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The Slightly Tubby Quiz Of The Year 567

Posted on December 29, 2015 by

It’s time to find out just how alert you really are, readers.

jcarr

The answers to each of the 24 questions below about Scottish politics in 2015 can be found in Wings articles. But no Googling – we’ll know.

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What you did 102

Posted on September 11, 2015 by

We had no idea it was so hard to give money away, to be honest. Indiegogo delivered the final tranche of donations from our recent anti-poverty fundraiser last night, and we’ve now sent it all on to good causes.

We said previously that we didn’t want to spread it too thinly, because while the sum was 30 times what we set out to raise it’ll barely make the tiniest of scratches on the surface of poverty in Scotland, so we’ve split it between half-a-dozen organisations. For the record, this post lists where it went.

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Return Of The Silence 52

Posted on September 11, 2015 by

Today, readers, we’re slowly building our way up to an aneurysm trying to give away a fairly sizeable sum of money to foodbanks and other charities, who appear to have collectively decided that that should be an experience only slightly less challenging than the Krypton Factor assault course. (Ask your parents.)

While our nervous breakdown continues apace, we thought we’d draw your attention to this story in the Independent about how the new Conservative government has been avoiding putting any senior ministers up for questioning by the media.

It’s a tactic you may recall from the “Better Together” campaign, and we thought you might like to read this piece (and more here) by a videogame-journalism friend of ours which explains what’s going on when it happens.

We’ll hopefully be back with you soon.

Meanwhile in the real world 130

Posted on September 07, 2015 by

As we write, Alistair Carmichael’s QC is two hours into a seemingly-interminable drone in an Edinburgh courtroom, in a case brought by ordinary citizens against a former government minister funded by a public appeal. Our own recent fundraiser, inspired by a case a world away from such high-minded concerns, closed a few days ago on a phenomenal total of £16,083.

Indiegogo have now disbursed the first half of the money (the rest, specifically that part that was donated by credit card, should follow in the next fortnight), so now we need to decide what to do with it.

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The new binary 254

Posted on August 31, 2015 by

We can’t help feeling there’s a simpler way of putting that.

brightgreen

Beyond endurance 179

Posted on August 13, 2015 by

The papers these days are full of horrendous stories. For some reason this one just tripped a nerve, and we wanted to do something. Click here for details.

How to turn £33 into £34 very slowly 33

Posted on July 16, 2015 by

Alert contributor Calum Ferguson tells us the first bookie to come out with odds for the 2016 Holyrood election is Ladbrokes. Fortune-making opportunities seem limited.

lad2016

(Click pic to enlarge.)

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The Clypegate Files 126

Posted on June 27, 2015 by

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, the document at the heart of this insanity has been leaked, so you can now see it for yourself. We’ll have more on it later.

EDIT 12.55pm: File now deleted, mirror here.

Soapbox: Happy hours 371

Posted on February 07, 2015 by

So, an experiment. Here on Wings we don’t tend to deal very much in specific political issues, other than independence. We’re not aligned to any party, and our primary goal is to see Scotland become a national democracy in which all voices can be heard. We happen to be on the left of the political spectrum, but that’s neither here nor there while Scotland’s politics are at the mercy of the whims of voters elsewhere.

But just for a change of pace at the weekends, when there tends not to be much happening, we thought we might try having a space where broader ideas can be debated outwith the framework of the constitutional debate or party politics. If there’s something you’d like to talk about in front of a sizeable audience, drop us a line.

soapbox1

To give you an idea of what we mean, we’re going to start off by outlining a personal pet idea we’ve had for years, and which is an attempt to tackle one of Scotland’s most toxic problems – alcohol abuse. It’s a simple concept, it’s cheap to implement, it doesn’t punish the innocent and it seems like it’d work. See what you think.

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Drawing a blank 71

Posted on January 07, 2015 by

We’ve got nothing today, readers. We don’t want to turn into Wings Over Jim Murphy, but otherwise the Scottish political scene is a bit tumbleweedy. Tell us something interesting that we should be covering. Or just a fun fact, or a joke, or anything.

In the light of the absolute horror at Charlie Hebdo today, it’s either that or we’re going to start running cartoons of Mohammed on principle.

shawtoon

The Slightly Overweight Quiz Of The Year 144

Posted on December 30, 2014 by

A traditional brainteaser to test your Alert Reader Quotient for 2014. All the answers can be found somewhere on Wings (though not always in the obvious places).

quiztime

Using the Search facility is cheating.

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War, hide yourself 219

Posted on December 25, 2014 by

Merry Christmas, readers. Have a good one and we’ll see you soon.

ddp1

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    • agent x on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: ““On the 17th June, a conference at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh will ponder the challenges and issues that will…Jun 13, 19:52
    • sarah on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: ““What can ordinary independentistas do?” Talk to friends and family about Liberate Scotland so their candidates will receive votes in…Jun 13, 19:42
    • James on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Absolutely spot on!Jun 13, 19:30
    • James on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: ““House”!Jun 13, 19:27
    • James on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Unionist Prick Bingo; three in a row – “HOUSE”!Jun 13, 19:25
    • James on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Lol….good post, Breastplate. The yoons ate ramping it up on here, new ‘names’ by the day amongst the same old…Jun 13, 19:23
    • James on The Grand Tour: “Agreed, aLurker. Northcode’s excellent points were proven almost immediately by five posts from the usual Yoon suspects. The arrogance of…Jun 13, 18:55
    • Ian McCubbin on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Deals for the favoured in SNP, the top grifters. It’s a disgrace. But what can ordinary independendistas do? Voting is…Jun 13, 18:38
    • wullie on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “An occupying foreign power could not do a better job of destroying the country and looting its resources. In my…Jun 13, 18:19
    • Effijy on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Rebrand as the New SNP. Your independence party gearing up for the next millennium. The Westminster parties, Tory, Labour and…Jun 13, 18:17
    • ScottieDog on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “They’re on course for a win next year, why would they change anything. More gravy. Some of them might even…Jun 13, 17:52
    • twathater on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “I notice at any mention of SALVO or Liberate Scotland the FRANCHISE fanny and his fellow YOONS,Aiden,private clansman aka corporal…Jun 13, 17:47
    • sarah on The Grand Tour: “I agree, Mary – the whole independence movement should get behind the two prongs of Liberate Scotland for the 2026…Jun 13, 17:17
    • aLurker on Off-topic: “Hi folks. I am mostly a lurker, hence the moniker. But I was prompted to respond by Northcodes post today:…Jun 13, 17:11
    • robertkknight on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “To all those SNP faithful/sheep out there, a quote from Johnny Rotten… “Ha ha ha… Ever get the feeling you’ve…Jun 13, 16:59
    • Hatey McHateface on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Wearing a baseball cap is a clear sign you’re adopting the colonialist mindset of the oppressor. Fits wrang wi a…Jun 13, 16:55
    • Hatey McHateface on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Could it be the UN have other things on their mind? Serious things? Important things? Matters of life and death…Jun 13, 16:50
    • Hatey McHateface on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Bad day for you is it BP? I’ve noticed you’ve resorted to playing solitary buzzword bingo. Or as our host…Jun 13, 16:48
    • factchecker on The Grand Tour: “James says ‘There are some very interesting figures within Scotland’s ‘deficit’, for example: the figure of £9.1bn under the name…Jun 13, 16:44
    • Onlooker on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “What the fuck does the weirdo Cherie Blair have to do with anything? is she going to have a rebirthing…Jun 13, 16:40
    • Young Lochinvar on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Dull as dishwater. At least Broontosaurus isn’t attending- perhaps they are having difficulty with his defrost setting in time for…Jun 13, 16:38
    • Captain Caveman on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “So basically you couldn’t answer a single one of his points and resorted to weak insults. Standard. I suppose it…Jun 13, 16:33
    • Andy Ellis on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Isn’t a more likely explanation simply that Salvo isn’t in fact making much impact either in the popular consciousness of…Jun 13, 16:32
    • Andy Ellis on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “If that was true – and I’m not at all sure there is a scintilla of evidence for it -…Jun 13, 16:28
    • PhilM on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Well I don’t have two brass farthings to rub together but if I did, I would be salivating at the…Jun 13, 16:25
    • Peter McAvoy on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “They can start by keeping Alexander’s open and working.Jun 13, 16:09
    • Breastplate on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Shouda woulda, coulda. I’m sorry if this is confusing for you, it’s completely irrelevant to the point I made, then…Jun 13, 15:53
    • MaryB on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “There certainly seems some desperation to avoid giving Salvo’s work any kind of publicity anywhere, especially as they are now…Jun 13, 15:51
    • MaryB on The Grand Tour: “100%Yes@ 9.52am Couldn’t agree more with what you say. Roddy, SSRG, Sovereignty and ISP are the only sensible voices to…Jun 13, 15:11
    • wullie on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “They have been selected for their stupidity, there can be no other reason.Jun 13, 14:25
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