Alex Salmond will be laid to rest in the green turf of Aberdeenshire today in a quiet and dignified private ceremony. (A public celebration of his life will take place next month.)
Most of Scotland’s press and commentariat beclowned itself shamefully after his death just as it did during his life, but below is a (regrettably short) collection of those who did otherwise and who deserve to be noted honourably beside the man himself.
Wherever you find giants, you also find parasites, bottom-feeders and carrion. When a mighty lion dies in the jungle, tiny creeping crawling maggots and insects and bacteria feast gleefully on its corpse for many days.
Which naturally brings us to the Scottish media.
The above paragraphs of cowardly innuendo and baseless speculative smearing were penned by Severin Carrell and Libby Brooks in the Guardian on Monday. (They’re not from the ironically-headed “Appreciation” that the same two hacks wrote for Sunday’s Observer, in which they audaciously claimed that Salmond’s success was down to Nicola Sturgeon).
They sneakily imply that Salmond was guilty not only of the sexual assaults of which he was cleared in court, but also of an unspecified number of unnamed others, and make assertions of “disturbing evidence about his personal conduct” without specifying what that evidence or conduct might have been.
We’ve just watched the BBC’s new documentary, and we’re confused.
You can see both episodes on iPlayer now, or on TV tonight and tomorrow, but there’s no mistaking what’s being advertised – a personal drama between the two biggest players in Scottish politics in the last 300 years.
In many ways, the fabricated, hysterical furore of Humza Yousaf Vs Elon Musk is the ultimate in summer-silly-season politics stories.
Absurdly plainly, the former First Minister ISN’T going to take any legal action against the billionaire owner of Twitter. He only likes bullying small nurseries, and even then he doesn’t follow through. He didn’t even sue us for calling him racist a few months ago, so there’s zero chance he’s going to square up to the world’s richest man.
Every now and again you’ll go to clean them up and find something that you’ve been meaning to write about in a quiet moment, and this certainly counts as a quiet moment in Scottish politics, so let’s do this one now.
Because the story above is from March, but we don’t think we’ve ever seen anyone anywhere talk about just how weird it is, or what it tells us about the 2024 SNP.
We’ve been off for a little break in the country, and as far as we can tell we’ve missed absolutely nothing in the moribund world of Scottish politics. We did, however, arrive back just in time for something mildly interesting, or at least revealing.
It’s the latest episode of a new podcast by veteran Scottish political journalist and broadcaster Bernard Ponsonby and jobbing opinion columnist Alex Massie, inventively titled The Ponsonby And Massie Podcast.
The first 35 minutes or so weren’t very noteworthy, other than the curious omission – when predicting the makeup of the next Scottish Government – of the idea of a Labour-SNP coalition, which to this site remains by far the most practical and logical outcome of the 2026 Holyrood election.
The 2005 election was the last time the Daily Record and the Scottish Sun both endorsed the same party at a UK general election. So, y’know, something is going on.
The Observer, for example, blamed the stat on “neo-Nazis”.
But even if that were true, it wouldn’t of course disprove the claim. A stopped clock is right twice a day, and something isn’t intrinsically false just because a neo-Nazi says it. Hitler had some pretty messed-up ideas but the world didn’t become flat just because he said it was round.
The video below, which we just found today, is taken from a promo by the American news channel CNN in 2017. It’s deeply ironic now, because CNN has been thoroughly captured by gender ideology. But it’s the reason Wings Over Scotland won’t change what or how we write, even if it means we have to shut our doors.
The truth is everything. Non-negotiable. No matter what. It’s as simple as that.
Big Jock on The shifting sands of memory: “The deid Queen called herself QE2. It was on the coinage. Yes I know she was QE1 officially in Scotland.…” May 22, 01:00
Geri on The shifting sands of memory: “Not necessarily. Kosovo manages just fine. There are many countries who have ongoing disputes. It’s countries that recognise other countries,…” May 22, 00:53
Geri on The shifting sands of memory: “It was meaningless because it wasn’t written down legally anywhere that they’d actually enact the result – just that they’d…” May 22, 00:36
Geri on The shifting sands of memory: ““no matter what some nit picking academics poring over 3 centuries old dead parchments might argue.” Wait a minute there,…” May 22, 00:26
robertkknight on The shifting sands of memory: “Scotland was effectively acquired, through hostile takeover, by England, who had threaten to cut off Scotland’s international trade through naval…” May 21, 23:38
Mia on The shifting sands of memory: “” the laws that were not compatible with the Treaty fell into desuetude” Sorry, Lorn but on this, I have…” May 21, 22:34
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “My reading is that it’s the settled view of many that because the majority of Scottish residents returned the wrong…” May 21, 21:50
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: ““he believes that there was and is a Treaty of Union” No shit, Sherlock! That puts him in the overwhelming…” May 21, 21:38
Aidan on The shifting sands of memory: “The Union with England Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament prior to the amalgamation into the Parliament of Great…” May 21, 21:25
Andy Wiltshire on The shifting sands of memory: “Is it the settled view of most people on here that the independence referendum of 2014 was meaningless? And moreover…” May 21, 21:24
Lorn on The shifting sands of memory: “Ian: you kind of have to provide evidence that you ARE a colony, not just being treated as one. It…” May 21, 21:23
McDuff on The shifting sands of memory: “The western world is consumed with righting wrongs of the past so surely that must include Scotland. The Scottish people…” May 21, 21:16
Lorn on The shifting sands of memory: “PhilM: I don’t think Stephen Kerr is being mendacious; I think he believes that there was and is a Treaty…” May 21, 21:06
Lorn on The shifting sands of memory: “Actually, no, it’s not, Dec. The Treaty was real and very much based in legality. The Scots have never really…” May 21, 20:53
Lorn on The shifting sands of memory: “Mia: the laws that were not compatible with the Treaty fell into desuetude – which means that they were no…” May 21, 20:51
Hatey McHateface on Some Attention For James: “Uh oh, Barbie’s been allowed back into the community. Is it me suggesting we get vets to run the euthanasia…” May 21, 20:33
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: ““We will have to use every ounce of ingenuity and courage to free ourselves” Sure, but you’ve missed the third…” May 21, 20:21
Mia on The shifting sands of memory: “@Geri They made several attempts at a union, but all monarchs failed until Anne. She seemed to have achieved what…” May 21, 20:21
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: ““I wonder how the BBC will report the liberation of the Scots” Do you really? I’m thinking most grounded people…” May 21, 20:06
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “If you use AI to write it, you can use AI to summarise it. “We wus robbed” about covers it.” May 21, 19:50
JB on The shifting sands of memory: “Lorm @6:23pm As to “surrendering the fishing industry” on Monday, so far that is only a political agreement to surrender…” May 21, 19:48
Geri on The shifting sands of memory: “It’s my understanding there was no union or parliament of ‘Great Britain’ because it never happened. It was a wish…” May 21, 19:37
Northcode on The shifting sands of memory: “Mia, your comments are often a mammoth read but it’s always worth making that little extra effort to read them.…” May 21, 19:28
Geri on Some Attention For James: “You’d think by now the penny would drop at your end by now.. “Scotgov” is a colonial outpost, ya cretin.…” May 21, 19:23
Mia on The shifting sands of memory: ““A basic piece of research would dispel this immediately, the Union with England Act 1707 Article XXVV passed by the…” May 21, 19:18
Aidan on The shifting sands of memory: “A basic piece of research would dispel this immediately, the Union with England Act 1707 Article XXVV passed by the…” May 21, 19:02
Mia on The shifting sands of memory: ““the ToU is a fraud” There is indeed something rather iffy about the Treaty of Union and the way the…” May 21, 18:46
