Wings Over Scotland

Readers as alert as this site’s will no doubt have already noticed our latest addition, signified as it is by the rather jarring appearance of a Union Jack over in the central links column – The Sealand Gazette. It’s a Scoopit news-aggregator like Peter Bell’s fine Referendum 2014 (and others), but with a rather different theme.

The Gazette, simply put, records the many reasons why Scotland can no longer afford to stay in the Union. It was founded back in June 2012, then neglected for a bit, then taken up again, and then we belatedly realised that it had a greater relevance than its original purpose and gave it a bit of a brush-up.

If you ever forget what we’re fighting for (or against), it’ll remind you.

We’ve closed two comment threads today, both of them coincidentally at the 250-comment mark, which we think is the highest ever. Both had descended into pointlessness, with small groups repeating themselves at each other and everyone complaining that everyone else was being rude. By internet argument standards they were very mild indeed, but it seemed a good time to reiterate our moderation policy.

Read the rest of this entry →

A short time ago we received an angry message from someone purporting to be a representative of the anti-independence “Better Together” campaign. It read as follows:

Dear Sir,

“Mars is in fact the only place that the Trident weapons system definitely WON’T be going”

I presume you have a link to back that up? It’s absolutely, 100% certain it won’t and can’t go to Mars? Have you taken legal advice, and if so was that general or specific advice, and was the legal adviser a Martian or a universe expert on Martian law?

Perhaps Trident will stay and Scotland in its entirety may have to be sent to Mars! Have you considered that, huh? Huh? No I bet not because you stupid separatist Yes types have never considered these kinds of questions, despite having over 300 years to do it!”

Yours,
Bet R. Together (Mrs),
BRITAIN, THE BRITISH EMPIRE

Wings Over Scotland would like to take this opportunity to retract our earlier assertion. It is entirely possible that either Trident or all of Scotland might be transported to Mars – a situation which would unquestionably result in the safeguarding of thousands, perhaps millions, of jobs, and a much-needed end to the disastrous fear, doubt and uncertainty being experienced by businesses both in Scotland and on the Red Planet.

Such a prospect is, indeed, at least as plausible as that of a UK government granting the Scottish Parliament extra powers in the event of a No vote. We apologise if we have misled readers in any way. Thank you for your attention.

We’re really sorry. But apparently there are some people who primarily interact with the internet through the godawful atrocity, so now you can direct them there. We’re only planning to use it to post links back to here, so if you already read the normal site (ie the one you’re on now), there’s no reason to ever go to the Facebook page.

(Although do go there once and click “Like”, as apparently and weirdly it gives us more stats once we get a certain number of them, or something. We think.)

Now we’re off to have a shower and scrub ourselves with a scouring pad.

We’ve added a couple of new sites to the UK Politics section of our links column. The Green Benches is a resource we’ve kept an eye on for a few months now, and while its direct relevance to Scotland is quite small, its informed insider view of the true havoc being wreaked on the National Health Service in England and Wales is a warning of what we can expect in the future should we choose to remain in One Nation Britain and let any of the London parties take control of Holyrood.

The Void is a site we’ve been reading for even longer, and fulfils a similar purpose to The Green Benches, except covering welfare reform rather than NHS reform. The language can be a little adult, but the level of hard data is phenomenal, reporting things that never get near the mainstream media. With welfare still reserved to Westminster, there’s stuff in here you simply have to know if you are, or might one day become, or know anyone who is, unemployed, low-paid or sick.

Check them both out. Don’t have anything breakable to hand.

Keen-witted viewers may have spotted a couple of additions to the central links column, which will help to support the site without costing you anything. If you want to buy anything through Amazon, visiting their site via the button on the right will divert a few pennies from your purchase to Wings Over Scotland, which isn’t quite as good as them paying proper amounts of tax but at least it’s something.

GiffGaff, meanwhile, is a top-notch pay-as-you-go mobile-phone network we’ve been using for a couple of years now and highly recommend for its excellent-value packages (especially if you use the internet on your phone) and terrific customer service.

Commercial message ends. As you were.

Having a brief trip to a previous life at the moment. Normal service tomorrow.

Never slow to jump on a bandwagon, Wings Over Scotland would like to announce, after endless media speculation, a long-awaited rearrangement of our popular and much-used links column. We like to keep our blogroll relatively lean (with at most 20, 10 and 5 links per section), because when you link indiscriminately to everyone you might as well just have a single button that leads to Google. We also sigh when we see blogs linking to long-dead sites that haven’t been updated in months or years, or even ones that have been outright deleted. Quality, not quantity, is our benchmark.

Brand-new faces include National Collective (Scottish Politics) and Political Betting (UK Politics). Despite misgivings about the character of their proprietors in both cases, both are valuable and admirable resources. Our other debutant is Mark Steel, whose concise and biting satirical columns in the Independent rarely reference Scotland (and so find themselves in UK Politics), but are unmissable reading all the same for those troubled by the thought that the neoliberal consensus has consumed England entirely.

Returning from exile is Scotland’s finest newspaper journalist Iain Macwhirter (Scottish Politics), after a long period of silence saw his personal blog excised from the list. Lesley Riddoch has fallen by the wayside to make room, not due to any decrease in the merits of her postings but to a marked drop in their frequency, as well as the fact that they can almost all be read in the Scotsman anyway. (For similar ubiquitousness reasons, Gerry Hassan steps aside for the Jimmy Reid Foundation.) We prepare ourselves wearily for the imminent assault on our gender-balance shortcomings.

Meanwhile, in the customary shock promotion, an outbreak of considered and intelligent commentary sees Kevin McKenna elevated, for a probationary period, from Zany Comedy Relief to the Scottish Politics section. (We hope this recategorisation might also persuade Mr McKenna to desist from the “comedy” pieces he occasionally attempts. They are not, and let’s put this delicately, his strongest suit.)

Filling his place in the ranks of the Nutjob Squad is inevitably the increasingly-tragic figure of Ian Smart, for whose ability to function in society by the time the referendum comes round we seriously fear at the current rate of deterioration in his sanity.

We’re still actively seeking sites of considered and worthwhile Scottish debate from a Labour perspective – including Unionist ones – which might reach the same heights as the Tory-leaning Alex Massie in the Spectator (whose features, even when we fundamentally and vehemently disagree with their ideology and content, are almost always thoughtful and well-sourced), but the substantial percentage of previously-unrepresented Labour voters who do back the Yes campaign are now represented by Labour Voters For Independence (Scottish Politics). We’ve chosen their more active Facebook page over the actual website.

If you know of a regularly-updated site – of any political persuasion or none – of serious analysis and comment with regard to Scottish politics, that we’re not currently featuring and should be, let us know.

Our apologies to anyone who had trouble accessing the blog over the last 36 hours or so. While a few concerned emails asked whether we’d forgotten to renew the domain name, in fact the problem was the opposite – we DID renew it, several days early, but the transaction caused our rubbish registrants to reset the nameservers by mistake, and although their speedy online support managed to identify the problem and help us get the proper details back, the nature of DNS propagation meant that it took a while to get the old ones fully out of the system.

(We regularly saw the page flip from the proper one to the placeholder several times in the space of ten minutes, as late as yesterday evening, and annoyingly it’s probably cost us the chance of breaking the cumulative million-page-views mark this month.)

Everything should finally be fine for everyone now. If you manage to read this page but then the site vanishes again, please let us know.

[1] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook1

[2] House Of Commons Library: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook2

[3] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook3

[4] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook4

[5] Financial Times: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook5

[6] The Herald: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook6

[7] The Independent: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook7

[8] UK government: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook8

[9] Professor Brian Ashcroft: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook9

[10] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook10

[11] Hansard/YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook11a

[12] Hansard: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook12a

[13] Scottish Government: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook13a

[14] Financial Times: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook14a

[15] Reuters: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook15

[16] “Better Together”: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook16

[17] Scottish Government: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook17

[18] BBC Radio Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook18

[19] New Statesman: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook19

[20] Business For Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook20

[21] Money Week: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook21a

[22] Investors Chronicle: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook22a

[23] Adam Smith Institute: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook23

[24] Institute for Economic Affairs: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook24

[25] BBC1 Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook25

[26] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook26

[27] Financial Times: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook27

[28] House Of Commons Library: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook28

[29] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook29

[30] Great Ormond Street Hospital: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook30

[31] The Courier: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook31

[32] NHS Blood & Transplant: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook32

[33] Marcus Chown: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook33

[34] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook34

[35] The Independent: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook35

[36] BBC Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook36

[37] NHS England: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook37

[38] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook38

[39] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook39

[40] BBC Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook40

[41] The Herald: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook41

[42] Hansard/YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook42

[43] The Scotsman: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook43

[44] DWP: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook44

[45] Prospect: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook45

[46] Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook46

[47] Daily Mail: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook47

[48] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook48

[49] Money Observer: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook49

[50] National Pensioners’ Convention: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook50

[51] Various: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook51

[52] The Sunday Times: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook52

[53] The Sunday Times: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook53

[54] “Better Together” http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook54

[55] The Telegraph: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook55

[56] The Sunday Post: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook56

[57] The Scotsman: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook57

[58] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook58

[59] Fletcher Tufts: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook59

[60] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook60

[61] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook61

[62] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook62

[63] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook63

[64] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook64

[65] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook65

[66] Portsmouth News: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook66

[67] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook67

[68] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook68

[69] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook69

[70] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook70

[71] The Spectator: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook71

[72] The World Bank: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook72

[73] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook73

[74] STV News: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook74

[75] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook75

[76] The Huffington Post: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook76

[77] Scottish Parliament: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook77

[78] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook78

[79] The Scottish Sun: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook79

[80] European Commission: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook80

[81] The Herald: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook81

[82] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook82

[83] Iraq Coalition Casualty Count: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook83

[84] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook84

[85] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook85

[86] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook86

[87] Royal Society of Edinburgh: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook87

[88] Research Councils UK: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook88

[89] The Herald: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook89

[90] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook90

[91] RTE: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook91

[92] Wings Over Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook92

[93] Holyrood Magazine: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook93

[94] The Northern Echo: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook94

[95] Daily Record: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook95a

[96] BBC Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook96a

[97] Scottish Labour: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook97

[98] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook98

[99] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook99

[100] Eric Joyce MP: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook100

[101] House Of Commons Library: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook101

[102] The Scotsman: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook102

[103] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook103

[104] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook104

[105] The Scotsman: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook105

[106] The Scotsman: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook106

[107] Alyn Smith MEP: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook107

[108] Scottish Daily Express: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook108

[109] EU Treaty Of Accession: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook109

[110] Radio Prague: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook110

[111] European Commission: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook111

[112] Wings Over Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook112

[113] The Herald: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook113

[114] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook114

[115] UK government “Scotland Analysis”: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook115

[116] National Registry Office: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook116

[117] The Herald: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook117

[118] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook118

[119] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook119

[120] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook120

[121] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook121

[122] Wings Over Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook122

[123] The New York Times: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook123

[124] Ploughshares Fund: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook124

[125] Wings Over Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook125

[126] UK government: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook126

[127] Wings Over Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook127

[128] Eric Joyce MP: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook128

[129] European Commission: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook129

[130] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook130

[131] YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook131

[132] United Nations: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook132

[133] The Telegraph: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook133

[134] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook134

[135] Financial Times: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook135

[136] Economic & Social Research Council: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook136

[137] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook137

[138] Scottish CND: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook138

[139] Various: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook139

[140] Write To Them: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook140

For off-topic chat. Duh.