Alex Salmond will be laid to rest in the green turf of Aberdeenshire today in a quiet and dignified private ceremony. (A public celebration of his life will take place next month.)
Most of Scotland’s press and commentariat beclowned itself shamefully after his death just as it did during his life, but below is a (regrettably short) collection of those who did otherwise and who deserve to be noted honourably beside the man himself.
Redaction is a tricky business, and comes with numerous pitfalls even if you’re being careful, which not everyone is. If you’re involved in creating a document you know will have to be redacted, there are a variety of safeguarding approaches you can adopt.
When I worked on a videogames magazine called Amiga Power in the 1990s, we ran a fun comedy feature about censorship. But because the company that published the magazine had had some unfortunate mishaps in the field, we took extra care by typing all the “offensive” words as random-length strings of Xs when we wrote the article.
And it was lucky that we did, because as you can see in the feature’s strapline, the art department misaligned the red redaction bar on some of them, and if there’d been a sweary in there it would have been easily identified.
Wherever you find giants, you also find parasites, bottom-feeders and carrion. When a mighty lion dies in the jungle, tiny creeping crawling maggots and insects and bacteria feast gleefully on its corpse for many days.
Which naturally brings us to the Scottish media.
The above paragraphs of cowardly innuendo and baseless speculative smearing were penned by Severin Carrell and Libby Brooks in the Guardian on Monday. (They’re not from the ironically-headed “Appreciation” that the same two hacks wrote for Sunday’s Observer, in which they audaciously claimed that Salmond’s success was down to Nicola Sturgeon).
They sneakily imply that Salmond was guilty not only of the sexual assaults of which he was cleared in court, but also of an unspecified number of unnamed others, and make assertions of “disturbing evidence about his personal conduct” without specifying what that evidence or conduct might have been.
Everyone even remotely connected to Scottish politics has known for months that the below is the case. It’s an open secret.
But what’s playing out right now is something much bigger than the fate of one or two or three individuals. It’s the entire future of the credibility of Scotland’s justice system.
Just a quick bit of housekeeping here with regard to the new Wings comments section, which offers far more functionality but has also attracted a few complaints because it’s no longer a straight chronology of oldest-to-newest tweets.
(We could actually change that back, but the cost would be losing the ability to reply directly to individual comments, which is a big loss, so we’re leaving it as it is for now.)
To those beefing because that means you can’t now immediately tell which comments are new, a couple of helpful pointers. The easiest way to fix the problem is a simple one: keep the tab open.
If you keep the most recent page open in a tab on your browser, the Comment Bubble (visible at the bottom left of that pic) will keep track of all new comments – it refreshes every 30 seconds – and highlight them for you in yellow until you’ve read them.
(The little orange circle should take you to the first unread one if you click it.)
Sadly the Bubble stops working if you close the tab or navigate to a new page from it, but since most people have scores of tabs open at a time that shouldn’t be a problem. So there you go.
When times are quiet in Scottish politics, as they currently are, our favourite genre of story is “mainstream press belatedly catches up with Wings Over Scotland”. And so to this morning’s front page splash in the Sunday Mail.
The rumour mill has been grinding about Operation Branchform developments again in the last few days, although we’ve seen too many false dawns now to get overly excited about that. But the Mail’s story sounded awfully familiar.
While we get on with some tinkering behind the scenes in the absence of any Scottish political news – we have an exciting new comment system and the Contact form finally works again! – readers may wish to enjoy the full marathon three-and-a-quarter hours of last month’s fun indyref anniversary event at the Glasgow Science Centre.
Michael Laing on What Went On: “PhththphthrrrtttTTTT! Splooossh!” Dec 2, 12:44
Michael Laing on What Went On: “Precisely.” Dec 2, 12:42
gregor on What Went On: “Sockpuppet: Notions: Material Change: “Reupholster me into leather or pleather Make me watertight for every kind of weather Wouldn’t I…” Dec 2, 12:26
Willie on What Went On: “And meanwhile the statements coming out of Fergusson Marine is that they are going to have to make substantial redundancies…” Dec 2, 12:25
Mac on What Went On: “The other big giveaway in addition to the endless lies is the endless DARVO (remember that article on here). “DARVO…” Dec 2, 11:38
Hatey McHateface on What Went On: “If you’re having a go at me, I’m simply pushing back against the cadre of pro-poot enthusiasts who want an…” Dec 2, 10:59
Zander Tait on What Went On: “Diabs, Breeks and Mac, as I posted some weeks back: 1. Skip the shite. 2. Hit the minus button. 3.…” Dec 2, 10:53
Hatey McHateface on What Went On: ““deny gen0cide” Latest figures from P Health Ministry – approx 45,000 dead. Latest figures for Yemeni War – approx 400,000…” Dec 2, 10:45
sarah on What Went On: “I told my SNP branch [I left in March 2021] in 2019 that it was a vote loser – I…” Dec 2, 10:36
Mac on What Went On: “A troll to me is someone trying to wind up people for their own amusement and enjoyment. But that is…” Dec 2, 10:05
Breeks on What Went On: “Well said diabloandco. Remember folks, you can avoid being triggered by these tedious morons if you scroll on by without…” Dec 2, 10:01
gregor on What Went On: “Keep down-voting the comments (Nicola ?) – the fact is that WEF (NWO) globalist is the diametric opposite of national……” Dec 2, 09:48
diabloandco on What Went On: “It does seem that a fair number of contributors have forgotten the Revs instructions about not feeding the trolls. They…” Dec 2, 09:27
Mac on What Went On: “Generally when you make a smart arse obnoxious reply it is advisable to get your facts right. Much like when…” Dec 2, 09:14
gregor on What Went On: “Cease-and-desist notice: Insubordinate WEF (NWO) Scot Gov globalist loser #Boss” Dec 2, 08:59
gregor on What Went On: “Other news developments… BBC (2024): Joe Biden issues ‘full and unconditional’ pardon for son Hunter: “…at this point there may…” Dec 2, 08:40
Hatey McHateface on What Went On: ““we the – alleged – People are absolutely powerless to prevent the lunatics pushing the world over the edge into…” Dec 2, 08:23
Hatey McHateface on What Went On: “Moan “Mac”! Gie’s jist ane fermyerd noise afore ye go!” Dec 2, 08:15
Robert Hughes on What Went On: “plop ……splash” Dec 2, 08:06
Robert Hughes on What Went On: “The name is Pinny – John Pinny – neither shaken nor stirred . The name deriving from the apron his…” Dec 2, 07:59
Hatey McHateface on What Went On: “Do as Breeks says below, twathater. Rewrite your DECLARATION OF DEMAND AND INTENT to say we want integration and assimilation…” Dec 2, 07:40
Mac on What Went On: “lol. You have made an absolute cunt out of yourself here.” Dec 2, 07:32
Hatey McHateface on What Went On: “So you’re perhaps suggesting that The world’s most-read Scottish politics website maybe actually has 15 (now 16) readers BTL. Strong,…” Dec 2, 07:18
Willie on What Went On: “Good statement Twathater. Unfortunately this rotten and corrupt SNP government will do as it pleases. Say one, promise another thing,…” Dec 2, 07:17
Mac on What Went On: “lol. You are one pathetic fucker. Bye.” Dec 2, 07:14
Hatey McHateface on What Went On: “Do the math, or remain Mr Thicko of Thick. 90% of 25,000 is 22,500. BTW, it’s stretching the limits of…” Dec 2, 07:08
Breeks on What Went On: “Sadly, I fear, “Failure to accept and act on my demands will result in my refusal to vote for any…” Dec 2, 06:58
twathater on What Went On: “DECLARATION OF DEMAND AND INTENT To John Swinney and the hierarchy of the SNP political party, currently the Scottish Government,…” Dec 2, 02:38
twathater on What Went On: “I don’t know if people remember but prior to the 2021 election I put forward a suggestion that people should…” Dec 2, 02:34
Michael Laing on What Went On: “Your comment currently has an approval rating of minus 15. I therefore think I can quite reasonably pontificate that nobody…” Dec 2, 00:04
