We were reminded this week of the amount of stick we got when we wrote these words almost five years ago, right after the 2016 Holyrood election:
(The rest of our post-match analysis wasn’t too shabby either.)
But readers, we have to grudgingly admit: we’re only NEARLY always right.
Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome you back once again to the only event in politics that’s more frequent than a Scottish Labour leadership election.
Seems to come round sooner every year, doesn’t it?
An extraordinary find by alert reader Ian Brotherhood in the archives.
(Click to enlarge.)
The paragraph at top right is a particular eye-catcher.
Is the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service of Scotland institutionally corrupt? I don’t believe so, but it’s certainly a troubled organisation.
The cost and reputational damage to it from the Rangers FC case are of a magnitude never seen before, and the actions in the Alex Salmond case and related actions by the Lord Advocate and Crown Agent have called its independence into question.
There must be structural change and individuals must be held to account.
When we saw this a few days ago, we wondered what they wanted to hide.
And now we know.
There’s literally nothing about this that isn’t toe-curlingly embarrassing:
The only challenge is knowing where to start.
For much of last year, this site advocated a rational but unpopular position – namely that the SNP, which at the time held the balance of power in the UK parliament, should offer to support Theresa May’s soft-Brexit deal in exchange for the transfer of powers to hold a second independence referendum.
The logic was clear – nothing was ever going to stop Brexit from happening, but passing May’s deal would save the UK from the catastrophe of a no-deal. Everyone would be a winner – England and Wales would get what they voted for, Remain-voting Northern Ireland would get special terms that kept it in the EU in all but name, and Scotland would get the chance to stay in the EU as an independent nation.
“But no!”, everyone screamed at us. “We can’t possibly do any sort of deal with the Tories or we’d be electorally crucified and lose the referendum, you idiots!”
Record scratch, jump-cut to the present day.
[Pause for long, weary sigh.]
From 2016 (and another classic in the “missing words” category).
We were keen to read the article, obviously.
Chilling indeed, 1992 Sunday Times. Chilling indeed.
We were looking for something else this afternoon, but accidentally found this:
Just two weeks before the last Holyrood election, widely-respected analysts Weber Shandwick had put together a prediction of how the results would pan out. Just for a bit of fun, let’s compare it to the reality.
We were rummaging around semi-aimlessly in the vaults last night, readers, and we were rather startled to come across this:
Shows what YOU lot know, eh?
Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)
Wings Over Scotland
