There are two articles on the Spectator website today relating to last night’s breaking story about Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. One of them readers of this site have seen already, because the Spectator has literally just cut and pasted it in its entirety from Wings (without any attribution or acknowledgement).
It’s the text of Salmond’s submission to the Hamilton inquiry, and we know they copied it from us (rather than having been leaked it independently) because of this paragraph:
As we told readers last night, that redaction was made by us – not by Salmond – as an extra precaution to prevent the possibility of one of the complainers in the criminal trial from being identified. It didn’t appear in Salmond’s actual submission, and so Wings is the only possible source for it being in the Spectator.
Stealing our story lock, stock and barrel without a credit is rather poor form from the magazine, but it’s the other piece we’re more concerned about.
If this site seems to spend most of its time being angry at the SNP these days, that’s because we are. And a large part of that is because there’s very little that hacks us off more than people insulting our intelligence.
Smith’s tweet is just a crassly offensive flat-out lie. This week’s vote is NOT about “EU membership”. The United Kingdom hasn’t been a member of the EU since 31 January. We’ve already left and there’s no going back. The vote is about whether we leave with a sliver of a trade deal slightly reducing the self-inflicted harm, or the total catastrophe of no deal at all, and it’s just crushingly embarrassing for all concerned that Smith thinks so little of his own supporters as to believe he can “frame” it otherwise.
We’ve just received the most extraordinary Freedom Of Information response from the Scottish Government, readers. Trust us, you want to go and make yourselves a strong cup of tea before you read it. Or get this guy to bring you one.
We’re grumpy this morning, readers, because it’s Sunday and we were planning a long lie and then someone told us about this. It’s the First Minister appearing on the Sophy Ridge show on Sky News at around 8.45am and you need to see it.
In news that will come as a shock to absolutely no readers at all, McDougall wasn’t just lying, and wasn’t just wrong about one thing, but was both wrong and lying about pretty much everything he said.
Both of the Yes camp’s “scare stories” which were sneeringly mocked by McDougall during a BBC debate in Inverness actually came true – the Tories DID win the next election, and Johnson DID end up as leader of the party and then as Prime Minister.
(McDougall burst into tears at Scottish Labour HQ on the night of the 2015 election as his party lost 40 of its 41 seats despite his services as Jim Murphy’s speechwriter and adviser, his powers of chortling seemingly having deserted him.)
The Daily Record today carries a piece by Scottish Labour MPs Ian Murray and Martin Whitfield (no, us either) bitterly attacking their leadership over the Euro election results.
The two men complain that Jeremy Corbyn and Richard Leonard won’t listen to them, and insist that the party must “heed the people” if it ever wants to wield power again.
So it’s a bit ironic that they won’t take their own advice.
Wings Over Scotland isn’t the only website dedicated to scrutinising the truthfulness of things claimed by politicians and media pundits. There’s the widely-respected and diligent FullFact.org, there’s Scotland’s own The Ferret, and there’s the BBC’s Reality Check (which frequently takes the more unconventional approach of, er, not making a finding either way about what the reality of things is).
And then there’s Channel 4’s FactCheck, which we’re going to generously assume had a liquid lunch yesterday and was a little under the weather.
Because not only is the conclusion that it reached on the subject of an independent Scotland having to use the Euro utter nonsense that’s been debunked roughly 1000 times in the last six years, it doesn’t even agree with itself.
Michael Glackin of the Sunday Times is the only serious contender to the Scotsman’s demented Brian Wilson as the most poisonously, blindly instinctive hater of anything even passingly connected to the SNP or independence in the Scottish media. His weekly bilious rants in the paper make even Scottish Daily Express hacks wince and say “Blimey, that’s a bit strong”.
But even by those standards, this week’s column is quite something. So let’s take a little look at just how much of an idiot you can make of yourself if you never allow facts to get in the way of your rage.
The extremely sharp and perceptive New Statesman writer Stephen Bush buries some of his political insight in a daily email newsletter (because, we assume, his fax machine doesn’t work, you can’t send telegrams any more and London flats don’t have enough room to keep a lot of messenger pigeons or let you send smoke signals).
And it’s a lot easier just to quote you a chunk of today’s than it is to rewrite the same observations into a new article ourselves.
Cynicus on A Stitch In Timing: “barelybare says: 5 February, 2026 at 10:24 pm “Is Gordon Dangerfield still the solicitor?” =========== “I would like to offer…” Feb 6, 01:24
willie on A Stitch In Timing: “Sold a bummer by the judiciary it seems. Or was it more the case that the assurance that Section 170…” Feb 6, 00:24
barelybare on A Stitch In Timing: “I am having trouble understanding how Section 170’s imprisonment condition could cause Mark Hirst’s action to be thrown put, but…” Feb 5, 23:56
Jay on A Stitch In Timing: “Re-read Rev. Stu’s article. Think i have the answer.” Feb 5, 22:54
Jay on A Stitch In Timing: “Is ‘The.Ciminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995’ legislation prepared and passed by the Parliament in Westminster? Which Parliament can enact amendments…” Feb 5, 22:31
barelybare on A Stitch In Timing: “Is Gordon Dangerfield still the solicitor? This blog post https://gordondangerfield.com/2022/02/27/mark-hirst-v-chief-constable-and-lord-advocate/ nearly 4 years old(!) suggests he felt assured that Section…” Feb 5, 22:24
GM on A Stitch In Timing: “I agree with with everything you wrote there Lorna. (Although It is just plain wrong that the legal process can…” Feb 5, 22:14
ALANM on A Stitch In Timing: “The treatment of Enoch Burke at the hands of the Irish State is evidence enough for me that Scotland had…” Feb 5, 21:22
Campbell Clansman on The Marshalling Plan: “THIS is the real SNP–shaking down people who want to do business in Scotland. At £750 per person: “The SNP’s…” Feb 5, 21:10
Campbell Clansman on A Stitch In Timing: “Mark Hirst HAS been punished. Not with imprisonment, but with the malicious prosecution itself, and the 4-year legal fight (undoubtedly…” Feb 5, 21:05
J Robertson on A Stitch In Timing: “Completely agree Lorna” Feb 5, 20:52
Young Lochinvar on A Stitch In Timing: “The Royalty, Scottish nobility, the Church of Scotland and the Scottish legal community; the main players in 1707 of ensuring…” Feb 5, 20:33
Lorna Campbell on A Stitch In Timing: “Dear Lord, will people stop trying to blame everything on England and take responsibility for what is happening in Scotland?…” Feb 5, 20:32
Hatey McHateface on A Stitch In Timing: ““It’s like someone committing a vile and vicious murder and then when found guilty the judge says there is nothing…” Feb 5, 20:28
J Robertson on A Stitch In Timing: “If it has taken in excess of 4 years to bring a case for malicious prosecution to court this is…” Feb 5, 20:16
PC Foster on The Marshalling Plan: “So heartening to see the EHRC intervene in the way that they have.” Feb 5, 19:34
Hatey McHateface on The Marshalling Plan: “Here’s one you can write on the side of a bus, BB: “Just 3 months left to save our NHS”…” Feb 5, 19:08
Hatey McHateface on The Marshalling Plan: “Ah, c’moan noo, Fearghas. Take away his antisemitism and what’s he left with? Just rabid anti-Englishness, enthusiasm for gas chambers,…” Feb 5, 19:02
Willie on A Stitch In Timing: “The decision shows you vicious, malicious politically motivated prosecution can be mounted against selected individual and thereafter, when the prosecution…” Feb 5, 18:53
Disgruntled of Dumbarton on A Stitch In Timing: “I thought the HRA meant judges could turn the law as written on its head if it breached someone’s human…” Feb 5, 18:04
Tartan Tory on The Marshalling Plan: “Yes Iain, I will be voting for an English Nazi party. I’ve spoiled all my votes for almost the past…” Feb 5, 17:50
Cantankerous Skank on The Marshalling Plan: “That comment about (do do do the funky) Given being given a place on a law course with bad grades…” Feb 5, 17:37
Sven on A Stitch In Timing: “John Burns @ 16.42. Obviously inspired by their succes with the Fur Farming prohibition Act of 2002, our devolved administration…” Feb 5, 17:06
John Burns on A Stitch In Timing: “Only the SNP could bring a bill before the Scottish Parliament to ban something that doesn’t exist in Scotland (…” Feb 5, 16:52
Andy Wiltshire on A Stitch In Timing: “I’m almost tired of being tired of being outraged. It really seems that there is nothing that can actually be…” Feb 5, 16:38
100%Yes on A Stitch In Timing: “It make you wonder if the incompetence of justice system in Scotland isn’t being done by design, in order to…” Feb 5, 16:28
Jesus H. Cunt on A Stitch In Timing: “Scots law, along with Scottish institutions and Scottish democracy, is being deliberately and systematically undermined and discredited in plain sight…” Feb 5, 16:28
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Marshalling Plan: “ROOTS OF WESTERN CULTURE by Herman Dooyeweerd PDF of full book HERE: https://vcho.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Roots-of-Western-Culture-B-Vol-15.pdf” Feb 5, 16:11
100%Yes on The Marshalling Plan: “Cynicus, The Euro lottery is enough. Who ever becomes PM nothing changes for the Scots.” Feb 5, 15:51
