It’s the same old song 482
Posted on
June 22, 2022 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Beware of liars 337
Posted on
June 15, 2022 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Even when you’re retired, some things are too journalistically offensive to let pass, such as this piece of absolute garbage we just saw from The National today.
The paper’s anonymous reporter set off all our red warning lights at once.
What Didn’t Happen 102
Posted on
June 15, 2022 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
There was, very obviously, no “indyref2 campaign launch” yesterday, not least for the reason that there is no indyref2. Nothing whatsoever has changed from the situation which has persisted for the last six years, namely that the SNP says it wants another referendum and the UK government says it can’t have one.
There has been no agreement and there has been no legal judgement settling the impasse. No laws have been passed, no date has been set (though a flustered Angus Robertson blurted out something about next October on Good Morning Scotland), no preparations have been made.
And while The National might have another 10-page special today insisting that the game is on, the house comic of the SNP’s woke wing has, one might gently say, a certain amount of prior form in this regard.
So we’ll make this brief.
The Magic Of Vision 160
Posted on
June 13, 2022 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
While this site remains mothballed, it’s nice to keep a steady trickle of traffic going just in case it ever needs to spring back to life, eg if someone actually interested in independence suddenly somehow becomes leader of the SNP again.
So we thought it might be fun to just briefly link to some old articles as and when they became topical once more, and as luck would have it tomorrow is such an occasion.
Because that’s when the SNP will launch the first of a series of new papers outlining the First Minister’s “vision” of independence by waffling on about how it would be a jolly good thing, in the unlikely event that she ever got off her extremely well-paid arse and achieved it.
Less Is More 426
Posted on
June 09, 2022 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
It’s now almost a year and a month since this website announced its cessation as a continuing endeavour, with the “final decision” clause being invoked four months later.
Since Wings confirmed its formal closure as a blog there have nevertheless been 19 posts in eight-and-a-half months, comprising a mixture of polls (the site’s remaining purpose), guest posts, admin, a couple of throwaway joke videos and very occasional one-off, polling-related comment pieces on significant occasions like the SNP marking 15 years in power or Nicola Sturgeon becoming the longest-serving First Minister.
So it’s a little bit startling that it’s still – and by a considerable distance – the world’s most-read Scottish politics site.
(In fact, bigger than the next three put together.)
Any second now 88
Posted on
June 08, 2022 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
This was overdue an update. Two extra rows now added.
(Click for full size image with legible dates. Landscape version here.)
Firing blanks 1,154
Posted on
May 22, 2022 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
This is getting properly embarrassing.
Because that starting gun must be red-hot by now.
Scotland is lost 740
Posted on
May 09, 2022 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We’re still retired, but this just can’t go unremarked.
This is absolute banana-republic stuff. Even before you get into any of the specifics of the case, it’s simply not the Crown Office’s job to interfere with a police investigation by telling them who they may and may not interview under caution.
Scottish justice is extremely seriously compromised.
Signing up new seamen fast 134
Posted on
May 08, 2022 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
As we’re a polling site now, a brief post on polls.
In a column for today’s Herald on Sunday, Iain Macwhirter repeats the frequently-made assertion that “Boris Johnson is loathed in Scotland and is the best recruiting sergeant for independence since Margaret Thatcher”.
The first part is certainly true, as it has been of pretty much every Tory Prime Minister of the last 40 years. But the second part simply isn’t borne out by the facts.
Above (click to enlarge) is the graph of Yes polling since Johnson became PM. It shows support for independence FALLING from 52% to 49% during his term in office.
If you discount the Lord Ashcroft poll from a few days after he entered Downing Street (because Ashcroft isn’t a British Polling Council member), the graph becomes Nicola Sturgeon’s political speciality – a flat line, from 49% to 49%.
Johnson has “recruited” nobody. Those are the cold hard facts.
A Game Of Two Halves 449
Posted on
May 03, 2022 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
15 years ago this week (today if you’re counting strictly by date, Thursday if you want to go with election days) the SNP came to power in Scotland for the first time ever. The media operating in Scotland is full of retrospectives and polls on the period, but as usual they’ve missed the real story, as a reader pointed out to us a few days ago.
So for old times’ sake, let’s do their job properly for them one more time.
Voting for people who hate you 77
Posted on
May 02, 2022 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We had some poll questions out with Panelbase last week. The results were in most ways wholly unsurprising, in line with all previous polls on the subject. Here they are.
To Ministers of the Scottish Government 34
Posted on
May 02, 2022 by
For Women Scotland
To: Humza Yousaf (Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care), Shirley-Anne Somerville (Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills) and Clare Haughey (Minister for Children and Young People)
28 April 2022
Dear Mr Yousaf, Ms Somerville and Ms Haughey,
Cass Interim Report: Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people – Implications for Scotland
