The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland



Flying with Wings 619

Posted on September 18, 2019 by

As the mandate for a second independence referendum currently sits gathering dust in the SNP vaults, discussion has started on ways to generate some movement. One of these has been the possibility of a Wings political party being set up to campaign for Holyrood list seats, which has generated rather a lot of attention.

Various pundits have been loudly vocal about the perceived pros and cons, but I’ve been extremely dissatisfied – in particular with those dismissing the value of a Wings party – with the quality of evidence and analysis that they’ve produced to justify their negative opinion. So I thought I’d use my day-job skills in commercial data science to analyse and understand the benefits, or otherwise, of the idea.

Read the rest of this entry →

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,931 Posts, 1,244,774 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Northcode on Response Level Upgrade: “A’m no a fan o the fitba, yit a kin see the vailue in hivin thoosands o Scots promuivin Scotland…Jun 15, 10:17
    • Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: “The late, great poet, Alasdair Maclean, wrote that a living culture breathes the pure, fresh air of the landscape that…Jun 15, 08:53
    • Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: “I find consideration of reciprocity interesting. For example, what are the chances of a white Christian becoming president of Pakistan?…Jun 15, 08:37
    • Spartan 117 on Response Level Upgrade: “I’m afraid “culture” extends far beyond football shirts, bagpipes, kilts, getting pished En Masse and making an almighty arse of…Jun 15, 08:20
    • Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: “A trifle harsh, Spartan 117. After all, they are in the USA. That bigly, beautiful plastic shrine to keech created…Jun 15, 08:11
    • Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: “That’s an excellent question, Ex President Xiden. Just yesterday, I was reading an online article about the proposed social media…Jun 15, 08:01
    • Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: ““Never sure why you communicate in just the very occasional Scots word” Because to communicate in all Scots would be…Jun 15, 07:30
    • Confused on Response Level Upgrade: “Ban football? lets ban poetry.Jun 14, 23:53
    • WhoRattledYourCage on Response Level Upgrade: “Never sure why you communicate in just the very occasional Scots word, Alf. I connect that to middle class dolts.…Jun 14, 23:46
    • Ex President Xiden on Response Level Upgrade: “I agree with everything you have said. I would also ask the respondents if they think killing children by the…Jun 14, 23:44
    • WhoRattledYourCage on Response Level Upgrade: “Anytime the trayslapping cunts want to stop colonising themselves with alcohol and stupidity, I might start taking them seriously. Pack…Jun 14, 23:40
    • Alf Baird on Response Level Upgrade: “The World Cup demonstrates that the Scots are indeed ‘a people’ with the right to self-determination and decolonisation, i.e. to…Jun 14, 23:37
    • Spartan 117 on Response Level Upgrade: “Indeed. One concurs. I’m not sure what I cringe more at, the plastic kilted Bravehearts with the bagpipes advertising to…Jun 14, 23:10
    • WhoRattledYourCage on Response Level Upgrade: “Fuck the World Cup. Abject idiocy by morons, for morons. https://whorattledyourcage.blogspot.com/2026/06/state-of-pity-party.htmlJun 14, 22:37
    • Southernbystander on Response Level Upgrade: “It is an interesting question with no easy answers as all simple solutions start to fall apart once you ask…Jun 14, 20:46
    • Dan on Response Level Upgrade: “Robert Hughes comment btl on the Grousebeater article articulates well my thoughts. One could easily piece together a narrative and…Jun 14, 20:34
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Response Level Upgrade: “The grave issue raised here is way beyond any mundane account of high-profile independence proponents not getting on with each…Jun 14, 20:10
    • sam on Response Level Upgrade: “Well said, Dan. Let’s look at how little Ireland fares against the might of the UK as an example of…Jun 14, 20:03
    • Dan on Response Level Upgrade: “Well of course folk would think that if you listened to and gave any credence to Unionist and Devolutionist Scot’s…Jun 14, 19:21
    • Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: “It’s a straw man right enough. By remaining dogmatically determined that Scotland’s place is as an unimportant Brussels-administered colony on…Jun 14, 19:19
    • BigJay on Response Level Upgrade: “Usually, I can’t stand Euan McColm’s writings in the Scotsman. However, today he has written a decent article about how…Jun 14, 19:07
    • twathater on Response Level Upgrade: ““an independent, free, prosperous and peaceful Scotland remains out of reach.” Because accepting and embracing the denigration and derision handed…Jun 14, 18:00
    • Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: “It’s all so simplistic it reduces the topic to a joke. Far better to ask the respondents if they think…Jun 14, 17:52
    • Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: “Scots, Irish, Basque, Sami, Roma. But not the Jews, obvs. To your typical Scots semi-professional victim, keening by the fire,…Jun 14, 17:40
    • Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: “Confused and his Spanish galleons always raises a smile. The good people of the Americas; Aztecs, Maya, etc. begged the…Jun 14, 17:32
    • Hatey McHateface on Response Level Upgrade: “Truths stick in the memory. Turds stick in the U bend. Anybody ken hoo mony short planks equals a Du…Jun 14, 17:14
    • Northcode on Response Level Upgrade: ““Edward Said, however, confirmed that colonialism had already been long since directed at European races…” Thanks for that clarification. You…Jun 14, 17:13
    • Dan on Response Level Upgrade: “It’s all gone a bit Pete Tong hasn’t it… I was just looking at the “Voices for Independence” feed and…Jun 14, 17:09
    • Mark Beggan on Response Level Upgrade: “It started badly, it tailed off a little in the middle and the less said about the end the better,…Jun 14, 15:43
    • Alf Baird on Response Level Upgrade: ““With colonialism the victims were non-Europeans, but with fascism Europeans became the victims.” Crevel’s ‘Murderous Humanitarianism’ (1932) attacked colonialism, capitalism,…Jun 14, 15:22
  • A tall tale



↑ Top