A comment on the previous thread:
"O/T. Judging by his most recent blog Campbell really has lost the plot. The frothers are in overdrive. Grrr grr."
So, with a degree of trepidation, I donned my trusty Wings-Watch cloak and took a look.
The post is about Nicola Sturgeon and is entitled "The End of the Reich", which probably tells you all you need to know, or as much as you'd ever wish to know. Early on, we're treated to the results of a Twitter poll Campbell ran, asking his readers whether they think Nicola Sturgeon or Donald Trump has done more for women. 96% say Trump, 4% say Sturgeon. With wonderfully delusional pomposity, Campbell then poses the question -
"Is the above how she imagined her feminist legacy, do you think, readers?"
What, that in a totally unscientific, self-selecting poll mainly consisting of readers of the rabidly anti-Sturgeon, pro-Trump website Wings Over Scotland, it would turn out that readers of the rabidly anti-Sturgeon, pro-Trump website Wings Over Scotland prefer Trump to her? Yes, I think that's broadly what she would have anticipated. This is one she'll have very much seen coming, Stew.
Actually of far more interest is another totally unscientific, self-selecting poll Campbell ran on Twitter a few days ago, because the one thing Wings readers can be considered an authority on is what type of site Wings now is. They were asked what content they come to Wings for, and this is what they said -
Gender Stuff 48.8%
Independence Stuff 37.6%
Other 13.6%
So in a poll of his own readers, almost two-thirds said that Wings is not an independence site. He can't quibble about that, and neither can anyone else. The one-third expecting to find independence-related material on Wings these days can only be described as 'statistical optimists'.
Wings used to be an independence site, but no longer is. Unionists demanded in 2014 that Yes campaigners "move on", and Campbell took that advice. He reached the fork in the road depicted in the famous Chris Cairns cartoon with one sign pointing to "INDEPENDENCE" and another pointing to "OTHER STUFF", and he wandered jauntily down the "OTHER STUFF" road.
Fortunately, most of the independence movement took a very different decision.
Ooh err James you are using my post. Praise indeed.
ReplyDeleteMore people on a twitter poll say they visit wings for gender stuff than for Scottish independence stuff.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully summarised, AI.
DeleteIt wouldn't surprise me if most Wings readers are pro Reform.
DeleteI agree that WOS is no longer aligned with nationalist values.
ReplyDeleteIt has become a platform that many within the SNP and broader independence movement view with suspicion.
SNP activists regard WOS and its founder, Stuart Campbell, as a place full of anti-SNP sentiments, criticising Nicola Sturgeon without offering constructive support.
Campbell’s controversial views on issues like trans rights, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and women have raised concerns within the movement.
These views are not consistent with the SNP's inclusive, progressive, and unity-driven vision for achieving Scottish independence.
His view on protecting women sports and kids from overt trans ideology is the only uncontroversial part of Wings! Its his manner and anti snp/sturgeon/conspiracy stuff which makes folk raise a brow.
DeleteSturgeon/conspiracy - you got that right.
DeleteSorry you have to “ raise a brow “. I hope it’s not painful doing that. Whatever a brow is.
Alyn Smith raises a brow at anti-SNP criticism. Didn't raise his vote last time round. But let's see how he does with the people that matter in the run-up to 2026.
DeleteAnon at 8.45 pm ... you don't know what a brow is??
DeleteIt’s Anthony Davis and I claim my prize, if there is one.
DeleteIt's a difficult question as Sturgeon did nothing really FOR women that I can think of whereas Trump has banned men in women sports. But he's also enabled abortion mad people and is a blight..
ReplyDeleteYou'd have to say Trump but it doesn't mean he's any saviour of women..
Anyway Wings has lost his touch. Most folk have moved on from the gender stuff. The battle has been won basically. Most folk think it's nonsense and hope it's been nipped in the bud. No need to keep talking about it an nauseum
"Most folk have moved on from the gender stuff."
DeleteOh, absolutely! The whole "gender stuff" is *so* last season—just like basic human rights, I suppose?
It’s fascinating how some people think civil rights issues just magically disappear because *they personally* have stopped caring. Did you get that insight from Stuart Campbell’s latest anti-SNP rant, or did you come to this stunning revelation all by yourself?
Meanwhile, trans people still face discrimination, violence, and legal battles for existing, but sure—let’s pretend it’s all over.
Maybe next, you’ll declare racism and poverty are “old news” too? Must be nice to live in such a blissfully ignorant bubble!
8.26pm “ Meanwhile, trans people still face discrimination, violence “ so do other people. Does Humza’s Hate Crime not do the trick?
DeleteCampbell is now completely unhinged, as well as being a total wanker.
DeleteReading his latest diatribe against Sturgeon and that 'poll' really brings his twisted mindset into sharp focus.
We have Trump - a genuine imbecile whose hands are substantially stained with the innocent Palestinian Blood of at least 50,000 people including approx 18,000 CHILDREN, mostly slaughtered by American weaponry, who has jumped between pillar and post on Women's Abortion Rights ( probably THE most important matter for most women ) and may well restrict those rights during his administration, who has been found guilty of RAPE in a civil lawsuit, who boasted about 'grabbing women by their pussies', who stated he could shoot someone on the street without being punished, who STILL refuses to admit his was beaten by Biden in 2020, who pardoned those Extreme Right Wing/KKK Thugs who stormed the Capitol and sympathised with those groups, who openly ridiculed disabled people, who has made blatantly racist remarks about various ethnicities, who wants to forcibly ethnically cleanse Gaza of 2 Million Gazans ' to build beautiful real estate' and who tells several Countries he is going to 'take' them or part of their lands whether they object or not.
Trump is a 2025 FASCIST WOULD-BE DICTATOR, who thinks the World is his wee plaything, to do with as he pleases.
NONE of which seems to bother the Bath Balloon too much, as he decides to hold a ridiculous poll pitting that Orange Bimp's record on 'The Advancement Women's Rights' compared to the No.1 Hate-Figure that creepy wee cretin actually seems to have in the Big Wide World, Nicola Sturgeon.
And he even manages to start his latest puerile pish with an attempt to tie Sturgeon into the Third Reich, Nazis and the Holocaust.
Needless to say, the couple of thousand morons who actually credited his poll with a response, mostly voted for Trump over Sturgeon - such is the imbecilic nature of his clique of followers nowadays.
Campbell has gone from a reasonably useful tool for the Indy Movement, to a seething, malevolent, useless, impotent and more and more irrelevant virus within its midst.
Those who still support that Clown are to be scorned as well as pitied.
And he already knows he is f#cked - with the collapsing of Alba just adding to his irrelevance.
I have always maintained that the stauchest Albaists would move to Reform eventually - and I can see the Wingnuts leading that charge.
Most of them seem to be half-way there already.
Sad wee shits.
8.26
Delete"The gender stuff" meaning respecting trans rights to exist as long as they don't encroach on others. As I said most people can differentiate the legitimate stuff from the guff without a lecture from you or the extreme on the other side (I.e wings etc).
Edit to say
DeleteThat should read trans rights to do everything they want regardless of others.. that should have read haha.. obv no problem or even have an opinion on their right to exist.
It's just so obvious to anyone outside of the bubble ordinary folk know where the line is..it got warped for a while and now we're in a better place for it. No need to make trans lives a major talking point anymore.. leave them be now sports, schools, parents and women have set their limits
Anon @ 8.26. Not accepting every scintilla of the trans "movement" is not akin to denying people their "human rights". Get over yourself.
DeleteDavid Francis, the question in the poll wasn't, "which of these people are good" ffs lol.
DeleteI blame the person that bought David Francis his bottle of Talisker.
DeleteAnon at 10pm -
DeleteGet real.
It's like having a poll asking
'Forget your general opinion of him and just answer the following question -
Did Hitler advance ths cause of Animal Rights, more than........... (someone else)?'
David Francis’ rant is an unhinged, fact-free meltdown that perfectly illustrates why voters are rejecting political elites worldwide. His argument is built on hyperbole, ignorance, and outright fabrications, so let’s dismantle it piece by piece.
Delete1. “Trump has blood on his hands” – Nonsense. Every Western leader has backed Israel, including Biden, Obama, and every UK Prime Minister in recent history. If Trump is responsible for war deaths, so is every Western government that funds military action. Selective outrage like this is nothing more than lazy political theatre.
2. “Trump will restrict women’s rights” – Misleading. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, not Trump. He never implemented a federal abortion ban, leaving the issue to individual states, just as abortion laws in the UK differ between England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. If this was a decisive issue, Harris wouldn’t have lost key voter blocs.
3. “Trump is a rapist and racist” – A civil case without a criminal conviction is not proof of guilt, and repeating it endlessly doesn’t make it true. As for racism, Trump gained record support among Hispanic and Black voters, outperforming previous Republicans. If he were the racist caricature David paints, millions of non-white voters wouldn’t have backed him.
4. “His followers are morons” – The most revealing part of David’s rant. He refuses to acknowledge that people vote based on economic concerns, security, immigration, and a rejection of political elitism. Instead, he smears them as “morons,” the same arrogance that has driven working-class voters towards Reform UK in Britain. This contempt for the electorate is why voters are turning their backs on the establishment globally.
5. “Trump is a fascist” – A lazy, historically illiterate accusation. Fascism is state-controlled economies, one-party rule, and suppression of free speech. Trump was elected democratically, lost an election, and was re-elected through democratic means. If that’s fascism, the word has lost all meaning.
David’s post isn’t an argument—it’s a tantrum. Trump’s win, like the rise of Reform UK, is a response to political elites who ignore real concerns, silence dissent, and sneer at the working class. Screaming “fascism” won’t stop the political realignment.
The Trumpanzees have arrived !
DeleteAnon at 11.06, you are Kevin McKenna and I claim my fiver
DeleteAnon Trumper at 11:06.
DeleteSO many words, when all you had to say was - "I am a Fanny."
Now.......F#ck off, like the Gibbering Human Dross you are.
Ta.
11.06 is bang on the money.
DeleteBut so is david Francis in that anyone who voted for Trump after her tried to take down the world's most important democracy has to be a moron.
Sadly telling the truth on that one score probably does drive people to the right.
The patronising goody two shoes are as nauseating almost as trumpers
You are dumb as 11:06.
DeleteDavid Francis got burned there. Only insults left
DeleteAnon at 12:12 -
DeleteLol.
'Burned' eh?
ONLY inside that perpetual vacuum between yer ears, pal.
David being unable to argue and only resort to insults: Sad.
DeleteI will have my say about prissy types in due course.
ReplyDeletehttps://x.com/WingsScotland/status/1888982881210363929
“Yes” supporters should indeed have moved on in 2014.
ReplyDeleteQuite incredible that this minority still haven’t moved on, more than ten years later!
55% was never going to be enough to kill it forever. Even with all the big guns of the state, a 5% over half was a weak show for the union.
DeleteIf it wasn't for JK Rowling, Navratilova, Lenihan, that women from the swimming and Joanna Cherry putting their head above the parapet to say what the vast majority were thinking we'd still be waving through lads into women's sports while everyone's patting their lips and pretending it's all kosher.
ReplyDeleteIt's a sad, tragic reality that Donald Trump, the biggest idiot on earth, has put a stop to some of the worst parts of that movement. And its not helped ordinary trans people either. A bully and a slimeball. Unbelievable.
J K Rowling is an over-entitled shitpot who would have been at hone in British East Africa lording it over the natives and laying down the law.
DeleteMost women I know including wife and daughters don’t know what he fuss was about. Trans people not an issue. Predatory men are the problem.
DeletePresuming your daughter wasn't getting beat in the Olympics. Somebodies was and would've been.
DeleteThe golf put a stop to it before it became a bigger thing.
DeleteCycling probably the guinea pig with many unhappy women.
They've all, more or less, moved to biological reality.
What this has to do with predatory men is anyone's guess. Separate issues.
Wings ain't an Indy site ? Duh, who woulda thought that? Is the Pope a Catholic? Do bears relieve themselves in woods?
ReplyDeleteOur esteemed Reverend was genuine with his support for the Conservatives. Why wasn't he believed ?
ReplyDeleteCampbell asks his followers to think. That's a tough call.
ReplyDeleteThe wee Rev is still recovering from his crushing defeat to big Kezia Dugdale. Ever since Kezia put the boot into the Rev, he has gone completely loopy. The man needs medical help and is 1 sandwich short of a picnic.
ReplyDeleteThe Rev disnae wants Indy, it would mean he'd have to quit his nice hoose in Bath.
ReplyDeleteFuck off Dick-head
ReplyDeleteHistory I believe will show that people who openly supported Trump and that Elon Musk person will have chosen the wrong person(s)
ReplyDeleteTrump will rip the USA apart, dividing them even further and he could lead the USA into a terrible economic plunge downwards. He's threatened his neighbours Canada and Mexico, and started a trade war with China.
Flaunted international law by allowing an indicted criminal wanted by the ICC on charges against humanity, Into the USA without handing him over to the ICC in the Hague to stand trial
Then Trump stood next to a Grinning Netanyahu, told the world's media that USA is going to take ownership of the Gaza Strip, displace all Palestinians there (does he know that 2.1 million Palestinians live there?) and send them to Jordan and Egypt (both Jordan and Egypt said that was the first they knew about this plan and both said NO!)
Then when the Gaza Strip has been ethnically cleansed, Trump will turn it into a Riveria and resettle Jews there!
Trump has barely been officially in office for a month, and can anyone say that the above is PROPER STATESMANSHIP befitting of any president of a major western country?
How can Stu Mad Wings Man could support a person that is clearly a fool and has no idea how to run an administration never mind a country?
Trump has 47 more months to go before he's chucked out of office. I repeat those people who declared their support for Trump will look very bad indeed and be on the wrong side of goodness and history
How shit must Biden have been in that case?
DeleteThey've already lived through 4 years of Trump previously and it ended in the most chaotic ending of a Presidency in modern history... but all it took was 4 years of Biden for Americans to want Trump back and give him a decisive victory.