Wings Over Scotland | Recharge And Revolt

The response to yesterday’s post was pretty unanimous. So let’s find out for real.

Wings Over Scotland has been produced for free for the last three and a half years. Our last operational fundraiser was in May 2019. Then again, we’ve been retired for nearly half that time, with only occasional new posts.

But Scottish politics has never been in a more dire state than it is now, with the SNP stolen from its members by a tiny cabal not interested in independence but only in power for its own sake and the “queering” of Scottish society, while the opposition is a worthless ragbag of hapless incompetents and the media is a national embarrassment.

And since Wings stood back from the fray 18 months ago, absolutely nothing has stepped up to take its place. So if you want the job doing, it looks like we’ll have to do it ourselves again.

Because journalism done properly terrifies those in power. And you have the power to help us keep them as scared as they should be. But we can’t do a full-time job for free and still pay the bills, so it’s time to decide what it’s worth to you.

We’re not doing a big lump-sum fundraiser this time, because (a) this is a test of demand, (b) we don’t need a big lump sum for anything, and (c) these are difficult times and it’s a lot to ask people to find large chunks of money all at once, especially with Christmas coming up.

So instead we’ve put this page up, where you can pledge a small monthly sum to the full-scale revival of Wings, and cancel at any time if cash is too tight or if you’re not satisfied with the service. (It’s also possible to make one-off donations, but what we’re aiming for are regular contributions.)

We could have done that via our normal Donate page, but this way it makes a public statement about whether people are prepared to back proper professional journalism in Scotland, or if they’re content to just accept whatever ad-strewn, data-harvesting, insipid-cheerleading garbage is on offer for nothing.

The louder that statement is, the more it’ll frighten the SNP and the Unionist parties and the media who are all desperate for Wings’ voice to be silenced.

“There are several reasons why Scotland’s anointed and affluent political elite hate Wings Over Scotland (“hate” in this case is not overstating it).

The SNP’s high command revile the blog because, after 15 years of virtually unopposed rule, they are simply unaccustomed to criticism. And when such criticism is rooted in cold analysis of hard facts and detailed scrutiny of historic statements and claims made by SNP actors, the discomfort of Wings’s targets often turns to rage.

The Unionist parties at Holyrood – especially Scottish Labour – loathe Wings Over Scotland for many of the same reasons the SNP high command does. Their bogus commitment to Scotland, wrapped tightly in the Union Jack, has often been dismantled by Campbell.

Many of my colleagues in the mainstream political press also like to smear Campbell and Wings. Much of this is rooted in jealousy. The quality of the prose on the Wings website and the accuracy of its research leave many Unionist commentators floundering.”

– Kevin McKenna (The National), November 2022

And if instead it’s a timid little squeak, then so be it. We’ll shut the page down, no more payments will be taken, we’ll go back into retirement and Pete Wishart and Karen Adam and These Islands and all the rest of them will dance for joy. It’s your call, folks.