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The shifting foundations 201

Posted on January 08, 2016 by

As we noted on Tuesday, Scottish Labour’s opening election salvo for 2016 has been to blame the Scottish Government for unaffordable house prices.

scotsmanhousing

Of the 450 most obvious flaws in that argument, not least the extraordinary efforts a 13-year Labour government went to to keep the housing bubble inflated, the one that caught our eye was that in the past three years we were regularly told of one thing that definitely WOULD bring prices down dramatically, but which Labour pathologically fought every step of the way.

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Category comment, history, scottish politics

The Forth Road Bridge FAQ 268

Posted on December 14, 2015 by

Over the last few days, as most of Scotland’s media has focused on hysterical smear stories and outright lies, we’ve been digging around trying to uncover the truth about events around and leading to the closure of the Forth Road Bridge.

frb

Here’s what we’ve got so far.

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Category analysis, debunks, history, investigation, media, scottish politics

Look on down from the Bridge 184

Posted on December 11, 2015 by

It’s Friday night, readers. Let’s kick back with a little history.

forthbridges

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Category comment, history, scottish politics

A bad case of the DTs 119

Posted on December 09, 2015 by

A little light relief after a trying day might be in order.

gfdt

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Category comment, history, scottish politics

The visionary 248

Posted on December 07, 2015 by

As the Scottish media winds itself up to full speed with “SNP BAD” columns about the Forth Road Bridge closure, an alert reader spotted an interesting old quote in Hansard featuring a gentleman you may recognise.

“Mr. Darling: Do the Government still want to proceed with the building of a second Forth road bridge, which would devastate the constituency that the Minister seeks to represent at the next election? Have the Government changed their tack? Do they now accept that there needs to be a co-ordinated public transport strategy to deal with the transport needs of Edinburgh and south-east Scotland?

Will the Minister make the Government’s position clear so that we know whether they want to build this ridiculous bridge?”

We invite anyone who may perhaps just be arriving at work after an unusually long commute this morning to imagine a Scotland where Mr Darling had been listened to, and the prospect of a replacement crossing was still several years away.

Category comment, history, scottish politics

Another vow delivered 72

Posted on November 27, 2015 by

On the left, the Conservatives’ 2015 general election manifesto.

thennow2

On the right, yesterday’s Press & Journal. We wish we could even fake surprise.

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Category history, uk politics

A grand bonanza 113

Posted on November 26, 2015 by

At today’s First Minister’s Questions, the Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale oddly chose to spend her entire allotted time not on any current issues affecting Scotland, but on attacking the SNP’s 2013 White Paper on independence, seemingly unaware that the referendum was held 14 months ago and resulted in a win for the No side.

Happily for Scotland, that decision resulted in a huge £200bn oil bonanza.

scotsmanoilboom

Hang on, let’s just double-check that to be sure.

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Category comment, history, scottish politics

Down memory lane 347

Posted on November 24, 2015 by

Ah, the good old days.

memories

Obviously, actually including the exact phrases “within 45 minutes” and “weapons of mass destruction” might have been a little bit too near the knuckle, but the message comes across just the same: “Here we go again.”

Category apocalypse, history, uk politics, world

Then and now, part 99 190

Posted on November 23, 2015 by

On the left, the Daily Record two years ago.

thennow

On the right, the Daily Record today.

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Category history, media, scottish politics, uk politics

We are four 236

Posted on November 07, 2015 by

So, it’s our birthday. It was exactly four years ago today, on the 7th of November 2011, that Wings Over Scotland published the first post of what was supposed to be a pretty insignificant spare-time blog picking out interesting politics stories in the day’s Scottish media and challenging any inaccuracies in them.

4yearstats

It got a bit out of control, frankly.

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Category history, navel-gazing, reference, scottish politics, stats

The missing paragraph 136

Posted on October 30, 2015 by

There’s an extraordinary article in the Daily Record today. Here’s a bit of it:

recwhyte

Alert readers might feel that a few lines have gone missing somewhere between paragraphs four and five. And the fact that they have has nothing to do with dead football clubs, and everything to do with the dying Scottish media.

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Category comment, football, history, media

How politics works 127

Posted on October 16, 2015 by

policescotlandtories2a

(Times story here, Tory manifesto here.)

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Category comment, history, scottish politics

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