As alert readers will know, one of the primary purposes of this website isn’t just to tell people when the Scottish and UK media is lying to them, but to teach readers how to spot that for themselves. And one of the keys to learning that is to ask yourself what a story in the press is leaving out as well as what it’s telling you.
So last week, when several newspapers went on an orgy of shock-horror reporting about SNP MPs’ expenses – focusing mostly on aeroplane flights and only quoting figures for a small handful of MPs who’d allegedly been claiming far more taxpayers’ money than their Unionist predecessors – alarm bells started ringing everywhere.
And just as we’ve taught them to, Wings readers leapt into action to do the hard work that Scotland’s professional journalists don’t want to do, in order to provide Scots with the facts that the media doesn’t want them to know.
Here’s Ruth Davidson at FMQs today, telling the chamber that “last week the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors said the real problem facing investment and jobs in Scotland was [Nicola Sturgeon’s] threat of a second referendum”.
Would you like to know how many actual people that was, readers?
A member of an MSP’s staff posted an image on Twitter this morning of a flyer that had apparently just been shoved through their office letter box:
But after having a merry old chuckle at the layout, colour choice and language, we wondered what sort of person might produce such a thing. So, ably assisted as ever by a team of alert readers, we decided to see if we could find out.
Readers may be aware that Wings Over Scotland is (fairly remarkably, really) the UK’s second-most-read politics blog, behind the hardcore right-wing “Guido Fawkes”.
Our “competitor” isn’t a site we look at a lot – the comments make the Daily Mail readership seem like enlightened and thoughtful moderates – but last week someone asked us about a smear piece they’d run on SNP MP Corri Wilson, and we only just remembered today to check it out. Our initial findings weren’t well received.
It seems that Mr Fawkes and his minions aren’t too keen on scrutiny themselves.
Ruth Davidson opened First Minister’s Questions yesterday with an attack on the Scottish Government over the performance of the NHS, citing a report that the service faced “pockets of meltdown” this winter.
But later in the session, alert backbench SNP MSP Clare Haughey claimed that the report being quoted by the Tory leader had only in fact examined THREE Scottish hospitals. So we thought we’d better check.
Readers may have noted that Scottish Labour’s complaints about the delay in opening the new Forth Bridge have been uncharacteristically subdued.
It is, after all, rarely difficult to distinguish the branch office from a cuddly fluffy bunny made of candyfloss and children’s smiles. But this time we may know why.
The Sunday Herald, which enjoyed a major sales boost from being the first Scottish newspaper to officially back independence but has since seen its circulation increase partly eroded, has this morning chosen to throw a stick of dynamite onto the fire.
The paper’s front page today teases a double-page spread inside with the headline “SPECIAL REPORT: HOW INDEPENDENCE SUPPORTERS SHOULD USE THEIR SECOND VOTE”. And then things get a little strange.
Last weekend’s edition of the Sunday Times gave an article to a Green activist and party worker – not billed as such, even though until last month he was on the party’s regional candidate list for Lothian – to predict that the Greens would get 10 seats at next month’s election.
Much campaigning by the various fringe parties for the Holyrood contest has been based on “seat predictors” like the one deployed to produce the figures in the piece, purporting to show that a tactical-voting strategy on the list can deliver a large gain in numbers of pro-independence MSPs compared to using both votes for the SNP.
We’ve examined that argument in considerable depth already, both theoretical and practical. But its also worth noting that so-called “seat predictors” are a rather shaky basis for making such bold forecasts.
As previously, we’re having quite a lot of trouble understanding the difference between “independence” (39%), and “the Scottish Parliament should make all the decisions for Scotland” (51%). We’re going to drop the SSAS a line and see if they’ll ask for us.
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “The pretend Scottish parliament and its false Scottish elections with Englands registered political parties are irrelevant to people in Scotland,…” Mar 25, 08:23
Northcode on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “The Bigger PICTure Scotland is lost… lost to a stupid, vicious and invasive foreign power. A power smaller in wit,…” Mar 25, 08:19
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Colonialism only occurs in Scotland due to Scottish people thinking they are or very briefly were in a treaty of…” Mar 25, 08:09
Dan on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “@Aidan A quick search suggests only about 4% of folk in Scotland earn the 100k figure you band about so…” Mar 25, 07:53
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Question, How and by what means is Scotland officially or legally tied to England? There is no legal or official…” Mar 25, 07:51
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Question, At what date did Englands Great Britain parliament End, ? It was dissolved in 1800.” Mar 25, 07:44
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Question, What date did the Great Britain parliament dissolve Scotlands parliament from the Great Britain parliament? 1707.” Mar 25, 07:40
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Question, At what date did Scotland make a 1707 treaty with the United kingdom parliament? It holds nor made no…” Mar 25, 07:36
James Che on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Question, At what date does anyone here find Scotland attached to The Great Britain parliament in any legal or official…” Mar 25, 07:32
Geri on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: ““…demand the implementation of devolution for The Kingdom of England, and stop the KoE treating the UK Parliament in Westminster…” Mar 25, 07:25
Aidan on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “@Dan there isn’t an option to renounce the benefits (which for most working people on an average wage or above…” Mar 25, 07:19
Breastplate on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Alan, you may think you’re a Unionist but there is no Union, just a parasitic England sacking the lifeblood from…” Mar 25, 00:02
Cynicus on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “No idea who this guy is – or what you’re talking about. Are you sure you are posting in the…” Mar 24, 23:53
Dan on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “@alan scott “When are you unionists going to” demand the implementation of devolution for The Kingdom of England, and stop…” Mar 24, 22:46
Cherrybank on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Sarah @ 8.15pm Jim Sillars published his final book on November 2025 titled ‘The New Case for Optimism ‘ costing…” Mar 24, 22:33
sarah on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Ask a French person when they will give up their nationhood. Or a German. Or the c. 200 other countries…” Mar 24, 22:22
agentx on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: ““When are you Nationalists going to say enough is enough and demand the abolition of Holyrood and the end to…” Mar 24, 22:18
Iain More on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “I am told that the UK owns c £700 Billion of Yankee NAZI Debt. We are ruled by Brit/Sassanach FUCKWITS…” Mar 24, 21:57
alan scott on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “I’m a Unionist who thinks Holyrood should be abolished. The cost of one election is peanuts compared to the cost…” Mar 24, 21:53
Alf Baird on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: ““the Scot heads to oblivion in his own land” This is indeed what postcolonial theory tells us, that a colonized…” Mar 24, 21:24
sarah on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “Nae Need, can we take some comfort from Jim Sillars’ speech at Oran Mor recently? Jim said it had been…” Mar 24, 20:15
Northcode on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “On the bright side – once Scotland has been coloniZed to the maximum extent and her people and their culture…” Mar 24, 19:53
Nae Need! on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “I’ve spent ages writing a post on here and then editing and then deleting it. Tongue tied, all fingers and…” Mar 24, 19:04
Young Lochinvar on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “NC 7 reported “new towns” in Merry ol’ Engerlund is where the money will go..” Mar 24, 17:55
Willie on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “The Scots Parliament has turned out to be exactly what Westminster wanted of it. Westminster never intended to be anything…” Mar 24, 17:24
Andy Storrie on Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off: “The professionally superior spectre of wee Jim Kelly looms larger and larger over this site with every passing day, Campbell.…” Mar 24, 17:10
