When indoor-hat-wearing uberYoon nutter George Galloway appeared in some of the madder corners of the gutter press this week after appearing on RT to extravagantly belittle last weekend’s indy marchers, we didn’t bother talking about it because who cares what that irrelevant old zoomer thinks, right?
But when an alert reader drew our attention to this spectacular clip of Galloway’s pre-indyref and post-indyref views on the EU we couldn’t let it go, because it so perfectly encapsulates not just what a huge buffoon George Galloway is, but the jaw-dropping, bare-faced, crass hypocrisy of so much Unionist argument.
We’re only sad he’s neither a politician nor in Scotland, or he’d be a shoo-in.
We knew this would be a fast-moving phenomenon when we created it, but we’re only just beginning to realise the magnitude of the rod we’ve made for our own backs. Because the supply of rock-headed clownshows sucking up taxpayers’ money on the opposition benches at Holyrood appear to be effectively infinite.
There’s only actually one “l” in “intolerable”, but that’s still the intellectual high point of the tweet. It really is hard to adequately convey what a brainless piece of idiocy this is without just swearing for a solid hour, but we’ll try.
We felt sure that our awarding of the inaugural Thickest Politician In Scotland title this morning would be taken as the throwing down of a gauntlet, and we weren’t wrong. Because within just hours, the Prince Regent had staked his claim to the crown.
Greene – who was rejected by the voters of Cunninghame North by almost 9,000 votes but sits in Parliament anyway – is in fact supposed to serve the people of the West Scotland region as a list MSP, not the whole country, and we’re not aware of any breakdown of how Scotland’s eight list regions voted in 2014 so we have no idea how many voted No in WS. But that’s by far the least idiotic part of the tweet.
A famous quote commonly attributed to Albert Einstein (and hotly disputed, as always, by point-missing Quote Nazis), runs that “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.
It’s been bouncing around our heads for the last couple of days, because with the SNP annual conference in full swing in Glasgow, Scottish political pundits have taken it upon themselves to start issuing bizarre assertions/advice about the party’s strategy for securing a second independence referendum.
This version, from the Herald’s cut-price David Torrance knockoff Mark Smith today, is no more than we’d expect from that source:
But we were a lot more surprised to see the notion also being taken up by someone we’d previously credited with a lot more insight and intelligence.
Alert readers will be aware that while the absolutely mind-numbing empirical stupidity of Scotland’s latest batch of Unionist MPs and MSPs is a recurring theme on Wings, we’ve never attempted to place it on any sort of formal footing. And to be honest, that sort of laziness on our part is no longer sustainable.
The plugin which normally embeds our Twitter feed on the Wings front page still isn’t working (doubtless because Twitter have made yet more spiteful and idiotic changes to their API), so those of you who don’t use the social media platform may have missed out on a gem this morning from everyone’s favourite Labour ultra-moderate.
Phew! Saved from economic devastation! Sounds like a narrow escape!
For our money – and by an admittely wafer-thin margin over the likes of Annie Wells, Miles Briggs, Alex Cole-Hamilton and James Kelly – Tory list MSP Jamie Greene is still the lowest-watt bulb in the Scottish Parliament’s festival of lights.
(Our alerter readers may have spotted that that’s an official watermarked Scottish Conservatives pic, so that’s them making him look as intelligent as they can.)
To stand out as especially doltish in a group of epic dolts like the current Tory cohort in Holyrood, you also need to be incapable of following simple logical trains of thought. So let’s see if we can illustrate with a topical example.
We’d hoped not to have to write any more about this for a while, but a story broke this evening on left-wing Labour website Skwawkbox that we thought those of you not on Twitter would want to see.
Following a previous piece casting huge doubt on Dugdale and the Scottish media’s version of events, the site got hold of a letter (dated yesterday) from Labour’s general secretary Jennie Formby to Mary Fee MSP, who’d sent a complaint about the party’s decision to stop funding Dugdale’s legal costs.
Politics in 2018 is almost impossible to satirise, and nowhere more so than in Scotland, where at least two of the main parties are currently campaigning on the principled policy of “any referendum we lose should be re-run, and any we win must never ever be held again because the decision was final”.
So it’s quite understandable that the Dateline 2018 team – Scotland’s only currently operating satirists of any kind (which is, madly, true) – opted not to bother with any Scottish content in their last series. But they’ve totally promised that they’ll absolutely definitely do some this time, honest, if you fund them for another one.
Yeah, we’d be sceptical too. But they only need £7,500 by tomorrow to carry on, and if they don’t reach the target you get your money back, so if you just got paid and can spare a couple of quid then fire it their way by clicking on the pic, because frankly we don’t like to think about what they’d get up to if we don’t keep them occupied.
Red on Before Action: “Nicola Sturgeon is the Jason Arday of politicians. Everybody knows she’s a liar, but her lies are convenient to the…” Aug 22, 20:01
Saffron Robe on Before Action: “You’re exactly right, James, it’s “through the backdoor”. In other words, we (by which I mean Scotland) are getting royally…” Aug 22, 20:01
agentx on Before Action: “It’s strange – as of 19.14 on 22 Aug this blog article has 124 comments. The article in The National…” Aug 22, 19:18
gm on Before Action: “Alf Baird says: 22 August, 2026 at 2:21 pm ‘And at the top of the colonial pile the Permanent Secretary’s…” Aug 22, 17:13
Just Asking on Before Action: “Thanks Robert. Assuming it wasn’t simply incompetence, but a deliberate decision by people who knew the money had been ring-fenced,…” Aug 22, 16:14
Hatey McHateface on Before Action: “Mark Any idea if he’s built his first affordable house yet? I’m assuming that’s why he fucked off on holiday…” Aug 22, 16:00
Northcode on Before Action: “For those who don’t appreciate poetry (or poetic justice) and my nine line non-Spenserian stanza version of the Dean’s opinion……” Aug 22, 15:25
Northcode on Before Action: “Scots criminal law attaches embezzlement to individuals, not organisations. This means that embezzlement is a personal crime. In short, embezzlement…” Aug 22, 15:02
Northcode on Before Action: “I asked myself this question: What are the risks to individuals working for COPFS and Police Scotland who are found…” Aug 22, 14:37
Young Lochinvar on Before Action: “HMcH Hopefully they have the sense to drink Highland Spring bottled water..” Aug 22, 14:34
Alf Baird on Before Action: “” I follow the argumentthat the Lord Advocate and the Solicitor General are in the Scottish government and are subordinate…” Aug 22, 14:21
Mark Beggan on Before Action: “Come on Northy it’s Saturday. Take a chill pill. Peace and love to all mankind.” Aug 22, 14:08
Iain Ross on Before Action: “The police assertion that no new evidence has come to light would suggest that they already knew that the SNP…” Aug 22, 14:03
gm on Before Action: “The SNP elite needed money, they always needed money. The gang that lead the SNP had and have no interest…” Aug 22, 13:05
gm on Before Action: “For years. Up until very recently I would not have believed it possible, Northcode. For a lad of your stripe…” Aug 22, 12:48
gm on Before Action: “That makes sense to me. COPFS are blocking it not the police (The top Polis seems to be hiding btw).…” Aug 22, 12:17
100%Yes on Before Action: “James, its below. https://www.thenational.scot/news/26483678.wings-blogger-threatens-police-legal-action-snp-600k-fund/” Aug 22, 10:50
Northcode on Before Action: “COPFS and Police Scotland might well have identified the individual responsible for the illegal diversion of SNP ringfenced funds, but…” Aug 22, 10:32
Northcode on Before Action: “That’s actually a polite, intelligent and respectful response to James Che’s comment. And the gentle humour at the end perfectly…” Aug 22, 10:29
Mark Beggan on Before Action: “That should have read; Don’t rape women, men, children or animals. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. Editor” Aug 22, 10:09
Mark Beggan on Before Action: “Billy Bus Ticket is having a hard time as boss. He has aged incredibly in such a short time. By…” Aug 22, 10:04
Mark Beggan on Before Action: “I still think my Time Machine plan is the only feasible way to solve this conundrum.” Aug 22, 09:59
Hatey McHateface on Before Action: “So it’s open season on the 50% who aren’t women? Or is Burnham in the grip of the trannies, trying…” Aug 22, 09:50
Mark Beggan on Before Action: “Neither would I. As long as they don’t shit in parks.” Aug 22, 09:47
Mark Beggan on Before Action: “Andy Burnham s pamphlet; Don’t rape women. Don’t try to swim with your clothes on. Welcome to Britain!” Aug 22, 09:37
Hatey McHateface on Before Action: “Sorry, James, but I don’t think you and I share a common definition of “officially”. More generally, I think you…” Aug 22, 09:31
Mark Beggan on Before Action: “They really get in the way of a good fantasy. With their bloody referendums and democratic processes. Stalin never had…” Aug 22, 09:28
Aidan on Before Action: “How incredibly boring” Aug 22, 09:26
James Che on Before Action: “Mark, I would never suggest any other nation of these Island are parasites, that want parts of England to become…” Aug 22, 09:25
Hatey McHateface on Before Action: “And yet it’s an easily verifiable fact there are more Scots living in England than English living in Scotland. Given…” Aug 22, 09:22