If there haven’t been as many posts on this site as people might expect at a time of such incredible political turmoil, it’s because Wings isn’t at heart a commentary blog. We don’t do a lot of flat-out opinion pieces, tending to concern ourselves more with measurable, empirical facts, and since nobody knows anything about anything at the moment, we haven’t had all that much useful to say.
But the closest thing there is right now to a certainty is that sometime quite soon, Unionist politicians in Scotland are going to have to grow up and deal with this:
And their problem is that there’s no possible way to.
So the official Westminster line is that Scotland will HAVE to become independent if it wants to remain in the EU. We’re sure the FM will be absolutely gutted to hear that.
If your only source of news was the mainstream media, you could be forgiven for thinking that the consensus in the EU regarding an independent Scotland was bleak. Spain would, we’re told endlessly, veto Scotland’s place in the EU out of hand, and so, allegedly, would France.
And when Scotland’s First Minister went to Brussels after the referendum vote to meet with EU officials in regards to Scotland’s membership, we were told that this bold act of outreach fell on deaf ears.
The language of the press was hostile bordering on sadistic. The First Minister, acting to secure the democratic will of the people of Scotland, was apparently “running out of friends” and had to “beg” Ireland to help us out.
The reality, readers will be astonished to hear, is somewhat different.
Some of you will have missed this over the weekend:
Yes – Michelle Mone, of all the people on Earth, really did just go on TV and accuse Nicola Sturgeon of being all about ego. We’ll leave you to absorb that for a bit.
Earlier today we were moved to tweet our scepticism regarding a claim made by the Scottish Labour branch manager Kezia Dugdale, as reported in the Guardian.
Even on the most casual glance, the numbers just didn’t seem to add up. If 62% of Scots voted to stay in the EU and 55% voted to stay in the UK, with no correlation between the two things, then the Venn-diagram intersection between those two groups seems pretty unlikely to add up to more than 50%, let alone a “vast” majority.
We’re not naturally disposed to sympathy for Tories, but it must be hellish being poor Ruth Davidson at the moment. The poor woman doesn’t know which way she’s facing from one minute to the next. Here she is less than a year ago:
Despite having an even number of participants, the panel is split 3:1 in favour of Remain and 3:1 against independence (surely the biggest specifically Scottish issue likely to arise from the Brexit vote, and which several polls in the last couple of weeks now show is backed by a majority of voters).
Half of the debaters are also Labour politicians, which means that the third-placed party which got 22% of the vote in this May’s election has as much representation as two parties who got 69% between them.
We’ve been racking our brains for a couple of hours trying to work out a way in which such a multiply-skewed line-up could be justified (other than flat-out trolling), and we’ve got nothing. Does anyone have any ideas?
The people (of England) have spoken, and their elected representatives are freaking out all over the shop.
Several senior Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs have openly called for the result of a democratic referendum to be overturned by Parliament against the wishes of voters. The Prime Minister has quit, the Chancellor is expected to follow on Monday, and half of the Labour shadow cabinet is apparently doing it as we speak, after Jeremy Corbyn fired Hilary Benn for planning a coup.
(Apparently including Ian Murray, the shadow Scottish Secretary who’s also the only Scottish Labour MP at Westminster, putting the party in the farcical position of having to find itself a spokesman on Scottish affairs who either sits in an English or Welsh seat or is an unelected lord.)
Labour MPs are also demanding Corbyn’s head, in essence for the crime of his being hugely popular with the party’s membership for reflecting the old-fashioned left-wing ideology and views that they actually believe in, rather than the “moderate” neo-Tory position of Blairite parliamentarians. Corbyn shows no sign of going.
It’s been suggested that the Scottish Parliament could in fact block any attempt by the UK to leave (though it seems unlikely). Britain faces a future without Milky Way Magic Stars. UK politics, to put it mildly, is in chaos. So what the hell’s going on?
Scotland (overwhelmingly) and Northern Ireland (less so) have voted to stay in Europe while England (decisively) and Wales (narrowly) have voted to leave. Northern Ireland has its own choices to make, but Scotland must now hold a second referendum.
sam on The Fast Track: “Nasty little fucker. You have contributed nothing to this site but abuse of others.” Jul 1, 09:19
Hatey McHateface on The Fast Track: “Don’t knock intersectional decolonised scissoring until you’ve read the time & motion studies that prove how it revilatises productivity in…” Jul 1, 09:01
James Che on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Stu, Those two entities of law certainly tried prosecution on Alex Salmond with less evidence and heresay including the evidence…” Jul 1, 08:57
Mark Beggan on The Fast Track: “A rock called Plymouth.” Jul 1, 08:56
Mark Beggan on The Fast Track: “This word salad was brought to you by Karen Wokenstein professor of intersectional decolonized scissoring at the University of Dundee.” Jul 1, 08:34
Mark Beggan on The Fast Track: “Lying in a Greenock hospital coughing your lungs out could may have felt a little like being on a raft…” Jul 1, 08:30
James Che on The Fast Track: “The one thing that Tony Blair and labour did for Scotland was devolution, The Scotland act. For what was once…” Jul 1, 08:24
Young Lochinvar on The Fast Track: “AI Dun No shit Einstein! Rather flies in the face though of why Dewar & co. fabricated Devolution as it…” Jul 1, 07:52
Aidan on The Fast Track: ““Scotland has for all my lifetime expressed a different political outlook to that of England, yet Scots have jist had…” Jul 1, 06:52
Young Lochinvar on The Fast Track: “HMcH Isn’t that a bit past your bedtime to be posting? Has matron been late on her rounds switching things…” Jul 1, 02:20
Cynicus on The Fast Track: “Tapadh leat, Fheargais.” Jul 1, 00:07
Hatey McHateface on The Fast Track: “So Orwell nearly drowned in an Orwellian whirlpool? An image worthy of Dali himself.” Jul 1, 00:01
Young Lochinvar on The Fast Track: “CC @ 6.22 Well hold on there Bald Eagle, have you been cut and pasting from AI again? That’s AI…” Jun 30, 23:14
sarah on Off-topic: “Good advice for my Peter, TC. He’s quite good at pretending things haven’t happened, after a lifetime of mainly disappointing…” Jun 30, 22:54
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “@Alurker: sorry, that should have been ghost swift moth. She’s bigger than the male, which is white.” Jun 30, 22:19
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “All your points are very good ones, sarah. It’s a pity our ex-manager hadn’t thought of them while planning for…” Jun 30, 22:16
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Fast Track: “Gaelic version again with formatting issue fixed (hopefully) – COIRE A’ BHREACAIN Sgrìobh Seòras Orwell 1984 air Eilean Diùra. Chunnaic…” Jun 30, 22:13
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “Yes, noticeably fewer insects and attendant birds here too, although I had a female ghost white moth dozing on my…” Jun 30, 22:08
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Fast Track: “COIRE A’ BHREACAIN Sgri?obh Seo?ras Orwell 1984 air Eilean Diu?ra. Chunnaic mi pi?os mu a dhe?idhinn air an tv o…” Jun 30, 21:50
Mike on The Fast Track: “Listened to the interview of Rev on Scotcast. The thing that jumps out at me is nobody in the police…” Jun 30, 20:41
Hatey McHateface on The Fast Track: “You’re gonna have to accept the truth sooner or later, Mark. The Scottish voters are under the control of MI5.…” Jun 30, 19:49
Hatey McHateface on The Fast Track: “Superb quote, CC! But wait. Is it possible Orwell had been colonised? To be serious for a mo. I always…” Jun 30, 19:35
sam on The Fast Track: “???? Feedback and complaints Anyone can provide a comment or make a complaint about our service or work. We have…” Jun 30, 19:32
Mark Beggan on The Fast Track: “The alternative to that theory is the Special Needs Party are an Organised Crime Organisation and that some of the…” Jun 30, 19:03
Dan on The Fast Track: “@ CC Aye, but that was 1945 and things have moved on in many ways since then with us now…” Jun 30, 18:54
Insider on The Fast Track: “Caveman @ 6.22 Well quoted! Relevant and correct! (unlike poor old Alf’s misquotes)” Jun 30, 18:40
twathater on The Fast Track: “Well done Rev you got a lot of points across, Geissler is just like the rest of the PRESSTITUTES because…” Jun 30, 18:25
Captain Caveman on The Fast Track: “Well, since you’ve added Orwell to your little list of authors endlessly misquoted and misappropriated, I thought you might enjoy…” Jun 30, 18:22
twathater on The Fast Track: “Some of the reasons I believe the SCUM snp thought they were UNTOUCHABLE and above PROSECUTION is because 1/ they…” Jun 30, 18:18
Alf Baird on The Fast Track: ““To get to the bottom of what’s really going on” Aye Hatey, postcolonial theory clearly helps a great deal to…” Jun 30, 17:01
