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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
[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
Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.
