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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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Full text of the Deputy First Minister’s ministerial statement on EU membership 6

Posted on December 15, 2012 by

It’s possible to watch video footage of Nicola Sturgeon’s speech to the Holyrood chamber on Thursday (and the debate following it) online, but it’s rather difficult to find the text in searchable form. The only place we were able to locate it took some advanced-level Googling to find and was behind a paywall, so we’ve reprinted it below for reference, because we’re about to cite it in another article.

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Scottish Constitutional Jamwatch 51

Posted on August 20, 2012 by

In case you hadn’t noticed, “Devo Max” is dead. Since the turn of the year, the current Prime Minister and the last one have both issued clear declarations that the idea of full fiscal autonomy for Scotland within the UK is simply a non-starter.

Even while Scottish labour “leader” Johann Lamont umms and aahs and coyly refuses to reveal which additional powers she might or might not want devolved to the Scottish Parliament in future, Ruth Davidson of the Scottish Tories hops from one position to another according to whether the London party have told her what she believes that day or not, and Willie Rennie’s increasingly-laughable Scottish Lib Dems put their faith in what we think is the party’s 57th Home Rule talking shop, David Cameron and Gordon Brown have unceremoniously slammed the door on the notion. So what’s left?

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Weekend: Sovereignty for dummies 48

Posted on August 04, 2012 by

We’re delighted to welcome another new voice to Wings Over Scotland, this time in the shape of Peter Thomson of the Tarff Advertiser.

The most fundamental concept of Scottish constitutional practice is the right of the people of Scotland to remove their sovereign. It is a right which has been exercised on at least two famous historical occasions: the forced abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots, which brought about her flight to England, and the removal of James VII from the Scottish crown, based on evidence of James’ attempts to usurp the Scottish people’s sovereign power to the crown alone, in line with his belief that he was king by God’s will and right.

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How politicians are licenced to lie 24

Posted on August 03, 2012 by

After we wrote this morning’s piece on party membership figures, we thought it might be interesting to look into what we’d initially intended as a throwaway last-line joke. Disturbingly, what we found out was that even in a society so tightly regulated that you can be fined thousands of pounds for using the word “summer” in the wrong place or threatened with imprisonment for making rude comments on Twitter, it’s apparently completely legal for our politicians to tell us outright lies.

We’re not talking about matters of opinion or interpretation or spin here. We mean that as far as we can establish, our politicians can openly lie to us about empirical, measurable facts, and there isn’t a thing we can do about it.

The thing that sparked our inquiry was Scottish Labour’s assertion on its Twitter page that it’s “Scotland’s largest political party”.

Now, as far as we can make out, that statement isn’t true in any meaningful sense whatsoever. In so far as it’s possible to establish, Scottish Labour has thousands fewer members than the SNP, collected 300,000 fewer votes in the last Scottish election, has fewer MSPs and fewer councillors than the SNP, and generates much less money. But that’s not really the point.

One reader suggested to us that the basis for the party’s claim is that it has more elected representatives than any other if you include Westminster MPs as well as Holyrood ones. While it’s stretching grammar to its breaking point to suggest that that constitutes being the “largest political party” in any sense that an average person would interpret the term, we can see how there’s just about a semantic defence.

But the point is that even if there wasn’t, there isn’t anything we could do about it.

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Scottish football decides 53

Posted on July 04, 2012 by

The current positions of all 41 professional football clubs in Scotland (plus Queen’s Park FC) on the future status of the club currently registered as Sevco Scotland. Where possible, direct links to the official club website are provided for verification, otherwise the most helpful news report is linked. Updated as the situation develops.

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Wee Blue Links 3

Posted on August 14, 2011 by

[1] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook1

[2] House Of Commons Library: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook2

[3] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook3

[4] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook4

[5] Financial Times: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook5

[6] The Herald: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook6

[7] The Independent: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook7

[8] UK government: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook8

[9] Professor Brian Ashcroft: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook9

[10] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook10

[11] Hansard/YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook11a

[12] Hansard: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook12a

[13] Scottish Government: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook13a

[14] Financial Times: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook14a

[15] Reuters: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook15

[16] “Better Together”: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook16

[17] Scottish Government: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook17

[18] BBC Radio Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook18

[19] New Statesman: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook19

[20] Business For Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook20

[21] Money Week: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook21a

[22] Investors Chronicle: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook22a

[23] Adam Smith Institute: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook23

[24] Institute for Economic Affairs: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook24

[25] BBC1 Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook25

[26] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook26

[27] Financial Times: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook27

[28] House Of Commons Library: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook28

[29] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook29

[30] Great Ormond Street Hospital: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook30

[31] The Courier: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook31

[32] NHS Blood & Transplant: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook32

[33] Marcus Chown: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook33

[34] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook34

[35] The Independent: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook35

[36] BBC Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook36

[37] NHS England: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook37

[38] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook38

[39] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook39

[40] BBC Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook40

[41] The Herald: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook41

[42] Hansard/YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook42

[43] The Scotsman: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook43

[44] DWP: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook44

[45] Prospect: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook45

[46] Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook46

[47] Daily Mail: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook47

[48] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook48

[49] Money Observer: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook49

[50] National Pensioners’ Convention: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook50

[51] Various: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook51

[52] The Sunday Times: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook52

[53] The Sunday Times: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook53

[54] “Better Together” http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook54

[55] The Telegraph: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook55

[56] The Sunday Post: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook56

[57] The Scotsman: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook57

[58] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook58

[59] Fletcher Tufts: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook59

[60] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook60

[61] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook61

[62] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook62

[63] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook63

[64] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook64

[65] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook65

[66] Portsmouth News: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook66

[67] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook67

[68] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook68

[69] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook69

[70] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook70

[71] The Spectator: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook71

[72] The World Bank: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook72

[73] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook73

[74] STV News: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook74

[75] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook75

[76] The Huffington Post: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook76

[77] Scottish Parliament: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook77

[78] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook78

[79] The Scottish Sun: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook79

[80] European Commission: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook80

[81] The Herald: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook81

[82] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook82

[83] Iraq Coalition Casualty Count: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook83

[84] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook84

[85] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook85

[86] The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook86

[87] Royal Society of Edinburgh: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook87

[88] Research Councils UK: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook88

[89] The Herald: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook89

[90] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook90

[91] RTE: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook91

[92] Wings Over Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook92

[93] Holyrood Magazine: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook93

[94] The Northern Echo: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook94

[95] Daily Record: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook95a

[96] BBC Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook96a

[97] Scottish Labour: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook97

[98] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook98

[99] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook99

[100] Eric Joyce MP: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook100

[101] House Of Commons Library: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook101

[102] The Scotsman: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook102

[103] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook103

[104] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook104

[105] The Scotsman: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook105

[106] The Scotsman: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook106

[107] Alyn Smith MEP: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook107

[108] Scottish Daily Express: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook108

[109] EU Treaty Of Accession: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook109

[110] Radio Prague: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook110

[111] European Commission: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook111

[112] Wings Over Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook112

[113] The Herald: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook113

[114] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook114

[115] UK government “Scotland Analysis”: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook115

[116] National Registry Office: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook116

[117] The Herald: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook117

[118] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook118

[119] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook119

[120] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook120

[121] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook121

[122] Wings Over Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook122

[123] The New York Times: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook123

[124] Ploughshares Fund: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook124

[125] Wings Over Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook125

[126] UK government: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook126

[127] Wings Over Scotland: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook127

[128] Eric Joyce MP: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook128

[129] European Commission: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook129

[130] Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook130

[131] YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook131

[132] United Nations: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook132

[133] The Telegraph: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook133

[134] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook134

[135] Financial Times: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook135

[136] Economic & Social Research Council: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook136

[137] BBC: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook137

[138] Scottish CND: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook138

[139] Various: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook139

[140] Write To Them: http://tinyurl.com/weebluebook140

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    • Hatey McHateface on How To Create Racists: “An article that goes a long way to explaining why we are in the mess we are in. And yes,…Nov 4, 07:15
    • Hatey McHateface on How To Create Racists: “Ochone! Ochone! Haud oan though … “continually refuse Scottish people the right to Self Determination” Is your memory going? We…Nov 4, 06:55
    • James Cheyne on How To Create Racists: “The irony of being Racist politiical governance.Nov 4, 04:08
    • James Cheyne on How To Create Racists: “Reform, The Snp. Labour, Tories, lib dems, Greens all display abject Racism when they continually refuse Scottish people the right…Nov 4, 04:05
    • Peter McAvoy on How To Create Racists: “On Sunday afternoon I passed the Glasgow tourist information centre,which closed on Friday the store was bare except the boxes…Nov 4, 02:29
    • Young Lochinvar on How To Create Racists: “MB Perhaps it’s just a degenerate phase civilisations that think they can control the world go through at some point…Nov 4, 00:33
    • Mark Beggan on How To Create Racists: “If I was an alien watching adverts on Scottish television I could be forgiven for thinking that Scotland was predominantly…Nov 4, 00:00
    • Young Lochinvar on How To Create Racists: “The advertising industry is a weather vane of what they think Joe publics viewpoint is. Remember the Jaguar ads fiasco…Nov 3, 22:48
    • Hatey McHateface on How To Create Racists: “@ Northcode says: 3 November, 2025 at 7:31 pm “brutal dominance” You like to post this kind of stuff a…Nov 3, 22:34
    • Hatey McHateface on How To Create Racists: “What’s all this then, Northy? Has your desperation to score a point forced you to revert to the King’s English?…Nov 3, 22:18
    • James on How To Create Racists: “You’ve never imparted anything useful (or truthful) in your whole sorry existence.Nov 3, 20:58
    • Southernbystander on How To Create Racists: “Nonsense Northcode. We have clog dancing as well.Nov 3, 20:25
    • Northcode on How To Create Racists: “Dave Hansell – word ninja – is figuratively kicking the shit out of the colonialists who prance and ponce and…Nov 3, 19:58
    • Captain Caveman on How To Create Racists: “You actually made me laugh out loud, Dave. 😀 I suppose in an infinite universe, someone – somewhere – had…Nov 3, 19:52
    • Dave Hansell on How To Create Racists: ““So any positive outcomes or good policies coming out of HR must be credited to WM.” Assuming you are not…Nov 3, 19:31
    • Northcode on How To Create Racists: “The Scots word for coloniser as defined in the “Dictionaries of the Scots Language” website, or colonizer if one prefers…Nov 3, 19:31
    • Captain Caveman on How To Create Racists: ““Interestingly, Captain Caveman, the situation out there is far worse than that. There are people out there arguing that, in…Nov 3, 19:21
    • Dave Hansell on How To Create Racists: “How very post-modernist of you, Captain Caveman. Engaging in the woke practice of defining everyone else to suit your own…Nov 3, 19:20
    • Hatey McHateface on How To Create Racists: ““thuggery is a root characteristic of the colonizer, I suspect” Nae shit, Sherlock! Or did you really believe the Apache,…Nov 3, 18:59
    • Dave Hansell on How To Create Racists: ““Imagine coming on to a public forum and openly claiming that, in effect, someone’s political beliefs and how they vote…Nov 3, 18:57
    • Hatey McHateface on How To Create Racists: ““Maybe it’s time you took a sabbatical” It’s past time you troubled to discover how things work on Wings BTL.…Nov 3, 18:48
    • Dave Hansell on How To Create Racists: “Ah bless!, hatey’s been triggered. Would you like some tissue to wipe the spittle from that wee gob of yours,…Nov 3, 18:36
    • Dan on How To Create Racists: “IIRC about a year ago Wales regressed its democratic credentials by switching to a closed list system. https://electoral-reform.org.uk/closed-lists-were-a-misstep-cross-party-stv-bill-would-put-the-senedd-back-on-track/Nov 3, 18:36
    • Northcode on How To Create Racists: “It’s clear to see that when a unionist (colonialist if preferred… same thing) has their ‘argument’ – if the weak…Nov 3, 18:35
    • sarah on How To Create Racists: “Thank you, Dan! It is a bit odd that Prism etc aren’t included on Voices for I anymore but it…Nov 3, 18:34
    • David Holden on How To Create Racists: “A bit of friendly advice to our friends South of the Wall. As you seem to be determined to suck…Nov 3, 18:23
    • Dan on How To Create Racists: “@ Stuart Mackay if you’re reading. Sarah inquired last week, but got no response. Is there a reason Barrheadboy’s articles…Nov 3, 18:10
    • Northcode on How To Create Racists: “A’ll hae aw thon colonialists wha coggle hereaboots scrievin doun aw thair Inglis thocht in braw Scots wirds suin eneuch…Nov 3, 18:07
    • Hatey McHateface on How To Create Racists: “Nae bother, CC. I would have felt really bad over taking your £10K bet off you in any case!Nov 3, 18:01
    • Captain Caveman on How To Create Racists: “‘… Zat so, CC?’ Sorry old chap, ’twas my rather lame attempt at humour I’m afraid (at Dave Hensell’s expense…Nov 3, 17:37
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