As we’ve repeatedly pointed out, Wings has made NO comments about the “workplace harassment” allegations made against Alex Salmond several years ago. We’ve only commented on the CRIMINAL allegations, and workplace harassment isn’t a crime. (It’s a matter for an employment tribunal, not the police.)
But the real question is WHY Andy Wightman is so doggedly attached to these two complainers that he’s determined to keep digging himself further into a hole of lies. And everyone knows what you tend to find when you start digging holes.
“Hello Stuart. We’ve been contacted by a reader who says he also contacted you about a post on the website in the early hours of Saturday. Referring to Nicola Sturgeon, the poster says “Decapitating this witch would stop the SNP dead in their tracks.”
Our reader, Ian Reid, an SNP activist in the Borders, has been a regular Wings reader but was taken aback by the language. He had hoped you would have deleted the post, but that hasn’t happened.
He has reported it to the police and given a statement to them.
He has also given us these comments on why the Alba Party should condemn this sort of material and cut its ties to the Wings site.
“Alex Salmond and the leaders of the new party need to separate themselves from that, they need to call it out. They seem to be trying to set themselves up as the moral guardians for women’s rights, which I absolutely support. At the same time, we’ve got somebody posting this on a blog that they clearly associate with and clearly use.
On the one hand, they’re talking about gender-proofing their policies, which is great. On the other hand, they’ve got this where a woman is being described as the devil herself, and where there’s a reference to decapitating the witch having a justifiable end.
That needs to be called out. The party needs to come out and say something about it. The best possible outcome would be that they do condemn it. It would be such a powerful message. Separating themselves from that cesspit would be a very politically astute thing for them. As long as they don’t, it’s colluding with it, it’s condoning it.”
This is for a potential story online and in print.
If you didn’t already know that the BBC were going to run a character-assassination hatchet job on Alex Salmond tonight (and another one tomorrow), you could surmise it easily enough from the state of the Scottish media in the last few days.
But it’s today’s Daily Record that dredges the depths of the journalistic sewer with a barrel and then scrapes the very bottom of it for the grubbiest, oiliest sludge it can find.
The BBC’s Reporting Scotland is, in our view, directly responsible for at least 80% of Yes supporters’ belief that the UK’s state broadcaster is biased against independence. Almost all of the worst examples of unbalanced or downright dishonest coverage over the last five years come from the flagship teatime bulletin.
Normally the amateur blogger, unqualified would-be economist and unsuccessful dog-food salesman that BBC Scotland and the Daily Record employ on a regular basis to openly troll Yes voters restricts himself, when attacking this site, to crude abuse or smear and innuendo like the below, tweeted on Holocaust Memorial Day last year:
It’s important to note, firstly, that the version of Sadiq Khan’s speech to the Scottish Labour conference he tweeted on Saturday morning simply flat-out said that Scottish nationalists were the same as racists and sectarian bigots. Its meaning was as clear as crystal to the Daily Record, a newspaper which is hardly hostile to Khan’s party.
“No difference” is a stark and unambiguous phrase. The speech did not contain the hastily-added qualifiers about “in this respect” and “of course I’m not saying the SNP are racist” which suddenly appeared when he read it out onstage that afternoon.
There’s a truly abominable piece of hatemongering in today’s Times. A grotesequely dishonest Nat-bashing smear job based on stupendously misrepresented fragments of quotes, it’s penned by Patrick Harkness, someone who the paper identifies as “a past co-chairman of the RSE [Royal Society of Edinburgh] Young Academy of Scotland”.
For some reason it’s chosen to leave a few lines off his CV.
Readers may be aware that Wings Over Scotland is (fairly remarkably, really) the UK’s second-most-read politics blog, behind the hardcore right-wing “Guido Fawkes”.
Our “competitor” isn’t a site we look at a lot – the comments make the Daily Mail readership seem like enlightened and thoughtful moderates – but last week someone asked us about a smear piece they’d run on SNP MP Corri Wilson, and we only just remembered today to check it out. Our initial findings weren’t well received.
It seems that Mr Fawkes and his minions aren’t too keen on scrutiny themselves.
Since the astonishing election of 56 SNP MPs to the UK Parliament last May, the Unionist media – suddenly deprived of a whole contacts book full of friendly Scottish Labour bench-warmers ready to feed it cosy stories over a boozy expenses lunch in Whitehall – has raked through every bin and gutter in the land looking for anything (however pathetic) that it can try to puff up, distort, and rope into service as “dirt” on each of the Nat members, in an attempt to discredit them and the party.
So let’s just have a little look in here and – YIKES!
The Scottish Daily Mail’s front page lead today is so galactically despicable that it’s easy to overlook another story that it bundles in with the same “SNP BAD” attack.
While excoriating Dr Philippa Whitford for having the sheer shameless gall to help save women’s lives in her holidays, the alleged newspaper also devotes a page-high article to an attack on another Nat MP, George Kerevan, for employing his wife.
gregor on A crisis of democracy: “The Fraud (2025): Exclusive: Humza Yousaf challenges Elon Musk to debate: ‘Name the day, name the hour’: https://www.thenational.scot/news/24857305.humza-yousaf-challenges-worlds-richest-man-elon-musk/ https://archive.ph/4hHzm #TheHumzaChallenge” Jan 14, 17:48
gregor on A crisis of democracy: “Worry: “To think about problems or unpleasant things that might happen in a way that makes you feel unhappy and…” Jan 14, 17:21
Confused on A crisis of democracy: “will wragg “video exists of 3 males urinating on him” I reckon such little spreadsheets exist for holyrood, and given…” Jan 14, 17:20
Confused on A crisis of democracy: “for wingers who don’t know the name https://archive.ph/bcjay that’s all I read on her” Jan 14, 17:12
Derek Thomson on A crisis of democracy: “I think they were all caricatures. Did you not think that?” Jan 14, 17:06
Rev. Stuart Campbell on A crisis of democracy: “And he just might, since in the long term it would likely ensure lots more Reform MPs.” Jan 14, 16:57
Rev. Stuart Campbell on A crisis of democracy: “Oh ffs. A while back I pulled in a bunch of posts from my personal website, thinking to make them…” Jan 14, 16:56
Rev. Stuart Campbell on A crisis of democracy: “Mm. The current polling makes voting SNP 1&2, remarkably, even more cretinous than it was last time. With the Unionist…” Jan 14, 16:48
Mark Beggan on A crisis of democracy: “George Marshall Secretary of State” Jan 14, 16:47
Rev. Stuart Campbell on A crisis of democracy: “What was on offer in 2011 was just an even worse form of FPTP.” Jan 14, 16:45
Daisy Walker on A crisis of democracy: “The left cheek of the British Establishment’s Government is making the right cheek look like the adult in the room,…” Jan 14, 16:39
Heaver on A crisis of democracy: “If Farage pledged to introduce PR and dissolve parliament for a new election within one year of becoming PM, I’d…” Jan 14, 16:39
gregor on Nicola’s Non-Truths: “Considered: “Considered opinion/view/decision.” “An opinion or decision that someone has reached after a lot of thought: It is my considered…” Jan 14, 16:30
Dave Hansell on A crisis of democracy: ““On the full figures, just 18% of the electorate supports the governing party…” It seems reasonable to assume that figure…” Jan 14, 16:29
gregor on Nicola’s Non-Truths: “Clever dick: “Someone who shows that they are clever, in a way that annoys other people: If you’re such a…” Jan 14, 16:21
John K on A crisis of democracy: “Give me a break. Same tired “argument” trotted out by the Dems over the last year. e.g. If Trumpy-boy is…” Jan 14, 16:20
Michael on A crisis of democracy: “They are definitely different in terms of the policies and the attitudes that they have, their ‘clients’ who they want…” Jan 14, 16:14
Paul on A crisis of democracy: “Thanks Rev, pulled all the facts together which the MSM doesn’t understand or (more likely) do not want to admit.” Jan 14, 16:12
Insider on A crisis of democracy: ““Reform want to invade Poland.” Eh ? Says who ?” Jan 14, 16:12
gregor on A crisis of democracy: “re. Corbyn “Keir Starmer became leader, at the request of I***el lobby group the Board of Deputies of British Jews.The…” Jan 14, 16:12
Dave Hansell on A crisis of democracy: “Can’t find a reference to that on a search engine. Is this actually a reference to the Marshal Plan? -…” Jan 14, 16:10
Blackhack on A crisis of democracy: “I think that the major reason for the “non Voters” is just the fact that there’s really little choice between…” Jan 14, 16:02
John.H on A crisis of democracy: “Considering Keir Starmer’s obvious contempt for democracy, I think he’s looking for a way to avoid a general election. No…” Jan 14, 15:56
Andy on A crisis of democracy: “The worry over here about the USA (among the saner commentators) is not that there wasn’t a free and fair…” Jan 14, 15:56
gregor on Safeguarding Is Not Right-Wing: “BBC (2025): Prison officer jailed for 13 years for child rape: “A “depraved” former prison officer who admitted raping a…” Jan 14, 15:55
Confused on A crisis of democracy: “The US waged relentless financial warfare against the UK in WW2 – the objective to bury the british empire, to…” Jan 14, 15:31
Lorna Campbell on A crisis of democracy: “Indeed, Mark, but I suspect that was deliberate because they wanted Britain’s status as a global leader. It became very…” Jan 14, 15:22
