As we write, Alistair Carmichael’s QC is two hours into a seemingly-interminable drone in an Edinburgh courtroom, in a case brought by ordinary citizens against a former government minister funded by a public appeal. Our own recent fundraiser, inspired by a case a world away from such high-minded concerns, closed a few days ago on a phenomenal total of £16,083.
Indiegogo have now disbursed the first half of the money (the rest, specifically that part that was donated by credit card, should follow in the next fortnight), so now we need to decide what to do with it.
A very brief post about football, because it was irritating to listen to the avalanche of gloom on social media on Friday night as Scotland lost to Georgia (again), and then have to watch this honking oaf go trolling.
You know that bit in Superman 2 where Superman is forced by General Zod and his evil Krypton buddies into the magic power-removing chamber, except that Supes has somehow cunningly rewired it so that the space rays or whatever get deflected to everywhere OUTSIDE the chamber instead and they're the ones that lose all their powers while he stays super?
That's basically what's happened in Weston-super-Mare this month.
Summer is, as we’ve said before, the “silly season” for politics. Wings readers will have noticed that like everywhere else, we’ve been rather lighter on content than usual for the last three months as politicians celebrated their general election victories by giving themselves long holidays – sorry, “time for constituency work” – and in the absence of a referendum campaign to fill the gap there wasn’t much going on.
So we can’t blame the media for raking over old ground in search of anything to fill threadbare column inches with. But it’s less excusable when the things they choose to reheat, repackage and reissue are ancient, endlessly-disproven lies.
Let’s start off by losing some more friends. This site has no time for the Gaelic lobby. The obsolete language spoken by just 0.9% of Scotland’s population might be part of the nation’s “cultural heritage”, but so were burning witches and replacing Highlanders with sheep and we don’t do those any more either.
Being multilingual is an excellent thing, but the significant amount of time and effort taken to learn a literally-pointless second language (because everyone you can talk to in Gaelic already understood English) would be vastly better directed to picking up one that was actually of some use, and every extra fraction of a second spent scanning a road sign trying to find the bit you can read is a fraction of a second spent with your eyes off the road.
Non-primary native languages are a tool whose main utility in practice is at best the exclusion of outsiders, and at worst an expression of dodgy blood-and-soil ethnic nationalism. They’re a barrier to communication and an irritation to the vast majority of the population, who are made to feel like uncultured aliens in their own land.
But we’d still rather put up with Gaelic than complete idiots making our laws.
We were greatly amused to learn this morning that Professor Adam Tomkins of Glasgow University, the bad-tempered darling of the Scottish Conservatives and the only political pundit who can make Alan Cochrane of the Telegraph seem measured and thoughtful, plans to stand for election to the Scottish Parliament next May.
We suspect he’ll succeed, too. It now seems plain that Ruth Davidson’s move earlier this month from the Glasgow list to the Lothian one was a ploy to get Prof. Tomkins to the top of the former, and while a Tory list seat in Glasgow is by no means a certainty next year, it’s more likely than not.
(We’ll be somewhat startled if the irritable English academic finds the courage to even try contesting a constituency in Scotland’s largest city. It’s moderately possible that his abrasive hectoring of Scottish voters’ stupidity in continuing to elect the SNP might not go down too well in the council schemes of Easterhouse and Drumchapel.)
Trying to pick out the funniest line in the announcement is no easy task.
sam on Yelling at the tide: “…so I could put a few shots in him.” Jan 25, 19:35
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Sure, Alf, it’s racism that I don’t want to lose my livelihood because I’m not fluent in one of Scotland’s…” Jan 25, 19:29
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Here’s a question, x. Is it true that with widely available apps, it’s possible to make all protagonists involved in…” Jan 25, 18:45
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: “Here, aw this tak o the braw Scots leid haes pit mi in mind tae write doun anither o ma…” Jan 25, 18:45
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “Bang! Whoops! My bad for startling you. I honestly didn’t think you’d have a wee accident like that. Have some…” Jan 25, 18:39
agentx on Yelling at the tide: ““Hello love welcome home – how was your day today?” “Just normal darling. My 3 colleagues were holding a guy…” Jan 25, 18:38
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “All to do with colonialism, sam. You’re long overdue to spend a few hours of quality time with Fanny and…” Jan 25, 18:36
Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “C’moan, noo, it’s a foregone conclusion. Scotland will win bigly and return home, dripping with gold.” Jan 25, 18:32
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: “The answer to your first two questions is: “MONEY!” (The mercenary pricks). There was obviously a bigger market for stuff…” Jan 25, 18:32
sam on Yelling at the tide: “Anent this post Northcode. Some questions. Why did the poets (Roberts) Fergusson and Burns begin to write in both English…” Jan 25, 18:10
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““However, i do agree the ethnolinguistic archeology stage is over… ” Thank fuck… I was a bit concerned that you…” Jan 25, 17:26
TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “….their true language….what a can of worms you open there, more than a can of worms a veritable chasm. However,…” Jan 25, 17:02
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: “The Scots language is not, by any reckoning, a dead language – nearly half of Scots living in Scotland still…” Jan 25, 16:28
Marie on Yelling at the tide: “James @1.10pm. Indeed James. McHatee has “form” when it comes to celebrating extra judicial killings.” Jan 25, 16:25
agentx on Yelling at the tide: “Not for me I have done it many times. (Maybe add a few spaces after your paste)” Jan 25, 16:02
Alf Baird on Yelling at the tide: ““the few who think like you?” As we know, “colonialism is based on psychology” (Memmi). At least half of Scots…” Jan 25, 15:44
TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “AI is neutral, it is sophisticated technology, but like the simple pencil it may be used to produce the sublime…” Jan 25, 14:30
Sven on Yelling at the tide: “Sorry “James”, please bear with an old duffer, I’m still not clear on if you feel being curious enough to…” Jan 25, 14:25
Aidan on Yelling at the tide: “@Alf – do you not feel that you are perpetuating the subjugation of Scotland by continuing to converse in the…” Jan 25, 14:23
TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “mair regairdand dhe quaestioun o langage restorans. https://lingodigest.com/when-a-language-wont-awaken-the-hard-truths-of-linguistic-revitalization/#google_vignette given the right tools, imagination, invention, the appropriate «can do»mindset and now…” Jan 25, 14:17
agentx on Yelling at the tide: “Sven says: 25 January, 2026 at 11:27 am Can’t really say it’s much of a surprise that in the US…” Jan 25, 14:17
James Cheyne on Yelling at the tide: “TURABDIN, AI as a assist tool in language is interesting, rather than attaining a higher intellectual grade than humans themselves…” Jan 25, 14:02
James Cheyne on Yelling at the tide: “Sven, That very question you asked of the messenger rather than of the message is exactly how modern psyops works,…” Jan 25, 13:34
Insider on Yelling at the tide: ““Get a grip, Alf. Why don’t you demand that the citizens of Venezuela, say, stop speaking Spanish? Brazil now. Shouldn’t…” Jan 25, 13:15
sam on Yelling at the tide: “And none of what you write in the first two lines happened.” Jan 25, 13:13
Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““Who in Scotland really gives a shit about speaking Scots, apart from the few who think like you?” Oor name…” Jan 25, 12:27
Sven on Yelling at the tide: ““The mind that is curious enough to apply questions to serious events is seldom a useful tool.” I’m maybe misunderstanding…” Jan 25, 12:26
TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “Cherish the gifts of the past, but do not overlay those gifts with personal additions. Give the gifts room to…” Jan 25, 11:58
