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Wings Over Scotland


The Party’s Over 399

Posted on April 09, 2023 by

On a day like today, all an honest person can really do with the Scottish National Party is make like Pontius Pilate and wash their hands of it.

Because there ain’t no resurrection from this.

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That Sinking Feeling 217

Posted on April 08, 2023 by

Stranger Things 364

Posted on April 05, 2023 by

Well, what an odd day that’s been.

Because for a start, if you’re the one person in Scotland who believes the above, please drop us a line. We’d love to have a chat with you.

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Lipstick On Your Collar 338

Posted on April 05, 2023 by

Until a few weeks ago Calum Steele was the chief of the Scottish Police Federation, so as due-credits go we particularly appreciate this one.

So let’s remind ourselves of a few things.

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Two separate facts 114

Posted on April 05, 2023 by

Presented without comment.


And a bonus one, from two years and one day ago:

At the edge of the deep blue sea 76

Posted on April 04, 2023 by

So a week and a bit after the deadline, this arrived.

And it’s not quite what you were told before.

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Inside The Cult 161

Posted on April 03, 2023 by

In June of last year, I started work at Transport Scotland. It wasn’t the best job I’ve ever had. It was pretty much an entry-level post and it was only a temp gig through an agency, but after spending almost six years out of the workforce following a bout with cancer, two frozen shoulders, and chronic knee and hip pain, it was a huge relief just to be earning my keep again.

Of course, June is Pride Month, and Saltire (the Scottish Government’s intranet) was full of news and blogs about “LGBTI+” issues.

Also on the Saltire front page was a prominent invitation to two training sessions to understand the issues facing these groups: “LGBT+ Awareness 101” and “Trans 101”.

These were both run by the LGBTI+ Network, one of several “affinity networks” for civil servants belonging to different groups. With the GRR Bill on the horizon, and having heard stories about how difficult it had been for gender critical groups to get a hearing from the Government in relation to it, I was very curious to hear what this training involved, and I signed up to attend via Teams.

The first session was “LGBT+ Awareness 101”. This session was fairly inoffensive. The content regarding gay people was about what you would expect, and the T+ stuff was clearly biased, but not terrible.

However, the tone of the event suggested quite strongly that you weren’t meant to disagree with anything that was said. Towards the end, when questions were invited, I typed my question into the chat:

“How does the Scottish Government handle conflicts between TERFs and trans people?”

And there my troubles began.

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Whatever else may change 161

Posted on April 01, 2023 by

Scottish politics might be a binfire floating down an overflowing sewer, but it’s nice to know there are at least a few things that are reliable constants, and one of them is that George Foulkes is an idiot.

But while his tweet is wrong, it’s not VERY wrong.

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As you were 103

Posted on April 01, 2023 by

Minority Report 131

Posted on March 31, 2023 by

It’s not often we have to correct the figures of an esteemed KC like Joanna Cherry, but she’s made a straight-up mistake in her column for The National today.

Because of course Ash Regan and Kate Forbes did rather better than that.

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Before the storm 394

Posted on March 29, 2023 by

To be honest, Humza Yousaf’s new Cabinet satirises itself – everyone’s picking on the absurdity of noted idiot Shona Robison becoming Finance Secretary but the funniest is surely omnifailure Shirley-Anne Somerville as Trans Rights – sorry, “Social Justice” Secretary – so rather than waste our breath on it today we’re going to catch up on some results from our latest Panelbase poll that we haven’t managed to squeeze in amid the mayhem of the last couple of weeks.

They tell us some interesting things about the Scotland the new FM now leads.

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Better living through higher prices 331

Posted on March 28, 2023 by

Well, we’re off to a flying start.

This is certainly what the public want. So let’s see his plans.

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    • Geri on Faces In Sand: “It’s not such a bad idea to self delete themselves fae social media until the adults are back in room.…” Oct 20, 15:31
    • Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “”… modernism/neoMarxism/oppressor-oppressed nonsense that, if they had one critical braincell, they would question and refute. However, so powerful a hold…” Oct 20, 15:26
    • Northcode on Faces In Sand: “Sam, yes — the Knight case is an important moment in Scots legal history. It’s just not related to the…” Oct 20, 15:23
    • sam on Faces In Sand: “Northcode, For your information. Posted earlier further up the thread. In 1778 Scots law rejected slavery. The Court of Session…” Oct 20, 15:00
    • Northcode on Faces In Sand: “I’m not debating intent or moral responsibility. My point throughout has been purely structural: participation by elites is not the…” Oct 20, 14:41
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: ““I daresay, this is actually quite amusing in its own right” Hmmm. Aren’t you an “outsider” though? This requires prior…” Oct 20, 14:27
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: ““Something has happened to the last two generations” There’s a world of difference between destitute people who emigrate to make…” Oct 20, 14:24
    • Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “You’re tying yourself into knots again, aren’t you Northy? A right old cul-de-sac there. I daresay, this is actually quite…” Oct 20, 14:09
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: ““thus establishing that no person could be held as a slave under Scots law” Fascinating. Take the underage Scottish lassies,…” Oct 20, 14:08
    • sam on Faces In Sand: “Robert Wedderburn was the illegitimate child of James Wedderburn and a black slave, Rosanna. His early life shaped his attitudes…” Oct 20, 14:03
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: ““talking absolute pish” Naw. You just can’t bear to acknowledge that when hostile, armed aggressors are hundreds of miles into…” Oct 20, 13:59
    • Southernbystander on Faces In Sand: “Sure and I didn’t mean to do that but at the end of the day is not your analysis suggesting…” Oct 20, 13:52
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: ““I’m describing why insider humour and outsider humour land differently — which is a descriptive point, not a moral one”…” Oct 20, 13:49
    • sam on Faces In Sand: “In 1778 Scots law rejected slavery. The Court of Session ruled in the case of Joseph Knight that Scotland could…” Oct 20, 13:47
    • Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “Not for the first time, Northy, you’re (disingenuously) trying to hide behind a dictionary definition of “sovereignty” to dodge the…” Oct 20, 13:44
    • sam on Faces In Sand: “Sir John Wedderburn fought at Culloden for the Jacobites, was captured and executed. His two sons who had fought with…” Oct 20, 13:42
    • Lorncal on Faces In Sand: “H McH: It is a strange thing that those of us, from previous generations, who emigrated to far-flung places perhaps…” Oct 20, 13:38
    • Northcode on Faces In Sand: “I’m not talking about absolution or moral judgement. I’m talking about the structural difference between elite participation and national sovereignty.…” Oct 20, 13:23
    • Spartan 117 on Faces In Sand: “Sorry, you’re talking absolute pish, as per. Have a nice day.” Oct 20, 13:22
    • Northcode on Faces In Sand: “It seems you both are responding to an emotional claim I didn’t make. I’m not arguing that Scots should be…” Oct 20, 13:05
    • Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “You’re applying a clear double standard here to absolve pre-1707 Scotland while holding England to a completely different metric. First…” Oct 20, 12:53
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “Sorry, Northy, but “only following orders” was debunked decades ago. I hope you’re not about to be indicted for something…” Oct 20, 12:33
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: ““brainwashed us with being supposed to hate for, er, “reasons”” Check out Vinted. They’ll have plenty of pedestals to sell,…” Oct 20, 12:30
    • Southernbystander on Faces In Sand: “There are valid points here. It is interesting that in my experience jokes about (against) the English by non-English people…” Oct 20, 12:23
    • Northcode on Faces In Sand: “It’s also worth noting that imperial England recruited elites from many places — Ireland, Wales, India, Africa, the Caribbean, Canada,…” Oct 20, 12:18
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: ““Essex humour is not tied to national identity” And there we see the core of the matter exposed. Northy is…” Oct 20, 12:12
    • Northcode on Faces In Sand: “Caveman, the point isn’t whether some Scots participated — they clearly did. The distinction I’m making is between elite participation…” Oct 20, 12:06
    • Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “I think the germane point is that Scotland – in conjunction with England – was a very willing, highly effective…” Oct 20, 11:28
    • Northcode on Faces In Sand: “Aidan, yes — elites on both sides participated in imperial expansion, and the effects weren’t evenly distributed across either society.…” Oct 20, 11:18
    • Aidan on Faces In Sand: “Absolutely Northcode – but a more succinct way of putting it is that English and Scottish elites both working together…” Oct 20, 11:07
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