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The missing half of the equation 203

Posted on October 18, 2017 by

Readers will doubtless be startled to hear that today’s Scottish newspapers have taken a somewhat misleading approach to the facts on one of the day’s big stories.

Several of them report the findings of a commission looking into the idea of a Citizen’s (or Universal) Basic Income, a scheme which pays every adult in the country a fixed sum every year regardless of their own income, almost completely replacing the current benefits system.

(We’ll use Universal/UBI, to avoid confusion with the greedy-businessman trade body.)

The idea is that as well as reducing poverty, the administrative costs of social security are massively reduced, as is the problem of vulnerable people not taking up benefits because of the stigma often attached to them by the press.

The downside is that it’s generally more expensive. But have the Scottish press accurately reported the scale of that cost, or have they massively exaggerated it for shock value and to serve a right-wing agenda? Read on for a surprise!

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Life In Sardinia 135

Posted on October 17, 2017 by

The Guardian today on Ruth Davidson’s legendary commitment to the day job:

And an action shot of those packed-in crowds two weeks ago:

We hope nobody was injured in the crush.

The evolution of news 143

Posted on October 17, 2017 by

A story on the BBC website last night:

The same story this morning:

The first version is entirely accurate. Readers can decide for themselves why someone at the BBC felt it needed to be changed from neutral terms to pejorative ones.

A cure for depressing times 455

Posted on October 13, 2017 by

We thought, since it’s Friday, you might like a really good laugh.

If you’re wondering if the “anti-establishment” Anas Sarwar is the same one who was privately educated at a £10,000-a-year grammar school, a hereditary millionaire who has also made his children millionaires while one of them is still in nappies, is privately educating the others, who had a Westminster seat handed down to him by his father but then lost it at the first opportunity, and who is now a Holyrood MSP without a single person in Scotland actually voting for him (having previously derided the Parliament as “undemocratic”), we can confirm that yes, it is.

A Parliament Of Clowns 197

Posted on October 12, 2017 by

It’s no easy task picking the dimmest of the new intake of Unionist M/SPs. Competition is stiff, what with the likes of Jamie Greene (Con), Dean Lockhart (Con), Jamie Greene (Con), Christine Jardine (Lib), Jamie Greene (Con) and Paul Sweeney (Lab) all putting up a strong showing on a regular basis.

But we have a new(ish) contender for the crown.

The above story is feeble enough as it stands, even allowing for it being a desperately slow news week for Scottish politics. Maureen Watt is 66 years old and has asthma, and making a pensioner with breathing difficulties sprint a mile to get to a speech on time probably isn’t the most cost-effective way for the Parliament to save four and a half quid, once you’ve factored in the cost of the ambulance and everything.

But it gets worse.

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Watching different games 420

Posted on October 11, 2017 by

This was Jamie Ross of Buzzfeed at the SNP conference yesterday.

But not everyone was having the same experience.

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Have I Got Evasion For You 377

Posted on October 03, 2017 by

We referenced this a few days ago because we definitely remembered it happening, but we’d been unable to actually locate the evidence, and at Wings Over Scotland that sort of thing bothers us. After a very considerable amount of effort we’ve now tracked it down, so we’re bunging it up here to preserve it for the record.

(At that point host Frank Skinner gave up and moved on.)

It’s from one month after the indyref, and the interesting thing is that Robinson is twice given the opportunity to respond to Skinner’s question about whether he thought that the pro-Yes supporters had any sort of fair point about his alleged bias, and both times – rather than, say, just dismissing it with a quick “Of course not” – he ducks it.

Readers can, as always, make their own judgements.

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Here’s to you, Mr Robinson 357

Posted on September 28, 2017 by

It’s always interesting to make the news.

But the BBC man seems a little confused.

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The papier-mache press 108

Posted on September 28, 2017 by

As readers who were once children will probably recall, papier-mache is a substance in which incredibly flimsy material – such as tissue paper or newspaper – is turned into something rather more hard and durable by dint of combining multiple layers of it with a simple flour-and-water solution.

What’s less well-known is that the process also happens IN newspapers.

For a case study, let’s look at this article in today’s Times.

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Nothing like the truth 178

Posted on September 27, 2017 by

The Scottish Daily Mail almost explodes with fury over new crime statistics today:

Which is weird. Because there’s less crime in Scotland than there’s ever been at any time in modern history. How do we know that? Because the Mail tells us so.

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Super sigh me 125

Posted on September 25, 2017 by

In today’s Herald, for no apparent particular reason, this drivel again:

And who might this latest impartial “expert” be, we wonder?

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Looking forwards 229

Posted on September 22, 2017 by

We’re not saying it’s been a slow news week in Scottish politics, but this is what the Scotsman’s going with today:

We might go for a walk.

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