The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Dream a little dream

Posted on November 29, 2011 by

In these brutal economic times, you could be forgiven for easing the pain with the occasional drift into fantasy. Britain is broke, and even after five years of the most savage austerity cuts since World War 2 the Chancellor of the Exchequer admits the books still won't be balanced.

But imagine, just for a moment, that we inhabited some sort of magical fairytale universe. Instead of a bankrupt neo-liberal service economy run for the benefit of obscenely overpaid bankers and hedge fund managers, imagine if Scots could live in a country of five million people with a social-democratic outlook and vast oil wealth which was used for the benefit of the entire population rather than just a tiny elite.

It's a ridiculous, impossible idea, of course. This is the real world, and reality isn't like that. But once in a while, just to cheer yourself up enough to keep grimly soldiering on through the hideous years to come, it's nice to dream.

Comment - please read this page for comment rules. HTML tags like <i> and <b> are permitted. Use paragraph breaks in long comments. DO NOT SIGN YOUR COMMENTS, either with a name or a slogan. If your comment does not appear immediately, DO NOT REPOST IT. Ignore these rules and I WILL KILL YOU WITH HAMMERS.


  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,975 Posts, 1,250,707 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • James Che on Anything But That: “I personally think that John Swinney and Andy Burnham have a lot in common in how they run Countries.Sep 10, 00:55
    • James Che on Anything But That: “As the Devolved governance parliament in Scotland from Westminster parliaments “Scotland Act,” The Westminster parliament has every right to launch…Sep 10, 00:47
    • James Che on Anything But That: “I see the Telegraph is suggesting that Andy Burnham is running the parliament similar as a boy Scout leval.Sep 10, 00:37
    • James Che on Anything But That: “In a attempt to give you more meat on the bone, I will have to refer you to the Westminster…Sep 10, 00:32
    • Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Naw, Alf. In as much as neoliberalism has an agreed definition at all, its meaning has nothing to do with…Sep 9, 23:16
    • Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “You are dribbling your Buckfast.Sep 9, 23:07
    • Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “I respect that James. But it is too high brow, technical, academia land. We plebs need meat on the bonesSep 9, 23:05
    • Alf Baird on Anything But That: ““the basic point of neoliberalism” and of course liberal imperialism and its colonial procedures. A colonized people suffer from territorial…Sep 9, 21:38
    • Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Every time someone asks Andy Burnham a question he does this amazing goldfish out of water impersonation.Sep 9, 19:59
    • Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Out of all the Shires in Scotland Aberdeen seems to produce an altogether unique form of stupidity and arrogance. Lowest…Sep 9, 19:53
    • Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “I hope people aren’t being distracted by a smirking bald guy and a whole lot of gas. Who would fall…Sep 9, 19:46
    • Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Wow! Looks like some big, bad, English basturts really are gonna do it. But this time I don’t think they’re…Sep 9, 18:59
    • Captain Caveman on Anything But That: “Given the gas was unburned, the CO2/greenhouse gas impact would have been horrendous. Roughly the same as driving an average…Sep 9, 16:58
    • agentx on Anything But That: ““John Swinney nightmare as Westminster launches probe into Peter Murrell’s crimes and Lord Advocate’s role in Cabinet” For details read…Sep 9, 16:39
    • sam on Anything But That: “sez the UK parlyment England which has about 90 % of UK surface water has problems, to put it mildly,…Sep 9, 16:37
    • Captain Caveman on Anything But That: “OK we’re talking methane, not propane, therefore a lower calorific value and all that jazz, but fuck me, 700kg of…Sep 9, 16:37
    • agentx on Anything But That: ““Stephen Flynn says he was unaware of ferry gas escape” ——————————————————- No surprise there then!Sep 9, 15:57
    • agentx on Anything But That: “The Math Breakdown:Methane Volume: \(700 \text{ kg} \div 0.657 \text{ kg/m³} = \mathbf{1,065.4 \text{ m³}}\) Average UK 4-Bedroom House: A…Sep 9, 15:54
    • Minceheid on Anything But That: “Hatey McHateface says: 9 September, 2026 at 2:54 pm Sounds like they were very lucky they didn’t have 82+ incinerated…Sep 9, 15:10
    • Ian Smith on Anything But That: “700kg of methane could fill far more than the volume of a four bedroom house, unless it had a double…Sep 9, 14:56
    • Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Sounds like they were very lucky they didn’t have 82+ incinerated corpses bobbing in the ocean. I guess “lessons will…Sep 9, 14:54
    • Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Not a bad program for the myopic. Nothing specifically about G@za. I guess it comes under Foreign Policy, but I’m…Sep 9, 14:47
    • Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: ““which means the pipelines are back on” Good one! Biggest laugh of the day so far. Perhaps to be exceeded…Sep 9, 14:28
    • Willie on Anything But That: “Oh dear, news just breaking of the appalling developing country engineering standards in Scotland has just emerged. Seems that in…Sep 9, 14:23
    • Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Michty! Is it breakfast time already?Sep 9, 14:20
    • sam on Anything But That: “I guess you didn’t read this. “OUR MISSION The Scottish Sovereignty Research Group was formed in December 2020, when it…Sep 9, 14:16
    • Confused on Anything But That: “leah has a good blog, connecting scottish nationalism into wider geo politics https://archive.ph/gM0JM – she is an american woman and…Sep 9, 13:55
    • Confused on Anything But That: “SSRG is perfectly fine – if it was a middle class wankers circle wank setup there would be a whole…Sep 9, 13:54
    • Confused on Anything But That: “beggan is a just a turd with an 85IQ, here to disrupt. He is reminiscent of another turd, Mark Boyle,…Sep 9, 13:53
    • Confused on Anything But That: “everything is made in china (more or less) ya fucking tit; let’s all buy english flatscreen tellies and english computers…Sep 9, 13:52
  • A tall tale



↑ Top