Recharge And Revolt
The response to yesterday’s post was pretty unanimous. So let’s find out for real.
Wings Over Scotland has been produced for free for the last three and a half years. Our last operational fundraiser was in May 2019. Then again, we’ve been retired for nearly half that time, with only occasional new posts.
But Scottish politics has never been in a more dire state than it is now, with the SNP stolen from its members by a tiny cabal not interested in independence but only in power for its own sake and the “queering” of Scottish society, while the opposition is a worthless ragbag of hapless incompetents and the media is a national embarrassment.
And since Wings stood back from the fray 18 months ago, absolutely nothing has stepped up to take its place. So if you want the job doing, it looks like we’ll have to do it ourselves again.
Because journalism done properly terrifies those in power. And you have the power to help us keep them as scared as they should be. But we can’t do a full-time job for free and still pay the bills, so it’s time to decide what it’s worth to you.
We’re not doing a big lump-sum fundraiser this time, because (a) this is a test of demand, (b) we don’t need a big lump sum for anything, and (c) these are difficult times and it’s a lot to ask people to find large chunks of money all at once, especially with Christmas coming up.
So instead we’ve put this page up, where you can pledge a small monthly sum to the full-scale revival of Wings, and cancel at any time if cash is too tight or if you’re not satisfied with the service. (It’s also possible to make one-off donations, but what we’re aiming for are regular contributions.)
We could have done that via our normal Donate page, but this way it makes a public statement about whether people are prepared to back proper professional journalism in Scotland, or if they’re content to just accept whatever ad-strewn, data-harvesting, insipid-cheerleading garbage is on offer for nothing.
The louder that statement is, the more it’ll frighten the SNP and the Unionist parties and the media who are all desperate for Wings’ voice to be silenced.
– Kevin McKenna (The National), November 2022
And if instead it’s a timid little squeak, then so be it. We’ll shut the page down, no more payments will be taken, we’ll go back into retirement and Pete Wishart and Karen Adam and These Islands and all the rest of them will dance for joy. It’s your call, folks.
All too happy to assist Stu, albeit it in a small way. I’m sure many others will feel the same way. We need Wings back at full tilt.
Hope my little contribution helps.
Done!! Thank you!
Done.
£10 a month.
Hell, I pay for netflix, spotify and Amazon so this is a drop on the ocean for better content.
Will we still be able to see some form of ‘totaliser’? That’s a biggy for a lot of folk and has tremendous psychological impact on the bleating fearties.
🙂
Thought I couldna love the Rev ony mair – but the boy’s a Raveonettes fan too? It’ll be a pleasure to contribute to Wings again.
Something must be done for Scotland. We can’t leave it to the politicians.
Done . With pleasure and not a little of the auld shady-Freud , in anticipation of the panic in the Nu SNP chicken coop .
Ah ! I love the smell of face-palm in the morning : when the unintended consequences of * them * getting you banned from Twitter become manifest .
HA to the power HA !
IT’S PAST TIME, YES HAPPY TO CONTRIBUTE MONTHLY!
Just set up monthly payment, to Scare them a Lot.
You joined ‘Scare them a bit more’
Happy to help, albeit in a small way
Happy to have ye back and more than happy to support!
Welcome back, we’ve missed you!
Delighted to support!
Could only buy you a coffee at the moment
But glad your back.
Welcome back Stu!
Happy to chip in. Glad it wasn’t the old-style fundraiser because I’m a bit skint now.
Looking forward to more regular content and your inimitable style.
Maybe even the odd bear patrol on the sunnier days.
Excellent news.
Did ask to be notified about new posts by email, but I stopped receiving them about a month ago.
This has been up for an hour and so far £450\month pledged.
The fear will be rising.
I was utterly miserable when you stopped and there has been so much that needed analysed and dismantled since.
Great to get u bak
F*ck yes! I’m in!! ?
With grateful thanks to all the wokeratti at the SNP; hope this works out Stu – we need to turn up the heat, desperately. Recurring donation done.
Signed up.
Money well spent.
I went to set up a payment but it needs paid straight away so it will have to wait till the end of the month, my pension doesnt leave me with a penny at this time of month I’m afraid. But will select the £3/month option then, sorry its not more but when we pensioners get Hunts big inflation-busting pension increase in April, maybe I will manage more. You are worth it Stu, gald ypu are back.
Could only manage three bucks a month but yaaaas!!
I love the smell of SNP fear in the morning!
Best news I’ve heard since Alex Salmond’s comeback. All the right people will be fuming so gaun yersel Stu, I’ll support the fundraiser!
Monthly payment made. Great to have you back. Feel like that’s my Christmas present sorted.
I’m in.
Swapped out one monthly subscription that was growing stale for this equivalent membership level.
Looking forward to Stu creating and curating campaining content to challenge and advocate a faster pace towards independence.
Delighted! Happy to support ?
Done! I used to give SNP £10 a month before all the blue Haired cunts appeared and turned the party into a communal trauma counselling service for misgendered bedwetters. Fuck NuSNP Fuck their pronouns. Long love Wings! Go get them Stu! ?
So I’ve signed up to paying you to hear the analysis I’d rather not know but need to know…that’s a step forward I think.
Honestly it’s been worth it to see the panic since your twitter account briefly emerged. I missed that.
Donated affordable sum. There is unfortunately such a wide range of issues that need the light of day shone on them. Scotland is in a dire state with this SNP government.
Can your next piece be called ” The Kraken awakes”.
Ta, in advance.
Can’t do a monthly sum from Germany. The transfer/currency change fees from my bank are eye-watering, every month..!
5 quid + 25 quid fees..!!
I’ll be doing what I’ve always done and that means a donation with a one-off fee.
Either that or I’ll have to start smuggling contraband with a rowing boat over the North Sea.. 🙂
Done and dusted and delighted I am now a scary Wings member.
It is working already. National reports Blackford is being challenged for Westminster SNP leadership. The power of Wings!
“Scare them a little bit,” all the way up to “Scare them to death.” Oh my, Stu. How many shares do you have in whoever manufactures Depends?
Blackford coup. Stephen Flynn is after his job.
https://twitter.com/scotnational/status/1593304227870392320?s=46&t=rffqpvSAduv9A9CcVhU_5w
Done. And thank you for returning at this time of deep gloom.
Twenty-five quid in fees, Graf Midgehunter? How come? I’ll be contributing later once I have discussed finances with my wife but, from what I see, one can pay with a card. My credit union here in NC charges 15 cents per transaction. So I pay my Alba membership monthly and have a monthly software subscription with a Canadian company, all at a very reasonable cost.
Can we get “Cairntoon” as well or is that an optional extra?
Done. Power to your elbow.
Happy to chip in and thankful your back.
Happy to contribute to your wages. What a great feeling to know that Wings will once again be the 1st stop every morning! If it wasn’t bucketing rain I’d put my flag up! Welcome back.
Done, Glad you’ll be back and can’t wait for your updates!
Will this reboot be in the form of blogs/articles only? How about a short podcast series or video content?
It’s somewhat sad that no-one else seems to be able to do what you do, and we (you!) have to resort to this. However, it is a pleasure to contribute in the knowledge that it upsets the usual suspects so much. I think we’re in for a bit of a wait before the tide turns for independence, and I’m old enough that I may not see it, but this gives me more hope than anything else.
Great to have you back. Good journalism is always worth paying for. God knows there’s enough shite journalism out there.
I’ve put my pensioners money where my mouth is and am looking forward to more quality reading.
But I’ll be more than happy with my wee investment just to see the stuttering rage from the utter frauds who have hijacked our Indy movement.
Another 90 signups in the last hour.
Feel the fear!
Brilliant, so glad your back in the game.
For the price of half a pint of lager per week from my local pub its a bargain.
Monthly subscription done, my god its so good to see you back, your worth every frikkin penny. Now lets scare these fuckers.
Donated.
I’ve chipped in,good luck.
Avoid the port and stilton.
Craig Murray’s latest piece illustrates why the people must have the last word in a democracy and why there must be competitive elections, based on real issues. Well worth a read and a demonstration of why good journalism is essential to a democracy.
Long time admirer and lurker of this website here to pay my dues.
Couldn’t pay with a Visa card from Germany. Is that just me or is it a glitch?
Tried to make a donation but wasn’t able to process the payment without signing up to PayPal
Done. Not as much as I’d like but it’s something. We need you back.
I pledged and then sat and watched the feed.
It made me smile.
Give ’em hell, Stu!
Done.
A little but often from me, O Great One.
“Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”
Sorted. Nice tune. have followed the revs journalism since he began. sure as hell aint gonna stop now.
Liam Garvey
Same here from Portugal. Success seems to depend on how big the outfit is that is processing the payment. I get rejected from small time operations but the same card goes through without any issues on the likes of Amazon, etc.
@Rev the money is marked for sending in your direction. How about donation pages for specific mischief making – like getting Pete Wishart to be thrown out of Westminster at the next election.
Done,it will be interesting to see how many members you get compared to Scotland’s political parties cheers stu
Done and contributed to with pleasure, let the truth e told
donated;
one happy lurker
Subscription taken out. Welcome back Stu.
I decided to Scare Them Significantly because that was what I chose to pay to Yes Scotland during the referendum campaign, and I felt I got bugger-all for it. I expect better value this time.
Might even increase it, depending. On past form I’m unlikely to want to decrease it.
I’m in. Give them hell!
Done! Hope you can reach a target to persuade you to come back full time.
My donation is dedicated to the obnoxious Nicola Sturgeon sycophant Lisa C who regularly posts comments in the National.
I’m in….
Done. Unleash the Dogs of War ?
I’ve just signed up for £20.00 per month. I’ve donated to snp and msm in its various forms down the years as we all have but I regret that now. SNP has failed us, BBC (which I refuse to pay) is state propaganda while the National is a fraudulent Nikla fansheet.
The reason Stu inspires so strong a reaction is that he is feared. Who or what else instills fear among the lazy, complacent and entitled group of snp mps / msps who take our votes and contributions for granted?
I hope we all get behind him.
Don’t forget to tell a friend.
For others who couldn’t work out how to see the progress being made…
Click on the Ko-fi page where it says ‘see all six tiers’ (right-hand side, about halfway down) and a new window opens showing how many folk have signed up to donate whatever amount.
By my reckoning the total pledged *per month* is now £1,389.
😉
I made it more than that…
Joined with membership monthly, small amount due to circumstance, hopefully to be reviewed in new year.
Keep up the good work,i see one of the idiots that got you banned again from Twitter has himself been banned.
I’m in. At the cheapest seats mind you, but definitely in.
£1,525 by my calculator. People must be signing up fast.
Sub sorted.
Can’t wait on the up and coming posts. Life is good again.
Go get ‘em Stu.
@Morag –
When I did my tally there were no ‘scare the bejesus out of them'(s).
🙂 🙂 🙂
Contribution made with pleasure.
You’re just in time to give us your input regards the Supreme Court ruling next week.
Your opinion could shape the direction we take after the ruling.
Will be fascinating to get your take on it Rev.
You have been bang on the money so far,,, that is why your views are held in such high regard within the YES Movement.
Monthly subsbription done. Great to have you back.
Ian –
If there were any (scare the bejazus) when I did my tally, I didn’t notice (because there were none when I first looked). But I checked again and it’s now on £1,750.
That’s not bad for a start. Stu isn’t high-maintenance. It will be taxable of course, but it’s still manageable. A bit more and he’ll be able to afford to commission Chris occasionally too.
Rechecked, £1,834.
I reckon that’s enough to get him up and running for now anyway.
Happy to pay monthly if for no other reason that it will piss certain people off mightily
Happy to join your Scary Team. Go get ’em!!!
I’ll be joining in OK but can I mention that I used to get an e-mail from you
when a new post was available.
It hasn’t been doing this for some but look in almost every day so it wasn’t important.
It is important that this goes out to ever e-mail that you have registered.
I’ll be a pensioner soon but it’s a £10 monthly for me as I don’t want to die under the boot of England’s Westminster immoral, corrupt and bankrupt government.
Just joined. Now go get em Stu!
Done. All your base are belong to us!
Done, happy to punt you a few quid a month.
Job Done!
Rev, please ensure that you are looked after with any funding given.
Like they say on the aircraft, adults should put on the oxygen mask before
attending to the kids.
God you have so many kids on here!
Lang May yer lum reek!
Done. You’re worth every penny.
Great to have you back, Stu. Happy to donate to the cause.
£2,095
Broken through two grand. Nice.
Skip_NC
“Twenty-five quid in fees, Graf Midgehunter? How come?”
————
Hallo Skip.
When I paid my ALBA sub. last year it was with my credit card, no probs.
I bought Grouse Beater’s nr. 1 smash hit “Essays I” at the end of 2021. My CC didn’t want to work so I had to use my normal account.
Costs in Euros:
Book € 35
Trade fee € 10
Swift € 1,55
Foreign fees € 25
Total € 72 for a € 35 book…!
Stuart MacKay and Liam Garvey from Portugal/Germany also have probs with the CC.
Greetings to NC land..:-)
Delighted to do this and we certainly need something to get the mojo going again. I sincerely hope the party I used to be dedicated to are well and truly pissed off to the max with this development.
Thanks so much for this Stu.
Graf Midgehunter, I’ll see what happens when I try to do a transaction in the middle of the night. Perhaps the gremlins will be asleep.
Member of scare them quite a lot and shared on Twitter ?
Skip
Maybe it’s just one of the many brexit benefits we’re enjoying.. 🙂
What’s the current WM salary? Be a shame if Wings fundraiser was more…although there probably isn’t enough to cover their expenses as well.
In. Gie them laldie
We need Wings. Scotland needs Wings. Twitter is playground politics. Despicable little twerps behaving like playground bullies can’t debate like rational adults, instead get Wings suspended. Pathetic. Scare them, Wings.
I am sure anyone we hope Stu annoys will see slightly diminished funding or inconvenience in subscribing as a benefit, Brexit or otherwise. I am determined that they will not win. If I face the same issues, I will do an annual donation.
wee jimmy kelly predictably unhappy at this recent turn, it would seem. its almost as if hes not a supporter of independence at all! very questionable.
Yas, i’m away to add myself to the monthly tenner slot, hopefully its enough to help. We need this, we need you out there doing your thing.
That’s silly. Of course James Kelly supports independence. He’s got a dose of testosterone poisoning, that’s all.
That`s me signed up rev and more than happy to do it because without you independence has no real voice.
FFS Stu, I’m at the point of really not giving a f**k anymore
I’ve got a loft full of Yes flags that will likely never see a campaign in the next decade
The other half sitting in the borders , equally gathering dust.
People I know trust imbeciles to tell them the truth
But I’m still tempted to chuck you £50 if you really can be a**ed challenging stupidity everyday.
Good luck
SNP high heidyins stalled Independence.
Nicola says we’re subjects of King Charles and our Independence require permission of Tories.
Not a chance in hell.
We’re taking our Independence Nicola.
Play it again Stuart. Bring it home. Hail Alba.
Always worth contributing to Wings, if only to piss of the folk who think the following:
– buy the Mail/Express/Herald/etc – no big deal, your business and don’t know too much about their owners; probably nice respectable folk
– subscribe to Netflix – no big deal, fair enough
– own an I-phone – no big deal, I hear they have some shady employment practices but it’s probably complicated
– pay your BBC licence fee – sure, most people do
– buy products by companies operating in the occupied territories and so on – well, these are complicated issues
– sent some money to WingsoverScotland – wtf?!? the transphobe grifter; you’re a total mug and he must be laughing all the way to the bank
I’m in…….
But I completely see your point.
I am in the fortunate position of being able to afford a monthly direct debit so I’ll sign up for a tenner a month.
I cal also shove a wee donation in to get things moving. Is that facility available too ???
“Will we still be able to see some form of ‘totaliser’? That’s a biggy for a lot of folk and has tremendous psychological impact on the bleating fearties.”
Yes, that’s what I meant about making a statement by doing it this way. I thought Ko-Fi might show an overall total, but it only breaks it down by the various tiers so you have to add it up yourself.
https://ko-fi.com/wingsoverscotland/tiers
It’s still publicly visible, though – current total as I write this is £2,435 a month, plus a bunch of one-off donations. Not bad for five hours 🙂
“Thought I couldna love the Rev ony mair – but the boy’s a Raveonettes fan too? It’ll be a pleasure to contribute to Wings again.”
What sort of sick pervert doesn’t love the Raveonettes? Wrote this whimsical wee thing in around 2008, only to have one of my readers tell me that his parents were genuinely called William and Susan Squirrell.
http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/noisy.htm
Not to deflect on this vital fund raiser can I comment on a section of the budget that none of the major media players seem to comment on.
It seems that petrol and diesel at to have an additional 12 pence per litre added next year.
That’s around another 55p on a gallon of fuel.
We heading toward £10 per gallon in Scotland that is oil rich but spent in England.
The Tory media all roared with delight for new PM Liz Truss and again whooped with joy at £50 Billion of tax cuts she announced.
Now just a few weeks later the same party and same media herald how £55 billon of tax increases and cut and freezes are the best way forward.
2 completely opposite ends of the spectrum and these crooks try to tell us both options were right.
A claim on the fuel increases will be that it encourages electric vehicles but how many have £25K for one, how many in flats or houses without driveways can access a charging point and the way the cost of electricity is going who can afford to charge overnight?
Welcome to road tax for the first time if you already have an electric vehicle.
Happy to contribute.
Feels like the fight is back on
Recharge and Revolt
Irk the pronounistas and shove it to the comfyerati
We’re Recharging and now for the REVolt
I’m in Stu…give em Hell!
@Rev. Stuart Campbell 10:16pm
So you plan to come back Stu?. Lot’s to deal with. Supreme Court decision. Women and their legitimate concerns of the removal of their rights. Fibbing? Is that real? I look after my granddaughter today a ten hour hard shift in inclement weather waiting on the parents getting home delayed. We need you to get on with some opposition.
Tried signing up. Probably a bit too pished to work it all out, so will try again the morn.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2022/11/17/kenny-exposes-sacking-of-offshore-workers/
Fantastic news. Many of us need the mojo back and the Rev is just the guy to do it. I hope the SNP lightweights are paying attention.
Done.
In! Been lurking for years – time to put up
Stuart, you have been suspended again and rightly so.
The constant vilification of Karen AdamMSP is shocking. Karen Adam is a deep thinking, deeply intelligent politician and capable of the most reasoned thought we’ve never experienced before. Karen is the best performer now and better than any other before. Karen is part of the new intake. Karen’s full intellectual capability was conveyed to us by the recruitment of another wonderful intellectual, Josh Mennie, from the venerable AIM.
When the sad day comes and our Glorious FM and her Housemate depart for pastures new, do not worry.
We have the readymade dynamic duo, Karen and Josh, waiting in the ‘wings’ to deliver and lead us to the Promised Land and a New Garden Of Eden.
Stu i’ll be happy to forego three pints and pledge £15 a month. I am thoroughly disillusioned by the poor economic case made for indy and with the Nu SNP numpties and green sex goblins in charge can’t see me even voting for it in the off chance Sturgeon and her Gauleiters get off their arse and give us one! But good critical journalism/commentary is more important than ever.
Done.
Welcome back to life Wings Over Scotland.
Tis time for Hamish to take cover back off of the WOS signal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvlVwqd-FGU
Gurrintium!
Done. Go get em Stu
Done and welcome back
This is very good news. I understand the rationale for doing the funding this way, but genuinely a real part of the fun of the old fundraisers was the horrified squeals and moans from the usual suspects every time the total hit a new high. It was akin to a live action sport.
Will Chris Cairns be persuaded to come back?
Thank goodness you are back. I have been so despairing since you went, watching the SNP membership slide under the soggy gloop of NEC ‘policy’ and the struggles of Alba trying to survive while having so small a voice to the nation. While the NEC policies are so pathetically inappropriate to anything approaching government administration, it has still been impossible to get past Nicola Sturgeon’s media manipulation and syrup and smiles assassination of strategy for independence.
I’ll gladly support Wings, if anyone can debunk the current pretence with clear honest facts it’s you. I hope you are rested after your time away, and welcome, welcome back.
It’s still publicly visible, though – current total as I write this is £2,435 a month, plus a bunch of one-off donations. Not bad for five hours ?
Now at £3,163 a month. Pretty impressive stuff!
Have any heads exploded over on the Dug site….? 🙂
Done..
Independence by a week on Wednesday please.
So, mon Stu, get to it 🙂
Signed up to scare them a bit more. Fantastic. Welcome back!
Yipee! I’m in and looking forward to the whines!
P.S Did I miss the three amigo’s saying they had contributed???
Done!
Right now get back to work Stu!
???
I’m a pensioner, so can only contribute £5 per month
Have you considered signing this!
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243
Excellent news
Very happy to be able to contribute, I know many can’t right now, so I do it for them too.
I’ve just had a thought – Now that I am your ‘de facto’ boss.
Can your first story reveal who actually wanted the suffragette scarves removed ? I do not for a second think it was the security staff, but someone very close to Nicola – who wanted them out.
No one else will bother to investigate and we really should find out who the misogynistic complainer was.
I think I am really going to enjoy being an online press baron. 🙂
Just ko fi the money I used to give to green party before they chucked me in the purge of non authoritarian respecters of women.
tried to pay with my visa card from Czech Republic, but Ko-fi keeps rejecting it (I saw someone here from Germany was having the same problem). Any advice?
I just totted it up again and it’s £3,354 per month. I don’t think that’s a timid little squeak.
I’d be interested to know who’s squeaking about it though.
On the fear thing..
«NICOLA Sturgeon has called for all those attending the World Cup to show “solidarity” with the LGBT+ community.
The contest kicks off this weekend in Qatar – where homosexuality is illegal and anyone found participating in same-sex sexual activity can be punished with up to seven years in prison» from The National.
Homosexuality isn’t the real issue it’s being GAY with the mainly American cultural baggage, woke rainbow signalling etc that the term carries that is the problem.
Same sex activity has been around in the so called MidEast for millennia. It was normative not something you needed to shout about. It just happened, unlike until relatively recently among the sexually repressed Northern Europeans who went south for the pleasures.
Just keep out Sturgeon. You have enough enemies.
Btw Qatar does not rhyme with «catarrh» very anglo, but butter. The Q is sounded like hard G in the region.
Seconded (scarves)
Opted for a lumpy (I have a general aversion to subscriptions)…good to see you getting back on the horse. Scottish politics is lower than a snake’s belly right now (won’t lie I bailed out for a long time too fucking demoralising). But this is what you were made for, get the bleach out and expose the whole fucking circus, independence, GRA the lot!!!!
Done welcome back.
Happy to chip in. I’ve missed your content.
Ottoman, I disagree. The main issue for me is that you should respect the customs and laws of other countries, whatever they are, and if you can’t do that then you shouldn’t go.
Guests should be respectful of their hosts, in all contexts.
@Hatuey
“Guests should be respectful of their hosts, in all contexts. ”
That’s a fairly telling admission isn’t it? So you have been quite happy not bringing up the treatment of Jews in Germany after 1933 then…? How about non-whites in apartheid South Africa? Are we similarly obliged not to bring up the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls today?
T-Day minus 36 for the big day Hatuey. Are we seeing any signs yet?
I think we need another fundraiser for Stu’s rats… when certain people rise above their station we could remind them that the rats raised more than them.
On a completely unrelated note, I see Scot Goes Pop is raging;
“The Wings comeback was more predictable than a Home & Away plot twist. He’s been carefully preparing the ground for it for months…”
In amongst that and the advertising, there’s something about a poll showing 54% support for independence.
Rev, looks as though a whole lot of folk believe in you!
I like Scot Goes Pop and I like James, but he doesn’t have Stu’s way with words or whatever spark it is that makes us all keep coming here. (That’s probably his way with words too.) I’m not saying they’re as bad as each other, I think this spat has been mainly precipitated by James, but the pair of them can be a set of testosterone-poisoned hotheads when they get going.
They used to get on well enough, and I can’t help feeling a lot of this is jealousy on James’s part because he doesn’t get the following Stu gets. I wish they’d bury the hatchet but I don’t see much chance of that.
When I chipped in on James’s tweet about Stu’s “retirement” being a fraud, apparently this was a “pile-on” because other people with the same opinion had expressed themselves in similar terms. When I continued to suggest that James was out of order he accused me of being in love with Stu. At which point I threw up a little in my mouth, I have to say.
This is all so unnecessary. It’s the infighting among people who should be getting along that for me is the worst omen as regards independence coming. I can’t see it happening in this poisonous atmosphere.
done
wings is revolting
set phasers tae malky
Signed up for a monthly – good on ye Stu 🙂
Also I’ve not had any notification emails for a long time.
@Dorothy Devine says:18 November, 2022 at 8:22 am
P.S Did I miss the three amigo’s saying they had contributed???
I am against virtue signalling at all times.
And before anybody starts, supporting Rev Stu is not virtue signalling. Boasting on here about supporting Rev Stu might look like virtue signalling.
If that doesn’t answer your question, tough shit.
Andy, go back, read what Ottoman said, give some consideration to the meaning of the word “attending” which I picked up on (with reference to the role of “guests”), then come back and apologise for the mistake you made.
Being critical is fine but not for guests who know about the customs and laws of the host country they’re going to in advance. It’s a very simple point — be polite.
Would you go to a neighbour’s house to watch football and sit on his sofa telling him he’s a slug during the halftime break? It’s worse than that since you knew in advance what he was like…
The wider point, that’s important to others if not us, is that we need to stop going around the world imposing our values on people, as if we are in any position to take the moral high ground.
If we really care about the rights of people in the Middle East and elsewhere, maybe we should stop bombing them and starving them to death. I say that on the basis that being dead is quite a significant barrier to sexual freedom… correct me if I’m wrong.
I’m in, annual sub, same again next year Stu.
@Morag (10.38) –
It is poisonous, agreed.
FWIW, I’ve given up on seeing independence in my lifetime (i.e. if I have another 15 years). But we never know what might happen. ‘Events’ and all that…
But it’s heartening to know that Rev will be around for a while yet. We know he’ll be right on them each and every time they trot out their lame excuses for inaction, mislead the Scottish parliament yet again or try to smear honest campaigners, scupper genuine protests, abuse the legal system etc.
And perhaps most important of all, we know he’s prepared to stand up to the TRA bullies and the institutions which have been captured thus far. A lot of men are very wary of raising their voices on the issue because they feel that Scottish women are resisting perfectly well by themselves and don’t want us ‘manterfering’ – Stu speaks for a lot of us.
Sturgeon has made it plain, repeatedly, that GRA/self-ID is as close to a flagship policy as she’ll ever have (god knows independence doesn’t figure at all). When it goes down – as it surely will – so does she.
😉
Interesting tweet about IDOX that bears investigation..
https://twitter.com/jolly_angelina/status/1216322814325743617?s=20&t=6NHiy93wNdVn3-2jUBrgbg
Linn ward of Glasgow City Council held on Thursday 17 November 2022.
The results were as follows:
John Carson, Glasgow Labour Party 2,227
Chris Lang-Tait, Scottish National Party 1,702
Jen Bell, Scottish Green Party 409
The turn-out at the polling places was 23.3%.
Ian. I think the only way we will get independence is if England votes for it. Right now we are trapped in this union. I also think any referendum will be rigged again.
Sturgeon had it in her grasp and completely blew it.
Ian Brotherhood @ 11:23am
Don’t worry about ‘manterfering’, we need all men who believe there are only 2 sexes to stick up for your mothers, sisters, daughters, nieces. This shit is getting right scary now. I remember when we were told to wheesht for indy by some peeps. But too much is now getting real, men in prisons, men running rape crisis centres, women not able to assemble, women being doxxed and losing jobs for speaking out and such like.
We need all right thinking men to back us women on this – it’s not just down to Stu.
I’m now a proud member. I KNOW it will be money well spent!
Getitrightupem Stu
Really glad to join the gang helping you to run Wings. I’ve really missed it! Got out of my sick bed to donate, I so want Wings back! Well done!
“In amongst that and the advertising, there’s something about a poll showing 54% support for independence.”
It’s bollocks, of course. What he’s done is add up the votes for “pro-indy” parties in a council by-election with a 23% turnout versus the votes for Unionist parties. Totally meaningless.
Done – signed up for a monthly
I must be honest, I’m utterly blown away by the outcome of this appeal. Straight after I posted it last night I went out for a walk, and I felt pretty melancholy pacing the cold, dark streets of the city centre. Wings’ readership is down 80% on pre-retirement levels and I was fully prepared to see it only hit a few hundred quid and have to say “Oh well, that’s that then.”
But once again the level of support has been humbling and moving. As I type this the monthly total stands at £3,833 – far more than I ever paid myself in salary during Wings’ peak. Blimey.
To be truthful as always, I frankly remain unconvinced about how much there is left to say that hasn’t been said to death. But let’s see. The Supreme Court verdict next week will certainly be a talking point, and who knows, maybe it’ll surprise us all. The whole point of doing it this way was that if I do run out of material you can all just cancel your subs and forget about it.
So it’s a huge thanks, I guess, to Karen Adam MSP (and to a much smaller degree the genuinely-worryingly unhinged James Kelly). I really and truly had no intention of doing this until 48 hours ago. I was greatly enjoying having my Twitter account back and I’d have been happy with that. I’d planned to spend the winter really knuckling down on the memoir, because basically nothing got done on it while I had a lovely summer of long swan-feeding walks.
But I guess it’ll have to wait a while now, because when people hate you THAT much you really probably ought to make a point of ramming it right up their hoops just on general principle.
Chris is keen to get scribbling again, but needs a little bit of practice time to get back up to match fitness, and I’m going to leave the appeal up over the weekend to give it the maximum opportunity to really make the Twitler Youth poop their nappies and cry. But Monday we’re back on the beat.
I love you all, and I’m not even joking.
Hi Rev, Roddy Dunlop KC says he’ll represent you on no win, no fee, challenge on twitter ban
Signed up to scare them a lot. Get stuck in to the c*nts.
“Hi Rev, Roddy Dunlop KC says he’ll represent you on no win, no fee, challenge on twitter ban”
I saw, and have instructed my solicitors to have an exploratory chat with him about it. (My suspicion is that there aren’t any grounds to sue them – as a straight white middle-aged male I have basically zero legal protections against discrimination – but we’ll see what the professionals think.)
In any event it was a very generous offer, and the makings of the unlikeliest buddy movie ever. What a zany time to be alive.
ONE good article a month and my money will have been well spent.
I gave the SNP thousands in fees, donation, draws, raffles and auctions and only regret the fraud committed on me from 2014 to 2017 from Sturgeon taking over and my resignation.
I know I will get more than one good article a month but that will be a bonus.
It may all have been said but in the Political World an old saying is “ keep repeating the message until you are sick of saying it…that is when people start to hear it”
We all know What the SNP, the Greens and the TransCult are, but please keeping telling people.
Thank you for bringing back hope.
Well that’s one subscription I’ll pay with the greatest of pleasure. Welcome back Stu!
is this wan iy thiy “ONLY FANS” hings??
exclusive private content for subscribers
UP EH ROAD … !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGVtjLCPjrk
Have you still got the same bank a/c that’s on the “donate” page?
Done! And good to see you back Stu ?
I love you all, and I’m not even joking.
aw-shucks!
I’ve signed up for the ‘little bit’ membership which I think is very good value.
Even if you don’t get around to writing many articles I would be happy to pay the £3 a month just for the BTL friendly discussions we’ve been getting for free over the past months. 🙂
Thanks for everything.
I love you too!
Hugs n’ shit!
“ But I guess it’ll have to wait a while now, because when people hate you THAT much you really probably ought to make a point of ramming it right up their hoops just on general principle.”
🙂 totally agree, lived by that all my working life. Obstreperous was my middle name.
Off topic
I have tried twice to send a reply to the Craig Murray blog (he asked which books I had sent him in prison to which I answered with all the titles). I got a very swift message the last time saying that there would need to be a security check. Does anybody know what could be going on? Does this happen on a regular basis with his blog? I notice that the comments have not increased from 17, which was the number of comments last night. Is it because he sets out facts which are critical of trhe management of the Scottish Prison service?
@ Rev at 12.53:
Your posts keep us sane, hopeful and fighting against the criminal lunacy of our current political system and its policies. It is vital work.
Thank you.
Rev stu,
Try being a straight white female. We ar’nt even recognised as a gender.
I’ve signed up. Hopefully you reach your personal target. I suspect running a traditional fund raiser if you don’t reach your goal is a good idea because most people will have a tight budget nowadays and can contribute a one off payment every year with no obligation but will feel too unsure to make a monthly contribution due to the current precarious nature of the average job. I’m pretty sure you will raise far more with a traditional fundraiser that a subscription method.
The reason I say that is because I have been in that situation and I know a lot of folk are still like that. So that might be worth consideration.
Regardless, I hope it all works out for you because your analysis is sorely missed and I often use your material in my discussions with others. Having some new information would be handy during those online and offline discussions.
Hopefully, welcome back!
@ Margaret Eleftheriou: can you email Craig? His email address is on his blog craigmurray1710@btinternet.com
Sara
Many thanks, will do.
For the benefit of ALL Independence leaning politicians out there, who might be looking for a template of how to lead, Rev. Stuart Campbell has just produced it.
Few can come close to matching Stu as a writer and researcher, and for his inspiration we have shown our gratitude. But we also need leaders who are willing and able to TALK to folks on the streets, to be heckled and respond, to challenge the offensive decrees and indoctrination being touted from HR and MSM in our name.
Preaching to the converted in halls around the country has been a fine starting point, but now we need good and knowledgeable speakers in town centres, in schemes and such places, alerting the public, calling out the unacceptable, and demanding that the voice of the people be heard.
There is a vast, dormant, Yes supporting electorate out there that has lost their way a little, maybe lost hope along the way, just needing re-awakening, waiting for the call, waiting for leadership.
And as Stu Campbell has just demonstrated, it in a matter of hours, lost souls can return and become powerful once again. So, come on leaders, get out the soap boxes, everyone needs to learn the truth.
Rev. Stuart Campbell – “To be truthful as always, I frankly remain unconvinced about how much there is left to say that hasn’t been said to death. But let’s see. The Supreme Court verdict next week will certainly be a talking point, and who knows, maybe it’ll surprise us all. The whole point of doing it this way was that if I do run out of material you can all just cancel your subs and forget about it”.
I would say if you could at minimum focus on countering all the reasons currently being pumped out by unionists against Scottish independence e.g now they are saying Scotland has the wrong wind that Scotland can’t produce as much as we think and that the EU estimates of Scottish wind are wrong.
Countering their propaganda and promoting why Scotland can be a successful independent country is a full time job as their project hate Scotland is full steam currently. My humble opinion anyway.
Sara
Many thanks. Done.
ANDY ELLIS & HATUEY
Gulf states and the Saudi state have bad history re the mostly south and east Asian construction workers, hotel staff and other servants. Their treatment is more of an issue than that of tiny minority of Qatar’s inhabitants who might fit the LGBTQ+ spectrum.
Males in arabophone countries, like southern Europeans, are tactile among family and friends, the signals are often misread by outsiders.
However, shouting and screaming at customs and practices that one might not like tends to be counterproductive.
Racism is obnoxious but reservations about sex practices is a more nuanced matter requiring tact, discretion and cultural understanding from those who might disagree with those reservations.
Otherwise it smells of preachy, arrogant old colonialism.
“when people hate you THAT much you really probably ought to make a point of ramming it right up their hoops just on general principle.”
This, a million times this!
“Have you still got the same bank a/c that’s on the “donate” page?”
Yes.
It is true that many people here and elsewhere are on the breadline and below in Scotland, we being one of those in that category.
For the first time in years Scotland has its voice back, through Rev Stu and the kind donations from those that are able to contribute to help Scotland have a voice on the many issues going under the radar and being deliberately ignored by MSM hacks that have forgotten what true journalism is about.
Many thanks to all of you and much appreciation from of all us, that are unable and suffering under the Westminster English legislated devolved government carrying the SNP in its arms.
Without you and nasty twitter this would not have happened. Thank you again for re awakening Scotland.
Delighted to have you back in play Stuart.
I share your pessimism re the whole shite state of affairs and the prospect of anything shifting in the foreseeable…
But, like you say, the reaction to you *getting your Twitter account back* was hilarious so the prospect of the site gearing back up to full production must be making absolutely the right people very fucking nervous right now!
Welcome back man and go get em!!
Fuck it, why not ? Lets try all this again.
I’ve been giving a fiver a month to Alba since day 1 with little hope of that helping indy so resurrecting Wings seems not inappropriate 🙂
PS – I wouldn’t bother with Twitter were I you. I suspect Musk is running it into the ground to reduce his tax bill (he got $56bn in “renumeration” from the idiots who invest in Tesla) so $44bn “loss” on Twitter is probably in his interests given he HAD to buy it..
I really don’t mind contributing (as I’ve always done) but could you unblock me (and others) on Twitter, I’m sure you’re well aware that even those you disagree with have a right to their opinion.
What he’s done is add up the votes for “pro-indy” parties in a council by-election with a 23% turnout versus the votes for Unionist parties.
To be fair, what I read was that there was a question in the poll he was discussing (Ipsos-Mori?) which, while not the standard independence question, was a reasonable proxy. Something like “Do you hope Scotland will vote for independence?”, and that came up 54% yes in the Scottish sample which was properly weighted and of more than 1,000 people.
I never had any doubts about this fundraiser or the value people attach to Wings, but has Red Bull ever been considered as a sponsor?
@Rev Stu
It’s bollocks, of course. What he’s done is add up the votes for “pro-indy” parties in a council by-election with a 23% turnout versus the votes for Unionist parties. Totally meaningless.
There’s definitely a wee want about yon. He sounds more unhinged with every passing interaction with you. I saw on Twitter he was on a blocking spree of anyone disagreeing with him: it was all a bit Wishart-ey.
Looking forward to seeing you up and running again at last.
As for the Stuey and Roddy buddy movie, that has to be worth adding to the biography! 🙂
Fantastic to have you back Stu, it’s great. Things just haven’t been the same 🙂
A fine new Scottish film youse all need to see.
Note heavy sarcasm.
https://whorattledyourcage.blogspot.com/2022/11/dont-want-to-meet-you-in-scotland.html?zx=93569377183c764f&m=1
I’m in & happy to go further.
Never has the Rev spoken more truth than when he states:
“But Scottish politics has never been in a more dire state than it is now, with the SNP stolen from its members by a tiny cabal not interested in independence but only in power for its own sake and the “queering” of Scottish society, while the opposition is a worthless ragbag of hapless incompetents and the media is a national embarrassment.”
I’m signing up!
Guys, here’s what James actually said, as regards the 54% for independence thing. It’s got nothing to do with adding up votes in a by-election, it’s a separate post about an Ipsos-Mori poll.
Frustratingly, there’s no standard independence question, ie. “Should Scotland be an independent country?”, but there is an indirect question that ought to be reasonably effective at finding out whether people would vote Yes or No – and the Scotland-only results suggest there is a majority who would vote Yes, at least once “don’t knows” and “don’t minds” are excluded.
If a referendum were held in Scotland on its constitutional future, would you personally prefer Scotland to vote for or against leaving the UK and becoming an independent country? (Ipsos, 13th-19th October 2022, Scottish sample only)
Would prefer Scotland to vote for independence: 50%
Would prefer Scotland to vote against independence: 43%
With undecideds and those who aren’t bothered stripped out, that works out as 54% in favour of independence and 46% opposed – which is strikingly similar to some of the more recent telephone results from Ipsos.
He also noted that the Scottish sample was correctly weighted and actually larger than an average full-scale Scottish poll – so presumably more than 1,000 respondents.
There’s no need to make this spat more heated than it is by misrepresenting what he claimed.
Delighted that you are raising so much h and I hope you are going to spend every penny on yourself! I am really hoping that you break £5500 as that is how much the useless Karen Adams makes a month. You have done more for Indy in a day than she will ever do in a lifetime. Until Sturgeon and the Blue-Haired Gang have fucked off into the distance, they are getting nothing from me.
A tenner a month is nothing compared to getting real info back out there again. But please you also need to consider, however enjoyable it may be, to not engage in personal one on ones. Leave those idiots to boil in their own shite, they appear quite good at it even without your assistance.
Morag, the title of the article I read was something like “Panic Grips Westminster” with regards to a poll which apparently showed 54% support for indy.
With most surveys the margin of error is typically between 4 and 8 percent. I hardly think 54% would cause anyone in Westminster to panic.
It’s in line with most other polls that over the last several years show there’s been very little movement (if any) in the right direction.
I’d be suspicious of anyone who suggested 54% in one poll represents success when it really represents the dire opposite; and, of course, the abject failure of the SNP to capitalise on the shit we have been dragged through which is at the root of that failure.
@Hatuey at 5.46
“With most surveys the margin of error is typically between 4 and 8 percent.”
Incorrect. If the poll is properly weighted and comprises over 1000 respondents, which this one does, the margin of error on standard deviation is usually 3%. So basically YES for Independence is between 51-57%. One poll on its own means nothing of course, but it seem consistent with the trend over recent polls
If it is properly weighted and over 1,000 respondents, I think the MoE would be 4% at the top end, with a 95% confidence interval.
My only concern, and it’s one James Kelly noted in the post, is that it is not the standard polling question. Presumably, that is because the poll was UK-wide.
Isn’t it great to see a lot of the old familiar names starting to appear btl again? And some new ones of course. Welcome to WOS, whether you’re a first-timer or been a lurker until now.
OH HAPPY DAYS!
________
Rev, will this include the return of Cairnstoon? Happy to contribute either way but i do miss his contributions. 🙁
Isn’t it great to see a lot of the old familiar names starting to appear btl again? And some new ones of course. Welcome to WOS, whether you’re a first-timer or been a lurker until now.
OH HAPPY DAYS!
________
Rev, will this include the return of Cairnstoon? Happy to contribute either way but i do miss his wee works of art. 🙁
Rev, i’ve just seen you had posted this “Chris is keen to get scribbling again, but needs a little bit of practice time to get back up to match fitness,”
OH HAPPY DAYS INDEED! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQo1HIcSVtg
Signed up. Dinnae forget. If you need more for one-offs you just have to ask.
Rev,
You mentioned taking down your subscription page maybe next week.
Can I suggest you leave running until the end of the month, when more potential subscribers will get paid.
You launched this right in the middle of the month,,,so I would keep it running until at least the first week into December.
O/T I am delighted you have decided to come back Stu. We definitely need you. There is no opposition in Scotland. Did you catch the little aside about proper journalists on the BBC today?. I think it was aimed at you. The A and E waiting time last night of 8 hours was missed by the MSM. However reasons to be cheerful. Consultants and senior clinicians are providing solutions under the Scot Gov radar. Ignoring the daft performance indicators and concentrating on health outcomes. Innovative solutions to stop Scottish Doctors leaving has gone underground. It’s about retaining Scottish staff and not recruiting from abroad. I am happy to say a solution was provided for my son. At least for a year. I don’t need to visit him in Australia. The real Scottish Resistance.
“You mentioned taking down your subscription page maybe next week.
Can I suggest you leave running until the end of the month, when more potential subscribers will get paid.
You launched this right in the middle of the month,,,so I would keep it running until at least the first week into December.”
I don’t plan to take it down at all.
I read a few weeks ago before the Tories destroyed the economy I read that a now partial HS2
Englands proposed High Speed Railway was £155.5 Billion.
Who would be surprised if it ended up at over £200 Billion.
With this black hole estimated at £55 Billion.
Am I crazy to think the fast track for London business’ to rape the North with greater ease
could be cancelled and £55 Billion from the railway wipes out black hole, stops all these extra taxes and cuts and leaves £100 Billion to upgrade a normal railway, fill pot holes in the roads,
pay all public service workers like nurses what they are due, bolster the NHS and fund education properly.
I’d presume as it’s being paid for by Westminster it will be full of nice contracts for Tory donors and be sold off to others.
Scotland of course can pay our share of £15,000,000,000 for trains that don’t get to come within 100 miles of our border.
Rab Davis says:
18 November, 2022 at 6:55 pm
Rev,
You mentioned taking down your subscription page maybe next week.
Can I suggest you leave running until the end of the month, when more potential subscribers will get paid.
You launched this right in the middle of the month,,,so I would keep it running until at least the first week into December.
I agree with Rab I think you should leave it at least for a month & see where that takes you/us. You’ve had guest articles in the past maybe more of those would be possible & the more the fund grows maybe another booklet idea? Someone on Twitter suggested a wee suffragette coloured book now that would really annoy the pronounerati especially if it was feminist supporting & denouncing their genderwoowoo bollocks. Maybe Cairnstoon could update an ‘Emperors new clothes,’ cartoon.
It’s absolutely brilliant to see you back in combatitive mode. I’m sure you don’t fully realize how much of a fillup it is for us wee Yessers who’ve felt so forgotten & useless in recent times. The emergence of Alba has been a magic shot in the arm(& heid & everywhere else)for many of us. I was never in any party but Alba felt right & after the incompetence & comfy behaviour of the nusnp which you long ago predicted & most of us didnae want to believe, campaigning for Alba has at least given me renewed hope.
But, what’s been missing in the last couple of years has been YOU. As you are well aware the only reason they give you so much grief is because they, nusnp, greens, all other politicos, mainstream media, & all the Scottish cringers know they cannae hold a journalistic candle to your magnificient factual dissection of their made up shite.
Welcome back Stu, give them all merry hell & as you can see yet again, you are deffo not alone & even many of those who dinnae always agree with you support wholesale your right to get back on Twitter, but far, far, more important to all of us Wingsians(?) is that you carry on with this blog & just make sure you keep on getting it, as you so eloquently suggest, right up their hoops & as far up as is Wingsely(again?)possible!
Ok, that’s enough sickly supportive guff.
Get on it!!!!
i’m in, all power to you Rev Stu.
Rev Stu at 1253pm,
I understand you would not want to say what has already been said, but a lot of time has passed. Their are many, many young folk that did not experience 2014 and its run up, who are thirsty for info.
Personally speaking I wouldn’t be in the least bothered if you were re-hashing past pieces, because there is a severe shortage of clear, definitive, dissection of the arguments for independence. You DO help shape the narrative.
During the run up to 2014, your articles were jam-packed with factual breakdowns and informative statistics, that were immensely useful. There is a whole new generation and lots of new pro indy supporters who are looking at much of this with ‘fresh’ eyes.
Really, really glad you are doing this. Besides what else would you be doing? Retirement is boring. If Hamish comes back as well, courtesy of Chris Cairns, then I shall be overjoyed.
Now above £5,000 per month. Stu should be able to do plenty with that.
Latest total for the fund raiser now £4206 per month.
Subscribed, happy to contribute, there is a gap that just hasn’t been filled. Ascerbic, yes, factual – always
@scozzie (12.02) –
‘We need all right thinking men to back us women on this – it’s not just down to Stu.’
Sorry, I missed your comment. Thanks for the response.
Oh aye, I know what you mean, absolutely. And all ‘right-thinking men’ *DO* back you already. (There are notable exceptions, like Craig Murray, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me describing him as ‘not a regular working-class bloke’ and in any case, he’s well capable of defending his own corner.) It’s the guys (working-class or otherwise) who don’t know anything about it all who are hard for other men to reach. A lot of the time they just don’t believe it’s ‘serious’. And when you see some of the imagery online you can hardly blame them.
Rev was going on about this way before most of us had any inkling it was ‘serious’. The posts he wrote about it were, to some of us, as infuriating as the ones he did about the demise of Rangers Football Club were to others. We just didn’t ‘get it’.
But we get it now.
And the archive right here is as good a place as any to find material which spells out why GRA/self-ID is dangerous and has to be stopped. I find it difficult to stay ‘calm and focused’ when this subject comes up and my preference (honestly) is to avoid it entirely. But more and more families are being affected by this insidious ‘movement’ and we all have to find our own ways of dealing with it. For me, right now, referring the other person to this place and/or ForWomenScotland may be a cop-out on a personal basis but at least I know they’re being given sources of honest and eloquent opposition.
£5,000 a month salary. Enough for a flat in Park Circus. Very tidy.
I’m glad you’re not a materialistic man, the kind of guy that owns a pet rat. The Government fears you while they scurry in the halls of power. Tainted with corruption.
Never stop. Never rest until you set the truth free. Bring Independence home.
After seeing Andy’s post I re-did the sums two more times and I’m now getting £4,666. So I was wrong about it being over £5,000. Yet.
Dunno how I managed to get £5,009 twice though. Maybe £4,666 is wrong too. But it’s still pretty healthy.
You have earned everything. The contribution you’ve made to Scottish politics and continue to do so is incredible. You’re the most searched Internet webpage in the Scottish Parliament. Your Wee Blue Books. You’re truth telling. You’ve took on Dugdale in the Courts. Unbowed. Unbroken undefeated against the Edinburgh establishment elite. Truthful honest journalism. Play it again.
This may be a forlorn hope but the return of Wings may prompt someone to spill what they know about the framing of Alex Salmond.
Hard evidence exists somewhere.
That’s not to say Wings will be able to publish it of course.
But where there’s a will there’s a way.
🙂
Ah, but are you all really ready to shout “Hie Queen Nick Yer tea’s oot”……Or will it be more navel gazing and cursing the Unionists? Remember we are dealing with a corrupt even criminal regime. Gloves off….. Make Scotland Clean.
While we have been celebrating the return of Wings, the depressing news from Glasgow has passed without comment, so apologies if this dampens the mood a little.
When an entire party machine is thrown at a low-level by-election and produces a grand total of 90 votes from a total of 5,132, then a serious re-think is urgently needed.
The result suggests that a revamped group staging a unitary political challenge to NSNP is doomed to failure unless there is strong momentum behind that group from the outset. Since the initial euphoria following the launch of Alba, there has been clear evidence of stagnation, despite ‘events’ which should have led to a surge in membership and/or followers, and mass protest and unity if the direction and leadership of the party bonded with the electorate.
Since that bond has not transpired, then even when the truth does emerge, it may simply hasten the demise of NSNP rather than benefit AS or disconnected Indy groups. It may be that many are so disillusioned that NO political party may take advantage and that unity will only occur behind a non-political entity: if we now fail to unite behind YES then we may never achieve our goal.
As an Alba founder member who has tried to persuade many of the alternative to NSNP, I will accept the derision that will be heaped upon me personally, but it cannot be right that this embarrassment is likely to tarnish the Independence movement.
Stu, even if you raise 100K pa, you will earn every penny if you can rouse the electorate and find us an antidote for this Scottish sickness of apathy and wilful ignorance.
Great to see you back in business!
Go get the barstewards! No Queensbury rules!
@ Ebok: I too looked at the Glasgow Linn ward voting figures and was very concerned to see the 1.8% vote for the Alba candidate. A lot of effort seemed to have gone into the campaign and the reports on Denise Findlay’s twitter were upbeat, saying that they were getting a good response on the doorsteps. Ever the optimist [or the prisoner of hope] I was expecting several hundred votes for Alba.
It shows how hard it is to get a new party recognised by voters. Especially when its purpose is, on the face of it, the same as the SNP’s.
Add to that the manufactured hostility to Alba by the SNP leadership and supporters, and the stifling of the fact of Alba’s existence by the BBC, and you can see there is a mountain to climb.
However, the SNP took decades before winning a seat – that is the way it is, so we must continue to plug away with Alba. After all, it has got over 6000 members – that is more than the LibDems and no-one ignores them despite them not having governed alone for 100 years or so.
Meanwhile Alba IS making a difference, just by existing. I don’t think the SNP would have taken the matter to the Supreme Court nor set a referendum date [yeah, I know…] if it hadn’t been for Alba.
I know that we need liberation from the UK to happen soon so we can’t wait decades for Alba to grow. This means we need to work on helping the Salvo campaign – tell our friends, our local Yes group, our party branch members etc etc about it and ask them to sign the Edinburgh Proclamation. As soon as 100,000 signatures are collected the case can go to the UN and this too will put pressure on the SNP – they can’t be seen as not supporting a non-party, cross-party, civic Scotland initiative.
Rev Stu,
I see that the story about Roddy Dunlop KC offering to defend you has made The Times,
https://archive.ph/2022.11.18-173111/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/top-lawyer-offers-free-services-to-twitter-ban-independence-blogger-j3dfnqj5t
Also re the Linn by-election, the turnout was only 23% so actually there was a 5% increase in the vote share for Kirsty Fraser who was the Alba party candidate. 🙂
I hope you plug away but without the bite of a twitter account clawing the journos I see it a diffcult effort.
The Kenny farqs of today are as limited as they are boring. The same article over and over. I didn’t know it could be so predictable. It’s pathetic.
Give them hell.
I can`t wait to see Hamish again! A really heartwarming comments section to scroll through.
@ MaggieC 2.09am thanks for that link Maggie, but I see the times is still not publishing the truth
“Legal advice published after Salmond’s civil action showed that Dunlop and his fellow advocate, Christine O’Neill KC, threatened to resign in December 2018 because the government seemed certain to lose the case”
As was WIDELY reported at the time by MOST newspapers the legal side representing sturgeon and the SG were NOT threatening to resign because the government seemed certain to lose the case , THEY threatened to resign because the case was unstateable and they had been lied to or deceived by sturgeon and the SG , and if they had carried on knowing that their client had been untruthful it would probably have had serious reputational consequences and also it would have marked them out as lacking in honesty and integrity
So are the times deliberately protecting sturgeon by NOT stating the real reason or are they just as incompetent as the rest of the MSM
.
Hi Stuart,
A]. You mention £3,833 in a moving rejoinder at the comments section. Given one point is to establish whether there is, or is not a demand for quality and paid-for journalism, please can I suggest everyone who quotes the funds raised in your dedicated Wings fundraiser quotes the ANNUAL TOTAL amount?
What headline is likely to sum up the principal better than an ANUAL TOTAL salary? At this moment the overall TOTAL is remarkable…
£57,288.
That is a phenomenal amount that must surely mean YOU ARE coming back 🙂
Reassuring that both pro and anti-Wings people WANT good quality journalism.
Stuart, in your inimitable, stoical style, you have proven beyond doubt that a fast growing number of readers WANT YOU BACK DOING WHAT YOU DO BEST.
I respectfully forecast that number will exceed £100,000 once word gets out that you ARE now coming back and YES there is a bromdignagian amount of crappolla for your investigative journalism to shine a disinfecting light upon. A laser beam from your pen, that makes feckless politicians become incontinet from one orrifice or another.
B]. PLEASE Stuart, for the love of Godd, deploy some of those funds to employ one or two PAYE paid assistants?
You have experienced a diabolically toxic onslaught from all directions for many years (proving you are doing your job well).
But you WILL BURN YOURSELF OUT this time round. The sabbatical you just returned from has clearly worked wonders. Your batteries are recharged, you are ready for this.
But just as in 2014 when, at the time, your contribution was recognised as profoundly constructive in the IndyRef debate, it surely took a toll on you?
This time around, I beg you, please consider some support network where admin and certain routine research/due-diligence and fact-check functions can be delegated to a trusted assistant, or assistants (plural).
Buddy, Nicola Sturgeon and her rancid, decomposing organisation will become desperate.
They will set the Hounds of Hell on YOU. But you are way above her intellect. She is an over-promoted plant. A fake. Even so she will set a LOT of obstacles and bad actors against you. So if some of the £100,000 per annum is deployed on a proper support staff (ideal remote working between long distance), then surely that wil help take the strain off of you at times when the Dreghorn Dirker has her beady blinky eyes and venom-viper thin lips pointed in your direction.
—————————————————————————
Stuart wrote:
We could have done that via our normal Donate page, but this way it makes a public statement about whether people are prepared to back proper professional journalism in Scotland, or if they’re content to just accept whatever ad-strewn, data-harvesting, insipid-cheerleading garbage is on offer for nothing.”
Many folk restored faith in Scottish decency…
“Hold my beer… Stuart, here is a cheque for £57,288 per annum.
Will that be enough for some quality journalism?”
Isn’t it strange how the story about the revival of the world’s most informative, most trustworthy, cleverest, most powerful advocate website for Scottish independence has been completely and utterly ignored by every mainstream media outlet serving Scotland including the newspaper which, on every one of its front pages, claims to support an independent Scotland?
I’m paying Sturgeon over £160,000 a year and was paying Peter Murrell over £100,000, the actual amount is kept secret, and look at what I’m getting!
Every MSP and MP is getting a higher salary plus Pension and perks than this “fundraiser” will achieve. The current talk on here sounds like someone giving a gift and telling them how much they spent on it! It is no more a gift than buying a copy of your favourite magazine or book author.
If you want good Journalism you pay for it. Can we stop with the money fixation. We should be happy that enough people got together to fund this.
“…. for the labourer is worthy of his hire.”
Setting aside whatever motivates the online competition (eg a herald scoop about Jean Marie Le Pen, courtesy of a foxed up surname and an imaginative lady with a big heart, being welcome to live the life* of an educational serf in Anstruther), and my own inherent difficulty in making a worthwhile contribution, I’d imagine that if a generous stipend can help answer the question (or explain the statement) WHO stole Scotland (an’ Canada an’ Australia an’ New Zealand an’ Hong Kong an’ US an’ China an’ Russia, an’ maybe even France, etc) and how, then so much more the better..
*Few (or vice versa) being likely to know that one these days
.
Hi Geoff,
Am not sure why you refer to this thread as a “money fixation” and urge folk to stop it.
The fundraiser and whether it is supported is kind of the point of this thread. Hence a natural gravitation to statistics and whether it looks like Stuart and Wings are coming back.
Stuart wrote:
“This way it makes a public statement about whether people are prepared to back proper professional journalism in Scotland, or if they’re content to just accept whatever ad-strewn, data-harvesting, insipid-cheerleading garbage is on offer for nothing.”
What better way than the running total GIRFUY-METER</b?
By the way, the grand total for the author of such classics as: “Where’s Our £600,000 ring fenced YES wove into fibs” article is now at…
£57,456
Way to go Stuart McPulitzer Prize Writer 🙂
The Scottish Government are pleased to announce that the threat of a hose pipe ban being implemented before Christmas is now negligible.
Nicola and her gang working ceaselessly for the benefit of all Scots!
Follow the money trail Stu. The assistance of a couple of ‘white hatters’ would be invaluable.
Gosh, I’m playing catch-up and quite a lot has happened.
It’s nice to see you back at work with a decent wage, Rev.
I’m in too.
Thanks for the link. Was glad to set up a monthly donation albeit a small one.
Rev.
Never mind thinking small here.
WHY NOT START UP YOUR OWN MEDIA COMPANY?
I would love an article about ‘hate speech’
I don’t know what it is.
If you claim to detest the Tories is that hate speech?
Is what goes on at FMQ & PMQ hate speech and does parliamentary privilege give them carte blanche to say what they like.
What about ‘hate symbols’ like suffragette ribbons & scarves?
Does parliamentary privilege allow politicians to wear whatever symbol they like?
Are some symbols OK but not others?
What about words is it OK to call a journalist ‘a pathetic husk of a one time almost credible journalist’ but not a cunt?
@Ebok 10.52 pm
We have to be clear eyed about whether Alba will be successful or not. No party has a right to anyone’s support. As a founder member of Alba like yourself I’m disappointed in the party’s recent progress too, but I don’t think we can read too much in to one bye election result with a turnout of 23%.
The real issue is what alternative the movement has? I know some people are putting their faith in Salvo or SSRG and petitioning our way to independence, but that won’t necessarily work, or even if it does it may not work as quickly as some of its proponents seem to think.
If Alba doesn’t reach “escape velocity” in terms of % of support over the next few years and/or the SNP isn’t changed from the inside by its members, the truth is that the only way change will happen in the short to medium term is via the ballot box. Whether that is in a referendum or plebiscitary election remains to be seen.
It still leaves the issue of how we can push pro indy support above its current level. Perhaps the best recruiting sergeant we have is external events and the balls up unionists are making of things? It’s a bit of an indictment of Scots in general and the movement in particular but as I recall some folk saying in the early post brexit period, perhaps things really do have to get a fair bit worse before we make progress?
It’s a lot more difficult for Project Fear and the British nationalist establishment to hide behind the purported benefits of the union now than it was in 2014. Their credentials for stability, economic competence and good governance have been shot to hell. The cost benefit analysis of whether it’s now riskier to stay in the union or to leave has shifted: the task of the movement is make enough people believe in that shift to ensure victory at the ballot box. The idea independence is coming by any other route is a fantasy.
Regarding symbols
Is not wearing the poppy symbol regarded as a hate crime?
What about support for football teams?
Should the Prince the Wales and the UK Prime Minister be supporting England?
The home of the UK Prime Minister was covered in English flags during Euro 2020
https://tinyurl.com/3sk85cbh
Ruby touched on parliamentary privilege. So assuming they can say what they like without fear of arrest, Is the problem then moved on to reporting of what they say? We all hear about the truth being hidden behind legal rulings so why has nothing been said by Kenny or Neal about past injustices.
Worth repeating :
Neil Mackenzie says:
19 November, 2022 at 5:40 am
Isn’t it strange how the story about the revival of the world’s most informative, most trustworthy, cleverest, most powerful advocate website for Scottish independence has been completely and utterly ignored by every mainstream media outlet serving Scotland including the newspaper which, on every one of its front pages, claims to support an independent Scotland?
Wow, stoked to see my first post turned out to be literally on the money.
There didn’t seem to be a problem when David Davis used parliamentary privilege to reveal SNP texts.
Further research notes for an article about Hate speech, symbols & all those ribbons.
SNP wear white roses in parliament
French ban all symbols including religious symbols.
@Ebok 10.52 am
We have to be clear eyed about whether Alba will be successful or not. No party has a right to anyone’s support. As a founder member of Alba like yourself I’m disappointed in the party’s recent progress too, but I don’t think we can read too much in to one bye election result with a turnout of 23%.
The real issue is what alternative the movement has? I know some people are putting their faith in Salvo or SSRG and petitioning our way to independence, but that won’t necessarily work, or even if it does it may not work as quickly as some of its proponents seem to think.
Just checked the numbers again. At 11:20 Saturday Standing at £4939 per month – or £59268 per annum.
It’s great, but not even what the halfwitted list members of the colonial assembly in Edinburgh get for doing sweet FA and acting as a colonial fig-leaf.
To put it in perspective this sum is being paid by 679 brilliant folks doing what they can.
Cmon, we can do better than this folks!
If detesting the detested English is a Hate Crime,,,them I’m guilty as charged.
And I wouldn’t call it hate,,, it’s just a fact of life.
Just chipped in – That is you up to nearly £5k a month now. Surely that means the site will continue ! Be great to have you back
Tony Little;
“An acceptable margin of error used by most survey researchers typically falls between 4% and 8% at the 95% confidence level. It is affected by sample size, population size, and percentage.”
http://www.pollfish.com/margin-of-error-calculator/
So, sample size is relative to the population. Thus, the larger the sample, relative to the population, the more confidence you can have in results, for obvious reasons. 1000 is relatively small when your population is 5.5 million and isn’t the gold standard some would have us believe.
Skip_NYC, you seem to be confusing confidence level with confidence interval… they’re not the same. Confidence intervals are expressed as upper and lower bounds, I.e. plus or minus 2.5%. Confidence intervals are calculated/descriptive, not inferential, and are expressed as a straight percentage, I.e 95%.
Sarah @12.09am
Thanks for the words of reassurance, Sarah, though the only route out of this is becoming increasingly likely to be as Ian B indicated when he said, ‘Hard evidence exists somewhere’.
For Alba to progress in any meaningful way, then the entire stitch-up account of smears, lies, collusion, and redactions must come out. I’d stop short of saying ‘publish and be damned’ but as Ian also said, ‘there mut be a way’.
Maggie C @2.09am
‘there was a 5% increase in the vote share for Kirsty Fraser’
It was much better that that, Maggie. It was actually a 38.3% increase from May.
The downside is that the base figure is so small that it would take decades before that rate of increase became meaningful.
Sorry, that last sentence was describing confidence level, expressed as a straight percentage… working off an iPad is shit.
sarah says:
19 November, 2022 at 12:09 am
@ Ebok: I too looked at the Glasgow Linn ward voting figures and was very concerned to see the 1.8% vote for the Alba candidate. A lot of effort seemed to have gone into the campaign and the reports on Denise Findlay’s twitter were upbeat, saying that they were getting a good response on the doorsteps. Ever the optimist [or the prisoner of hope] I was expecting several hundred votes for Alba.
I fully understand my calls for impeachment of Sturgeon don’t resonate; the mixture is too rich for some folk. I see that. But Sturgeon will swan her way through criticism, yes protected by their media, until there’s a reverse against her, where no amount of bullshit or amnesia offers an escape route.
The media won’t challenge her, whistleblowers are smeared and ostracised by the SNP thought police, and don’t forget too, I firmly believe that there is a general level of sheer contempt for all politicians, and that a politician or party on the rise is even resented to a degree for dragging people back to the same shit-show that bored them silly last time.
Look at this is reverse. The “COINTELPRO” designed to get Alex Salmond taken out, likely knew that no amount malicious innuendo about Salmond wouldn’t get the job done, because too many people simply would not find the accusations credible. They had to make it “stick”, and nothing “sticks” like a criminal conviction.
Don’t misunderstand me, I am NOT advocating a false and made up conspiracy to frame Sturgeon, (I don’t have the Civil Service / C.O.P.F.S connections to pull it off anyway), but she needs tagged by one of her betrayals in a way she cannot bullshit her way out of trouble.
This isn’t a smear conspiracy, it is called “holding her accountable”, and there is a big difference.
Scotland should use the Claim of Right, the sovereignty of the people, to formally impeach Sturgeon for her neglect and disregard for the sovereign rights of Scottish people when she arbitrarily capitulated to Brexit.
Would it remove her from office? I expect not, not right away. The process of Colonial encroachment has a lot invested in Vichy Holyrood and it’s puppet First Minister, and they will attempt to hold her steady.
But how can a First Minister, impeached by a Convention of the Estates for selling out the Claim of Right, possibly sail on regardless?
We have mud that would stick. Not the despicable smear campaign intended to destroy Alex Salmond, but the righteousness of Constitutional Justice for a phoney Toom Tabard who has given up what was begun, and has sought to make us and our kingdom subject to the King of England or the English.
Does anybody, anywhere disagree with that?
Right. So now, “We should exert ourselves at once to drive her
out as our enemy and a subverter of her own right and ours, and make some other man / woman who is well able to defend us our Leader”.
Scotland’s Constitution requires it.
Scotland requires a 2022 Claim of Right initiative to depose a Leader who has sold out Scotland’s sovereign integrity, just as a similar invocation of the Claim of Right in 1689 was used to dethrone a reigning Monarch. Nevermind comparing the merits, look at the process.
The deposing of King James VII in 1689 gives us the constitutional template to impeach First Minister Sturgeon, and if we’re smart enough, fully expel the colonial encroachment of Westminster Parliamentary Sovereignty into the sovereign Realm of Scotland through “their” devolved Holyrood assembly.
What is there to stop us?
Andy Ellis says:
19 November, 2022 at 11:20 am
I agree that 5,000+ is a meagre turnout, but bookies get it right on 1,000+ samples of ‘intentions’.
There is nothing to show that if the turnout was trebled, the pro-rata share of the vote would be any different or that the percentage for any candidate would change.
Going back to the Glasgow by-election dismal result for Alba. We all know that the MSM have deliberately blocked any news coverage of the party, but they seemed to conduct a hard campaign. My feeling though on watching a FB video of the candidate for Alba, what struck me most was the absolute sameness and unoriginality of the soundbites spouted by the candidate. Her words were just the same as those you would hear from any red/blue/yellow/orange/rainbow tory, and as such, immediately forgettable so that I can’t even remember her name or what she looks like.
I find much the same when I listen to Neale Hanvey, Taz, and McEleny. Utterly uninspiring, although occasionally Hanvey does give more stimulating speeches. Even AS sounds jaded, tired and forced. Kenny McAskill seems to be the only one of the senior Alba politicians still able to make any mark whatsoever. My opinion is that they need to take some sort of action or find a new tack for their speeches to revive jaded interest and hope and to bring back some inspiration.
Salvo and Sara Salyers are currently the only sparks of hope ( other than the return of wings) so that whether they transpire to be successful or not in what they are doing, Alba might gain some more interest if they promoted these initiatives or found some high-interest initiatives of their own. Action, inspiration, novelty, hope are desperately needed to re-spark the Yes fires and Albas place within the movement. But most of all, some sort of positive action.
@Ebok 11.44 am
People may have unrealistic expectations of Alba. It’s obviously theoretically possible that there will be some political earthquake on the horizon. The SNP may suffer the fate of the IPP. The Sturgeonistas may be overthrown. Or they may not. Although other countries like France have a record of “churn” for new political parties and movements being formed and coming to power, our system really doesn’t.
That’s not to say it can’t happen, just that we shouldn’t be betting the farm on a long shot. As folk discussed at the time the formation of a new party was first being debated, it doesn’t have to eliminate the SNP, it just needs to deprive the SNP/Green coalition of a majority in popular independence support at Holyrood.
If enough disillusioned SNP and Green voters (and hopefully some others) switch allegiance between now and the next election, we may see some progress.
Given that we will know the Supreme Court’s decision next week, time may be running out for our equivalent of the “Free Staters” in the SNP. We should avoid assuming an early collapse of the SNP as a party, just as we should avoid conjuring the ghost of some deus ex machina delivering independence via popular uprising or cunning non-electoral means.
The last thing Alex Salmond and ALBA need is a re-run of his Court case.
He will avoid it like the plague.
He knows Sturgeon has the UK media backing up every word she says.
The last thing she said on the subject was,,,I will never talk to THAT man again.
She has the upper hand in any argument, whether we like it or not.
In the eyes of the Scottish public, Sturgeon has won the moral high ground on this one.
Mud sticks,,,and she threw tons of the stuff
Mr Salmond will want a lid kept on this while he tries to break political ground with his ALBA Party.
She tried to label him as a Rapist,,,and in the eyes of many, he is.
Lowlife Sturgeon and her weirdo hubby knew that as soon as you accuse a man of rape, you are onto a winner.
And so far it has worked.
There is no way round it.
This is also a major factor in lack of support for ALBA, because Alex Salmond is the face of ALBA.
This wings fundraiser feels like the closest thing we’ve had to a victory in ages. Wings is just about the only thing that hasn’t let us down or stabbed us in the back over these last few years and deserves every bit of support and encouragement we can give.
I see some rather depressing data and discussion on Alba’s performance above. The system is completely rigged against them. What’s to be done?
Well, when the marketplace is rigged against you, it’s quite simple really; you create a new marketing strategy that bypasses the rigged marketplace. Alba has attempted to do that, to be fair, they just haven’t done it very well.
The formula for doing this is pretty well defined, btw. If you look at say infowars, Galloway, redacted, and others, the way to go is through regular live video streaming, in effect creating an alternative news channel.
If I was advising Alba, I’d tell them to put 90% of their time, effort, and money into creating that alternative news channel, hire someone that understands production value, and get away from those horrible videos that entail someone standing reading from a script in front of the camera…
I can easily imagine hundreds of thousands of us tuning into watch a show like that every night. I can imagine Wings and everybody interfacing, people phoning in, interviews, guys like Tommy Sheridan and Craig Murray playing a big part, and with focus not just on Scottish politics but international affairs too.
You’ve got all the people and ingredients needed for a really great channel there.
Hatuey, no I don’t misunderstand. My fingers just typed the wrong word. I blame the extended tax deadlines as a result of COVID and Hurricane Ian, which has caused a lot of people to crawl out of the woodwork.
By the way, although Raleigh City Council wishes it were otherwise, North Carolina is not New York City!
Alba is going nowhere unfortunately and the simple reason is everytime sturgeon got her ugly coupon in front of a camera she implied that the jury just simply got the verdict wrong and he was guilty, and the shit stuck.
He should have publicly called her out every time by saying something like “why are we in the situation where we have a first minister who is undermining one of the fundamental pillars of society, our jury system”
No fight back at all. Nothing.
The signs were there early on if you can remember, when asked what Salmond thought of a particular policy or the like she replied that they did not talk. Strange considering he handed the lot to her on a plate.
Alex Salmond’s biggest political mistake is in Bute house running Scotland into the ground.
Ah wee blast fae the past. LOL! Jeez! Seems a million years ago. https://wingsoverscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/img540.jpg
Well, that’s me signed up too. Welcome back Stu! We’re with you!
Rev stu.
Not got much more to add other than Thanks, you made all our futures a lot brighter.
And maybe if you have a moment in all you’re excellent journalism as one animal lover to another a few photos occasionally of the surrounding wildlife on your walks would brighten our days when there are quite moments,
My Mums funeral on Monday, but will pop in on Tuesday or Wednesday I am sure. Lol.
I am scaring a wee bit, with relief and thanks.
Hatuey @ 12.37
Excellent suggestion there . I totally agree ; the existing media structures are utterly corrupted and will never show any fairness to ALBA – or any countervailing narratives . Abandon all hope all thee who enter therein – it’s a Moronic Inferno .
This response to Stu’s offer – if you really want honest journalism , place money adjacent to mouth – demonstrates the real hunger that exists for that very thing and , as you say , there must be plenty of ( new ) media savvy and expertise amongst we refuseniks .
Bring it ON !! 🙂
Done.
Stu
Re Roddy offer.
Don’t waste your cash. Of course you’d win it. They reinstated your original account so if it was by error then that’s thier fault.
The pampers brigade would only attack it again.
I’d use yer cash for your own site & get your twitter account back for free using thier own process of appeal.
JMO
@ Breeks at 11.43 a.m. re my response to Ebok concerning the Glasgow Linn by-election vote for Alba.
I am not downhearted about Alba – they have only existed for 18 months. It would be daft to write them off so soon.
I should have started my response with the point I made later i.e. that the mere existence of Alba IS making a difference already.
We wouldn’t have been “offered” a “no ifs no buts” referendum in 2023 if Alba wasn’t there.
There is now an option for dissenting SNP MSPs/MPs to move to – this must be causing some sleepless nights in the Bunker – sorry, Bute House.
As for the impeachment of the FM – I am sure most people here would welcome that but the problem is that currently there is no obvious mechanism to do it. It is the same problem with the National Assembly/Convention – it has to be a feasible entity acceptable to most people as representative of the population. Salvo/SSRG are working on this, I believe.
SNP Councillor writing to Bearsden Co students with multiple booklets
supposedly pro Independence.
Totally insipid totally missing all the disasters befalling us via the Westminster Tory government that we have never voted for in 70 years.
What a waste of paper creating this limp leaflet.
Did anyone else pay by card from outside UK? My US card not working on the site? Can set up PayPal if need be but just wondering ?
Seems like it really has gone over the £5K mark now, unless I’ve made another mistake. I make it £5,158 at present.
@ Sarah 3.04pm , I would say that ANY future dissention or movement from snp cowards and cretins to ALBA must be treated with maximum suspicion and I personally would just tell them to FO
They have had ample time to reflect on their honesty and integrity in remaining in that deviants sewer and have CHOSEN to remain there
Any such action NOW or in the future would IMO only highlight that they are more interested in the salary and pensions of a politician than they are in the real welfare and independence of their people and country , it would also show that they are preparing for defeat and are jumping ship to remain ensconced on the new gravy bus , would you TRUST a person like that
EVERY ONE of the troughers and cowards have had plenty of time to reflect on what the deviant and her husband (Yeh right) have done to THEIR party and OUR DREAMS of a better independent Scotland and have done absolutely nothing , zero , nada , zilch to rein the pervert and her hordes in or EXPOSE the rank fetid corruption that she wallows in
TBQH not one of them has contributed anything of value to better or improve the lives of our people so the loss would be negligible
The show of loyalty and genuine belief in the ability of Stuart Campbell to expose the corruption and unbelievable incompetence of sturgeon and the rest of the holyrood parasites of all parties is heartening
Everything that is being done or attempted is to forward the idea of independence, a dream that we all have not just for ourselves but for our future generations , with that in mind I would ask , no BEG, that all the contributers who have given so freely of their time and money to prove independence is a priority for them to PLEASE if you have not already done so , sign up to SALVO and Liberation.scot and please spread the word
I know there are some who question the route or validity that it will make a difference, but it only takes seconds and is only a signature , but it is the signature of a SOVEREIGN SCOT who has the right to choose his/her future, AND it COULD make a difference
I’ve had ‘learn to use ‘Google Sheets’ on my list of things to do for quite a long time. This would have been a good time to use it but sadly I never got around to it. I’m happy you have taken the time to do the calculations.
Cheers Morag.
Can someone point me to how to donate a monthly sum. Not a member of pay-pal and not used to this sort of thing, All help appreciated,
sarah says:
19 November, 2022 at 3:04 pm
As for the impeachment of the FM – I am sure most people here would welcome that but the problem is that currently there is no obvious mechanism to do it. It is the same problem with the National Assembly/Convention…
In 1998, a Scottish Parliament (of sorts) was reconvened after an absence 291 years.
In 2022, a Scottish Convention of the Estates could be reconvened after an absence of 315 years.
For certain, in 2022, Scotland has an existential Constitutional crisis far more threatening to Scotland’s integrity than the reign of James VII, yet nevertheless, in 1689 a Convention of the Estates was convened to invoke the Claim of Right and depose a sitting Monarch from the Scottish throne.
Given Scotland’s current predicament, and Westminster’s ongoing colonial misadventures and pernicious subjugation of Scotland getting bolder with every initiative, it thus seems perfectly justified and appropriate (in truth, it’s long overdue), to reconvene a modern day Convention of the Estates, to function as a Constitutional arbiter and troubleshooter.
And if / where it’s appropriate, to invoke the Claim of Right to reassert the sovereignty of the Scottish people, and resurrect the ascendancy of that sovereignty throughout the Realm of Scotland. In other words, reset the Constitution of Scotland to it’s default factory settings.
A Convention of the Estates is Scotland’s traditional mechanism and method for wielding Scotland’s Constitutional rights, and in particular, putting upstart challenges (and challengers), to Scotland’s Constitutional Sovereignty in their place. It has well documented provenance, precedent, and potency, and even codified recognition in Westminster’s own parliamentary documents records. Even the King has sworn fealty to the Claim of Right.
Furthermore, because the Convention would be reconvened to address and reverse a Constitutional impropriety, it is the existence of a Constitutional impropriety which invests the Convention of the Estates with all the legitimacy it needs. It does not require a democratic mandate to sit, and there is nobody, not even Scotland’s Court of Session with the power to overrule it..
Aye, so what if we are a bit rusty with Scotland’s 300+ year old protocols? It doesn’t impinge or invalidate our rights and entitlements. Just ask King Charles.
All we require is the will, and “credible” integrity for rightful, but unfamiliar, due process.
@TwatHater 5:06
Not really disagreeing with your post, but thinking it through, if the current bunch of careerist troughers are to be discarded, that leaves a lot of vacancies to be filled with new politicians who carry no baggage from the failures of the past.
Just where are all these new professional politicos going to come from?
I know a few posters on here believe that being a politico is easy peasy, but I have never held that view.
Maybes it is really easy to do the job badly, or do the job by just going through the motions as at present, but we really don’t want that any more.
So, in summary, we need around 200 new politicians to cover WM and HR, morphing into however many we will need in our new parliament post-Indy (probably much the same number).
Where do we find these 200 people? How do we encourage 200 talented, competent, hard-working Scots, hopefully some of them at least lacking a charisma bypass, to ditch whatever they are doing now and move into politics?
@Breeks
All we require is the will, and “credible” integrity for rightful, but unfamiliar, due process.
I agree that “we” as a people have to have the will, but the vital element you’re leaving out is that we also require international recognition. “Cunning plans for indy” are really going to have to up their game if they are going to convince enough of the Scottish electorate to support them to bring about an abandonment of the conventionally accepted routes to independence in favour of novel approaches like Conventions, Citizens Assemblies, Petitions to the courts and impeachment of governments.
Unless and until they can do so, all such schemes are pipe dreams. When it comes to it, most folk are going to look at the stalls being set out by folk like Sarah Salyers, and the rejoinders offered by experts like Roddy Dunlop and believe the latter.
If you’re relying on Salvo and similar organisations, you better be REALLY sure you have a convincing majority of the Scottish electorate on your side, and that they are prepared to support non-conventional constitutional means to do it. You’re not within a country mile of doing so.
@John Main 5.58 pm
Doubtless Scotland will be no better and no worse than any other country of similar size. I know lots of Irish folk who have no very high opinion of their elected representatives, and I find it hard to believe that a country like Scotland has a shallower talent pool of prospective politicians than any other independent nation.
The issue I’d suggest is with political parties and their selection processes. Back in the day, MPs often came up through the ranks by serving as councillors in local government, some came from the professions and/or civil service and latterly some Labour politicos came through trades unions and organised labour. Most at least had some life experience and hinterland which informed their ability to perform as adequate representatives.
It is earnestly to be hoped that an independent Scotland and a properly representative STV electoral system can deliver a better cadre of representatives than either of our current parliaments.
We can but hope: but in the end, we get the representation we deserve. Given the 23% turnout in the local election the other day, I’m tempted to say the folks in Linn deserve what they get.
Plea to the good people of Wings.
Don’t let the “Three Names” take over your website.
Drown the bastards out.
Because once they get their feet under the table,,,the arseholes are immovable.
You all know who I mean.
The “Names” are irrelevant, pedant plants,,,sent here to disrupt the flow of the debate.
Best avoided!!!
Dear Rab,
I am sure I know the identity of one but really need more identification of the “Three Names”. Help please!
Rab , too late I fear , lots and lots of new and old faces on here today giving considerable support to stu and so should we
But it will go back to same old same old , unless the hammers come out
I stopped posting a long time ago
At my age I don’t need the shite from twats online
Why are my comments always waiting moderation but posted ?
@Rab Davis
Why would a bigoted anti-English piece of work like you feel entitled to advise, still less speak for, t he “good people of Wings”?
If anything you’re a prime example of the kind of moonhowler we can hope will be diluted with the return of more normal posters not prone to you kind of extremism.
The kind of vitriol you routinely exhibit is no help to the movement, it’s a huge liability.
.
In 48 hours there seem to be 407 folk who have joined Stuart Campbell’s offer to pick up his rusty quill and dip his old nib in the bottle of Parker Quink ink.
Neale Hanvey MP has joined up and is rumoured to be asking Sir Pete Wishart MP., to do the right thing and support this HONEST WELL RESEARCHED JOURNALISM initiative.
Sir Pete must be having kittens at the prospect of Dr Campbell’s investigative hedgehog enema?
Without any doubt, Sir Pete Wishart WILL be one of the many subjects to be featured in the new Bath version of Woodward & Bernstein Daily. Stuart could do worse than chat with folk at the Old Slipper & Pickle Tavern, in Pete’s MARGINAL Perth and North Tayside Constituency. They have beans to spill.
So how much do the good folk who support decent journalism care?
In 48 hours it seems there is a heart warming £62,652 in the kitty.
One-nil for the Bath Battler against the Twitter Youth.
Well done Stuart.
Well done to the valiant 407 folk.
Just a wee word from Mr Campbell to the effect that the Holyrood & Westminster Govts desire to require a vaccine certificate for entry to any public area was a monstrous threat to civil liberties and would have legalised the further demonetisation of a large (though minority) section of the population WAS EVIL AND VERY WRONG, and I’m in.
Eh?…Stuart?
/demonisation
Although “Demonitisation” is now a policy of the woke elite against anyone who disagrees with their effing Mental authoritarian policies, check with a Canadian trucker who had their bank account frozen for opposing the now discredited lockdown measures.
It’s good to see that the ordinary Scots, who dip in here every day or so, have provided Rev Stu with an income, which some of us would drool for, to reactivate his forensic analysis of what’s what in the Scottish (political) scene.
Hopefully, we’ll see a resumption of the presence of the Friends of Wings stall at future rallies and marches. It’s been missed as a central location for Wingers to hang out for the past year or two.
I know Ronnie’s health precludes him from taking the active role he had in the past but, surely, SOMEBODY can take up the reigns and ensure that the Friends of WOS stall, once again, becomes a focal point for us.
Onnyhoo, I’ll be at the demo on Dundee at 5.30pm on Wednesday, in front of the Caird Hall, with my combined YES/WOS flags.
Say ‘Hello’…
twathater says:
19 November, 2022 at 5:28 pm
“The show of loyalty and genuine belief in the ability of Stuart Campbell to expose the corruption and unbelievable incompetence of sturgeon and the rest of the holyrood parasites of all parties is heartening”
The Rev. Stuart Campbell’s ability to expose the corrupt and incompetent is unrivalled.
But this time, every single exposed corrupt and incompetent has to be left with no option but to resign in disgrace or be sacked.
The cesspit that the Scottish state has become has to be disinfected and cleared before the start of the next campaign for independence.
@ twathater at 5.06: I agree that any current MPs/MSPs who crossed over to Alba would need to be vetted very very thoroughly before being allowed on board. Most of them I wouldn’t give the time of day to.
I join your plea to all independence supporters to join the signatories of the Edinburgh Proclamation – available on salvo.scot or liberation.scot [whichever your computer accepts!].
Before the numbers change, at 21.46 the total is £5230/m = £62760 p.a. from 727 subscribers. Plus the lump sum donors.
I recall the anti-Carmichael appeal. What seemed significant to me was that the £200k was raised with an average contribution of £14, making it so obviously grassroots based. That should have ruffled feathers.
OK I’m in- better late than never 🙂
Went for being one of the scare them quite a lot crowd but not listed on Ko-Fi page Stuart I’ve done a standing order to your bank account instead.
At last we have something to look forward to even if it’s only you being an even bigger thorn in the Scottish establishments side.
Go get em Stuart & thanks for coming back.
See a few comments here about Cosy Feet…
Given the proposed boundary changes, it’s possible The Slippered one is currently poring over the map to work out how it affects him.
A quick scan (and a wee local rumour) make it look like Pete will move south and take over what is mostly made up of John Nicholson’s Ochil/Perth South beat, which will be renamed Perth and Loch Leven Constituency. It will also take in most of the Carse of Gowrie.
To my inexeperienced eye, this looks like a rural=tory gift, with only the mass of votes in Perth City likely to keep it SNP. The constituency also loses Alloa and Clack which becomes a separate Constituency.
That removes Perth City from Perthshire North area (currently Pete’s patch), which makes up for it by growing out eastwards over the Angus Glens to the coast.
From Kinloch Rannoch in the west, then east over the hills by Kirkmichael, down and over Glen Shea and then into the Angus Glens to the North Sea. It’s a HUGE area, almost impossible (because of the geography) to cover in terms of local knowledge, for one person.
Once again, it becomes almost entirely rural, with lots of retirees from elsewhere recently moved to the area…. another potential tory take, I’d suspect.
Rumour is Dave Dougan will move in to this constituency, as his eastern one becomes written out of the books.
He’s worked long at the Blairgowrie SNP Office for John Swinney, so from an SNP point of view, he would be a good choice… or potentially a good time for a change to Alba?
Forgot to say re SALVO – I signed up weeks ago when Salvo was first announced @liberation.scot
If nothing else Sturgeon has proved we should keep every option open to us. Sticking with NuSNP basket would mean us still being in the same position in 40 years time & that’s not good enough. I don’t have that amount of time left to me.
Scotland deserves better than turncoats for a government.
.
Oh for the love of Godd, please keep this thread about journalism and NOT make it a precondition of an anti-vaxxer only joining IF Stuart Campbell and this website endorses lethal anti-vaxxer behaviour that puts others’ lives at risk.
Dozens of vaccines and millions of lives saved for decades. Yet the selfish Trumper anti-vaxxers slither under the radar. Maybe when you come up with an answer for imprisoning children in iron lungs, the anti-vaxxer brigade will have some moral ascendency…
https://healthy-magazines.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/polio-vaccine.jpg
The thing is, Charles Hodgson would be on firmer moral high ground if he had asked the site owner politely to research the matter and come to a fact-based conclusion.
But no, the website owner is to be bought by Hodgson before he will put any funds in.
Kinda defeats the purpose of OBJECTIVE JOURNALISM.
Best news I’ve had for a long time. Welcome back Stu. Monthly donation made.
Currently at £5243 monthly.
Sturgeon threatened to unleash the Cult on the rebels if they challenged Blackford. All deniable by using a puppet.
Times Article
https://archive.ph/i22Yx
An honest piece of praise from another Indy blogger
https://peterabell.scot/2022/11/19/wings-over-scotland/
Daisy Walker
Scotland, as an equal partner, shouldn’t be accepting the continued reduction of seats in a GB parliament that is also in full control of our population too. I’m glad to see some indy commentators are finally discussing the voting franchise before we’re voted out of our own country.
Let’s hope someone grows a spine before there’s another GE & there’s a Holyrood election.
Was listening to the stitch up of Scotlands ports today. Jeez! These barstewards have knobbled our whole country to keep us under thier boot so everything has to travel through them so they get thier cut. We could be doing our own trades like the Irish – who have new shipping routes since Brexshit & we have zilch. A FM asleep on the job. & the Scottish cringe is as alive & strong as ever on Twitter.
Well with Twitter dying a death I look forward to the Wokist and Transgender Nazis turning on each other as they will have purged any genuine Scot Nats from it.
AuuuuuwoooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
The return of Wings as predicted has rattled the cages of a few of the usual suspects but the reaction of a few in the Yes camp has been an eye opener. Pop goes the weasel went mental but he is quite mad so that was no great surprise but some that I had a lot of respect for have also shown their darker side. Moaning about how much people are willing to donate and having a pop at anyone that promotes this site is not a good look and smacks of envy. A lot of those grousing about the fund raiser because they blog for free should launch their own crowd funder and test whether they are as popular as they think they are or have the good grace to zip it. We need an Indy campaign to focus minds and with a bit of luck stop the bitching.
William G Walker. 7.29pm
Ellis,,, Main,,, Chas.
I’ve missed massively the days of sitting down with my morning coffee, putting my feet up and reading the daily wings post. I was giving iscot mag a monthly but let that lapse a few years ago so no problem giving a monthly to wings.
For me I was always going to vote for indy no matter what but wings gave me the confidence to promote indy to others.
Wings Over Scotland was arguably the Yes campaign’s most valuable asset in the propaganda war with the British media — Peter Bell
@Rev so instead of you throwing accountability rocks at the SNP, what’s the plan to get everyone throwing accountability rocks at the SNP and anyone or anything standing in the way?
A return to the “one man against the establishment” would be a disappointment. We’ve all seen that movie many times and the outcome is always the same.
Times article on GRA
https://archive.ph/D28hI
Article in National on Wings return
https://archive.ph/JS1kV
Thanks for these links Geoff
I find this bit interesting
they mass-reported Wings Over Scotland for imaginary Twitter violations and the suspension was re-imposed.
Is this how you get someone banned from Twitter?
Would it be childish to start mass reporting some of them?
We could start with Pete Wishart.
Ministry of Justice officials warned that talk about ‘protecting women’ could be transphobic
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/19/ministry-justice-officials-warned-talk-protecting-women-could/
I note that the English hating member of the BPHB has made a couple of rather crude attempts, what else would you expect, at goading posters who have more sense than him.
A bit pathetic really.
Sturgeon says nothing to see here nothing to worry about.
https://archive.ph/lvpDz
Transgender prisoner branded one of Scotland’s most dangerous scalded in revenge for razor attack
Where is Tiffany today?
James @12:45 am
‘kin right!
Commons green book 2003 allowed newspaper subscriptions so 48 MPs elected on an indy ticket can contribute £100/ month on expenses and increase the Barnet consequential accordingly.
(They can also match it with £100 in covid insulated earnings of their own, should they be so inclined)
But why stop there, no reason to think MP expenses are any different from business expenses (if anything they should be more generous) so why not pressure them to signal their virtue by maxing out the following categories too:
advertising
continuing education
insurance
maintenance and repairs
charitable contributions
childcare
wee blue book subscriptions and
with bit more imagination, about half dozen others as required:
https://www.netsuite.com/portal/resource/articles/financial-management/small-business-expense-categories-list.shtml
Everything is transphobic. The MOJ have totally screwed up and want to take steps to ensure nobody talks about it. It’s a bit like when any talk of immigration branded you a racist.
My problem with the term transphobic is I haven’t a clue what trans means.
Ruby
Transphobic means whatever they want it to mean. If a topic comes up they don’t like they simply scream “transphobic” and the topic is closed.
Ruby , transitory?? male today female tomorrow and back again as the mood or jail sentence fits??
“I note that the English hating member…”
That’s the nicest thing anybody has ever said about me,,,Shucks.
@William G Walker says:19 November, 2022 at 7:29 pm
Dear Rab,
I am sure I know the identity of one but really need more identification of the “Three Names”. Help please!
Rab is regularly “triggered” by posts from some of us. I usually post more towards the pro-facts end of the fantasy-reality spectrum, which probably accounts for some of Dear Rab’s episodes of hysterical carpet gnawing.
Like any reader on here, you can easily scroll past any post of mine containing facts that cause you distress.
Alternatively, you could also constructively add to the debate by posting corrections to factual errors, not just from me, but from everybody.
#TheTruthWillSetYouFree
” Everything is transphobic. The MOJ have totally screwed up and want to take steps to ensure nobody talks about it. It’s a bit like when any talk of immigration branded you a racist.
My problem with the term transphobic is I haven’t a clue what trans means.”
Ruby , here are some examples of the deadly Transphobe Virus
If you have , say …2 apples , then someone gives you another 2 apples ( BTW , be careful , using the word ” fruit ” can be considered Transphobic’s mate eg Homophobic ) if you now believe you’re in possession of 4 apples – that’s transphobic : the correct conclusion being you now have 5 apples
Similarly , if you meet someone on the street and comment en passant …” Nice day isn’t it ” – you’ve just viciously struck the big gong marked TRANSPHOBIC ; why ? well , because the person you’ve addressed may disagree that it’s ” a nice day ” and feel deeply offended by your remark , and – rightly – conclude you’re a Transphobe
This one is so deeply embedded in our culture it may require the combined braincell ( sic ) of Justine Trudy , Jacaranda Adhere , Santa Klaus Swab n our very own High Priestess of Piffle eg Knickers The Sturge to disinfect ……the use of the term ” Woman ” to describe the antiquated concept of – don’t laugh – Adult Female Human .
In reality , Ruby , it’s impossible NOT to be Transphobic .
Best if we all just stay indoors and watch TV . Oh , wait a minute ….TV ? hmmm that could be construed as a slur against men who like dressing-up as * women * – in other words ……yip , you got it
I am so sick to the back teeth of Transgender “anything”.
Why the fuck is a campaign for Scottish Independence infested with this Frankenstein anti science horse-shit, grossly offensive and menacing intimidation of women, and thinly veiled grooming of children?
Take your nice juicy YES toffee apple and dip it in this bucket of shite. WHY? WHY? WHY?
Eight years of insipid stagnation, catastrophic constitutional ineptitude, and no end of toxic muck thrown at the “real” Independence Movement, and yet the charlatan in chief who’s at the centre of the Shitstorm is still the darling of the Media and SNP membership??? Are they drugged you think? All of them?
I fkg despair. You won’t find me within 100 miles of these rallies on “Judgement Day”, (jezuz fk, Judgement day??? Seriously???). It’s too close to Christmas for Turkeys to be holding rallies on “Judgement Day”.
Does YES do promotional sick-buckets?
https://twitter.com/PhantomPower14/status/1594046277750226944?s=20&t=qIS6ZbjcnvxqIfuJjrHUbw
Breeks says:
20 November, 2022 at 11:39 am
” I am so sick to the back teeth of Transgender “anything”. ”
Aye , me too , B .
The most benign interpretation of Sturgeon/NSNP’s ludicrous , uncritical and deeply damaging adoption of the whole farcical fantasy is that their utter ineptitude ( disinterest ) in progressing the cause of Independence having become apparent , they’ve opted instead to be a Government entirely of Virtue Signal – aligning themselves with the so-called * Progressive * Politics of the likes of Hilarious ( unintentionally , obv ) Clinton and the self-important , sanctimonious buffoons I referred to earlier .
Scottish Independence being just too much of a chore for them
The less benign – and possibly more accurate – interpretation being , this adoption is ( another ) tactic to FUBAR the cause and pursuit of Independence by irreconciliable division eg ….losing the support of a large % of women and giving Unionists are big knobbly club to attack us with .
Granted , the * Transgender * …erm …..phenomenon …is now global in nature , it doesn’t mean it can’t have * local * ie National tactical application/s . And there’s no doubt there are * those * who would use it for their own malign purposes
Lollysmum says on 19 November, 2022 at 10:15 pm
“OK I’m in- better late than never. Went for being one of the scare them quite a lot crowd but not listed on Ko-Fi page Stuart I’ve done a standing order to your bank account instead.”
Yeah! Your name’s in there Lollysmum. I was trawling through the names yesterday out of sheer boredom and seen your name. It’s defo in there. 😉
If you have been laughing at Mrs Doubtfire or Tootsie then you are definitely transphobic.
Laughing at a man in a dress is most definitely transphobic.
Google it if you don’t believe me!
I don’t know who started all this but I have a feeling it was all started on 1st April and nobody in power got the joke.
Whoever it was who started it is now peeing their pants laughing at the state of things.
Thanks everyone for trying to help but I think I am a lost cause.
Next we’ll be hearing being trans is transphobic.
Hats off!
With such a deluge of fresh subs/donations, how about buying Cosy Feet a pair of Alba Party slippers for Xmas?
Can we look forward to another Wee [Red|Pink|…] Book, maybe something along the lines of P. Oborne’s book of lies…?
Well, I’ve managed to pay my first month’s subscription from here in unseasonably cold North Carolina. Went through no problem with a mere 15 cents fee imposed by my local credit union. I look forward to many more intentionally misleading commentary, along with a liberal sprinkling of lies and a good dose of lies with caveats.
Can’t say no.