Lights out
This week in 2014, I drew a picture of a light going out. Seven years on, I’ve just done the same thing. Back then it was the union snuffing out Scotland’s candle of hope. This time around, it’s about our very own caped crusader hanging up his black rubber pants… at least for the foreseeable. It is my last Wings cartoon.
We’re told that all good things must come to an end – and as good things go, my gig with Wings Over Scotland has been very good indeed. As might have been mentioned by my peers once or twice, political cartoonists usually work a damned sight harder than me (and take fewer holidays): they have to submit multiple ideas, accept editorial control, draw to tight deadlines at short notice etc.
I, on the other hand, would take days to ruminate on what my subject would be, make my own decision on the image I’d create, take all of Friday to actually produce it (a lot of that involving throwing scrumpled up paper into a bin and drinking coffee), and then send it off to Stu, safe in the knowledge it would be posted without question, before collapsing in theatrical exhaustion in front of an enormous gin and tonic. It was a hard life. Not.
So, before going any further, I’d like to thank Stu for the privilege of being the Wings cartoonist. As a glance at my earliest efforts will remind us all, I hadn’t actually done this sort of thing before! I’m grateful he gave me the time and space to practice… you know, in public.
Despite the sometimes patchy quality of the work, in almost nine years, Stu declined to post just three cartoons, all for different yet legitimate reasons. I reckon I must’ve drawn something like 400 in that time so that’s a strike rate I’m prepared to bet no other cartoonist in the world is lucky enough to be able to match. On top of that, of course, I made some dosh from the cartoons themselves and merchandising on the back of them.
But perhaps most rewarding of all is that on most occasions my subject matter was the cause I’ve held dear my whole life – Scottish independence. Those weeks when I was completely satisfied with the joke and the execution of the drawing (not very often to be honest), I could add to my smugness by telling myself that perhaps, just perhaps, I’d helped move the dial of public opinion that wee bit closer to a pro-independence majority – struck a blow, no matter how slight, for the Yes movement.
Sadly, that movement is no longer what it was. For reasons well rehearsed on this site as elsewhere, the camaraderie and tolerance of that broad church has disappeared along with the excitement and energy we all once had. Latterly, I have found the weekly search for a subject matter and joke complicated by the knowledge that, no matter what I drew, it would be sure to either disappoint or enrage someone on what used to be called ‘our side’.
The online battles raging between Sturgeon and Salmond loyalists, the SNP and Alba, trans activists and defenders of women’s rights, Plan B supporters and Section 30-ers, Growth Commission groupies and backers of the Smackeroony, people who break their eggs open at the big end and those who prefer the little end have all been depressing to witness.
Worse for me, they have caused a degree of self-censorship to creep into my work. Far too often recently I’ve allowed myself to go for the easy option, hit the easy target – not necessarily the one that really deserved to get it in the neck that week. It is a political cartoonist’s job to provoke and, if necessary, offend without fear or favour. Yet, in an effort to keep my own and the Wings audience as large as possible, I shamefully found myself trying to do the opposite. For that reason the decision to finally pull the plug came as something like a relief to me.
I have some ideas about what I will do next and where – and it almost certainly won’t involve regular political cartoons. Wings, with its reach, editorial freedom and ability to pay, is an impossible act to follow. And easy though my cartooning life has been, I’m not doing it for nothing. Meanwhile, despite those wretched attempts at retaining a wider appeal, my own ‘constituency’, as publishers like to call it, has been as badly affected as anyone else’s by the Yes movement’s own culture wars.
My association with this site and Stu is an obvious factor, but I know I’ve drawn, written, liked and shared enough stuff to piss off folk all by myself.
I’m sad that it’s come to this and sorry that in all the internecine squabbling, which I admit I’ve not always risen above, I’ve lost friends and champions of my work along the way. But forgiveness and charity seem to be in short supply in certain quarters. The one true path to enlightenment and independence has narrowed greatly and it would seem my tendency to wander off into the shrubbery of dissent is not to be encouraged.
I won’t say that Hamish has had his last hurrah. We live in hope that a second independence referendum will be called and another Yes campaign launched. We just don’t know when. My fear is that the divisions currently rending the Yes movement asunder will prove too deep and painful to heal if and when that time comes. I fervently hope I’m wrong.
In the meantime, and on behalf of everyone who would like Scotland to be a normal country, I’d like to thank the Rev Stu for his tireless work over the last nine years or so. We can fully expect snarky and graceless comments from the usual quarters to news of this site’s mothballing – many of them from people within the Yes movement. But anyone who supports the cause of independence for Scotland, who rails against the grotesque distortions of the unionist case, will be wrong to cheer the end of Wings.
They should remember that no-one punctured the lies and hypocrisies of our opponents with as much forensic skill, passion and fury as Stuart Campbell. The only people who should be celebrating are unionist politicians and their toadies in the mainstream media. They’re the ones who will be getting a much easier ride from now on.
I’d also like to publicly offer my support and best wishes to Stu for the future. You don’t have to agree with every single thing he’s said and done to admit he has paid a heavy price for being uncompromising (okay, and foul-mouthed). I only know the half of it and it’s a screaming injustice. In my life I’ve never come across anyone more lied about, misrepresented, threatened and abused. He deserves a break from it all.
Finally, my thanks to you for all your kind words, the sharing of my work across social media, support for our books, and your love of Hamish. Let’s hope we all meet again.
– Chris Cairns, 25 September 2021
Thanks for all your contributions, Chris. Good luck in your future endeavours
It’s a very sad day indeed. Thank you for everything.
From a tiny speck of hope seeing Stu reporting again yesterday to it being snuffed out today.
Sad news. Best of luck in what comes next Chris.
Good luck bud. Sad times indeed. I echo your comments on SC.
Forgive them for they know not what they do.
Alternatively fuck them, a more despicable shower of wankers I have never seen.
Chris,
Thank you for all your great work over the years. Saturday mornings won’t be the same without your cartoons on here.
Good luck for the future. X
A well written and balanced view of where we currently are and, by the way, I agree with Mac above too. Two different way of saying the same thing.
Chris,
Thank you for all your cartoons over the years on here, Saturday mornings won’t be the same without them.
Take care and good luck for the future. X
So very sad. Those cartoons will always be remembered, and I certainly remember the candle getting snuffed out.
The ONLY people celebrating WINGS closing shop, are unionists and their enablers, like Pete Wishart, Nicola Sturgeon (and her corrupt cabal of groupies and conspirators), and those in England who want Scotland to remain under England’s colonial jackboot forever.
As our Scottish industries close, and the Scots Parliament gets more and more ignored by London, we run out of food, and we pay even more for fuel from OUR OWN waters, and energy from our own renewables, we will remember that the First Minister elected to deliver Scottish independence, merely delivered division, hatred and a failing Scotland. She has done little else.
So, thanks Chris Cairns, cartoonist and creator of the Hamish cult. You must not go for good, and neither must revstu. Our time shall come again, and possibly sooner than we might expect. Things change, and it is up to us to shape the future.
As for Nicola ‘four nations approach‘ Sturgeon, well done. Well done for everything you have done to destroy the unity of the independence movement, destroy half the SNP (the actual important half), and to drain away any hope the people of Scotland had. I can only assmue your ‘reward’ by your English masters will be a good one. You will move on soon, no doubt retiring, with your excellent pension, your life’s work to destroy Scottish independence done. What a complete and utter fraud.
Thanks for your input over all these years.
I’m finding myself in the same boat now. Perhaps it’s time to realise that all the political stuff is just smoke and mirrors. Walk away and enjoy your own time, as you’ll never get it back.
For those interested, here is the snuffing out cartoon, from September 20, 2014. Now ,seven years later, despite the best attempts, we have a do nothing SNP ‘government‘ and ‘leader‘ snuffing out the candle of Scottish hope on England’s behalf.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
And here, to cheer the mood, is my favourite Hamish cartoon, following 2014 indyref. We fought back, didn’t we. WE fought back.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Chris, you will be sorely missed. Thank you for your sterling efforts and all the best for the future.
And echoing Chris, many thanks (words are inadequate) for all Stu’s work. There are good blogs out there but none quite matches the excellence of the Rev Stu.
Why does this feel like defeat?
Ta for some great memories Holiday boy.
Defo.
(Wipes solitary tear…)
Thank you Chris for your brilliant cartoons and for the immortal Hamish.
Life on Plague Island just got even worse.
There’s a depressing note of resignation in the comments BTL.
Winter is coming and we are not saved.
A BIG THANKS CHRIS for all the laughs you have given us over the years I hope your pincels dont get rusty during this hopefully temporary Mothballing . Take care meanwhile .
Stuart Mothballs are old hat its Fabrezes now. You have brought a breath of fresh air into the Independence debate Love you Hate you in equal measures but I hope your back SOONER rather than LATER . Enjoy the well earned rest Take care .
For those about to sketch, we salute you…and none more deserving of that salute than you, Chris.
Thanks for your weekly picture that painted a thousand words, and more. You’ll be missed – best wishes to you and yours for the future and lang may yer lum reek!
RK
A sad day indeed. The last flickering flame of WOS changing to a wisp of smoke and disappearing into the darkness.
They have won, for now.
Never let the dream die people.
Thank you Chris.
Saturday mornings is one of the rare times I visit Wings these days. We seem to have grown apart and I no longer share the views of many of the posters.
Thanks Chris, for years of enjoyment provided to so many folk dedicated, as you and Stu are, to the cause of Scotland’s bright(er) future; to be delivered via a return to independence.
I will follow you wherever you pop up and support you in any amd every way I can, as you have the, currently fractured, movement.
All the best, sir.
So your writing is as good and as expressive as your cartoons.
Thank you for all you have done.
You deserve more (as does Stu), but a break from political cartoons given the reasons will do you good.
Hopefully, we will see you and Hamish return after not too long.
If thousands of words could paint a picture it’d make a fine Cairn’s cartoon – you can’t allow yourself to switch off the lights though, the income from those already created will go through the roof post indy..
Accordingly, hope to be able to buy the collection sooner, rather than later, but in meantime huge thanks to you and Wings for lifting the inner moon howling spirit (almost) every week for last 7 years.
Hi Robert Louis.
My favourite as well!
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Thanks, Chris, for all you’ve done over the years. Hopefully, we’ll see you back e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l-l-y…
It’s a miserable time, Chris.
Thank you … We leaned heavily on you and you flapped your magical wings and carried us high above the nonsense and blew enough fire to light up the nonsense, cant, inhumanity, bravery, decency, intelligence that’s all over the Scottish Independence battlefield.
Can’t thank you enough.
And thanks too for those excellent words about Stu’s decency.
Words are only words. Pictures only pictures.
Between the two of you, you left a historical mark that tells the story of our time.
Cannot thank you enough.
Best wishes for the future Chris, and might respect to both of you.
Well, if you get bored you could always volunteer to drive an ambulance.
Free up a FIREMAN to, you know, put someone’s blazing house out.
Good Luck, everybody.
Thanks for all the delicious cartoons.
I think the genderwoowoo nazis are very few in number. However they have money, unfettered influence , media support, police support, COPFS support, MI5/6 support, political support and the love of british nicola.
When their house of lies collapses, and that day is coming, the yes movement will unite around new leaders.
No present SNP MSP or SNP MP need apply. As they are too cowardly to stand up for children.
Mighty respect.
so very sad, can’t think of any cartoonist of any political persuasion who comes near this one. And the starring role granted to wee Hamish put real heart at the centre of these brilliant cartoons; on its own, a masterstroke.
Thank you for all your great work over the years, Chris. I have always enjoyed your work and looked forward to enjoying your next creation (almost) every Saturday morning. Best wishes to you and Hamish and hoping to see you again somewhere soon.
As the dear leader thinks…
“”Your child belongs to us already. You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp.”
I’m sorry to see you go Chris and I’ll live in hope of seeing Hamish again some day! I wish we could go back to the heady days before the indyref when the yes movement was united and passionate and fun. It’s a sad day.
Thank you for all your contributions and such a sad epitaph to seven years of expectation yet diminishing hope “ The one true path to enlightenment and independence has narrowed greatly and it would seem my tendency to wander off into the shrubbery of dissent is not to be encouraged.”
Sad to see you go Chris. Thanks for all the cartoons and good luck in whatever you do next.
Thanks.
My wife, an artist herself, loves your work (as do I), and ALWAYS drinks her tea from her Hamish mug.
Your contributions will be sadly missed Chris. Best of luck with your future endeavours. Many of us share your sense that the “movement is no longer what it was”. This is a sad day and I have a suspicion there will be more to come, particularly if (when?) WoS is finally wound up altogether.
Hopefully it is true that it’s darkest before the dawn. We’re all due the promise of some sunshine ahead after the past few years.
A sad day for Scotland. Thanks for all your work
Thanks Chris for a few laughs along the way and some serious points. In 2014 I contacted this site and not sure who handled it but got a copy of the WBB in a stamped hand written envelope which was passed around a lot of people. Then from Yes Oban got a pile of books so anyone that struck up a conversation on seeing my Yes badge got a copy. At least one person thanked me and went from No to Yes. The three people that made a difference were Stu, Chris and Lindsay Bruce at Ayemail. The Yes packs produced by Ayemail and available to yes groups for the princely sum of £20 were a huge help. All the hope and goodwill from 2014 seems to have been sucked out of the Yes movement thanks to the SNP a party I was once a member of and for that I will never forgive the current leadership. There are signs that Yes is rebooting and waking up and so we go again. Thank you to Stu, Chris etc who contributed to this site and made it what it was over the years you will a hard act to follow.
Good luck Chris.
😉
This is very very depressing!
How many more artists will give up or go for the easy option?
What can we expect in future? Will it be totally bland garbage that doesn’t offend anyone?
Freedom of speech is dead!
Thanks for all your work Chris. It is always relevant – simply because history repeats itself.
A very telling article too. The YES movement has lost too many stalwarts.
Always worth bearing in mind that the London establishment has a proven track record of sowing division.
Thanks to both you, Chris and Stu for your hard work sorry to see you go, hopefully back again one day ?
Thanks to both you, Chris and Stu for your hard work sorry to see you go, hopefully back again one day ?
Remember “Arnie” came back 4 times I think. Hopefully you’ll only need to come back once! When the time is right.
Thanks for your excellent work!
A sad day for us all. Thanks for all your wonderful input.
Good Luck for all future endeavours!
Thanks for all your efforts and the laughs you gave me along this bumpy road. Perhaps one day we can regroup and take the fight to them once again though most of our best fighters, like you and Stu, will have been effectively taken out by those we once thought were on our side. What a disappointment she turned out to be.
I can’t make up my mind if the best thing to do would be to find creative ways to express our views/protest or just do absolutely nothing, say absolutely nothing.
It could be quite disconcerting for politicians etc to be faced with a large section of the population who are totally silent who just look at them with blank faces.
Thank you for keeping hope as long as you have. Hamish especially has been a thoughtful contribution to the independence movement. Sadly it does feel like the lights are all going out & hope is lost. Maybe not forever but certainly for the foreseeable. I’m sorry Chris but I lay this firmly at Sturgeon’s door – her and her alone brought us here.
Thanks Chris, I hope it’s not the last we see of you or Stu. I had a request to join a new invigorated group on FB the host of which requesting us to put divisions and petty bickering behind us. It’s been up for a couple of days now and all I’ve seen so far is divisions and petty bickering so I’m out of there. Who knows when or if we’ll ever get a referendum. I read Grousebeater say our FM may have put independence back 50 years and I wouldn’t be surprised. Good luck to you both.
A sad day indeed.
Thank you for all your work Chris and all the best to you and Hamish.
And thank you to Rev Stu for everything he has done for us, where would we have been without you.
Disillusioned about independence doesn’t come close to describing how I feel.
The last to leave is hope. I hope to see your cartoons again.
“For those about to about to cry for you and Hamish, we salute you.” We’ll meet again, when the time is right, but not yet.
When the troughfers and saboteurs are gone- then we will rise again.
Best wishes and thanks Chris!
…. Until we meet again…….
‘Sadly, that movement is no longer what it was.’
This is because the landscape has shifted. There are those who are keeping up with the drastically shifting landscape and those who want to pretend we are in a perpetual 2014 time loop.
There are those who are able to keep up with at least some of what is happening in the war against us and those who don’t. The difference in those 2 very general groups just gets wider each passing week.
Wings Over Scotland became detached and irrelevant sometime during the ‘covid emergency’. Any journalist, blogger, rights activist, politician or other person who concerns themselves with society and the wellfare of fellow humans and especially their countrymen who has not had a good hard look at this and found reasons to be critical is pretty much defunct.
In the wider picture we have people who think of themselves as liberal being pulled politically towards what can be described as neo-bolshevism (as opposed to fascism) with all the anti-national, anti-human, society destroying twisted inversions of reality that this perverted perspective brings with it. The one problem with realising this is that it collides head-on with decades of immense propaganda efforts that are still pushed to this day, and to put it simply most people simply cannot handle it.
Scotland is no longer only up against a political ‘Union’ that functions to siphon off our wealth and productivity. We are now also embroiled in what can only be considered a corporate take over of government and national institutions on a global scale that uses fake causes to do the damage necessary for the plan to work – plague laws, mass immigration and undermining of what we understand to be nationality, censorship, the undermining of natural order (women, men, family), the over promotion of ‘rights’ for ‘minorities’ to diminish political cohesion, the dismantling of legal protections and function, the undermining and control of elections, turning Europeans into an underclass of ‘privelaged’ people who need to give way and who are unable to speak up for their own group while they are headed for minority status in their own homelands, the destruction of small and medium (more community and national centric) business for the benefit of global corporations – the list could go on a very long time.
To put it simply the people who are able to take on the fight that is now at our door step are able to think outside any 1 political box, are not burdened by faith in the mainstream take on anything and are happy to be called names for it.
Most of all however they are able to look outside what they once thought they understood and face a drastically different reality.
Those journalists, bloggers, rights activists, politicians and other assorted people of concern I mentioned before will be replaced by those more able to come to grips with the world as it is now and are therefore obviously more relatable.
But those people are not on their own. The regulars on here who I once thought of as very astute seem to have exactly the same inability to grasp what is now all around us. The exasperation I have felt reading eloquent analysis and opinion on matters that miss the brontosaurus in the room is hard to describe. But this mirrors our society at large.
I once mentioned a few years ago on here, before covid, that the biggest split in society in the modern world is those who can take massive access to information and make something of it for themselves and those who can’t or won’t. That divide is just getting bigger and those who can’t or won’t use information sensibly may possibly drag those who can and will into a very dark future in their near-criminal ignorance.
Anyway. That’s enough. To those who have fought the good fight on here I salute you.
This is a sad day. I love cartoons, especially the large single panel. As a child my favourite Christmas present was the Giles annual and other presents were eschewed until it had been read from cover to cover including the the celebrity foreword.
Unfortunately Chris and I fell out on Twitter at the start of the pandemic over something relatively trivial in the scheme of things. Although blocked by him I have never stopped loving his work. The quality of the draughtsmanship, the beautiful line and wash style. I love colour toons and his have such subtle understated brilliance.
Whether or not the punchline hit home the artistry was always worth viewing. Saturdays will be a bit duller now. Good luck with whatever you choose to do Chris. I look forward to seeing what results.
Eloquently put Chris and a BIG Plus 1 from me for your comments regarding Stuart. Similarly a BIG plus to you too for your finely crafted work and humour.
Both of you, at a time when we appear to be standing in front of a tidal wave of awful mismanagement and downright malicious behaviour, gone. It’s too much.
I respect your decisions for your own sakes and wish you all the very best for a successful future.
Thanks for everything, Chris. All the best.
Heart on Sleeve, well done, said, and drawn. More power to your pencil mate. Onwards to Freedom!
Sad to read this but I guess it is understandable. Good luck to you in everything you do and, who knows, maybe I’ll see you out on the golf course one fine day in an independent Scotland. Best wishes x
“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned; / The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity ”
Maybe it’s no so much that ” the best lack all conviction ” as that they are fuckn sick to their stomachs of wading through rivers of shit in an honourable cause while ” the worst ” continue to fill those rivers and their loyalists blindly hang on their every word and deed .
If Chris’s valedictory statement is an augur of the pending closure of WOS ( and who could blame Stuart ? ) another brilliant light will go out , intensifying the shadows …..
” Match after match in the darkness
Tear after tear in a cloud of dust ”
Cesar Vallejo . 1936
Still …..we WILL continue
It really does feel it’s the end, Thank you so much Chris for all your cartoons over the years, it’s really a sorry state of affairs that what was once a vibrant movement has disingeragted into a squabbling mess.
There are 2 people to blame for this, both reside in Bute House, they both crushed the spirit of both the SNP and the independence movement.
If the is another independence campaign, I will be staying away and just vote YES on my ballot paper, like most of you, I am done with debating and arguing with the idiots.
How did it get to this? How did the wokist and cancel culture get so strong without anyone really seeing the dangers till it’s too late?
Anyways, Thank you Chris, I wish you well in your future endeavours.
Lights out, but never forgotten.
Your are world class Chris, an exceptional talent.
Always looked forward to Saturdays to see the genius
of your latest creation.
I’m sure the unionist camp would have made you a millionaire
by now if you had sold your soul to them.
Thank you and good luck for the future, until we meet again.
J.o.e @ 9:59
“Scotland is no longer only up against a political ‘Union’ that functions to siphon off our wealth and productivity. We are now also embroiled in what can only be considered a corporate take over of government and national institutions on a global scale that uses fake causes to do the damage necessary for the plan to work – plague laws, mass immigration and undermining of what we understand to be nationality, censorship, the undermining of natural order (women, men, family), the over promotion of ‘rights’ for ‘minorities’ to diminish political cohesion, the dismantling of legal protections and function, the undermining and control of elections, turning Europeans into an underclass of ‘privelaged’ people who need to give way and who are unable to speak up for their own group while they are headed for minority status in their own homelands, the destruction of small and medium (more community and national centric) business for the benefit of global corporations – the list could go on a very long time.”
That is one of the best descriptions of what is happening that I have seen. Colonialism and Imperialism on a gey muckle (global) scale. Pity most Scots are unable to see it or their longstanding oppression, mainly due to a colonial mindset. Thank you J.o.e.
And thanks Chris. Cartoons make people think, which is no a bad thing. I was a big fan of Gilzean at Edin Evening News back in the day, as were most folk in Auld Reekie and the Lothians at the time, and often the first thing folk looked at in the ‘news’ on a Friday nicht. Quite a different population there now though.
On the matter of national liberty and the fundamental case for freedom: link to barrheadboy.com
Thanks Chris…..still love my Hamish book
Thank you
Good luck
Saturdays will never be the same again. You have a wonderful gift, Chris I’m so, so envious. Good luck to you, Sir.
D’ahh.. That beautifully written retirement/resignation letter’s tinged with a finality and a melancholia that seem to echo the end of a Scottish dream? I don’t bloody blame you, Chris, anymore than I blame Stuart. Is it the end of a dream? Only for the time being – just not this time.
We’re all still here – including both you and Stu – and although things are pretty stagnant at the mo, there’s always a tomorrow, and remember, the truth’ll out..
Thanks for your sterling efforts, dude. Enjoy your rest.
What a depressing time this is. My Saturday morning smile, just another thing that is being lost in this horrible mess of a time. Thank you Chris for all the thought, wit and superb artistry which I have thoroughly enjoyed seeking out with my Saturday coffee. You have been my early weekend companion, I will miss it. As an artist myself I’ve watched your skill and expertise grow over the years- your mark making, washes and your skill to simplify. You should be immensely proud of a magnificent portfolio. Good luck with whatever you turn your hand to next Chris. ‘Til we see Hamish’s claw reveal itself again ‘adieu et bonne chance’. x
Totally agree with everything you have written here Chris. I admit it’s another huge hole in my life but going out to march today because we have to keep going and carry a small cinder of hope to give a blow to when the time comes. Best wishes for whatever life throws you and many thanks for brightening up so many Saturdays.
Thanks Chris for your wonderful work. Go well.
Fantastic piece. Hats off. Your work for the cause shall be forever in our hearts and minds, and in our kitchens! Hamish my constant tea companion..
All the best.
WCB
Sad times indeed. We are fighting on all fronts for so many injustices and the fault lies at the feet of Sturgeon.
Good luck, your cartoons have been amazing
J.O.E @ 9.59
I echo Alf’s praise for that excellent post my friend .
Hope we bump into each other somehow,somewhere,sometime : even if we don’t , keep telling it how it is , no matter how uncomfortable it may be .
Alf Baird @ 10.29am
“The Lamps are going out all over Europe”
Yes J.o.e @ 9.59 just about nails it.
“In the wider picture we have people who think of themselves as liberal being pulled politically towards what can be described as neo-bolshevism (as opposed to fascism) with all the anti-national, anti-human, society destroying twisted inversions of reality that this perverted perspective brings with it. The one problem with realising this is that it collides head-on with decades of immense propaganda efforts that are still pushed to this day, and to put it simply most people simply cannot handle it.”
You’ve written literally hundreds of words in that comment and I don’t have even the slightest idea what your point is.
The idea that Wings, of all places, has missed the Orwellian reframing of reality that isn’t limited to, but is most strikingly illustrated by, the cult of transgenderism, is… mental.
Chris, I think the 2014 YES Campaign was one of the best political Campaigns it felt terrific to be involved with. There were parts of that Campaign which weren’t perfect, and parts which needed improvement, but there were also parts which were truly outstanding and absolutely second to none, and your cartoons are right at the top of that list.
I defy anyone to plunder the planet, and plunder the history books to find better examples of satirical political cartoons which can compare to yours.
You have been a great asset to Scotland’s Independence Campaign, and I hope you find some channel to keep going.
I also agree with everything you say about Rev Stu.
There is only one caveat, and that is the bitter regret that resignation is replacing optimism in the Indy World, right at the time when the fighting is the hardest, and for the first time in decades, I’ve felt the outcome is in the balance.
When the overdue demise of the Sturgeon the Betrayer finally happens and she gets what’s coming to her, how will we hear about it? How will we celebrate and enjoy the justice of her fall from grace if our movement has fractured and the lights have all gone out?
We are putting a tremendous weight on the shoulders of Alex Salmond, and losing presence and market footprint wherever we lose a blog or a notable contributor right at the time we need more blogs opening up, more online media, and more watchtowers being lit.
Our YES army has been betrayed and marched to a standstill by the Feckless One, but it has never been defeated in the field or bettered. If we can’t go forward, we dig in and hold the line. We fix what’s wrong and we boot out the flotsam, and train the new stormtroopers we are surely going to need.
The problem we face with our Women’s Rights and the invasive Transgender Extremism isn’t what it seems. It isn’t point versus counterpoint. It isn’t fairness versus unfairness. It isn’t a conflict of mutual prejudice. It is reason, logic, sense and sanity on one side, under attack by dangerous, predatorial, unreasoned insanity, and an angry mob of stupid people hungry for a lynching. It is the ugly and unseemly spectacle of weak and nasty men trying to assert themselves over women.
There is no future for Sturgeon. She is a charlatan basking in the prestige she’s never earned and which doesn’t properly belong to her, because that prestige is reserved for that special person who gets Scotland to it’s feet and walks out into the warm sunshine of Independence.
To all who drift away home for the harvest or need their hopes rekindled, then go and do what you must. Find your solace, recharge the batteries, but haste ye back, or at least, keep yourself in a state of readiness.
Curse you Nicola Sturgeon. A mighty curse upon you. A curse that you may live forever.
Chris, during Stu’s quiet spells and recent “retirement”, you’ve kept this site going from weekend to weekend, so your calling it a day is a big blow.
I have often thought the wonderful graphic of the candle-snuffing cartoon was a major factor in the reaction to the referendum defeat which produced the huge surge in SNP membership and the 56 seats at Westminster.
@Robert Louis 7.46 and J.o.e. 9.59: excellent comments. While most of us struggle to understand how things could have turned out this way, forces are accelerating us both at home and globally along a very dark path.
‘You’ve written literally hundreds of words in that comment and I don’t have even the slightest idea what your point is.’
You’ll know when you know. Perhaps you never will.
Thanks for showing us how a real journalist does things
What a combination that is (was?).
The hard hitting, no truth barred and hammer hard facts from the Rev, as well as the subtle, discrete razor sharp toons from Chris.
No wonder it worked so well and made us indy minded folk so happy, while at the same time the gender woo woos, brit nats, Nicla cultists et al went from one blind rage to another. 🙂
It’s clear though from this weeks toon that Chris hasn’t given up altogether, the unpacking searchlight is there to let the Rev know that he’s still needed. Leadership is needed.
It’s a dark time at the moment, the enemy is strong but there will come a time in the not too distant future when the stupidity, arrogance and downright fraud finally hits the dawn. Our time WILL come.
Chris, you’ve played a great part in the Indy history, thank you.
… and so another candle is snuffed out.
We are losing World War 3. The battleground is information; their weapons include despair and futility.
Thanks for trying, Chris.
Thanks for all your efforts Chris! I have cut and pasted them to great effect against unionists for years! Alba gu bràth!
Ah me! What a sad start to Saturday.
A big thank you for all those cartoons which I wanted billboarded all over Scotland.
I have never been more depressed for my country than I am now and never angrier either.
Betrayed and dumped with fewer voices shouting in truth and honesty than ever.
When I was young I got a clip round the ear if I said I hated someone – in our house you could hate sago pudding but not a person – now I hate deeply and it is not comfortable.
All I can say is I’m heart broken that it has come to this… Good luck with whatever you do Chris. Saturday mornings will never be the same.
Thank you Chris and thanks again Rev Stu.
Enjoy your latest holiday Chris, and may it be a short one. I hope you find a platform suitable for your talents.
You have been one of the stars of the INdependence battle, but, it aint over yet.
I hope you7 will be back somewhaere, we need your take on matters Indy.
Alas! Alas!
och, a could greet
can’t disagree with any of your sentiments, chris
my daily “go-to” site now abandoned since May election
looking forward to some court cases, is only thing
keeping my interest in scottish politics
thanks nuSNP
Sad to read but thanks and all the best.
What is needed is to put independence first again, internecine struggles can resume afterwards, as in normal sovereign countries.
Chris and Hamish you will be sadly missed….
right click
– save image as …
top toons, always
Chris cairns.
J.o.e.
Alf Baird.
Stu.
Breeks.
Tinto chiel.
Robert Hughes.
A few of us know the bigger picture, some like Stu, write to untangle the deceit, and others like Chris paint the picture well.
I bow to both of you,
Although Hope seems like the lights may have gone out since 2014, But remember this.
“AS LONG AS BUT A HUNDRED OF US REMAIN ALIVE,”
“We live in hope that a second independence referendum will be called and another Yes campaign launched. We just don’t know when.”
Thank you Chris for all your wonderful cartoons, none moreso than the one where John Bull holding all the controls of a stalling jumbo jets (Brexit and the union) screams over to his co-pilot Hamish who only has on lever “Do Something” which summed up Scotland’s position in this union beautifully.
Anyway on your above sentence, I wouldn’t hold my breath on one being held anytime soon, the SNP’s Michelle Thomson, has been quoted in the National newspaper today saying.
That there isn’t going to be a referendum before the 2024 General Election, and there shouldn’t be one, because the hard work hasn’t been done yet.
Anyone can read the quote in this article in today’s National newspaper, I’ve archived the link to it.
link to archive.is
I would never have known that you weren’t a political cartoonist, Chris – you always seemed to identify the issue of the week and then show us what it was truly about.
And Hamish is a brilliant character encompassing what we are. Such a sweetie too!
Chris allowed me to send his cartoons to my local paper. The Ullapool News will never be as on the ball again.
I’m getting a bit weepy writing this. The conniving falsity of all our SNP MSPs [and most of the MPs] who have allowed this state of affairs to come about. We could have been free after the May 2015 election but no – one person is barring the way backed up by the most snivelling, corrupt, incompetent bunch of layabouts who should never ever have been in our pretendy parliament. Nicola Sturgeon and Murrell are evil.
And the person who pointed out this truth, has slaved and suffered for the truth, is referred to as “controversial”. Why should telling the truth be referred to as “controversial”? It is the evil liars who are at fault, not Stuart Campbell.
Grateful thanks to both of you and please god you will both still be working for us out of the limelight.
@Graf Midgehunter – you have no idea how long I took to come up with a pose for Hamish that showed unequivocally that he was putting the cover ON not taking it OFF ?. Ach well, probably just as well I’m packing it in, I suppose.
Thanks again to you – and everyone who has said such nice things here today and over the years. I’m touched.
I’m also going on holiday ?. Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose, as we used to say in Carntyne.
Cheers everybody.
Way, way back in high school there was a story about time capsules. The author was lamenting that instead of putting artifacts with no context and the occasional newspaper they should be filling them with cartoons. Political cartoons should be prized by historians, if they aren’t already, and the amount of truth captured in a single image would fill several books.
Chris your work is amazing. Over the years you’ve captured the hope, joy, despair and sadness of the journey to independence. When we’re finally free, I look forward, in some way, to helping establish a gallery of your work. Perhaps gone but you’ll never be forgotten.
Thanks.
Dorothy Divine.
Likewise in our household.
The stirring of hatred, of bulling in the cancel culture, and the false anger, gender and Transhumanism, would never of happened when we were young, our parents would have gave it a belt around the ear and seen it off,
But they would also been utterly confused and perhaps thought a few people had escaped the asylum.
It is the new weapon of hatred to everything
Thanks Chris. Its been fun.
Thanks Stu, for putting up with him!
Heh heh…
“…the shrubbery of dissent…”
@ Chris: don’t go on holiday just yet. I have cheered myself up by ordering two of your “cuppa” mugs – money very well spent. 🙂
Enjoy your holiday.
It has been a pleasure to watch your work grow over the last 9 years.
Every, well, you know.. not *every*, Saturday, this site was the early morning go to, wondering what your pictorial comment on the week would be.
My Saturday morning are going to be a lot less entertaianing now.
I wish you all the best in whatever your turn your caryons too, and would also like to thank Stu for giving you the platform.
Au revoir et merci mille fois monsieur Hamish, not adieu for the Light of Freedom still burns.
Haste ye back!
Slàinte!
link to quotesgram.com
«The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable»
H.L. Mencken
«The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity – much less dissent»
Gore Vidal
Now we’re all in the clammy grip of corporatism.
Republicofscotland pay no attention to lightweights like Michelle Thomson. Sturgeon would never allow anyone in the party to be in a position to challenge her so whatever comes out of the mouths of the seat warmers can simply be discounted as inane drivel.
There is the slight problem that the lightweights are in charge but they won’t be able to hold onto that position forever. More pressure and failure as a result of Brexit will probably be their undoing as their fecklessness is wreaking havoc with everybody.
I agree with J.o.e’s assessment that things have changed but it started much earlier than covid with globalisation and the internet which enabled a new generation of corporate behemoths to be created. Everybodies’ fate was sealed with the creation of twitter.
Sturgeon’s greatest crime is indecision. That ensured the splitting of the independence movement more than anything. Throw in social media and the internecine conflict was inevitable. A strong leadership and progress would have held everything together. Dithering and delay proved high damaging (but I think not fatal).
So it’s not the end but there needs to be a new beginning. The first step is to recognise that things are way, way different than 2014 and act accordingly.
I know that you’re right to do this – but it doesn’t make it any easier for me to accept it.
The emotional sense of loss in 2014 was almost obliterated by the resilience of Stuart and yourself and your tremendous efforts over the last 7 years. You will know, more than me, just how much suffering Stu has endured simply for telling the truth as he has researched it to be. I am sure that Stu has valued your contribution not simply because it has always raised the spirits of his readers but because it has given him concrete support at times when he has encountered astonishing onslaughts of vulgar injustice from all sides.
I suspect that the greater world problems have impacted on the ease with which our country can gain its independence and it doesn’t take a wizard of the north to work out which path and people Sturgeon has selected to join.
However, Sturgeon is of little use on a larger platform, and will be ousted sooner rather than later. I hope, when the day comes to choose a different leader, then we shall have the best person waiting in the wings to make an entrance onto the larger stage.
We’re in the nursery school stage with Alba but I’m sure that those in charge have a weather eye out for the ideal candidate. Unlike Sturgeon, Mr Salmond looks to get the very best for Scotland regardless of his own situation.
I hope that the new attack on this dictatorship under which we struggle will begin soon and I sincerely hope to meet both you and Stuart when that happens.
You will know how much I thank you both and wish you all the very best. I look forward to being able to buy something produced by both of you. Your cartoons create the perfect tension between subject and artistic craftsmanship and Wings must have multiple books in his box of tricks
Until then.. I shall keep my hope sleeping in the box by the fire
“You must go on.
I can’t go on.
I’ll go on.”
Thank you Chris,Genius.
I shall miss you here X
If anyone does not like you, forget them, I had a little argument with a guy a while back
A so called friend said to me that I was out of order, he said this some time later and he was nowhere near the incident when it happened, so he did not know what he was talking about, this thing lasted seconds
When he said I was out of oder, I said to him in front of everybody, you where out of order when you where having sex with other women while married to your wife, he said, no need for that, but I kept saying it to every one there
That clown was never my friend as I found out that day, he used to tell me about his extra marital activities and I kept my mouth shut until he opened his
All he had to do was not take sides, that’s what a true friend would have done
That clown is no friend of mine, he never was really, just lived beside me and I had to put up with his crap
He had the cheek to take his kids to mass on a sunday, another guy I new did the same thing
I don’t care if anyone does not like me, I have my family, my own values, and I have a sharpe tongue for anyone that takes sides against me over petty little stuff Like arguments that don’t concern them
Very sad at this news. Brilliant work today & always.
The SNP loyals are now preaching, ‘Free by 23’.
Time will tell. Tick Tock SNP. Tick Tock.
Stuart MacKay @ 12:35 pm
“Sturgeon’s greatest crime is indecision. Dithering and delay proved high damaging (but I think not fatal).”
Quite right Stuart. Though delay is intentional – designed to keep liberation a bay. She has now boxed herself into a corner. Most folks have had enough of the ‘mystification’ policies taking us further into colonial lala land.
The SNP ‘regime’ also knows very little about global business or how a sovereign nation (especially with immense resources) can actually use globalization to its advantage. Scotland would be fundamentally different with sovereignty and a government that had some real global industry knowledge, and an allegiance only to Scotland.
e.g. Strategic management in the global container shipping industry
link to ethos.bl.uk
Godspeed you, Holiday Boy. I’ll miss your Saturday scribbles, all the best and take care.
Never used twitter, these things always attract the haters of the world, I am on facebook, I have 5 friends there, my son and 4 others
I don’t post photographs, my profile photo is of me and my older brother when we where under 5 years old
I keep getting asked by facebook about others I may know, I have never come across 99% of them, and as most of them seem to be young women and their selfies I never want to be a friend of theirs on facebook or anywhere else
Vanity is not something I have ever had any time for
Scotland truly is in a very dark place today and it will no doubt get much darker.
Thank you Chris and Stu for all you’ve done though the years.
Chris, huge thanks for your efforts and contributions over the years. We will miss you and Hamish and share the deep sense of loss.
We will, however, never cease to push for an Indy Scotland as we owe it to our bairns.
Aw Chris … I hope your execellent work will find its slot in Scotland’s journey right soon.
Thank You for all that you’ve done.
“Don’t miss too much of what has been
Or fill your heart with deep regret
Tis but the Blog that’s ending here.
The Gem’s who filled it … Sparkel Yet ”
🙂
@ Stu Campbell 10.53 am
“You’ve written literally hundreds of words in that comment and I don’t have even the slightest idea what your point is.
The idea that Wings, of all places, has missed the Orwellian reframing of reality that isn’t limited to, but is most strikingly illustrated by, the cult of transgenderism, is… mental.”
Well quite. Sadly the twilight of WoS, and the fact that many folk are so generally disheartened with the progress of the movement as a whole they have given up and gone off to do other more worthwhile things, has enabled sophistry such as J.o.e’s.
Even worse, it has emboldened a kind of sub-Trumpian discourse. This falsely attempts to paint the struggle as one which pits socially conservative concepts such as protecting the family, nativist nationalism, opposition to “non-European” particularly muslim immigration, hostility towards globalism and an absolute assurance that the global finance/big business/the illuminati are a clear and present danger to our liberties against “civic” nationalism, internationalism, global co-operation etc.
The 2012-14 Big Tent has blown over: perhaps that was inevitable. When the big push to deliver in 2014 failed, perhaps we were naive to think the same broad church approach would automatically apply again? Ideological lines have now been drawn around different parts of the pro-independence movement. Having the same ultimate aim is one thing, but delivering independence from the base of several different mutually antagonistic smaller tents might be more of a challenge, particularly via the referendum rather than plebiscitary election route.
I find myself finding little common cause (other than the ultimate aim of independence) with those pushing the “Scotland as colony” narrative, or those seeking to limit the franchise and/or exclude non-natives from the Scottish “demos”, even if I may fully agree with them on other matters like GRA/self-ID and the pushing of the TRA agenda.
I can’t have been the only one (Alba member or general voter) to wince when Gareth Wardell used the term “indigenous people of Scotland”, whether he was doing so satirically or not. I wondered what Tasmina Ahmed Sheik who was I think sitting on the platform thought about the use of the term?
Being described as a “neo-bolshevist” by someone as intellectually vapid as J.o.e is somewhat startling of course, but when the alternative is the kind of Scottish nationalism that has more in common with the kind of people who stormed the White House on 6th January, I know which one I’d prefer.
Yes bikers currently coming up the Royal Mile. It is quite spectacular & noisey!
They are not making much progress due to hold up at St Mary St no doubt due to roadworks & road closures.
This does really feel like the end. With Chris keeping his slot ticking over there was a hope that business as usual might come back sometime.
Sturgeon and her acolytes have put paid to any chance of that though. And they are now taking control of artistic and cultural tone as well, influencing people’s ability to work.
Unfortunately, the worst-case scenarios envisaged a while back on here are now being played out and those in charge of Scotland are not doing a damned thing to sort it. Meanwhile, they have assumed ownership of the Indy cause and use every new catastrophic event to say ‘not now’ and not just that, they want to control how Indy will be achieved.
I will never forgive Sturgeon for what she has done.
Good Luck Chris in your future endeavours and thank you for moments of humourous distraction, deeper points to reflect on and draughtsmanship to admire in awe at.
It’s been a blast and I’m glad I have some of your work for posterity.
How many more artists in Scotland will give up?
This is not just an issue for independence supporters this is something anyone interested in the arts should take very seriously.
What kind of crap art could you produce if you were trying to please everyone.
PS. I consider Stu to be an artist & ‘Wings Over Scotland’ to be a work of art.
Perhaps artists in Scotland will need to follow in Banksy’s footsteps & remain totally anonymous.
Chris’s work is too distinctive so he would probably be rumbled very quickly if he decided to do a Banksy. ‘Wingsy’ on the other hand might be able to go underground although using the name ‘Wingsy’ might be a give away.
Any suggestions what ‘Underground Wingsy’ should be called? 🙂
Chris your cartoons, even with poor Hamish’s chronically broken tail have been a bright spark. You have the gift for it and the talent as well.
Whatever you find to do the very best of luck and please keep us remaining followers abreast of it so we may partake too. Till then it comes to every crusader the time to hang up the cape and as The Incredibles reminded us, capes are a bad idea anyway.
ANDY ELLIS.
Check out this wiki page on «sphere of influence» and then decide whether Scotland is a colony of its neighbour.
link to en.m.wikipedia.org
Scotland is actually a rather good example of the type even in the centuries before the creation of the British state. The promotion of the often one sided benefits of globalism has brought many countries into that subordinating, quasi colonial connexion with spheres of influence.
Andy Ellis says:
I can’t have been the only one (Alba member or general voter) to wince when Gareth Wardell used the term “indigenous people of Scotland”, whether he was doing so satirically or not. I wondered what Tasmina Ahmed Sheik who was I think sitting on the platform thought about the use of the term?
Reply
Can you explain to me why people would wince at the term “indigenous people of Scotland” and not at the term “indigenous people of Australia, Canada etc”?
If that term makes you wince then how do you feel about someone living in Scotland referring to themselves as ‘Asian’ or even ‘Muslim’? I don’t know enough about Tasmina to know what she might think however I do know there are people who call themselves ‘Scottish Asians’ and some who call themselves ‘Muslims’
Why is ‘indigenous Scottish’ bad but ‘Scottish Asian’ or ‘Muslim’ OK?
Thank you in advance for your explanation.
“Sturgeon’s greatest crime is indecision.”
Stuart Mackay.
In my opinion Sturgeon is anything but indecisive, she wasn’t indecisive on allowing the HCB, nor is she indecisive on the GRA or making Scotland the first country in the world to embed LGBQTI+ ad finitum teachings in our schools.
Nor might I say was Sturgeon indecisive on trying to destroy Alex Salmond, or the imprisoning of Craig Murray, nor was she indecisive when she screamed with delight when the Alba party won no MSP seats (they’re dead, they’re dead).
Nor was she indecisive when she instructed the previous LA to pursue with vigour independence minded bloggers or AUOB organisers, Sturgeon is many things but indecisive in my opinion isn’t one of them.
Thanks Chris for all your hard work. Your cartoons have been fantastic, I wish you well.
Looks like there’s a good turn out for the AUOB march in Edinburgh, despite the SNP/Labour ran council and Police Scotland doing their utmost to diminish it.
No doubt our colonial police force will say that a far smaller number attended than actually did, as they normally do.
link to twitter.com
Quite a few YESBIKERS out for today’s march in Edinburgh.
link to twitter.com
@Republicofscotland – I notice the COPFS has this morning announced that there will be a Police investigation into the deaths linked to contaminated water at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
This comes 12-hours or so after a girl’s mother announced via her lawyer that she thought that her child had been murdered and that there had been a cover-up at the Health Board.
The Inquiry was brought about not by Holyrood, but by the Union UNISON, who demanded it.
Therefore there is hope. The flame of Scottish justice went out long ago, but if a girl’s mother and a Union can together pull off a result like this then there is hope.
Stu and Chris
I’m heartbroken and lost for words. All I can think of saying is this:
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Poster on wall says ‘Buy Great British any old crap’
I have just bought a 2nd hand very old ‘Great British’ vacuum cleaner. It has a big smile & big pair of googly eyes & I have to say it’s the best vacuum I’ve ever had beats the fuckin’ Dyson by a mile.
It is made in Somerset so that could explain it’s non crapness.
Henry & Stu two good things to be found in Somerset.
Numatic should consider saying ‘Made in Somerset’ instead of ‘Made in the UK’.
What do the producers of cider do?
RepublicofScotland , thanks for that – fair cheered me up!
@ Gregory Beekman at 3.36
Hear, hear.
Captain Yossarian @3.33pm.
That Story has absolutely nothing to do with Scottish independence, negligence or human error happens in hospitals all over the UK.
What passes for a Scottish media (its all foreign controlled) has from day one attacked any hospital that has been opened by the SNP or delayed in being opened and any mistake or error by hospital staff in Scotland (and believe men it happens all over the world) is picked up by the Britnat media and used as a big stick to attack the SNP, this has been going on from 2007.
I’ve no doubt that mistakes were made as they are in other hospitals, though coverage by the Britnat media in Scotland of them is is totally political in nature.
Dorothy, you are welcome.
Republicofscotland says:
link to twitter.com
Reply
A lot of supporters of trans rights!?
Thank you Chris for all you have done for the cause. Wishing you all the best for whatever you decide to do in the future.
RoS – It wasn’t the media, it was the girl’s mother and UNISON.
Gregory Beekman says:
25 September, 2021 at 3:36 pm
Stu and Chris
I’m heartbroken and lost for words. All I can think of saying is this:
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Reply
Swedish Fish?
Stu doesn’t do fish just sweeties. 🙂
“– It wasn’t the media, it was the girl’s mother and UNISON.”
Captain Yossarian.
That’s fair enough, however anyone who lives in Scotland and keeps an eye on the news and is pro-indy will know what I mean, its not just confined to hospitals even the new Queensferry Crossing has been weaponised by the Britnat media in Scotland.
Stuart MacKay says:
25 September, 2021 at 12:35 pm
So it’s not the end but there needs to be a new beginning. The first step is to recognise that things are way, way different than 2014 and act accordingly.
Things are different, but the same.
The threshold for Scottish Independence is International Recognition that Scotland is a sovereign Nation, but the First Nation which needs to recognise that reality is Scotland herself. Sadly, year after year, it seems nobody will stare into the pool.
Sovereignty is the bottom line. It was the bottom line in 2014, and it’s been the bottom line for 314 years.
Independence was seized / stolen / usurped when Scotland’s Sovereignty was entrapped in a colonial fiction – The Treaty of Union. Independence will only be resurrected once that colonial fiction is debunked and the ascendancy of Scottish Sovereignty is restored to its rightful ascendency, and that ascendency is duly recognised.
Referendums and democracy are distractions which do not fundamentally alter the colonial injustice which bedevils Scotland. Can anybody tell me what is the purpose of a vote on Sovereignty when you’re already sovereign?
It’s not a vote that Scotland needs. A proper Constitutional Education should suffice.
Sovereignty is an absolute and binary condition. We are, or we are not a Nation. The Law of Scotland says we are. It is only the fiction and sophistry of the 1707 Union and it’s myriad of unwritten “conventions” which asserts otherwise.
I know Carpe Diem is Latin for seize the day. It’s not the day we need to grasp, but the concept. We need to grasp the farcical reality that Scotland is imprisoned by a fallacy. The door to our prison cell has never been locked. We are free to leave whenever we choose. Grasp that reality, and then we’ll be making progress.
Well I’m just back, the organisers said about 5,000 which looked about right. Never seen so many SWP stalls before.
George Kerevan and the bikers cheered everyone up, Douglas Chapman, not so much.
Ruby @3.53pm.
Yes, trans rights and climate change, surely they knew this was an indy march today is about marching for indy there’s been and will be plenty more marches for trans rights and climate change.
The two apron wavers were surrounded by six peelers, though they were hardly in danger, unless cheerful derision can kill.
Cheerful derision is no doubt a notifiable offence by now.
It looks like the Lancet, a prestigious medical journal has kowtowed to the woke agenda, as it will refer to women and girls as Bodies with Vaginas.
link to rt.com
Breeks.
Thumbs up to you’re comment,
As I have been saying for the last year or so.
Recognition of a sovereignty does not come in a begging bowl called a pre- arranged colonism referendum,
Sovereignty, It comes from us, and we will never be recognised anywhere as owning It while we beg for,
Actions speak louder than words, no matter whom acts.
So by default, a man wether transgender or not, if he has a penis,
He is a body with a penis, right?
I know what you mean by divided movement. Just back from the Auob Edinburgh rally. Estimated 5000 marchers claimed by organisers but I did not see a single SNP badge or banner.
Republicofscotland says:
25 September, 2021 at 4:11 pm
Ruby @3.53pm.
Yes, trans rights and climate change, surely they knew this was an indy march today is about marching for indy there’s been and will be plenty more marches for trans rights and climate change.
Reply
Did Colin Fox arrange for the ‘trans-right’ brigade to hi-jack the independence march?
@Ottomanboi 3.08 pm
“Check out this wiki page on «sphere of influence» and then decide whether Scotland is a colony of its neighbour.”
The disparity in size, or perhaps more exactly in power/influence, between England and Scotland doesn’t necessarily support the argument that Scotland stands in a colonial relationship with England though. For almost 1000 years the Scots maintained their independence against a vastly more populous and powerful neighbour. Through much of that period they maintained an alliance with France on the principle that the enemy of your enemy is your friend.
There may be aspects of our relationship which are quasi-colonial, but there aren’t many (any?) other precedents for a country doing what Scotland did in 1704 after a centuries of independence, and becoming part of an imperial and colonial project itself. I’m still not buying the equivalence of Scotland with “real” colonies, or the assertion that the current situation is one of colonialism. I’m not alone in that, however much it may pain Alf Baird and others who agree with him.
We can have semantic arguments about it until the cows come home, but the plain fact is the UN and international community don’t accept the situation as being one of de-colonisation, nor does the international community.
Of course people are free to argue that we should try and change that view, and perhaps it would make achieving independence easier. Some of the supporters of the “Scotland as colony” narrative presumably think that if the UN declared our situation as being one of colonial occupation, it will act as some deus ex machina which will if not drop independence in our laps, at least make it easier/faster to attain.
I have my doubts. The colonial argument appears to me to take agency away from the Scottish demos: it plays in to the hands of those who assert that it isn’t our fault that we haven’t achieved independence yet, it’s the fault of “the others” who have oppressed / tricked / swindled us.
According to that narrative, it’s not because we lack the political or moral courage or because we can’t make a good enough case that independence is a better option than staying in the union: the issue is out of our control in much the same way it was outwith the control of African and Asian colonies of European empires to become independent. I don’t buy that reasoning at all.
Republicofscotland says:
25 September, 2021 at 4:18 pm
It looks like the Lancet, a prestigious medical journal has kowtowed to the woke agenda, as it will refer to women and girls as Bodies with Vaginas.
link to rt.com
Reply
They should just call us ‘fannies’ it would be simpler and no more insulting.
It’s all surreal. Makes me feel like a Magritte painting.
link to tinyurl.com
Goodbye and thanks, Chris.
What does it all mean? A milestone? Representing what on the road to where?
Who knows?
2014 is well and truly behind us now. That spirit of cosmopolitanism and inclusion, civic nationalism, left-leaning liberalism, it’s all dead in the water.
I think we need to get behind those we called ‘blood and soil’ nationalists or shut up and leave them to it.
These are angry and uncertain times. Maybe they call for angry and uncertain men.
I’m officially describing myself as a nationalist, for the first time in my life.
Lay on Macduff…
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Ruby@4:42pm
That seems to have been the Socialist Workers Party (of England)) who had quite a big presence. Colin Fox is from the completely separate Scottish Socialist Party.
ANDY ELLIS
I do see where you are coming from, however, I do not agree with your argument. Recognizing the signs of «colonialism» does not automatically absolve or pass the buck, although for some it may. It could be a cold shower of realisation of the truth of the relationship with the other in all its negative and positive characteristics.
My family’s background has been steeped in the «colonial» in its very widest sense. Ottomans, British, French and the rest. We were required to acknowledge our place but nevertheless, playing the system, did manage to prosper, as individuals or families, but not as an ethno-cultural «entity». Being «ourselves» was a private matter, even although my great grandparents all spoke French, for its snob value, than Syriac or Arabic.
I sense a parallel with the Scottish situation. No situation ticks all the boxes but I reason that in this case quite a few have been ticked.
What is the male equivalent of ‘a person with a vagina?’
A person with a penis?
Are we going to have a lot of changes to the language in the same way as when we had to say ‘plough-person’s lunch’ and all that stuff?
Scotspersonwithapenis
Manhole?
Personwithapenishole
Person with a penis is going to have to be shortened.
Fannies for persons with vaginas.
Sorry guys but it’s got to be
Dicks. Or perhaps you have a better suggestion.
‘Dickhole’ sounds a bit sweary but it’s a lot less cumbersome than ‘Personwithapenishole’
Policeman = Policedick
Policewoman = Policefanny
A well know newspaper will be renamed ‘Scotsdick’
Does the above sound like total nonsense?
Is it any more nonsensical than what we here from the trans brigade & The Lancet?
@Ruby 3.10 pm
Q1: “Can you explain to me why people would wince at the term “indigenous people of Scotland” and not at the term “indigenous people of Australia, Canada etc”?”
A1: Because in context, it speaks to separating the sheep from the goats. Gareth Wardell may have been being mischievous or speaking satirically as Jason McCann (jeggit) has suggested in his most recent blog, but he is also from what I can see a supporter of the “Scotland as colony” narrative being propounded by Alf Baird and others.
What does “indigenous Scot” mean to those who use it and – perhaps more importantly – to those it is directed at? Does it include only those born in Scotland, or does it extend to those who have moved here? Is my English born wife indigenous now she lives here? If not, why not and how long will it take to “become” indigenous if that’s even possible? How about my Sunderland born grandmother who moved to Scotland in 1918 and lived here until she died, having brought up 3 sons?
If you can’t see why the term might make some people wince, I’m not sure what to say to you. It definitely struck me as soon as I heard it, then I wondered what it meant and how it might be received by others. Doubtless many will feel its innocuous or not loaded with any other meaning or connotation, but I’m not so sure.
As for your comparison with “indigenous” Canadians or Australians, that might not be the best comparator given the presence of First Nations in both countries, but even if you’re going to make it a comparison with “indigenous [any other independent nation state] people, we come back to the distinction discussed in previous threads between the “ethnos” and the “demos”. Who gets to be included in any decision of whether a people can exercise their self determination? If you take a view that the applicable people are only the “ethnos” i.e. those born in Scotland, rather than the “demos” i.e. those living in Scotland, then you just abandoned civic nationalism for something rather different.
Q2: “If that term makes you wince then how do you feel about someone living in Scotland referring to themselves as ‘Asian’ or even ‘Muslim’? I don’t know enough about Tasmina to know what she might think however I do know there are people who call themselves ‘Scottish Asians’ and some who call themselves ‘Muslims’
Why is ‘indigenous Scottish’ bad but ‘Scottish Asian’ or ‘Muslim’ OK?
Thank you in advance for your explanation.”
A2: I’m entirely relaxed about how they label themselves, whether Asian, Muslim, Buddhist, Madalorian or devotee of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I’m not saying that the term “indigenous Scottish” is bad and that other terms are good. It depends on the context and the uses to which the terms are put surely?
I’m an indigenous Scot. I want to share an independent Scotland with all Scots, whether indigenous or not. I don’t care where they come from, or how they self identify. I still cleave to the notion of civic, inclusive nationalism, and that those who have done us the compliment of choosing to move here, to live among us and to contribute to our society, have just as much right to be considered Scots as those who were born here as a result of geographical accident or parentage.
An independent Scotland established on a foundation of ethnic nationalism or on the basis of excluding a proportion of residents for “not being Scottish enough” isn’t the kind of Scotland I want to see. Perhaps I’m in the minority, perhaps not. Time will tell.
All the best Chris
Sat at traffic lights in Parkhouse next to a driveway with a man-shed on it. There’s a Saltire flying on its roof, emblazoned with the words “Scotland the Brave”.
Don’t know if it was seeing the flag, reading this article this morning, “Windmills of Your Mind” playing on the radio at that moment, or a combination of all three, but the traffic lights got a bit blurry of a sudden…
I think Renton was right; it truly is “shite…”
Cringe says:
25 September, 2021 at 5:11 pm
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Ruby@4:42pm
That seems to have been the Socialist Workers Party (of England)) who had quite a big presence. Colin Fox is from the completely separate Scottish Socialist Party.
Reply
That is weird.
Perhaps it’s ‘AUOB’ that is causing confusion.
People from all over the globe think it means it’s a march for everyone and their granny (oops sorry I mean person with a vagina)
Well a sad day indeed Chris Cairns your humour will be missed , This after Stu going into semi retirement just about sums up the General mood , so many people desperate to get something done and a leadership so fkn useless it’s hard to believe they are still in office .
As soon as she was made First Minister again that was it , job done game over she fooled everyone she’s even fooled the English people they really believe she has Independence on her mind daily and that’s what she’s working for .
The fact the SNP have still to start a workable plan to present to the electorate gives the whole game away and the sweeteners given to that bunch of weirdos the greens in order to secure a majority haven’t been revealed yet ,
Oh this Sturgeon character has plans alright, firstly distance herself from the electorate that was the no go Zone around Holyrood, nothing to do with me Guv , AUOB getting fk about with previously Well managed routes , again nothing to do with me guv ,every prominent Indy supporters being made a person of interest to the police , almost getting Alex Salmond jailed and wasting millions in the process the list goes on and she is a the centre of it all and she makes sure it’s nothing to do with Princess Nicola the smell surrounding her is sickening .
She must be the English establishments greatest achievement ever , just like when Thatcher said when asked what was her most memorable moment , making sure Blair was elected her greatest ever achievement was Tony fkn Blair .
Aye you managed to con everyone Princess Nicola you have to hand it to the English establishment they have been playing this game their whole lives and their grandparents before them we are just trusting Jocks but I bet you surprised even the most sceptical among us .
The next part would be full of expletives and bad language so I guess you get the gist of it
I’m not a Nationalist and I read the Telegraph. Their cartoonist is called “Matt” and he is a vapid pup in comparison with Chris Cairns. He’s been there for years and years. His cartoons aren’t well drawn and they aren’t even funny and so all of us have been fortunate to have been in the presence of a master of his trade.
Chris
Who would have guessed in 2014
That by 2021
Thanks to the SNP
Scottish women would have to go into the street to argue their case for being women
And risk being reported for hate crimes by doing so
link to twitter.com
You put in a ‘hard’ shift against such dark forces , my man
Many thanks and enjoy your future
Breeks at 1054am,
I must say, as is very often the case, I agree with every word. I do hope the demise of the Sturgeon waste of space will be soon. She cannot go soon enough. Utter, utter betrayal of the independence movement and Scotland.
I especially agree with your final lines. I think many feel the same.
Let us hope, not too long from now, Hamish will return, to dust off that cover, and once more turn on the ‘wings’ signal. We can only hope that Rev Stuart Campbell is still willing to answer it. I keep hope in the knowledge, based upon experience, that politics is a fickly thing. Sturgeon and her gang of loser might bwe gone sooner than any of us expect. The same for Tory thug-in-chief, Alexander Boris De Pfeffle Johnson.
First let me thank Chris and Stu for their unwavering and unstinting support for independence for their country they have went beyond what anyone could have expected of them
But as Breeks says what are we going to do when it all kicks off , WHO is going to report it , WHO is going to create a cartoon about it that will rally the troops and give them HOPE and CHEER, is this what defeat looks like, has Sturgeon won THE WAR are we all going back in our boxes
Are we going to throw our womenfolk and kids under the bus are we going to let the perverts and deviants rule the roost or are we going to continue the fight ,
Stuart Campbell was one of the first people to highlight the perversion of the GRA and HCB and SUFFERED GREATLY in lots of ways for doing so , BUT there are hundreds of thousands of people not just women who will be eternally grateful that he enlightened and educated them to the horrors to come
If not for his and a few others resilience and determination to expose this lunacy Sturgeon would already have it done
The same with his betrayer post where he publicly EXPOSED STURGEON for the ("Tractor" - Ed) that she is NO ONE ELSE HAD THE BALLS to do it then , only now people are wakening up and freely commenting , also the RINGFENCED £600,000 how many other bloggers BROKE that story then , only now are they speaking about it publicly and openly
Also the fake membership numbers , HIS exposures FORCED people to pay attention and realise that they were being fooled , the only people in the SNP and PayPal Paul’s now are the hoodwinked and deluded , how long can they last
Stuart I know that you and Chris are tired and feel that what’s the use she appears to be winning and repeating the same thing endlessly like PayPal pauls bad tory mantra is frustrating , BUT WE NEED HOPE and sorry you both are an enormous part of that hope so unfortunately you don’t get to retire SCOTLAND and us REAL SCOTS need you for the continuing fight and the continuing exposures and satire
This has come as a shock to me Chris!
However thank you for all your wonderful cartoons and for oor Hamish. I hope you enjoy a break. Hopefully you’ll think that we Scots are worth it and come back in the future. I just can’t imagine NO Wings and NO Chris and Hamish. After struggling for 57 years now for ScotIndy I understand how the BritNats can grind you down.
Saw a mnemonic earlier for the GREENS
Gender
Reassignment
Eclipses
Environment
Now
Superb – can I use this – I would like to see this on the side of every bus and on the other side the pensions in France and Germany against the UK.
No one is against rights for any group trans etc but they cannot take away the rights of women to safe spaces in hostel, prisons or anywhere else.
So very sorry to see you go Chris – enjoy your books of cartoons still
Saturdays kept some of us sane and showed us we were not alone –
we will regroup again – so long as there is one hundred!!!
Breeks,
I agree that the backdrop and, if you like, the “philosophical foundations” of independence are unchanged. From what we’ve witnessed of the failure of the political process, they are all the stronger as a result.
When I say I think things have changed then it’s more in the day to day narrative for independence. Empty shelves, queues (rationing can’t be far away – that will no doubt please the fans of the Spirit of the Blitz), thousands dead from neglect – whether the killer was covid or heroin, etc. All because of a lack of leadership and a government who couldn’t navigate their way out of a revolving door. It’s just a pity it was the SNP that did it and not the Unionists.
A new beginning could be the drive to do things better. That could be the approach that could sweep out the troughers, the hapless and the hopeless. It would neatly sidestep the internecine conflict and to a certain extent pull the rug from under the glacialists – what are we waiting for? more decay? more job losses? more death?
So I think we’re starting to see the dawn. There’s a decent amount to work with and the great awakening in the SNP membership is not that far away.
Bye, Chris. Your cartoons always enlightened my Saturday mornings. I’m not a regular poster, but a daily reader, and I always found your insight to be forensic and pointed. All the best wishes for whatever future you aspire towards. Take care and don’t be afraid of upsetting people.
Andy Ellis says:
Where to start with all these questions?
I’ll probably just do one at a time over the next however long Wings stays online.
Jeggit? Are people still reading Jeggit?
“Is my English born wife indigenous now she lives here?”
Probably not but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have the same rights as someone born here in the colony provided she has been here long enough to qualify for a vote.
@Ottomaboi 5.26 pm
I’d say the Scottish situation has a lot more in common with some of the (non German or Magyar) parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire pre WW2, or perhaps even some non-Turkish ethnicities in the Ottoman Empire. The reason “Ottomanism” failed, or that plans to confederalise the Hapsburg dominions failed was a combination of the unwillingness of the “rulers” to move quickly enough to avert the break up of their multi national and multi ethnic states, but also the triumph of nationalism that had been brewing for more than a century.
It’s interesting to read some of the history of the period either side of WW1 and see how Czechs, Poles, Ukrainians, Slovenes, Croats, Romanians, Italians and others who had positions in the Autro-Hungarian establishment reacted to the break up of the empire, and how non-Turkish subjects of the Ottomans – whether Muslim or not – viewed the prospect of a post Ottoman future.
I imagine most of the people in those situations 100 years ago, as well as those struggling to free themselves from colonial rule in Africa and Asia post WW2, would look pretty scornfully on the inability and unwillingness of Scots to get enough people to put a cross in a box.
@Ruby 6.32 pm
I’m not sure about jeggit: he appears to have fouled his own nest in recent weeks with his attacks on Marion Millar and his attempts to be all things to all men. I’ve no time for him myself, but doubtless he still has his adherents. It was more a matter of it coming up in google searches WRT to Gareth Wardell’s choice of wording.
How long is long enough in your opinion then?
Also, why should there be a qualifying period now when there wasn’t one in 2014 and hasn’t been one in the vast majority of other independence referendums?
I’m genuinely interested, because like Stu Campbell when this matter was first raised a few months ago, I’m not convinced that any of the arguments for moving the goalposts now are either necessary or indeed morally justifiable.
All the very best.
God, it’s like living in a nightmare. First we lost indyref, then we were taken out of the EU, then Covid; and now we’re facing a winter of discontent. Mark my words, there will be a considerable chunk of the population who won’t be able to heat OR eat in the coming months. Meanwhile, Sturgeon will continue to concentrate on unpopular and divisive policies like GRA reform – fiddling while Rome burns.
Best wishes for the future Chris.
I haven’t seen this before and by the way it’s Off Topic apologies.
Tory MP Christopher Chope wrote to the English Secretary of State for health in July asking for details on people being injured and dying shortly after receiving the wonder serum because he said this Vaccine program has caused more harm than any other Vaccine program in history ,
I saw on another American website and they believe this Chemical has caused more deaths and injuries than every vaccine combined there has never been so much harm done by one chemical before .
Swine Flu Vaccine was withdrawn after 20 or so deaths this serum is killing hundreds and perhaps thousands but the government and the media are saying nothing and people who have taken the wonder serum are in denial they can’t believe the government would Lie to them they haven’t seen anything to make them doubtful ,
Eh who’s controlling the media ? Oh it’s the ones who are pushing the Jab and who are totally exempt from damages and any harm including deaths until 2025 that’s right kick in before 2025 and yer on yer own no insurance no help state benefit if you can prove cause and effect .
And this is not number one on everyone’s list of topics ! .last week people on here were talking about beavers yep a real pressing problem beavers , FFS .wakey Wakey.
Turns out Chris is as good a writer as he is a cartoonist. This is very sad news. Many of us feel exactly the way you do but we live in hope we will yet get the chance to fight again in another referendum. So I’m putting you on notice Chris, this is downtime but be ready for the call.
many many thanks Chris –
souvenir mugs now purchased before the rush
Andy Ellis says:
25 September, 2021 at 6:41 pm
@Ruby 6.32 pm
I’m not sure about jeggit: he appears to have fouled his own nest in recent weeks with his attacks on Marion Millar and his attempts to be all things to all men. I’ve no time for him myself, but doubtless he still has his adherents. It was more a matter of it coming up in google searches WRT to Gareth Wardell’s choice of wording.
How long is long enough in your opinion then?
Also, why should there be a qualifying period now when there wasn’t one in 2014 and hasn’t been one in the vast majority of other independence referendums?
I’m genuinely interested, because like Stu Campbell when this matter was first raised a few months ago, I’m not convinced that any of the arguments for moving the goalposts now are either necessary or indeed morally justifiable.
Reply
Perhaps the 2014 referendum should be considered a ‘rehearsal’ for the real thing. A time when you pick up on mistakes.
Rather than asking how long is long enough perhaps the question should be if the person is a temporary or permanent resident.
People here on holiday & students not normally resident in Scotland would be considered temporary. People here on a visa also temporary.
Permanent would be people living full time in Scotland.
Robert graham says
And this is not number one on everyone’s list of topics ! .last week people on here were talking about beavers yep a real pressing problem beavers
Reply
The discussion about beavers lasted about an hour perhaps less.
The discussion about Covid (if you can even call it a discussion) just goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on
If you want Covid to be the number one list of topics can I suggest you either open a Covid blog or ask Stu to open a thread for you where the topic is Covid.
ANDY ELLIS.
All it takes is willpower to put an X in the box.
If only it were so simple.
Re Ottomanism, minorities, if they «conformed» did well, even the Armenians. The rise of European style nationalism among the Turkish elements, e.g. Atatürk from Kavala in Greek Thessaly, destroyed the cosmopolitanism of the old régime. The Young Turks had no time for the «inclusive» old order.
I share with you a distaste for «exclusive national identity».
Scottish nationalism has much to ingest. There is enough material to learn from.
I have personally looked forward to Saturday morning for all these years. I have loved your work so much and I can only thank you and the Rev for it. I wish I knew which one was your favourite – would you consider divulging? Do you sell the originals? Thank you again so much – so talented.
How would you feel about the term ‘Scots Scot’?
Now that I am just a ‘fanny’ I’m keen to have another identity.
Saying I’m Scottish (apart from it being shite) it doesn’t mean anything.
Thank you Chris. You have been amazing.
Like Breeks said maybe for some of us it’s time to wander off after the harvest/take some time out. I can totally understand. Plus only the naive can believe sturgeon is after a referendum. Best bet is 2026 being a plebiscite. As Angus MacNeil said it will be the election for slow learners.
Until then lots to happen. It’s going to be tough but make no mistake. The snp are in trouble. Losing their best activists. And if they don’t change course over GRA and hate crime they’re doomed. Personally the best option is they get rid of the sponging pseudo unionists in their ranks, get back on track and form a working relationship with Alba and ditch the one they’ve got with the greens – and no, I don’t mean a coalition.
Meantime things to do – get behind business for Scotland, the anti self ID/women’s movement or Alba. There’s lots to be done.
However stu was right. Nicola would have to go and the gender ideology claptrap would have to be binned before Indy. So look on it as a temporary skirmish to see off a rear guard attack.
Personally I remain optimistic. The darkest hour is just before the dawn.
Andy Ellis @ 4:50 pm
“the plain fact is the UN and international community don’t accept the situation as being one of de-colonisation, nor does the international community.”
I suppose you have some evidence for that claim, Andy?
The ‘plain act is’ Scotland and the Scots fit the colonialism thesis like a well worn glove, a 300+ year old glove in fact; and why else would ‘a people’ seek independence other than to decolonise:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Well I am sorry to see you go Chris and I did look forward to Saturday mornings and your latest offering-though I confess a few of them had me stumped, they were always imaginative and artistic.
Am sure the analysts at GCHQ and the paid MI5 trolls will also be sorry to see you go- I have noticed there as not half as many about as when this site was the cutting edge of Independence theory.
Times change and new ideas gain traction, Independence is not gone it just has to go round a bit for a few more years before its back on course.
Chris, a huge thank you for all the wonderful cartoons, the banter and making my Saturday mornings a bit brighter. I have tears while writing; every word spoke to the mess we’re in. I will miss you and Stuart very much.
this is very sad,
understandable but still very sad.
i am saddened.
fuck the cult of nikola
Was at the march in Edinburgh today,
good day to reignite the independence passion,
some decent speakers , the ISP lassie was very good and the guy before talking about infiltration and Great Brutish dirty tricks was good,
the SNP person was as inspiring as a cold slab of porridge , basically , `hud oan wait dinnae rock the boat soft no`s it`s commin dinnae fret we`ll no be taken out of Europe but it
So many topics we’ve covered over the years here, but we never really scratched the surface, and we still wouldn’t, even if this place continued for another decade.
It’s not that we’re too wee, or too daft, to consider big ideas. But some subjects are simply taboo, and that’s that.
‘What subjects?!’ came the cry…
That’s the whole fuckin point – they’re taboo. They’re prohibited.
Remember the George Carlin clip we’ve seen here many times, from one of his final shows, where he went off on that magnificent rant about ‘the real owners’? Remember that one? if you haven’t seen it, it’s right here:
link to youtube.com
Who are the ‘real owners’? You can’t say. It’s taboo. well, you can go ahead and try – then watch your career go down the fuckin pan.
‘It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.’
That’s right. we’re not in it. And the top 1% aren’t in it. It’s a toty % of that 1% who call the shots, and that’s who Nicola Sturgeon’s in thrall to, by accident or design.
The utter madness of the situation we’ve been in for years can be crystallised at any time you like, day or night, in company or alone, by simply considering the fact that Tony Fucking Blair is not in jail. He’s actually doing rather well, thank you, and is currently urging us to get jagged.
And that’s why we have every right to be suspicious of the whole ‘covid’ narrative – even if the ‘science’ is set aside entirely – because the people punting it are profoundly dodgy. We have the right to say, ‘hang on a minute, I’ve seen this script before.’
And that’s the club Nicola wants to be part of, perhaps because she now realises that there’s nowhere else for her to go. She won’t be a Scottish ‘hero’, ever. She’s blown that. But she can become an Untouchable, just like Blair, the Bushes, Clintons, Gates etc.
But first, like Blair, she has to pay ‘the blood price’.
This ‘bug’ is her chance. It’s all or bust.
Applause for Cairns, applause for Campbell. I rise above the purity spiral, I rise above the culture war, I rise above the “you’re a bigot, no you’re a bigot” – why? Because I hate the UK 🙂 (or put in another way, I’ll not get distracted from my determination to see my country become a “normal country” as Chris appropriately puts it) We’ll need you guys in the future. Don’t wander off too far!
Was at the march in Edinburgh today,
good day to reignite the independence passion,
some decent speakers , the ISP lassie was very good and the guy before talking about infiltration and Great Brutish dirty tricks was good,
the SNP person was as inspiring as a cold slab of porridge , basically , `hud oan wait dinnae rock the boat soft no`s it`s commin dinnae fret we`ll no be taken out of Europe but it`s commin yeh it`s commin just you wait gees another 10 years blah blah fricken blah,
good to hear She/Her getting booed by everyone there was even some transcult booing She/Her.
Alf you are wasting your time on the Andy Pandy ellis blog asking questions of a condescending , self aggrandising ,supercilious faux independence supporter who knows the opinions of and speaks for the majority of people and the UN
Andy Pandy is jealous of WOS,its readership numbers its popularity and its fight for indy and is doing everything he can to divide people ,his numerous statements that he will actively work against independence if his criteria is opposed indicates he is a fair weather FAKE independence supporter
Andy Pandy knows SCOTS voted 53% for indy and incomers voted 72% AGAINST indy and still he uses the same trope of ye canny convince enough SCOTS to vote for indy , the SAME shite the unionists post to undermine people
Sad news Chris, your contribution to wings has been invaluable, many thanks.
The divisiveness you write of comes from only one source and that is Nicola Sturgeon and her cringing spineless SNP MPs/MSPs. It is beyond me that anyone who desires independence still supports her. I could never have imagined that this country would become the undemocratic land it has become where justice and freedom of speech has been trampled in the mud where the entire establishment aids Sturgeon`s regime by its silence.
But i do believe in the power of the people and thousands of us should march and march again and again, peaceful law abiding men, women ,children and dogs.
We will not be silenced.
twathater @ 10:07 pm
“Alf you are wasting your time on the Andy Pandy ellis blog”
I guess you are right; he seems to be still trying to figure out his ethnic identity, or if he has one.
@Chris the cartoonist
You will get a job anywhere in the World. Your support of Stu has been commendable. You creative types need lots of holidays. The ba has burst as Stu would say. Good luck.
link to craigmurray.org.uk
This most astonishing blog post. For which Craig is now in jail.
We are not just a colony, we are an imprisoned nation.
Our freedom will be a force for good in this world.
O/t After all the hype about the Ryder Cup golf in the US, the only players winning any points for Europe are the Spaniards John Rahm and Sergio Garcia. Maybe time has run out for the old guard of Westwood and Poulter. As there are no Scots in the team I don`t feel too upset at the Europeans taking a bit of a drubbing from a very good US team.
Events are greater than the plans of man… if the last few years have taught us anything, that’s it.
If like me you’ve always believed that support for independence was underrepresented, or that it would naturally be much higher if it wasn’t for the lies and the spin, then you’ll agree that there’s plenty of room for movement.
The UK economy looks like it’s teetering on the brink of collapse. All you good students of history will know that economic hardship is good for one thing and one thing alone: nationalism. That’s a fact of life.
When the economy goes, the Union will go with it; when it does, nobody in Scotland with more than a couple of brain cells will be able to resist the simple truth that the economy collapsed because of English nationalism and Brexit.
The winds of change are starting to blow. Inflation, shortages, rising costs of living, rising interest rates, rising unemployment, wage disputes, industrial unrest, all attributable to English nationalism and Brexit.
There’s an obvious answer to all that. The Scottish people don’t need to apologise for putting their interests first.
The cartoons have been great. I enjoy them. But, as you said, all things must come to an end.
At the risk of triggering an argument, there are conspiracy theories about Covid actually being the “Great Reset”. I’m not getting involved.
However, the independence movement requires such a reset. By this, I mean a complete clear out of the old guard. Fresh blood is required. The core support will always be there, but in my view the majority of people are pissed off with this constant demands / promises / threats of a second referendum.
Boris does not need to do a thing except sit and watch.
.
To paraphrase Stuart Campbell’s fond refrain of you Mr Cairns…
Nae so fast holiday boy 🙂
Methinks you have a gig close by. Of course, allowing for a few weeks holiday, but certainly in the run up to the 2022 Scottish Local Authority elections.
Chris, MANY of us here at Stuart’s site begged Alex Salmond to “do something, do anything to save us from Nicola Sturgeon and her Woke-captured cabal.”
With class and the style of his beloved Bonnie Dundee, Alex Salmond, in his bruised, scarred and beaten state, answered our call.
Chris PLEASE would you consider helping out at Alba?
Your words above were as eloquent as your art.
I am damned sure that the Alpa Party could do with a top notch talent such as yourself.
I think Robert Louis quoted the best artwork that is apposite for this thread and certainly the FRONT COVER of the new WEE BLUE ALBA BOOK….
link to wingsoverscotland.com
C’mon Chris, it’s NO time to hang up yer crayons just yet.
Wee Eck answered our call.
We cannae let down the man who got us closer to Scotland becoming Independent in 2014 than at any time in 300 years.
Chris, it is my hope that you and Stu., and Craig along with so many others will come across to Alba Party and help get IndyRef2 back where is should be…
On the effing radar of the Scottish Executive.
I hear tbe police and Edinburgh COUNCIL have ba ned a proposed AUOB march.
The authoritarian suppression of the Indy movement continues.
Folks are now fealing colonial rule in all its power.
I’ve enjoyed your cartoons Chris.
They matched the pulse of this website, and I suppose that your departure is doing the same.
Wishing you all the best and just as many holidays in your next challenge.
At some point we will need Hamish back tho’.
Willie says:
26 September, 2021 at 2:04 am
Folks are now fealing colonial rule in all its power.
I respectfully disagree Willie.
It’s not the power of the colonialists on show, it’s the weakness and poverty of ambition amongst us Scots.
We saw colonial rule in Catalonia, where violent riot police were breaking the noses of old age pensioners. Here in Scotland, the “Government” grovels before Westminster for power to oppress protestors, and all the good people of Scotland can arouse is a vigorous round of handwringing and deeply furrowed brows.
The Declaration of Arbroath warned us about a Scottish leadership which would sell out our Nation, and called for us to ”… exert ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own rights and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us our King..”.
Well, I see nothing short of an enemy in Sturgeon, and my Nation’s rights have never been in greater peril of subversion, and by oh so transparent and obvious a subverter.
Circumstance demands her impeachment and ‘driving out’, to make way for a more Constitutionally adept ALBA Party, to rescue Scotland’s Constitutional Rights and Sovereignty and undo to craven chaos and unholy precedents set by Sturgeon’s seven years of spineless incompetence.
I agree with lots of the above comments. I feel very sad about the whole thing, there are obviously things been going on in the background, which we have no knowledge of. Did we , the minions, somehow let you both down?
I never found Stu to be foul mouthed. There needs to be perspective. Westminster and her lackies ( and sadly Holyrood) f**ked us over and somehow Stu was foul mouthed because he said that in those words! Nah, I don’t agree.
Where do we look to now for our Hector, Achilles or Wallace?
Chris you need to create one book of these cartoons, you could call it – the Bette Midler years! You certainly were “ the wind beneath our Wings!
I agree with all of the points you make and it pains me to say so.
The Scots, or at least far too many of them are spineless and gutless nobodies.
Sold down the river in a country that got raped for it’s oil and doesn’t now even build the jackets for the huge offshore wind farms off Scotland’s coast.
Sold down the river with Brexit with empty supermarkets, medicine shortages, an ambulance crisis and and NHS at breaking point the la-la are now queuing to get rationed petrol.
And dear Lord, the old bastards on their restricted pension incomes are going to suffer as rip roaring inflation destroys the little purchasing power that they had whilst eating the worth out of any saving. Ah well death waiting for an ambulance or a GP consultation might be a relief for them. It is truly as bad as that and far too many just don’t care.
So yes Breeks we are in a colonial grip but equally we, a who is like us nation, are proud to cower like sheep on their bellies.
And if I may conclude, we’re getting all we deserve.
@Alf Baird 9.10 pm
“I suppose you have some evidence for that claim, Andy?
The ‘plain act is’ Scotland and the Scots fit the colonialism thesis like a well worn glove, a 300+ year old glove in fact; and why else would ‘a people’ seek independence other than to decolonise:”
It’s not my place to agree with your assertions Alf, still less provide evidence for them. I don’t feel constrained to provide evidence that the earth revolves around the sun to flat earthers either. If the UN actually considered the relationship between Scotland and England to be an example of colonial rule, it’s pretty safe to assume the Scottish independence movement and our government would know about it and be using it as a stick to beat the British nationalists with at every available opportunity. That’s not happening though: why might that be?
Whether the “Scotland as colony” narrative fits the definition is arguable, not a *fact*. The fact that there might be similarities, or that some aspects of UN or generally accepted definitions of what constitutes colonialism might be recognisable in the Scottish (or any other given peoples) history or experience, does NOT ipso facto make them colonies.
As to your question “why else would a people seek independence other than to decolonise”, are you honestly trying to assert that every single potential nation state that has ever become independent, or might seek to become independent was or is a colony? That makes no kind of sense. I remember during #indyref1 there was a YesCalifornia campaign promoting independence for California. Is California a colony of the USA?
@Alf Baird 10.53 pm
“twathater @ 10:07 pm
“Alf you are wasting your time on the Andy Pandy ellis blog”
I guess you are right; he seems to be still trying to figure out his ethnic identity, or if he has one.”
Ah, I see it didn’t take long for the “he’s not a REAL Scotsman” trope to be trotted out by the hard of thinking nativist element.
I wonder if it’s the fact I’m a quarter English that renders me not pure enough for you and twathater Alf?
Or is it the fact I spent 25 years working and living outside Scotland?
My birth certificate shows I was born in Edinburgh. I’ve never felt anything other than Scottish, nor have I ever felt constrained to prove to myself or anyone else what my “ethnic identity” is. My ethnic identity is an accident of birth and parentage, but it doesn’t translate into an exclusive ethnic nationalism for the kind of better nation we’re all supposed to aspire to. I’m not so sure about your nationalism though Alf.
More likely of curse, it’s simply the fact that you don’t consider me pure enough because I disagree with your “Scotland as colony” schtick. However hard you fluff the idea it just refuses to be taken seriously by the majority of the movement or Scots as a whole though.
You keep asserting that your analysis is self evident, that it fits Scotland’s situation like a well worn glove, but where’s YOUR evidence of any actual support for your views? Does any political party endorse them, or any elected politician or civic organisation with significant mambership (Siol nan Gaidheal doesn’t count by the way….we have to retain some link to reality)?
Since the answer to the above appears to be “no”, presumably you’re going to assert that the people are somehow ahead of the political establishment? So is there any polling evidence carried out by reputable polling organisations of Scots supporting the colonisation argument?
Folk like Stu Campbell and James Kelly have crowd funded polls in the past, so presumably if there’s a ground swell of support for your argument it shouldn’t be that hard for your supporters to raise the funds to commission poling to test your hypothesis?
Time to put up or shut up Alf: where the evidence?
Posted this on the older page in error.
Well, while this page was still on-topic, it was good to see the number of “old” usernames, who came back out of wherever they were hiding, to thank Chris for his contributions to WOS over the years.
Why had these usernames disappeared from btl?
A sad day for all.
Good luck for the future Chris. You deserve it.
Sad news Chris, but I think that most of us can understand how you feel.
Thank you for all your works and keeping us entertained when Stu “retired”. Good luck to you, whatever the future brings.
On the subject of closing down, indyref2.space will be closing later this week now all interest in it has faded.
One last try, if anyone wants to take on the site before then get in touch.
Andy Ellis says:
26 September, 2021 at 9:41 am
@Alf Baird 10.53 pm
Since the answer to the above appears to be “no”, presumably you’re going to assert that the people are somehow ahead of the political establishment? So is there any polling evidence carried out by reputable polling organisations of Scots supporting the colonisation argument?
—
I invite the jury to read the following quote from Mr Andy Ellis, particularly the bit in bold and ask that you find him guilty of spouting contradictory drivel on a consistent basis, a clear pattern of behaviour as previously highlighted. Nefarious intent or just a fool with access to far better website than his?
“I find it absolutely incredible that people still believe this patent ‘too wee, too poor, too stupid’ garbage; that Scotland, out of all the two-hundred nations of the world, is somehow uniquely incapable of governing itself and thriving on its own, and that we need a government that has never had majority-support in Scotland since 1955 and which we are powerless to influence, to rule over us. What these people really mean, I’m sure, is that they are unwilling to lose control of our land, our natural resources, the military bases on our soil and the wealth we contribute to the UK economy.”
(source: link to scots-republic.livejournal.com)
Let’s see you square this circle, Mr Ellis.
Andy Ellis, there is plenty of evidence to support the view that Scotland is in the firm grip of an essentially colonial relationship. And, for complex reasons, it’s not unusual in situations like this for expression of such views to be suppressed and muted.
Colonialism takes many forms, as you’re aware. It can be direct and brutal involving military occupation, or it can take more subtle and nuanced forms with control and influence exerted in less obvious but equally effective ways.
What do I mean by “effective”? When you boil it all down, colonialism in 99.9% of cases is about economic exploitation. Is there anyone here, including you, who would argue that Scotland isn’t being exploited economically within the union and that the primary reason for Westminster’s opposition to Scottish independence is economic?
I’m sure you can come up with other reasons but that’s undoubtedly the most obvious and important.
Scotland could and should be one of the wealthiest countries in the world, probably top 10. Instead most Scottish people are living in relative poverty, some in dire third world poverty. There’s plenty of data and evidence to support that.
Of course, many people are unable and unwilling to frame Scotland’s position in those terms. That’s actually very common too though within colonial systems. The evidence and data is conveniently difficult and I would say impossible to reach, deliberately confused, shrouded in often blatant lies, secrecy, and propaganda, and reaching for it isn’t great for your career prospects.
You’d struggle to find more than a handful of intellectuals in India in say the 1850s who were willing or able to frame India’s relationship with Britain in exploitative colonial terms. I couldn’t name one and it’s one of my favourite areas in history — if there are any, they’re probably British.
Even with the most effective propaganda machine the world has ever seen pitted against the idea, around 50% of the Scottish people still want out of the union. And, of course, holding people in a relationship against their will is a key indicator of colonial exploitation.
Your distinctly obtuse position on this, I would say reflects badly on you and academia more generally. It’s despairing to see those we have educated and expect something in return from turning against our country like this.
Could do better.
Hatuey says:
26 September, 2021 at 1:58 pm
—
Did you just insult every Indian from the 1850’s?
Rebellions in 1855 & 1857 alone suggest that there were indeed Indians in India ‘intellectual’ enough to frame the relationship of ‘corporation rule’ as colonisation.
Could do better?
Told you Alf, I will quote Andy Pandy the proud Scot BUT’S own denigration back at him ” you can’t educate PORK ” so you are wasting your generous time trying to educate Andy Pandy Alf,
Andy Pandy who will ACTIVELY WORK AGAINST INDEPENDENCE if his wife doesn’t get a vote , now that’s what I call a TRUE independence supporter
Scotland was never a colony.
That simple historical fact is highly relevant to Scotland’s legal status, to the cause of independence, and to the whole argument in support of that cause.
England has again and again pretended that she somehow ‘owns’ Scotland, the way a coloniser ‘owns’ a colony. You have to call a pretence by its proper name: not just a pretence, a spoof, a fraud, a downright lie, but also deliberate falsifying propaganda as well.
Anyone who says Scotland is a colony, or pretends Scotland ever was a colony, is at it. Edward I was at it; Henry VIII was at it; the Hanoverians and those who served them were at it; Unionists of many different stripes and all kinds of British governments have time and again been at it.
And if YOU’re at, GET AFF IT. Awa’ wi’ you …
Meanwhile, a huge thankyou to Stuart Campbell in particular, and to Chris Cairns equally and as well, for all the great and wonderful service they provided to us, their readers, and to Scotland’s cause, during all these years.
I know every genuine person posting on this site, or just reading it, will join me in these sentiments of gratitude. It is hard to see it end, yet we have so much to be grateful for. Wings has been a beacon of integrity, and bows out with dignity. There is no beating honest fowk. The forces of darkness, so prevalent everywhere, will not finally prevail.
Wishing Stuart and Chris all the very best, and all the honest folk here the same.
Be good; stay honest; the struggle for Scotland’s soul continues!
Scott, if you’re going to heckle from the sidelines, try and say something meaningful;
“Rebellions in 1855 & 1857 alone suggest that there were indeed Indians in India ‘intellectual’ enough to frame the relationship of ‘corporation rule’ as colonisation.”
I notice you didn’t name any of them. I notice you didn’t cite or link to any sources.
Hatuey says:
26 September, 2021 at 10:28 pm
Scott, if you’re going to heckle from the sidelines, try and say something meaningful;
“Rebellions in 1855 & 1857 alone suggest that there were indeed Indians in India ‘intellectual’ enough to frame the relationship of ‘corporation rule’ as colonisation.”
I notice you didn’t name any of them. I notice you didn’t cite or link to any sources.
—
Yeah, highlighting a fault in your assertion is heckling from the sidelines, what with the hIstoRy of inDIa bEinG lIke yoUr speShulist subJeCt.
Lolz.
Your ramblings on all matters you’ve declared yourself an expert on are just that.
Imagine being so petty and immature that you need the names of those who organised the rebellions against rule by corporations, to prove that intelligent Indians existed.
Bad faith actors are so boring.
Actually, kiddo, it was Andy Ellis who made the point that there was no support in academic circles for the view that Scotland was a colony. I merely pointed out that there was no support in academic circles in 1850s India for such views either.
That of course means you didn’t highlight a fault in my assertions; you confirmed the validity of them twice by failing to name any such academics and by suggesting that it was a flimsy argument (which I myself was implicitly pointing out).
India in the 1850s, incidentally, wasn’t as straightforwardly as you suggest run by corporations. It formally became a crown colony in 1858.
Hatuey says:
27 September, 2021 at 4:01 am
Actually, kiddo, it was Andy Ellis who made the point that there was no support in academic circles for the view that Scotland was a colony. I merely pointed out that there was no support in academic circles in 1850s India for such views either.
—
Did ye, aye?
You never mentioned academics, you used the word ‘intellectuals’. (nice alliteration though)
“You’d struggle to find more than a handful of intellectuals in India in say the 1850s who were willing or able to frame India’s relationship with Britain in exploitative colonial terms. I couldn’t name one and it’s one of my favourite areas in history — if there are any, they’re probably British.”
The two rebellions I mentioned can be researched. They happened. They required planning, by intelligent people. They don’t need named for verification purposes, their mere existence is proof enough.
You & Andy are two cheeks of the same arse.
Even when your flaws are pointed out and explained using clear language and logic, you still try to control the narrative with obfuscation. My guess is you made the comment as a throwaway line that wouldn’t be responded to, worded to imply expertise on your part. Amarite or a meringue?
Anyway, as I said earlier, bad faith actors are boring.
You’re actually thick. Hilarious.
“The two rebellions I mentioned can be researched. They happened. They required planning, by intelligent people. They don’t need named for verification purposes, their mere existence is proof enough.”
The more you argue your simplistic point, the more you reinforce the very point I made in relation to Andy Ellis. Let me spell it out for you in a simplified form so that you understand how thick you are…
1 Andy Ellis says Scotland isn’t a colony and claims that the absence of academics/intellectuals saying that it is essentially proves the point.
2 I argue that there’s no academic/intellectual support in 1850s India for the colonial narrative, and suggest if there is I’d struggle to name one… implicitly suggesting you don’t need academic/intellectual support to demonstrate colonial status (since nobody, not even a thick person like you, could argue that India wasn’t a colony in the 1850s)
3 You turn up talking about “rebellions” and insist there was academic support but fail to give one example of an academic or intellectual who made such a claim in respect of India at that time.
And that’s the point which your limited intelligence stops you from understanding; it doesn’t matter one way or another if there was or is academic/intellectual support for a narrative; it isn’t required in any sense for that narrative to be considered valid or true.
The “rebellions” you refer to which, of course, everybody with even a passing interest in the subject knows about, needn’t have had the intellectual leadership and planning you suggest either. And that’s another example of your stupidity.
Where did you get the idea that uprisings or rebellions require leadership? The landmark 1857 uprising is more commonly referred to as a mutiny, something you could have found out in seconds, and despite being a tedious person who has dug himself into a hole and who is in desperate need of a way out you still haven’t named one of the supposed intellectual/academic leaders of that mutiny.
Please respond and try not to let me intimidate you this time. Feel free even at this late stage to use Google and provide one example of an academic or intellectual in 1850s India who is on the record in support of the view that India was in an exploitative colonial relationship with Britain.
And after this I’m very keen to discuss your understanding of “bad faith” — I have a strong suspicion that you don’t understand that concept either.
You’re the most fun I’ve had on here in ages; thick but intelligent enough to be worth annoying.
@Hatuey
You (and andy) are blowhards of the highest order.
The Dunning-Kruger is strong in both of you.
Since when did you need to be in academia to qualify as an “intellectual”?
The point was that you couldn’t identify any “intellectuals” who framed India as being a colony.
And, what the fuck is this gibberish? – “The landmark 1857 uprising is more commonly referred to as a mutiny”
You needed proof of its existence in your previous reply, but now a rebellion has turned into a landmark uprising that’s actually a mutiny…
Keep thinking that you (and Andy) are better than everyone else (bad faith), if it helps you make it through the night.
@Scott 1.35 pm
There’s no “circle to square”. The things being discussed aren’t the same: there’s nothing contradictory. You’re just not very good at this. As for my intent being “nefarious”, what would that nefarious intent be Scott? Are you another one spouting the slightly unhinged James Che line that I’m not a real independence supporter? Seems a bit odd for someone like me, who unlike you and James isn’t hiding behind a an anonymous account, to be trying to pass myself off as an independence supporter for “nefarious” motives while secretly being a unionist.
I pretty publicly left the SNP in protest at Gareth Wardell’s treatment, and posted a picture of my cut up membership card. I’m open about my membership of Alba, only to be defamed as an infiltrator by a low voltage roaster like James Che for his hurty feelz.
You’re just another snivelling anonymous coward on the internet othering folk who disagree with them and who highlight their attachment to the vapid “Scotland is a colony” nonsense. It’s telling that you never actually engage with any of the arguments or detail of people’s posts, you just fling shit around your cage like the grievance chimp you so obviously are.
link to britannica.com
Zzzzzzzz
Hatuey says:
28 September, 2021 at 2:35 am
link to britannica.com
—
You’re a complete idiot.
“To regard the rebellion merely as a sepoy mutiny is to underestimate the root causes leading to it. British paramountcy—i.e., the belief in British dominance in Indian political, economic, and cultural life“
“To regard the rebellion merely as a sepoy mutiny is to underestimate the root causes leading to it. British paramountcy—i.e., the belief in British dominance in Indian political, economic, and cultural life”
Not very good at this analytical stuff, are you… jumping from one misunderstanding to the next looking for a home.
Tediously, I didn’t say I regarded anything as a mutiny.
Thick is common enough, but why the anger? Didn’t like turn out as you had hoped it might?
Poor kid.
Hatuey says:
28 September, 2021 at 11:13 pm
Not very good at this analytical stuff, are you… jumping from one misunderstanding to the next looking for a home.
Tediously, I didn’t say I regarded anything as a mutiny.
—-
Haha, what a fanny.
That wasn’t the point I was highlighting, the colonisation part was.
Haha.
Oh right. So you’re saying the Indians possibly had some reasonable grounds for being pissed off. Jesus. What a radical and profound Insight. And I had you down as a dolt.
Here’s a funny thing for you to contemplate; in all my years on this earth, I’ve never met one person who complained about being thick. People complain about everything else, but not that.
Was so down after reading this that I just could not comment initially.
So this is the final door closing. I’d given up all indy related reads and relied on the toon to remind me what it was all about and now there is nothing.
Left the snp. Unsubscribed from all the sites I religiously followed and digested. Blocked so many on twitter that all that’s left is to close it completely.About to stop subscribing to the National as I haven’t looked at it for months…
Stu and Chris, it’s been a blast.
Stu…in my mind you’ve won every distinguished award known to journalists and some invented just for you! You showed us what real journalism can achieve despite the lies and unfair treatment. You made so many challenges to ‘The man’ and made him/them look foolish and christ I enjoyed those times immensely ?Heartfelt thanks and gratitude.
Chris…You sent in the clowns and took us on the road to nowhere!!Will never forget, thank you xxx
“JK Rowling table saved from cafe gutted by fire”
Owner David Talor said, “He said the table had suffered water and smoke damage but would be restored.”
– link to bbc.co.uk
Trigger’s table, the legs are coming on Thursday and the top should be Wednesday of next week, tops.
Hi Scott.
Your link is “page not found”.
Here is the archived correct link:-
link to archive.is
Thank you for all of your work over the years, Chris. Some of your cartoons have been absolute classics. You have a true talent for them.
Having read this article, I can add writing to your list of talents as well!
All the best 🙂
Good luck Stuart and Chris. Thanks for everything. Enjoy your new life. Will miss yous.