Fighting for the right not to party
We suppose this is a sort of compliment, in at least two senses.
The second of them, of course, being the sheer surprise of some people at discovering that not everyone is as cynical and devious as they evidently are themselves.
We were honestly surprised when The National emailed us out of the blue the other day to ask for a quote about whether the Wings Party was still happening. We honestly can’t remember the last time we mentioned it or thought about it, and with only three months left before the election we just thought it was far too obvious that it wasn’t going to happen to even need to bother spelling it out.
We certainly hadn’t, as some tired and bitter old vanity pundits too stingy to pay up on a £10 bet tried to claim, “talked and talked” about it. It was the media that did that.
Including Gerry Hassan himself, of course, who’d presumably just been happy to have something to say other than that one column he’s been punting for the last 15 years.
(Though we must confess that with several hours having passed since The National went to press with it, we’re startled that a certain blog hasn’t run at least four articles about the news already. Or it hasn’t as we write this, anyway.)
It was only ever half an idea, brought up mostly-jokingly in an interview and then idly pondered over for a while when we got asked about it. Any remote possibility of it happening probably expired on the day Alex Salmond was acquitted of all charges at the High Court in Edinburgh, because from that point it was very clear to us that there’d have to be a reckoning over the events that led to that moment, and that said reckoning would probably not be terribly conducive to our popularity with the SNP supporters on whose second votes the plan would have relied.
Hunter’s tweets are a little weird, looking for a fiendish masterplan where there’s just some idiot saying what he thinks. We never had a “manifesto”. I’d never even really decided whether we should have any other policies at all beyond independence and protecting women’s rights. We had no “activists” with “message discipline”, but people who agree with us on stuff tweeted about it entirely of their own volition. Nobody was ever asked to “target messages” at anyone. We have no WhatsApp group.
But still, just for a little late-night fun let’s enjoy some of the reactions.
This is factually wrong in every way, but with a nugget of accidental truth in it. A list party that already has a reach of hundreds of thousands of people for its “messaging” needs next to nothing in the way of money or organisation – other list parties who’ve won seats at various Holyrood elections haven’t needed those things.
But it’s absolutely right that it would always have been far better to have had Alex Salmond start such a party. As a brand Wings is a pretty strong one in Scottish politics terms, but a very, very distant second-best to the former First Minister.
(We actually wrote a blog to that effect just over two years ago, months before we ever even joked about forming our own party, and maybe one day we’ll tell the story of how that blog came to be pulled, but we’ve put it back up now just for curiosity value.)
That question was actually answered very early on in our interview on Alex Salmond’s TV show, linked above. But Dagenham? Your guess is as good as ours, folks.
As well as being spectacularly ironic coming from anybody who works for the “Where’s our ringfenced fundraiser money?” party, this is just plain dumb. Wings has raised the best part of a million quid in the last few years, we have MORE money in the bank right now than the SNP does – literally true fact, folks – and we were a regulated participant in the indyref, with all the “accountability” that involves.
See above but with extra defamation from one of Scottish Twitter’s most notorious and repellent lard-for-brains morons. Every one of our fundraisers was done on regulated platforms with stringent rules and the donors’ names are listed, but by all means smear away if you think it’ll get you some attention or make you feel better about your life, you grotesque, awful, hate-ruined, tragic waddling mess of a human being.
To be honest we do a lap of honour around the living room if we get two questions right on Only Connect, so we’re just giving up with a shrug here.
In fairness this guy’s actually bang on the money. I really, really hated the idea of being an MSP. It looks like a completely tedious arseache of a job, and while it’d be a hefty payrise I like my life too much to spend it doing something so wretched and laborious and mostly futile if I don’t have to. I’m getting too old to waste half-decades.
I hate schedules too. I value my five-hour walks in the summer to feed the swans and ducks, and the fact that I work whatever hours I like and can stay out playing poker until 3am if I want to (before COVID-19, obv). So I was genuinely hugely relieved when I realised that because of how events had transpired, I wasn’t going to have to form a political party after all if I wanted to try to progress the cause of independence.
…says 393-follower account called “John Johnson” with eight digits in its user ID. May as well just call itself “Bot Botson”, AMIRITE READERS??!!?!?!?!?
Now Scotland isn’t a party, you knuckle-dragging lackwit.
What a daft thing to say. To the best of our knowledge there’s never been a poll that asked about the Wings party (we were going to build up to doing one, but lost interest after a couple of preliminary questions), and anyone counting chickens about polling numbers right now, given what might happen in the next few weeks, is some kind of special-grade idiot.
This one’s really mundane, except as a convenient illustration of some really hilariously transparent astroturfing on the part of the SNP over the last few days, by which the party’s loyal Twitter Troops have clearly been given orders to start using “Q-Anon” (we honestly had to look it up, having only the most superficial interest in US politics) as an insult against all the vile dissidents who won’t unquestioningly carry Queen Nicola’s tatty banner. That’s not a euphemism btw.
There are all sorts of variants – “Stu-Anon” and “Wingsanon” have been quite popular, and we haven’t been the only targets of the schtick – but it’s really almost sweet that they think people won’t notice the term suddenly being everywhere overnight, just a month after this embarrassing amateur-hour shambles:
It’s the 2021 replacement for “Trumpian”. But this next one was popular among the ranks of the really catastrophically thick.
Apart from last week’s joke £50 one, Wings hasn’t had a fundraiser in the better part of two years. Working for free for months, and massively alienating a large chunk of your previous supporters, is a pretty terrible way to get rich, it turns out.
Although it’s not as terrible as calling yourself “antifa”.
(For everyone’s sake, we really hope “Nazi” means “wet paper bag” these days.)
See above, but even stupider. Why would someone motivated by money alienate his own supporters? Wouldn’t it be a lot smarter to just keep feeding them what they want to hear to keep the money rolling in? (Naming no names.) It can’t be BOTH of those things. Either we’re trying to make money or we’re alienating all our supporters for some theoretically lucrative but not-very-well-explained reason. Pick one, dum-dums. Or at least tell us how it works so we can cash in for £££££££s PROFIT!!!!
Two swings, two misses, Jim.
Next!
Where “interesting” means “completely made up”. We never said any such thing, nor anything remotely like it. Those were Kenny Farquharson from The Times’s words, not ours. (The National quoted him but attributed it to us, but then removed the line when we emailed them to tell them.)
But hey, that’s probably enough nutters for tonight. It really is extraordinary how hard people will fight against the seemingly-rational idea that maybe sometimes someone just says things because they truly believe them, and because they think telling the truth is, on the whole, the best way to go about stuff.
It sure beats tripping yourself up when you can’t keep track of your lies any more.
They just don’t get honesty!
So sad!
Arseholes. Just keep winding them up.
It’s entertaining. I need that at the moment.
How about these corrupt troughers with no intention
of being a party of independence coming here and explaining
the actions?
Umpteen mandates and nothing
Ring fenced money spent on legal bills for their half wit officials
Losing 50,000 members
Prioritising Trans rights over independence, poverty, and unemployment.
The coordinated attack on Alex Salmond
The threat we won’t be taken out of the EU against our will.
Blocking the Keatings fight to prove our sovereignty.
Welcome In and answer these issues rather than using the Tory mantra of they
are bad and we are great.
I can’t believe irrelevance Leask hasn’t yet commented.
Couldn’t you just substitute any newspaper title for the word Wings in the very first tweet from M Hunter at the top of the article?
I love these midweek posts, brilliant!
Stu, if your future career in politics is a no go, perhaps you should give the comedy circuit a go
Hi Rev Stu.
The hours you’ve (obviously) been putting in over the past few weeks must merit a pay rise.
Can you not instigate an “average Scottish manual wage” + a productivity bonus fundraiser for yourself?
If funds go above that average, then the balance can be put into the WOS ‘fighting fund’ for the next plebiscite election/referendum.
I’m assuming the next edition of “The Wee Blue Book” is being continuously updated?
Onnyhoo, just been having a browse through my FB newsfeed. There’s a hell of a lot of peeps on FB who have buried their heads in the sand regarding the Salmond stitch-up. They have their minds made up that Nicola can do/did no wrong and their cognitive dissonance will not allow them to read FACTS published by pro-indy bloggers.
My Mum had a wee brass ‘three monkeys’ ornament…
Would LOVE to see a Salmond- led List party as it would give a much overdue boost to Scottish politics. He could stand as a candidate or sit in background as party CEO; either or. Hopefully haven’t seen the last of Alex Salmond in politics. Time for a shake up.
Uuggghhh. Why does the utter smugness and condescension of this lot really ring alarm bells with me wrt the forthcoming elections? The entire SNP upper echelons have a major Hillary Clinton/ Remain campaign “we can’t lose” vibe. Of course realistically the alarm bells shouldn’t be going off anyway because they’re all so dodgy.
This is particularly pertinent if you consider that the SNP have less in the bank than one individual. I seem to have missed that if mentioned previously. They’ll be going into the campaign under a hell of a handicap in that case.
And I can’t think of a more thankless task than being a politician!
Interesting. That reeks of “bugger, we’ve spent two years demonising and trying to destroy people we assumed were political opponents when they actually weren’t”. Which anyone could have told them, regardless of whether Wings had become a list party or not. If they had half a wit between them, they’d realise a strong list party would be a boon to the independence cause. But then they’d also realise using your best and strongest talents rather than demonising, smearing and trying to destroy them as potential “political opponents” or challengers is quite smart too.
Wings Over Dagenham was a Goon Show from 1957,
jeezo thought everybody knew that 🙂
link to bbc.co.uk
Notwithstanding your reasoning above had you had created a Wings party you would have done well on the list vote. And I think had Alex Salmond started a new party he probably would have done better. No disrespect intended. But that’s the crux of the matter. New entrants are confined to the list. Winning 10 seats on the list changes nothing if the SNP get over 65 constituency MSPs and that is the fundamental reason the SNP can abuse their power. However like you I think their could be a sea change in polling coming up. Nicola is undermining the Antarctic ice shelf all by herself. Who knows?
Maybe you should be flattered that Mhairi Hunter thinks what you do is similar to the organization she has given her life and soul to.
No, scrap that, we should all be worried if she equates the present workings of the SNP with what you do. She obviously has no idea how her party is perceived outwith her South Glasgow bubble.
Q-anon? Grifters??? FFS it’s hard enough keeping up with all the new wacky terms the transies keep spewing forth. 🙁 Somebody needs to publish a ready reckoner for us more simple folk.
As it happens I just blocked David Lockhart on Twitter after some spiteful comments he made about Joanna Cherry.
The FM’s fan base are not the nicest of people. I mean: Mhairi Hunter, S-leeze, Ri-Ri, Massive Wan-ker, etc etc
They do say you can judge people by the company they keep.
Stu! These folk just don’t get someone who prefers truth. It’s funny but at the same time quite disturbing that they are happy with fairy-tales…
@Stu,
The Psychology of this is well known and as old as time itself. In the world of a verbal society fear is often portrayed by insult. The more you fear the more you insult.
It is always those who are seen as higher status than themselves they insult most because they fear them the mkst
It tells me one thjng for certain. They are scared of this site and its owner because of the effect you are having on them. We are getting to them big time.
This is how they fight, but it is futile.
Wings tells the truth without fear. They lie without conscience. Keep hitting them hard and often because they are cracking. Take that to the bank.
ps. I would have voted for you.
I’ve long been fascinated by their weird fixation with this blog and it’s sinister power. I noticed poor old Mike Small wailing into the void about Wings recently and though as I often do when he has these tantrums that he’d be a lot happier if he just took the broom handle out his arse and started writing stuff people want to read.
With regard to these rest of our slightly paranoid chums above I wonder if it will ever occur to them that this weird condescending attitude they adopt when confronted with opinions they don’t like rather puts one off listening to anything they have to say at all.
They are scared of this site and its owner because of the effect you are having on them
The ridiculous thing about that is that Wings is pretty much only read by pro independence people, who are mostly SNP members. By attacking it and anyone who reads it as “enemies” they’re attacking their own base. Which is a large part of the reason they’ve lost 55,000 members and counting. The catalogue of wasted opportunities over the past five years from attacking people on their own side is heartbreaking.
Stu, just had a look at the Lemonade post.Only 56 comments, was that a quiet spell or did you take it down quickly?
From reading through it and seeing a couple of the images, and some of the text, I can imagine why it would need amended. May I ask if this was written prior to you gaining a fuller understanding of the plot and its participants?
You’re slightly wrong about one thing. The eight digits in a Twitter handle means nothing sinister. It’s what they give you (or used to, anyway) if you sign up using a phone, and at one point you were stuck with it unless you deleted your account and started again on a PC. I have asked people I know IRL who have such handles and they confirm that’s how they got them – allocated by twitter at sign-up.
It would be pretty daft of a bot farm to do something so blindingly obvious and spottable anyway.
Dear Rev
Please don’t start any sort of party, movement, swan appreciation social club, whatever…
Just keep on keeping on.
Thanks!
I knew you’d hate being an MSP anyway. It would have been a major act of self-sacrifice to have gone ahead.
Regarding the six identical tweets, has Alex Salmond had a sex change or are my grammar skills not as strong as I thought?
Hello Stu
Of course I enjoyed reading the above. Your posts can make me laugh! I had to say, though, that it saddened me to read your blog from January 2019 about a Salmond led List Party.
At that time, your apparent expectations of “the Salmond affair” were, as it has turned out, overoptimistic. I suspect that this is because that even you, with all of your sources and knowledge of current affairs had little, if any, inking of just how deeply embedded the corruption in the Scottish Government was.
I am deeply saddened by the whole affair and I agree that the inability of many “loyalists” to look at the whole matter objectively is stupefying.
How could anyone with an iota of comprehension blame Salmond for acting as he is with comments such as words to the effect that Salmond chose to bring up the points he has raised now, just in the run up to an election. Why are such people not refuted (sic) by other more sensible followers?
Ah, got it! They don’t have more sensible followers.
Betsy says:
10 February, 2021 at 10:51 pm
“I’ve long been fascinated by their weird fixation with this blog and it’s sinister power.”
Yes – For people who dislike the blog and the man himself, they sure do spend a lot of time disliking him. Anyway, like that French guy said, it’s better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not.
-Cath-
I also can’t understand their constant smearing of Wings and its readership as “vile” and “extreme”. Really? I’ve been reading this site for years and just don’t see it. It’s not as though it advocates “blood and soil” nationalism or independence through violent methods. Very rare to read such views in the comments section too. Is it because Rev Stu uses punchy language? To me, a great benefit of the blog is that it always reads like a normal discussion by normal Scottish people, rather than some bland, milquetoast press release. Much more convincing that way. Okay occasionally he swears, big deal, Scots are famously foul-mouthed, besides I think you’re even allowed to a wear in The Times now!
I blocked Hairy Mhunter years ago, wish I’d thought to go down her ‘followers’ list first. Effin’ mentalists to a non-binary being.
L says @ 10:33
“Would LOVE to see a Salmond- led List party”
There are now 6 pro-indy parties including the daeless SNP and the doubtful Greens. And at least 2 of these indy parties are proposing or considering an independence plebiscite in May, Solidarity and ISP.
So I’m voting for Scottish independence in May, and I mean Scottish independence THIS May.
And hopefully we get a republican socialist outcome which will be needed to sift oot the rotten bourgeoisie whay aye runs Scotlan an oor fowk doon.
Why would they think you would be finished if we gained independence?
Are we not going to be allowed politics in an independent Scotland?
I tagged you in a thread a couple of years back & commented on your Wings Party and the fact that I couldn’t find the article. You mentioned that you’d removed it pending some amendments, which I thought was unusual at the time. I’m all the more curious now about what happened.
Hey why no mention of the bear hunts?
I hate schedules too. I value my five-hour walks in the summer to feed the swans and ducks, and the fact that I work whatever hours I like and can stay out playing poker until 3am if I want to. So I was genuinely hugely relieved when I realised that because of how events had transpired, I wasn’t going to have to form a political party after all if I wanted to progress the cause of independence.
Grizzly
Just re-read that Lemonade post. Maybe they do realise the strength of a list party and AS and NS have been playing a blinder with a very bad situation intended to stitch them both up? tbh, something like that was my last shred of remaining hope, but had seeped away in the past few weeks. The next couple of weeks will either be brilliant or put that hope finally and firmly to bed. Looking forward to seeing what happens either way…
Agree with you about being an MSP, Stu. People emailing to get pot holes fixed when it isn’t actually your pigeon, attending a Parliament which doesn’t pass any Bills, listening on all sides to talentless party appointees. However if you did go there, at least we would have one actual character in the chamber.
It struck me that the Murrell bots know more about your finances than those of the SNP’s.
The weaponising of Qanon and its rapid deployment would have kept Bill Hicks in one liners for a thousand years.
Well done.
@ Rev: I fear you are slacking. You could perfectly well form a party and do loads of work for it but not stand for a seat. After all the SNP has loads of well-paid people “working” for it but not standing for election. What finer example could there be?
Seriously, for our sake, you should continue to sacrifice yourself. What we need is a single-issue Yes party run by yourself and other intelligent workaholics who are obsessed with delivering the truth and independence for Scotland.
All the decent Wingers would work for free and there are plenty in our ranks who would be at least as good as the current crop of MSPs.
It is a pity that it is too late for you to do anything to help the May election. The other new parties aren’t flying yet – ISP’s fundraiser and petition numbers haven’t moved in days. Action for Independence might be successful but there is very little time to bring the new parties under that umbrella.
Dear Stu
I really think you should be an MSP because the ones we have got are sh1t.
We are never getting independence with that shower of craven, weak and largely thick MSPs.
Idiots like Humza as justice Secretary and a parliament scared of a bunch of 20 something rainbow beards. Does this sound like a team that could even remotely lead us to independence?
We really need a team of fighters that stand up and have a reasonable level of intelligence.
So when the dust settles at the end of the month you’ve 4 weeks to get yourself on a list and for fun you should stand against Angus Robertson (I’d like someone too)
I think it’s unlikely SNP will get a majority on their own. The shine is coming off NS with her treatment of Joanna and Alex. Indy folk are fed up of carrots and the Tories will make hay with hate crimes and Self-Id as wedge issues to depress the SNP vote.
Which means either you step up to the plate or that obnoxious wee git Harvie will be bossing things for the next 4 years. Do you want that to happen?
Power is ALL they care about do you want to let them have what they want?
So Stu it’s not half a decade it is 4 years. We need you
Look at all these wannabe-American chimps babbling their crazed yankeedoodledandy gibberish. Young Scottish Twitter disgusts me. I really should say ‘Young American Twitter,’ cos these net-dwelling brain donors are certainly not Scottish in thought and output. Scottish-American Twitter chimps: try living in America for a few years. See how obsessed you are with the third world anti-intellectual world-murderous dump after that. Fucking pathetic.
@A Person,
Smearing seems to be how they operate. Rather than engage with alternative view points and argue against them they just go right into trying to place other views beyond the pale.
I think it’s partly laziness and partly fear of anything they can’t control. I’m sure if Stu sat here all day regurgitating SNP press releases they’d be praising this site to the skies.
@ Rev: Denise’s idea is better than mine. You could stand as Independent or in one of the new parties.
Just think of how angry it would make so many deeply-unpleasant people in the SNP to have you nipping at their heels in Holyrood.
And its not as if you have to do any work. Look at Derek MacKay and whatshername, Ruth Davidson.
What fun Wingers would have. Go on, you owe us.
By the way, Stu: I had not watched the music link you enclosed before posting. I was actually at the Barrowlands in 1987 to see the Beastie Boys on the Licensed to Ill tour. If you want another cult comedy classic cover, here’s one:
link to youtube.com
Intensely sangfroid then?
🙂
When it all seems too much, I like imagining all the petted lips, as the news cameras show a conga line in cuffs, snaking out the High court, to a fleet of waiting prison vans.
“and can stay out playing poker until 3am if I want to”
Are the casinos open? If so, then…
Bonne chance!
Nice to see you forcing people to examine evidence. Fascinating to see those so invested in their stance, either for fiscal reasons, or possibly chagrin at spending years supporting a party that has become ethically bereft. I was upset. I’m also old enough to look at the evidence. If those in power start hiding evidence-they are guilty. It is, as it always has been. Hiding evidence, denying access, refusing FOI requests. Changing the spacings on key words to make it difficult to find information. Why hide these things? The ordinary, and obvious answer is, that there is something that they wish to be hidden. Ergo, the Scottish Government are spending and wasting our taxes to cover up a criminal conspiracy. Keep up the guid work, Stuart. I detest chancers.
…and I kind of agree with Denise…
The post that cracked me up is the MI5 plant. Aye right. Next they will be telling me that John Swinney is in reality Hitman Agent 47.
Betsy: if you are spouting propaganda you have been fed, without thinking aboot it, or even knowing anything aboot the subject matter, sure it is right because it comes from your trusted viewpoint-feeding source…how can you argue against something when an alternate viewpoint is presented?
A lot of these people are young, and they have net-arguing mentalities: don’t intellectually engage with somebody who has an alternate point of view, especially as they may be right, just call them a misogynist or a grifter or a transphobe or a homophobe or whatever the cause-du-jour is that day. then they may be safely ignored for all eternity.
It’s the anti-intellectual fall back position of a moron, or a naive young person without the brains or information to muster a sensible retort to an alternate position. They are so deeply invested in their online view, with all their online weirdo pals, that to admit they were wrong, or to even thinking about something said to them from a ‘frowned-upon’ source…would get them pilloried by their net ‘pals.’
Or maybe even cause a meltdown in them if they ever realised that they are not always right, they sometimes get fed bullshit, on purpose, and that alternate, just-as-valid viewpoints exist alongside their own. You notice they always get behind ostensibly unassailable stuff like gay or trans or ethnic minority rights. That means they believe they have the morally defensible higher moral ground, and can thus safely ignore every single thing said to them by somebody who said something they don’t agree with. It’s the attitude of a moron, a lunatic, an arsehole…or somebody who will grow out of their black-and-white certainty as they get older.
A lot of these people just want to belong, online, cos they don’t fit in anywhere else, and have zero social skills. Getting ostracised from some sniffy religious-fundamentalist-alike social media group would be the absolute kiss of death for these people. Which would maybe be the first and only kiss they would ever receive. It’s actually quite tragic, alongside how disgusting and pathetic it is.
And look where this shit is coming to in – as usual – America, which is breaking down at a rate of knots:
link to greenwald.substack.com
They are all doing my nut in stu. If I read one more wings this or wings that I may scream. I don’t get why they don’t want to see it. At some point there comes a moment you just have to see the string attached to the carrot . The worst lies are always the ones we tell ourselves and the best form of honesty is being honest with yourself and really looking at the facts that are staring you in the face. They will probably all wake up in five years when they are required to provide yet another mandate
What is “the lemonade post”?
Pardon my thickuousity.
The NS lovers will eventually face reality. It’s a bit dispiriting when you realise your fellow Indy supporters have no principles.
But I haven’t rated NS for years so I have had loads of time to get used to it. This is a shock to NS fans.
I don’t mean the careerists punting out drivel by rote, I mean the genuine indy supporters who thought Nicola would lead us to Indy. Thinking she has a secret plan and she’s winning over the soft No’s. It will take them time. I notice a big change on Twitter, I’d say a few weeks ago you couldn’t say a word against NS but now loads of accounts are having a go. Look at replies to Mike Russell’s tweet criticizing the unionists and trying to undermine the committee. Over 300 replies mostly negative, that would never have happened 3 weeks ago,
So the NS fans are deep In the stages of grief. Some are stuck at denial (It’s MI5); Others are at Anger shooting the messenger; Many have reached bargaining (just get independence and we’ll deal with it); depression (our chance for indy has gone); eventually they’ll be At acceptance ( NS and her toxic cabal has to go)
The general public are not so invested so they will probably cope better when they find out the truth about Nicola,
Brian dtt
link to wingsoverscotland.com
it was in the post above, a blue link thingy- quick before Stu tells you to “be more alert” or “does nobody ever click the links”
Slightly O/T Did anyone watch ‘Debate Night’? Seemingly Alyn Smith made some comments re Joanna Cherry – she has responded on twitter to say the scomment aren’t accurate and they haven’t spoken for ages due to the abuse she received from his ‘young male friends’. Just wondered what the comments were.
I think it would be more interesting to view their income and tax returns,
It might show employers details.????
“Stu, just had a look at the Lemonade post.Only 56 comments, was that a quiet spell or did you take it down quickly?”
From memory it was up for about an hour and was never tweeted.
Hi Alan Mackintosh at 10:57 pm.
You typed,
“Stu, just had a look at the Lemonade post.Only 56 comments, was that a quiet spell or did you take it down quickly?”
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Thanks Alan.
A very interesting advert to the right side of your photo stu, do you suppose that there is any link between the union unit the possible new employees having a go at you, someone has to be paying there wage even to do training in a forest. Or spitter spatter talk.
As the saying goes follow the money.
“One of the greatest advantages of the totalitarian elites of the twenties and thirties was to turn any statement of fact into a question of motive.”
The problem with them calling you “Trumpian” is that those doing it are themselves actual bonafide followers of a personality cult that refuse to acknowledge that their dear leader and her husband have broken the law, and believe that there is a secret plan where they’ll defeat the British and ascend as the mother and father of the nation.
For anyone not in the know…that was the Qanon MO. The projectionism is strong with the SNP leaderships base.
Stuart Campbell you have just shattered my dreams , I had you in the SP telling MSP’s from other parties that “they are talking shite”, “they are just lying” ,” you are talking out your arse” and many other honest coherent comments , all backed up by your proven forensic abilities
Instead what we have currently is a shower of morons of all parties pledging allegiance to their own cabal with little or no respect to the voters who put them there
Even just now we have MSP’s from ALL parties discussing how the GRA and HCB can be amended to make it acceptable for them to pass it ,then we have humza useless back tracking on amendments voted through IRRESPECTIVE of the outcry and objections from the electorate they continue on their crusade , a wee tip for them ditch those policies , meanwhile there is NO work being done to eradicate child poverty , there is NO work being done to destroy liebours PFI contracts and on and on
You have said Stu when we have become independent you will return home, would you not like to build a better Scotland where your honesty and integrity COULD be the example of what a politician should be
Mhairi Hunter is positioning herself (and being positioned) as the heir apparent. A lot of “level headed” and “open handed” social media missives recently, being stateswomanlike and “reaching across the divides in the movement”.
In my opinion she’s as much a champion of independence as Sturgeon, therefore a safe bet for the status quo.
I’m putting a tenner on her being the next leader of the gravytrain that is the current SNP.
I remember the lemonade post, published late at night then abruptly whisked away. It merited a diary entry: ‘Caught prematurely-published Wings blog post before he pulled it – speculating that SNP troubles could be turned to advantage by having 2nd party for List MSPs!’
The idea of a Wings party triggered the AFI / ISP parties. I am still not sure which of these is a better bet but SNP are not getting my second vote.
I was convinced that Salmond would join one of them and become the figure head. That action alone would guarantee many many list seats. Still hopeful.
Maybe Salmond was making this threat behind the scenes and the SNP were / are in an absolute panic. Could be the reason behind the framing of an innocent man (am I allowed to say “man”). The last thing the SNP want is a pro Independence Party holding them to account and, heavens forbids, holding the balance of power. They can live with the Greens. They just throw them a few eco biscuits and dangle some Trans/LGBTQ legislation to placate wee Paddy.
What however terrifies the SNP
The Rev should send the Herald a few new photos. That one must be getting worn out by now.
Where’s the SNP going to get the money to fight the May HRE? As the Rev says, they’re stoney broke. They are going to have to appeal to the members for donations as they did for the 2019 general election.
If the ordinary members in large numbers threaten to boycott donations and campaigning unless the SNP dumps Sturgeon and Murrell that will hopefully galvanise the sitting MSPs to take action. “Nothing concentrates a man’s mind so much as the knowledge he is to be hanged in the morning.” And without funds and volunteers to campaign the MSPs know they are toast.
Hopefully Alex’s press conference will blow the lid off Sturgeon’s conspiracy and the MSM will finally cover the facts of the case. With that publicity the opinion would rapidly change among members and the general public. But it needs to happen soon.
”Plans to ignore biological sex when collecting census data in favour of self-defined gender threaten to undermine robust statistics in a move that is creating “deep-seated alarm” among leading academics.
”In a letter to The Times, the academics say sex remains a key factor in “outcomes across the full spectrum of public policy areas from health and education to criminal justice and employment”.
link to archive.is
Whorattledyourcage at 1201am,
This article which you linked to, is excellent. I think anybody currently aware of the way in which the ‘trans’ cultists and some other behave online, should read it.
It is definitely worth reading the whole way through, especially since it mentions JK Rowling near the end.
It seems that many folk just do not wish to engage in discussion, so much easier to shout abuse and ‘shut people down’ who do not agree. A trait, which is now endemic within the SNP.
As an aside, REVSTU, you should announce you ARE starting a party, just for fun, one day, and watch twitter go into meltdown.
OOps, here is the Gleen Greenwald link mentioned above
link to greenwald.substack.com
Rev Stu
I have frequently been gobsmacked and stunned by the quality of your journalism and your indefatigable dedication to the causes of truth and justice. If Scotland ever becomes an independent country (something I personally doubt will happen, but never mind), your role will continue to be critical because it is obvious that the current generation of Scottish politicians are of an inferior class.
Somebody has to hold their arses over the fire. You have a job for life if you choose to keep up the good work. Tlachd à slàinte mhath!
I got the QAnon accusation last night. This is the new game. They are trying to paint us as right wing Trumpists, who can be easily dismissed. If this wasn’t so tragic I could laugh at it.
I never ever thought I would say this but good luck to THE Spectator today and I hope not only just for me but for the whole country that they win.
Stu – To be fair to Andy Wightman, who you crticise, I don’t think he signed up to be part of a circus when he became an MSP!
OT – “chest feeding” link to news.sky.com
@Karen
Don’t make excuses for Wightman he’s has a mind of his own and didn’t need to side with the SNP, he’s now an independent MSP and could have abstained but made the choice not to. Don’t ever put yourself forward to be a MSP or MP if your don’t want to be part of the circus that’s politics.
The delusion on National comments is actual painful to see.
Complete unwillingness to face facts.
They NEVER explain how NS’s strategy is going to attain Indy. Just vacuous assertion after vacuous assertion. “Eyes on the prize”, “let’s not divide our movement”, “anyone that asks questions is a unionist troll”.
Well in the words of Christopher Hitchens, “that which can be asserted without evidence can be ignored without evidence”.
I wonder if those who so loudly attack anybody who questions the leadership learned that tactic in Scottish Labour and imported it after 2014?
link to caltonjock.com
His contribution to the Alex Salmond debacle is uninspiring as is his offensive flippant attitude topped off with his favourite saying “I am not releasing it because in my view it would not be in the public interest” and that after his government flushed nearly £1m of taxpayers money down the toilet of hopeless causes.
Chest feeding above?
These are exactly the type of things that set people off on
Facing up to Trans people.
I’m no scientist but I can confirm that no man with or without a penis
is going to give birth or breastfeed.
How absurd this English NHS trust during the worst pandemic in100
years waste the time of medical staff to try and enforce these absurdities.
Will GPs and Surgeons have to organise Hysterectomies if a man says he is a
woman with a collapsed womb?
Shall we do more for these people and have Mixed and Confused Triples tournaments
at Wimbledon?
A man a woman and a trany event.
Well you can’t leave them out can you?
They have every right to be equals and respect but we are not throwing the obvious and common sense in the bin for them.
@Boris
How people haven’t forgotten how useless Swinney is and what Salmond has done.
@Boris
How people have forgotten how useless Swinney is and what Salmond has done
sorry for the mistake
Do we have a time for the Spectator case to be heard? and when will we be told the outcome?
Fascinating. A group of so-called independence supporters appear to be obsessed with Wings in a stalker-like manner.
It also appears that all they are doing is choosing a group to ‘hate’ to distract from their own lack of integrity, principles, good manners, and motivation to get independence. That they want to whip up hatred for another pro-independence group, while calling for unity is odd, to put it mildly. No divisiveness there at all. Imbeciles.
Their inability to consider that most people don’t have the same conspiratorial back-stabbing attitude towards life is remarkable too.
Another fascinating thing I’ve noticed (off topic but notable for propaganda spotting purposes), that today the radio (Scotland) has started using (so far this morning) ‘jag’ much more frequently than the weirdo awkward, more violent sounding, ‘jab’. I’ve even carried on listening beyond my hour ration just to see how long they keep it up – the first use, and it wasn’t emphasised, was at 8am. This is very unusual.
Note that you will NEVER hear a health care professional use the term ‘jab’. We have two perfectly good and well used terms ‘jag’ or ‘injection’. There was never any reason to introduce ‘jab’ into public discourse (except for nefarious purposes).
Yesterday morning, on radio Scotland, they started changing to ‘jag’ on occasion, now, far more comfortably, it is being used more frequently. It’ll be interesting to see if they’re reined in and change back to the imported ‘jab’.
A minor thing – but demonstrates how words and new terms are imposed on us by the media – and that some don’t take too well, overall. Lots of people using ‘jab’, of course – but try innocently using ‘jag’ back at them and see how quickly they go back to using that far more comfortable term.
I’ll keep an ear out for that weirdo Q-anon, can’t see it taking off – whatever it’s about has no history here, but we’ll see.
Today is the day that Andrew Neil and the Spectator deliver for Scotland.
How has it come to this?
Like your post Contrary.
I first noticed Stuanon a couple of days ago on twitter and yes it was tweeted by an anti scientist pretendy yesser.
I think they wore out or made tedious the other non factual insults like antisemite or facist and forgetting the root of the latter is the Roman fasces so bloodywell has two ssss. See how easy you can stoke rage!
All I want is a quiet life in an independent Scotland full of peoples with diverse views but little rage. Disagreement makes for progress. I am definitely not a Marxist but their mantras on synthesis etc has merit.Hagel was it? Anyhow even the devil is worth listening to even if it only sharpens your view on good and evil.
That post is for the nostalgic folk missing whatsisname!
QAnon. No the Sturgeonista’s prefer AccuseAnon.
Thoroughly enjoyed that, how is wish I had your way with words when so much of my time is spent arguing with these idiots.
For me though this was the most interesting part and one I wholeheartedly agree with.
and anyone counting chickens about polling numbers right now, given what might happen in the next few weeks, is some kind of special-grade idiot.
I believe even those of us who know there is a real shock coming our way might be surprised
at the level of that shock.
Contrary
Another fascinating thing I’ve noticed (off topic but notable for propaganda spotting purposes), that today the radio (Scotland) has started using (so far this morning) ‘jag’ much more frequently than the weirdo awkward, more violent sounding
It’s strange – I noticed – and remarked on that whilst driving yesterday – why does it ‘jar’ so much? I suppose because I’d just taken a friend for an ‘injection ‘ against Covid:-)
I tend to believe that Mr Wing’s ‘friends’ are more literate and harsh only when necessity makes them so:-)
The more time that passes, the more inclined I am to believe that something cathartic must happen to the SNP to change the working culture of the party.
In truth, I would rather wait a few more years for that to happen than for power over an independent state to be tarnsferred to Sturgeon/Swinney etc. That, in my opinion, would be VERY dangerous.
For Swinney it is all about control and the suppression of dissent within the party, critique for outside, and a determination to reward loyalty and compliance over competence. It is the Putin rather than the Jacinda model of government. Sturgeon is the figure-head, but Swinney is the behind-the-scenes manipulator.
This more cautious approach has nothing to do with currency, fiscal policy etc. It is all about the capacity to run an administration and respect the principles of democracy.
We no longer have a separation of powers as the Crown Office debate yesterday demonstrated, and nor do we have a committment to ‘justice’.
All very depressing and paradoxical. The only pro-independence party (forget the Greens after their shabby behaviour at the Holyrood Parish Council), is the one party that cannot deliver independence.
link to tns2019.org
ALISON BALHARRY @ 6:00 am
”Plans to ignore biological sex when collecting census data in favour of self-defined gender threaten to undermine robust statistics in a move that is creating “deep-seated alarm” among leading academics.
”In a letter to The Times, the academics say sex remains a key factor in “outcomes across the full spectrum of public policy areas from health and education to criminal justice and employment”.
link to archive.is
I wouldn’t worry about it. Apart from a statistically insignificantly tiny number of zoomers everyone will tick the male or female box.
What a pompous ass my MP is, aye looking at you Alyn Smith! The more I see, the less I like. Weird almost motherly attitude to young men but women are addressed as “madam” ………. don’t know anyone nowadays that calls women ‘madam’ or in such a demeaning way, almost like he’s implying they are a lesser being [or he is a superior being – clue he’s not].
Oh meh gawd, those antifa clowns in that photie. Look like they couldnae fight sleep man. That cheered me right up.
Re- Lemonade post.
That post, a very good and credible one, ruffled many feathers. I remember the wails in the National, twitter, MSM and even from some of the SNP MP quarters, which is bizarre as their seats would not be threatened by Mr Salmond wining a few list seats in Holyrood.
But Salmond wining a seat in Holyrood would bring him dangerously close to the epicentre of the conspiracy, and worse, the evidence (the same applies to Ms Cherry).
That post was released on the 15 January 2019. Only 9 days later Mr Salmond was arrested on overinflated, flimsy charges that were either ridiculous or based on a babel tower of lies.
Could that lemonade post have given the powers that be the biggest fright in 5 years because of the prospect of Mr Salmond not only returning to politics but worse, totally unleashed on a party they had no control over?
At that time, 2019 and with more than 2 years to the Holyrood election, there was more than enough time to either call the referendum or to successfully declare the Holyrood election a plebiscite. Even if the SNP refused to treat it as a plebiscite, a new party with Mr Salmond at the head could develop enough traction to hold that plebiscitary vote on the list and push forward towards independence.
So here is my tin foil hat question of the day:
could that post have been interpreted by the powers that be as a warning of Mr Salmond returning to Holyrood, far too close to the nest of vipers where the conspiracy originated, so the need to stop him (and independence), together with now an urgent need to hide the identity of the plotters and any evidence of the intervention of the powers that be in the conspiracy be the main drive for the bogus criminal case to be brought forward?
From Ms Harvey we know a fishing expedition against Mr Salmond had started before they had the excuse of the complaints procedure to hide behind. One has to wonder for how long this expedition had been going on and if it was developed as a preamble to the complaints procedure or in parallel, by different actors pursuing a different, but colluding goal.
When you’ve got that Jane Carnell on your team, the person who voted No in 2014 and still believes Scotland is ‘better together’, then you’re in trouble. Their only agenda is trans ideology not independence.
I am generally loathed to bring US politics into it either but the wokerati in the SNP are very similar to the wokerati in the US democratic party.
Indeed they are constantly trying replicate the BLM / Antifa horseshit in Scotland. Humza Yousaf being just one recent example of someone talking utter shit stirring garbage.
They are gender and race hustlers. So everything has to be viewed through the prism of racism or the genderwoowoo intellectual arsegravy, all of which is grade A intellectual garbage and societal poison.
This is why they are trying to associate you with Trump and now Q-Anon. They want to Americanize the dialogue to match the shit show they have turned US politics into. So you have to be Trump… it is all so incredibly dumb.
I would point out some defining characteristics of these wokerati.
There is no dialogue with them. None. They are talking (usually shouting) at you with no interest in developing a coherent or logical exchange of views.
Bringing me to their next most obvious feature. They are completely indoctrinated and entrenched to the point they actually have convinced themselves they are fighting real life nazis and fascists. They are not.
Calling people a nazi or a fascist is green-lighting acts of violence against them. That is why they do it. It is ok to attack defenseless people because they are a ‘nazi’. When in reality they are just people who do not share their extremist views.
Everything they say is an ad hominem. That is the only tool they have in their toolbox. When you only have a hammer everything becomes a nail.
They are stupid. Really dumb. If you explore their ideas for even a few minutes you realize that you are dealing with people of very limited intelligence and or awareness.
They are an army of misfits and losers who want to burn everything that other people have built and achieved to the ground to make everyone as big a loser as they are.
They are crybullies. One minute they are greeting like a baby about all the injustices of the world next minute viciously mobbing people and having pile-on’s on social media to attack people. Just like they did to this sites twitter account.
Cancel culture. They are dictatorial little c***s who want people they dislike to lose their jobs and their means of making a living and supporting their families. All because you don’t agree with the crap they spout.
I am sure I could think of more but this post is long enough as it is…
Just to clarify one thing: your Twitter handle can and always could be modified from the default one that Twitter proposes you (and that usually is made with your name and surname followed by the infamous X trailing digits) before taking it when you open a Twitter account, but requires a level of intelligence and decision making that a script or an AI cannot have.
Trailing numbers mean either a bot account created with a script using Twitter APIs, or someone that is so dumb that can’t change their username when given the opportunity.
Either way, an irrelevance.
I recall there were a few weeks, some years ago, when the story-de-jour in the MSM & social media, was ‘Civil war in the SNP’and a ‘Great YES split’, or somesuch. BTL at Wings was awash with much humour and scathing sarcasm directed at the the perpetrators of such ‘rubbish’.
Actually my recollection is so bad, I don’t remember the germ and gist of the claim, or whether in hindsight it had any merit. The point is, that in general, Wings BTL was not wearing it and there was much levity and scorn.
It had parallels in some ways to the situation presently.
So, I do have some sympathy with those who scorn and abuse Wings today – some, not a lot (none of the roasters above certainly) but more the rank and file YES supporters who are still rallying around the SNP/Nichola.
Recent revelations came as a great shock to many here (myself included) and the slow burn through all the (at first seemingly irrelevant) ‘Trans’ articles (I confess to barely reading any) however, we were well primed and prepared from years of reading this blog.
When the Rev’s ascerbuc vituperativeness is suddenly turned on the SNP, well, you should at least raise an eyebrow and be intrugued.
Perhaps more to be pitied than scolded, is my point – we were them once. In that spririt, I have not hammered naive Yessers I know (who have little inkling of the great game afoot) merely mentioned that they may have to prepare for a shock this year, without elaborating much.
There are many, especially of the older generation (in my experience) religiously tuned to Nichola during Covid and will take this badly. The ‘Cult of Nichola’ I suspect, is nothing more than being starved for generations of anything elevating Scotland on National TV.
It always used to be newsworthy when anyone Scottish appeared on the telly – really sadly too. I recall the local gossip and folk tuning in and glued to the telly, just to see ‘yon boy fae Dundee’ or suchlike.
Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter if anyone even understood what it was about, it was enough a local had made it onto the telly. Local=Scotland and Scottish people on telly were exclaimed like spotting a rare species – and they were.
Scottish person in phone-in talent show? – Didn’t matter if they sounded like a binful of cats, or you had no idea what it was about – the word was ‘we pile in and vote for them’ – If only to see a bit more of someone Scottish on telly, far less see them win…whatever it is.
Ask yourself if that is a just a thing of decades past. Independence? One wee paper comes out ostensibly for it – ‘We must buy it’ One Scottish party makes good ‘ we must vote for it’ – One First Minister gets on telly… well, you get the picture.
Why do you think they keep rolling out Gordon Brown? They have to put someone Scottish on to get attention, but they haven’t got anyone else. It’s an easy trap to fall into (Twitter Poll, 38Degrees anyone?) and one should always try and take an objective view – even unto Wings.
When ‘Oor ain’ is up there – don’t you dare not vote and as for slagging them off, ostracism awaits. However, sometimes they really do sound like a binful of cats.
@KiltedSplendour
Throw it directly back at them. They are the ones that believe that this is all a deep state conspiracy that’s out to get Saint Nic’ and that she’ll soon show her super duper top secret plan that will destroy the British state after Boris rejects Section 30 for the 10millionth time.
You don’t find much in Scotland more Qanon-irky than that.
That ‘Lemonade Post’ was interesting in the amount of contributions by former ‘Wingers’ who are now Ginger ‘Whingers’. They were all onside until the Criminal Case against AS got going.Strange. Now Cognitive Dissonance is all with these entities.
The fanatic ‘pish purveyor’ fantasiser and Nicola fanboy’GEEO’ happily banished.
But poor much maligned old ‘Rock’ who was correct all along is also gone…but where?
How is it that the people that are supposed to be our allies in the independence movement are almost as toxic as the Unionists?
Why are the people who claim to be on the “right” side of this independence movement so vile to other Indy supporters?
How can they be so blind as to what’s happening in the Scottish government and the SNP?
How do you deal with this level of self sabotage on an hourly bases?
Just read an utter load of shite in the, Hoots that says SNP members are supportive of the sacking of Joanna Cherry. That the majority of SNP and 40% of folk support transgender GRA.
That’ll be why then the SNP over the last 24 months have lost over 60,000 members
Strange that – eh?
Never been on twitter, had a shufty once, found out that Stephen Boil was on it, or was it fry, anyway that told me it was not Quite Interesting as a yapping mythologist is not someone I pay any attention to at the best of times.
And why anyone on it replies to a few brain cells that are on the blink is beyond my understanding.
Anyway being a sort of postillion its quite funny at times.
But most of the time i’m just to bored to laugh when I come across it, which I am happy to say, is not very often.
My indifference to it all knows no bounds, being bored has never appealed to me, why should it appeal to me now
L says:
10 February, 2021 at 10:33 pm
Quote:-
“Would LOVE to see a Salmond- led List party as it would give a much overdue boost to Scottish politics. He could stand as a candidate or sit in background as party CEO; either or. Hopefully haven’t seen the last of Alex Salmond in politics. Time for a shake up.”
Not sure that would be such a good thing, despite the tremendous fight he has put up against the forces of corruption he IS tainted.
Saying that, just who has the gravitas to UNITE Scotland and move the country away from this debacle?
Absolutely NONE of the current crop of the SNP for a start; the opposition parties are in almost the same position, leadership is exceptionally thin on the ground…
I have previously said, I am one of many, many who despair at the state of our country and even more so at those who lead it.