Just for a change, let’s have a Friday-night competition!
Sharp-eyed readers will have noticed that former First Minister Alex Salmond is staging a show in the Spiegeltent at the Edinburgh Fringe next month, from 4-13 August.
You may even have seen a bit of online criticism from certain po-faced pseudonats about the fact that Salmond is sharing a platform with – gasp! – a Yoon, in the shape of the “last of the traditional Tories”, David Davis MP.
When Humza Yousaf was campaigning to be elected leader of the SNP, he pledged that he would be not only the First Minister, but also the “First Activist”. It transpired that this in fact meant chapping a few doors in Dundee, just down the road from his home in Broughty Ferry (and on the way to his Glasgow constituency).
But what might a real “First Activist” have done with the position and power?
Can you spot the subtle change between these two National stories, readers?
Now, as they’re both in The National the standard of journalism is obviously completely dreadful, and so neither of them actually explains their headline. Nobody is named or quoted even anonymously, and there’s no elaboration other than that “[a member of] the NEC appeared to halt any proposal to use the next General Election as a proxy constitutional vote”, with no indication of HOW they “appeared” to do that.
But they DO raise the question of where on Earth – whoever becomes its new leader – the SNP goes from the smouldering bomb crater that Nicola Sturgeon has left it in.
Just 24% of respondents supported the idea of intact males who’d committed even non-violent and non-sexual crimes being housed alongside women, while a mere 15% – all of them red-flag danger cases in urgent need of having their hard drives checked – thought that rapists and sexual assaulters with their dingle-dangles still swinging in the wind had any business being incarcerated with the vulnerable and traumatised females who make up most of the female prison population.
Four times as many wanted them locked up with their fellow male offenders, while it would appear that approximately a quarter of Britons are whimpering custard-witted doughbrains who didn’t understand the question.
We’ll leave you to digest this startling and unexpected news, readers.
Last week he was prominent in a protest outside Queen Elizabeth House against the UK government’s S35 intervention over the Gender Recognition Reform Bill. He spoke alongside MSPs including Patrick Harvie, Karen Adam, Ross Greer, Paul Sweeney and Alex Cole-Hamilton, who lavished fulsome and effusive praise on him, going so far as to say that it was for Douglas personally that MSPs had pushed the bill through.
The final result of our Twitter poll from yesterday was pretty conclusive.
(It was also by a distance the biggest response we can ever remember getting for one – normally our Twitter polls get around 3,000 votes.)
But of course Twitter polls aren’t scientific – they’re self-selecting and they draw from a biased sample, in this case people who follow Wings and are more likely to agree with us on most things. So we need a bit more data for a better picture.
Captain Caveman on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Well, it would’ve been quite amusing if she had in fact chosen that most beautiful English city – the Roman…” May 31, 10:48
TURABDIN on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Independence movements eventually take the violent route. The mainstream Scots independentists appear rather squeamish/nervous in that regard. Fanon ultimately reached…” May 31, 10:47
Ex President Xiden on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Well there you have it. In an interview with Laura Kuenssberg this morning, wee Nicola reveals she is in fact…” May 31, 10:44
willie on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “And here’s a prediction. Sturgeon’s interview with Laura Kuenssberg will come to be seen alongside Prince Andrew’s interview with Emily…” May 31, 10:28
willie on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Just watched Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday morning interview with Sturgeon. Pinnochio would be hard pressed to come up with the whopper…” May 31, 10:21
Hatey McHateface on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “If Fanon, Memmi, Cesaire, Elkins and the Jonesy boyo don’t explain the “colonial condition of Scots”, Alf, why do you…” May 31, 10:09
Hatey McHateface on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “They’re also reporting a surge in donations to the SNP, as the faithful rush to make up the shortfall caused…” May 31, 09:52
Hatey McHateface on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Wally Walrus returns from the fjords, to practice his extremely limited vocab on here. Keep your flapping flippers above the…” May 31, 09:46
Hatey McHateface on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Sure. My predictive text replaces Scottish with Scittish all the time.” May 31, 09:38
Minceheid on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Hatey McHateface says: 30 May, 2026 at 8:31 pm She’s nae Humza Yusaf either. It was nice of you to…” May 31, 07:41
Phil on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Excellent post Red. You are dead right, there is nothing there. Or, as my Dad said when she first appeared…” May 31, 06:51
Dave on Marvola The Memory Woman: “No need to apologise for lacking a sense of humour, sweet cheeks 😉” May 31, 05:34
Young Lochinvar on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Probably realised at long last she isn’t getting any sympathy here except from the microscopic tranny community and that all…” May 31, 03:31
paul on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “That’s because the scotch folk are so horrible to embezzlers ,perjurors and criminals. It will be a warm breath of…” May 31, 02:05
Onlooker on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Don’t even think it’s as complicated as that, Alf, though what you say may be wee part of the overall…” May 31, 01:56
paul on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “The SNP have won lots of by-elections and elections before but since the sturgeon era (I include js and hy)…” May 31, 01:53
Cynicus on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Sorry, a link in the previous post became detached: https://www.headline.co.uk/titles/quintin-jardine/secrets-and-lies/9781035402939/” May 31, 01:53
Onlooker on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “It would be ‘mibbes naw’, smart cunt. Only middle class folk know big German words, and how to use them…” May 31, 01:41
Cynicus on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “in his quest for appropriate book titles, how did the Rev miss Quintin Jardine‘s Secrets and Lies ? It’s subtitle…” May 31, 00:16
Charles Mackay on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “The English press are reporting she has now moved to London-brazen betrayal” May 30, 23:48
100%Yes on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Nicola in the Kitchen with Husband and guest making cups of coffee, she really knows her way around the kitchen.…” May 30, 22:25
sarah on Off-topic: “Chortling at that, TC!” May 30, 22:24
robertkknight on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “D’Izzie… Your attempts to promote Independence via the morally, politically and financially bankrupt SNP will no doubt be welcomed by…” May 30, 22:02
sarah on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Izzie has mentioned that arthritis in her hands makes typing difficult. And if her IT system has predictive text then…” May 30, 22:01
Alf Baird on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: ““so many of the other writers” What writers? Aside from Doun-Hauden, I don’t see any other books explaining the colonial…” May 30, 21:34
