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Wings Over Scotland


The same old tricks 48

Posted on January 16, 2025 by

Way back in the day, the Lib Dems in particular, but also other parties and the “Better Together” campaign, were infamous for the “dodgy barchart” tactic.

And so degraded is the modern SNP, it’s now scraping the same barrel.

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A crisis of democracy 254

Posted on January 14, 2025 by

In the recent US election, the Democrats made a huge play out of the notion that the very concept of democracy itself was at risk if Donald Trump won.

And yet his eventual victory was unquestionably democratic. Not only did Trump win under the electoral college system by a huge 312-226 margin, and secure control of both the Senate and the House Of Representatives, he also beat Kamala Harris in the popular vote, by 50% to 48%. By every possible count and measure, Trump was the legitimate winner and has a clear mandate to govern for the next four years.

Over in the UK, however, things aren’t quite so neat and tidy.

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Nicola’s Non-Truths 165

Posted on January 13, 2025 by

Peter Murrell really ought to have seen the writing on the wall a while ago.

But at least it’s in keeping with her track record.

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Inability To Learn 194

Posted on January 12, 2025 by

Y’know, maybe we were a little harsh on the lads at Holyrood Sources yesterday when we implied that a more direct and aggressive interviewing style might have cut through John Swinney and Kate Forbes’ pathetically feeble waffling evasion on the SNP’s lack of an independence strategy in their recent podcast.

But the closest thing (along with Colin Mackay at STV) that the Scottish media has left to a proper Rottweiler interviewer – Peter Adam Smith of ITV – had a shot at that five years ago and didn’t do any better.

Smith noted that even back in 2019 Nicola Sturgeon had been droning on about how Westminster’s refusal to grant a second indy referendum was “unsustainable” for two years already. But no matter how hard he pressed, Sturgeon just kept on glibly and smugly insisting that they’d concede.

“The UK government strategy is to say no. Do you have a way around it?”

“My strategy is to say yes.” [smirks]

Readers might be forgiven for wondering how long it’s going to take the SNP to accept that that “strategy” is a failure, if seven years and three First Ministers isn’t enough for them to have worked it out. But as long as the pathologically gullible keep voting for them anyway, we suppose they have no reason to.

In Ruins 164

Posted on January 11, 2025 by

Don’t watch this. You’ll only waste 12 minutes of your life making yourself angry.

It’s our job to be angry for you.

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Eyes Full Of Beams 199

Posted on January 09, 2025 by

The National carried a strange article yesterday, apropos of seemingly nothing, about a Brussels-based political thinktank supposedly linked to the right-wing Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban. The piece actually originated on superwoke “fact-checking” site The Ferret a couple of days earlier, and professed to expose how the thinktank was “stoking Scotland’s culture war”.

Alert readers will already have pricked up their ears at this point, because “culture war” is a radical-left dogwhistle term used to obscure, belittle and dismiss groups (largely though not exclusively comprising left-wing feminists) fighting for the safeguarding of children and the protection of women’s and LGB rights.

And sure enough, nothing’s different this time.

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Safeguarding Is Not Right-Wing 112

Posted on January 09, 2025 by

As more horrific experiences from survivors of rape torture gangs surface from across the UK, we must focus not on knee-jerk political posturing but on the root cause that led to the failure of these children by our society.

Political inaction has now opened the door to inevitable political mileage, nurtured from stoking vengeance in a rightly-angered public. Those only interested in creating cultural conflicts no more support justice for survivors than those who allowed this abomination to fester by looking away or worse, covering up the problem.

For any functioning society, inflicting unimaginable pain on children on an alarming scale seems unimaginable. Yet, the evidence has been in front of us for years – so why has immediate action to ensure the safeguarding of children – and vulnerable adults – not been a pressing priority?

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Dreaming Of Perfection 276

Posted on January 07, 2025 by

Any rational assessment of Scottish (or indeed UK or world) politics at the moment tends to be negative and depressing, so since it’s a new year we thought we’d make an extra-special effort at writing something positive.

Unfortunately that does require us to enter the realm of fantasy. But hey, everybody needs a little holiday from time to time, right?

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Where We Stand Now 332

Posted on January 05, 2025 by

Nobody really answered the question in this article from a few days ago. A few of the dimmer bulbs in the indy movement have been getting over-excited at what are still currently a couple of outlier polls from fringe polling companies, which suggest that the 2026 election could unexpectedly return a pro-indy majority due to the Unionist vote being split four ways in the wake of UK Labour’s implosion in government.

That scenario depends on all sorts of dubious propositions, but in any event what none of them have addressed is what that would change even if it did happen, given that Holyrood has a pro-indy majority RIGHT NOW (and has done so on every single day since the indyref more than a decade ago) and it’s produced nothing whatsoever in terms of movement towards independence by any possible measure.

And it occurred to us that we had genuinely no idea what the SNP’s current official indy strategy is, because the party’s been in such farcical chaos and turmoil ever since Nicola Sturgeon’s sudden resignation. So we thought we should go and check.

To be honest, we’re not much the wiser for having read it.

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Once more around 463

Posted on December 31, 2024 by

And Then What? 481

Posted on December 29, 2024 by

Look, we know that mocking front pages on The National is low-hanging fruit, and this particular example could hardly be any more of a self-parody if it tried.

But just for the sheer mental exercise in that stone-dead last week of December when nobody even knows what day it is, let’s imagine if it came true.

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Bad Santa 506

Posted on December 21, 2024 by

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    Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)

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    • Aidan on The same old tricks: “Good to see that the Harvie/Slater co-leadership is about as popular as the coronavirus!Jan 17, 08:36
    • Aidan on A crisis of democracy: “And of course they won’t want to bring in some of the crazies (not to name names, but those who…Jan 17, 06:59
    • Cynicus on The same old tricks: “PICTS! Where is Alf when you need him!?Jan 17, 03:02
    • Young Lochinvar on A crisis of democracy: “It’s interesting you say that because when you consider it, really, so much of the proxy wars of the Cold…Jan 17, 02:51
    • Young Lochinvar on A crisis of democracy: “It’s established historical fact that America dictated that American youth would not be sacrificed to reestablish former colonial empires. Laudable…Jan 17, 02:34
    • Young Lochinvar on A crisis of democracy: “Aye well, as you clink your cut glass malts together do try and give a thought or two as to…Jan 17, 02:09
    • Young Lochinvar on A crisis of democracy: “It’s called asymmetric warfare. As old as bullying Empires. Best understand it before begrudging Wallace or a screen entertainment iteration…Jan 17, 01:54
    • Young Lochinvar on A crisis of democracy: “Sounding like Al Murray’s pub landlord character there. Uncalled for.Jan 17, 01:35
    • Young Lochinvar on A crisis of democracy: ““Kill the culture” is an age old Imperial trick; make it easier for those under the heel just to use…Jan 17, 01:29
    • gregor on A crisis of democracy: “Hopefully you’ll love your forever-partnership – The people of UK/Scotland deserve far better health care services.Jan 17, 01:06
    • Young Lochinvar on A crisis of democracy: “Yes, but didn’t the snorted up jolly boy amateurs in “British” speculative banking buy up much of the American mortgage…Jan 17, 01:05
    • gregor on A crisis of democracy: “Tentacles: “The tentacles of an animal such as an octopus are the long thin parts that are used for feeling…Jan 16, 23:53
    • gregor on A crisis of democracy: “re. “If you’re back to 2015, gregor, why not go just one more year to 2014?” Sure, McBossy… Transparency International…Jan 16, 23:36
    • Young Lochinvar on A crisis of democracy: “Well that won’t go down well with the history deniers and Scotchland haters! Await forthcoming précis on oaths of allegiance…Jan 16, 23:36
    • gregor on The same old tricks: “They are up:Jan 16, 23:23
    • Royston Rickard on A crisis of democracy: “Pro-democracy protestors, you mean. The 2020 ‘election’ was a very odd affair: 25 million more votes than any Presidential election,…Jan 16, 22:51
    • Royston Rickard on A crisis of democracy: “Are you an official YookayGov-SNPae spokesperson, by any chance?Jan 16, 22:43
    • gregor on A crisis of democracy: “Hatey, it’s behind you – Look… “A mirror is a flat piece of glass which reflects light, so that when…Jan 16, 22:35
    • Royston Rickard on A crisis of democracy: “Yep. He’s a Made Guy, just like ‘Lord’ Janner.Jan 16, 22:20
    • G m on The same old tricks: “Point taken about the graphs but how in gods name does Regan, wrongly placed alongside party leaders, rank as low…Jan 16, 22:16
    • gregor on A crisis of democracy: “Nae Indy for you – unless you learn how to recognise yourself – Reality doesn’t require a mechanism (just humans:)…Jan 16, 22:08
    • rob on The same old tricks: “who cars about tories labour or any of the english based parties,,,,,,,,,not me,,,,,,,,,, you can big up any of them…Jan 16, 21:28
    • gregor on A crisis of democracy: “The Tragic Death of King Alexander IIIAnd the chaos that followed: “On this day in 1286, King Alexander ignored advice…Jan 16, 21:09
    • gregor on A crisis of democracy: “Unlock Democracy: UK Democracy Under Strain: “The integrity of elections and freedom of speech have been undermined. The Elections Act 2022…Jan 16, 19:59
    • Nae Need! on The same old tricks: “Are you Ross Greer? I claim my £10.Jan 16, 19:42
    • 100%Yes on The same old tricks: “Anyone for a finger, hold your arse up.Jan 16, 19:42
    • 100%Yes on The same old tricks: “Sturgeon’s intentions were clear, stop independence. Her favorite colour is red and its betrayal she had in mind and treachery…Jan 16, 19:40
    • Nae Need! on The same old tricks: “True dat.Jan 16, 19:39
    • Ross on The same old tricks: “Independence is supported by nearly half the population. It’s just not a priority for many. And the rest.. 20% ,…Jan 16, 19:38
    • Ross on The same old tricks: “I’ll give my opinion. You can disagree with it or not.Jan 16, 19:36
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