The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Archive for the ‘world’


The Front On The Volga 91

Posted on February 11, 2025 by

As alert Wings readers will know, we’re fond of a WW2 analogy from time to time. The conflict is so extensively documented, and so deeply embedded in British culture (for both good and ill), that it’s a reliable tool for getting points across concisely and clearly.

(It’s also one of the last major wars in which, overall, the good guys and the bad guys were pretty indisputably easy to identify.)

So let’s keep that in mind for a moment while we look at this.

And then let’s talk about Stalingrad.

Read the rest of this entry →

The Great Hollowing 140

Posted on January 20, 2025 by

The wild thing about this poll isn’t the headline that six months after winning a massive landslide majority, Keir Starmer now trails Nigel Farage – leader of a party with five MPs to Starmer’s 411 – as the electorate’s choice for best Prime Minister.

It’s the little grey numbers sitting quietly at the bottom.

Read the rest of this entry →

Dreaming Of Perfection 276

Posted on January 07, 2025 by

Any rational assessment of Scottish (or indeed UK or world) politics at the moment tends to be negative and depressing, so since it’s a new year we thought we’d make an extra-special effort at writing something positive.

Unfortunately that does require us to enter the realm of fantasy. But hey, everybody needs a little holiday from time to time, right?

Read the rest of this entry →

Trump’s Card 292

Posted on December 14, 2024 by

The Unbargain Bin 215

Posted on November 23, 2024 by

The Way Forward 212

Posted on November 17, 2024 by

As a lifelong political geek and former SNP and Alba Party member, I’ve spent years supporting Scotland’s independence movement. However, over the last few years, I’ve watched the campaign (as opposed to support for independence) wither away. Being a Scottish nationalist has become increasingly disheartening, like watching someone you love succumb to a slow, debilitating illness. In frustration, I switched off from my homeland and turned my focus to the drama of US politics.

Over the last three years I immersed myself in it, watching both left and right-wing outlets. I became so hooked and invested that I jumped on a plane to Washington DC for the 2024 election. I canvassed with DC Democrats in rural Pennsylvania (that’s me third from the left in the pic below), attended Kamala Harris’s concession rally, and went to Trump’s only watch party in DC.

My journey led me to believe that Scotland’s independence campaign could learn a great deal from Trump’s victory and the Democrats’ failure.

Read the rest of this entry →

The Show Goes On 256

Posted on November 09, 2024 by

How it happened 420

Posted on November 06, 2024 by

So it looks like the USA has elected a mad orange rapist convicted of 34 felonies who could yet be in jail by the time of his inauguration. (He would remain President even if that happened, which would be really funny.) And we can’t even blame them for it, because the alternative they were offered was, remarkably and stupendously, worse.

Wings called it like we called Trump’s first victory (and most other things). We tweeted this last year when thinking about the upcoming election. It’s a variant on something we wrote about on Wings eight and a half years ago. We’re posting it again now in the desperate hope that one day, maybe, far in the future, someone will actually listen.

But, y’know, we’re not holding our breath or anything.

Read the rest of this entry →

The Last Legs 67

Posted on September 06, 2024 by

In the 1990s, Dr. Robert Smith, a surgeon at Falkirk Royal Infirmary, performed a pair of amputations on two men. Neither of the men involved had anything physically wrong with them, but both were suffering from apotemnophilia – a rare psychiatric condition involving the desire to have healthy limbs amputated.

Sufferers, counterintuitively, claim not to feel “whole” with four limbs and obsess over having their unwanted body parts chopped off. Smith argued the surgeries were life-saving, claiming the patients would commit suicide otherwise.

Apotemnophiles, like autogynephiles, insist that there is no erotic element, but it was later discovered that one of the men Smith operated on ran an amputee fetish website.

Upon investigation, the hospital deemed the procedures unethical. Smith was banned from mutilating healthy bodies (although he was found not to have breached any of the hospital’s rules at the time and not sanctioned), and the dubious experiment ended.

But let’s imagine for a moment an alternate reality.

Read the rest of this entry →

The Manipulation Of Perception 212

Posted on August 13, 2024 by

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.

Read the rest of this entry →

How To Punch Women In The Face 368

Posted on August 01, 2024 by

(And Get Away With It)

You’d have to be living in a pretty strict prison not to have heard the big story from today’s Olympics in Paris, in which male Algerian cheat Imane Khelefi was put in a boxing ring with young Italian woman Angela Carini and allowed to hit her in the head for 46 seconds until she retired, in tears and in fear for her safety, saying “I had to preserve my life”.

Sound like your kind of fun, men? It’s surprisingly easy!

Read the rest of this entry →

The Wailing Walls 443

Posted on February 24, 2024 by

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)

    Stats: 6,706 Posts, 1,212,784 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “BBC GLOBAL: BREAKING… Donald Trump wanted to be a dictator for a day. Is Donald Trump morphing into something more…Feb 15, 03:28
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Oh, God! Oh, Jesus Christ! Oh, my God! Christ! No, no, dear God!! Negatron has called on his uglier cousin:…Feb 15, 02:48
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “BBC (15/02/25): Scientists warn there’s 1 in 50 chance of Asteroid striking Earth: https://tinyurl.com/yc73tyynFeb 15, 02:35
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Elon Musk @elonmusk: “Funding for racist baby training is canceled”: Christopher F. Rufo @realchrisrufo: “The Department of Education funded this…Feb 15, 02:11
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “re. “Scotland needs a desk, a saltire, some of those executive order folders & pen -stat! I’ll sign them along…Feb 15, 02:05
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Fake Robin McAlpine News: Bundling and the path to barbarism: “I am engaged in a correspondence – a reader who…Feb 15, 01:56
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson: “BREAKING: President Trump signs Executive Order cutting ALL federal funding to schools that mandate the COVID vaccine.”:…Feb 15, 01:23
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “STV News: US Vice President JD Vance attacks Scotland’s anti-abortion buffer zones: “He criticised Safe Access Zones in Scotland… “Now,…Feb 15, 01:11
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Like father, like son.Feb 15, 00:59
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Ned’s Atomic Dustbin: God Fodder: Nothing Like: “I don’t know what you’re thinking when you fail to see things are…Feb 15, 00:42
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “WEF is starting The Great Reset initiative: …determining: “future state of global relations” “direction of national economies” “priorities of societies”…Feb 15, 00:21
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “The Times (14/02/25): Keir Starmer: I have sympathy for Gen Z, but they can’t just opt out: “First, young people…Feb 15, 00:15
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “re. “Folks talking to their own children about growing up isn’t abuse FFS.” These freaks are sick child predators and…Feb 14, 23:47
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “BBC (14/02/25): Transgender references removed from Stonewall monument website: “The Trump administration has erased references to transgender people from New…Feb 14, 23:37
    • Geri on For Mridul And Sandy: “I hope the good people of Glasgow give that ad a makeover. It’s false advertising. Folks talking to their own…Feb 14, 23:26
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Thanks G-man. #TeamChampionFeb 14, 23:20
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Absurd Smoque: Q: Cassiopeia: https://tinyurl.com/mwmzw2tn ELON MARS: Cassiopeia: https://tinyurl.com/55z4dmuu #WeFeb 14, 23:14
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “ELON MARS: Zero, My Crazy: https://tinyurl.com/mr27tzb8Feb 14, 22:54
    • George Ferguson on For Mridul And Sandy: “Hopefully fingers crossed. Anyway I have been trying my wife’s black pointed stiletto shoes on. How do women manage to…Feb 14, 22:54
    • G m on For Mridul And Sandy: “the Ellis Group is not a Team-Scotland player – Well put man.Feb 14, 22:46
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Q: WELCOME TO SOUL,PRESENT: “Wow Welcome Thank you for joining me here In the place to be You’ll understand That…Feb 14, 22:45
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Absurd Smoque: Q: Exploring Existence Itself: https://tinyurl.com/4wpvafkj Absurd Smoque: Q: Space and Time: https://tinyurl.com/43n6ckjs Zero One: Zero One: The Start:…Feb 14, 22:36
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “Darwin to Jesus @darwintojesus: “…We observe that the universe is expanding And so we can extrapolate backwards in time until…Feb 14, 22:30
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “I’m not a xenophobe (I love all peoples’/humanity) – I’ve got England in my DNA e.g. my dad is English.…Feb 14, 21:42
    • G m on For Mridul And Sandy: “We’re no though Ian. Our ‘elite’ have simply sold us out. They are just self-centred wanks, stealing their wages who…Feb 14, 21:14
    • G m on For Mridul And Sandy: “Hope you get it sorted soon George.Feb 14, 21:10
    • gregor on For Mridul And Sandy: “It’s true, Mark – The whingers here are extremely reckless and dumb (stuck up their own bigoted a**e, 365 -…Feb 14, 21:05
    • Ian Brotherhood on For Mridul And Sandy: “Off-topic for sure but submitted in a spirit of week-enderly bonhomie… There aren’t enough Milligans around these days. James Hogg…Feb 14, 20:51
    • Mark Beggan on For Mridul And Sandy: “I’m upstaged on that one. Bravo.Feb 14, 20:39
    • Ian Brotherhood on For Mridul And Sandy: “Whatever he wants you to.Feb 14, 20:35
  • A tall tale



↑ Top