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The (branch) office jungle 236

Posted on November 18, 2017 by

On Her Majesty’s Broadcasting Service 188

Posted on November 17, 2017 by

We’ll be honest, readers – if this doesn’t make you want to leave the UK all by itself, it may be that there’s nothing that ever will and we should just give up.

(Alternative titles considered for this piece included Live And Please Let Die, Doctor Oh God No, The Barely-Living Daylights and Quantum Of Bollocks.)

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The Only Game In Town 567

Posted on November 14, 2017 by

This documentary starts a little slowly, but becomes an eye-opening case study of how Labour steamrollered through crippling PFI contracts to build public infrastructure on the never-never when they ran the Scottish Executive from 1999-2007.

We highly recommend giving it a watch.

The habit of lying 155

Posted on November 12, 2017 by

Yesterday’s Daily Record (which would increasingly be an accurate three-word name for the paper) ran an innocuous piece of page-filler fluff rubbish, and for once we’re not talking about a David Torrance column.

It featured the “psychic” predictions of a man who, the Record told us – no fewer than FIVE times in the opening few lines – previously predicted Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, and who had a track record of “incredible accuracy”.

Sounds pretty spooky. Maybe he’s got the gift.

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Russia’s greatest publicity machine 263

Posted on November 11, 2017 by

Mainstream and social media alike are now well into their second day of an absolutely epic meltdown at the news that Alex Salmond is to broadcast a chat show on RT, the Russian equivalent of the BBC.

It really is almost impossible to overstate the magnitude of the shrieking fit the decision has produced. Addled old Lords with criminal convictions for violently and drunkenly assaulting Her Majesty’s police have with an audacious lack of self-awareness decried the immorality of one of HM’s advisors going on TV to talk about stuff, and one Lib Dem MSP has even gone so far as to raise a Holyrood motion demanding that the state interferes with the lawful employment choices of a private citizen.

We imagine that RT will be beside itself with joy at the avalanche of publicity the UK press and political sphere is giving it. We’d be amazed if the hysterical brouhaha didn’t double or treble the audience figures that Salmond could otherwise have expected.

It’s just that it’s all a little, well, sudden.

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Something we need to talk about 199

Posted on November 10, 2017 by

Series 3, #1.

No, it’s not her.

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Just doin’ the day job 296

Posted on November 09, 2017 by

Wings Over Scotland turned six years old this week (on Tuesday, to be precise). We didn’t make any fuss or hoopla because we didn’t have anything particularly interesting to say about it, although we may as well note in passing that average monthly unique readership for 2017 to date has been 316,015 – that’s 24,000 up on the same period in 2016 and 16,000 higher than January-October 2015, despite this being the dullest year in Scottish politics since the site began.

(We did enjoy the replies to this nice tweet.)

But it’s just been brought to our attention that on our birthday the Scottish Government happened to publish its response to an FOI request from a notoriously mad and creepy Yoon troll who’s been repeatedly banned by Twitter but keeps coming back with new accounts. We thought you’d be modestly amused by it, because the Yoons are raging.

It’s been a difficult few months for a variety of reasons (although some of the technical aspects of that should improve in about a week’s time), but we’ll keep on keeping on.

The Fantasist 365

Posted on November 07, 2017 by

It is with the heaviest of hearts, readers, that we must report to you that Gordon Brown has done an intervention again.

With a new book to sell, the purposeless former Chancellor and Prime Minister who led the UK into a catastrophic financial crisis that’s now entering its second decade has put on his hindsight goggles and made a whole series of bewildering proclamations after the event, which have – naturally – been dutifully received and repeated by the fawning Scottish press like God handing down the Ten Commandments to Moses.

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Checking the sums 186

Posted on November 06, 2017 by

The Scottish Daily Mail runs this shock-horror outrage piece today:

Let’s zoom in a little closer on that, shall we?

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Rage Of The Ultra-Yoons 188

Posted on November 05, 2017 by

There was a nice moment at yesterday’s Scottish Independence Convention.

It was widely appreciated by Catalan people, none of whom (so far as we could see) took the expression of solidarity as implicit support for Catalan independence, only for freedom and democracy. But someone wasn’t quite so happy.

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Hurrah for the Jockshirts! 220

Posted on November 03, 2017 by

This is the former Labour UK government minister, socialist and internationalist Brian Wilson in the Scotsman today, gloating and crowing that the democratically-elected government of Catalonia has been deposed and imprisoned (the latest in a series of arrests and jailings of leaders of the independence movement) for seeking to discover the will of the Catalan people in a referendum, in accordance with the mandate they were elected on – an act Wilson somehow contrives to describe as “tyranny”.

Wilson, whose Twitter avatar is a picture of himself with Fidel Castro, asserts that the Spanish government’s literally fascist coup and oppression of its people is a “lesson for Scotland”. We doubt we’re alone in finding that view chilling.

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Tory Idiot Of The Week 571

Posted on November 01, 2017 by

We’re clearly going to have to make this a regular feature.

And it’s not as though the competition isn’t stiff.

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    • Cynicus on Shield Of The Phantom: ““ Why would a tribunal judge make such gross errors?” Use Occam’s Razor. The simplest explanation is that the “judicial…Jan 27, 02:45
    • Cynicus on Shield Of The Phantom: ““This Judge Kemp has been shown to be a liar” ========= That is too strong. Less diligent than his high…Jan 27, 02:35
    • Saffron Robe on Shield Of The Phantom: “Colin, your point about a deliberately flawed judgement makes sense and seems very likely to be true.Jan 27, 01:43
    • robertkknight on Shield Of The Phantom: “Zero accountability in the Banana Republic that is the SNP’s Scotland. Only thing to do…kick the B***ARDS OUT!Jan 26, 23:43
    • Lorna Campbell on Shield Of The Phantom: “You make excellent points, Colin. The thing is: if there was political interference, it has not served whoever did it,…Jan 26, 23:20
    • Young Lochinvar on Yelling at the tide: “Who knows what goes through the heads of our super(ior) fan daby dozy southern neighbours. Probably have a contingency plan…Jan 26, 22:59
    • McDuff on Shield Of The Phantom: “This is outrageous. Is there no one with power and prominence within the political and judicial system to challenge this…Jan 26, 21:16
    • Colin Dawson on Shield Of The Phantom: “Perhaps the purpose of the judgement was to try to delay the resolution of the issue of safe spaces for…Jan 26, 21:04
    • Iain More on Shield Of The Phantom: “Off topic probably. So when is Starmers Rent Boys Trial? Will we ever see one? I guess the days when…Jan 26, 20:05
    • Nae Need! on Shield Of The Phantom: “An interesting point, lothianlad. When we consider that Sturgeons idol WAS, in fact, Thatcher. And then when we consider the…Jan 26, 19:25
    • Nae Need! on Shield Of The Phantom: “It is. They will obfuscate, though. There’s a part of my mind that still can’t fully understand how government business…Jan 26, 19:16
    • Lorna Campbell on Shield Of The Phantom: “I think you may be right, Rev. Had Kemp used AI, or listened to his two lay colleagues, he would…Jan 26, 19:12
    • Nae Need! on Shield Of The Phantom: “It appears not.Jan 26, 19:05
    • 100%Yes on Shield Of The Phantom: “Just watched a political broadcast from the Scottish Greens, no mention of transgender or Independence, not surprised. What I will…Jan 26, 19:05
    • Nae Need! on Shield Of The Phantom: “Aye.Jan 26, 19:04
    • Nae Need! on Shield Of The Phantom: “Spot on, Northcode.Jan 26, 19:03
    • Nae Need! on Shield Of The Phantom: “No surprises there. Thank you for pushing at the firmly closed door, Stu, cos nobody else would have. Now we…Jan 26, 19:01
    • agentx on Shield Of The Phantom: ““Nicola Sturgeon MUST be called to give evidence about deadly super hospital as she dodges scrutiny Scottish Labour leader Anas…Jan 26, 18:51
    • Effijy on Shield Of The Phantom: “The confidence tricksters posing as a judicial system are using a blackout curtain for transparency. A response such as this…Jan 26, 17:52
    • Willie on Shield Of The Phantom: “An absolute outrage of a response. No one, and I mean no one can have any confidence in the integrity…Jan 26, 17:18
    • 100%Yes on Shield Of The Phantom: “@bobo bunny, The National still has the offer of 1 years subscription for £20, just think you’ll be able to…Jan 26, 16:48
    • James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “Or we could walk away legally not being in a 1707 treaty of union with neither the UK parliament or…Jan 26, 16:47
    • 100%Yes on Shield Of The Phantom: “One thing is certain Scotland will never become Independent by the hands of the SNP and I’ll be my house…Jan 26, 16:41
    • Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: “Crash course in Arabic (focus on water features) and a chequered T towel and you’ll be ready to rock n’…Jan 26, 16:10
    • Hatey McHateface on Shield Of The Phantom: ““elect wee nige and let him destroy HR and give our SNHS to his american millionaire pals” You’ve got in…Jan 26, 16:05
    • bobo bunny on Shield Of The Phantom: “Time to start burning things down, and blowing shit up.Jan 26, 16:02
    • bobo bunny on Shield Of The Phantom: “You’re hardly 100%Yes then, are you?Jan 26, 16:01
    • Robert Burns on Shield Of The Phantom: ““6b: it is about a judicial decision, or judicial case management.” So, making up stories to support a ‘judicial decision’…Jan 26, 15:42
    • twathater on Shield Of The Phantom: “Aw well it’s nae big deal there’s nothing happening with Scottish politics just now anyway I wish there was some…Jan 26, 15:37
    • James Cheyne on Shield Of The Phantom: “The law in and of Scotland goes much deeper than what Stu is contending with, As we have to ascertain…Jan 26, 15:17
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