That was a year that was
Wings readership stats for 2014:
Could have done worse.
That traffic more than trebled in referendum year, of course, wasn’t entirely surprising. Nevertheless, to realise that almost two thirds of the entire registered electorate of Scotland paid our wee site at least one visit this year is still a startling thing. 2015 is going to be a very interesting time politically, but somehow we suspect it’s going to be a tall order to try to match this peak.
Pretty much everything that could be said about the most momentous year in Scottish history has already been said elsewhere, so we’ll spare you a full-on retrospective. Robin McAlpine for Bella Caledonia, Iain Macwhirter in last Sunday’s Herald and Ian Bell in today’s National have covered most of the bases pretty comprehensively.
As far as the wider goal of independence goes, we’re persuaded by the argument that Yes had to lose this time round. A 51% victory followed by the collapse in the oil price – irrelevant as it actually is – would have unleashed unholy chaos and the prospect of some truly dark events. As it stands, things are set fair for the subject to be revisited sooner than anyone would have thought this time last year.
So instead we’d like to take this moment to issue some thanks. The public face of Wings Over Scotland might be one idiot in Bath, but everything we’ve achieved has been down to a far bigger cast of characters.
The most obvious, of course, are our other voices. Be they regular bylines like Chris Cairns, Scott Minto, Doug Daniel, Andrew Leslie or the dozens of others who contributed more occasionally, our writers and artists give Wings breadth and depth and expertise it wouldn’t have if it was just one guy ranting by himself.
But more even than those, we’re indebted to the silent army of alert readers, whose tipoffs and inside information are the building blocks of what readers see on the pages. Keeping on top of the neverending flood of email and Twitter messages and whatnot is a Sisyphean task, but they’re the lifeblood of the site. We’d be nothing without the thousands of eyes, ears and typing fingers who do so many of the hard yards to bring us stories to investigate.
And while we’re talking about administrative tasks and manual labour, what can we say about Team WBB? Wings would have crashed to the ground in flames during August and September without the tireless work of the hastily-assembled emergency taskforce charged with getting a third of a million Wee Blue Books out to every nook and cranny of Scotland.
They didn’t get nearly the credit they deserved at the time, so let’s give a big, overdue shout out now to the people who worked a miracle after basically just being delegated and told to get on with it, without any experience or training or an action plan, and in what little spare time they had from their own separate campaigning activities.
The logistics were terrifying, the demand overwhelming (we had five or six times as many requests as we had copies) and the timescale ridiculous, but somehow the Wee Blue Book managed to reach Orkney and Shetland and the Western Isles and the depths of Argyll and the remotest corners of the Borders by the vanload, thanks to the Herculean efforts of people who were making the rules up as they went along.
So many people worked to push the WBB through the hubs and spokes of our ad-hoc distribution network that we haven’t the slightest chance of remembering them all here (and indeed the full list would be far too long to print), so we apologise in advance to those appreciated but not named. Representing them all, our heartfelt gratitude goes out to Sandra Bothwell, to David Halliday, to Adrian Bruce, to Andrew Leslie and Chris Cairns and Doug Daniel again, to Ivan McKee, to Elisabeth Schmitz, to Angus Cheyne, and to the wonderful Andy Mushet at Wm Anderson & Sons.
[EDIT: See the comments below for more. Team WBB did such a great job of taking the work completely out of my hands that I simply never knew half of the names in the first place to remember.]
But perhaps most of all, we – I – salute Lindsay Bruce, the right-hand man to whom I owe my sanity and Wings owes its survival over those two insane months. Not only a key cornerstone of Team WBB but also a PA and a Fulfilment Department par excellence, it’s thanks to Lindsay’s inexhaustible drive that people got not only Wee Blue Books but also card games and Wings badges and leaflets and goodness knows what else. We literally couldn’t have done it without him.
And of course, not a sliver of it would have been possible at all without the incredible generosity of the people who paid for it all – you. Having already kicked in a dizzying sum in February and March, our readers stepped up again with another dig deep into their pockets to raise the money to print well over 10 times the number of WBBs we originally planned to.
In the end we spent more than £70,000 on printing the book, over and above our other campaigning (putting out more than twice as many physical copies as the Scottish Government did with the White Paper, to go along with more than 800,000 downloads of the digital edition), and that was your money. We hope you feel you got value for it.
Wings gets lots of accolades (in amongst rather more smears and vitriol from the No camp and the media, and sadly some elements of the Yes movement) – we were the STV Devomax Daily Website Of The Year, we were ranked as the second most influential politics website in the entire UK by digital branding company Teads, and Spanish website ABC.es called us “Salmond’s secret weapon”.
But we’re just the front of house. Behind us are legions – whether those mentioned above, or the thousands of readers who simply spread the word and help to put what we do in front of millions of eyeballs. At the end of this most remarkable of years, we thank you all, and we look forward to the battles ahead.
Happy New Year when it comes, folks.
“Thank you” doesn’t seem enough.
Sisyphean an Herculean – you met all the challenges and did us proud.
So Thank you – it has been an honour to work in your periphery.
J
I take full credit for any success 🙂
Seriously, though, my thanks to yourself and everybody else who did their bit during the referendum.
I found most of your articles to be insightful and useful for raising good talking points, and of course, you exposed the Scottish media for the spineless, cowardly, and inept lickspittles that we all suspected it to be.
In the interests of balance, I thought one or two of your articles were complete balls, but by the by, you showed what could be down with adherence to basic journalistic principals of analysis and integrity.
To the wider community, I would say, do not despair. The union is finished. It’s a slow drip drip process, but the threads that bound it together have been unravelling for years. 2014 was merely a stay of execution. it’s on life support. It will not survive another referendum.
Scott deserves a mention for the WBB logistics too – he was there to get the first Aberdeen delivery while I was swanning off to Aviemore for the weekend!
Happy old year!
Here’s to making the next one even more memorable.
Thanks to Stu and the team and all contributors and readers for looking after the mental health of half a nation and for providing ammunition and laughter in equal measure.
Best to all for tonight and the Year to come!
The WBB distribution was a logistical miracle.
If you had asked a major logistics company to do it in the time scale they would have laughed at you.
Thanks for all the work – I just donated hope it helps.
Will give again, especially when you make me laugh (different types of laughter)
Andi Bee
Thank you Rev, for all your hard work too.
I’ve learned a lot from WoS.
No mention of you in the New Years honours list. LOL
Well done
We fully understand and appreciate the enormity of what you’ve achieved here, Rev, and thank you for it. The MSM, establishment and honours system will never recognise what you’ve done for your country but we sure as hell do. I’ll drink a wee toast to you and all the wingers tonight, here’s to the lot of you.
I would give you one of my kidneys if you needed it. Huge gratitude for all your magnificent work
I enjoy the razor sharp single-minded analysis that is Wings. No other Scottish politics site concentrates on skewering the press and media when they lie and dissemble.
Continued influence to Wings for next year.
And remember, when it comes to banishing the auld enemy, never give a sucker an even break.
happy new year to all, freedom come all ye.
🙂
link to youtube.com
Thanks for all your hard work Rev. I think the Scottish people are more politically aware because of sites like Wings. I certainly am. I’m addicted to Wings!
I wish you and your team a great 2015.
2014 was a cunt of a year. :-)But thanks for your efforts to make it less cuntish. Much appreciated. *tips hat in your general direction*.
Wings Over Scotland and the Wee Blue Book were a gamechanger in the Indy ref debate. Rev, I salute you. Huge thanks to everyone else as well, and at midnight I will raise a glass to you all in celebration of our achivements thus far. Roll on GE2015!
We are family and independence will be ours one day.
Happy New Year to Wingers,lurkers and the other miscellany of followers.
Aye, it’s been some year. I too have gone from the despair at the result to a happier place. If more and more people migrate to Yes as things progress up to and after the GE and The Vow doesn’t deliver, while the UK splits hopelessly on the EU referendum, then we’ll emerge united and all the stronger for it.
No bad
Value for money: are you kidding!!
What a great resource Wings has been. An enormous thank u for all of your hard work, dedication and carefully put together articles. Scotland owes you big time!
Thank you. I started visiting Wings a year ago, and what you’ve achieved in that time is phenomenal. So glad you carried on – all the best for 2015!
Stu, like many in the independence movement, you made it up as you went along (not the info of course, which was closer to the truth than anything offered by the MSM!). And what a brilliant job you did. You took us over 40% IMO. Thanks indeed to all those involved with WoS, but someone had to start to all and keep it together – none other than the very Reverend Stuart Campbell.
Cheers, mate!
Your own tireless efforts are quite remarkable Stu. That one man, OK aided and abetted by so many others, could achieve so much is a reflection not only of your own capacity for hard work but of the modern world. Things will never be the same again – and that’s a good thing.
I am gagging to see how the coming year develops and how the path to our eventual independence unfolds. I am convinced you will continue as a major player.
Thank you.
“we were the STV Devomax Daily Website Of The Year, we were ranked the second most influential politics website in the entire UK by digital branding company Teads, and Spanish website ABC.es called us “Salmond’s secret weapon”.
And still the bastards kept Stuart aff the telly! Can you imagine whit would have happened if we had had a fair and neutral BBC?
Happy New Year everybody.
Stu you were/are a miracle. As are all the Wingers. We live in hope because we are all believers. I hope 2015 is as good as it promises to be.
And to you and the wider WOS team, Rev, and all my other fellow believers in Scottish Independence i would just like to say, wherever you are in the world, may 2015 bring you all a safe, healthy, wealthy, happy and successful year.
🙂
Gaberlunzie – 1320 (Declaration of Arbroath)
link to youtube.com
Can I tell my WBB story, because it illustrates how well everyone pitched in?
I got my first 80 or so after a Twitter DM which more or less said, be in the Costco car park in Straiton in the next hour, and my dad can let you have some.
I got a whole box soon after that from a heroic couple in Troon, who after discovering that the logistics of meeting half way were difficult (what with my work and a Troon branch meeting being that evening), drove all the way from Troon to West Linton in the afternoon and left the box in my garage. That allowed me to get the entire rural circulation done over a weekend.
A week or so later I was told that the main Borders hub had four boxes for me in Melrose, and could I take another four for Peebles while I was at it. I left my Plaid Cymru guests busily leafleting and drove to Melrose, to find the boxes laid out for me in front of an empty house.
I drove to Peebles, and again failed to get the activist in question in, and left her four boxes on her doorstep. (After falling on her garden path and nearly bursting one box!)
We got all that lot out between us. Then in the final few days we did a lot of shuffling between different Borders groups to make sure the remaining stock was evenly spread. Finally, I made a couple of trips up to the Penicuik Yes shop, one to swipe some of their books when we seemed low, and then on the last day to return some surplus we’d found.
I got back to work four days after the referendum to find a single WBB sitting forgotten on top of a filing cabinet. Then a few weeks after that, a neighbour asked me quietly if I still had any on me, because she wanted one for her son and didn’t want to give away the one she had. So even the final stray copy came in useful.
There were scores of people working together just round here to get the things distributed and then on to the voters, and that was entirely because it was so BLOODY BRILLIANT.
And Lindsay Bruce was simply unbelievable. Whatever medals you’re thinkiong of giving Stu, have an extra one minted for him.
Although a fairly new poster I have been following Wings every day for most of the past year. I would like to say a heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in trying to get the truth out there. We still have a lot of work to do this coming year, so to everyone Happy New Year, let’s get stuck in again! Hail Alba
A massive effort in 2014 from you Rev. And it won’t be in vain.
We’ll be back stronger than ever and will achieve our goal sooner than any of us think.
Meantime Happy New year to all.
Well done and thanks for continuing to keep the dream alive.
Thank you, to all wingers (Scotland’s secret weapon), for all their efforts, large and small, a true education and enlightenment.
All the best, to one and all, for the coming year.
Thank goodness for Wings, which keeps us all sane amidst the contempt, the ignorance and the deliberate manipulation of the of the Establishment and the Press.
I only had three box loads of WBBs to give out in the end (thanks to Alex Clark for the first exciting bundle!) but I am glad to say these made it out as far as Ardnamurchan, Inverurie, Devon – and at least four to BBC Scotland staff! Hats off to those who managed to shift shed loads though!
I had three WBBs left which I discovered in a rucksack when I cleaned out my car just before Christmas. One has gone to a good friend, a professional Scots golfer currently working in San Francisco who believes in Indy in her heart but has no arguments to hand when discussing this with her American friends. The second I have given to another pal over the hols – who admitted she’d voted No and now regrets it and wishes to do more research.
The third I am keeping for myself – not for selfish reasons but because I still regard it as a seminal research tool for myself, and am still occasionally asked about it by various friends and family. Having a hard copy to hand is a great thing.
heartfelt thanks to Rev Stu and your hard core of news gatherers, cartoonists and experts in their field.
Next time round we will be fitter, stronger, and even better informed thanks to this wonderful site and it’s invaluable product and community.
No, Stu, thank you. After all, it would never have happened without you.
Million Thanks Stu – and to all the Team and all Wingers.
Born and bred here, I have always loved Scotland, but I have never felt as good about Scotland as I do now, albeit there are issues, all 2 million of them. Much of how I feel is down to Wings. I just hope we can get this over the line sometime soon. Then, Stu, you will surely get the recognition you so richly deserve.
But not yet unfortunately.
Just keep on flying and may 2015 be a Happy New Year for you and for everyone.
Congratulations to all the WoS team and contributors but a very special thanks to the WBB team. The WBB was an invaluable aid when canvassing.
Cheers and Best wishes for 2015
You all deserve a mention!
I mainly post a few comments now and again, but read every day.
We all did our bit and although we came up short. The WBB, the promotion of the WBB, the BT watching in January, leafletting, even posting on forums or sending PDFs to your no/maybe pals – we all did our own wee bity.
And we’ll get there again!
Next time we’ll win tae!
Heids up!
What’s left to say. Wings is brilliant, informative, decent and generally peaceful. We move forward together with our just aspiration as our cement. Thank you Rev Stu!
Happy New Year to you too Stu. You know that you are not perfect. None of us are. But what you did for our cause these last few years has been unparallelled. Have a few more days rest. There are tough battles ahead. But don’t worry. Probably 2 million of us now ‘have your back’. BRING IT ON!
Wonderful stuff Stuart.
I have watery eyes after reading this. Just to be part of the Wings family is a joy. Fantastic folk with incredible humor and wisdom.
The Numbers are mind boggling .53 Million page views. That’s nearly the population of the UK. Wings is an outstanding success .
No amount of words can convey the gratitude i have for you and all Wingers. Your all heroes to Scotland.
looking forward to another fine year .
A proud Winger.
Wings over Scotland will be a subject Media Studies in schools for years, not a bad legacy. The MSM reputation has been trashed and their complicity exposed to the public, who no longer believe what they tell us. The respect and trust of the punter in the street, who now look to WOS for news and comments. I for one will raise and I think tens of thousands like me will raise glass at new year to Stuart and WOS. Hailsa
So proud to be an occasional poster on Wings and so proud to be a small part of something bigger. Massive thank you to Stuart for bring us all together and making the whole so much more than the sum of the parts.
Happy 2015 to Wings Over Scotland and beyond.
The best YES literature did not come out in time. Many postal voters had voted before the best information was any available. The best literature with the full information ie facts and figures, were not circulated soon enough. It is now in the Public domain for the 7/5/15 GE. Along with the evidence of the Unionist betrayals. Some activists were delivering, exhausted, up to 11pm on 17/9/14 just to get the literature out. Ready for the next hurdle and all to play for. Game on.
Happy New Year to everyone.
My voice is but one of many, but still important to say all the same: thank you Stu and the team. When we do achieve our aim, and we will, you will be held in very high esteem. Not that you aren’t already, mind you.
Although the disappointment is still very much present, I look forward to what we can achieve in the future. The candidates for the SNP for the GE are outstanding and the polls favourable.
To other readers, spread the word. That is one of the most important things you can do regarding Wings. Never give the Unionists a moment, analyze everything they say to find the predictable falsehood or self-serving element. Join the SNP if you haven’t already, and encourage others to become involved.
And last but not least, to our Unionist friends (as, cards on the table, we know you follow this site obsessively) – we are going nowhere. This website, our passion and the wider Yes movement will only get stronger.
The Yes campaign is very much looking forward to round 2.
To paraphrase a toast.
“Here’s tae the Rev, Sir!
You ken who ah mean, Sir!
And here’s tae awe the Wingers!
They’ll dae it again!”
Soon!
I just wanted to add a few names to the WBB roll of honour in addition to those mentioned – the people who ran our ‘hubs’ and got the boxes out to where they were needed:
Lorna McGowan – Dumfries
Ian Smith – Dunblane
Allan Whiteside/Alex Clark – Dundee
Fay Sinclair – Dunfermline
Grahame Case – Edinburgh
Alan Mackintosh – Inverness
Mat Cassen – NE Fife
Andrew Parrott – Perth
Jim Thomson – Troon
Two quotes from American History.
Thomas Jeffrrson one of the founding fathers of their Independence Movement.
“When the People fear the Government you have tyranny.
When the Government fear the People you have liberty”
With reference to the first part of Robin’s piece
“Palefaces speak with forked tongues”
Have a Merry New Year everybody but especially WOS
To continue in Wild West mode, never forget that we wear the white hats.
Been busy this morning getting the steak pie made for later.So hear goes.
No one deserves more thanks than the Rev. It was hard work and great excitement till the 18th September, then the heartbreak and depths of despair on the 19th. Chris Cairns cartoon of wee Hamish summed it up well, then along comes one of the wingers and gives him a match to relight the flame. That really picked me up that day, and I don’t think that I’ve looked back since.
I had a conversation that morning with my husband, who said that stepping back and looking at things it’s as well we didn’t win this time. It was a wee bit too soon, and I think the way that things are panning out he was absolutely right. However 2015 looks as if we are going to have a fair bit of fun, interesting times right enough.I’m of the old codger brigade, but you know what, I still reckon that I’ll see my country independent in my lifetime. Maybe not that far away either.
Anyway, to all of you here at WOS, who have kept each other going in rotten times,lang may yer lum reek.
A guid New Year tae all of you when it comes.
Scot Minto’s Rainy Days Blues should be published as a Pensions for Dummies book
And thank you in return, Stuart.
We’ll win the next one!
All thanks must go to yourself Stuart. As I said many many months ago, we’d be fucked without you. The thought of you calling it a day after the vote was for me quite frightening. I can only tell the bullpishers that they’re talkin bullpish if I had you to tell me they were talking bullpish. So I’m so glad you came back (stronger) 🙂
So have a happy new year from the Wee J&J Campbell’s.
And that happy new year message is for all you Wingers too.
We are the 45.
I AM ALEX SALMOND.
Thank you all each and everyone, you have made an old man very proud and very happy. Special thanks to stu and ALL his helpers, what a TEAM. AW THE BEST TO ALL YOU WONDERFUL JOCKS UNITED WE STAND. THANK YOU ONE AND ALL.
Many thanks to the Rev and all the contributors for stellar work. Wings is literally the first website I visit when I switch the laptop on of a morning. You know that it’s doing a great job when the best its opponents can do is complain that Stu swears a lot (speaks plainly, is my reading, and I would rather than that insincere wittering any day) and that he ‘selectively uses stats and quotes’ (which unionist papers do while pretending to have no agenda).
For us, Wings and similar (I mean indy-orientated as opposed to style….Wings is unlike others, haha) ARE our media…..the old media can never have us back. This site is vital, needed, more important than I can say properly (it’s Hogmanay and I have been ‘at the sherry’ already, so words are failing me a bit, but what I am trying to say is that you have all been part of some bloody achievement).
Thank you all.
Oh yes, and Happy New Year to you all as well!
Halycon days – An incident while campaigning ootside Markies in Aberdeen at the Yes caravan.
1. Hairy biker in leathers points at Yes bunting. ‘Fir mah bike’, he said. I looked up, yes up, at his chin and decided to go with the flow. ‘Hiv you got a knife and will cut you a bit off?’ Meanwhile X-Sticks is hovering in the background with a first-aid kit.
I swooned as said behemoth returned with a wee penknife and we agreed on 3metres. Later that day I saw and heard the Harleys crackling up and down Union Sreet with YES bunting flying out behind. It was a fine moment.
…..before Wings I would not have been participating. Thanks to everyone and I am looking forward to sharing more with you in 2015.
Thanks Stuart.
That’s all. ????
Those figures are fantastic,just shows what happens when the information is relevant and straight forward. A great job all round.
Thanks to all.
The Tree of Liberty says:
“Can you imagine whit would have happened if we had had a fair and neutral BBC?”
60+% Yes, and the negotiation of independence terms would be well underway.
But we don’t, and the BBC never will be fair and neutral. Wings is needed as much as ever.
Great New Year to everyone!
Let’s kick ass in 2015 🙂
If I might just paraphrase the Anglosaxophone.
“Wings, a site like no other in a year like no other!” 🙂
Wings made an astounding contribution to the indyref and continues to “hold their feet to the fire”.
Thank you and best wishes for 2015.
Happy New Year to everyone when it comes. Happy 60th birthay to Eck, and many thanks for his outstanding political leadership of Scotland.
We’re winning with Wings,
Slogan eh? and we don’t even have the telly that’s an achievement
Virtually no print media support that’s an achievement
No radio support either that’s an achievement
I am Alex Salmond…What an achievement…
Another hat tip Stuart – you turned me from an observer to a foot soldier, and for that I’m grateful.
As for the passion, the momentum, the focus, well, nothing but admiration and respect. A job (incredibly) well done. Put it there. [inaudible mumble]
Onwards and upwards.
Sarà spesso difficile, qualche volta doloroso, ma il gioco vale la candela.
45% has stunned the Westminster establishment.
Their target was Salmond,and missed Scotland for longterm.
Before 2014 I totally trusted the bbc,thats up the creek,now I double check news feeds.
I knew nothing about Wings,until I posted a comment Scotsman,and someone replied,your a wings nat,me–“whats that,whats that?”
[…] That was a year that was […]
It’s a thank you from me too – always reading and learning from this site, can’t believe the words that come out off my mouth at times! Even talking about the Defacto English Parliament! 🙂 – thanks to Robert.
All the best everyone for 2015 – Slainte
thanks WOS
lang may yer lums reek
The derisory comments this site attracts from MSM and it’s brain dead readers is testament to how effective Wings is. They’re scared.
Thanks for all your hard work guys.
Wishing the Rev. Stuart Campbell and the multitude of fellow Wingers all the best for 2015.
Hail Alba the fight for Independence goes on.
Great contribution Stuart this year. You say everything about the referendum has been said. Well we don’t thinks so. The Democratic Socialist Federation is preparing a report on the Postal Ballot in the referendum. We have enough data now to say that we will open this issue up wide again in the New Year. Our report is not finished yet but if you want access to some of the material we would be happy to let you see what we are working on.
A massive thanks & happy new year to you & the team, Stu.
The political landscape of Scotland has changed, and it will never be what it was again.
Many thanks to Stu and all who contribute to wings .
It was the wingers who kept me sane in the dark days after the 18th , I think it was the 20th before I even dared to check what was happening online .
Happy New Year to one and all when it comes .
Just adding another BIG thank you to Stu and to all who have kept me sane – even just slightly so!
Thanks to you Stu.
They won the battle, but with the likes of you Scotland will win the war
This is slowly sinking in. 2.8 million people read Wings last year. Wow.
Thanks Stu for all you and your wonderful team efforts throughout 2014. On behalf of Mrs Morgatron, Jnr and myself we wish all the wonderful wingers and you and yours a very happy and exciting 2015.
Thanks Stu xxx
Soon we will win
I’ll drink a wee toast to wings tonight. Thanks for all your hard work and keeping the information coming. Yours faithfully a 60year old cyber nat. 🙂
Well done all those who contributed to Wings. One of the key levers of Yes going forward.
The Wings family is A-MA-ZING. Rev, you are an inspiration.
Here’s wishing you Rev, and all wingers new and old alike, the very best for 2015. More strength to your arm.
A fabulous effort by Rev Stu and all Wings contributors.
This has to continue until May 2016 at least in order to keep Westminster’s feet to the fire.
And a very happy birthday to Alex Salmond.
PS When will The National update their “holding” web page?
Probably the only direct debit I don’t complain about paying. Well worth it. Have a great New Year.
Can only echo the sentiments of all posters Stu. Thank you for everything. It’s been quite a journey.
We’re awake now, ready, able and willing to fight on all fronts. There’s no going back. Only forward.
Have a good New Year one and all. 🙂
I feel unworthy Rev – a tricky back/hip at the crucial time of the year meant my canvassing and leafleting duties were greatly curtailed. But I was happy to host thousands of WBBs in my garage for that week and a bit. I felt as rich as Croesus!
Every so often, fate throws up someone very special who is destined to make a difference to people’s lives – and one of those is our very own Rev Stuart Campbell. How lucky are we to be occupying the same time line as this guy at this crucial time in our wee country’s history!
Thank you for everything you’ve done sir – and more power to you for the days and months to come. I can just hear the Establishment quaking in their boots – and so they should. The best is yet to come! Tick tock … And happy new year when it comes to our Chief Winger Stu and all Wingers everywhere xxx
Let’s not forget Tris and his boss at Munguin’s Republic.
You are too modest Rev Stu – these figures are truely amazing.
Thanks for keeping us all going and for not giving up after the 18th.
A good new year to you, your family and your helpers.
All roads lead to Scottish Independence!
Onwards and Upwards…
Thanks to all involved:inspiring stuff.
It has been an amazing effort from yourself Stu. A rollercoaster of a 3 year journey. A week on a beach with cold beer is now called for surely?
Well done also to everyone in the Wings family. Happy new year.
I just wish I didn’t have to wait for my posts to appear nowadays. 🙁
Thanks for everything Wings. Have a great New Year and a great 2015.
It’s been a rollercoaster. But it is far from over. I’ll be on board for as long as it takes.
Good wishes to all Wingers, and here’s to Scotland.
Thank you, Reverend. A year like no other in my 60. My heartfelt best wishes for 2015 and to all who contribute to this essential site.
Thanks Stu for doing so much to counter the Unionist misinformation machine – all power to your elbow, onwards and upwards in 2015.
I posted my first ever comment during the first crowdfunding. How long ago was that? It seems like decades ago. I wonder how many of Rev Stu`s words of wisdom have passed across my screen since then.
I remember commenting on this blog back in 2013 that I was concerned that some “Devo Maxers” would vote to stay in the union and vote for the SNP at Westminster and Holyrood as a kind of tactical vote to achieve their objective. By accident or design that is where we are now. Onwards and upwards as they say. Cant help but wish that we had won the referendum though. Some of us aren’t getting any younger.
2014 was some year! A bit of a rollercoaster ride that wont be forgotten for a long time and wings was at the heart of it. We will never know for sure but I would bet that at least 5% and possibly double that of the Yes vote was down to Wings.I am sure that Scotland’s history will remember “Rev” Stu Campbell kindly.
Thanks again to Stu and all the other folk that go towards making Wings over Scotland utterly essential reading.
Happy New Year everyone.
What a brilliant resource this blog has been. I only discovered it in January but am so glad I did. Long may it continue. Looks like 2015 is going to be another interesting year!
Happy New Year Stu and all Wingers.
I got my hands on about 10 WBB’s in total. My last few were left in local bus shelters on the last couple of days and all disappeared.
The one I have left was used, by me and read avidly by the two polis at the polling station I did the graveyard shift outside of. Either they hadn’t voted or had already done so. Maybe it will have changed their minds for next time. But more eyes than mine have read it. It sits on the shelf in case my No voting wife begins to see the light and I need more than the copy I downloaded.
I/we pointed so many more to it online on the doorsteps too, in process of which you may well have got more readers too. It is still a fantastic resource and undoubtedly helped enormously to the final total. I’m quite sure they are still live in the community in the aftermath too. I was talking to our back fence neighbour yesterday and he knows 9 No voters who regret it. My perspective is probably biased by being based in THE Yes City but we will win the next one. We just need a decent pretext for it.
First opportunity is May. One more effort then to build the momentum. I just hope the SNP are up to the challenge. The Craig Murray farrago is worrying indication otherwise. So much for there being room for prominent independents to stand under the SNP banner.
Sinky
We have to keep this up until at least 2017 .
First of all we have to send as large a contingent of pro independence M.P,s down to westminster in 2015 as possible .
Secondly we have to try to ensure that the next Scottish Government in 2016 is a pro independence one .
Thirdly we have to hope that in 2017 England votes to leave the E.U and Scotland votes to stay in .
Then as the saying goes , It’s Game On
Gid New Year to one and all,as well as making it a healthy, and prosperous year for all, I am looking forwards to May , in the hope that this time, surely this time, we will see the beginning of the end of Westminster’s hold over us, you know, I still, sometimes wake up in the wee small hours, with the thought ” how on earth can my fellow Scot be taken in, and lead up a dead-end so easily”?, it still hurts and will continue to do so until we do get independance, AND I have kept three of the Wee Blue Books because I think that they will still be relevant come next time (Whitehall’s civil servants will use the same argument’s I’m sure)
A special New Years wish to you Rev,
Thank you Rev for this blog which has helped me retain my sanity. I spent a long time reading before plucking up courage to actually post.
Thank you also to the many contributors and wish you all a healthy 2015.
Forgot to ask, why was that nurse taken down to London , I was on the understanding that our own N.H.S. Was geared up to cope with this situation, I seem to remember A Neil (when still health secretary ) answering a question in the Scottish Parliament on the plan to deal with any “Obola” infected person, saying, in effect that everything was ready for such an occurrence.
As an avid reader and occasional poster, a big thanks to Rev Stu and all at Wings. You did a sterling job in the run up to the referendum exposing the lies and deceit of the unionist establishment and their lackeys in the MSM.
As we head into 2015 and the political battles ahead , Wings is doing an invaluable job in scrutinising and holding the Unionist politicians and media to account, and this is long overdue. They have had it their own way for far too long. The huge numbers of people visiting this site speaks for itself!
Wallace and Bruce did not win Scottish independence in a day. It took years of sacrifice and toil. And we will have disappointments along the way but the wheel is turning and the tide is now running with the progressive Scottish Nationalist movement who want to see Scotland take its rightful place among the family of nations and make Scotland a better place for all who live and work here.
Have a guid new year and keep up the good work in 2015
Without this site we would have had NOTHING! OT surely the stock answer to any red Tory that utters that shite mantra should be “if we voted yes we would have kept the Tories out FOREVER”
Thanks Stu and colleagues, comrades and friends everywhere. Here’s to GE2015 – bring it on, let’s make it a carnival!
Every day I buy “The National”, I always hope to see that that paper has recognised Stew Campbell’s contribution to the movement for independance , yes, and to see an article by him, I do think that it’s an injustice to ignore his influence, yes of ofcourse there are others, most have been mentioned one way or other, but not Stew, or that “Wee Yelpie Dug”!. (Apologies Paul ).
Well done Stu and all other participants. So glad I found the site, so glad I passed on the info contained within the articles and sometimes more importantly, the comments section. Many people I know either voted YES on the strength of that info or went forth emboldened and confident to spread the message far and wide. Wish one and all the best of years in 2015. Interesting times ahead.
Thank you for everything Stu, you are an inspiration! All the best to you and your family for 2015!
Keep on Dancing Wingers, Dance into 2015
link to youtube.com
Who needs Jackie Burd NCA.
Thank you Stuart.
This website keeps you sane in the face of the unremitting shite spouted by our corrupt media.
We must be cautious however, we are dealing with a wounded but still powerful beast that retains influence over many.
Looking forward to getting more involved.
I have had a shite year, the ref result was the icing on the shit cake. Looking forward to a better 2015.
Everyone has said it all, but I must add my heartfelt thanks to Stu for keeping it all together for the whole campaign.
In the teeth of the storm of MSM hostility Wings was a beacon of hope and sanity. How alone I would have felt on the 19th but for the knowledge that the voice of Wings and Wingers would not be silenced, and that 2014 was only the first round.
Thanks everybody and have a great 2015.
Schrodingers cat says:
31 December, 2014 at 3:45 pm
thanks WOS
lang may yer lums reek
wi some ither xunts coal, as they say in Huntly! Thanks for ALL the great work you do on WoS, if only to show just how ridiculous the UKOKteamGB media freak show really is.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!
Happy New Year tae ane an aw.
Here’s an email address some readers may find useful. No further comment is needed by me.
katie@katiehopkins.co.uk
Outstanding and remarkable work from Stu & his team and all the assorted aides. Fireproofjim summed it up for me in his post. Love and respect to Wings Over Scotland.
This past year was amazing.
I definitely wouldn’t have missed it for the world, though the outcome could’ve been better. 🙁
Many thanks Stu for enabling me to talk, at length, with the uneasy, the undecided and the rest without sounded like a fool.
Been a reader for a while now and can’t imagine leaving, so looking forward to the next white-knuckle ride…(I think)
Happy New Year to everyone. XXXXX
We’ll done Rev and the team and thanks to all those who contribute through the posts making it an even more enjoyable read.
Happy New Year
[…] Wings readership stats for 2014: Could have done worse. That traffic more than trebled in referendum year, of course, wasn't entirely surprising. Nevertheless, to realise that almost two thirds of … […]
We all should feel proud of that effort, from Stu’s herculean effort to create the material to the guys who acted as hubs and selflessly delivered the books to the people like me who distributed them were quite frankly amazing, Alex Clark came from his work to my home with books and then went back home to Dundee all I had to do was take them to other leafleters and deliver several hundred through peoples doors myself (the easy bit)
I am proud of my little bit, the guys who acted as main distributors should be hailed as heroes,
As long as I live I will never forget the astonishing feat performed by us all.
ronnie anderson
can’t beat 12 bar, rock on.
🙂
You are all heroes…..who, for Scotland king and law, freedom’s sword wad strangly draw……aye, and we have flung the sheath away…..2015, bring it on, all together!
So many people have already said everything that I would have said only much more eloquently. This is an amazing site and it has been amazing to have been a (very peripheral) participant in the Wings experience.
Thanks to Stu, for everything that you have done and thanks everyone else for the info, the humour, the passion and the craic.
Here’s to continuing the journey next year!
In a year full of memories one of my favourite remains the grinning face of the mannie in the 4×4 pulling up outside and dropping off a 1000 WBB’s. We hardly exchanged greetings, there just wasn’t the time, but we both knew we were taking part in something historic, doing something worthwhile and important.
May Wings guide us home in 2015 and beyond.
Thanks Rev.
Happy new year Stu, and to all Wings readers. Let’s make 2015 our best year yet.
Thanks Stu and everyone involved with Wings.
@ Albaman 5.12 in a word Publicity.
Albaman @ 5:12pm
I agree. I don’t think we are getting, within The National, the full gamut of talent that was writing in favour of indy during the campaign. I appreciate that we have an indy paper at all, but there should be room for a bit of ‘fire’ from Stu and WGD. The only one who regularly seems to carry anything like this, due to her life experiences, is Carolyn Leckie. But there has to be room for more entertaining writing surely.
Many of the columnists that appear week-by-week make good points and I am glad to read what they have to say but they are a bit ‘worthy’ and ‘conservative’ in places and a wee bit of passionate writing would not go amiss to stir people. Not everyone is won over by purely intellectual type writing, after all. Without more passion, we are only being given a partial picture of indy-related thinking, in my honest opinion.
I see Police Scotland are investigating Katie Hopkin’s racist tweets.
I wonder who complained…?
Much respect, Rev, and heartfelt gratitude for all your work. Here’s to a very guid new year.
From 30 years of political apathy to Party member. I like many others here, have had an incredible journey over the last year. All thanks to two people. Alex Salmond and Stuart Campbell, firsts amongst equals. Best wishes to everyone and a prosperous New Year. Slangevar!
superb job well done
When you need more cash – let us know
Brilliant summary there Rev Stu.
Tried reading this topic and replacing all the Yes/wings etc references with labour/unionist references and it just leaves you cold as oppossed to the utter warm glow of the original article.
Labour should be very worried in May, very worried indeed.
We could start our own Honour system, after all who want to the “Honoured” by belonging to the British Empire?
Dear Stu,
I only started reading your site in May 2014 but now your site is the first place I visit each and every day for REAL (TRUE) news and exposes. I’ve got the badge, the WBB, the tee-shirt! Thank God for Wings. Onwards and upwards. 2015? Bring it on. Champin’ at the bit to show the lying, self-serving, elitist,red tories that their days are numbered.
@ Conan_the_Librarian, & as admitted by the Chief Medical Officer in England ( STV News ) they knew 37 nurses were landing at Heathrow but werent prepared to screen them.
Superb work Stu – thank you.
I remember the 18th well. In Edinburgh on the way to the vote there was an eerie mood in the air like we had lost already. Very despondent atmosphere. I will never forget it.
Another year over, a BIG year passed, many said the Yes campaign would never last.
Well here we are – a new year on the way and here is something I would like to say.
Thank you Stu and every one of the 45% who had the vision and the belief to make this Great Wee Country of ours a much better, fairer, more equal place. It doesn’t matter the colour of your skin, your religion, rich or poor, the 45% welcomed everyone as equals.
So here’s to another momentous year where the natives are restless but now READY for the challenge.
Raise a glass,
Gary
We twa hae paidl’d in the burn,
frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
sin’ auld lang syne.
Reverend, thankyou dearly and best wishes to you and all the Wingers for 2015.
Keeping it going here.
Indy 2020 anyone?
‘I can see clearly now..’
Eds goat ah recovery plan tae reach our kitchen table,s, thats the wobbly leg sorted thanks Ed
Thank you Stu for all your hard work and to all Wingers a very Happy New Year when it comes!
Alabaman, I m sure I read ? Yesterday in The National , they intend to link to web pages .
and another tuppence worth of ta from me too, though it’s not nearly enough.
Stu, I could kiss you, and Doug, and Morag and Ronnie and every damn one of you – well maybe not Ronnie.
Early to bed chaps; work to do in 2015. Have a belter one and all.
@ Aspen Read the Arbroath Decleration . Not for Glory not for Honours do we fight.
2014 was base camp reached – an incredible feat! Don’t stop there!
Blwyddyn Newydd Dda i bawb yn yr Alban… a daliwch i gredu!
A Happy New Year to you all in Alba (From your Celtic cousins in CYMRU/Wales, who are SO proud of you and what you have achieved so far… keep believing – I can hear the train coming!!!
Congratulations Stu and crew for your Herculean efforts to continue the raising of consciousness of the Scottish people.
It’s paying off..slowly but surely. In 1979 we retreated and skulked in our cage with the door lying open. But in 2014…we stood firm…and in 2015 we will attack and take the fight to the enemy.
And all the credit must be given for your vanguard fight from the Campbell fastness in deepest Bath.
My best wishes to you and yours for this New Year and add my continuing support in your struggle to ensure our ultimate freedom.
Alba Gu snooker loopy!
🙂
To success in 2015
The campaign has fecked up my favourite New Year tipple though, as the bastards I usually drink from declared for No!
Am I the only one that still cant post in real time?
A lot of people have been calling 2014 a bad year. I can understand that: to me, the 19th of September was one of the darkest days in Scotland’s history, and I’ll wager even the staunchest No voters would have been ashamed at the events in George Square that day. It’s been a pretty horrible year in terms of news, too: the lorry tragedy, Margo, the horrendous crimes being uncovered, and so on.
But I cannot help but view it as a great year, too. This is the year Scotland woke up: that despite every daily and national paper and news channel either against it or “officially” neutral, despite the wealth and influence of billionaires, despite the manipulations of rich privileged celebrities, and despite the despicable machinations of the British Establishment, 1.6 million Scots – 45% of those who voted, and 37% of the entire electorate – voted to take their sovereignty back.
It wasn’t enough to take back our country in the referendum. But by goodness, there’s no way 1.6 million people will settle for the pittance Westminster bequeathed them, not when they voted to have it all. Ian McWhirter’s Disunited Kingdom byline says it all: Westminster won a referendum, but lost Scotland. Regardless of the vote, 2014 may well be the beginning of the end of the United Kingdom.
When the Scots won the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, it was considered de facto independence: despite the Scottish forces trouncing Edward’s host, Scotland’s independence was not universally acknowledged. It would only be the Treaty of Arbroath, 14 years later, that Scotland was independent de jure.
True, we cannot truly call Scotland independent de facto, not when our government is still deferential to Westminster out of legal obligation. But the people, who are sovereign? I know at least 1.6 million people who, in their hearts and minds, never gave back their sovereignty on the 18th of September, regardless of what the law says.
Scotland, the country, is not de facto independent. But the people of Scotland – even those who voted No who have either changed their minds, or seek a greater degree of autonomy within the UK that Westminster will surely never allow – they are de cor independent.
Conan says
“I see Police Scotland are investigating Katie Hopkin’s racist tweets.
I wonder who complained…?”
I agree with her!
in as much as
why did the Scottish NHS have to send that patient to London for specialist treatment?
WHY is that facility not available in Scotland?
The rest of the lowlifes comment I wont sully myself by commenting
@ Aspen 6.38 link to youtube.com
In those famous English words…..They think it’s all over…It isn’t now….:)
am no tellin >> link to youtube.com
Thank you for changing my nation, I am so grateful
to each and every one of you.
My father who has recently passed away was always asking me what the laddie from Wings was saying ,I think he was jealous because before i found Wings all my politics/history was filtered through his 60 odd years fighting/hoping for Scottish Independence.
He could not believe that given the Democratic chance to vote for or against Independence the Scottish people voted No,I think it near broke his heart.
Happy New Year to the 44.7%
Honours time!
Thank you thank you thank you Rev. Not going to give you a false gong. But I agree with the secret weapon comment but not Alex’s. Scotland’s! Never has so much been owed by so many to one website. You did it!
“In the end we spent more than £70,000 on printing …ETC.. and that was your money. We hope you feel you got value for it.”
I had two problems. Number one was that living outside Scotland it was difficult to donate without the banks etc eating chunks of the admittedly modest donation so I got a resident friend to make the donation and then reimbursed him.
Number two was that by the time I could arrange for the donation you were already over-subscribed. My friend suggested sending it elsewhere but I said send it anyways because I knew that it would never be wasted.
As much as I hate the politically loaded phrase “value for money” it really does apply to Wings donations. You can be sure that money sent is money MORE than well-spent.
You also provide a great service for people outside the country who have no other way to support Independence. You cannot imagine how frustrating it was to only be able to watch the Yes campaign.
Maybe you could set up a “Friends of Wings” appeal from time to time for the huge number of Scottish expats who would dearly love to see Scotland free or link to a “Wings Approved” campaign for setting up a TV station or something else equally useful.
Yours is a voice heard also at a distance and trusted.
Scot Finlayson-I’m the same. My dad has voted SNP all his life now with dementia and in his eighties the vote crushed him. Sadly I don’t think he will be around for part 2.
There will be soft strokes
There will be severe strokes
There will always be Paula Rose
There will always be us.
A remarkable contribution Rev. and well reflected in the viewing figures for Wings. Perhaps it’s now time for an academic study to assess where the 45% YES might have stalled without the influence of this site and the WBB. Onwards and upwards to May 2015 and Holyrood ’16
We salute you.
Lazy bugger.
Joemcg says
“I remember the 18th well. In Edinburgh on the way to the vote there was an eerie mood in the air like we had lost already. Very despondent atmosphere. I will never forget it.”
I was outside the polling station in our town from about 9oclock in the morning until about 5 in the evening when absolute exhaustion forced me to go home, the grey horrible foggy weather was to me an omen of bad news,
and the behaviour of (some) people attending the polling station spoke volumes when they would give us (yes supporters) a wide berth and avoid our gaze,
many of those people I knew but they averted their eyes to avoid the certain recognition of what they were about to do,
For as much as I want to, I cant forgive those people, they knew they were betraying Scotland, you could see it in their faces.
John King-Christ…that would have made the day a million times worse than what it already was! I’m glad I never witnessed that! Horrible.
Tae awe the Braw Wingers Auld & New
Tae awe the Braw Lurkers
That visit tae view OOR STU
All the Bestest for 2015
Be ye Auld Fat or Thin
Pay Us a visit,We’re always IN.
Taranaich @ 7:08pm
You speak for me.
Happy 2015 when it comes to all Wingers.
Resourceful,honest,and visionary ,in contrast to our duplicitous msm and Unionist politicians.
The indyref campaign has provided the groundwork to progress Scotland politically in the coming years.
WOS has been and will continue to be a keystone in this development
All the best !
Ah year tae remember
ah nither tae come
an this time roon
Nay many
Sitting on their Bum.
That is a cracking piece by Ian Bell in The National, which I’ve only just got round to reading. Best summary I’ve read so far.
Anyone know if there’s a digital version able to be re-blogged?
happy new year but not happy new labour
link to youtube.com
Imagine what tonight could have been like. A sea of saltires across Scotland celebrating our independence. Wonder if there will be a plethora of union flags? What a laugh! My favourite moment of 2014 was when I received a leaflet through the door full of BT lies with Lamont taking centre stage with the pension fib. I was so irate I went down to the bin with it but saw a no thanks stall in Newington I ran over to the most vociferous man and threw it at him shouting “bloody lies!” he responded with eyes bulging out of his head “it’s that Bliddy Alik Sammin! He’s brainwashed ye!” I still get a belly laugh thinking about it!
Joemcg @ 7.45
After the polls closed I went to bed with a sense of defeat, but my wife and my daughter stayed up all night to watch the results, I got up at my usual 4.30am 🙁
and saw my wife’s face,
and I saw the results come in with a fatalistic acceptance,
But now with the recent events we know
ITS NOT OVER!
“As far as the wider goal of independence goes, we’re persuaded by the argument that Yes had to lose this time round. A 51% victory followed by …”
I was sat in the Dundee Uni Union as the Clackmannanshire result came in and my firt thought wasn’t that it was going to be a NO in total, but uneasiness that a narrow YES would leave Scotland divided. So I guess even at that point, my head agreed with you, though my heart still wanted and expected a YES vote.
Next time it wouldn’t matter in my opinion if it was indeed 50% + 1 vote, people would be used to the idea. Some Unionists were genuinely in tears around Scotland at the result, so afraid were they of Independence. That as well as getting YES over the line, is another battle over the next 2-3 years to Indy Ref 2. But Independence is now mainstream, not the province of a “few” nutcases.
The WBB does seem to have been very good and well received, it’s a pity, perhaps, the YES campaign didn’t take the obvious risk and put their “weight” and funds behind it. It would have had an added benefit of distancing themselves from the SNP and the SG, and fully embracing the diverse grassroots.
link to dezeen.com From our neighbours, that dont want to take our resources, run our country and maybe the coolest country on earth or, what could have been Scots currency, if we were not plagued by the likes of deeply corrupt BBC, enraged politicos like Crash Gordon, Jim Murphy, a posh Embro expenses fraudster called Alistair, an editor at the Record with no morality front page splashing the greatest teamGB fraud called THE VOW since the last one, and on and on it goes…UKOK
An incredible effort Stu. WOS opened my eyes to many things I’d never have known about otherwise. It also instilled a thirst for knowledge in UK / Scottish politics I never previously had for which I am truly grateful. A very Happy New to you and all Wingers when it comes.
Many thanks Mr Campbell and a Happy New Year to you and your hard working team.
All the best to all Wingers in the New Year. Lets get stuck in about them in 2015!
Special mention to the hard working Ronnie Anderson in poetry corner there. All the best big yin! 🙂
@ Graeme Doig awe the best Graeme & Your Family, hope that back of yours gets better soon.
I’d guess the reason the nurse was moved to London was for specialist quarantine facilities, but more than that she’s agreed to try the experimental cure, which was at least part developed at Porton Down – chemical and bacteriological warfare research (from the point of view of defence etc.). Not everything bad doesn’t have some good, hopefully.
Thanks to Stu and team.
Here’s to a better result in 2015.
Let’s take forward to 2015 the lesson that Bruce learned from the spider…
“If at first you don’t succeed…try, try again”
Thanks Rev Stu and the supporting crew for everything in 2014.
I personally have many happy memories of downloading, printing and distributing the WBB to many of my very anti-yes colleagues. I live in the hope that this small effort may have changed the voting intention of at least just one person.
I would imagine the nurse was moved simply because the London team had already dealt with a previous case. It’s one thing to have a plan and quite another to have had implemented it and successfully.
Have a good night everyone, see youse next year.
Stuart, simply, thanks.
You’ve brought up a great (Wings) family and, you’re a role model to be envied.
Have a good one 🙂
I remember well the massive moment in my life after I had put the kids to bed and got the train (full of many younger YES supporters than my 40 years) and met with my mates. We had a night planned with loads of youngish professionals and a couple of delightful older ladies to wait, watch and pray as the results came in.
I was never,ever, confident of a YES but my canvassing made me certain of a YES in Glasgow. As we drunk a quick beer in Sloans before moving to our ‘party’ me and my friends were in agreement; that if it was to be YES it was Wings and the RIC that swung it.
Thanks Rev and the rest for all of the work. The dream lives on.
Hi All
Been a long time lurker but never posted before. In response to Conan the Librarian and Juteman’s comments about ebola nurse being treated in London I have to say NHS probably send people to the very best places for treatment. My son was treated in the Western General following a serious head injury and other patients in his ward were from all over the country. One guy had been flown in from Ireland for treatment.
Have a good new year fellow wingers and a heartfelt thanks to Rev Stuart for all his amazing work.
Thanks for all your hard work!
I’ll drink a toast to Wings tonight.
Hail Alba! Thèid an saorsachd.
Grizzle mcpuss,
I like the Bruce comparisons,
But for me the referundum was our Stalingrad. We were under seige. We held out.
Now we have broken out into open country, we shall encircle the weak slab salient and crush them mercilessly.
Then we march on to the enemy capital and consolidate our position.
But we should not seek to hold this poisoned chalice.
We must fall back and restore mother Scotland.
I hope some of those in the snp do not falter when offered the ‘gifts’that will surely be offered at the 11th hour.
Happy new year when it gets here.
The Wings message gets spread far and wide. There are twenty computers for public use on this rig and I have put about forty Wings icons on every one of their desktops.
The whole rig is talking about Wings.
Wishing every one of you a Happy and Healthy New Year.
Thanks Rev and everyone on Wings – we came much closer thanks to your efforts and I know next time we will win.
Guid health to all x
Happy New Year to all you lovely crazy winger’s
Many thanks to all of you for…..well…Everything its been one very special year.
And the best thing about it is we are all still here.X
All of you Wingers above have expressed my appreciation of Stu and Co’s work so much better than I ever could.
A big comradely hug,then, and the wish of a successful 2015 to one-and-all.
How often is it in a person’s life that she/he can say that they have been truly inspired by the words and deeds of their fellows? WOW!
Wishing everybody a happy New Year.
Let`s make 2015 an astonishing year
🙂
Stu-thank you. In the last few months, this site has restored my faith in human nature in the way that everyone has bounced back & it is certainly a force to be reckoned with.
What you & all the wingers have achieved has been bloody marvellous & in 2015 it will be time to do it all again.
Happy New Year to everyone here-Stu, wingers, lurkers & especially Caz-m & his colleagues out on the rigs & unable to celebrate 🙁
Wishing you all the best for 2015
New Year message from Nicola.
link to youtube.com
Can I just wish every winger and “alert reader” a happy new year when it arrives. 😀
Let’s face it folks OUR New Year is going to be a hell of a lot better than a certain Katie Hopkins. 😉
Congratulations to everyone who signed the petition for Police Scotland to investigate her for her racist tweets. Not only is HER new year not going to start off well but even better than that the news she is to be investigated has *ahem* upset the Daily Mail. How much better to the start of 2015 can it get? 😛
link to imgur.com
Mo Workman welcome to Wings – pleased you’ve joined in time for the party which starts tonight and goes on all the way till the big bash after a successful GE campaign in May! Happy new year when it comes 🙂
WOS has been an inredible learning resource for me and I feel proud to consider myself a “winger” now. We funded a small print-run in Forres and got it well spread, then got some more copies from general supplies (funded from some people around here too) and again, spread them. Walking the streets canvassing every day made such a difference with WBB. It was magical to hand it out to young or old, this really small simple and special book. It changed the political landscape.
I look forward to 2015, bring it on, politics is no longer only for a minority, it’s for all of us. Thanks Rev and crew for a fantastic year.
As a long term reader of Wings – since 2011 – and avid early commentator, I’d like to remind folk that the Rev describes himself as someone who has get down into the trenches and fight them hand to hand, as no one else will.
All I can say is that he has done a wonderful job, and is the last one standing tall in a journalistic Passchendaele.
I bide in a 320 year old house, built before the Union. I was renovating the Kitchen in October, and made a wee time capsule of the WBB and the White Paper (signed by the FFM and Energy Minister) and buried them in a box under a window. Sometimes when you live through History, you have to make sure its recorded and preserved.
But for the me, as someone who lived through the aftermath of the 1979 vote, and was driven down by the torpor that killed Scotland through the 80’s, our nation is in a much better place than I believed possible 12 months ago.
Happy New Year when it comes, to Stu and the team. Thanks for all your hard work. All the very best to all the wingers for 2015.
Conan_the_Librarian: @ 6:08 pm
It transpires that it was change.org with over 12,000 signatures
Apologies about the source.
@Marie clark says:31 December, 2014 at 2:48 pm:
” … ,lang may yer lum reek.”
Whit!
Oh! Sorry, Marie, I thought you said, “Lang may yer rum leak”.
Ah get a wee bit dyslectic when Ah’m afu tired.
A guid New Year to yin and aw
I AM ALEC SALMOND
I AM REV.STUART CAMPBELL
I AM WINGS OVER SCOTLAND
@thomaspotter2014
Hey where’s Spartacus?
@thomaspotter2014
Hey where’s Spartacus?
@thomaspotter2014
Hey where’s Spartacus?
My shadow now has a its own shadow, 3 for the price of 1.
Happy New Year to all, some Wings images from the year:
link to imgur.com
link to imgur.com
link to imgur.com
link to imgur.com
link to imgur.com
link to imgur.com
link to imgur.com
One of the first public outing for Wings from September 2013:
link to imgur.com
Spartacus was on the telly the day….
Kirk douglas however was a mad Viking.
Tony Curtis stabbed him on a castle rampart.
Enjoyable shite, what more do you want at this time of year 🙂
A happy New Year to you all.
May 2015 see us build on the Yes impetus. Darling was right, we need to pull together but not in the direction he thought.
One thing is very sure now. Many, many more people World Wide now know that Scotland is not just a northern region of England. I look forward to the time when the whole World knows it. I have made it a point for many years never to allow people who confuse England. Particularly those who refer to Britain as, “The country”
I’m watching the big proud Scots But Jackie Burd being so proud to be a Unionist mouthpiece.
Happy New Year to you all.
I add my thanks to Stu and all those mentioned above for all the hard work which goes into this website and congratulate them on its great success.
What a journey for all of us. Wings articles, comments and conversations have provided inspiration and solace along with information. After a hard day’s canvassing, Wings always lifted the spirits.
The Yes campaign is a huge family. I have met so many people on this journey, none of them strangers especially Wingers. That has been the most pleasurable aspect.
The WBB was a triumph for all of us. It was a game changer for many. I canvassed some houses a week after WBBs had been distributed and spoke to people who had delved into them, some made a party of it with friends and debated the contents, and found that people had changed their minds, undecided had tipped over to Yes. So, a big thank you to all those who contributed to the content and put it together, etc.
We had the honour of being a hub for this little gem and felt a huge responsibility to ensure that it was delivered where it was needed. Chance meetings/serendipity found some Yes shops with a supply to add to those people who had already requested an allocation.
Yes, Morag, I have been in your garage (only meeting you in person after the Hydro event)!
To all Wingers, posters, lurkers, those I notice posting for the first time (welcome), Stu and his phenomenal support team and all who have in their hearts the best interests of the people of Scotland, thank you and I wish us all the best of luck in 2015.
Onward! xx
@Wuffing Dug says:
Enjoyable shite, what more do you want at this time of year 🙂
The mind boggles.
Strange? “No” wins the referendum and the first thing they do is whip of their car stickers! Haven’t seen a no sticker until a recent visit to the Crieff Hydro, and some plank has a UKOK sticker!
The Brits won the referendum and the Brits will continue to run Scotland from London,England for the benefit of London,England……for the time being.But they know this is a one way journey to an independent Scotland.Thanks Stu.Thanks everyone.Cant wait for the next campaign!
Would have been impossible to run (and won) the campaign here in Skye & Lochalsh without WIngs. First port of call every morning for the real story, and WBB was the essential piece of kit for our Yes Shop and round the doors for undecided voters.
Just wish it had been available earlier, but more fool Yes Scotland for not seeing the genius! Next time we will have the fighting fund in place and the thousands of willing volunteers, many who came forward in the last few weeks, raring to go.
Thanks Stu!
A Good New Year one and all.
Need to charge my glass for the chimes.
See you in 2015.
Happy New Year
May all your wishes come true, thanks all for keeping the sanity.
Happy New Year to One and All.
Stephen.
Happy New Year to all here!
With each New Year, one year closer to the mirage of independence.
Has any other country in the world waited more than 300 years for independence?
We are a unique nation indeed.
When celebrating the New Year, don’t forget we are still part of the rotten to the core United Kingdom with its purring Queen.
Happy New Year.
Happy New year to you all. I hope 2015 will be a better year. September the 19th was the worst day of my life so far. However things are looking Good for the GE, we need to get behind the SNP. They are the only party that can make a difference in Scotland
@Rock
When celebrating the New Year, don’t forget we are still part of the rotten to the core United Kingdom with its purring Queen
I am all for pruning that quine down to the stump.
Hey Stu kick my mouse Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that! it needs some house training.
Happy NY one and all.
We now need to make the future right for the generations to come.
HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! Here’s tae us, wha’s like us? Damn the few – and they’re a’ deid 🙂 Have a great 2015!
If I heard right, according to the Beeb the fireworks in Edinburgh never fail to disappoint.
🙂
Damn few – an’ they’re NO aw deid! Alba gu bragh!
Yeah, I’m naive but did jackie bird come out for nae Bawz or was it something she said or did?
Proper fireworks.
Happy New Year to Stu and the wingers.
Watching BBC Alba
The Image of the gaunt woman aka J Bird is too much.
Decision for 2015 is to learn Scottish or Welsh celtic.
No question as to Alba gu snooker loopy! or Cymru am Byth.
Tiocfaidh ár lá
May 2015.
Both are synonyms
Happy New Year to one and all on here.
Lang mae yir lums reek.
Btw I see the bbc is not afraid to show the Saltire now, we’re all Scottish again!
Happy New Year to you all. In 2014 I was soundly beaten by a large margin, reset, reconciled, and firmly put back in my box. Well at least that’s what they think. 2015 Still life in the old dog and raring to go.
Stay strong.
“in amongst rather more smears and vitriol from the No camp and the media, and sadly some elements of the Yes movement”
Overall, Stuart and his team did the best job for the independence cause.
It was unforgivable for Yes Scotland to boycott Wings for exposing the utter hypocrisy of a Tory MSP.
Yes Scotland and Blair Jenkins played too nice. There were many missed opportunities where they should have fought back.
The greatest missed opportunity was when Blair Jenkins was asked if the BBC was biased and answered No. He should have answered Yes. That would have reduced BBC bias enough for us to win.
We are not genetically programmed to beat the British Establishment.
Happy New Year to you all. 2015 is going to be a good year!
Thanks and best wishes Stuart. Keep up the good work. We promise to continue to be alert Wingers.
Happy new year pals
At least they kept Jackie Burd oot o Edinburgh too risky to have her around the general public so they had a wee hand picked crowd in as wee a place as they dared, still couldnae look at her, looking forward to big things this year….I am Alex Salmond…
Happy New year to Rev Stu and all you Wingers wherever you are !
Hail Alba !
I came in to 2014 thinking this could be the year we’ve all been waiting for, our freedom, independence, from now on we make the decisions for our own country.
In September I wept.
2015, there will be next time. We are getting stronger and they are getting weaker.
All the very best wishes for 2015 to the Rev. Stu and all Wingers everywhere, let your dreams come true. 🙂
Happy new year to all the good people. No voters can fuck off!
Hail Alba.
Well done Stu, you put it all in perspective a bit there,
summing up what we’ve all been through, pretty mind boggling really, but, at the end of the day all we’ve really done is make independence normal in the minds of the non committal.
That in itself will serve us well as we move forwards
Alba gu brath
Happy New Year To All
Bbc must be fizzin the last song played on the Hogmany programe FREE belter.
A Happy New Year.
Especially you Rev for the wonderful work you have done in opening the eyes of the Scottish people to reality in the UK.
A thanks seems too small a tribute and I wish it could be more.
We have to believe that 2104 was only the start. Let’s see what 2015 brings. I believe it will be a good New Year for those that support Independence.
Sláinte All!
I am Alex Salmond!
Wings Over Scotland…Educational, Inspirational, Stimulating and Motivational! The star of IndyRef Scotland 2014!! Thank you all, Respect and Love and….on to 2015…..
Thepnr – Alex, you’ll always be Thepnr to me – and I hope we get to The Point of No Return, next May. 🙂
Pure lovin’ you fellow Winger.
Happiness to you and yours. (btw I’m also lovin’ Paulo Nutini on Jools, so you’re in great company). 😉
Happy New Year, everyone.
The doubters?….. They can’t handle the truth!
Thanks Rev! Still don’t get the irrational hatred from the Unionists. The odd swear word aside you’re so nice! 🙂
A guid New Year to one and all!
BBC Alba Hogamanay show was excellent. (Just me and the dug tonight)
Off to bed now. Pished, but happy.
Light, life, love.
Wings Over Scotland == red pill (The Matrix)
They had their choice
YES == Red pill
NO == blue pill
Either the keyboard is moving ot a simpler explantion exists!
Happy New Year all
If I have been grumpy with anyone my apologies.
I see an Independent Scotland on the horizon
My bottle of Dalmore is empty 🙁
However the Glenfiddich taunts me.
Happy new year all.
The lone piper on Edinburgh castle ramparts played out the old year with The Battle’s O’er. “Oh no it isn’t,’ we shouted. We lost the September skirmish, but we’re far from defeated. Just look at the energy in these posts, ready for the next outing in four months time.
Hi Guys drunk as a skunk at the monment. gave the big burd a body swerve for alba What a truly wonderful show from our ain folk. Forget the crap from the big burd . Go Alaba it’s whit we are a’ aboot.
Good times ahead boys and girls. Roll on the GE.
Guid New year tae all of you
Well done Wings, and thank you for all your hard work. A happy new year to everyone and I think it will be an interesting one. 🙂
Happy New Year!
Seconds out, round two. Ding dong.
You are the wind beneath our Wings Rev Stuart!
You have the most informative and constructive web site that I have ever encountered.
Happy New Year to you, your wonderful team, and every blessed soul
who has supported our indefatigable campaign.
May is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
Truth hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword.
Let me echo all of the oh so positive comments above and wish all you fellow ‘YESERS’ A GUID AND PROSPEROUS 2015. Let’s all promise to make the 7th May the start of “THE CELTIC SPRING”.
Let’s go for it.
Auld Rock
Ah, hmmm, a rumour I just heard (talking to myself) is that the new 2015 slogan of the Scottish branch of the Labour Party is:
“he who breaks wind in church, must sit in own pew”
Amen to that, brothers and sisters.
Happy new year to you Stuart and all the wings readers and contributors. Thank you also for the work you put in to provide us with the ammunition to take the fight to the unionists and their establishment buds. What an absolute shower you exposed and they’ll never be thought of as anything other than totally untrustworthy ever again.
Ps Thanks and best wishes to all my fellow yes foot soldiers.
Happy New Year, gang of Wings!
Happy New Year to all associated with W.O.S. and I raise my glass to those no longer with us. Bless you all and all the best.
This party doesn’t end..
@Michael McCabe
A happy new year to you too Michael. See you sometime in 2015!
That’s for sure, work to be done yet 🙂
Thanks Stu and everybody for making this a brilliant website. One day all journalism will be like this. I live in that hope. Happy New Year from Bangkok!
A Guide New Year to you all .
Our appreciation continues Rev et tout .
This site has been invaluable & effing addictive since day 1
The ” Wings Family ” are nearly all anon yet we all push forward together .
An occasional skuttle but generally brill posts .
I really feel we all pulled each other thro’ to today after the doom o the 19th
I add my thanks to everyone .
Cheers !
@ Jim Murphy
Wouldn’t want you to feel unwanted. Here’s one I’m not sure who to dedicate to. Stu or yourself. Looking forward to the coming year, I thought you might like it as we look forwards, Better Together. 😉
I Shall Remove.
link to youtube.com
Oops. Happy New Year folks. ::)
link to youtube.com :::)
Greetings from Kedah, Malaysia. I have always believed that Scotland should be independent and came across this site circa late 2012 by chance. Hooked every since. If any person should claim that s/he swung the indyref, it can be no other than the Rev. Thank you for the education in politics and thank you for everything else.
And may we live to see an interesting 2015.
Happy New Year to the good people here and Stu for doing what he does best. Remember folks, indieref 1 was just a stepping stone, it’s coming soon. Keep that in mind and step up your efforts in 2015 and let the rewards we win in May spur us on further. I will also look forward to hopefully meeting some of you in person one day.
Please remember to visit us over at scottishstatesman,com as we will be raising our game in 2015.
#Indiesoon (would be a good hashtag to constantly remind and spur us on)
Happy New Year to you Stuart and all winges, may it bring you everything you wish for our country.
Winges (of course) = wingers!
Patrician @ 11.28
thank you for the pictures
I hope there will be many more to come.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Patrician 11.28pm
Thanks for all the pictures from last year, brought back a lot of good memories. Only to be spoiled by the NO vote in September.
My wish for 2015 is to flood Westminster with SNP MPs in may and also to see a referendum date wrote into the SNP manifesto for the 2016 Scottish elections.
All the best everyone.
From the BBC Scotland website:-
“Former radio and television host Mr Cameron, of Auchterarder, was appointed an MBE for his services to entertainment and charity.”
“The 74-year-old most recently campaigned alongside MP Jim Murphy, now the Scottish Labour leader, for a “No” vote in the independence referendum.”
Also:-
“Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson picked up a CBE, while his deputy Archie Graham was appointed an OBE, both for services to local government.”
link to bbc.com
Wee Johann will be ever so happy for her Archie. It’s another step closer to their holy grail, (The House of Lords).
@ caz-m
“Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson picked up a CBE, while his deputy Archie Graham was appointed an OBE, both for services to local government.”
—–and the Orange Order.
@ John King and “his long suffering wife”
Happy New Year, and all the other sair heided Wingers this morning, idem.
Freezing here.
Bugger!
@jim
bonne et heureuse année mon Cher ami
Quite mild here in Fife,#
about 8 degrees
Hope your keeping warm on the rigs caz-m
respec for the wings on screen savers wheeze 🙂
happy new year my friend.
A good new year all.
Are we ready to kick some bottom?
Bottom….(snigger). I said bottom. 😀
Let’s get our mojo back on track.
Re The Telegraph – if you thought that the Bruce Anderson article was bad have a look at the Christopher Booker one.
Don’t forget that this is the country that loves Scotland and The Scots and would hate to lose us.
Wishing a happy, prosperous and pain free new year to all of Scotland’s people, and remembering those who fought long and hard over the years for Scotland’s independence but did not live to see the referendum. They are sorely and sadly missed. Let’s make sure in 2015 that their efforts were not in vain.
Happy happy happy New Year to all Wingers everywhere!!!
Thank you Rev Stu.
We ARE on our road to Independence =)
Thank you everyone.
HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone on wings, may 2015 bring plenty joy . May looks good.
@John King
My experience outside a polling booth here in Broughty Ferry was different to yours. I did a long stint too, 2pm to close and I recognise the eye avoidance and some people looked at me and just said ‘sorry’. But I also got high fived and hugged, yes hugged by Yes voters just for being there. Perhaps it was the difference between a No city and a Yes City. The vibe here in Dundee was incredible. It’s still incredible, there’s a radical energy here now. Look out, Dundee is coming.
Thank you.
Without you, I’d probably still believe the BBC. Or, best case scenario, I’d know it was lies but have nothing else.
The difference you made was enormous. And brave. People who make that sort of difference usually are.
Merry New Year.
May our dream come true sooner rather than later
Thanks to all involved. Favourite www place
For the laughs, for being a fairly lone beacon of truth, for daring to think so big, for taking up so many of my reading time – but most of all for opening my eyes and changing my mind in 2014 – thank you to all of you here.
Happy new year Wingers.
Stu, you, and this site, have been an outstanding resource and source of hope.
I wasn’t really up for hogmany. I just avoided it. But this morning, it’s pishin doon sideways and the Saltire is stiff in the wind and I now have hope again. I can see us moving in the right direction. And fir that and this site I’m eternally grateful.
Happy New Year to all wingers and most of all gratitude to Stuart for all his and his team(you know who you are). Glad Hubby found you and introduced us. First port of Call and then Munguin, and I agree with Conan, much kudos to everyone in the YES campaign, we may not have won but boy we were always on the right side. Those many who now wished they had done so, come on over it is a really nice place.
Happy new year to everyone except NO voters
John King, it may be mild but boy the rain is really falling, I know, just back from walking the dug who has now resumed his position on the sofa.
My hangover has a hangover.
Happy New Year to all.
Just had an Irn bru to sort the head. The stuff is like gold dust over here.
Here is to 2015 and another nail in the union’s coffin.
@Helena Brown says: 1 January, 2015 at 10:31 am:
” … I know, just back from walking the dug who has now resumed his position on the sofa.”
Ah! You need to train him better. When my wee Papillion bitch gets wet she too attempts to, “Assume the position”, on the sofa. At which point she is asked, “Where do wet Papillion’s go”? She then slinks off with that hangdog look behind the sofa which is positioned in front of a radiator.
She is quite comical, though. She slinks back out again when she thinks I’m not looking and hauls her favourite cushion off the settee and snuggles down on it before the radiator. Papillion’s really do like their comfort.
Mind you a wet Papillion is perhaps the ultimate picture of bedraggled dejection. They have very long, silky coats that just sooks up water like a muckle sponge. Makes you feel like wringing them out like a dish-cloot.
Today’s teardrops are tomorrow’s rainbows wrote the great philosopher Gene Pitney (though Roy Orbison does the best version – I often wonder if Roy’s ancestors came from Orbison on the edge of Motherwell). A guid New Year to all who kept the faith and to Stu in particular.
We now live in a different Scotland.
There will be a lot of tactical political jostling going on over the next five months but the most important thing we have to do over the next two years is to make it widely recognised that we are comfortably self supporting as a country.
That is the bottom line. Uncertainty about that lost us hundreds of thousands of votes at the referendum. Be in no doubt about that. That lack of confidence was virtually what all of the Better Together campaign was about.
The WBB book should be upgraded to expose more fully some of the most alarming lies and every house in Scotland should get one.
We need some new livery now for our cars and windows and the flags should start going up again right now (though I have not taken mine down)
Just back from walking the pooches.One of my neighbours has unexpectedly erected a full size flagpole in his back garden festooned at the top by a beautiful Saltire.He has added to the others in the area.The mood of change is becoming ever more tangible.
Many thanks to all and may we share a happy and victorious New Year.
caz-m
Happy New Year and respect to you and all the guys and girls out on the rigs.
How’s the weather? 😉
New Year resolution by British Government, all UK driving licences to have Union Flag on the plastic card version, except Northern Ireland. We must campaign for the Saltire on Scottish ones.
Helena Brown @10.31
your comment about walking your dog reminded me where you come from, I haven’t seen that big Newfoundland recently we usually see people walking it along the road from Tesco towards Dobbies end, we were hoping it was ok, have you seen it recently?
Footsoldier,
The Brits can GET STUFFED.
Happy New Year to all.
Thank you Rev Stu and Wingers for all your dedication and hardwork.
Lets make 2015 a new beginning for Scotland!
Conan_the_Librarian says
“My hangover has a hangover.”
message from Mrs King
“HELL MEND YE”
message ends!
happy new year Conan
@ John King.
I’m there already.
That third concoction after all the beer had been drunk.
There is still plenty of ‘John Smith’s’ though.
John I am hardly ever along that way but no I haven’t seen it. I know my old neighbours lost their old Rottie but have now got a new puppy who will prove to be even bigger than the auld one. I hate it when you stop seeing people because we all know each other by our dogs.
Hi Robert, dinnae worry about Hektor, he thinks he is in charge but with me HE knows he isn’t. He sleeps on the sofa with my blessing. He used to sleep in our bedroom in his own beds (note plural) but he found our new bedroom too confining. He may be a dominant dog but not with humans.
Oh and I meant to say your wee Papillion will hate getting wet about as much as the Pug does. The difference is that Hektor dries out quickly and his coat is so thick that not a lot penetrates.
I know the redoubtable Ivan and would testify to his enthusiasm and tremendous reserves of energy. Copies went so quickly at stalls, doors and meetings I never even got the opportunity to read a hard copy myself! Would have loved to keep one for posterity but the demand was just staggering.
Well done to ALL involved with WoS, and lang may yer lum reek in 2015.
Happy New Year Helena.
I’m still missing ma wee Gizmo, even though his daughters fill the gap a bit…but he was ma mate, ye ken?
a happy New Year to all you wonderful Wingers
Helena, I had a Bull Terrier, a real one, pirate eye and all.
He hated rain and just would not go outside into rain.
He would stand on the jutting step outside the front door and look at the shies forlornly. In one case for three days he just refused to go outside but eventually he did and ran to the dry are under the patio table, peed a torrent like a puppy and then ran back indoors, varely touched by the rain.
I miss him, he was a natural clown and all his years with me in my French farmhouse, we were never bothered by itinerant rag, tag and bobtail, Some came down the path looking for something or other, saw him and some actually ran away. He would have licked them to death.
A WEE BLACK BOOK OF UNIONIST LIES
Wise words Ref., its that Karma thing, let Osborne deal with the reduced oil sales price., and so revenue. Odd that UK income reduction is not mentioned by MSM.
Many thanks to your supporting team, and you.
And your salary for 2015? Funding proposals in place?
Happy New Year, Stuart
Thanks for everything you did last year, and the same to everyone else. We came close …we came very, very close.
But who knows what 2015 will bring!
Anyway …all the best to everyone in the coming year.
Posted earlier but no sign of it. Windy and wet out with the dogs.Delighted to see one of my neighbours in a house 100yds from me has erected a full size flagpole atop of which is a magnificent Saltire.The feeling of intensity for this year is growing already.He says it will stay there till we are free.
Happy New Year everybody.
We were in Stonehaven last night for the fireballs. I seemed to us that it was more subdued this year. At one point the pipe band were playing Flower of Scotland and a few tried to get the crown singing but it just didn’t take off.
I doubt I’ll ever be able to sing that song again until we achieve our goal. I find it embarrassing after September’s vote that any proudScotbutNo voters will still sing it and seemingly be unaware of the irony.
For 2015? I’ll be getting behind the election campaign to get a pro-indy majority to WM. Support CND and Common Weal as both can bring pressure on the unionists establishment.
I’ll be aiming to attend every Wings get together I can get to and look forward to seeing many of you there. I’d love to do a name check for all the extraordinary Wingers I’ve met over the last year but you all know who you are. I feel privileged to be a part of this thing the Rev Stu has created. I’m not sure even he realises what’s going down here 😀
Great to see quite a few of our lurkers dipping their toes in for the first time. Welcome all, after the first post you realise it doesn’t hurt at all. Just watch out for the alligators 😉
2014 was like a ride on Nemesis at Alton Towers with all the twists and turns and highs and lows. Hopefully 2015 will be Oblivion for the unionist parties in Scotland.
Dr Ew,
If you’d like a copy of the WBB fire me off an email.
Once the referendum dust had settled I put a message out round my work colleagues and managed to rescue half a dozen copies for future use. I’ll pop one in the post to you if required.
Cheers
johnsmellie4(at)gmail(dot)com
You gave me hope.
You made me look at my countries history.
You made me laugh.
I belong.
Thank you.
A take on Cameron’s dreadful Speech:
link to youtube.com
My poor daughter, Grace Halliday, helped put thousands of WBBs through the doors and into the pubs and cafes of south Edinburgh in those last two weeks so thanks to her too.
Read all the comments and recognise the experiences of being at the polling station.
Folk avoiding eye contact and looking ashamed, no wonder there was no celebration afterwards.
A friend told me that one of his friends voted No and as soon as he had left the polling station, he felt deep remorse.
Whilst there was a real camaraderie amongst the Yes voters.
Despite the SNP apparently officially dissociating themselves from WoS, we were given WBBs by the local SNP branch to distribute.
I agree it was a stage we all had to go through as more people will now know how they feel instead of thinking they knew.
Lots to do in 2015 and Happy New Year to all Wingers and especially the Rev.
Another who should be recognised for his efforts to get the WBB to people is Ken McDonald (Kendomacaroonbar on Wings).
He payed from his own pocket for the printing of 10,000 WBB’s.
These were the first books to hit the streets in Scotland a few days before the Revs.
His enthusiasm for the Independence cause is unbounded and his latest contribution is to set up iScot a magazine about Scotttish news, politics and has articles from the likes of wee ginger dug.
Support his new venture as he supports us if you can. You can buy a subscription or read it for free here.
link to iscot.scot
Thank you Ken.
Happy New Year to one and all. Is it possible that 2015 will be even more exciting than 2014?
Owe my head, another day in teamGB or this kind of Britnat grot. “2015, Year of kick ass women” but guess who they definitely won’t even mention up in their north british region, in this kind of rule Britannia sausage fest?link to archive.today
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” — Albert Einstein. A Happy 2015 to you all.
Thanks for playing your part in our year.
Whilst we didn’t win the referendum, we did gain a whole lot more than even I could have imagined.
I even made new friends because of the WBB, while I was driving around Edinburgh picking up copies from one place and dropping them off at another, I ended up also transporting activists who were delivering WBBs & other info door to door.
The ad hoc distribution network really was something to behold. And I am proud to have been part of that.
Several friends shift to Yes after I shared some of Wings’ posts with them.
Your work played a huge part in my indyref experience. And for that I’m truly grateful
Happy New Year to you and yours.
Already signed up to iScot and thoroughly recommend it. It’s available online but I have signed up for the print copy and it is superbly produced – it’s the such a lovely work of art I almost want to hang it on my wall.
The next four months could be as historically important as the last few twelve. We need to put as much effort in as we did for September 18th.
If I learned anything from the last year it’s these two things: (1) when you really believe in something you never give up because you know it’s going to happen one day and it may not even be in your lifetime but it’s so just and so right it will succeed eventually; (2) anything is possible.
I don’t know about anyone else but I am really excited about the next four months – onwards and upwards.
Bliadhna mhath ur/Happy New Year
I’d like to endorse the previous comments regarding Kendo’s sterling efforts. The first half dozen WBB’s I received had been personally packed and posted by him and went to good homes instantly.
I’ve also just received the first issue of the iScot mag and it is superb! Reading at leisure, currently fascinated by Morag’s Lockerbie article.
Well done, Ken. My very best wishes for 2015 to you, Rev Stu and all Wingers.
May i echo the comments from Alex and Ronnie re Ken McDonald
I have taken out a mag sub on iScot and plan to place in Dr’s Surgery after reading. I will also request that my local library get a monthly copy.
It really is a top quality publication and if you can afford it please subscribe to the paper edition .
Liz re polling stations i was on duty all morning and night and experienced the same thing, living on an Island Community i knew a lot of the voters and even No voters i was at school with avoided eye contact.
We had a Yes drop in centre and whilst there a concerned young lady came in and said one of her friends had voted no and had phoned her in tears to tell her not to vote no.
Ten mins later she left in a more positive frame of mind to vote Yes. I was telling this to my nephew and he said exact same thing had happened to his cousin she had phoned her husband in tears telling him to change his mind and vote Yes.
I think there will be a lot of people regretting their no votes and the unionist parties are going to be hit with a whirlwind come May.
Happy New Year 2015 to all Wingers!
Amazing readership figures, Rev Stu. Obviously meets a need.
Wingers got off their online arses and leafleted, discussed f2f at various YES events, whatever. Then the miracle of the WBB distribution. No planned logistics but somehow it all worked out. That’s what happens: where there’s a will, there’s a way. Enough people had the will to make it happen. A huge thank you to all involved.
Do you guys realise what you’ve done?
You’ve only changed the face of Scottish and, indeed, UK politics forever. It even has reprecussions in European and world politics. Well done, you.
And it didn’t stop on 19 Sept.
Scotland may have voted NO this time but those pesky natives just won’t go back into their box and shut up and do as they’re telt. They want the vow delivered, they want significantly more powers to Scotland. For them, Scotland is a country, not a region. They probably regret voting NO. The Union? Tick tock.
Next goal: GE 2015. Wipe out the only Tory, the LibDems, and as many as possible of the red Tories (Labour). Send to Westminster MPs who care about Scotland, SNP MPs – Sorry, SSP, Greens and others but the undemocratic FPTP system means you have to concentrate the vote. The SNP is the only viable alternative to the main three unionist UK parties in a UK GE.
Imagine if the SNP got the seats the polls predict now – between 20 and 59 – the Engish establishment would be flabbergasted and… angry. The Scots were supposed to get back into their box and not bother the important Lond…Engl… British project. Scotland was supposed to supply oil, cannonfodder and Labour MPs to counter SE England Tories. That’s their idea, charade, travesty of democracy. A hung parliament with the SNP holding the balance is the estsblishment’s and Westminster parties’ worst nightmare. And it might just happen.
So all you Wingers! Get out there! No matter if you’re SSP or Green or whatever, but in this GE the SNP is the only viable vehicle to further Scotland’s interests in Westminster (UK). You can vote for your “own” party in 2016, the next Holyrood election. In the 2015 GE, you must vote SNP to ensure the landslide predicted by various polls. To keep Labour out. 🙂
@ lumilumi
A happy new year to you too lumi.
We’ll be out there in force in the new year, never fear. It’ll be worth it if only to see the looks on the faces of the meeja pundits alone. 😀
Hi Alex thepnr.
I have to agree with you about Kendomacaroonbar’s first run of WBB’s.
The Rev’s WBB fundraiser started on a late Friday morning. By 3pm, it had surpassed the target of £25,000. By the next day, I’m sure it was over £50,000. That afternoon, I went into the YES Hub in Dundee, in St Andrew’s Street, to buy a YES saltire and had a blether with the guy there.
I mentioned the WBB fundraiser’s success and he said that someone else had mentioned it earlier in the day. He also said that they were hoping to be a distribution hub for it.
Now, the interesting thing is that the first copies into Dundee were from that first print run, with the stapled spine, that you provided, and Pete the Camera took possession of.
The first YES campaigning organisation in Dundee that had the WBB was ‘Team YES Bus’ (Scotland’s Dragon For Independence), which Pete and I had joined, and was organised by Bob Costello, of Sidlaw Executive Coaches, who also provided the battlebus for ‘Business For Scotland’.
When the pallet of ‘2nd Edition’ was organised by yourself into Dundee, once again, it was Pete who distributed within Dundee, initially to ‘Team YES Bus’. It was from this pallet that Pete also provided a supply to the Dundee YES Hub, who, it looks like, never contacted the Rev to organise a supply of their own.
Now, the funny thing is, Pete and I, both from Dundee, have been at every WOS get-together since WOS2 in Dundee. I can’t understand, reading comments from Dundee based Wingers on the WOS pages, why we haven’t met any other Wingers from Dundee at the various get-togethers, including the one at Invergowrie on 13th September, which had Wingers from Glasgow, Angus, Airdrie, Aberdeen, Ayrshire, Edinburgh, ‘the north-west’ and me and Pete from Dundee.
Why don’t Dundee Wingers want to meet other Wingers from that ‘elsewhere’?
Onnyhoo, may all our wishes be fulfilled for what is bound to be a momentous year, politically, and to all Wingers, have an uplifting celebration before you’re back to work on Monday, or whenever.
8=)
echoing previous comments….Big thanks to The Rev. for all his efforts during the campaign…..AND for keeping the flame going after the 18th
agree with Dave McEwan Hill
The WBB book should be upgraded to expose more fully some of the most alarming lies and every house in Scotland should get one …..call it …The NWBB…..(NEW)
We need some new livery now for our cars and windows and the flags
I’m for using the popular YES design.(blue circle white letters)… It’s a recognised brand…
@Lenny Hartley, that sounds good. If that is reflected across many places it could be quite a substantial number.
Lenny Hartley,
“young lady came in and said one of her friends had voted no and had phoned her in tears to tell her not to vote no.”
“she had phoned her husband in tears telling him to change his mind and vote Yes.”
These people are even more stupid than the unionists give them credit for.
Knowing full well that this was the opportunity Scots had been waiting for for more than 300 years, they went there to vote No and as soon as they came out they regreted it.
What sort of people are these?
@brian
Just to clear up one point: The WBB was never distributed directly to Yes hubs or shops, but to individuals. The reason for that was the Electoral Commission’s rules on collaboration and consequent spending implications.
Of course, what the individuals then did with their copies, was up to them 🙂
kininvie says:
“The WBB was never distributed directly to Yes hubs or shops, but to individuals. The reason for that was the Electoral Commission’s rules on collaboration and consequent spending implications.”
Further explanation please, i need educated on this one.
Electoral Commission’s rules on collaboration and consequent spending implications?
The Referendum had an agreement the £1.5Million? Could be spend on the YES and NO campaigns. These were limits which had to be adhered to. The same as a GE. There are limits as to what each Party can spend, ie no interests group can buy an election. Often powerful interest groups can donate (secretly?) and can bring influence on the ballot.
That is why the YES campaign could not officially support Wings (over the agreed financial limit) or support WBB officially. Of course YES/SNP supporters on an individual basis could and did absolutely support Wings and donate. That is why the SNP or the YES campaign could not officially support Wings .Wings was a free standing campaign which still had to abide by official the electoral rules etc.
It makes a mockery of the Referendum when official non impartial organisation funded with public money like the BBC were no following the rules. BT and NO political Parties were giving £Millions public money to University Dept for Polls and TV pundits who could influence the Vote. Purdah was completely ignored. Without all these powerful official organisation (illegally) funded by public money and keeping strictly to the electoral rules, the YES campaign would have won easily. That is why Scotland was cheated out of the Referendum. Westminster politicians totally cheated andalong with powerful interest groups cheated Scotland out of a YES vote.
Westminster used public money illegally and broke every electoral rule in the Book to cheat Scotland out of a YES vote and they will pay the price.
In the GE campaign could the Fiscal autonomy/Independence supporters get out the best literature, giving the facts and figures in plenty of time. Much of the best YES campaign literature came out late. It is now in the public domain, but could be circulated more widely.
The Unionst will cheat and lie at the GE election, that is what they do, but will be more divided attacking each other too. Like rats in a sack. That will be an advantage and will let the SNP/Alliance through, if there is any Justice.
The NO campaigns received large donations from outside interested Parties which should notb have been allowed. The Tories are reported to have received donations for powerful Interest Groups to try and buy up the next Election, against the public interest.
What a marvellous effort YES campaigners put in and it is coming to fruition now. More and more NO voters are coming to realise just how they were cheated. Even as they observe the VOW. Westminster will pay the price for tbe duplicitous lies.
YES/SNP supporters individually endorses Wings totally, but Wings could not have bern endored by the Official YES campaign because of electoral rules ie it was not under their control. Wings is a separate Organisation? led by the Rev. It follows individual rules decided by the Rev. Reasons to be cheerful part 2. The WBB was distributed through YES shops by individual collectives, not by the official Organisations.
Scotland cheated twice. Not to be cheated again.
Date of the next Referedum? To be decided.
Many Wings supporters can’t make it to Wings ‘get together’s, because of the logistics or other commitments.
In Edinburgh for the Referedum count. Totally convinced it would be a YES although there were too few supporters at Holyrood Parliament celebrating. The first two NO results confirmed it would likely be a NO, gutted but still hopeful. Awoke to a NO result. Unbelievable, totally gutted and greeting, while sone folk around seemed oblivious. The pain has subsided but still can’t believe folk in Scotland voted NO. A chance of a livetime. Voters In Scotland voted for Devolution. The majority for Full fiscal autonomy (independent) control over affairs. People who voted are still waiting now, 35 years later. Many still live for the day.
It is unbelievable the Unionists are still promoting Blair/Brown. They should be in jail. If there was any justice.
Rock: ‘What kind of people are these?’
The kind of people who listen to their conscience and have the courage to admit they regret a mistake.
We learn far more from our mistakes than we do from our successes.
Having said that, I hear your passion Rock. We will win Scotland’s independence. Soon. Stand strong.
Fiscal autonomy/Independence is still a chance of a lifetime. Third time lucky.
@stoker
re: electoral commission rules
There were a lot of grey areas – largely because the EC’s rules weren’t designed to cover something like the Yes campaign. But the basic principle was that if registered groups or individuals collaborated, then costs had to be shared – and that could have had unwanted effects on a group’s spending limit.
In theory at least, that meant that even a Yes stall with a stack of Business for Scotland leaflets could, in extremis, be regarded as a collaborative effort. In practice of course so many of us were wearing different hats at various times that it was impossible to police, and the EC correctly concentrated on looking at major expenditure.
But to be on the safe side we distributed the WBB to individuals rather than to official Yes shops etc.
Thanks for the explanation re distribution, kininvie.
Ken500
I was convinced right up to the first result it would be a YES vote, but a large one too. I couldn’t see people saying “NO” to Scotland, same as the Devo Ref in 1997. 75% YES, 25% NO. I rewally thought that would happen, despite the polls.
Early on in the campaign, pundits were talking about a last minute rush to YES as being the expected norm, and I agreed. The poll the weekend before showed 52% YES, and I think if left alone that would have accelerated as people were caught up in the moment, went with the flow and the positivity.
Then The VOW and Brown, and people had an excuse to give in to their fears, turn their backs on risk, and vote NO. Until the next time. Won’t be long now.
Ghillie,
“The kind of people who listen to their conscience and have the courage to admit they regret a mistake.”
After a 3 year campaign, the two people described here go to vote, vote No and as they come out of the polling station, they regret it and cry.
Really?
How on earth can we ever get independence with people like these among us? They would do exactly the same next time.
They have no conscience. They are either too stupid or too selfish and are finding an excuse to cry after they have done the damage. I have no sympathy for them.
@Rock
That’s harsh – have you never felt sick at not having had the courage to do something you knew, in your heart of hearts, you should do?
There were a lot of No voters like that. I met many of them on the doorsteps – desperately eager to vote Yes, but unable to bring themselves to do so, because…
That’s where Project Fear worked so well. For people like ourselves who had no doubts about our vote, it merely appeared ridiculous – but it stopped those who were torn from gaining the necessary courage.
We spend the next few years making sure we give them that courage – not dismissing them as stupid or selfish.
@briandoonthetoon
Hi can you email me please ? Ken(at)iscot(dot)scot
Hi Ken.
I’ve tried emailing you but neither ‘Ken@’ nor ‘ken@’ works.
I’ve emailed Ronnie Anderson and Jim Thomson/Betty Boop, in the hope that one of them can forward it to you, with my email address.
Here’s to a wonderful 2015! Thanks Stu and everyone who makes WOS possible.
Smiles
Sandra…aka kestral is kinda busy explaining to 700 hundred new members what a husting is
it’s great to see our country interested in politics, this must feel like what woman felt like less than 100 years ago – the women’s vote…..to be given the chance to have your say
Scary when you put it into perspective that approx 100 years ago was the first time woman had a vote, maybe in our history we had a better plan
the inca’s had a truly socialist society…but I don’t think we can ever make that work worldwide now
the left is not allowed to be discussed, but as another angry voice says
a pound badly spent is as bad as a pound badly cut
maybe one day we will find the perfect balance that will allow us to care, protect, encourage and give
maybe one day we will realise that to pass it on is to gain
it is the only energy in the universe that can actually create energy without requiring to be converted in equal amount from one energy to another
think about it……….to give without gain is to create good
Hi Kestrel.
Thanks for the wee supply of WBB ‘first editions’ that you supplied via eBay.
I shared them with people I deemed ‘worthy’, like Sheena Wellington, who was an active campaigner with ‘Team YES Bus’, in the weeks leading up to the referendum.
link to youtube.com
kininvie,
“That’s harsh – have you never felt sick at not having had the courage to do something you knew, in your heart of hearts, you should do?
There were a lot of No voters like that. I met many of them on the doorsteps – desperately eager to vote Yes, but unable to bring themselves to do so, because…”
Faced with the choice of 300 years, I would have made up my mind either way and would certainly not have regreted it immediately.
The two stories quoted here are absolutely unbelievably ridiculous.
People going in to vote, voting No, and as they come out of the polling station, regretting it, crying and phoning others to beg them not to vote No.
As long as we have these type of people among us, we will never become independent and that is the reason why after 300 years we are still waiting.
Bdtt send Rock a soothie badge noo – hold on honey your stroke is on it’s way.
Hi Paula Rose.
I find myself between Rock and a hard place here – OOH ER MISSUS!
I feel that you, personally, should be offering Rock one of your magical strokes, rather than trying to involve the innocents, like moi.