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The Paper Teapot 338

Posted on February 08, 2024 by

As Twitter followers will have noticed, we’ve been busy this week with an extensive remodelling of Wings HQ, which involved the main computer being out of commission for several days while the office was basically torn down and rebuilt from scratch. (It seemed a good time to do it, given that there’s nothing remotely of interest happening in Scottish politics.)

Unfortunately the lack of activity on the site caused the comments on the last post to degenerate into the most wretched playground shrieking match, so let’s see if we can’t distract the children and talk about something else for a bit.

Particularly alert observers will have noted that Kezia Dugdale, the most spectacularly inept and unsuccessful Scottish political leader in history, this week demitted her role as Director of the John Smith Centre, which she was handed as an incentive to quit Scottish Labour after dragging it to 14% in the opinion polls.

And we wondered how anyone would be able to tell.

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Express Yourself 0

Posted on February 01, 2024 by

There can’t be many all-time classic videogames that originated on the Sharp X-1.

But Bousou Tokkyuu SOS (literal translation “Runaway Express SOS”) is definitely one of them. Or the only one of it. Of them. Whatever. But anyway.

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As you mean to go on 1,153

Posted on January 31, 2024 by

Nicola Sturgeon turned up to the COVID inquiry today in a car with no MOT certificate.

Which raises a couple of questions.

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Cheap lies 66

Posted on January 31, 2024 by

We long ago ran out of words to express the magnitude of the contempt in which the SNP now hold the people of Scotland. Which is unfortunate, because this probably calls for the invention of a whole new scale.

Shall we go through just a few of the more crassly insulting holes in this pitiful excuse for a cover story, just to pass the time while we wait for the former First Minister to appear before the COVID inquiry? We don’t know about you, but we’ve got nothing better to do.

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The reddest flag in history 61

Posted on January 30, 2024 by

Nicola Sturgeon is due to give her evidence to the COVID inquiry tomorrow – if, of course, she remembers anything. We’re awaiting, open-mouthed in genuine shock, her explanation for this.

Because try as hard as we might, we cannot for the lives of us bring to mind a single possible legitimate justification for a First Minister to do such a thing.

Alert readers may however note that 19 March 2020 was just four days before Alex Salmond was cleared of all charges, and might find themselves pondering the reasons why she might want to be in possession of a cheap disposable text-capable phone at that particular point in time.

Full transparency 387

Posted on January 27, 2024 by

The changing times 437

Posted on January 23, 2024 by

Just three and a bit years ago:

And today:

Comment seems superfluous.

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The End Of The Road 248

Posted on January 22, 2024 by

There are many people in the world deserving of sympathy at the moment, readers, but spare a thought in your busy day for Scotland’s Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain.

Just two and a half years into the post (most incumbents post-devolution have served around five), she’s already had to deal with a lot of what sports people call “hospital passes”. But she’s about to find herself in another nasty spot not of her own making.

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The Purity Police 190

Posted on January 20, 2024 by

Less Equal Than Others 124

Posted on January 19, 2024 by

On Tuesday 16th January the UK parliament put beyond doubt that their claims down the centuries that the UK is a respectful union of equals is, and always was, a lie.

This was the second time I’d brought my Scotland (Self-Determination) Bill before the house and there are various opinions floating around about the reasons for, and implications of, introducing the legislation as drafted. Wings kindly suggested I set out my reasons for bringing it forward for a second time, and why I consider Tuesday’s defeat in the chamber as a Pyrrhic victory for the union.

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First Do No Harm 425

Posted on January 15, 2024 by

We make no apology for returning once again to the depressing subject of the Scottish Government’s proposed new law to ban “conversion practices”, because it provides such an illuminating microcosm of how far a once competent and widely-respected administration has fallen since 2015.

Emma Roddick, who is piloting the bill towards the statute books in much the same way that Mohamed Atta piloted American Airlines Flight 11 towards the World Trade Centre, is a 26-year-old who by her own admission suffers from a serious and debilitating mental illness that any sane country would regard as an insurmountable bar to political office.

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Bully Boys 189

Posted on January 13, 2024 by

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    Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)

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    • sarah on Mad caps: “@ Mark – if you click on the blue link in my comment, the petition comes up for you to…Apr 5, 16:14
    • sarah on Mad caps: “Petition is: PE2135 Implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [ICCPR] in Scottish legislation.Apr 5, 16:02
    • Mark Beggan on Mad caps: “Where do I sign.Apr 5, 15:56
    • sarah on Mad caps: “We CAN get control over any of these politicians. All we have to do is get the UN International Covenant…Apr 5, 15:42
    • Mark Beggan on Mad caps: “Wouldn’t it be nice if Greer was parachuted into a mountainous desert where the locals armed to the teeth didn’t…Apr 5, 15:13
    • Young Lochinvar on Mad caps: “They are ALL dangerous nut-cases. They don’t even consider or care about Scotlands inalienable right to self determination, ALL they…Apr 5, 15:09
    • Sven on Mad caps: “Yoon Scum. Wow, that seems to have pushed your buttons in a fairly immoderate manner. I’ve no idea why you’d…Apr 5, 14:55
    • Skip_NC on Mad caps: “YS, the policies each party currently pursues are, in the main, a creature of the devolution settlement. When we attain…Apr 5, 14:45
    • Mia on Mad caps: “Oh, is it a handbag? And that was me thinking it was the cap of some handmaid…Apr 5, 14:38
    • Mark Beggan on Mad caps: “Greer is a dangerous nut case.Apr 5, 14:32
    • Mark Beggan on Mad caps: “Does step three involve halusnagenic mushrooms?Apr 5, 14:19
    • Yoon Scum on Mad caps: “So you love Ross for his BANANA politics Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone I hate the wee turd but…Apr 5, 14:09
    • sarah on Mad caps: “That’s a good selection, George. We thought the handbag was a whoopee cushion!Apr 5, 14:05
    • Mark Beggan on Mad caps: “More like Lavernetiy Beria.Apr 5, 13:56
    • Mark Beggan on Mad caps: “Sorry not interested in any country that easyJet doesn’t fly to.Apr 5, 13:55
    • Sven on Mad caps: “Yoon Scum @ 12.40. To be frank, I can’t really speculate what Mr Greer would rather do than spend money…Apr 5, 13:19
    • dandydons1903 on Mad caps: “The homo histrionic Heinrich Himmler lookalike will be missed for his comical but very revealing green fascism. But not much…Apr 5, 13:09
    • Yoon Scum on Mad caps: “Gaddafi would be a better prospect then the Scottish greensApr 5, 13:09
    • Yoon Scum on Mad caps: “You have nicely side stepped my point leaving the control of the English doesn’t instantly equal paradise If it does…Apr 5, 13:02
    • Mark Beggan on Mad caps: “You guys really like jumping back and forward a couple of hundred years to make your argument hold. If you…Apr 5, 13:02
    • Yoon Scum on Mad caps: “We can safely ignore all unionist parties as they are nothing more then far right scottish hating English worshipping tools…Apr 5, 12:44
    • TURABDIN on Mad caps: “Yoon Scum 10:11 UTOPIAS, as the name implies do not exist in reality, however the former American colonies have done…Apr 5, 12:44
    • yoon scum on Mad caps: “Both of us are trying to pick up the turd by the clean end I’d far rather we had politicians…Apr 5, 12:40
    • Mark Beggan on Mad caps: “Mark Ruskell another graduate groupie. Another Ponce on the Vine. SCOTLAND NEEDS ADULTS!! Stop the graduate brat mafia destroying our…Apr 5, 12:25
    • Old John on Mad caps: “A veritable tombola of hats. I’m a trifle confused as to who would wear the Roundhead or Cavalier ones though.…Apr 5, 12:08
    • George Ferguson on Mad caps: “@ Sarah Tin Foil Hat Ross Greer Black YMCA hat Patrick Harvie Trans Hat Maggie Chapman Dunce Hat Lorna Slater…Apr 5, 12:05
    • Mark Beggan on Mad caps: “Sums up the freak show nicely.Apr 5, 12:04
    • Skip_NC on Mad caps: “I should have thought it was obvious that, after independence, the constitutional question goes away almost completely. So parties and…Apr 5, 11:50
    • Anthem on Mad caps: “That’s the thing. You can’t! They sneek in through the list system.Apr 5, 11:37
    • Rev. Stuart Campbell on Mad caps: “Nobody voted “on mass” for the Greens. They got 8% on the list.Apr 5, 11:23
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