The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Author Archive


The unnecessary umbrella 72

Posted on July 15, 2013 by

The No campaign is fond of mocking the SNP’s insistence that an independent Scotland could be a member of NATO while still getting rid of Trident. The USA in particular, it’s frequently argued, would simply not stand for the Scots taking the strategic base at Faslane out of the North Atlantic picture while still seeking the benefits of the alliance’s military presence and protection.

robertsonnato

If only there was some sort of precedent we could examine.

Read the rest of this entry →

Neither Brigadoon nor GERSland 25

Posted on March 17, 2013 by

Brigadoon is the story of a Scottish village which only appears for one day every hundred years. GERSland, on the other hand, is a country – similar to Scotland in many ways – which has appeared, albeit fleetingly, every year since 1999.

brigadoon

GERSland too suffers from Caledonian Antisyzygy – it is simultaneously like Scotland and unlike it. It is not Scotland as we know it and it’s not a glimpse of an independent Scotland either, despite the dogged insistence of countless journalists, analysts and commentators less insightful than Wings Over Scotland’s on presenting it as such.

It is, as the lawyers say, sui generis, or a special case.

Read the rest of this entry →

The King’s shilling 58

Posted on February 10, 2013 by

The Telegraph’s crotchety old relic Alan Cochrane is usually a figure of comic fun for independence supporters. But now and again the Tory dinosaur’s prehistoric polemic conceals something more dangerous. In a misguided attempt to add hard numbers to a piece yesterday reporting Teresa May’s speech about spies, Cochrane seems to have used Wikipedia for some information on Swedish and Danish domestic intelligence services and come up with this:

“For instance, the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, which is part of the country’s police force, has 650 officers. Sweden, which is not a member of Nato, has over 1,000 officers in its security, counter terrorism and intelligence service – SAPO – which has an annual budget, according to one estimate, of £800 million.”

According to one estimate”? That’s an interesting choice of words. Unfortunately someone wasn’t reading closely enough. Wikipedia’s English-language page on Säpo does indeed say that it had a budget of around 800m in 2008. Except it wasn’t £800m, but 800 million Swedish Kronor. At today’s exchange rate that’s around £80 million. Mr Cochrane has, in his fury, overstated Sweden’s intelligence budget by 1,000%. Oops.

Read the rest of this entry →

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,786 Posts, 1,221,772 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Mark Beggan on Just Good Friends: “Another winner from the BBC.Jul 10, 15:58
    • Sven on Just Good Friends: “Corrado Mella @ 14.09. I do believe that we’ve all got it, Corrado. It’s achieving independence and sorting out the…Jul 10, 15:43
    • lothianlad on Just Good Friends: “The disgusting SNP! Only the most cowardly and idiotic still support them. They sure aint for independence.Jul 10, 15:41
    • Ian on Just Good Friends: “Despite his belief that transwomen are women, he isn’t accused of raping a transwoman. Odd that they know what a…Jul 10, 15:17
    • GM on Just Good Friends: “It has been 40/50 years in development and in my opinion is still developing/degenerating but I agree with your assessment.Jul 10, 14:56
    • sarah on Just Good Friends: “The guillotines would be operated by the abusers. What we need is direct democracy where the people have direct and…Jul 10, 14:28
    • Corrado Mella on Just Good Friends: “I will repeat this until y’all get it. The modern western structures of power are the perfect environment for the…Jul 10, 14:09
    • robertkknight on Just Good Friends: “Can’t argue with a single word, Lorn.Jul 10, 13:55
    • Mark Beggan on Just Good Friends: “Those who slip justice in this life are first in line for justice in the next.Jul 10, 13:49
    • Mark Beggan on Just Good Friends: “Well said. It has failed. The backlash is yet to come.Jul 10, 13:45
    • Alf Baird on Just Good Friends: “In always looking to punish non-conformists and other non-believers, woke-ism seems another form of fascism which divides the working class…Jul 10, 13:36
    • Sven on Just Good Friends: ““If you choose bad companions, no one will believe that you are anything but bad yourself.” Aesop’s Fables.Jul 10, 13:10
    • Mark Beggan on Just Good Friends: “The Myra Hindley of Politics.Jul 10, 12:58
    • Liz on Just Good Friends: “I was at one of those Burns suppers back in the day. I’m sure one of the guest comedians was…Jul 10, 12:56
    • TURABDIN on Just Good Friends: “WE, THE PROGRESSIVES’ — runs the argument — ‘are the wise and good; we know what reforms the world needs;…Jul 10, 12:35
    • Casper1066 on Just Good Friends: “Birds of a feather…….Jul 10, 12:23
    • Rev. Stuart Campbell on Just Good Friends: “Oh my word that’s extraordinary. Just grabbing it before it vanishes, will edit it in when I’ve got it.Jul 10, 12:22
    • Confused on Too Tight To Mention: “the anglos always were pirates, it’s in their DNA “wherever wood floats, you will find an englishman, stealing all he…Jul 10, 12:09
    • Confused on Just Good Friends: “I would love to get the full story on Leeza Lawrence demise; total radio silence. I am thinking … chemsex…Jul 10, 12:09
    • Confused on Too Tight To Mention: “We have a lot of formorian sea devils on this forum. Have you guys not worked it out yet? -…Jul 10, 12:07
    • Brotyboy on Just Good Friends: “If you’d seen the 2 trannies on the plane yesterday you’d not be saying TWAW. No self respecting woman would…Jul 10, 11:59
    • sarah on Just Good Friends: “Well analysed and informative, Lorn. Thank you.Jul 10, 11:58
    • Lorn on Just Good Friends: “For starters, we do not know that Iain Robertson is actually guilty of anything. Innocent men have been arrested and…Jul 10, 11:42
    • sarah on Just Good Friends: “Haha! Excellent, robertknight!Jul 10, 11:39
    • robertkknight on Just Good Friends: “In a remarkable coincidence, Sturgeon (acipenseridae) are also bottom feeders. Fancy that!Jul 10, 11:36
    • Anon A Mouse on Just Good Friends: “Of course, Iain famously laid on a Burns Supper for the SNP in Glasgow where Nicola was the guest of…Jul 10, 11:23
    • sarah on Just Good Friends: ““same face grinning in the background…”. “Foreground”, surely, Rev?Jul 10, 11:14
    • James Cheyne on Too Tight To Mention: “It has been argued that the old members of the old Scottish parliament joined the new parliament of Great Britain,…Jul 10, 10:48
    • Shug on Just Good Friends: “You can understand why the Swinney’s of this world did not speak up. She must have beed an absolute bitch…Jul 10, 10:38
    • Southernbystander on Too Tight To Mention: “The British and Anglo-Saxon are not synonymous. I am sure you know this. But you often use the term Anglo-Saxon…Jul 10, 10:20
  • A tall tale



↑ Top