of the border. Even as the SNP was surging to victory last year, Scots told us by two-to-one that they wanted to remain within the UK.

The SNP won because most Scots thought it had governed their country well, because they liked Salmond, and because they thought the Scottish Labour Party was useless – not because they wanted to sever links with London.”

Kellner’s view was almost universal, and not just among the London pack of journos and politicians. Most, if not all, of the Scottish media agreed with him.

However, by September 2014 things looked very different.

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Event on the horizon 100

Posted on September 01, 2024 by

Those of you on Twitter will probably be aware of this already, but for the rest:

It should be a bit of a lark, although the retrospective part will probably be rather more fun than the looking-forward part. I don’t get out much, so if you want to come along and throw some rotten fruit and/or say hi, tickets are here.

Ten Years Asleep 173

Posted on August 11, 2024 by

Exactly a decade ago today, on 11 August 2014, the Wee Blue Book was released.

This was where things stood at that moment in time.

One month after the WBB, that 20-point gap was down, like-for-like, to two points.

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If you want to know the facts 197

Posted on May 02, 2024 by

…just read Wings Over Scotland, folks.

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Volkssturm John 414

Posted on April 29, 2024 by

In the dying days of World War 2, as Berlin crumbled to rubble under Russian bombs and rockets, the Nazis played a desperate last card in the shape of the Volkssturm, an ad hoc fighting force primarily comprised of old men, invalided veterans and those not deemed fit for normal military service. (As most of those were already dead.)

They were rounded up and sent off to the front (usually only a few hundred yards away) in their civilian clothes, armed with whatever odds and sods of weaponry could be scrabbled together – most commonly the one-shot Panzerfaust anti-tank grenade, as seen in the pic above – and invariably slaughtered in the streets by the disbelieving battalions of the Red Army, because it didn’t matter to Hitler whether they lived or died.

And here we are again.

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2015: Hamish’s Nightmare 61

Posted on April 20, 2024 by

The mutability of history 135

Posted on April 15, 2024 by

Truth matters in public life.

So we’ve sent the letter below to the Scottish Parliament this morning.

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Well, that’s showbiz 121

Posted on March 22, 2024 by

Fashion is fleeting.

2020 seems a very long time ago, doesn’t it?

At the Seven-Eleven 933

Posted on November 07, 2023 by

Wings Over Scotland is 12 years old today. And since absolutely nothing is happening in the world of Scottish independence – and hasn’t for, frankly, years – we thought we’d take you on a trip back to the day we were born, since when things DID change.

Remember when we had a leader who could get the UK government to do stuff it didn’t want to do, readers? AND actually increase support for independence? Good times.

Ashes, Two Ashes 183

Posted on October 31, 2023 by

Maybe he thinks Ash Denham and Ash Regan are two different people.

Still, consistency, honesty, decency and integrity: no great loss.

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    Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)

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    • Robert Matthews on The Wage Thief: “Skrewdriver : I Don’t Like You. 1-2-3-4, I don’t like you! Get out on the job in the morning Time…Dec 11, 02:41
    • Campbell Clansman on The Wage Thief: “Alf, you are aware, aren’t you, that the UN maintains a list of “colonies” (they call them NSGTs) and Scotland…Dec 11, 02:31
    • Robert Matthews on The Wage Thief: “Of “days that will never come”.Dec 11, 01:15
    • Robert Matthews on The Wage Thief: “Beach Boys – Sloop John B alternative version.Dec 11, 01:12
    • Mac on The Wage Thief: “2014-2024 www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AHCfZTRGiI&list=PLm90JTuh4xFuWAEmfd1Y2ogMKLvOVDGmJ&index=43&ab_channel=JohnnyCashVEVODec 10, 23:35
    • Mark Beggan on The Wage Thief: “I’m Glasgow we’d call her a back stabbing bastard.Dec 10, 23:04
    • gregor on The Wage Thief: “Dear anti-people/power, Who/what are you ? Don’t you wanna be part of our undisputed winning team ?? We’ll be thinking…Dec 10, 23:02
    • Mark Beggan on The Wage Thief: “They will go back to what they are. Nobodys.Dec 10, 22:49
    • Mac on The Wage Thief: “So am I the only one working their way through the We Are Not The Same playlist thingy? www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p4snj33BHg&list=PLm90JTuh4xFuWAEmfd1Y2ogMKLvOVDGmJ&index=32&ab_channel=ManicStreetPreachers-Topic Not…Dec 10, 22:47
    • gregor on The Wage Thief: “Bryn X Malone: Loser Love (feat. Mo-cee & IAM Q): “(I_am_Q) Lost love Lost love Fantasy (fantasy) Yea I guess…Dec 10, 22:18
    • James Gardner on The Wage Thief: “Memoirs of a Betrayer will be available in Charity shops one week after it’s general release…….Dec 10, 22:15
    • Mark Beggan on The Wage Thief: “The ‘Fuck You’ vote is on the menu.Dec 10, 22:15
    • James Gardner on The Wage Thief: “Lima Bravo…Dec 10, 22:07
    • Michael Laing on The Wage Thief: “Much as I despise the SNP for the absolute shambles they’ve made of everything, I do believe the blame for…Dec 10, 22:01
    • Mark Beggan on The Wage Thief: “If you thought the DFL, SNP and those other clowns are cretins then wait till you meet the Reform candidate…Dec 10, 21:57
    • PacMan on The Wage Thief: “I practice the same thing myself and it’s a tough one as this silence is allowing the likes of Reform…Dec 10, 21:56
    • Campbell Clansman on The Wage Thief: “All the polls since May 17, have shown Indy support at 38%, 41, 46, 37, 44, 34, 37, 45, 40,…Dec 10, 21:41
    • Mark Beggan on The Wage Thief: “Best thing is just don’t talk to them. It works for me.Dec 10, 21:32
    • Mac on The Wage Thief: “Oh yeah. And reading Wings twitter, it is one of that fucked up couple, that played an instrumental role in…Dec 10, 21:29
    • Marie on The Wage Thief: “Try Rhumble (without the h)Dec 10, 21:29
    • Mike D on The Wage Thief: “A vile woman whose party i was a member of and contributed to from 2018 till 2020, until my mum…Dec 10, 21:29
    • Campbell Clansman on The Wage Thief: “SNP not an Indy Party, according to you. The “true” Indy Party (Alba, ISP, whatever this week’s “movement” is labeled)…Dec 10, 21:27
    • gregor on The Wage Thief: “Empire Of The Sun: We Are The People: “We are the people that rule the world A force running in…Dec 10, 21:27
    • Mac on The Wage Thief: “For some reason people in Scotland find it hard to believe that they are surrounded by them same as the…Dec 10, 21:26
    • Captain Caveman on The Wage Thief: “Another day, another trolling and goading. You really are a useless waste of space pal. Cretin.Dec 10, 21:23
    • Campbell Clansman on The Wage Thief: “So you can’t explain how Indy has stalled, despite this overwhelming (sarc) support? Thought so.Dec 10, 21:22
    • Hatey McHateface on The Wage Thief: “That’s an opinion you are entitled to be most humble about. I read a lot about the Opium Wars. I’m…Dec 10, 21:21
    • Mike D on The Wage Thief: “Or a female stakeknifeDec 10, 21:13
    • Zander Tait on The Wage Thief: “Ha ha ha, RH. And let’s not forget the bolts protruding from his neck. It was, of course 54% Yes…Dec 10, 21:11
    • Hatey McHateface on The Wage Thief: ““our NHS is on its knees because Sturgeon put it there” It strains credibility far beyond breaking point to believe…Dec 10, 21:11
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