We’re Gonna Write (500 Posts)
And in fact, we just have. To commemorate this historic landmark, we’re prouder than you could ever imagine to announce the grand opening of the Wings Over Scotland Megastore! (We tried to get Isla St Clair, but she was busy.)
Now you can fight the good fight, easily identify your fellow WingsLand readers at independence marches and rallies, AND contribute to the spiralling bandwidth costs of our ever-growing readership all at once, with our impressive range of stylish and practical original-design merchandise at low, low prices!
Well, okay, it’s CafePress, so not THAT low. However, they do quite often offer a 30% discount on any order in return for a Facebook “like”, so our advice is to quickly knock up a new Facebook account every time you see the offer and go nuts. There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you’re not going to get lumbered with any rubbish.
Most designs are available for most items, but if you see an item you like that isn’t in one of the ranges, just let us know and we’ll make it available. And if you have any ideas for more snappy slogans or designs you’d like to see (and, ideally, buy) in the store, we’re pretty much all ears.
A-ha brilliant! I’d noticed the 500 post mile-stone was coming up. Congratulations on your work so far and I look forward to the next 500. (Nice merchandise too).
Mugs look good. Congrats on the 500.
Can I got slightly O/T here. I can’t help but feel something big might be developing within Labour in Scotland.
Let’s have a wee sum up of Labours current position….
– Increasingly deluded/desperate behaviour
– Sickening comments such as that Michael McMahon
– Impotent in the constitutional debate with likely Scottish/UK gov pact being made behind closed doors
– Boundary changes could make life much harder even if Scotland is still in the UK in 2015
– Electorate more confident in Dave as PM material over Ed
– In-fighting between rival groups in Scotland (MSPs vs MPs it seems)
– Stories of how ‘not available for comment’ Johann Lamont has sorted it all out/united the party in Scotland in newspapers
– Knocking doors to find only 2-2.5 in 10 support the status quo, probably not too happy about the Tory in tow, and asking what more powers will be devolved if they say ‘no’ in 2014
– Unable apparently to gather enough people for a pro-union rally and worried if they do, the orange order and BNP will likely turn up
– Unable to wave the union flag with any vigour due to its negative connotations for many in Scotland
– Labour for independence marching through the streets of Edinburgh
– Popular Labour MSP (Chisholm) and ex-leader (Henry McLeish) calling for devo max/FFA
I can’t help but feel something is going to happen big style in Scottish Labour very soon. That something is likely going to be a big, open split.
After all, it is not MSPs which will necessarily lose out with what is going to happen in 2014, but MPs. Could we see a pro-devo max/independence split soon, led by MSPs? If that happens, the referendum result will be a foregone conclusion.
I like the pun on “All Your Base Are Belong To Us”.
As for other snappy slogans, how about “Johann Lamont: Unavailable For Comment” with a picture of Jimmy Krankie in the middle?
Oooh, I might just do that one myself, actually…
I was going to do a “Where’s Johann?” one with the Where’s Wally-style pic I made for the post, but CafePress are very hardcore about using other people’s IP…
I bought a T-shirt (the “We’ll take it from here” ring neck one). I think I’ve got my Christmas presents sorted. By the way, I’d not seen this before, but I noticed on the PayPal form that my Edinburgh address had the country as ‘England’ by default, but I could change it to Scotland (or United Kingdom). I changed it.
Congratulations on 500 posts. I notice that 10,000 comment marker is also getting closer. Mugs in Mega store looking good.
Could I make a wee suggestion on behalf of well-endowed wimmin? We don’t look good in that type of t-shirt, but look amazing on one with more of a scooped or v-neck. I think that would get more attention, though I am, of course, certain people would only be reading the logo. Also, some with long sleeves wouldn’t go amiss as it’s beginning to get a wee bit baltic. Failing which, I’ll just have to have a bag.
I want that bag. Just the thing for any more marches or rallies where we might meet up.
I also fancy a mug with the “we’ll take it from here” motto. I think I’d get away with that at work, where we’re not supposed to wear (or, I suspect, display) political or sports team colours. I assume that can be ordered?
T-shirts are a but pointless. The weather is never reliable enough. Do they do fleeces or sweatshirts? And what about mouse mats?
I’m a little terrified of how I’m going to recognise someone wearing the Wingsland thong on a march…
@Jeannie – Would that get attention too?
Thong?! I hesitate to say it but I knew I’d missed something off my order.
Good kit, however I agree with others on here that hoodies/sweatshirts might be a tad more sensible considering winter seems to be already here.
I also agree with Scottish Skier, you can almost smell the fear from Labour, the McMahon slur being a good example of the desperate tactics now being deployed. There is a real lack of intellect within Labour which will in all probability, result in a schism. As wee Wendy would say “Bring it on!”
There should be hoodies in all sections already, eg:
link to cafepress.com
link to cafepress.com
There are also v-neck shirts for ladies, eg:
link to cafepress.com
link to cafepress.com
Again, all designs should be in all sections.
@scottish_skier
Thought I was just being paranoid. Agree, somethings gonna give and probably sooner rather than later. Keep an eye out on or around Labour conference, might prove less of a yawn this year.
@Scottish Skier,
Agreed, something is afoot. Whether it will be a formal split or just more of the same old infighting remains to be seen. I’m pretty sure there will be a substantial number of Scottish Labour Party members who support FFA/Devo Max but I just don’t see there being enough of them to push the Labour Party as a whole into adopting that as a policy. It would do wonders for their vote up here but I don’t see it playing well south of the border. Certainly interesting times ahead.
Oh no!
Not MORE toys being thrown out of the pram Macart!
I didn’t know they had ANY toys left to throw out their rickety old pram. 😆
It’s an interesting point that scottish_skier brings up. Although most of Labour’s MSPs are mindless dolts who are barely fit to be elected representatives, they do have the odd one or two who you would like to think can’t possibly be satisfied with how things are going in their party. Malcolm Chisholm is certainly not afraid of going against his party when he thinks they’re just being petty (as we’ve seen when he’s voted against his party when it’s clear they’re completely in the wrong). Surely they can’t ALL be as daft as Richard Baker?
Surely a principled guy like Chisholm has to speak out at some point and say “my party is wrong on this, I refuse to ask Labour voters to vote for a no change option”? I think we’ll end up seeing both him and McLeish becoming the first high-profile Labour members to join the Labour For Independence group. I just can’t see how those two can continue to watch their party being killed off by fools who want to deny Scotland independence purely because of their hatred of the SNP.
Having said that, I was convinced there would be a split in the Lib Dems, with the Beveridge Group types, led by Simon Hughes, leaving the Orange Bookers in disgust at their continued abandonment of Lib Dem values. That doesn’t look like happening now, though.
Not so much toys Arb as people. I think quite a few got a shock at Allan Grogan’s contribution to the proceedings on Saturday. I suspect a split is in the wind, one which will see a proper grass roots Labour split from leadership/party dogma Labour. Mr Grogan’s ‘coming out’ as it were, may embolden a few others to make the jump.
Mr. Grogan?
Was he there?
Funny that the MSM and BBC have made NO mention of this fact nor of the fact that there were even members of the Labour for Independence group there. Surely if they HAD been there the nice MSM and even nicer BBC would have reported this FACT!
Surely WE are all wrong. The sight of Mr Grogan and his Labour for Independence group was only a figment of OUR imagination. 😀
It’s that damned coffee again! 😆
I detected a very strong feeling of good-will towards the Labour party in the rally crowd – a sort of ‘just see sense, come over and join us on the independence social justice no-nukes bus and we’ll forgive you’. I even saw someone enthusiastically pumping the hands of the guys carrying the Labour for Independence banner and saying thanks to them for being there (they weren’t quite sure how to take it). And I think Margo Macdonald will set the example if she can turn Alistair Darling, as she promised she would…. Allan Grogan was very good and got the crowd going – he’s one to watch I think.
Good stuff that java.
Its almost supernatural y’know, the silence in media land is deafening. Of course the fact that people across all walks of life put together a successful and popular march has nothing to do with that. Or that the photographic and video evidence of said support would conclusively prove any media or political skewing of the event to be complete and utter bare faced lies. No, its got to be either black magic or technical difficulties.
Now if only I had a hobnob to go with the java.
@MajorBloodnok
I agree, I’ve seen all the vids of the speeches now and that laddie could do well post referendum. All that a not insignificant amount of the Scots electorate are waiting for is someone high up in Scottish Labour to tell Westminster to take a run and jump. I seriously think floodgates may open at that point.
If Labour back independence/or a breakaway section containing MSPs does, then it will be a done deal. If anything, it will confirm that Devo Max – which the electorate are holding out for but which in reality is unworkable and UK Labour will not support it – is a no-goer.
Think what the pro-union Labour camp would be like if that happened. We think they’re ranting angrily right now, what would the look like if an official split happened. Not a pretty site I’d imagine.
Agreed skier, any significant breakaway would give the game away as pertains Westminster Labour intent and promises for the campaign. Their position would become untenable and collapse.
Here’s hoping.
Well folks it’s twu.
It’s weelly weelly twu!
The BBC and MSM were right and we are all WRONG!
Only a couple of thousand at Saturday’s march, OFFICIAL!………NOT! 😆
There were:
Big Yins
Wee Yins.
Old Yins
Young Yins
Tall Yins
Short Yins
Folks with walking sticks
Folks in wheelchairs
Folk on Mobility Scooters
Folk on Electric Wheelchairs
Folk singing
Kids in pushchairs
Kids on bikes
Folks of ALL creeds
Folks of ALL colours
Folks of ALL sexualities
Folks of ALL faiths
Folks of ALL nationalities
Folks of ALL beliefs
Folks with big flags
Folks with wee flags
Folks from the East of Scotland
Folks from the West of Scotland
Folks from the North of Scotland
Folks from the South of Scotland
Police enjoying a saunter in the Afternoon sunshine
Dugs as well.
Big dugs
And yes Ryan EVEN WEE DUGS!
Oh yes, the OCCASIONAL person taking a photie as well. 😀
Anyone with an arithmetic mind might want to watch this.
Everyone else, clickers at the ready and………
BEGIN!
link to youtube.com
Here’s someone who couldn’t make Saturday. They were otherwise engaged.
link to facebook.com
I’m there, from about 40 seconds to 50 seconds, thereabouts, was following the “Yes Borders” banner, but I lingered to take a couple of photos. I’m on the far side of the marchers from the camera, in fact I was so intent on photographing the other side I didn’t even notice that camera, Best view of yours truly (in blue, blonde hair, camera raised) is at 42 seconds precisely.
Just making a note, because it’s the only time I’ve been able to recognise myself in any of the photos or videos.
That’s a lot of people – and I finally saw myself on the video (at 10.50, in green fleece and bush hat), taking it all in… with my backing group of lovely ladies (they follow me everywhere).
Nice to know that you were able to find yourselves folks. 😀
Let’s just say there were one or two folk on the march. 😆
@Arbroath 1320
Yes, I was there at 1.25 on the vid before I started to walk backwards to take some photos.
Wasnt the front either, they were already in Princes Street Gardens at that point so add at least a few hundred in with the first surge..
Are you sure you were walking backwards to take photographs Sneeky?
Were you not actually “walking backwards for Christmas?” 😆
I love the guy at 10:39-48 with the nike t-shirt on, to which he’s added ‘Jist dae it’. Quality.
(I posted this a second ago and it vanished – sorry if it ends up double).
Who says we don’t ‘do’ humour? 😀
I asked a question about a certain Andrew Kerr over on one of Stu’s other threads. I was curious to know if his “report” was actually aired on the BBC.
Well folks fear not because this has appeared. 😀
link to bbc.co.uk
I think this is what passes as a NEUTRAL report of the march at the BBC!
Just found this on my partners Facebook page.
link to facebook.com
I hope it is useful to everyone who has a Facebook page.
Let’s do as Jeff urges, Get out there and spread the word! 😀
Still not going to join Facebook though.
I wonder how the 9,500 figure was actually arrived at, as opposed to “a cursory glance from the top of the bus”. Not that I’m doubting his numbers, it would just be useful – and interesting – to know how they did it. Easy enough to count marchers passing down the Mound, but how did they count those who went straight to the rally without marching I wonder?
I got into an argument with a troll on another forum who posted, “it must have been depressing having such a low turnout.” Another pro-union poster who had looked at the pictures came into the thread and said he was happy to agree in the region of 10,000 on the basis of what he could see.
By the way, RevStu, I trimmed that picture you posted yesterday to make both photos show exactly the same field of view. The bushes have flourished more by the more recent picture, that’s all. It shows it very well. link to vetpath.co.uk
I think there must have been significantly more than 3,000 in the actual arena. If that’s 9,500 altogether, then there must be at least 5,000 inside the arena, possibly nearer 6,000. I was in there, but I had no way of knowing if this was more or less tightly packed than the venue was rated for.
@Doug Daniel:
If the “defections” from Labour were ultimately to amount to Chisholm and McLeish, then that’s not much. To actually have an impact, someone who’s actually a current Shadow at Holyrood or Westminster would have to switch. I think we can safely discount the notion of any Scottish Labour MP coming out for the Yes campaign – without Westminster they basically have no job. I can’t see anyone amongst Labour’s Holyrood rabble, bar Chisholm, worth a candle.
A significant move within the Scottish Trade Union movement is about the best we could hope for. I think there’s a decent chance of that.
Ultimately, much will be shaped by opinion polls for Westminster in mid-2014. If Miliband isn’t shaping up to be PM material by then, some Scottish Labour minds might decide to ditch Westminster as a lost cause.
It is, err, interesting to speculate on a Labour split. Frankly, I can only see that happening at a grass roots, constituency, level, The career politicians, such as Tom Harris, are unlikely to cross over. [I may be losing my marbles, but I think I recall commenting recently on a Tom Harris piece over at Labour Hame where our hero argued that Scotland should follow England in charging tuition fees. I can no longer find the aforesaid article….]
There are careers at stake here. One can only assume that their Westminster contingent will fight till the end. There is, in my humble opinion, a mistaken idea that their Westminster contingent are their quality street gang. Frankly, that is risible. They are cannon fodder for Ed Milliband. With ridiculously inflated ideas about their ‘worth’ and contingent salaries as part of the equation. They are our new ‘parcel of rogues’. And they are unlikely to get as ‘lucky’ again. Given that they will have been seen to be on the losing side. That is what is at stake.
If there is to be a sea change in Labour, it will come through a split between their somewhat remote and self serving Westminster contingent and their acolytes – those that see themselves as potential cannon fodder, the Duncan Hothershalls of this world – and their grass roots.
Absent the amazing Mr Terry Kelly. Whose ideas on internationalism are predicated on bigger being better. Or, at least, Westminster fits all.
Will Ian Smart finally have an epiphany when it becomes plain that a referendum is going to happen, or will he find a new pile of sand to stick his head in? The jury is out.
The risk for all of them is that the world passes them by. When it gets to the stage that you are laughed at, then you have to change or political oblivion beckons. The question for Labour is whether or not it can change. So far, I see little evidence that it will.
I kind of wonder just when or how it might happen. The investment in what appears to me to be a deluded hatred for independence – which is quite popular – or the SNP – take your pick, is going to be a tough gig for whoever takes it on.
For they have been taught, via their mothers milk, that independence is the Celtic to their Rangers or vice versa.
It is no way to run a political party – you are supposed to have positive ideas – and it precludes any intelligent thought whatsoever. It is an interesting question who, amongst their constituents, embraces the negativity they live and breathe.
Who, amongst their leaderships, the plural is deliberate, can rise above petty self interest?
Just saying…..
There, it seems to me, to be a lack of ambition in the Labour Party. How else do you arrive at a position where Joanne Lamont is the best you can serve up. This was what Hollyrood magazine had to say a year ago:
“Later this week Labour will announce its new leader in Scotland. After a seven-month wait, this should be an historic moment when Labour stamps a distinctive new brand on Scotland.
It should herald an exciting new dawn. A time when a vibrant new leader takes over the mantle for being not just Labour’s man or woman in Scotland but Scotland’s leader in Labour.”
Eh!
I assume the writer is eating their words.
Where is the suitably gullible market for this sort of tosh? Iain (Subway) Gray was bad enough, but our new heroine is a step beyond….
i’m not too keen on being on a losing side and so having voted in your poll that Lamont would still lead Scottish Labour to the 2016 election i’m certainly on a loser. My reasoning was that she is the least worst (?) of Labour’s mighty team of MSPs ( Chisholm doesn’t meet SLAB’s criteria of leadersheep I suspect ). Hopefully Lamont’s speech, promised for today, is her resignation as leader, puts me out of the loser mode and elevates somebody worse than Lamont as leader. i would miss her constant failure at FM questions though to understand the answers to the questions she reads out, on behalf of others.
If you believe that Labour, in whatever incarnation it presents, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow will or can change just read this piece in the Scottish Review on 5 ideas to make Labour more “interesting.”
They seem congenitally incapable or learning form their errors and defeats.
Long may that continue.
link to scottishreview.net
sorry for O/T
I gave up on The Scotsman online weeks ago, just as their moderation policy went berserk against pro independence views.
I turned to the Herald which seemed to have a much better forum for comments.
However, no matter what I post, only one or two comments have made it online and usually up to 8 hours late. Mostly, my contributions never make it to screen.
Fair enough you may say, but they have all been –
Calm,
on topic,
non abusive,
non aggressive,
and yet don’t appear.
What sticks in my craw is a certain Irish unionist who would have us believe he is from the West Midlands, seems to be able to post at will –
Off topic,
mildly abusive,
aggressive,
etc
I cannot understand how he gets to go wildly off topic all the time and still gets literally dozens of comments approved and published.
Alex Massie, I had some thought that he might be a good egg, but no, he turns out to be an arrogant twat after all.
http://www.thinkscotland.org/todays-thinking/articles.html?read_full=11649&article=www.thinkscotland.org
“I won’t tell Games Workshop if you don’t”.
in case any of you want to spoil the fun of our Unionist chums by commenting
link to guardian.co.uk
Stuart Crawford
“Should have seen that!” Jings, the folk in Nottingham already call the GW building “The Nazi Building”, don’t need that comparison
@ James McLaren. From the article you linked to…
Labour should publish a white paper containing specific commitments to devolve more powers to the Scottish Parliament, including control over most taxes and benefits.
Aside from the fact it is assumed Ed will win the next GE, what would be the purpose of Scots MPs going down to Westminster if the above was the case? That’s why devo max is a dead end. Devo max excel (independence) is fine though.
I’m surprised at how many people seem to miss this point. Only way to have more powers while fixing the increasingly problematic (Tories getting well peed off) WLQ is some sort of federation. Not going to happen.
In time, this will be explained to the electorate. You want devo max? Vote YES for it then. You get a bonus prize with that too; sovereignty.
I see m’lord Foulkes is suggesting a revised House of Lords (sorry, Senate) with powers to scrutinise (and delay) Bills going though the Scottish Parliament.
link to scotsman.com
Apparently Senators would be appointed from all over the UK including the ‘regions’. I think he’s doing it on purpose.
No doubt m’lud Foulkes has eyes on the top job of his new House of Lords, sorry Senate, for himself!
I’ve just ordered some stuff. I’m particularly taken with the “A hundred of us – remain alive” one. Pithy, to the point, and a total mystery to anyone who doesn’t know their Declaration of Arbroath. I’ve splashed out on a mouse mat, a tote bag and a t-shirt. (Not to mention the mug and the sweatshirt in other designs.)
I’m hellish tempted to go for some more, including a “hundred” sweatshirt for 2014, but I don’t want to overdo it. I do hope you’ll keep the store open though, RevStu, because I certainly couldn’t rule out going back for more.
I do wish we’d been able to have some of that before last Saturday, but I suppose there will be other opportunities.