Wings Over Scotland

Holy hell, we made it! (Via January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October and November.)

“It is in the UK’s self-interest to portray relations with an independent Scotland on this side of the referendum as highly contentious and difficult but its interests will immediately change on the other side of a referendum if Scotland votes Yes.” – Professor James Mitchell of Edinburgh University casually exposes the massive con-trick that lies at the heart of the entire No campaign.

Let’s hammer a stake through this sucker and go home.

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We’re so close now, readers. Stick with it. Think of the stories you’ll be able to tell your grandchildren. (Earlier tales: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October.)

“Well, we have worked together, absolutely closely and co-operating throughout this process. The, the, the power to impose special measures on the Falkirk Labour Party is taken at the NEC, and I’m part of the UK party, and certainly I’ve been part of that process.“ – Johann Lamont finds a roundabout way of saying she hasn’t been consulted on Labour’s ongoing car-crash.

An auspicious start to November, for sure.

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So, yeah, here’s more stuff people said this year. (You have also been watching: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, and September.)

“Indeed, 55 per cent of people who said that they voted for the Scottish National Party in 2011 have said that they are not in favour of independence.” – Blair McDougall on Labour site Progress Online with what appears to be a flat-out complete lie. We can find no poll with such figures anywhere, nor has Mr McDougall provided his source despite repeated requests.

Looks like October was business as usual, then.

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Okay, let’s neck another load of Red Bull and Pro-Plus and get on with this thing. How many more months can there be, anyway? (This post preceded by: January, February, March, April, May, June, July and August.)

“Mr Salmond and his empty brains has not spoken about Spain again but I went over to Spain last year and the fact is now there is more unemployment, begging and everything over there and the pensioners can’t get a pension until they retire and if you retire before you’re 80 you won’t get a pension. So I hope that we work together as a Great Britain. Thank you.” – an attendee at the launch of Better Together Glasgow.

That positive case for the Union is clearly getting through, then.

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Sob. (Previously: January, February, March, April, May, June, July.)

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Erk. I think spending a whole day crouched over a laptop on the floor trying to install Windows bloody 8 might have done me in, readers. Judging by the wracked state of my upper torso last night and this morning, for a while there I thought I was going to be bringing in 2014 with a heart attack. 

But anyway, as I’m plainly not going anywhere for a while, here are the best quotes of July! (Catch up: January, February, March, April, May, June.)

PS If you’re one of the IDIOTS who doesn’t follow us on Twitter, you’re missing out on the other highlights of the year, which we’re tweeting as we go along. (But you can just click that link to see the tweets without setting up your own account.)

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No point stopping now. (January, February, March, April, May.)

“More than 30 million people ‘suffering some degree of financial insecurity”’; close to 12 million ‘too poor to engage in common social activities’; around four million children and adults who are not properly fed; around 2.5 million children in damp homes; around 1.5 million children ‘in households that cannot afford to heat their home’.” – Poverty and Social Exclusion on the current state of the United Kingdom.

And let’s just recap one from January again:

“No campaigners must publicise the fact that this is as good as it gets […] With a No win little is going to change. Right here, right now you can see the kind of country we are going to be living in.” – Michael Kelly in The Scotsman.

Quite the offer, isn’t it?

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Can someone make years shorter, please? (January, February, March, April.)

“Comic Susan Calman has called for the end of ‘name-calling, swearing and death threats’ marring the independence debate after her satirical contribution to a radio show triggered an onslaught of online abuse.” – The Scotsman.

We’re expecting to see the evidence of these “death threats” any day now.

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Only nine to go. Dear God, what were we thinking? (January, February, March.)

“Prime Minister David Cameron will reportedly back Rangers and Celtic joining the English football league in an attempt to win the Scottish referendum on independence.” – Yahoo Sport reporting on a Sunday People ‘exclusive’. We suspect it’s a strategy Alex Salmond would have more luck with, frankly.

And so to April!

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From March 2013. (Catch up with January and February.)

“We believe that the only way forward for workers in Scotland is to ensure a Yes vote in the referendum.” – statement from postal workers’ union the CWU.

We probably need more than one quote, right?

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The best of February 2013. (January here.)

“Could we possibly not export [England’s nuclear waste] to Scotland, and then give them their independence?” – audience member on BBC’s Question Time, to much merriment among the crowd and panel.

– Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell.

And the respect just kept coming in February.

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79%. That’s how far into the referendum campaign we are, assuming we take the start date as 6 May 2011, when the SNP secured the historic majority that ensured the people of Scotland would be given their first-ever vote in over 300 years on whether their ancient nation should be incorporated into another.

We don’t know about you, readers, but for all the woeful bleating from the parties of the Union about the length of the debate as they woke up to the full reality of their defeat, for us it’s flown by. We can scarcely believe that nearly four-fifths of the allotted time have already passed, and as 2014 looms just a few dozen hours away we’re about to enter the final 20%.

2013, though, was the year Wings Over Scotland became our full-time job, and it would be remiss of us not to use this last bit of quiet time to take a wee glance backwards over the momentous 12 months that are just ending.

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