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Wings Over Scotland


The Valley Of The Dolls 81

Posted on December 09, 2025 by

The first and most important thing to note about yesterday’s judgment in the Sandie Peggie tribunal is that it’s a very big victory. The tribunal found that Sandie Peggie was gravely and heinously harassed by her employer through no fault of her own, and she’ll be entitled to substantial compensation as a result.

It also ruled, repeatedly and unequivocally, that Dr “Beth” Upton (who’s referred to in the judgment as “the second respondent”) is a man.

After that, it lost its mind.

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The Long Walk To Freedom 112

Posted on December 07, 2025 by

On 5 April 2021, I sent a short and simple Freedom Of Information (FOI) request to the Scottish Government asking for:

“All written evidence to James Hamilton’s QC investigation into the FM under the ministerial code. This includes evidence from the FM, her chief of staff Liz Lloyd and any other individuals within the Scottish Government who have submitted evidence.”

Over four and a half years later, because of the government’s pathological aversion to transparency and accountability, we’re still not there.

But we’re inching closer.

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The cost of failure 117

Posted on December 04, 2025 by

For several years now, this site has recorded how the SNP’s continued existence is now entirely dependent on UK state funding. The party would simply go bust without Westminster money. And how precarious a position that puts it in is sharply illustrated by the latest release of donations income from the Electoral Commission.

In a 12-month period running up to the last UK general election, the UK state gave the SNP a little over £1.3 million.

In the corresponding period for the last year, after the party was reduced to just nine seats, that figure plunged to just over £0.4 million, a drop of over £0.9 million.

And that’s money the SNP can’t afford to lose.

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Ain’t Got Time To Bleed 43

Posted on December 03, 2025 by

It is our solemn duty to inform you we’ve received another legal threat, readers.

Should we cease and desist? Let’s see.

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Ginger beer and fruit and nuts 40

Posted on December 03, 2025 by

We miss the days when this was parody, not “progressive” ideology.

But we are where we are.

And hey, it’s great news that their adult roles are still open to all.

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Wishing for swans 89

Posted on December 01, 2025 by

For lack of anything more interesting to write about, we thought we might do a monthly rundown of polling in the leadup to next year’s Holyrood election, with seat projections from a neutral source, in the shape of the newish Devolved Elections website.

And very quickly, things got a bit weird.

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The Groomers’ Friends 130

Posted on November 27, 2025 by

We’re just putting this here for the record, really.

It’s a “debate” from the Scottish Parliament last night, on a motion from Patrick Harvie complaining that vulnerable children aren’t being pushed into a programme of lifelong medicalisation, sterilisation and mutilation quickly enough.

The motion completely ignored both the findings of the Cass Review and the Supreme Court judgment in For Women Scotland, but not a single MSP spoke in opposition to it. (Jenni Minto, the Minister For Public Health And Women’s Health, actually broke down in tears at the end because she wasn’t managing to get children’s futures permanently destroyed with sufficient urgency, mainly because the UK Parliament took legislation out of Holyrood’s hands to protect them.)

The list of those who spoke in favour of child harm was:

Patrick Harvie (Scottish Greens)
Paul McLennan (SNP)
Mercedes Villalba (Labour)
Maggie Chapman (Scottish Greens)
Elena Whitham (SNP)
Monica Lennon (Lab)
Rona Mackay (SNP)
Jenni Minto (SNP)

We hope one day they’re held publicly accountable for their actions.

Searching And Looking 226

Posted on November 22, 2025 by

Disgraced ex-policeman and notorious vexatious serial complainant Lynsay Watson is having quite the meltdown on the groomer-and-paedophile haven Bluesky tonight.

Let’s listen in.

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Reach For The Stars (And Stripes) 296

Posted on November 19, 2025 by

To be honest, we’re mainly putting these here so you don’t have to keep looking at that picture of Alan Cumming.

But they also show what you can achieve, whether in football or politics, if you actually attack rather than being content to endlessly shuttle it all sideways and backwards until you get beaten without even taking a shot.

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Over The Hill And Down The Slope 250

Posted on November 14, 2025 by

We’ve just been leaked the SNP’s first poster roughs for Holyrood 2026.

One more push, everyone!

Grift Away 329

Posted on November 08, 2025 by

Oh good, another plan. Just three and a half years to wait.

Should we, what’s the phrase, “Save The Date”?

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Rise Of The Machine 110

Posted on November 07, 2025 by

It’s Wings’ 14th birthday today, and to be entirely honest with you, readers, like a lot of teenagers we’re having a bit of an existential crisis. It’s quite difficult to see any point in being a Scottish political journalist for the next five years, because it’s just going to be one depressing Groundhog Day after another.

So rather than moan on as usual, today we’re handing over to a precocious new talent whose enthusiasm can’t be dimmed. It’s one that garnered a lot of attention this week by delivering a comprehensive and very entertaining spanking to SNP MP and devoted friend of the site Pete “Cosy Feet” Wishart. 

Wishart threw such a petulant strop that he accused a code algorithm of defamation and threatened legal action against the inanimate collection of 1s and 0s.

With skills like that already placing it well beyond the abilities of most of the Scottish political commentariat, we thought we’d give it a tryout and ask it to take a look into the country’s future.

The following article is completely unedited other than a bit of formatting, though we did ask it (with only partial success) to tone down the haggis-and-bagpipes stuff slightly from its first draft. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you Grok. Unlike most journos, it provided links and it did write its own headline.

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