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Wings Over Scotland


Archive for the ‘navel-gazing’


Sorry, guys 259

Posted on September 12, 2016 by

neilwilson

but party time‘s over.

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What you can’t say 293

Posted on September 12, 2016 by

As several alert readers have already spotted, our Twitter account was suspended at some point in the early hours of this morning. We’ve had no email from Twitter offering any sort of explanation, but it seems most likely to have been at the behest of a Daily Express hack called Siobhan McFadyen who’s been huffily bleating to the company’s executives over the weekend about this tweet:

smcf1

The reason we tweeted that comment is detailed here and here. But apparently it’s an opinion that you’re no longer allowed to have.

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A terminal decline 145

Posted on June 01, 2016 by

We rarely do stat posts now, because readership has settled to a pretty steady level (generally bobbing between around 250,000 and 300,000 users a month) and we’ve run out of ways to blow our own trumpet. But we’re making an exception this month.

williamsonpredicts

The snide, arrogant, pompous and casually factually-inaccurate comment above was made by a founder/editor of a rather less popular Scottish political website. And in the (statistically unlikely) event that you happened to read it and became concerned, we thought you’d like a little more information about our “ever-decreasing readership”.

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The media they don’t like to talk about 229

Posted on December 31, 2015 by

Below is a very interesting 13-minute chat from this afternoon’s John Beattie Show on Radio Scotland, also featuring Stuart Cosgrove (presenter of the excellent footy prog Off The Ball) and Eamonn O’Neill, who we presume is this Eamonn O’Neill.

(The John Beattie Show, BBC Radio Scotland, 31 December 2015)
.

Naturally we like it because there’s mention of Wings, which – for just about the first time we can recall on broadcast media in our four-year life – isn’t about how vile and awful we are, but the whole thing is much more wide-ranging and well worth a listen.

(The line “The media the media doesn’t like to talk about” is Beattie’s, not ours.)

We are four 236

Posted on November 07, 2015 by

So, it’s our birthday. It was exactly four years ago today, on the 7th of November 2011, that Wings Over Scotland published the first post of what was supposed to be a pretty insignificant spare-time blog picking out interesting politics stories in the day’s Scottish media and challenging any inaccuracies in them.

4yearstats

It got a bit out of control, frankly.

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You are legion 61

Posted on November 01, 2015 by

Another three months have come and gone – where does the time get to, eh? – so it’s time for a quick Wings readership-stats update. There’s nothing particularly interesting or dramatic about them, so we’ll just give you the numbers and move on.

UNIQUE VISITORS IN OCTOBER 2015: 293,793
PAGE VIEWS: 4,616,334

In what’s been mostly a very sleepy time for politics, we’re thrilled with that.

The rest of the story 142

Posted on September 18, 2015 by

Alert readers of The National will have noticed an article by me in it today. It reads slightly weirdly, jumping from subject to subject, because it was originally done as an interview but they then decided to cut the questions out to get more text in.

tnrsc

That’s all absolutely fine – they okayed it with me first – but some readers may be interested in seeing the full original piece, which is about twice as long. If you are, you can read it below. If you’re not, um, do what you like. I’m not your mum.

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The Persuader 258

Posted on September 18, 2015 by

Nobody else is going to do this, so we’ll do it ourselves.

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The Top 10 153

Posted on August 21, 2015 by

For reasons best known to himself, and almost certainly NOT related to the recent publication of his new book, the BBC’s Nick Robinson has today chosen to reignite the issues surrounding his infamous questioning of Alex Salmond a week before last year’s independence referendum, claiming that the reaction to his presentation of the incident was reminiscent of “Putin’s Russia”.

The state broadcaster’s political correspondent then inflamed social media further by claiming on Twitter that a grassroots protest – neither instigated nor endorsed by the SNP or Yes Scotland – outside BBC Scotland’s headquarters in Glasgow a couple of days later was in fact organised by “a governing party”.

(Robinson also claimed the mob had been 4000-strong, although the BBC’s own report had put the figure at “up to 1000”. The demo was sedate and entirely peaceful – no arrests were made, nobody was hurt and no damage was caused.)

robinsonpq

The footage showing that Robinson had lied on air about his encounter with Salmond was captured and published by this website, in a pair of videos which garnered well over 600,000 views on YouTube and one of the most-read posts in Wings history.

When we mentioned that fact earlier today, a reader asked what other posts were in the top 10. So we looked, and noticed that the biggest ones had a common theme.

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Ticking along 122

Posted on August 01, 2015 by

It’s three months since our last traffic-stats update, so we’re due again.

WINGS OVER SCOTLAND JULY 2015

Unique users: 308,314
(up 20,626 on June 2015, up 79,159 on July 2014)

Visits: 1,147,571
(up 90,453 on June 2015, up 229,604 on July 2014)

Page views: 4,732,038
(up 94,495 on June 2015, up 498,717 on July 2014)

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The third voice 231

Posted on July 04, 2015 by

We’re not due a traffic post this month, so we’ll just leave this here.

sitespoll

(From a new Panelbase poll. More findings coming soon.)

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Per ardua ad astra 97

Posted on May 01, 2015 by

We’re only doing stats posts quarterly now, but since the last one we ran was for the January readership figures that means it’s time for a quick update.

wingstatsapril2015

Almost 23,000 extra readers compared to last month and nearly 600,000 more page views? Yeah, we’ll take that. (For perspective, here’s April 2014.)

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    • Kate L on How Far To Go, How Far: “Much like the male judge Alexander Kemp I suppose you find women’s safety and dignity acceptable sacrifices to make on…Dec 12, 21:37
    • Captain Caveman on Strike One: “Meh! Awesome Northy you made me laugh. Touche! 🙂Dec 12, 21:18
    • DavidT on How Far To Go, How Far: “I have no personal stake in this matter, nor am I aware of any transgender individuals. However, Graham Linehan and…Dec 12, 20:48
    • Dan on How Far To Go, How Far: “But James, according to polling in the recent Ginger Stepchild article; Only about 5% of Scots rate Defence and Security…Dec 12, 20:33
    • Geoff Anderson on How Far To Go, How Far: ““Wouldn’t it be so much easier if we just did what the TransCult wanted” That is what the Judge concluded.Dec 12, 20:31
    • Mark Beggan on How Far To Go, How Far: “And breathe,,….Dec 12, 20:15
    • Mark Beggan on How Far To Go, How Far: “‘Keep Rabies out of Britain’ Springs to mind, forgot about that one. What with all the other dangerous things coming…Dec 12, 20:10
    • James Cheyne on How Far To Go, How Far: “Britain and France preparing for war, we have to wait and see whom the enemy is, but France informing its…Dec 12, 20:05
    • James Cheyne on How Far To Go, How Far: “Public matters and private rights are entirely different laws in Scotland.Dec 12, 19:55
    • James Cheyne on How Far To Go, How Far: “Tribunals in Scotland are funded by a consolidated fund by the Scottish governmentDec 12, 19:49
    • James Cheyne on How Far To Go, How Far: “Private Rights of biological Women to have private spaces regardless, is matter of Internal Scots law in Article XV111 and…Dec 12, 19:39
    • Hatey McHateface on How Far To Go, How Far: “It’s lower in saturated fat, sure, but for Mammie’s authentic home baking, it has to be butter.Dec 12, 19:29
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    • Hatey McHateface on How Far To Go, How Far: “Could be rabies. The precautionary principle says put them down.Dec 12, 19:24
    • James Cheyne on How Far To Go, How Far: “Stu, I presume you watch BlackBeltBarrister as he states more or less the same as you. If not then he…Dec 12, 19:19
    • Mark Beggan on How Far To Go, How Far: “The politically correct voice of the chattering class is foaming at the mouth!Dec 12, 19:09
    • Hatey McHateface on Strike One: “Channeling your inner hatstand there, Northy.Dec 12, 18:58
    • Northcode on Strike One: ““Good idea, Northy…” Yes. I thought so, too. Hey! Didn’t I just dismiss you from this place? Begone, rascal -…Dec 12, 18:54
    • Mark Beggan on How Far To Go, How Far: “Children of the revolution. (TRex)Dec 12, 18:47
    • agentx on How Far To Go, How Far: “Do you agree or disagree with the UK Supreme Court decision that a trans man should not be included on…Dec 12, 18:39
    • Mark Beggan on How Far To Go, How Far: “The ‘elite’ pish and shit like everyone else.Dec 12, 18:35
    • Hatey McHateface on Strike One: “Good idea, Northy. I can see how finding something new to say has been taking its toll on you James…Dec 12, 18:34
    • Lorncal on How Far To Go, How Far: “AI makes mistakes. Of that there is no doubt. However, if you examine closely the kinds of mistakes that were…Dec 12, 18:32
    • Northcode on Strike One: “I’m bored of you now… you are dismissed. Go away, Pantless slave… get some sleep and prepare for tomorrow’s Extreme…Dec 12, 18:27
    • Mark Beggan on How Far To Go, How Far: “Me thinks these legal minds are hooked on ECHR like a crackhead.Dec 12, 18:21
    • twathater on How Far To Go, How Far: “Unfortunately this judge and judgement is indicative of what to expect in Scotland and elsewhere in 2025 , there is…Dec 12, 18:16
    • Hatey McHateface on Strike One: “Puir auld Northy. Doomed to be forever trying, and failing, to fathom out the alien, imposed values of the oppressive,…Dec 12, 18:08
    • Northcode on Strike One: ““Anally obsessed” … I think I might adopt that as my new term to describe the arseholes who wander aboot…Dec 12, 18:06
    • Hatey McHateface on How Far To Go, How Far: “Exactly as predicted by (checks notes) Fanon, Mark. Of course, fascism is seemingly on the rise in the Good Ol’…Dec 12, 17:58
    • Northcode on Strike One: “Thanks, Captain. Your words of comfort and your kindness in sharing them will be remembered come the revolution… when us…Dec 12, 17:55
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