The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


The blockage 278

Posted on September 01, 2020 by

Well, imagine our surprise.

If only we’d been telling you for the last two years, eh?

Read the rest of this entry →

For certain purposes 132

Posted on August 31, 2020 by

We suppose we should be happy to learn that Scottish Government ministers are at least still sometimes capable of understanding that men and women are different and there are times when it’s inappropriate for men to be in women’s spaces.

We just wish they didn’t keep reminding us of something so much.

We really hope the 27% of Scots who already think the Sun revolves around the Earth isn’t getting bigger.

By gaslight 200

Posted on August 29, 2020 by

The distant choir 258

Posted on August 27, 2020 by

During the 2014 indyref, the astonishingly vast imbalance of the mainstream Scottish media was partly compensated by a huge rise in new media, with dozens and dozens of sites filling the gaping chasms where printed and broadcast media would have been in any country with a press worthy of the name at such an exciting time.

The subsequent shrivelling of that presence has been one of the least observed and explored phenomena of the six years since the referendum, and especially since the SNP’s election victory in 2016. The incredibly wide-ranging, mutually-supportive pro-Yes new media is now down to a tiny handful of outlets, most of which are barely read (and most of which would celebrate if the others burned down in a chemical fire).

There are many and varied reasons for this worrying situation, but before we get into those let’s have a quick look at who’s still who and what’s still what.

Read the rest of this entry →

GERS Day for Mercy 196

Posted on August 26, 2020 by

Last week, in the biggest city in Scotland, a young mother was found dead next to her starving infant child, because Scotland’s economic, immigration and welfare policies are decided hundreds of miles away in a foreign country by a party that Scots haven’t voted for in 65 years but which has ruled Scotland for 42 of those years anyway.

There’s other stuff about GERS too, but that seems the important bit.

The gums of the tiger 572

Posted on August 23, 2020 by

The Sunday Times carries a quite surprising story today. (And that’s not just because the person in the picture isn’t actually Liz Lloyd at all.)

We’ll pause for but a brief moment to contemplate the assertion that this unelected, unaccountable civil servant might be “the second most powerful woman in the Scottish government” and then move on to the interesting bit.

Read the rest of this entry →

The second opinion 149

Posted on August 22, 2020 by

You Are The Boris Johnson 174

Posted on August 21, 2020 by

Much as we might wish otherwise, we haven’t been able to help noticing other pro-indy websites doubling down on the “BOTH VOTES SNP, TRUST IN QUEEN NICOLA, THE 10TH MANDATE IS THE ONE THAT’LL WORK!” routine lately.

And however much we’ve tried to get people to grasp the seemingly-obvious fact that Boris Johnson is not looking at this debate from the same viewpoint we all are, reality doesn’t seem to be getting through to everyone yet.

So we thought we’d try a new tack.

Read the rest of this entry →

Darwin’s Failures 305

Posted on August 20, 2020 by

The BBC ran a completely insane story this week about a transman (ie a mentally ill woman) who almost died of kidney failure because she didn’t tell her doctors what sex she really was. The standout paragraph was probably the one pictured below, in which the atom-brained narcissist imbecile explained to a startled nation that apparently having a mental disorder also changes your physical biology:

(Also, y’know, “cute and awesome!” is definitely how men talk.)

But anyway. When we commission opinion polls, we’ve often noted that in any given poll you can expect around 5-10% of respondents to vote for even the most seemingly ridiculous options – either as a “joke”, or because they’re too dim to have understood the question, or whatever.

And last week we thought we’d put that to the test.

Read the rest of this entry →

The Vanished 138

Posted on August 19, 2020 by

An alert viewer noticed this evening that after being broadcast twice in two days, “The Trial Of Alex Salmond” has tonight disappeared from BBC iPlayer.

We have no information as to why, although we do know it committed contempt of court by providing so-called “jigsaw identification” of one of the complainers in the case. If that’s the reason for the show being pulled, it’s going to be VERY interesting in terms of our ongoing enquiries with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service about why a number of Scottish newspapers and websites critical of Salmond haven’t been acted against for publishing exactly the same information, while pro-Salmond blogger Craig Murray faces a trial and a potential two years in prison for doing less.

We’ll keep you posted with anything we find out.

Read the rest of this entry →

The unseeing eyes 122

Posted on August 19, 2020 by

In a development which has caught us somewhat by surprise, we’ve just had a reply from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) which was both timely (in more than one sense of the word) and actually contained a straight answer.

Join us in our astonishment below.

Read the rest of this entry →

A faint echo 128

Posted on August 18, 2020 by

So that you don’t have to, we endured tonight’s Dani Garavelli programme on Radio 4 as well as last night’s Kirsty Wark one, and to be honest there’s very little to report.

It’s a statement of the blindingly obvious – the SNP is currently split between young Nicola Sturgeon loyalists for whom independence is only one aspect of creating a pure and woke new Scotland, and older Alex Salmond-supporting traditionalists for whom independence itself is the only true goal and whatever happens afterwards is in the hands of democracy and fate – interspersed with Garavelli and her media pals taking the chance to air some of their own unconnected grievances like pouting toddlers.

So we get Garavelli bleating at length about how lots of nasty people on the internet have called her out for her indisputable, provable contempt-of-court identification of one of the accusers of Alex Salmond, and yet another demented rant from poor old David “reds under the bed” Leask about the evils of this site, and so on and so forth.

You can listen to it by clicking the pic above, but frankly we wouldn’t bother.

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,892 Posts, 1,239,092 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Aidan on The quality of mercy: “And yet here you are Alf, indulging in the oppressive language of the coloniser and therefore condemning your fellow Scot…Apr 6, 05:00
    • Cynicus on The quality of mercy: “Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh says: 5 April, 2026 at 1:14 pm HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO G.F. Handel arr. J. Caponegro: Hail The…Apr 6, 01:23
    • Young Lochinvar on The quality of mercy: ““Tartan Tories” Wasn’t that the invention created by “Scotch” Labour to hide the fact it was THE Labour Party that…Apr 6, 00:35
    • Young Lochinvar on The quality of mercy: “Beggars Calm down “old boy”!! No need to rant 🙂 You appear to be dragging a disproportionate amount of Oswald…Apr 6, 00:08
    • Mark Beggan on The quality of mercy: “1981. The Tartan Tories was what they were called then.Apr 6, 00:04
    • Young Lochinvar on The quality of mercy: “Jay Good luck getting a coherent non-nazi reply..Apr 5, 23:38
    • George Ferguson on The quality of mercy: “I was trying to remember when I last walked up Carlton Hill in support of Scottish Independence. I have landed…Apr 5, 23:37
    • Mark Beggan on The quality of mercy: “That’s very interesting Jay you lunatic.Apr 5, 21:28
    • Jay on The quality of mercy: “Evening Mr.Beggan. For decades there has been a ridiculous useage of the terms ‘Left’, ‘Right’ and ‘Centre’ which are rarely…Apr 5, 20:49
    • Alf Baird on The quality of mercy: ““The residue of colonialism has deep roots” Yes, so long as the colonized native elite crave the colonizers culture and…Apr 5, 20:03
    • Dan on The quality of mercy: “Such is the fragile vanity of the US Administration, one could easily envisage them kicking off a war with Denmark…Apr 5, 18:47
    • TURABDIN on The quality of mercy: “AMERICA & allies have a rather big problem….and it’s not located in west Asia. What a collection toadies those allies…Apr 5, 18:29
    • Mark Beggan on The quality of mercy: “I was playing the Smiths debut album the other night. Classic. Then today one of my neighbours said he heard…Apr 5, 16:54
    • Mark Beggan on The quality of mercy: “And what are you going to do about it? Let me tell you. Nothing.Apr 5, 16:45
    • Mark Beggan on The quality of mercy: “You can’t even stand a candidate for the Scottish elections. You are in no position to demand anything. Repeating this…Apr 5, 16:42
    • Mark Beggan on The quality of mercy: “Happy Easter.Apr 5, 16:18
    • Mark Beggan on The quality of mercy: “You are going to have problems getting all that on just on banner.Apr 5, 15:54
    • Aidan on The quality of mercy: “Things have got so bad that we’ve had to deploy our secret weapon “James Cheyne” to bore and distract everyone…Apr 5, 14:46
    • TURABDIN on The quality of mercy: “INDIA still wrestles as to the appropriateness of English dress and language in law courts. The Chief Justice of Kolkata…Apr 5, 14:20
    • Dan on The quality of mercy: “How “GERS” worked in India. https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/08/18/how-gers-worked-in-india/Apr 5, 13:59
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The quality of mercy: “Dr Shashi Tharoor – Looking Back at the British Raj in India (Edinburgh University 2017) www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB5ykS-_-CIApr 5, 13:22
    • Northcode on The quality of mercy: ““…The resolution concerned the slave trade, in which Scots were complicit…”| In which SOME Scots were complicit as opposed to…Apr 5, 13:19
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The quality of mercy: “HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO G.F. Handel arr. J. Caponegro: Hail The Conquering Hero, from Judas Maccabaeus, HWV 63 First performance…Apr 5, 13:14
    • TURABDIN on The quality of mercy: “Cooperation with British Colonialism in India, an Overview During the British colonial period in India, many Indians, especially from the…Apr 5, 12:26
    • James on The quality of mercy: “Northy; didn’t you know; according to Yoon Trolls like “factchecker” -who have never “checked” a “fact” in their entire existence-…Apr 5, 12:25
    • Northcode on The quality of mercy: ““Jesus of Nazareth” or “Jesus, son of Joseph” or “Christ Jesus” or “Jesus The Christ” or just that familiar plain…Apr 5, 12:25
    • Northcode on The quality of mercy: ““As of March 2026, the UN General Assembly has not formally declared colonialism IN TOTO a crime against humanity,…” I…Apr 5, 11:55
    • factchecker on The quality of mercy: “A simple internet search shows that “As of March 2026, the UN General Assembly has not formally declared colonialism in…Apr 5, 11:13
    • TURABDIN on The quality of mercy: “When talk & reason fail. Frantz FANON’s Perspective on Violence The Role of Violence in Decolonization Frantz Fanon, a prominent…Apr 5, 10:53
    • Alf Baird on The quality of mercy: ““Colonisation of Scotland since 1707” According to the UN colonialism is a scourge and a crime against humanity, which must…Apr 5, 10:27
  • A tall tale



↑ Top