Alert readers will of course be aware that one of this site’s most frequently-recurring themes is “phantom news”, whereby events or unpleasant opinions that newspapers or broadcasters really want to have happened are conveniently brought to life, either by some random nobody on the internet, or an unnamed “source” or “insider”.
So when Nicola Sturgeon did something today that nearly everyone in the Northern Hemisphere knew she was going to do sometime soon, but wasn’t expecting just yet, there wasn’t time to prepare actual real people with the required quotes.
In the modern media world, though, that isn’t a problem.
We were very pleased to hear Gary Robertson challenge Kezia Dugdale on the curious matter of Scottish Labour’s membership and income figures on today’s Good Morning Scotland. Dugdale flapped and dodged and waffled for as long as she could before diverting the topic onto federalism, and eventually managed to wriggle away from the subject without any sort of proper answer (through no fault of Robertson’s).
Figures released yesterday indicated that the number of full-time teachers employed in Scotland had risen by 253 over the past year, despite budget cuts imposed by the UK government’s austerity programme. This obviously presented the Scottish media with a dilemma: how could such statistics be presented as an “SNP BAD” story?
Luckily, we’re dealing with experienced professionals here.
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.
100%Yes on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Nicola in the Kitchen with Husband and guest making cups of coffee, she really knows her way around the kitchen.…” May 30, 22:25
sarah on Off-topic: “Chortling at that, TC!” May 30, 22:24
robertkknight on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “D’Izzie… Your attempts to promote Independence via the morally, politically and financially bankrupt SNP will no doubt be welcomed by…” May 30, 22:02
sarah on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Izzie has mentioned that arthritis in her hands makes typing difficult. And if her IT system has predictive text then…” May 30, 22:01
Alf Baird on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: ““so many of the other writers” What writers? Aside from Doun-Hauden, I don’t see any other books explaining the colonial…” May 30, 21:34
Hatey McHateface on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Careful, Izzie! Some of the public do care about spelling. More specifically, they conclude that somebody who doesn’t respect them…” May 30, 21:11
Hatey McHateface on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “As a writer of “colonially permitted literature”, Alf, why do you think you have been granted permission to publish, when…” May 30, 21:01
Izzie on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Meanwhile we who care abiut Scittish Independence are leafleting and canvassing to win bith by-elections. The public dont care about…” May 30, 20:52
Alf Baird on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: ““Crime novels are boring, tedious shit” What passes for Scots ‘literature’ today seems to be smothered by crime books from…” May 30, 20:38
Hatey McHateface on Marvola The Memory Woman: ““disturbed wee brain” Please, Twat H. Disturbed big brain. Get yer basic facts right.” May 30, 20:27
Hatey McHateface on Marvola The Memory Woman: “I would have sworn I only pressed “Submit Comment” once. And it can’t be the DT’s, not this early in…” May 30, 20:17
Red on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “They keep pretending Nickla can write, when she can hardly speak in joined up paragraphs that make sense. The SNP…” May 30, 20:06
Hatey McHateface on Marvola The Memory Woman: “For that comment, Spartan 117, we intend to cram you into a barrel of boiling tar. Then we’ll set fire…” May 30, 20:05
Tinto Chiel on Off-topic: “@sarah: ah, I see my original has been “passed”. I think it was the reference to JB wot done it.…” May 30, 20:01
Hatey McHateface on Marvola The Memory Woman: ““She has no breeding” Coming from you, Geri, that comment rates A++.” May 30, 19:56
Hatey McHateface on Marvola The Memory Woman: ““She has no breeding” From you, Geri, that comment rates A++.” May 30, 19:56
Hatey McHateface on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Quite right. Fit dae they cants ken aboot being colonised? Here’s a thought. If you ken how tae use “schadenfreude”…” May 30, 19:48
ScotsCanuck on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “In the immortal words of Dick Emery “oh!! … you are awefull, but I like you” (gave my age away…” May 30, 19:41
Hatey McHateface on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Strong, the memories of the rejection slips, in this one.” May 30, 19:37
Hatey McHateface on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Appeal to the masses. Join forces with Ronald Macdonald.” May 30, 19:35
Onlooker on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Not interested in the prurient schadenfreude mockery of anti-Scottish English middle class maggots.” May 30, 19:28
Onlooker on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Crime novels are boring, tedious shit. Seems like most of the writers in Scotland fart them out on a regular…” May 30, 19:26
sarah on Off-topic: “You know how to enjoy yourself, TC! Talking of dying laughing, Peter and myself were crying with laughter the other…” May 30, 19:20
