The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Archive for the ‘uk politics’


Where it matters 151

Posted on October 17, 2014 by

The Evening Standard, 16 October 2014:

“George Osborne was today named the most influential person in London as the Chancellor topped the Evening Standard’s The 1000 power list, with Mayor Boris Johnson in second place.

The Evening Standard panel decided Mr Osborne is London’s most influential person because of his willingness to invest in the capital despite pressure for the Treasury to spend the money in other parts of Britain.”

Nice to know he’s looking after your money, isn’t it?

The pooling and the sharing 171

Posted on October 16, 2014 by

Gordon Brown is expected to be up on his hind legs again in the Commons today – a second appearance in a week that’ll almost certainly be the mainly-absent opposition backbencher’s busiest period of activity in Parliament since the 2010 election.

He’ll be inexplicably getting time to lay out his views on devolution again, despite having absolutely no power to implement them, and it seems reasonable to imagine that he’ll spend a fair bit of time on the contents of the infamous “vow” he brokered days before the Scottish independence referendum.

vowtop

One line of that vow ran “We agree that the UK exists to ensure opportunity and security for all by sharing our resources equitably across all four nations”. And as “pooling and sharing resources” was Mr Brown’s catchphrase during the campaign, we thought it might be worthwhile taking a look at what that means in practice.

Read the rest of this entry →

Another holiday needed 308

Posted on October 14, 2014 by

By the time we’d watched the Commons debate on devolution for four and a quarter hours, precisely ONE non-Unionist MP (the SNP’s Pete Wishart) had been allowed to speak, for just six minutes. On learning there were still two more hours scheduled, we could take no more and bailed out like the Bank of England.

devodebate1

Clearly we weren’t the only ones.

Read the rest of this entry →

In poker we call this a rubdown 147

Posted on October 14, 2014 by

The much-awaited and hastily-extended Westminster debate on Scottish devolution is just about to start in the House of Commons. We’ll be watching it on the Parliament website rather than the BBC, for the obvious reasons.

rubdown

Club membership increases 1,173

Posted on October 11, 2014 by

mundell

The jumping-off point 375

Posted on October 10, 2014 by

A few days ago (and by criteria unknown), Wings Over Scotland was deemed the third most influential politics blog in the UK, which was nice. The #1 was LabourList, which today published a piece on last night’s two election results.

carswellukip

So let’s talk about UKIP.

Read the rest of this entry →

By way of example 698

Posted on October 08, 2014 by

With reference to our post from earlier today, we couldn’t help but notice Scottish Labour whining loudly this morning about the award of the ScotRail franchise to Dutch state-owned railway company Abellio. (On what sound like very good terms.)

kellywhine

We asked the party’s infrastructure spokesman James Kelly what Labour would have done instead had they been in power, and got no reply. So we went and had a look, and it turned out there was a clear and simple answer.

Read the rest of this entry →

Taking the biscuits 803

Posted on October 04, 2014 by

Not a spoof. Spotted at the Lib Dem conference:

tunnocks

The second paragraph says more than we could.

Gogszilla Returns (to the back benches) 342

Posted on October 03, 2014 by

GORDON-TITLE

Read the rest of this entry →

This is the party 756

Posted on October 01, 2014 by

David Cameron’s speech to the Conservative conference today:

Yeah, that’ll work 328

Posted on September 30, 2014 by

Because nothing scares Etonian Tory Prime Ministers like a poster on a van.

vowshit

Your time is over, Daily Record. Tick tock.

Demand and supply 401

Posted on September 29, 2014 by

Daily Record, Saturday 27 September:

3bna

Read the rest of this entry →

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,879 Posts, 1,236,608 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Young Lochinvar on When the law breaks the law: “CY Yes. But Fraser was better, Comyn effed up at Fa’kirk, did the dirty at Dumfries while Bruce won the…Feb 25, 02:10
    • Cynicus on When the law breaks the law: “Here you go https://archive.is/AkJ3C History, remember, is written by the winners. The winner here was NOT The Bruce but his…Feb 25, 00:50
    • Hatey McHateface on When the law breaks the law: “Good one, Confused. No messing about. Straight to what’s on your mind. Ach, maybe immediately is better. Straight doesn’t quite…Feb 24, 23:08
    • Confused on When the law breaks the law: “I am deeply annoyed at the rejection of my planning proposal for TOP HAT BUGGERY LAND at trinity college quadrangle,…Feb 24, 22:57
    • Confused on When the law breaks the law: “I think Main has tourettes and his tics make him post all day – time for a wee film “John…Feb 24, 22:56
    • Young Lochinvar on When the law breaks the law: “AX Very droll 🙂 Try original sources? Very educational: “learns you things”..Feb 24, 22:34
    • Hatey McHateface on When the law breaks the law: “Unicorn Land. Immensely popular with the youngsters, whilst staying true to our rich, cultural heritage. Maybes a nod to our…Feb 24, 20:29
    • agentx on When the law breaks the law: “FGS – no-one wants fun and enjoyment and jobs in Scotland. Misery rules OK?Feb 24, 19:51
    • Scot Finlayson on When the law breaks the law: “They should never have kept with the name `Flamingo Land`, Loch Lomond Leisure or Eagles View Holidays. we need to…Feb 24, 19:39
    • Hatey McHateface on When the law breaks the law: “Behold! The other pole of the Baird/Northy axis appears. As if from nowhere. Alert readers will be verifying Northy’s claims.…Feb 24, 19:34
    • Hatey McHateface on When the law breaks the law: “Hate to break this to you, Alf, but no kid learns to speak their parent’s language in school. No force…Feb 24, 19:23
    • Northcode on When the law breaks the law: ““In the 2022 census, 1,508,540 people reportit that they cuid speak Scots, wi 2,444,659 reportin that thay cuid speak, read,…Feb 24, 19:06
    • Alf Baird on When the law breaks the law: “Postcolonial theory is quite clear about the immense importance of indigenous language of the colonized people and the effect of…Feb 24, 18:57
    • agentx on When the law breaks the law: ““airbrushed out of Anglocentric British history.” ————————————————- If it was airbrushed out how do you know about it? Contradiction of…Feb 24, 18:27
    • agentx on When the law breaks the law: “Yeah can’t have people enjoying themselves in Scotland or creating jobs.Feb 24, 17:58
    • Hatey McHateface on When the law breaks the law: “If you’re right, Alf, as Scots speakers are a mere 30% of the population, then obviously Indy is doomed. The…Feb 24, 17:31
    • Hatey McHateface on When the law breaks the law: “MSM still all in a lather over the Davidson story. It’s unbelievably entertaining to see the Wokists putting their own…Feb 24, 17:16
    • Hatey McHateface on When the law breaks the law: “@Jay Sorry, just noticed your cry for help. Don’t feel bad that you’re unable to contribute anything of merit to…Feb 24, 17:00
    • Alf Baird on When the law breaks the law: ““None of the statistics …can be sensibly interpreted without first being broken down into ethnic categories.” The same may be…Feb 24, 17:00
    • Hatey McHateface on When the law breaks the law: “There’s a rumour they’ve been taking lessons from Your Party. The one with Corbyn, the Sultana bint, and noo oor…Feb 24, 16:30
    • Anthem on When the law breaks the law: “Excellent news!Feb 24, 16:23
    • 100%Yes on When the law breaks the law: “Plans for Flamingo Land resort at Loch Lomond rejected! At last the SNP does something right for Scotland.Feb 24, 16:03
    • Young Lochinvar on When the law breaks the law: “Happy anniversary of the battle of Roslin 1303. 3 victories for the price of one, yet another airbrushed out of…Feb 24, 15:41
    • agentx on When the law breaks the law: ““More than 3,000 pages of internal Scottish Government emails and legal notes — now dubbed the “Salmond Files” — have…Feb 24, 15:37
    • bobo bunny on When the law breaks the law: “The prosecution of Alex Salmond, the ongoing protection of the alpabetties and the jailing of Craig Murray tell all you…Feb 24, 14:59
    • bobo bunny on When the law breaks the law: “Shows you how Tas, Corri, Kenny and Neale run Alba if they could not be arsed to consult with other…Feb 24, 14:55
    • Young Lochinvar on When the law breaks the law: “Trade Envoys: investigate the lot of them! Watch out “Beefy Botham”! Numbers 32:23 an’ that..Feb 24, 14:34
    • DMcV on The Future Is Yesterday: “So, the SNP won’t bring Independence, per NotRev’s monomania; who can? ALBA? Who will disaffected ALBA voters, dozens of them,…Feb 24, 13:18
    • Hatey McHateface on When the law breaks the law: “Don’t tell him, Sara! With due acknowledgement to the immortal words of Captain Mainwaring.Feb 24, 12:10
    • Hatey McHateface on When the law breaks the law: “I found a FOI request online from which I post a fragment: “As stated in my original response of 16…Feb 24, 12:06
  • A tall tale



↑ Top