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.
Young Lochinvar on The Takeover: “Wow! Something got shook loose there!! Fat? Seen many Anglos recently? Clearly not! Go to Benidorm and view the Engerlund…” Apr 30, 01:15
Young Lochinvar on The Takeover: “Andrew Sorry, I disagree. Good points are being made and “BTL” post protocols aside it gets asinine with folk “wanging…” Apr 30, 00:49
Geri on The Takeover: “I’d bet a pound to a pile of shite there is an Englishman there in the thick of it all.…” Apr 30, 00:17
James on The Takeover: “AH! A “Carol”. Where did you appear from, poppet? Diversity! The 77th now have a laydee poster. Or is wee…” Apr 30, 00:11
James on The Takeover: ““Chas” (lol) “How come so many nutters contribute to the ‘comments section’ on Wings?” Go on “Chas”, Look in a…” Apr 30, 00:03
Geri on The Takeover: “GM They’re making a big deal of it because colonialism thrives on division & conflict & sectarianism is their favourite…” Apr 29, 23:49
Geri on The Takeover: “James Cheyne I’m so sorry for your loss. I hope you are okay. Sending you hugs at this difficult time…” Apr 29, 23:31
GM on The Takeover: “Hatey McHateface says: 29 April, 2025 at 9:16 pm You are being taken for a fool.. Could be! Political Islam…” Apr 29, 22:51
Yoon Scum on The Takeover: “Chas Are you saying that we can’t cast a magic spell while wearing the holy tartan cap and holding up…” Apr 29, 21:17
Hatey McHateface on The Takeover: ““The Muslims from Scotland that I know are Scottish. No question” Yet only a few posts above, we have Alf…” Apr 29, 21:16
GM on The Takeover: “Aye, f all to do with being muslim. I am slightly puzzled why they are making a big deal out…” Apr 29, 20:59
Chas on The Takeover: “Sadly Cheyne is not alone in posting repetitive pish. There are too many living in the past banging on about…” Apr 29, 20:48
Bilbo on The Takeover: “Who controls the past, controls the future.” Apr 29, 20:27
GM on The Takeover: “NO.Definitely not Bilbo. Hopefully copying the USA is at the start of being on its way oot” Apr 29, 20:27
GM on The Takeover: “The Muslims from Scotland that I know are Scottish. No question and the ones I know from abroad don’t exhibit…” Apr 29, 20:11
Hatey McHateface on The Takeover: “You’re wasting your time on the right side of history, Marie. The left side of history is where all the…” Apr 29, 19:59
carol Neill on The Takeover: “Much as I am sympathetic with James cheynes recent loss I am not missing their posts Same shit all day…” Apr 29, 19:52
Bilbo on The Takeover: “Never heard of the band until recently. They sound like the Northern Irish version of the Bearsden and Milngavie scheme…” Apr 29, 19:43
Andrew scott on The Takeover: “James cheyne off on his (not missed) rants which have ZERO to do with revs post Stick to the post…” Apr 29, 19:23
Nae Need! on The Takeover: “@Yoonscum “The problem with that argument is it kind of ignores the actions of the current Scottish government Who have…” Apr 29, 19:21
James Cheyne on The Takeover: “Further explanation for those whom are not aware, The Anglo – Irish treaty in 1801 was when the Westminster parliament…” Apr 29, 19:05
James Cheyne on The Takeover: “And of course the treaty of union in particular mentions no other people in the treaty of union with England…” Apr 29, 19:01
James Cheyne on The Takeover: “Hi james, That be a contentious point as Scots law was to remain separate. And by allowing Scotland to pass…” Apr 29, 18:42
Aidan on The Takeover: “@James – laws passed by Holyrood are secondary legislation passed in accordance with the powers laid out in the Scotland…” Apr 29, 17:44
Marie on The Takeover: “Kneecap shouldn’t have said what they said – doesn’t stop them from being on the right side of history though.” Apr 29, 16:55
James Cheyne on The Takeover: “Alf. As a observation it is noted under the legal construction of Britain that only a Sovereign parliament can pass…” Apr 29, 15:24
YOON scum on The Takeover: “After Indy Will yoons be allowed to vote” Apr 29, 15:10
James Cheyne on The Takeover: “Alf, What you state has become quite evident over recent years in as much that the treaty of union can…” Apr 29, 14:57
James Cheyne on But No Cigar: “Rob. I think the same, A devolved Scottish parliament from Westminster should not be passing Scots laws. Two parliaments in…” Apr 29, 14:38
Alf Baird on The Takeover: “Yes, one of the features of a colonial society and “its dependency psychology is that since no one can serve…” Apr 29, 14:24