Seasoned readers will recall that on occasion we’ve pondered the mystery that is the membership of the itself-enigmatic entity sometimes called “Scottish Labour”.
Establishing how many members the party actually has is a puzzle that has eluded the best and brightest in Scottish journalism for years, but thanks to a tip from an alert commenter Wings Over Scotland may be able to make the breakthrough today.
The longer this site goes on, the more we realise we could really do with some sort of proper indexing system, rather than relying on our bullet-riddled memory to be able to recall the details of something we wrote a year ago.
So in the week that the “Better Together” campaign celebrated its first birthday, and we learned that it refers to itself internally as “Project Fear”, we thought we’d collect a few of our favourite impressions of it from its own supporters (and the odd neutral) in one place where they might be easier to find.
I’m going to do something I only do rarely and write this post in the personal pronoun, because it’s very much a personal view rather than an attempt to speak for a wider section of the independence movement. But although it’s been forming for a while, it was finally triggered by an Ian Bell comment piece in the Herald today.
You should read it all, but the key paragraph is this one:
“You have to pause, then, and ask yourself why policies that have failed for three long years cause barely a whisper of argument in Westminster. The only sensible inference, surely, is that what looks like failure to some is a very satisfactory state of affairs to others.”
That simple, understated last sentence cuts to the very heart of why Scots will stand at the edge of a terrible abyss in September 2014, with a herd of buffalo stampeding towards them, and seriously consider NOT grasping at the rope ladder dangling from the last helicopter offering to carry them safely away from the cliff edge.
Hang on – didn’t our “Project Fear” pals spend half of last year sobbing and wailing and raging that a certain tri-morpheme prefix was leading and unfair and beastly and a clear attempt at rigging the referendum by the dastardly, unprincipled Nats?
Maybe our memory’s playing tricks on us. We’re pretty old.
Oddly, despite much trailing of it before publication, we haven’t seen any major coverage of Alex Salmond’s lengthy interview with the New Statesman last week in the media. We kept forgetting to go to the shop for a copy, but today we downloaded the magazine’s iPad app, which contains the full interview among its free content.
That being the case, we’re comfortable with reprinting it for the purposes of discussion. We’ve tidied the formatting up for ease of reading – the NS’s sub-editor/style guide compiler needs shooting, frankly – and added our own commentary (in red) where appropriate. A few quibbles aside, it’s a fascinating and quoteable piece. Have a read.
It’s hard to know where to start on picking apart the torrent of misrepresentations, distortions and flat-out untruths that “Better Together” campaign director Blair McDougall was allowed to get away with in the space of a few short minutes during a rather powder-puff interview on last night’s Scotland Tonight.
So let’s just pick one at random and see how we get on.
A comment from a reader sent us off on a spot of Googling this morning. If you type nothing but the word “Wimbledon” into the search engine, the top result isn’t actually a link, but instead some sort of unclickable wired-in tournament schedule data.
A striking feature of the data is the national flags beside each contestant. We couldn’t help wondering what would happen if we typed in Andy Murray’s name.
Each bright new day brings a fresh game of Spot The Magnus Gardham Headline here at WingsLand Towers, but we were a bit thrown by this morning’s front page.
“Economists say indyref could drive investors away” is pure Magnus, but that four-word qualifier tacked on the end is a bit out of character. What could be going on?
Seasoned readers will be aware of our as-yet-undiscovered mole at “Better Together” campaign headquarters. This morning the intrepid fifth columnist has managed to scan us the cover of the group’s handbook for activists (and forthcoming YouTube movie).
We’re sure more pages will be on the way soon, most days in the papers.
sam on A Long Hard Think: “The documents reportedly included information on torture:physical and psychological torture was employed against suspected Mau Mau members and sympathisers. There…” Sep 12, 16:39
James on A Long Hard Think: “See, Jockos; it’s all yer own fault. So sing the “all day, every day” unionists. Dealing with a hollow, insulting…” Sep 12, 16:36
Mark Beggan on A Long Hard Think: “So what. We don’t care. Stop crying and grow up. It would be ironic if you got raped by an…” Sep 12, 15:38
Captain Caveman on A Long Hard Think: “‘Ferries procurement’ comes to mind. Well, if your entire government – and bloated Civil Service – is filled to the…” Sep 12, 14:32
Marie on A Long Hard Think: “@chas 11.41am – 300 years is nothing. Absolutely nothing. And yes, the colonial authorities did destroy documentation relating to their…” Sep 12, 14:28
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on A Long Hard Think: “Many thanks to Prof Alf Baird for this presentation: THE COST OF COLONIALISM (5 Sept 2026) www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnfqeZr-2fU” Sep 12, 14:24
100%Yes on A Long Hard Think: “Please have a look at the link below, your be amazed at the shit that’s happening in Scotland. https://www.isp.scot/september-5th-september-11th-2026/” Sep 12, 13:47
Knuckle_Heid on A Long Hard Think: “Kind of related to Stu’s headline story – on 14th of July (almost two months ago) David Hendry & Sean…” Sep 12, 12:35
Knuckle_Heid on A Long Hard Think: “Very interesting Willie, I read Robin McAlpines articles about the Standards Commission / Fiona Higgins case and was appalled at…” Sep 12, 12:28
Alf Baird on A Long Hard Think: ““There really are jobs that take years, even decades, of experience to master” That’s a valid point, Hatey. ‘Ferries procurement’…” Sep 12, 12:00
Confused on A Long Hard Think: “everyone else is doing it, why don’t we https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/09/12/trump-united-ireland-would-be-a-great-thing/ trump, at the very least, doesn’t give a fuck about england.…” Sep 12, 11:53
willie on A Long Hard Think: “Interesting how on his visit to Ireland that President Trump said he thought a united Ireland would be a good…” Sep 12, 11:45
Chas on A Long Hard Think: “Yep. 300+ years will be wiped out because professor crank says so. Of course, with some help from some dubious…” Sep 12, 11:41
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “Fair enough, Alf, post-Indy everybody currently running Scotland will flee to London as predicted by the post colonial boys. Does…” Sep 12, 11:32
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: ““Scotland’s people are closer to ending the UK ‘union’ hoax than many think” That will undoubtedly rely on a personalised…” Sep 12, 11:16
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: ““you’re the wings champion” Shucks, I’m welling up here. Tell you what, Dave, if you post another after this one…” Sep 12, 11:05
Alf Baird on A Long Hard Think: ““if we’d voted Yes in 2014, although even the most cursory thought would tell us it would be much the…” Sep 12, 10:30
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “Anarcho tyranny and neo feudalism are two of the terms being used to describe the state of affairs we see.…” Sep 12, 10:23
DaveL on A Long Hard Think: “…don’t stop there! Last word, come on you can do it. We all know you can do it, you’re the…” Sep 12, 10:18
DaveL on A Long Hard Think: “Ten twenty and more at a time soon mounts up but you know better eh. Any idea what the service…” Sep 12, 10:12
Alf Baird on A Long Hard Think: ““burning down the court house records to protect the guilty” was, according to Prof Elkins, a rather common feature in…” Sep 12, 10:11
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: ““You’re just to thick and gobby for your own good” Aha! The Baton of Erudition has been recovered and is…” Sep 12, 10:00
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “I absolutely and categorically believe with every fiber of my being that “ten, twenty or more” isn’t “thousands”. Just as…” Sep 12, 09:51
Spartan 117 on A Long Hard Think: “Good post. Your second paragraph accurately sums up the current state of the whole of the UK. We are ruled…” Sep 12, 09:39
Spartan 117 on A Long Hard Think: “It’s not hard to imagine Chas as that’s exactly what we have at present.” Sep 12, 09:30
DaveL on A Long Hard Think: “The reasoning is quite simple and easy to see. People the police like are left alone to do as they…” Sep 12, 09:25
DaveL on A Long Hard Think: “Do you think that when ten, twenty or more people lifted at a time on ‘terrorism’ charges get to wait…” Sep 12, 09:13
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “If you don’t want anybody to be investigated and possibly penalised for the missing money and goods, twathater, just say…” Sep 12, 08:36
twathater on A Long Hard Think: “AND let us also not FORGET Robert Corruption. This sorry excuse for a country, governed by the corrupt for the…” Sep 12, 03:12
twathater on A Long Hard Think: ““That is the UK Gov taking action because the Scottish Gov will not!” Correct. By far the most significant development…” Sep 12, 03:05
