THE creator of Wings Over Scotland has launched a “final fundraiser” as he looks to stop running the blog in its current form.
Stuart Campbell announced recently that he would be turning the website into a polling organisation using the Wings Fighting Fund that has been accumulated over the years.
The writer has been increasingly critical of the SNP under Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership and has largely stopped posting about Scottish independence, but endorsed Alba before the May election.
Campbell said he had intended to give the funds to other independence campaigners, but there was currently nobody he’d trust with it.
READ MORE: Alex Salmond tells Alba conference Scotland of plans for new Wee Blue Book
After asking supporters whether they’d back his plan for the cash, which would see polls commissioned from “time to time” on a “wide range of topics” until money ran out, Campbell said some had wanted him to keep the funds for himself.
That prompted Campbell to set up a fundraiser to mark the end of Wings Over Scotland as a political blogging site and provide him with a “sort of redundancy package”.
The crowdfunding target was initially set at £215, but over 24 hours Campbell brought in £9290 from 423 donors.
Explaining to his subscribers how he would use the funds, Campbell said: “It IS traditional to give a retiring employee a carriage clock or a gold watch or some such, and as it happens there’s a thing I really want but haven’t bought because the price is so absurdly extravagant, so if readers would like to get it as a farewell gift gesture that’d be very lovely.
“It’s this hilariously high-tech jacket. It’s got graphene and electric heaters and stealth pockets and all sorts of nonsense.
“Any excess cash raised will go, as always, on crisps, Sherbet Dip-Dabs, fruity gins, and badger food.”
READ MORE: Caitlin Logan: Alba are clinging to the past at the expense of the future
At this month’s Alba Party conference it was announced that Alex Salmond would be relaunching Campbell’s Wee Blue Book of 2014 as the “Wee Alba Book”.
The original book, published before the independence referendum, saw Campbell set out the economic case for self-determination.
The new publication would convert No voters to independence, Salmond said, and be sent to 100,000 Scottish homes before next year’s council election.
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