The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


The story of a soldier boy 101

Posted on August 23, 2014 by

“Soldier boy” was an affectionate nickname given to me by my father before he passed away. It was both said with pride and his way of calling me a dunderheid.

elvislennon

Dad was an intelligent, cerebral, well-read man, anti-war and pro-independence. He tried to convince me in a variety of ways not to “sign your life away”, including leaving a collection of DVDs for me like “Beneath Hill 60”, “Cross Of Iron” and “My Boy Jack”, as well as many war poems. He also highlighted my distaste for authority. But he failed to stop me. I signed up.

Scottish independence was a different story.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,870 Posts, 1,235,191 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

    and finally and firstly arithmetic fail braveheart klaxon britnats captain darling cartoons Chris Cairns confused cringe crybabies dateline debates Devo Nano Douglas Daniel Federalists Unionists and Devolutionists flat-out lies foreigner watch from the archives fundraisers galleries hamish hypocrisy liars light-hearted banter lizards memogate misinformation one nation perspectives poll project fear project feart qft Scott Minto smears snp accused soapbox the positive case for the union The Vow ticktock toldyouso too wee too poor too stupid unionist of the day vote no get nothing

  • Recent Comments

    • Lorna Campbell on Shield Of The Phantom: “100 to 200 women die at the hands of men each year in the UK – considerably more than ‘trans’…” Jan 30, 16:19
    • Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: ““So what have you ever achieved?” No mirror needed, James, to see I’ve achieved the writing of a simple statement…” Jan 30, 16:15
    • Lorna Campbell on Shield Of The Phantom: “Absolutely agree, James. Any changes to the basic Treaty Articles is tantamount to resiling the Treaty because the changes have…” Jan 30, 16:05
    • Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: ““communicate the kind of neutrality that taxpayers expect of civil servants” Odd. I thought we all understood that Scottish civil…” Jan 30, 15:40
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Shield Of The Phantom: “PEER: CI CIVIL SERVICE CASE HIGHLIGHTS DANGERS OF ‘POLITICISED POLICING’ Baroness Fox of Buckley has commended The Christian Institute’s legal…” Jan 30, 15:24
    • Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “I believe that one of the Voyager spacecraft has just marked a major and unique achievement. It is now one…” Jan 30, 15:24
    • sam on Shield Of The Phantom: ““In our study, we looked at how genetically similar the Pictish genomes were to other ancient genomes from Britain and…” Jan 30, 13:57
    • sam on Shield Of The Phantom: “There was frequent contact between the Gaels and the Picts. The Gaels brought Christianity from Ireland into the west of…” Jan 30, 13:46
    • Sven on Shield Of The Phantom: “Willie @ 12.26. Whilst it’s the same basic principle, former Army medic, 51 yr old David Toshack whose on daughter…” Jan 30, 13:24
    • Aidan on Shield Of The Phantom: “So you think that constitutional legal questions are determined by reference to vague anecdotes and metaphors and without reference to…” Jan 30, 13:12
    • Southernbystander on Shield Of The Phantom: “Both Sun Ra and Karlheinz Stockhausen said they were from Sirius, so the Picts hailing from somewhere in the Andromeda…” Jan 30, 13:08
    • James on Shield Of The Phantom: ““So what have you ever achieved?” Look in a mirror and ask yersel that, ya fucking roaster. But I expect…” Jan 30, 13:03
    • Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “As does this one.” Jan 30, 13:01
    • James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “The parliament of the Great Britain or Uk cannot add a reservation or alter its original dates on the treaty…” Jan 30, 12:46
    • Cynicus on Shield Of The Phantom: “Lorna, I think this comment belongs elsewhere.” Jan 30, 12:43
    • Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: ““I see no implied self-aggrandizement” How about the disparagement I refer to? See any of that? It’s a perfectly natural…” Jan 30, 12:42
    • Willie on Shield Of The Phantom: “So the latest Tribunal hearing into a custody officer being sacked for not pandering to a woo woo gender bender…” Jan 30, 12:26
    • Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “Few readers will know nor care that the word “pict” comes from the Latin. It is derived from a common…” Jan 30, 12:25
    • James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “A Treaty is a formal agreement legally binding between two or more Sovereign States, Treaties are roughly Contracts, All treaties…” Jan 30, 12:11
    • Northcode on Shield Of The Phantom: “Gaelic is the language of the Scotti, the invader of Pictland who came from Ireland. Gaelic bears no relation to…” Jan 30, 12:10
    • James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “Aiden. Logically and legal common sense. Destroy the foundations of your house and it automatically falls. Destroy the foundations of…” Jan 30, 11:36
    • James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “In this sense hanging on the belief that the treaty of union still exists has its upside. 1) Scotlands people…” Jan 30, 11:26
    • Oneliner on Shield Of The Phantom: “I see no implied self-aggrandizement in YL’s comment” Jan 30, 11:19
    • Aidan on Shield Of The Phantom: ““The Articles, terms and conditions of the Treaty of Union cannot be touched by the parliament of Great Britain, and…” Jan 30, 11:03
    • James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “Lorna Campbell. Lorna Campbell / Aiden 29th Jan 8: 45 pm. ” History is not a record of What has…” Jan 30, 10:52
    • sam on Shield Of The Phantom: ““Alf Baird says: 29 January, 2026 at 9:31 pm “Over time their cultures merged.” Linguistic evidence rather sugggests divergence”. Robert…” Jan 30, 10:14
    • sam on Shield Of The Phantom: “Tribunal hearing in Edinburgh. Began on 28/1/2026. Still going. Tribunal Tweets has links to their coverage of the hearing from…” Jan 30, 10:07
    • Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “@sam You forgot to claim that support for Indy by True Scots can never be less than 100% By definition.” Jan 30, 09:37
    • Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “Sorry YL, I dinna understand your post. Stormy Daniel’s what? Haha, bet you could tell a tale or two about…” Jan 30, 09:29
    • Aidan on Shield Of The Phantom: “Of course YL, and as with any nascent technology you would expect unit costs to come down as it becomes…” Jan 30, 09:21

  • A tall tale



↑ Top