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Wings Over Scotland


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

Down the memory hole again 123

Posted on January 12, 2024 by

The Scottish Government’s website about its controversial and extremely disturbing new “conversion practices” legislation assures citizens that the proposal was formed after consultation with an “Expert Advisory Group”.

But all of a sudden it doesn’t seem to want you to know who they were.

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We don’t need no thought control 148

Posted on January 11, 2024 by

After yesterday’s disturbing article about the indoctrination of Scottish schoolchildren into transgender ideology via the Scottish Government’s proposed new “conversion practices” legislation, Wings was contacted by a number of current Scottish teachers telling us we had no idea how far it had already gone.

The message below was by no means untypical:

“This stuff around the UNCRC has been a concern for a while. Some of the articles seem to be being interpreted in ways they were never intended. It has become a vehicle for activist teachers to push their own agendas, all the while hiding behind ‘children’s rights’.

Getting certified is being pushed heavily in every school. Headteachers seem to be under a lot of pressure (coming from Scottish Government) to get it all implemented. We’re currently working towards silver.”

And we asked: getting certified for what?

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When they come for your children 140

Posted on January 10, 2024 by

The bespectacled older person in the clip below is Aedan Wolton, a biological female (formerly called Aimie) who is the Strategic Lead for Equality at Sport England.

It’s from a 2018 BBC3 documentary called Becoming A Trans Man – Leo. The 15-year-old child in the video plays with a Rubik’s Cube as Wolton, who was 31 at the time, enthusiastically grooms her into transitioning into a “man”, advocating chest binders, a double mastectomy and the irreversible mutilation of her genitalia (“Lower surgery – you want that”) that will, Wolton confirms, lead to her permanent sterilisation, as well as the destruction of her future adult sexual function.

The BBC presents it as a heartwarming tale of friendship.

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The Broken Mike 477

Posted on January 06, 2024 by

Mike Russell, currently at the centre of controversy over his appointment as chair of the Scottish Land Commission, hit the political big stage during Scotland’s first ever SNP administration under Alex Salmond, whom, in turn, Mike had previously seen into office as Salmond’s campaign manager.

In 2007 he was appointed as Minister for Environment, then in 2009 he became the Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution, and his conventional ministerial career concluded when he went on to replace Fiona Hyslop as Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning until the end of 2014.

Following the 2014 independence vote, the pre-referendum era ended with Salmond’s dignified (albeit temporary) stage exit; Nicola Sturgeon took the helm and began to reform what had been left to her by her predecessor.

A core pillar of Sturgeon’s centrist reform was the construction of an almost entirely opaque ivory tower of power from which both SNP and the state would run their covert affairs with subversive, centralizing, strong-arm granularity, cleverly camouflaging its sinister implications from the public through cult-of-personality media management.

Instrumental in this, among a very few select others, was Mike Russell.

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    • Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “An interesting take on things, sam. Some people would rather kill themselves than have a more equitable allocation of scarce…Aug 25, 17:49
    • Aidan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “There has been no “extraordinary rise in mortality” across the UK, the mortality rate has decreased overall since 2010, and…Aug 25, 17:41
    • Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: ““Typical factors: … Housing need and homelessness” Uh Oh. There’s 5.7 million UK households getting cash from the government to…Aug 25, 17:34
    • Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Just for a moment there, Alf, I thought you had a serious point to make. I guess the joke’s on…Aug 25, 17:19
    • Alf Baird on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: ““What a chump was Swinney to accept the Smith Commission crap.” Yes, Swinney also tells the SNP faithful he is…Aug 25, 17:15
    • sarah on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “@ sam: interesting stuff re Barnett and Caithness. Thanks for posting.Aug 25, 16:53
    • sam on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Over the period 2010 to 2019 austerity cuts led to a reduction of about £540 billion. Local government funding and…Aug 25, 16:43
    • Mark Beggan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Broken hearts are for arseholes.Aug 25, 15:56
    • Aidan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “@Sam – the funding received under the Barnett formula is consolidated though, so it’s up to the Scottish Government how…Aug 25, 15:29
    • James on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “But Scotland will still be artificially ‘poor’. All part of the Onion dividend.Aug 25, 14:46
    • Alf Baird on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: ““How did the imperial UK construct prove its immorality yesterday?” So many examples, Hatey, you’re obviously not paying attention to…Aug 25, 14:34
    • sam on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “https://caithness-business.co.uk/article/32159 “What a needs?based formula actually means A needs?based formula allocates funding according to measurable indicators of need, not just…Aug 25, 14:23
    • Captain Caveman on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: ““That it?” I’m betting that’s a phrase you’ve heard quite often.Aug 25, 13:25
    • sam on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Neither of us can say with truth if the Formula meets the needs of Scotland. Here is the abstract from…Aug 25, 12:37
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    • James on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “As I posted earlier. “Disingenuous Adrian”. But hey, worth a try, champ.Aug 25, 12:31
    • James on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “That it? Amateurs in action; must try harder.Aug 25, 12:29
    • Spartan 117 on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Fada bho abhainn an t-sluaigh, as a favourite band of mine sang back in 1991. Zero understanding of the world…Aug 25, 12:16
    • gm on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Swinney was warned, by trained honest people, that the Smith Commission was a miserable effort at containment, nothing more and…Aug 25, 12:00
    • Aidan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Actually James, it’s you trying to post in “scotch”, by which I mean the incoherent meaningless ramblings of someone who…Aug 25, 11:21
    • Captain Caveman on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “”Aw, Adrian’s trying to post in Scotch” Wait, what? “Adrian” (I think you meant Aidan) is trying to post in…Aug 25, 11:06
    • Aidan on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “That’s absolutely right Sam, and one of Joel Barnett’s main criticism is that Scotland’s advantage was essentially baked into the…Aug 25, 11:06
    • Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “I’m gonna refute that any plausible Scot ever refers to himself as Scotch. And I’m gonna question why you slipped…Aug 25, 10:55
    • sam on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Caithness Business Index “It is based on outdated population data The population share used in the formula is updated only…Aug 25, 10:53
    • Hatey McHateface on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: ““Scotland’s energy prices are certainly the highest among all the energy-rich nations” But then you have to define “nation”, Alf.…Aug 25, 10:50
    • sam on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Barnett thought his Formula was “grossly unfair” due to inequalities in public spending. He thought it would be a temporary…Aug 25, 10:48
    • Jay on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “I forgot she is Labour, so used to Unionist SNP.Aug 25, 10:40
    • James on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: “Aw, Adrian’s trying to post in Scotch. Bless. Give it up. petal.Aug 25, 10:40
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    • Alf Baird on You’ll Have Had Your Supper: ““Scotland hasn’t got the highest energy prices in the world” We’ve been though this before Hatey yet you still appear…Aug 25, 10:31
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