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The Unionist Commandments 113

Posted on October 07, 2013 by

As we watched the remarkable events of last month at Abertay University in Dundee, we were struck by something about the speech from Labour peer Lord Robertson, who was speaking against the motion “It is time for Scotland to become an independent nation state”. (Click image below for audio.)

abertayrobertson

His 15-minute address to the audience of 200+ students, we gradually realised, was a sort of compact distillation of the entire argument that’s been put forward by the No camp over the entire last year-and-a-bit.

If you ever needed to direct an undecided voter to the complete case for the Union, in the words of its own advocates, you couldn’t do much better than the couple of thousand words that Robertson put to the young people of Dundee.

To that end, it seemed worthwhile to get it down in writing for posterity and reference purposes, and to break it down into its constituent parts in the process.

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The news we knew 188

Posted on October 02, 2013 by

We’re not quite sure why the UK government has chosen this year, of all years, to start disaggregating tax receipts by nation, breaking down the UK’s income according to how much of it came from each of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and even calculating oil revenues on a geographical basis.

taxgraph

You might well imagine that such an exercise could only serve to provide fuel for the independence movement, and the initial release of figures (probably the only one before the referendum) certainly seem to confirm that impression.

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Massive oil leak discovered 184

Posted on July 11, 2013 by

We have a bit more respect for Professor Brian Ashcroft than most of the No camp’s scaremongers (indeed, we’ve even run an article of his on Wings Over Scotland), so we looked with interest at the latest entry on his blog yesterday, a piece with the fairly self-explanatory title of  “Has Scotland already spent its oil fund?”

norwayfund

It purports to examine what Scotland’s financial position would have been had it been independent for the last 32 years, in response to a Scottish Government document (which was backed up by fullfact.org) showing that Scotland had been a large net contributor to the UK over the period, but arrives at a bizarrely tangential conclusion.

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The unhappy few 84

Posted on June 27, 2013 by

Seasoned readers will recall that on occasion we’ve pondered the mystery that is the membership of the itself-enigmatic entity sometimes called “Scottish Labour”.

redabacus

Establishing how many members the party actually has is a puzzle that has eluded the best and brightest in Scottish journalism for years, but thanks to a tip from an alert commenter Wings Over Scotland may be able to make the breakthrough today.

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Negative recollection 66

Posted on June 27, 2013 by

The longer this site goes on, the more we realise we could really do with some sort of proper indexing system, rather than relying on our bullet-riddled memory to be able to recall the details of something we wrote a year ago.

memoryloss

So in the week that the “Better Together” campaign celebrated its first birthday, and we learned that it refers to itself internally as “Project Fear”, we thought we’d collect a few of our favourite impressions of it from its own supporters (and the odd neutral) in one place where they might be easier to find.

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Quoted for reference 87

Posted on June 19, 2013 by

Because we get really weary when sneering Unionist politicians and commentators line up continually to pretend that the Yes campaign is promising a land of milk and honey after Scotland becomes independent.

roadtosalmond

So as it’s our special “Road To Referendum” day and an apt quote from the First Minister helpfully presented itself, we’re just going to leave this here:

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Recycle, repackage, repeat 112

Posted on April 23, 2013 by

It would appear that we’ve reached the point where the anti-independence campaign has officially run out of arguments, and is being forced to reissue its Greatest Hits.

scotsmanbanknotes

The headline on the left is from January 2012, the one on the right is yesterday’s.

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Just for the record 167

Posted on April 09, 2013 by

We were a little mystified, on watching last night’s newsgasm about Margaret Thatcher, to see the degree to which Tories were suddenly punting the ancient Labour line about the SNP being somehow responsible for her becoming Prime Minister in 1979, and therefore by implication for everything that happened subsequently.

Alan Cochrane of the Telegraph, Michael Forsyth and Ruth Davidson have all been enthusiastically joining the usual parade of absurd Labour pantomime sorts like Lord Foulkes over the last 24 hours or so, which struck us as a mildly odd joint bit of anti-independence smearing, reliant as it is on people not realising that the two parties are cynically colluding while making diametrically opposite points.

alliance

We don’t think the electorate is quite that dim, though of course it’s never wise to overestimate people who would repeatedly elect Michael Forsyth and George Foulkes in the first place. So we’re just going to leave this here:

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The Nuclear Deterrence FAQ 128

Posted on April 05, 2013 by

When we’ve reached the point where even the Daily Telegraph is calling the British Prime Minister a liar, it’s probably about time someone laid out the facts about the UK’s nuclear weapons, and in particular how they relate to Scotland.

Let’s see if we can keep it brief.

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The oil debate for busy people 58

Posted on March 29, 2013 by

We know you don’t have all day. Let’s see if we can clear this up in under 600 words.

nsoil3

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Raising the level of debate 73

Posted on January 16, 2013 by

Ten days ago, Scottish Labour “deputy” leader Anas Sarwar issued a press release in his capacity as head of Labour’s referendum campaign, noting that “[Nicola Sturgeon] is right to say there has been a lot of negative campaigning. We will be raising the level of debate and ensuring that Scotland gets the level of debate it deserves.”

Here are some extracts from Sarwar and his independence-fearing colleagues’ contributions to yesterday’s epic House of Commons “debate” (in which one side got a little over 10 times as long to put its case as the other) on the motion giving the Scottish Parliament the power to conduct the independence referendum.

Make your own judgement as to how they did, and the level of debate they apparently consider Scotland deserves.

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Trident to be moved to Mars 40

Posted on January 09, 2013 by

Wait, sorry. We got confused. As far as we can establish from some recent official statements by the UK Government, the No campaign and the media, Mars is in fact the only place that the Trident weapons system definitely WON’T be going if Scotland votes for independence. Let’s have a quick recap on where we’re up to.

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    • agent x on Too Tight To Mention: ““JPTi and Liberation Scotland’s decolonisation petition to the UN marks a new dawn for the campaign for Scottish Independence Liberation…Jul 8, 13:55
    • Xaracen on Too Tight To Mention: “Yes, it does. It is simply pending the completion of the next phase which is still in play, and may…Jul 8, 13:53
    • sarah on Too Tight To Mention: “It’s not my day. Several btl commenters attempting to sting but only irritating but I have just kindly helped a…Jul 8, 13:32
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Dan – and yet I’m apparently the one talking Scotland down! Why don’t you get yourself to the comedy festival,…Jul 8, 12:56
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Xaracen – The plan as described on this blog many many times was to approach C-24. We were all encouraged…Jul 8, 12:51
    • Captain Caveman on Too Tight To Mention: “@Xaracen “@CC, a good outcome in 12 months is that Scotland’s case is being evaluated by the C-24. No-one is…Jul 8, 12:13
    • sarah on Too Tight To Mention: “It wouldn’t have happened under Alex, I’m sure. Every single b…y decision by the authorities in Scotland is rubbish. Hence…Jul 8, 12:09
    • Xaracen on Too Tight To Mention: “No, Aidan, you are mischaracterising the plan. You may be thinking of my mischaracterisation, which I admitted was incomplete, but…Jul 8, 11:56
    • Dan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Aidan at 8:58am Yer being awfy selective bigging up Auld Reekie’s GDP, and it having a shit comedy show where…Jul 8, 11:54
    • Captain Caveman on Too Tight To Mention: “I think Xaracen’s inability and/or refusal to set out even in basic terms what a “good outcome” looks like in…Jul 8, 11:15
    • Anthem on Too Tight To Mention: “OT. But, why are we using American corporates as consultants for road infrastructure around fort William? Aren’t there any Scottish…Jul 8, 10:27
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “Again, there is no point in trying to rewrite history here. Go back and read the posts prior to May…Jul 8, 10:25
    • Xaracen on Too Tight To Mention: “No, Aidan, that was not the plan. I had misunderstood part of it because I was unaware at the time…Jul 8, 09:38
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Alf – does Edinburgh not have one of the highest rates of GDP per capita anywhere in the world, higher…Jul 8, 08:58
    • Alf Baird on Too Tight To Mention: “Gaun yersel Aidan, tell us aw aboot oor zero-growth unner-developed and plunnerred colonial economy aye rin bi a bunch o…Jul 8, 07:40
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “Let’s rewind back a bit, go back to any WoS post from May or earlier and the plan was very…Jul 8, 06:18
    • Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “Dangerous stuff. The more boxes that are ticked that say “ye just Cannae dae it” and that we are in…Jul 8, 05:07
    • Anthem on Too Tight To Mention: “Brilliant!Jul 8, 01:33
    • Dunx on Too Tight To Mention: “The UK has a veto in the UN Security Council, not the General Assembly . The GA is a talking…Jul 8, 00:41
    • Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “I suspect not MB. The problem I have with the Jacobite rebellions is the whole “using” thing the exiled Stuart’s…Jul 8, 00:24
    • Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “LOLz 🙂Jul 7, 23:57
    • Stuart on Too Tight To Mention: “Would that be the same UN General Assembly where the UK Government can wield a veto? Why yes it is!…Jul 7, 23:21
    • Xaracen on Too Tight To Mention: “Only one page on JPTI appears relevant, Aidan, and it doesn’t say what you asserted. JPTI states on its site…Jul 7, 22:52
    • sarah on Too Tight To Mention: “Liberation’s case has to be approved by the General Assembly of the UN. That is well known. The route to…Jul 7, 22:28
    • Oneliner on Too Tight To Mention: “Not My KingJul 7, 22:27
    • Confused on Too Tight To Mention: “I like to think of it this way : an analogy Scotland is like Auschwitz (rich industrial area, but not…Jul 7, 22:10
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Too Tight To Mention: ““The foundational function of the State is the monopolistic organization of the power of the sword over a territorial cultural…Jul 7, 22:07
    • James on Too Tight To Mention: “I quite agree, “Chas” is indeed a unionist prick. Well said.Jul 7, 21:56
    • Northcode on Too Tight To Mention: “Leah Gunn Barrett has this to say about the Darien Scheme. The Darien Myth and the Origins of the Union…Jul 7, 21:53
    • Mark Beggan on Too Tight To Mention: “Pity the Jacobites didn’t win. Young English nationalists would be talking of the slaughter of London, the burning of Winchester.…Jul 7, 21:46
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