You can’t throw a brick at the Scottish media at the moment – however much you’d like to – without hitting half a dozen articles all repeating the same mantra: that despite the post-Brexit surge in support for independence, a Yes vote would be more difficult to achieve because the economics are now harder than they were in 2014, due to the collapse in the oil price.
Weirdly, almost all of these articles simultaneously insist that any new White Paper for independence would have to abandon the Sterling currency union advocated by the Scottish Government the first time round (despite there being little to no concrete evidence that it was a significant factor in the No vote, other than the commentariat all loudly agreeing with each other that it was).
The problem is that those two claims – if for the sake of argument you take them both to be true – introduce a whacking great elephant to the room, which all the people making the arguments are pretending not to notice.
If there haven’t been as many posts on this site as people might expect at a time of such incredible political turmoil, it’s because Wings isn’t at heart a commentary blog. We don’t do a lot of flat-out opinion pieces, tending to concern ourselves more with measurable, empirical facts, and since nobody knows anything about anything at the moment, we haven’t had all that much useful to say.
But the closest thing there is right now to a certainty is that sometime quite soon, Unionist politicians in Scotland are going to have to grow up and deal with this:
And their problem is that there’s no possible way to.
So the official Westminster line is that Scotland will HAVE to become independent if it wants to remain in the EU. We’re sure the FM will be absolutely gutted to hear that.
If your only source of news was the mainstream media, you could be forgiven for thinking that the consensus in the EU regarding an independent Scotland was bleak. Spain would, we’re told endlessly, veto Scotland’s place in the EU out of hand, and so, allegedly, would France.
And when Scotland’s First Minister went to Brussels after the referendum vote to meet with EU officials in regards to Scotland’s membership, we were told that this bold act of outreach fell on deaf ears.
The language of the press was hostile bordering on sadistic. The First Minister, acting to secure the democratic will of the people of Scotland, was apparently “running out of friends” and had to “beg” Ireland to help us out.
The reality, readers will be astonished to hear, is somewhat different.
Some of you will have missed this over the weekend:
Yes – Michelle Mone, of all the people on Earth, really did just go on TV and accuse Nicola Sturgeon of being all about ego. We’ll leave you to absorb that for a bit.
Earlier today we were moved to tweet our scepticism regarding a claim made by the Scottish Labour branch manager Kezia Dugdale, as reported in the Guardian.
Even on the most casual glance, the numbers just didn’t seem to add up. If 62% of Scots voted to stay in the EU and 55% voted to stay in the UK, with no correlation between the two things, then the Venn-diagram intersection between those two groups seems pretty unlikely to add up to more than 50%, let alone a “vast” majority.
Xaracen on The Broken Rainbow: “’I have always believed the truth will set us free and always will.“ Well, that can’t be true, Hatey; I…” May 16, 18:14
TURABDIN on Steadying The Ship: “@CYNICUS. no they are not, they are my «construct. Hume was very «antisyzygic». We syriacs/assyrians know the schizoid condition well.…” May 16, 18:03
Northcode on Steadying The Ship: ““you are the biggest contributor of irrelevant, pointless drivel BTL.” Wow! I’ve just realised you’re right… I’m a bore, you’re…” May 16, 17:57
George Ferguson on Steadying The Ship: “Anybody that has met John Swinney knows he has the Charisma of an ex Insurance Salesman of course prior to…” May 16, 16:44
Cynicus on Steadying The Ship: “TURABDIN says: 16 May, 2026 at 1:11 pm” “THIS IS THE PREAMBLE TO AN ACADEMIC WORK. HUME IN AND OUT…” May 16, 16:35
Mark Beggan on Steadying The Ship: “Sven meaning: Norse, boy, lad, young warrior.” May 16, 16:19
Cynicus on Steadying The Ship: “Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh says: 16 May, 2026 at 10:33 am “Cynicus: « the name of the author is Robert Curry. Not…” May 16, 16:19
twathater on Steadying The Ship: “It’s nice to see the gross stupidity of the engerlish electorate publicised daily on broadcast and media , I thought…” May 16, 16:18
Mark Beggan on Steadying The Ship: “If your name is your destiny Turabin then you are a reference manual with incorrect spelling!” May 16, 15:40
Mark Beggan on Steadying The Ship: “Samuel that’s a good Jewish name. Means prophet, heard by God.” May 16, 15:36
Mark Beggan on Steadying The Ship: “You have been eating too much sugar again.” May 16, 15:29
Mark Beggan on Steadying The Ship: “So what about your name Sam?” May 16, 15:16
Captain Caveman on The Broken Rainbow: ““Now that you admit they’ll not be providing you with a running commentary, they’ll not be sending you any decision…” May 16, 15:12
Mark Beggan on Steadying The Ship: “Correct but it was Beggins. Changed when my grandfather came to Scotland. Mark Beggan translated means Brave of the small.” May 16, 14:58
TURABDIN on Steadying The Ship: “Neu terminologie fir auld…. United Kingdom/United Kleptocracy? Westminster/Wastaminster? WASTA is the cronyism that oils government & everything else in the…” May 16, 14:27
sam on Steadying The Ship: “Well named? The surname Beggan is of Irish origin and is derived from the Gaelic word “beagán,” which means “little”…” May 16, 14:16
Geri on The Broken Rainbow: “AI Dan, Because I don’t have to. Others, far more educated than I am, are doing it on behalf of…” May 16, 14:00
robertkknight on Steadying The Ship: “Aye, and if Scotland had a legal system, Sturgeon and the Alphabetites would be in jail, soon to be joined…” May 16, 13:47
Aidan on Steadying The Ship: “I think what Chas is drawing attention to Northcode is that with James Cheyne now (sadly I fear only temporarily)…” May 16, 13:41
Mark Beggan on Steadying The Ship: “There is certainly more saltires at today’s Unite The Kingdoms rally. This is what happens when a government holds the…” May 16, 13:41
TURABDIN on Steadying The Ship: “THIS IS THE PREAMBLE TO AN ACADEMIC WORK. HUME IN AND OUT OF SCOTTISH CONTEXT by James A. Harris and…” May 16, 13:11
100%Yes on Steadying The Ship: “Izzie, STOP putting party before Country!!!! I can see your plan has merit. If in fact JS was going to…” May 16, 13:05
Mark Beggan on Steadying The Ship: “Another word salad. Saying nothing.” May 16, 12:46
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Steadying The Ship: “Initial link to ROBERT CURRY material: https://americanmind.org/author/robert-curry/ Paragraph by Curry: « At the age of sixteen, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison,…” May 16, 12:43
Alf Baird on Steadying The Ship: “We have to accept that the Scottish school of enlightenment failed even to ascertain Scotland’s colonial capture, much like Paine…” May 16, 11:18
Captain Caveman on The Hills Of Far Away: “Shhhh! 😮 Don’t you know that all polled are “rigged” according to the CIA, and your highlighting this is only…” May 16, 10:57
100%Yes on Steadying The Ship: “Lorncal & Geri, All of our politicians have no interest in politics its carer and money driven and your both…” May 16, 10:53
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Steadying The Ship: “Cynicus: « the name of the author is Robert Curry. Not Curie. Has the Québecois author Scotticised or Frenchified the…” May 16, 10:33
Cynicus on Steadying The Ship: “Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh says: 16 May, 2026 at 12:42 am “Excerpt from CONTACT… professeur ….. Robert Curie…” ======== For ease of…” May 16, 09:37
