Given that Stew famously "never even mentions me", it's amazing how often I get to be the star of Wings Over Scotland. It's my time in the sun, yet again, today.
— James Kelly (@JamesKelly) October 14, 2025
I'm deeply honoured, Stew.
You'll notice that even though his latest epic rant about me extensively quotes from my previous blogpost, he doesn't refer to me directly by name. This is his standard tactic, both on his main site and on Twitter, in the hope that in six months' time he can tell his fans to do a search for my name to 'prove that he never even mentions me'. Hmmm. I'm afraid that bird has flown now, Stew. Even the hardcore of the brainwashed will have noticed by now that you do tend to blog about me rather a lot.
In the video below you can see my response to Stew's article, in which I address his main point head-on, and explain exactly why pushing for the best possible result for the SNP at next year's election remains the right thing to do and makes perfect sense, in spite of my misgivings about the strategy that was agreed on Saturday.
Bloody hell. I even posted on SGP that there should be a de facto referendum for independence, not Indyref2/sec30 as that would be pointless, before Campbell in 2020. But I certainly never ever suggested it was first thought up by me.
ReplyDeleteAccording the National: "Douglas Ross furious as UK Government snubs invite to Holyrood committee"
ReplyDeleteIs he YES yet?
Brilliant post as always, James, I can always trust you to be judicious in your analyses.
ReplyDeleteIFS will still be voting ISP, for reasons only known to himself.
ReplyDeleteAnon Britnat at 8.18pm will still be voting for a Britnat party because he is a Britnat.
DeleteThanks for the laugh anon at 8.18pm. Anon trolls who are SNP paid employees are always complaining that I post to much yet this anon is saying I am keeping it a secret as to why I voted ISP last year 🤣. Hilarious stuff.
DeleteIn case you have missed it during your life experience of voting people are entitled to privacy over who they vote for. Remember that wee booth you voted in with a curtain. It's like that for a reason. Or have you never voted?
Been saying frequently on here that Campbell is nothing but a rabid right wing racist, genocide-excusing, demented wee freak whose only reason for living now seems to be the destruction of the SNP.
ReplyDeleteFrom telling yessers to vote for unionist parties, playing down the blatant racism of Farage and Reform, ignoring Reform's links to both Russia and fascist US nut-job funders, to actually suggesting that we Scots should run away from our own country, Campbell is making it perfectly clear that he could not care less about Scotland or its people unless we are willing to be ruled by the same extreme right fascist slime which he supports.
We Scots have refused to do that for around seven decades and will NEVER do it again for the foreeable future, so poor wee Stewie is well and truly knackered and he knows it.
But Campbell is willing to see Scotland burned to the ground, as long as it means the end of the Scottish National Party and that goes for most if not all of those who still stick with that idiot.
About as much use to our movement as a soluble tampon.
Wings is a diminished force. How many votes do you think he commands? How many regulars follow the blog these days? And how many of those are even Scots?
DeleteThe bigger problem, by far, is the block on independence provided by the well paid, bourgeois, devo-happy, "professional" political class that inherited the SNP after 2014. You don't have to be the Bathman to notice that we have had no leadership since then. A lot of foul water has been under the bridge these last 10 years. An unbelievable amount. So where's our indyref2 then? Where's our plebiscite election? In fact where is our movement?
Are we all just happy Britons now? Who led us down this strange, sad alley?
It was more than just a blogger.
Looks like it's going to be a re-run of the July general election in Scotland where a significant number of pro-independence supporters will simply stay at home scunnered with the useless SNP leadership.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am one of them. How easy would it have been to accept one of the amendments and get us back onsude. No one has given a credible explanation for Swinney’s strategy, other than that he doesn’t want a mandate delivered. He needn’t worry now. His wish is going to be granted.
DeleteI will be one of them, as I was last year.
DeleteIf, for all his best efforts, he won 65 MSPs in spite of his intentions: what do you think he'd do then? Resign like Nicola did when the ball was back from the supreme court?
DeleteAll talk, nae troosers. That's the SNP on independence now, and why they can whistle for my vote.
The stay at home folk must be really smug when they here election results. Of course they are probably the usual labour Starmer sooker uppers praying nobody goes to the polling stations.
DeleteThe stay at home folk must be really smug when they here election results. Of course they are probably the usual labour Starmer sooker uppers praying nobody goes to the polling stations.
Delete@8:23. People don’t stay at home because they're smug. We do it because we're scunnered.
DeleteGreat video and post James
ReplyDeleteApart from Wingnuts and idiots, there is a very good chance that most yessers will now back SNP with both votes.
When I challenged people like you back in 2020 to say when the SNP would deliver Indyref2 first of all it was late 2021. When that time passed. I challenged them again and it was the second half of this term of Holyrood. Do you still think it is going to happen in the time available?
DeleteSo anon is there ever going to be an Indyref2 delivered by the SNP or is that just another fairy story that the SNP managed sell to gullible people like you for about 8 years.
So if you believe the SNP will deliver a referendum I challenge you to say which year or should it be century.
Nothing like a proven idiot calling other people idiots to make you feel sorry for them.
Neither wingnut nor idiot, but still waiting for anyone to dispute my post at 10.12 pm. I note that you didn’t. You just resorted to personal abuse. Well done you. You are a credit to the current SNP leadership. Why has your leader chosen an impossible SNP only majority as his strategy?
DeleteIFS, weren't we promised a referendum in Oct 23 with 'no ifs or buts'? What happened to it?
Delete9.22am Sturgeon has it in her purse.
Delete8.49am - "an impossible SNP majority " well not impossible but clearly not far from it followed by another rejection of a sec 30 by Starmer. Lost count of the number of these rejections. Probably followed by a Farage rejection in years to come if he hasn't closed Holyrood. This is not an independence strategy by Swinney it is a prevention of independence strategy.
It must be nice for John the Redactor Swinney to have his close friend Douglas Alexander as the formal UK's man in Scotland. They can have cosey chats about (how to prevent) independence. Only kidding. It surely is just a coincidence that Alexander gets this role ( Secretary of State for Scotland) in the Westminster government and Swinney then comes up with his near impossible "independence " strategy.
So next time you see that slippery Alexander on the telly slagging off the country of his birth remember he is Swinney's long standing pal.
My bet there's "a very good chance" @9:32 was once telling us how confidently Humza had settled into the rôle and what a rousing speech he too gave at conference.
DeleteDidn’t he do well!
Interesting constituency poll in Wales out this morning, done by Survation, for the Caerphilly by-election next week. Reform 42, Plaid 38, Labour 12.
ReplyDeleteI can see the logic of both votes SNP in the circumstances that are in prospect after the defeat of last Saturday. Even if we succeed in achieving a majority we are headed for a another morale and motivation disaster when, as it will, the UK government says 'OK you are the devolved Scottish government, get on with the job, conversation over'.
ReplyDeleteIt will then be up to Mr. Swinney to deploy his secret weapon. What is it Does it actually exist ? What comes next ?
"You haven't seen my secret weapon." Leans into the camera and makes a comedic wink.
DeleteIf that’s enough to win your vote, we're well and truly buggered, aren't we?
John the Redactor Swinney's secret weapon is his black felt pen which he freely yields to cover up unacceptable behaviour. It's worked well to date on many SNP dunderheids.
DeleteOur Future, Our BBC, survey results are out.
ReplyDeleteThis project is an exercise in self selecting feedback. Very few valid conclusions can be reached.
The total number of respondents was 873,701. Responses from Scotland totalled 62,246. Scottish input was 7% of the total. This gives some reliable indication of the relative irrelevance of the BBC in Jockland.
In the UK & Scotland, 91% of respondents thought it was important for the BBC to be independent of the Government. This question is superfluous, of course we think it should be independent, the real question would be, “is it independent”.
43% of respondents thought the BBC was effective in being independent of the Government, 38% differed. A worryingly narrow margin for the BBC. There is no national breakdown of this question, but as the survey as a whole is self selecting, that’s largely irrelevant.
In John le Carré’s, Smilie’s People, Sir Saul Enderby confesses to having tried to pass errant Intelligence Officer, Nigel Mostyn off on the BBC. John le Carré (David Cornwell) was an ex officer himself, he knew of what he wrote.
The BBC is the propaganda arm of the British state.
The Question Time / Menthorn Media / Billy Mitchell saga should have sunk their credibility in Scotland for all time (and it could have were it not for the tumbleweed emanating from Scot Gov).
More in Common, Westminster voting intention, field work 10 - 13 Oct.
ReplyDeleteUK headline; RefUK 8% lead, down 5% on last week.
Scottish sub-sample (127 unweighted)
Con 8%, Lab 16%, LibDem 14%, RefUK 27%, Green 4%, SNP 29%.
Anon at 11.30am. It surely can't be long before Declan ( Scottish Skier/Ross Anderson ) posts that 29% for the SNP in that sub sample is a great result and I am crying or some other nonsense.
DeleteStop believing Trumpian style propaganda nonsense from people like Skier. Its embarrassing that anyone believes his propaganda. Wise up. It's maybe time I took a look at WGD and see how he thinks Swinney's plan is just the best ever SNP plan. Naw - why waste more of my time.
My considered thoughts on the content of your video James.
ReplyDelete1. I could never support any blogger or politician who supports or disnae care about the genocide and many decades old opppression of the people of Palestine. If you feel that way I do not understand how you can also support the rights of the people of Scotland to their own self determination and sovereignty. It is the same basic issue - freedom from colonialism. So many people in Scotland have been conditioned by colonialism they are scared to say the words freedom and colony.
2. You have every right to feel aggrieved by what happened to you in the Alba party. However, my take on what you said in the video is that it would appear that whoever controls the monetary income of a political party exerts the most influence rather than the democratic will of the members. In the SNP Westminster short money is the equivalent of Tasmina. This needs to change and a party purporting to be a party of SCOTTISH independence should be fully independent of Westminster. This is just one of the stumbling blocks for me to vote SNP. If the SNP was a full throated party of independence that had not lost the trust of so many independence supporters it would and should be able to raise ample funds to function without relying on Westminster monies. The disappearance of the ring fenced funds being a key factor in the loss of trust.
3. Both you and Campbell seem to agree on the current state of the SNP re independence and both of you seem to want a de facto referendum as I do and I have promoted on your blog since 2020. There is absolutely no reason this could not have happened when the SNP were riding high in the polls but instead we got phoney promises and phoney 11 point plans and phoney statements of intent - 19/10/23 save the date. The election in 2021 was an ideal time but once again we got vote SNP again for another mandate for a referendum, not actual independence. Independence supporters have a mountain of reasons not to trust the same people in charge of the SNP on independence.
Returning to my starting point - even though you both, for the most part, have a similar analysis about the current situation you have come to polar opposite recommendations on the way forward. As I indicated in point 1 above I have concerns about Campbell's genuine support of independence. The first is Palestine, the second is advocating voting for a Unionist party and the third is his silly flat line graph of independence poll support at 47%. The third point is just like Skier - post lies to try and bolster your point of view. With regards to the SNP near impossible strategy I would be more inclined to believe it was genuine if the SNP had fresh leadership but it is Swinney. In summary, I am not really convinced by either of your recommendations on the way forward but I am convinced of you being genuine in your belief that your opinion is the correct way forward for Scottish independence. No doubt the trolls will post well what is your way then. My way was de facto referendum and change the SNP leadership. I now see this NEVER happening with the SNP. Perpetual devolution is now the SNP way for the foreseeable future.
Job done by Sturgeon/Evans/Lloyd/Robertson/ Swinney and all the other bit part players content to wheest for their pay check and expenses.
4. I do not think your comment that an independent Scotland will be run by the SNP and Greens will be a particular vote winner next May.
5. Finally, Campbell could try Animal Farm.
I would vote for anyone who having won the election and forming a government declared independence, went to the UN, ripped up the treaty. Whether or not this ultimately wins or loses, you need to take the shot; you never take the shot, you always lose and we are losing now, we have been losing for over 300 years. Why not "go for the win"? Even losing just keeps us where we are - losing, we lose nothing.
ReplyDeleteWhich is no one.
the SNP only care about their pensions
the greens are only about mutilating childrens genitals
the rest are all unionists
we get into games of lesser evilism; who is the least bad, or tactical voting - if my guy is really really bad, who can I vote for to get rid
its not a lot to get excited about; symbolic acts like spoiling ballot papers are possible
5.05pm I remember the days when James use to make that same argument - you must take the shot or you just lose decade after decade. Or was I just dreaming James?
DeleteAnon at 5.05pm you are describing a colonised people who are, for the most part, happy to accept their lot as second class citizens in their own country. Most do not seem to have any ambition or imagination for a better life. A better Scotland. Colonised people usually have high drink and drug problems as the people cannot see a better life.