The recently-restored Wings Twitter account has a little over 56,000 followers, the vast bulk of them accumulated at a time when this site had far less reason to criticise the SNP or the Scottish Government. So while this poll isn’t scientific, the indy-friendly nature of the respondent base makes it pretty interesting.
Those numbers closely mirror what every actual proper poll tells us about Scottish people’s opinion of the GRR itself – they oppose it by margins of between 3:1 and 4:1. So if the Scottish Government is counting on the UK’s intervention to increase support for independence, frankly it looks like they’re onto a massive loser.
…by which we mean “IQs in the history of the Scottish Parliament”.
Put a cushion on your desk before you start listening to this, gang, or you might hurt your jaw. Because surely nobody quite as paralysingly, catastrophically thick as this clueless, bumbling, deranged and dangerous imbecile has ever been allowed to make the laws of Scotland before. We wouldn’t let her make orange squash, to be honest.
And yes, we’re including Kezia Dugdale and Jamie Greene in that reckoning.
We’ve been meaning to talk about this for a few days, but other stuff kept coming up.
(Click pic to enlarge.)
Alert readers won’t have failed to notice a steady drip of stories being fed to the media in recent weeks from SNP figures talking down the idea of the next general election as a de facto referendum.
Many in the party, such as new Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, are clearly very uncomfortable about having been pushed into doing, well, pretty much anything to actually try to achieve independence, even if it’s still two years away, because having (in most cases only recently) acquired themselves some lovely lucrative Westminster careers and pensions they’re not keen on suddenly risking losing them.
A few months ago, we all had a good chuckle at Pete Wishart’s screeching 180-degree turn on the subject of using a plebiscitary election for independence, a strategy which switched overnight from “suicidal, disastrous fringe lunacy with no hope of success” to “genius plan Nicola herself came up with”.
But after that crude ad-hoc field patch, we’re delighted to be able to report that Pete has submitted himself to SNP HQ for a full operating system update and is now fully compliant with the New Truth.
(The largest number that said No, around 118,000, didn’t tick the boxes of either transwoman, transman or non-binary, nor wrote in their own. An unknown number of these may have been rejecting “gender” altogether. 30,000 ticked “non-binary” and 18,000 wrote in a gender because they were REALLY special.)
But, as we’ve been told times out of number, we must accept what people say about themselves. So 48,000 transwomen it is. So few. So vulnerable. And that number got me thinking.
For what these are about, see here. This one’s from 23 August 2019.
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I’m going to talk about this story for a bit, and I’m sorry because I’m as sick of this subject as everyone else is but it’s really really important. Tune out for 10 minutes if you must.
I’ve never been a person who suffered from blackouts. In my younger days I would frequently drink Olympian amounts of booze and pass out in a heap (and/or pool of my own vomit) under a table, but when I woke up I always remembered how I got there. I also went under general anaesthetic a couple of times at the dentist when I was wee, and always remembered counting down from 10 with the mask on before I woke up. (“10…9…8…zzzzzzzz”)
In my entire half-century on this planet, there’s only one gap in my memory. (Like, I don’t remember what I had for dinner on 8 July 1987, but you know what I mean. I remembered it the next day, just not any more.)
It happened when I was about 14, playing rugby at school.
We don’t know how long our Twitter account will survive for this time. But even if it does, there are some threads which Twitter hides from its Search function, for reasons unknown. Try it yourself – search Twitter for any phrases from the text below. You won’t find them. (Also, some of you don’t use Twitter, so hey, new content for you!)
A handful of those threads mean something to me, so I’m going to preserve them here, unedited, for posterity, just in case. This one is from 24 November 2019. The tweet it references at the start is from a now-banned account so I don’t remember it exactly, but it was something about lesbians being thrown off a Pride march.
[NB as it’s from Twitter, it’s a little bit swearier than you’ll be used to here.]
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I’m going to talk for a bit about why I care so much about this issue, because I know some of you are sick of it.
I’m opposed to the idea of self-ID on every possible level. It’s against science, it’s against reason, against tolerance, against women. But those are all intellectual, dispassionate judgements. They’re not the reason I feel so deeply about it.
Alert readers of Wings will know that I have a fondness for sweet and fruity things, and a particular favourite of mine are Tropical Vibes still lemonades. (NB Other drinks are available, this site is in no way sponsored by or financially affiliated to Tropical Vibes.)
I especially like their Ocean Blue variety, a deliciously sharp and tangy refresher which contains real blueberry juice.
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “He may have been given bad advice but I think his bottle crashed. Alistair Darling! A snake in the grass…” Sep 10, 12:29
Confused on Anything But That: “a govt which prioritised its own citizens welfare would not suffer this https://archive.ph/GImrN – we would be on long term…” Sep 10, 12:10
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Thanks Spartan 117. I try my best. I agree Hatey and James are a pair of sad old bastards. I…” Sep 10, 12:08
Confused on Anything But That: “from their own mouths, the carpetbaggers are happy, and that’s all that matters https://archive.ph/v8vz1 – unstated, but you can read…” Sep 10, 12:07
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Bronze age tripod. That is interesting. What would that be for? Are you detecting on specific areas? Historical sights.” Sep 10, 11:58
sam on Anything But That: “James, I hope this is of interest to you. Across Europe from 16th century the petition was a means of…” Sep 10, 11:49
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Ah, c’moan noo, Spartan. Ye’ve goat a wee touch o’ green aboot ye cos naeboady’s paying ye fer yer posts.…” Sep 10, 11:26
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “I can envisage a few Indy scenarios that don’t entail mutual co-operation with England. Every one of them is catastrophic…” Sep 10, 11:21
Spartan 117 on Anything But That: “James, Hatey and Mark displaying they have nothing else in their empty lives to do than sit on here all…” Sep 10, 11:15
Captain Caveman on Anything But That: “Che spambot in full flow, I see. Give it a bloody rest, will you?” Sep 10, 10:02
Colin Alexander on Anything But That: “My gut instinct is that the YES campaign was deliberately designed to fail. I suspect that pressure was also applied…” Sep 10, 09:46
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “I made no comment about my personal life, James. 🙂” Sep 10, 09:42
James Che on Anything But That: “Hatey, I don’t think anyone enquired about your’e personal life.” Sep 10, 09:17
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Much like dogging.” Sep 10, 09:08
James Che on Anything But That: “Hence my interest in researching historical records, maps, buildings, old battles and history in general began,” Sep 10, 09:03
James Che on Anything But That: “Forgot dozens of horse shoes and tools, A interesting hobby because its like a lucky dip, some days you come…” Sep 10, 08:36
James Che on Anything But That: “Did I find any thing interest? Yes I suppose depending on what a person is interested in, every thing from…” Sep 10, 08:30
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Man, must be 35 years since I last opened some embassies. Happy days. But glad I stopped.” Sep 10, 08:14
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Duncan MacTrump says; Currency: That was the question that sunk Big Eck. Great guy, treated very badly by very nasty…” Sep 10, 02:36
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Does Scotland have any legal right (As the law now stands) to open embassies?” Sep 10, 01:47
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Metal detector? Find anything interesting?” Sep 10, 01:25
James Che on Anything But That: “I personally think that John Swinney and Andy Burnham have a lot in common in how they run Countries.” Sep 10, 00:55
James Che on Anything But That: “As the Devolved governance parliament in Scotland from Westminster parliaments “Scotland Act,” The Westminster parliament has every right to launch…” Sep 10, 00:47
James Che on Anything But That: “I see the Telegraph is suggesting that Andy Burnham is running the parliament similar as a boy Scout leval.” Sep 10, 00:37
James Che on Anything But That: “In a attempt to give you more meat on the bone, I will have to refer you to the Westminster…” Sep 10, 00:32
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Naw, Alf. In as much as neoliberalism has an agreed definition at all, its meaning has nothing to do with…” Sep 9, 23:16
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “You are dribbling your Buckfast.” Sep 9, 23:07
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “I respect that James. But it is too high brow, technical, academia land. We plebs need meat on the bones” Sep 9, 23:05
Alf Baird on Anything But That: ““the basic point of neoliberalism” and of course liberal imperialism and its colonial procedures. A colonized people suffer from territorial…” Sep 9, 21:38
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Every time someone asks Andy Burnham a question he does this amazing goldfish out of water impersonation.” Sep 9, 19:59
