The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Archive for May, 2016


Yeah, that ought to do it 245

Posted on May 30, 2016 by

We’re a bit behind, but we only just saw this.

toady

Suddenly a 70% Remain vote in Scotland looks like a conservative estimate.

Read the rest of this entry →

A change in values 140

Posted on May 30, 2016 by

There’s been a lot of chat on social media recently commenting on what seems to be a rather low-key approach to the Tory election fraud story.

Despite having the potential to cast the result of the UK general election into doubt, with dozens of Tory MPs under suspicion of being elected illegally, press coverage – particularly on the BBC – has been noticeably thin on the ground compared to, say, the days and weeks of sustained, new-content-free reporting on Michelle Thomson’s business affairs or Stewart Hosie and Angus MacNeil’s love lives.

(We learned very recently, of course, that the police still haven’t even spoken to Ms Thomson, over eight months after the allegations came to light.)

But even we were startled by this:

tef

Yes, if you type “Tory election fraud” into the BBC website, the top result is for some unfathomable reason an article about Hosie and MacNeil, who are neither Tories nor under investigation for any kind of fraud.

Indeed, the current Tory election fraud story is nowhere to be found at all – the next most recent item on the page is from 2012 and about the Liberal Democrats.

We’ll leave readers to draw their own conclusions.

Read the rest of this entry →

Amongst the bears 315

Posted on May 28, 2016 by

I was born to be a Rangers supporter. I had no real choice in the matter. My father was a Ger, as was his father and his father’s father. I was accepted that as soon as I was old enough to be lifted over a turnstile I would attend Ibrox, faithfully.

ibroxreign

From 1964 (aged 5) I worshipped at the shrine of Rangers for almost three decades. Fortunately for me, my father was the least bigoted man you could wish to meet. His religions were the trade unions and Rangers. Because he wasn’t bigoted our next-door neighbour and dad’s friend used to take me to Parkhead to watch Celtic too, which I found thrilling as I was convinced the “Tims” could see right through me.

This caused me a bit of confusion at school, because some of my family were “Tims”. In fact my favourite aunty was a convert to Catholicism and was as devout and decent a Catholic as you will ever meet. The conflation of football and religion was as normal as the smog-filled air we breathed. It just was what it was. You were either Proddy Ranger or Timmy Celtic. It wasn’t to be questioned.

Except my dad questioned it, loudly and often. He tried to explain the wrongs of the situation to me many times. I remember asking him why he still was a Rangers man if he disliked the whole Proddy/Tim thing that went with it.

“They’re my team, son. The morons can’t change that”, he told me.

Read the rest of this entry →

The impenetrable skulls 119

Posted on May 28, 2016 by

We’ll be honest, readers, we’re actually quite happy that the Tories are now the lead Unionist party in Scotland. Because after four and a half years, we’ve pretty much run out of things to say about the epic, unquenchable stupidity of Scottish Labour.

lamonttwitter

The above tweets from the branch office’s former leader come from an exchange about a long-standing Glasgow charity that’s been forced out of its premises after the Labour-run city council hiked its rent by 400,000%. (No, that’s not a typo – we really mean FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND PERCENT.)

Of course, that Lamont should choose to blame the SNP for cuts coming down the line from the Tory government at Westminster (that only controls Scotland’s budget at all because Lamont and her colleagues campaigned for Scotland to remain in the UK) is no surprise.

But it’s the sheer jaw-dropping lack of self-awareness in that last line which lays bare the incredible inability of her pseudo-party to learn a single lesson from the revolution in Scottish politics that’s been going on for most of the last decade.

Read the rest of this entry →

Closing the attainment gap 96

Posted on May 28, 2016 by

img206

EU cannot be serious! 173

Posted on May 27, 2016 by

There’s been a lot of nonsense from both sides of the EU referendum campaign, but of all the terrible arguments for voting one way or the other, the worst has to be that the UK is not currently independent.

ukipcontrol

For supporters of Scottish independence, watching people claim the UK is not independent is like someone in Aberdeen who just had their disability benefits cut listening to a middle-class couple on a joint income of £100,000 moaning about paying a few hundred pounds a year more in council tax for their band H mansion in affluent Rubislaw Den South.

It’s particularly loathsome seeing the genuine arguments for Scottish independence being re-purposed by people who claimed they were invalid two years ago – no more so, perhaps, than in the case of George Galloway, the man who wants independence for every country in the world except his own.

The idea that the UK’s situation is comparable to Scotland’s is simply laughable, and since laughing is good for the soul, let’s look at a few points in detail.

Read the rest of this entry →

The history of the Scottish Parliament 428

Posted on May 25, 2016 by

There’s not much happening today, but this caught our eye:

scoparl

As an at-a-glance guide to the evolution of Scottish politics it’s pretty stark.

How newspapers work 222

Posted on May 24, 2016 by

These two stories today are based on the exact same quotes from the exact same interview in a magazine.

rdherald

rdguardian

Thank goodness the press is here to interpret stuff for us, eh?

A slight stramash 248

Posted on May 23, 2016 by

We thought it’d be worth making a timeline of Hampden on Saturday for posterity.

Because a lot of nonsense is being talked on all sides. This is the reality.

Read the rest of this entry →

Statements of the obvious 195

Posted on May 23, 2016 by

So a few things need said about the events of the weekend.

hampdensc

Read the rest of this entry →

The History Boys 419

Posted on May 21, 2016 by

img204

An act of sabotage 201

Posted on May 20, 2016 by

Yesterday we reported how the only people who were risking the privatisation of key ferry services to the Western Isles were the Scottish Labour politicians and media crowing about how the decision to keep them in the hands of publicly-owned operator Caledonian MacBrayne had been made for political reasons.

(Which, were it true, would render the award of the contract illegal under EU law.)

drcalmac1

We had no idea how low they were about to sink.

Read the rest of this entry →

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,785 Posts, 1,221,736 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • twathater on Too Tight To Mention: “It never ceases to amaze me how many fuckwits actually think they are in the same rich league as these…Jul 10, 03:05
    • Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “Wow! Did the paramedics get to you in time and are you alright? Would have sent you a posse of…Jul 10, 02:06
    • Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “That I believe would be the Celtic mythical Tuatha de Danann, the Celtic equivalent of the Gods of Mount Olympus.…Jul 10, 01:48
    • Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “Reply to Chas @ 8.26 Oi Chas Leave James alone! It’s me that goes fishing and frankly, it’s no-one here’s…Jul 10, 01:38
    • Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “Well that would be you P3nisbreath; posting about “sucking blokes off” (your post), shafting blokes between “spread bum cheeks” (your…Jul 10, 01:13
    • Alf Baird on Too Tight To Mention: “Yes, worthless treaties simply used ‘to legalize colonialism’, at least in the eyes of an Imperial justice system. A hoax…Jul 9, 22:59
    • James on Too Tight To Mention: “Piss off troll.Jul 9, 22:24
    • Chas on Too Tight To Mention: “How’s the carp fishing going James?Jul 9, 20:26
    • Xaracen on Too Tight To Mention: ““–the chair of C-24 is quoted in a Guardian article explicitly saying that C-24 cannot.” Irrelevant, Aidan, because it doesn’t…Jul 9, 19:56
    • Captain Caveman on Too Tight To Mention: “I literally asked you to provide evidence for any single one of your dumbass, unsubstantiated assertions. That’s not a “rebuttal”…Jul 9, 19:39
    • TURABDIN on Too Tight To Mention: “Treaties are worthless, not unlike cease fires. How many treaties did the imperialist British sign before annexing the other signatories…Jul 9, 19:30
    • AndrewR on Too Tight To Mention: “Aidan She didn’t participate in acts of terrorism, and certainly not of treason (this was in Syria). This same murderous…Jul 9, 19:26
    • Dan on Too Tight To Mention: “Ah, jist noticed this post by Aidan trying to diminish understanding of how much energy is exported from Scotland’s geographic…Jul 9, 19:22
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Andrew – I suggest she had her life destroyed by the decision she took to join a murderous death cult…Jul 9, 19:09
    • AndrewR on Too Tight To Mention: “Hatey – “… you expect me to feel sorry for the people who slaughter and abuse my country’s and my…Jul 9, 18:29
    • James on Too Tight To Mention: “Sam – did the university poll a wide range from the UK? Scotland only would probably throw up different results?…Jul 9, 18:17
    • James on Too Tight To Mention: “What, that was your rebuttal? Lol. You surely don’t think I’m wasting any of my time on any of that…Jul 9, 18:11
    • agent x on Too Tight To Mention: ““Police preparing for Donald Trump to visit Scotland The Scottish government said it was working with the UK government to…Jul 9, 17:49
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Too Tight To Mention: “See following Wings over Scotland article ‘Death from above’ (March 13, 2012). Stu writes: « We have a paid subscription…Jul 9, 17:48
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “Midgies tae. When oor junkies and jakies start being stealed an a’, we’ll ken we’re in the end game.Jul 9, 17:45
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “@AndrewR Sorry, but when it come to that kind of people, being heartless is the only language they understand. We’ve…Jul 9, 17:42
    • James Cheyne on Too Tight To Mention: “Captain caveman, 12:04 pm. Actually the programme I am watching is How to Save England, -. The word England being…Jul 9, 17:03
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “Does any left of centre politician care about the young people born in the UK, sam? Much of the evidence…Jul 9, 16:48
    • Captain Caveman on Too Tight To Mention: “TL;DRJul 9, 16:44
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “Sae true, NC, the scribblin is oan the wa. In fact, it’s only going to be (checks notes) 4-5 years…Jul 9, 16:40
    • sam on Too Tight To Mention: “When you don’t know what you think you know. Cambridge Journal of Economics Cover Image for Volume 44, Issue 2…Jul 9, 16:36
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “I’ve just run a couple of searches on ChatGPT for for similar search criteria. Which is helpful and revealing because…Jul 9, 16:32
    • sam on Too Tight To Mention: “Not many people agree with you. https://www.derby.ac.uk/blog/margaret-thatchers-legacy/ Survey results In January and February 2019, researchers at the University of Derby…Jul 9, 16:28
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “Great stuff sam. Now do the type of “personality” that posts interminably about pricks, penises, wanking, shirt lifting, glory holes…Jul 9, 16:22
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “James says: “Brexit” Aw, we need to crowdfund the boy a dictionary. Turn doon the page corner on the letter…Jul 9, 16:16
  • A tall tale



↑ Top