This really is grim, folks. Remember the days when there had to be overflow rooms for the leader’s speech at the SNP conference, in venues holding thousands? Now they can’t come close to filling 750 seats in a 2000-seat arena.
The reception afforded to Sturgeon yesterday, who left the party in the pile of wreckage that the hapless Yousaf is still trying to stumble through, was a symptom of desperate people clinging forlornly to the shadow of better times, like an abandoned dog seeking the last bits of warmth and scent from its owner’s chair.
But those days are gone, never to return. This is the barren, foreboding autumn of the SNP, the cold ground thickly carpeted in the lifeless, crumbling and silent remains of lost members fallen from branches.
We thought this was overdue an update. It’s got about 16 new front pages on it, one whole new row and a handful of newly-rediscovered replacements. It really is worth taking a few minutes to peruse it properly (click on the pic to enlarge it) to get the full effect of eight wasted years of deja vu disappointment.
It’s not even The National’s fault. They’re a business, they’re simply trying to sell a few papers to a diminishing audience of endlessly gullible eejits. The real fault lies with the halfwitted SNP members who just keep on doggedly failing to learn a single lesson, and repeatedly vote to carry on doing what they know doesn’t work and never will.
As alert readers will have noticed, Wings has been perusing the SNP’s Governance And Transparency Review over the last couple of days, a document which tentatively attempts to discern just how big a mess the party’s previous leadership has left it in.
The paper has now also reached the mainstream media.
Wings already touched on that particular aspect of the party’s mismanagement back in August, but in the light of the report now formally acknowledging the problem it’s worth taking a moment to establish just how astonishingly bad it is.
The writing, we mean. Because it’s not until you see it baldly written down in black and white that it really hits you how insane it is.
The SNP has 44 MPs now, and has not managed to enter independence negotiations.
Winning 29 seats would represent a LOSS of 15, or more than a third.
And they’re about to stand up in front of voters and insist that that would somehow compel the UK government to hand over what they’ve been flatly refusing since 2016.
(It’s all pretty academic anyway, obv, as we’ll be amazed if they get double figures.)
The very last shred of credibility has left the building, readers.
Labour won far more handsomely in last night’s by-election than anyone – and we very strongly suspect that includes themselves – expected. If the swing of over 20% was to be repeated nationwide next year (which it won’t be, but we’ll get to that in a minute), the SNP would be reduced to six or seven seats, as Wings has predicted for a while.
From the abject pit of despair of 2015, when Labour lost 40 of its 41 MPs in Scotland, let’s look at how the party has powered back to recapture the hearts of voters.
Humza Yousaf didn’t turn up to the count tonight. In the end, even on a dreadfully low turnout of 37%, Labour won by 9,446 votes, with more than twice as many as the SNP.
It was a much worse defeat for the governing party than most expected. There should be only one outcome.
Towbar Sullivan on The Gulf War: “Now and again I read the Guardian for a laugh. There’s an article in it “Labour needs complete ‘reset’ to…” Jan 1, 21:33
DaveL on The Gulf War: “Stop yer whining.” Jan 1, 19:42
diabloandco on The Gulf War: “Seconded!” Jan 1, 19:30
twathater on The Fear Of The Briar: “Alf reform have been back pedaling on their policies e.g. their opposition to the gender woo woo , the immigration…” Jan 1, 18:18
twathater on The Gulf War: “@ James Cheyne as our infested deluded yoonionists keep telling US the ONLY one who has the authority or right…” Jan 1, 18:05
James Cheyne on The Gulf War: “Are you upset… didums. Trying to control the narrative, as far as I am aware it still relates to Scots…” Jan 1, 16:46
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Gulf War: “KID-ON SCOTLAND Cardboard box with two holes cut for eyes. Wee boy in there pretending he wants out. In reality…” Jan 1, 16:41
Alf Baird on The Gulf War: “The Rev has rightly again pointed out the ever widening gulf between votes for SNP and votes for independence. By…” Jan 1, 16:27
sam on The Gulf War: “Guid New Year, James. I used AI to get this information. The sources quoted include “thebarristergroup.co.uk”. “Search Assist Yes, there…” Jan 1, 16:26
Insider on The Gulf War: “James Cheyne says: 1 January, 2026 at 3:49 pm “Scotland is a independent Country,” Well, so glad to hear that’s…” Jan 1, 16:08
sam on The Gulf War: “The decision is written by the Tribunal judge and his panel.I doubt they were stupid enough to believe this would…” Jan 1, 16:00
James Cheyne on The Gulf War: “Should Scotland be an independent Country, Scotland is a independent Country, just that England and media controls the narrative not…” Jan 1, 15:49
James Cheyne on The Gulf War: “AI is a computer, A computers output is only as good or sound as the creators imput. That why you…” Jan 1, 15:37
David Holden on The Gulf War: “Honest John one of the first successful charisma bypass operations in our wee country. As for James Kelly and his…” Jan 1, 15:33
Robert McAllan on The Fear Of The Briar: “Andy Wightman ‘the keynote speaker’??? FFS the ba’s burst afore it even touches the slates!!!” Jan 1, 15:25
100%Yes on The Gulf War: “What I find totally unbelievable is how people actually do believe Liberate Scotland or the Alba party is going to…” Jan 1, 15:24
James Cheyne on The Gulf War: “Voters decisions. One nation has spent over three Centuries trying to rid themselves of the indigenous Scots vermin from Scotland,…” Jan 1, 15:23
geoff on The Gulf War: “You don’t seem well.” Jan 1, 15:10
100%Yes on The Gulf War: “Alf, I’m afraid a lonely fart will have more effect than liberate Scotland will. We need to stop fucking around…” Jan 1, 15:10
Alf Baird on The Gulf War: “Yes, national identity and therefore national consciousness (based on culture and indigenous languages) is a central feature in colonial societies…” Jan 1, 14:53
Lorna Campbell on The Gulf War: “Happy New Year, ane an a. Great piece, Rev. If the Sandie Peggie appeal is successful on the grounds that…” Jan 1, 14:41
Northcode on The Gulf War: ““Westminster will never allow Scotland’s money to escape no matter what.” It isn’t up to Westminster… it’s in the gift…” Jan 1, 14:34
Lorna Campbell on The Fear Of The Briar: “Do you know of any party that disbanded itself after independence, David? Even if the SNP lose eventually, they will…” Jan 1, 14:33
James Barr Gardner on The Fear Of The Briar: “The BBC publishing the Scottish Newspapers front pages does not have the Nationals, strange every time the National has strong…” Jan 1, 14:31
Effijy on The Gulf War: “Westminster will never allow Scotland’s money to escape no matter what. We know that Westminster initiated the murderous Highland Clearances…” Jan 1, 14:16
Northcode on The Gulf War: ““…the continued ‘strategic drift’ of the once dominant national party onto the jaggy rocks of colonialism.” An apposite metaphor, one…” Jan 1, 14:14
sarah on Off-topic: “No steak pie but the remnant of carbonnade des marinieres – steak casserole – that my better half made the…” Jan 1, 14:10
sam on The Gulf War: “https://theconversation.com/twenty-five-years-of-data-shows-how-link-between-identity-and-views-on-scottish-independence-has-grown-stronger-266963 “People’s views on how Scotland should be governed have always reflected to some degree whether they feel Scottish or…” Jan 1, 14:09
sarah on The Gulf War: ““…just stay drunk.” No. Just keep watching the Scotland World Cup-qualifying goal replays. I do! It does wonders for my…” Jan 1, 14:05
Alf Baird on The Gulf War: “The now ever widening gulf between votes for SNP and votes for independence may be likened to the established business…” Jan 1, 13:59
