Wings Over Scotland

It’s Alex Salmond who’s supposed to be the betting man. With regard to his lifelong pursuit of independence he often recites an old verse penned by the Earl Of Montrose:

“He either fears his fate too much, or his deserts are small,
Who dare not put it to the touch, to win or lose it all.”

But as the bookies’ odds continue to tighten on the referendum, the surprise revelation of this week has been that it’s dour, staid, grey old Alistair Darling who’s gambled everything on a needless, reckless punt.

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We haven’t written anything about the Guardian’s explosive story on currency union this weekend, largely because we have nothing much to add to it.

The original piece seems to cover everything pretty well, and just about all we can think of to comment on is the way the BBC and many other newspapers have seemingly deliberately misinterpreted a line of the unnamed minister’s quote, to portray it as a suggestion that there would be a direct trade of a currency union for Scotland continuing to host Trident after independence.

But it’s not the only one of the pillars of the No camp that’s crumbling today.

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Some readers didn’t fully grasp the meaning of our post yesterday evening which shed light on the full tangled horror of Scottish Labour’s proposals for “extended” devolution if Scotland votes No this September. We don’t entirely blame them, because trying to make sense of both the proposals and the godawful leaden writing in which the party’s document explained them is no easy task.

So we’re going to see if we can simplify it all a bit.

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We’ve had a second response from a Labour elected representative to a reader, regarding our six simple factual questions about the party’s “Devo Nano” proposals for the Scottish Parliament. This one’s from Richard Baker, regional MSP for North East Scotland and Labour’s former Shadow Finance Secretary.

We were extremely surprised by its contents. You can read the reply, stripped only of two paragraphs of introductory waffle about Keir Hardie, below.

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Supporters of independence are enjoying an unusual feeling this morning – enjoying an issue of the Daily Mail. A screaming front-page headline warns of a “CRISIS” in the No campaign, and a double-page spread inside lays into “Better Together” chairman Alistair Darling, while Professor John Curtice lambasts the work of the ex-Chancellor and his team of “Abominable No Men” to date, noting that:

“To be effective, a campaign message needs three qualities. It needs to tell voters something new about a subject that matters to them, it has to be delivered by a credible source and it should not be widely disputed. The No side’s messages have fallen flat on all three grounds.

The No side often gives the impression constant criticism of independence will win the day. Maybe it is time for it to think again.”

And in fairness, the Unionist camp has reacted positively.

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But hey, at least we finally cleared up whether Labour like the SNP or not.

Dear Mr […]

Thank you for the letter, the text of which you copied from wingsoverscotland.com.

I should point out that September’s vote is not a choice between independence and Labour’s vision of increased devolution of powers: it is about whether or not Scotland would be better off separate from the UK and the EU.

In the event of Scottish voters rejecting independence, there will no doubt be an extended debate about the future of devolution. While I understand why some are fixated on tax raising powers the SNP Government, at least, seems to consider such matters as irrelevant, since it has declined to use the tax varying powers Holyrood has had since 1999.

The sad fact is that those of a nationalist bent will view any devolution settlement short of full independence as unsatisfactory. It is of absolutely no surprise therefore that some supporters of the Yes campaign are unhappy with the devolution commission’s proposals.

Best wishes.

Tom Harris MP

But still, it seems to us that constituents are entitled to a somewhat better response to a set of legitimate, clear questions than a load of Nat-bashing snark from their elected representative. We’ll keep you updated with any other replies we hear about.

Readers probably won’t be astonished to learn that we’ve still heard nothing from anyone in Scottish Labour in response to our six simple questions about their “Devo Nano” proposals. We’ve waited three full days now and haven’t had so much as an acknowledgement of receipt or a reply to any of our tweets, so it seems safe to say we’re not going to get one.

So now it’s up to you.

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Sorry we’ve been a bit post-light today, readers. The phone’s barely stopped ringing, and when it did it was only for long enough to scratch the surface of an avalanche of tweets and emails, all concerning this week’s zany goings-on with the Glasgow Subway. Suffice it to say that you haven’t heard half of what’s transpired yet, but we hope to bring you the full story pretty soon.

For now, for anyone who missed them, STV, BBC and the Guardian.

So, who wants to play a wee fun quiz game over how many responses we’ve had from the members of Labour’s Devolution Commission to our polite request for clarification of some issues regarding their post-No taxation policy?

(a) None, still not even a single form acknowledgement of our email?

(b) Oh, you got it already.

It’s almost as if they wanted to pretend it didn’t exist, isn’t it?

The advert below is being distributed by Glasgow Subway to its passengers today.

But that’s okay, because it’s not “political”.

We’ve noted several times recently an increase in the intensity of the No campaign, which has really been ramping up the rhetoric and menace since the turn of the year. But it’s also been accompanied by a growing sense of denial, as every poll showing a shift towards Yes is dismissed with the use of ever-more-selective comparisons.

Last night as part of its coverage of the latest polling, Scotland Tonight retweeted a comment from Oliver Milne, the Chair of Scottish Labour Students:

You know how we love to check facts, readers. Let’s check the facts.

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We think we might have just worked out why Scottish newspaper sales are in irreversible decline, readers. It’s because if you buy the papers for about two weeks you can just keep them in a drawer, bring them out a few weeks later and read all the same stories again without having to pay for them twice.

Because in the Scottish media, every day is Groundhog Day.

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