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The Different Numbers 81

Posted on August 16, 2018 by

Today’s Daily Record has a “shock” poll revealing what this site told you a week and a half ago – namely that just under half of Scots want a second referendum on Brexit. (Our Panelbase poll said 46%, the Record’s YouGov one says 48%.)

Amusingly, the paper describes this minority as “overwhelming support” for another vote, and runs an editorial leader demanding that Labour and the SNP unite to back such a proposal.

And, y’know, we may as well make the obvious point.

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To better days 224

Posted on August 14, 2018 by

In the wake of this morning’s news that the Herald and Sunday Herald are to merge, we thought it’d be nice to remember the times – not SO long ago – when the paper used to do some proper journalism and there was some modest semblance of balance and professional integrity in the Scottish media.

Click the pics to enlarge as usual.

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The corpse of independence 114

Posted on August 13, 2018 by

In the continuing absence of any interesting current Scottish politics, we thought you might enjoy this Sunday Mail piece from exactly 11 years ago yesterday, confidently asserting that a quick chat would disabuse Scots of any notion of leaving the UK.

(Click the pic to enlarge.)

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The fire sale 451

Posted on August 05, 2018 by

Scotland On Sunday has a very odd front-page splash today.

In a truly remarkable feat of sheer journalistic incompetence, the paper’s Tom Peterkin manages to cover three pages discussing the idea of an independent Scotland renting the Faslane naval base to the UK without once even mentioning the two very recent opinion polls conducted on that exact subject, on both sides of what would in those circumstances be the international border.

But that’s not the weirdest bit.

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Magnificent men and their lying machines 208

Posted on August 04, 2018 by

Just one more thing 181

Posted on August 03, 2018 by

Right, let’s wrap this up and hope some actual politics happens soon. By now readers will presumably be aware of our successful fight against the BBC’s shutting down of our YouTube channel last week. The channel is now fully back in service, including all 13 of the clips the BBC complained about.

But the job’s by no means all done. Technically the restoration is only temporary while the BBC conducts a “review” of its attitude towards copyright of news clips, and Peter “Moridura” Curran’s large YouTube archive remains terminated (although we’re not sure to what extent he’s pursuing its return).

And quite a few questions are still hanging unanswered in the air.

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A significant debate 333

Posted on August 02, 2018 by

For those of you who didn’t catch the media review section of today’s John Beattie show on Radio Scotland, where the Wings/YouTube copyright case was discussed at length, here’s a compilation of the relevant sections. It’s quite the listen.

(John Beattie, BBC Radio Scotland, 2 August 2018)
.

The BBC’s official statement is below in full.

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Please disregard our previous message 144

Posted on August 02, 2018 by

Well, this story moves fast.

What that means is that, at least for now, our YouTube channel is back (Back! BACK!), minus the 13 videos complained about by the BBC on copyright grounds. The situation is once again that Corporation has 14 business days to file a formal court challenge, and unless it does so the channel will be reinstated in full.

Meanwhile, here’s how the Streisand Effect works.

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For the attention of the Director General 119

Posted on August 02, 2018 by

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The sounds of the silenced 323

Posted on August 01, 2018 by

Before we were so rudely interrupted, we were about to write a little more about the issues around the BBC’s takedown of this site’s YouTube channel. Because while we got a very respectable five-and-a-half minutes on Good Morning Scotland earlier today, you never have the time on radio or TV to say everything you want to.

Incidentally, we get the impression – nothing more solid than that – from a number of sources that BBC Scotland are somewhat out of the loop over the whole affair, and the impetus to silence Wings has actually come from London, which is slightly scarier. But aside from that, there are a number of really rather disturbing aspects to the situation.

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Silence will fall 75

Posted on August 01, 2018 by

Well, that’s curious. No sooner had I got back home from the BBC Radio studio in Bath after going on today’s Good Morning Scotland to discuss the Corporation’s closing down of my YouTube channel than I found a new email from YouTube in my inbox.

No explanation of any kind was offered for the decision – we can’t imagine what has led YouTube to conclude all by itself that we don’t have the “necessary rights” – and it appears to let the BBC entirely off the hook from having to decide whether to launch a court case or concede the fair use of the clips.

We’ll be investigating further to see what we can find out.

The dirty baker’s dozen 425

Posted on July 30, 2018 by

So this morning, four days after our entire YouTube channel was deleted at the behest of the BBC, and after days of wrestling with YouTube’s shambolic robot-staffed admin maze, we finally managed to get an email out of them with the full list of what the BBC had complained about.

(If you should ever find yourself in a similar situation, we can recommend contacting @TeamYouTube on Twitter, who appear to be actual human people and can eventually prod the robots into action.)

The signatory was a London-based BBC lawyer, who’d plucked 13 videos apparently at random from the hundreds on our channel and decided to whine about them (citing US copyright law, rather than UK) up to four and a half years later.

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    • Geri on The Envious Heart: “She didn’t even have the Baby Box. That was Salmonds idea & sent someone out to research it (sorry I…Aug 15, 04:25
    • Bilbo on The Envious Heart: “At last Nicola Sturgeon has common ground with JK Rowling. Both writes books of fiction.Aug 15, 03:55
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    • Lothianlad on The Envious Heart: “Well said revAug 15, 00:31
    • Young Lochinvar on The Envious Heart: “Well well well .. The no doubt-book publisher promoted book fest of “It wisnae me frankly” continues apace tonight on…Aug 15, 00:07
    • Andrew Kidd on The Envious Heart: “Ian McWhirter has written an article about why he thinks Sturgeon was never a Nationalist. https://open.substack.com/pub/iainmacwhirter/p/the-tragedy-of-nicola-sturgeon-she?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=webAug 14, 23:37
    • Dramfineday on The Envious Heart: “And Ronnie, she might even be a John Dere for all we know. Best regards DAug 14, 23:23
    • Big Jock on The Envious Heart: “Nicola always plays the victim. A classic trait of the narcissist. She also gaslights at every opportunity. She can produce…Aug 14, 23:15
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    • James on The Envious Heart: “You’re answering your own point there, and confirming Dan’s. Was that the intention?Aug 14, 23:00
    • James on The Envious Heart: “For sale; second hand £6m door.Aug 14, 22:54
    • James on The Envious Heart: “You cornered it there for a meenit, Dan. Rabbit. Headlights.Aug 14, 22:51
    • James on The Envious Heart: “How about you design one, “Stuart”, with a slogan promoting the benefits of unionism on it? Blank T-shirts are cheaper…Aug 14, 22:46
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    • Hatey McHateface on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: ““Despair led to drug-taking (drugs brought in and sold by out-of-work ‘entrepreneurs’)” Interesting to consider some of the places that…Aug 14, 22:26
    • James on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “Clown.Aug 14, 22:20
    • Lorn on The Endless Evil Of Everyone Else: “Captain Caveman: I do agree with you that the public sector was becoming bloated and that, again, to an extent,…Aug 14, 22:10
    • Mrs Grimble on The Envious Heart: “Nice one Stu! Like somebody here suggested, you really ought to write a book about about the whole Indyref campaign…Aug 14, 22:00
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    • Hatey McHateface on The Envious Heart: “Sure Sam. You like to repeatedly post this kind of mince at regular intervals. Presumably you believe we forget you’ve…Aug 14, 21:28
    • Oneliner on The Envious Heart: “‘SKANKLY’Aug 14, 21:16
    • Derek on The Envious Heart: “Spaceman Spiff!Aug 14, 21:15
    • Oneliner on The Envious Heart: “What leak at Faslane?Aug 14, 21:14
    • agent x on The Envious Heart: “You have to remember what Sturgeon said Wed 24 Feb 2021 “The behaviour complained of was found by a jury…Aug 14, 21:14
    • Hatey McHateface on The Envious Heart: ““£60 million” Taxpayer’s money, x. I can’t be arsed to look up how much taxpayer’s billions gets firehosed about by…Aug 14, 21:06
    • Karen on The Envious Heart: “Oh look! 5 years jail for a £630,000 fraud, in Scotland! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn47wq780k3oAug 14, 21:06
    • Willie on The Envious Heart: “The extent of the wall to wall MSM coverage of Sturgeon and her book tell you all you need to…Aug 14, 20:56
    • Stoker on The Envious Heart: “Thank you, Rev, for a great article. Nice to see you’ve still got it. 😉 And thank you ‘Nae Need!’…Aug 14, 20:55
    • sam on The Envious Heart: “Ward’s piece betrays her ignorance. Drug deaths (and suicides and deaths from alcohol) in Scotland and elsewhere have been named…Aug 14, 20:50
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