Unpopular website now more widely hated
Posted on
May 01, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Damn. That concerted Unionist smear campaign directed at us last month really hurt.
That’s 1,233,872 pageviews in April – almost quarter of a million up on the previous high, thanks to over 10,000 new first-time readers. We’ll try to struggle on.
O/T was thinking..
Just kidding
Many congrats.
well deserved
Of course we don’t know how many of those are Unionists sifting through every word for evidence of grim, abusive, vile, fabricated, misogynistic hatefulness (just a selection of their favourite epithets).
Nevertheless, well done
congrats Rev. keep up the great work.
Iain, I know they are that devious, but have they the staying power
That is absolutely fantastic. Well done!
Well, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, Stu. Nobody is reading your blog because they agree with it, we’re all just reading it to get angry about it.
Now to go on Twitter and post some faux-indignation about my interpretation of whatever you’ve written.
As usual from me:
54k = over 2% of the voting electorate.
Impressive.
No wonder you’re unpopular in some quarters.
Realistically, though, how many of us appear as two different people? I access the site from my office computer while I’m at work and my personal computer while I’m at home. Even though I log in using the same username, I suspect the stats think I’m two people. I also suspect this is quite common.
Onwards and upwards and heartfelt congratulations to the Rev. Stu and all who contribute to the ever expanding success of Wings Over Scotland. Now is the time so fight for what is rightfully ours an Independent Scotland.
Its amazing what unpopularity can do for you. I bet the Calman lassie is also crying all the way to the bank.
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G !!!
First time poster and follower on twitter. Keep up the great work! Every time the NO camp smear you your readership goes up through the roof – whatever they are doing its working and providing great free advertising for you.
@Morag
Get over yourself!
Great news Stu. Where will it be in a year’s time?
Good stuff Rev, regardless of the the MSM & EBC the message is getting through.
Keep up the good work Rev.
Thought I might punt an idea for a story your way regarding the growing crisis in Child Welfare in the UK. UNICEF has just published a report titled
“Child Well-Being in Rich Countries: A Comparative Study”
link to unicef.org
The hugely impressive Proferssor Jeffrey Sachs (Columbia University), former IMF banker who now views the World Banking system as totally corrupted, writes thoughtfully and compassionately on this in the article “Suffer the Children: Suffer the Country”
link to jeffsachs.org
Coupled to the tsunami of child poverty predicted by The Child Poverty Action Group,
link to cpag.org.uk
this is story that needs to be told. There is only one way forward for Scotland on this issue, and it starts with YES!
Hail Alba
@The Man in the Jar
Agreed
Congrats and well done, keep up the good work, while the readership of the Scotsman et al is plummeting, you’re reaching new heights here, and deserved.
Well done Rev. Keep at them. I’d be going insane if it wasn’t for folks like yourself and your readership.
Brilliant news!! Keep up the excellent work.
Slightly o/t but I just politely asked Susan Calman on her FB page for evidence of the alleged “abuse”. My post has been removed. Seriously, a sensitive comedienne?
Good work Rev, pity You could not do a print version in the mold of ” The Big Issue”
and to be handed out to the public as they do, there are so meny pepole who are not
aware of your (and others) site(s) and just rely on the Daily Papers, which as we all
know is highly suspect!.
Great stuff – onwards & upwards.
The Man in the Jar says: @Morag – Get over yourself!
Should that not be “Get over yourselves”?
@Rev – excellent stuff – and it’s the 21% new visitors that’s the most impressive thing (they could be BBC Scotlandshire’s spambots though?).
yup, and attach some relevant music to the good news..all part of the programme.
Its all to the good Rev. You deserve it all.
Grand news. And the readership will undoubtedly grow and grow.
Perhaps those that think sites like this don’t serve a purpose, when it comes to securing a YES vote, will think again.
I’m hoping that Stu might give us an article on the desperate damage Scottish independence will do to the “UK’s” clout in the international arena.
It seems to me that on the attainment of independence, Scotland’s international clout will mushroom from approximately zero to something appropriate for a first-world developed nation of about 5 million people. England’s clout may decrease slightly compared to the current UK clout, but that is likely to be mostly a function of what happens to Trident.
The total clout of both new countries will however be significantly more than the clout the single UK state has today, for the very simple reason that Scotland will be going from nothing to quite something. If we are indeed so much “better together”, then all our interests must surely align, so in fact the combined clout should be a win-win situation.
Actually, why do we care what international clout England will have post-independence? I’m struggling to think of one single reason why that should persuade anyone to a No vote. I mean, we’ll be getting actual Scottish clout for the first time in over 400 years.
I’m particuarly struggling to understand why Ming Campbell is so concerned for the perceived possible loss of clout for England, and doesn’t even mention the fact that Scotland – his own country, last time I looked – would actually be gaining massively in this department.
doesn’t even mention the fact that Scotland – his own country, last time I looked
It’s not his country, though. His country is the UK. Scotland is his region of his country and he doesn’t want his region causing problems for his career, sorry, country.
@Morag
The thing is, only clout the UK still has is in its own imagination; although if by ‘clout’ they actually mean ‘winding up all of its European neighbours, oppressing its own disadvantaged, lining the pockets of the already rich and being permitted to hang with global bullies like the US’ then, yeah, sure they got clout.
“The total clout of both new countries will however be significantly more than the clout the single UK state has today,”
Quite. In things like the EU and UN we will have two votes instead of just one where our interests align. Three if Wales eventually becomes independent. A Sterling zone would given even more clout, especially if some other countries – Ireland, for example – expressed an interest in joining.
There does seem to be a collective failure to recognise the opportunities from the Westminster side at the moment. One pretty vital part of that is these will be far more likely to be very positive if wedges aren’t driven between opposing “sides” or England and Scotland right now. And that seems to be what the no/Westminster campaign is doing. Though to be fair some on the Yes side are rising to it too easily, imo.
Deeply depressing.
“if by ‘clout’ they actually mean ‘winding up all of its European neighbours, oppressing its own disadvantaged, lining the pockets of the already rich and being permitted to hang with global bullies”
That’s a point, I suppose. Perhaps Westminster don’t see our likely interests aligning with what their ruling class wants very often.
@ Morag
I think what Salmond said last week re the currency issue when Osbourne came to Glasgow has some resonance, in that, Osbourne is saying one thing now as would be expected but we’d find a Westminster Government would ”change their tune” after a YES vote. I think this would apply across the board on all sorts of negotiations although judging by what you say from the likes of Menzies Campbell et all, they would have to be dragged kicking and screaming. Quite a painful event for the Empirists who in fact i think would just go off in a great big sulk to their study room, refusing to believe its happening, as they stroke their Union troll doll for comfort.
The negotiations can be as rough or as smooth as both sides want them to be. At this juncture, its hard to envisage any part of the British Establishment playing fair but then stranger things are happening and we know Alec is prone to being a bit of a shrewd forecaster so who’d bet against that scenaro. One things for certain. Its not going to be for the faint hearted Morag. Personally i can see the likes of Ming Campbell and a host of others walking off into the distance as the sun sets on their British Empire. We live in interesting times for sure.
At this rate we should it you up for a seat in 2016
It’s the standard response to the whole “independence in Europe” argument.
After independence, Scotland and England together will have more MEPs and seats on the Council of Ministers than the UK has at the moment. If our interests are so perfectly aligned then we should be jumping at the chance to increase our representation in this way.
On the other hand, if Scotland might find itself wanting to vote a different way than England does on some issues, why, our interests are clearly not perfectly aligned and Scotland desperately needs control of its own votes.
Ming Campbell is a disturbing combination of ignorance and arrogance. How it transpires that some hardworking lawyers spend their days struggling on the wrong side of the tracks trying to give fair representation to their modest clients, and others end up with the sort of sinecure Ming has, is a compete mystery to me.
Oh wait he’s a LibDem. No it’s not.
@Morag
OT (sorry Stu) some time ago you said that you were close to finalising your publication on the al Megrahi debacle. When is the publication likely, and how can I purchase a copy?
Wow! Well done, Rev. Keep up the good work.
Aplinal, a whole heap of stuff has been submitted to the Justice Committee at Holyrood, in advance of their next consideration of the JFM petition on 4th June. This is considered to be so incendary that the parliament is currently having fits at the thought of putting it into the public domain on their web site as they usually do with such submissions. Hopefully a redacted version of the least incendiary parts may appear soon.
As far as my own book is concerned, I can tell you I have written about 22,500 words of a projected 70,000 words (ball-park estimate). I’ve been writing since Easter Saturday, and I’m making good progress, but it can only be done in the evenings and at weekends as I work full time. When I’ve got a complete version I may show it to a publisher or two, but it’s likely I will end up self-publishing. (Hard to say – I already have two professionally-published non-fiction books to my name, but whether that will give me any standing with another publisher I don’t know.)
My aim is to have it available in the autumn, hopefully November at the latest, so that it is in the public domain before the 25th anniversary of the disaster on 21st December.
Congratulations
Thanks Morag. Good luck and all my best wishes. This injustice needs to be addressed and if it ruffles a few feathers, so be it. I genuinely would purchase a copy – self-publish or not.
All my best
Am in the background but soakin it all in. Well done Rev. Stu and do not falter.
Hi I have been reading this and other blogs for some time. I sometimes comment on the Herald and the guardian, but first time on here.
The reason I am commenting is because I have just read your twitter feed and cannot believe the faux outrage over susan calman.
She seems to be a complete prima dona but I think they are trying to side track you.
I also read on your twitter about Ray Winston supposedly being threatened but no-one seems to think that it was unacceptable for him to use the audience to support his assertions- tramps etc. Scotland must be the only country in the world where we pay people to slag us off.
When we started this journey I thought I knew it would get nasty but it’s the constant drip drip of negativity that is really wearing.
I am however more convinced by the day that yes is our only option.
Can you imagine the abuse if we vote no.
I think what you picked me up as saying was nearly finished was the stuff for the JC. It was only when that was done I realised the book was telling me it was ready to be written.
It’s going to be very focussed, dealing only with the luggage transfers, to show that the bomb definitely appeared in the unattended container in the interline shed at Heathrow airport an hour before the flight from Frankfurt landed. And a couple of extra chapters discussing the eye-witness identification and the PCB fragment, because they’re important. So it won’t be a terribly long read.
To me, the interesting thing is how on earth was it possible for the inquiry to have failed to figure this out in the first few weeks and months after the disaster. They had all the evidence. Everything I’m presenting to support my case is the Crown’s own evidence. The reason it took me so long is simply that it is evidence they chose not to present in court, so I had to work on people connected to Megrahi’s defence to get to see it.
I can sort of see why the defence didn’t figure it out for themselves. They were reacting to the Crown case, not trying to detect the crime from first principles. But for the people who were tasked with detecting the crime from first principles to have missed it, is incomprehensible. That suitcase was practically sitting there festooned in fairy lights holding up a flashing neon sign reading “bomb here!” How does any inquiry miss clues like that?
In my opinion the Crown prosecution worked it out when they were preparing for the case to come to court in 1999. That’s the only explanation I can see for them in effect losing a whole chunk of evidence down the back of the sofa. Just those specific parts you need to figure out that the case at Heathrow was the bomb, as it happens. But politically it was way too late to hold up their hands and say, we screwed up, the defendants were a thousand miles away from where the crime actually occurred, stand down everyone. And sorry about the eight years of punitive sanctions, Libya – no hard feelings, OK? So they went ahead with a case they probably thought they wouldn’t win, and somehow fluked it.
So let’s hope I manage to make that argument clearly without actually defaming anyone.
Rev ‘ Congratulations , keep up the good work and just make sure you don,t burn yourself out . We will need you on top form next year in the run up to the referendum . These figures prove that web sites have a large part to play in getting the message out to the general public during this referendum campaign .
Morag, sorry to be late responding, been out with my boy. Super. Please keep us in the picture.
OK, Stu, OT detour over
Outstanding, wonderful achievement Stu.
Aye, well done!
Keep kicking against the pricks: they don’t like it up’em!
I have an idea to drive home to the BBC how annoyed we are about it’s biased reporting, I discovered this by accident.
If you cancel your direct debit for TV Licensing they get a call centre firm to phone you to re-establish the DD, now that is fine but what would happen if in one day 1000+ cancelled, all in Scotland?
It could get them to realise all is not well in Scotlandshire and if nothing else cost them a few thousand quid re-establishing the DD or getting someone to post out enquiries.
I could do with some feedback on this as I think we could make an impact.
It’s a “love thing”. Think that’s how many of us feel about this site. It’s already proving to be a major engine in attracting more and more “undecideds and/or curious” to our cause, opening more and more eyes to the extent of the Establishment’s control freakery, and of the media’s cynical manipulation of news coverage and analysis. The veil has been lifted and there is now no going back – only forwards. Can we do it in 16 months? Yes, I believe we can, and it is this very site which has crystallised that belief, for me.
Newsnet Scotland, the Yes Campaign, Women for Independence, Radical Independence and Labour for Independence are all going to be crucially important in speaking to their audiences. I’m also hoping the SDA will start breaking through as well to speak to those not traditionally of “the left”, because I believe absolutely in a democracy of perspectives. New converts are important, as are those prepared to take a punt and think “Why not?” too.
However, for those of us in particular, who have wished and worked for independence in our own ways for many many years in a slightly lonely and hostile wilderness, before we ever dreamed it could be possible, this site has provided those essential dynamics of intelligence, humour and community. For me, certainly, it’s given me that final burst of energy and hope in my heart to do as much as I can to help get us over the finishing line. I do not want to wake up on September 19th 2014, feeling gutted, and wish I had done more.
Yep, as far as Wings over Scotland is concerned, I am happy to use the term “love”.
In fact, if I wasn’t a committed agnostic….
There have been a few folk on Twitter today peddling the old “Wings is doing more harm than good” line, mainly because of Calman’s ridiculous over-reaction to an honest question from Stu (one which, interestingly, remains unanswered). I do wish this would get knocked on the head.
Nobody is going to vote No in 2014 because they didn’t like the tone of someone on the internet, and if they do, they’re a moron. Those who don’t like the tone of this site will simply look elsewhere, and to suggest otherwise simply plays into the hands of those who have their own reasons for wanting this site to cease to exist. In particular, we should be wary of people who seek to keep Scotland in the union – the more frantic their opposition to the site becomes, the more threatened they must feel about the site’s success and impact.
(It’s interesting to note that almost all criticism on the pro-indy side – and some of it from the unionist side – can be traced back to the same set of people, which is why the criticisms generally push the same tedious lines.)
May Wings continue to get more and more unpopular and widely hated, because for every person who slags this site off, there are hundreds of others who find it an invaluable resource.
It would be very interesting to see what incident prompted the various jumps in the chart, such as those from 265 to 405, 755 and 988 to 1233.
Perhaps the visitations of various KOKs?
Keep up the grand work!
Bloody great going Stu-some achievement.
OT, how long do you think before the UK will need a bail out from the IMF? Considering it’s fast becoming a financial basket case of an economy.